cerebrations of a nerd

Americans working in India ?!!

2006-04-18T16:51:00.000-07:00

Is that a dream or something ?? Looks like this can also happen. Read this if you dont believe.

Canada Olympic park

2006-04-17T17:18:00.000-07:00

Last sunday me and my roommate venki planned to visit the canada olympic park. We took the CTrain from Southland LRT station to Brentwood and got the route no. 408. We went around the park.It was kind of fun and exciting to be in a spot where once winter olympics had taken place.

Well, at the same time it was a bit disappointing that we were there on off-season.So no snow, no events. But still the place was really worth spending some hours and getting an experience of what it is like to be in a olympic plaza. At the beginning there is this stage where the huge olympic torch used to burn. Then we entered into the museum, there was a mini speech by a volunteer in an auditorium on how the winter olympics was formed and how it came to calgary.Then there was an interesting video for about 30 mins with selected clips from various events.

Once the presentation was over the volunteers escorted us and explained various minute details in the museum. We had a great moment too, when we could get a snap of standing on the podium with olympic medal :).

Then we went on to look in to various places where different sports like luge, skiing, ski jumping etc., used to happen. Especially the starting point for ski- jumping is a 90 metre tower on top of a hill. It was tough trekkin on the hill to see the ski jumping centre with the cold wind blowing along the luge trail.But i swear the breath taking view from the top of the ski jumping centre was worth it. May be we should plan to revisit after Mid- may when winter events will start.

Infosys chief's interview

2006-04-14T18:08:00.000-07:00

Here is a great interview from the chief mentor of infosys Mr.N.R.Narayan Murthy on Infosys completing 25 years. Its really great to hear the words of a great man. Every line he speaks is a gem to treasure and full of knowledge. The most important thing to note is despite achieving great success he is so humble and still has lot of energy and he is raring to achieve greater heights.Really inspirational. Go ahead and read the Interview

Rains

2006-04-06T17:46:00.000-07:00

Rains are always fascinating thing. After a long cold spell of frustrating snow and chillness,last week we had some sun last week. It was a refreshing change, and unexpectedly since yesterday it has started drizzling with light rains. It was the first rain of the season. Usual expectation from a first rain would be to enjoy the smell of the mud! But some how i could not feel that smell here, may be due the dampness alread present due to snowing.

Right from childhood rains have been welcome change.Its a great feeling to curl around the couch on a rainy day and munch on a bunch of onion pakoras(a south indian snack) and whatch cricket or tennis.Having a hot coffee is great too. Drizzling is what i like the most. To walk on drizzling in an isolated place where there is no traffic, is like reading a poem. Some things in life hardly change.This is one of those feelings.

Avant browser

2006-04-06T09:15:00.000-07:00

Recently found this cool browser, that has lot of good features. Especially the most important feature i liked is having "N" instances of browsers inside one window and the ability to minimise everything to one icon in taskbar. This really useful to me, since im always used to keeping open a lot of windows.

You can download it for free from here :
http://www.avantbrowser.com/download.html

yet to check out other advanced browsers like Firefox and mozilla.

Wikipedia

2006-03-29T14:38:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-28T13:22:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-24T19:17:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-15T14:41:00.000-08:00

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.

2006-03-01T15:17:00.000-08:00

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.

Kananaski trip

2006-02-18T15:41:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we had been to Kananaski's a beautiful natural park located in north of calgary, on the way to banff.It was a great experience altogether. It was not a very much a planned trip, we just started off thinking we will go to that far off mountains that we see from here.[ This kind of a thing is one of my child hood dream, where i grew up there were lot of mountains, and always wished if i could just go over there and have some fun 'n' adventure. This time we did it.]

We just took the freeway that starts from the Glenmore trail and kept going.On the way we saw a village of the first nations of canada, and stopped there to have some tea. [Again this is one of the favourite things to stop on the highway in a long trip to have some tea.]

Then we continued our trip and in another half our ride we reached near kananaski country.Kananaski's is a beautiful natural park at the core of which you have the mountains on which there are Nakaski skiing trails.
Best part about the kananaski country is that it is not an overexposed tourism spot like banff. Hence it results in much less pollution , and more natural beauty.

On our way to kananaski's there are some scenic spots where you can stop refresh yourselves and have a walk.First of such a place has a small beautiful river flowing, as you see above. We spent some time there.

Then as we progressed further , we saw a beautiful lake named "Barrier Lake".The beauty at this place was that the whole lake was frozen. It was fun to see a whole big lake frozen and it was exciting and interesting to know that there can be such places.

As you can see here it is frozen even with the ripples and waves on it, and people go skating on its surface(you can see the scratches on its surface)..wow..can imagine these things when we were in india.

Then we again proceeded to the kananski's country village had some food and proceeded to Nakaski skiing trails. As soon as you reach all you see is snow and lots of people skiing down from the top of the hill.

Once they reach the bottom they queue up again for a ride on the rope elevators to the top of the mountain.Its quite interesting to see that even kids 3 yrs - 5 yrs old go merrily around and do some skiing. Even we wanted to try out and its looks interesting, skiing is not as easy as it looks. So we didn't risk into that (atleast until we finish our current assignment).

Anyways it was an interesting trip.

GodFather

2006-02-18T15:26:00.000-08:00

Just completed reading this thrilling novel "GodFather". Its a really awesome novel, with intricate plots and excellent characterisations that makes it a compelling reading.

Most interesting thing to note however is that this novel is written in 1960's. But still even now it makes an interesting reading and it excites people so that they make movies out of it even in this age. Great..! A novel that stands through ages.

Hope

2006-02-09T14:02:00.000-08:00

HOPE is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I ’ve heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

- Emily Dickinson (1830–86)

This is one of my favourite poems, that keeps reminding me not to lose hope on any situation.

Nature is beautiful

2006-02-03T13:37:00.000-08:00

After a tired long day's work its always nice to take a little break and watch the nature. If you are in such a place that you can't go out to enjoy the nature, visit the site below.

www.rajeshkrishnamurthy.com/plog

It has really awesome and beautiful pictures of the nature that you will enjoy and your eyes will become fresh.

Life @ calgary

2006-01-30T14:34:00.000-08:00

During the past few months i am at calgary, canada for a project implementation. This is my first real outing away from india, although i have been on a short trip before. Life here is very different than what we have seen in india and it is a great experience for me to know the people here and enjoy the things here. Contrary to my expectations and reservations that i had in my mind, people here are very polite, hospitable and behave in a friendly manner.

Here if you go out for a walk you can hardly see people, except for places like a super market or a mall.Even total strangers will wish you and spread a smile to you. These kind of things you can hardly experience in busy indian cities like mumbai or chennai.But the reason what i feel is behind this is may be due to the fact that, the population in canada is nowhere near what we have in india. "People need more touch in their lives".(as it is shown in a popular ad).

Life altering differences that i found here during the first few weeks:
1. Traffic is very disciplined here. Even at peak traffic situations no one honks the horn and pisses off others.So obviously less or no noise.
2. Clean environment, very less pollution
3. Kind and decent drivers who always stop and let the pedestrians cross the road.
4. Few tall buildings, more long buildings. For eyes and legs that are used to the tall and big shopping malls of mumbai, seeing not so tall but long shopping malls is a different thing.

Calgary as a city is one of the modern cities in canada and compared to other provinces/cities like toronto, calgary is a much younger one. It also has a unique weatherline compared to other places in canada. During winter season the temperatures can go down quite below -15 to -20.But the uniqueness of calgary is even during the cold months once in a while the temperature increases and stays around 5-10 degrees for a week once in a month.They call this phenomenon as "chinook".

The skyline of calgary downtown is decorated by a tall building known popularly as Calgary tower. I will reserve my experience at the tower for another post.Will write more about my experiences in forthcoming posts.

My Tech blog

2005-12-31T12:06:00.000-08:00

For quite sometime from now i have been thinking of starting a technincal blog, where i can share my experiences and finally i started one.

you can visit my dotNet blog at :

http://www.dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/veda/

Bachelor thoughts

2005-12-27T13:15:00.000-08:00

When you start growing up every youngster wants to have freedom, independence and a chance to live alone and experience the world around. He completes his studies heads to a different city where there are more job opportunities, finds a job ,lives and enjoys/tries to enjoy the bachelor life. There is no one cribbing at him to wake up early, no one scolds him for not having food regularly, no one asks when he returns home late at night. He completely enjoys this new found freedom. Some years pass by like this and one gets very busy with his career, earning money and stuff like that....

Later on one day when you turn back and see what are you gaining by slogging hard without enjoying the life. At that point he starts feeling and missing all those small beautiful happiness that one would get living with your parents/family.One misses the care and attention that a mom only can give. When you work all day hard, manage a lot of tension and when you return home in the evening tired...one misses the warmth and care that your loved ones can give. I would say gifted are those who live with their family.

Change -- inevitable ??

2005-11-25T19:01:00.000-08:00

I always have been a believer in the thought that change is inevitable in life. This I have experienced personally on many occasions.In fact it is the beauty of this life that it takes you through different experiences. whenever I have been through a phase in life when it goes very smooth, some sudden thought appears to my mind, " what the heck why is it smooth? where are the problems?" and bang there appears some trouble that says here I am. I'm no exception and am sure everyone's life is like that, but the good thing or bad I try to take it in my stride.. and when in joy or sorrow, once in a while this thought comes to my mind "These are passing clouds".

On the same note life has been kind enough to me to give some nice opportunities to learn and challenges to fight and survive. I don't know why I have always felt variation is the heart of life. Whatever wherever possible, one should try and create a variation, if its not that way, then its not living... Of course we cant change everything, but sure we can try and create changes in smallest things in life that keeps alive the enthusiasm and kills boredom.I have always seen guys who are hesitant leave their comfort zone and venture and into new domains. But one thing I feel sure is, if you want to succeed in life always be ready to embrace changes.

My first blog

2005-11-11T20:12:00.000-08:00

This is the first time , i am writing a post in this blog. First of all I have to say that i am not a good writer. But a thought came what the heck let me try my hands on it. Good if it comes ok and I like it.Other wise I quit.

Thinking very hard what to write..But sometimes in life you know , thinking too hard cant actually accomplish anything. So take yourself lightly and take your work seriously is my policy. Let me see how it goes....!