A trip to Thenmala

I have been longing for months to visit Thenmala and at last it happened in the form of a team outing. We, the ASG team, went for an one day trip to Thenmala and Palaruvi on 18th December 2009. A day off from the boring work for the whole team, a day to enjoy. We started at 7 AM from Kazhakkoottam, had our breakfast from a small hotel at palode and reached Palaruvi by 10AM.

There were 16 of us. Without wasting any time everyone jumped into the water and started enjoying. We were enjoying out there and i stepped on a stone and it stumbled, luckily i didn't fall over, but there were some sharp stones and when i pulled my leg out it was bleeding. After spending some more time there we started to Thenmala. Had our food from one of the hotels there in Thenmala and went to see the dam. Took the pass and it was a long walk in the scorching heat to get on top of the dam. After that we went to the adventure zone of Thenmala eco tourism, but there was nothing much adventurous there. Just roamed around here and there and then went to see the Aquarium set up by Matsyafed.

After seeing the aquarium we went to see the musical fountain. The show is there only once in a day at 7PM. It was a good one which lasted 30 mins.

Once it finished we started the journey back home. We stopped at a small hotel at pazhakutti to have our dinner. They were pretty happy to see us, there were not many people in that hotel and there was lot of food left. In no time everything was finished and the hotel owner was pretty happy, but then there was a problem for them. Everyone was ordering many dishes and the poor suppliers were not able to recall what all they served. So everyone had to go to the counter and tell what all they had so that they can calculate the amount. After a few minutes everything was done with and we started our journey back home. I reached home by 10:30 and watched the Indians being thrashed by the lankans and went to sleep..

LOVE

Love is the essence of life. When love succeeds, lovers are happy and so are their friends and admirers. But love failures are the most heart breaking incidents......the hardest thing to digest. Some one has said that love is blind and it holds true in most of the relations. True love is unnoticed most of the time. Sometimes when you understand that you are being deeply loved by someone, it will be too late and that person might be beyond your reach.

Enjoying the short vaccation

A few days off from the tiring job.... a few days to enjoy with friends and forget everything else. This is one of the best vaccations i had, once i finished my college life. Couple of days of leaves left and still think thats not enough. Four days passed like four seconds, roaming around with friends. While in the company of friends every place seems to be much more beautiful than it was before...

Now while enjoying the holidays i am thinking why are we working hard day and night for someone else to make money, our golden days wasted inside four walls infront of the computer....when there are lot to enjoy outside............anyways there are two more days of fun left before getting back to my routine works.........so may be i can be sentimental about it later, once i get back to work, not now :)

Onam

Onam celebrations commenced at the state capital......buildings and streets decorated with lights are a treat to watch.

Pace

Striving to achieve greater heights at a rapid pace.

RECESSION

Recession - the word over which so much fuss is going around in the world now a days. The countries which were very badly affected by recession has proclaimed that they are recovering well and will be back to normal within a year or so. IT firms were in a sort of bother because of this, but the corporate brains have found ways to weather out recession and also to benefit from that. Dismissing employees who have long years of experience and are very highly paid is one such way. This will allow them to make the work done by some one who is paid much less compared to the experienced personnels. Also most of the firms were recruiting 100's and thousands without thinking about how many they require. Then they were in a sort of bother having found out that there are lot of guys who are in the free pool and having understood that they are paying for lot more guys than they should be, they were trying to find a reason to chuck
them out. And for all those employers 'Recession' was a blessing in disguise and they were not to miss out on an oppurtunity they got and used it very well. Waiting to see what all will happen.........hoping that it will not happen.

Friendship

Where are we going in this new corporate world, where everyone is busy. Noone has time to talk to others nor will they try even to acquaint with others. Similar is the case with friendships. The difference between college day friendships and corporate friendships are very evident. Friends are supposed to help you out of any difficult situation, even if it is going to affect your friend in someway. Normally friends will do that, they won't be thinking about the outcome when they are helping you, nor will they be expecting anything from you in return, that's true friendship and that is there still in campuses, i think. In the corporate world, friendship is nothing more than having a cup of tea together and talking during that time. If you are in trouble don't expect them to be there to help you out, they will first think about themselves,what if i try to help him out?Will it bring trouble to me? If I help him out what is my benefit? After all these thinking most probably they will think it's better that we confine to ourselves and make a move on without thinking about others.
Some may disagree with me on this, but i am not saying that everyone is like this, there are a few who are sincere, but the majority are like this. If you still disagree just watch carefully and you can find it out for yourself if you have a fairly good observation skill.

Point of interest

A point to bear in mind for all those are worried about something or the other:-

If you can solve your problem then what is the need of worrying? If you can't solve it then what's the use of worrying?

So cheer up :) and keep going

How I Got My First Job

Once again my memories travelled back to the past, to our college days, S7 going on and it was placement time. Companies coming to take those whom they think are efficient(may not be the case always). Every now and then our placement cell announces that some company is coming to some of the colleges and we all will be going to the college where the campus recruitment is conducted.

One day the campus placement cell announced that a company Ernst&Young is visiting Baselious college for campus recruitment. I havent heard of such a company till then and any how we decided to go there and attend one more test. In the morning there was a short presentation about the company and then only we understood that it was one of the most reputed firms in the auditing field and is having a shared service centre at technopark. After the presentation there was an aptitude test and after that they said that after lunch we will be divided into groups and each one of us will have to speak on a topic for 5 minutes and the topic will be have to be picked from lot. On hearing this I was not at all interested in staying back any longer as i never ever liked to have a public speech and also my communicative skills are not the best. So I thought of going for the film Classmates which was running house full at that time.

I put across this idea to many but all of them rejected that idea saying that it is one of the craziest of the ideas having come this far for the purpose of attending the test, they wanted to stay there. I was not at all happy with their attitude as i wanted to runaway from the scene somehow and get out of the trouble of making a public speech. My last resort was the one of my friends who was my neighbour and also my classmate, and as he is crazy about films i thought of persuading him and taking him with me for the film. But he too broke my heart with a NO. He also told me that we have come this far, so now just attend that too and we can go for film some other day and i was like a man stranded in a desert without knowing how to get out of there. So after everyone disagreeing to my good proposal i had no choices left other than to attend the session which is the next hurdle to a job.

We all went to the rooms to participate in the presentation session. We were divided into groups of 15 and soon the public speech started. I got a relatively easy topic to speak on 'Television - a knowledge box or a nonsense box'. After the public speech we left for our homes and on our way one of my friends informed that 6 from our college has been shortlisted to attend the interview the next day at Technopark. I was one among those shortlisted along with Hidesh, the one who made me stay there, and some others. The next day we were there at the office in Technopark waiting for our turn to attend the interview. I didnt have to wait much before they called me. The interview was over very quickly, i think within 10-15 minutes, a simple one. A small self introduction, then few questions from what all things i have mentioned in my resume, a brief description of our mini project, seminar that i took on my college and a few questions based on the descriptions that i gave them. I was pretty confident in giving them the answers as i was pretty sure that they wont be having much knowledge in electronics department. Then came the real test, i was asked to write a C++ program to sort an array of numbers, it might sound very simple for a computer science student, but it wasnt all that easy for me. I took the pen and started with a "#include" statement thinking of how to write, then suddenly one of the interviewers told to my relief that there is no need to write the syntax, you just give us the logic. I was pretty happy hearing this and explained the logic to them, they seemed very happy and told me that you can leave for now and we will be informing you the result within a week.

Weeks passed by and I didn't get any update from the firm, and i almost forgot it and one night before a university exam one of my friends called me and told me that i was selected, but to my disgust the one who held me back from skipping the public speech was not there in that list.

Once there in E&Y, we had an english training course, and in that we were asked to speak about some of the incidents in our life and i narratted this incident and once my speech was over my trainer shook her head and said it was one of the craziest way of thinking.

Mouse in the House

One of the creatures that can destroy anything in this world - 'Mouse'. It eats up whatever it gets. It doesnt matter to the rat whether its a sony ericsson's headset, a purse, a hundred rupees note or an ID card. I was aware of the fact that there are lot of mice there in the new house, but didn't expect such a large scale attack from those warriors. Knowing that there are a few mice, we placed poison for the rats in pieces of tapioca, we found couple of them dead and placed the poison next day as well, but it was there in the morning untouched and there were no sounds from the roof top for a couple of days. We thought there are no more rats in the house, which proved to be a big mistake.

One day i was about to leave for office, i took my purse and there i could find a few holes and a hundred rupee note partly ate up by the mouse, the mouse wasnt satisfied with that alone, it cut the headset of my mobile into three pieces, tried to eat my office id card, but for some reason or the other it didnt, maybe it didnt like the taste of the id card,the rats had their revenge for killing their kins..........

The very same day i moved all my valuables from my no more safe table and put it on the open cubboard in the drawing room. Next day as well i found that the rat has entered the table and tried to create a havoc there, it ate up few pieces of paper that was left in the table. Now the table is no more safe and the rat has made me keep all the valuables scatterd on the open cubboard, as the rat is not bothered to touch anything thats kept open.

The world of The So Called Professionals

I have been hearing the words professionals and professionalism from the time i joined the firm. I havent understood properly yet what they mean by professionalism. By the way the guys in the office(Thejaswini alone) behave it appears as if professionals are those who walk with calculated steps, who never ever smile at others even if they smile at you, dont talk much, even if you dont have work just stay there in the seat gazing at the computer and moving the mouse around and tapping on the keyboard as if doing something urgent and of atmost importance.

One thing that is haunting me in the new bulding is the way these professionals show their professionalism. I am used to smiling at all those whom I see daily. In the new building i smiled at some of the guys and the response embarrassed me. They just showed no response and some just grinned. I have been in the new building for three months now and i havent had a word with most of the guys sitting in the bays next to me and dont even know their names, which is very different from the earlier workplace where i knew almost everyone. A samll relief for me is that my team members are not like that and they are very happy cracking jokes and talking whenever they have time.

Rain

It rained heavily today reducing the heat a bit. The atmosphere is a bit cool now. It was very hot in the morning and all those who didnt take an umbrella were drenched in rain, me too. I went out to East Fort for a shopping at around 6 in the evening. Ignoring my mothers warning that it might rain, i went out without taking an umbrella. It started raining heavily on my way and saw people who were waiting for buses in statue running around to find a shelter to escape from rain. After the shopping when i returned the rain was still falling heavily and it was long time since i had been out in the rain. I am one person, who likes to be out there in the rain without an umbrella and enjoy it. So i didnt waste my time searching for shelter, just went on with my business and returned home with water drooping from all over my body and clothes. Hope that in the coming days there will be more rain and it will reduce the summer heat atleast to an extend.

A travel back to the past

It was a day off from work, a day to relax a bit and one whole day at home which is a rarety. Woke up a bit late at around 11 and received a call from one of friends that he will be coming to my house. Asnov, my friend came and we had a lot of things to talk about and our memories travelled back to our college days and we shared the memories of a lot of funny incidents that happened in our college life.

I cant remember at least one semester in my college days during which the college wasn't closed atleast for one week, if not more. Every now and then we will have strike in our college. Sometimes it might start with small disputes between students and that will ultimately end up in big fights and as we have a principal and as he is supposed to take some action against such things, he will suspend a few and all will be on strike from the next day onwards and so the princi will have to cancel the suspension. Those who indulge in these fights sometimes get bored of having to fight with the same people over and again and then will extend it to the locals in Venjaramoodu(our college is located at Venjaramoodu). Then it will be eventful few weeks as the locals will be waiting for vengeance and they will stop each and every vehicle going to college searching for those guys and sometimes some of the poor guys will get beaten as those who are waiting will not be able to find out those whom they are looking for and will have to express their rage on someone. They will also beat up the guys who are standing in the footboard of the college buses. Scenting the danger our college authorities will suspend the classes till further notice.
We really enjoyed our college days and our classroom had a good atmosphere as most of our teachers didn't bother to make us listen to the class or write lecture notes(maybe beacuse they knew it was of no use). So we did our job of playing wordgames, playing paper cricket, discussing about cricket matches and films that are going to be released or the ones that is already released and the teachers will go on with their job of teaching to those guys sitting in the first bench as if the class is confined to the first bench. We were lucky to have a few first benchers who were also not bothered by the noise that we make and would concentrate on the teaching. They were very good at heart to lend us their notebooks to take photocopies and also to tell us the portions till which we have to learn for the series exams. Also few of the teachers were really helping and even taught us some of the portions once the classes were over and our study leave started.
During the university exams the biggest villain was cricket matches. I dont know how they schedule the exams, but the only thing i know is that during every university exams there will be a cricket series going on that involves India and matches will be there sometimes on exam days and sometimes on the days prior to exams. I am one person who loves cricket and watches almost all the matches that i possibly can and so it was the biggest prolem as far as i was considered. Sometimes we hear rumours that university has postponed the exams and hearing that I will just close my books and start watching cricket and after sometimes someone will call and tell that the exams hasn't been postponed and so I will take my book and start studying(keeping an eye on the scorecard).

There were a lot of funny experiences during the college life and i will like to share that with you, but not for now. It seems as if all has gone in the wink of an eye, and everything is just memories now....

India in Newzeland

The second T-20 match between India and Newzeland was not all that great for the cricket fans back in India, except for Yuvraj finding his touch and Irfan rediscovreing some of his pace and swing. B.Mccullum again did the job for the kiwis, as they won the 2nd Twenty-20 mach in the series against India. Newzeland and India came head to head in 3 twenty -20 matches till now and the kiwis have beaten India on all the 3 occasions.

India came into the series without having any match practice and that reflected in their game. None of the Indians except Yuvraj and Sehwag were able to play their natural game, and when Sehwag fell after a quick 20, others followed him to the pavallion. Then it was time for Yuvraj Singh to play a good knock. He handled the kiwi bowlers easily as his captain was struggling at the other end to find the middle of the bat. But once Yuvraj went, it was clear that Indians aren't going to post a good score.

Newzelanders were off to a flier as their openers Mccullum and Ryder took on the Indian seamers. Mccullum started from where he left off in the last match and the score raised past 50 in the 5th over. But once the spinners were introduced into the attack, the runrate came down a bit, and with Irfan's double strike in the 18th over, Indians thought they had a chance. But Mccullum had other ideas as he took Newzeand to a thrilling victory scoring 9 runs that was required for victory in the last 3 balls . India had a chance to tie the match as Mccullum scooped the last ball from pathan in the air, but the diving Rohit sharma, couldn't cling on to that. In the end it was a well deserved win for the kiwis as they outplayed Indians in all areas of the game.


It was in 2002-2003 that Indians last toured Newzealand and they lost the test series 2-0 and the one day series 5-2. Indian batsmen failed miserably in that tour. If the Indians have to win this series or atleast put up a good fight, their batsmen will have to adapt to the playing conditions and climate in Newzealand very quickly.

My First Article

What to write in my first article, that was the most perplexing question for which I was trying to find a solution myself, so I decided to write about how I decided to start a blog and here it is for you, and to those unfortunate guys who are reading my article, I havent written anything of value yet and is not planning to write anything of value now as well.

It was long time since my friend nightingal has been urging me to start a blog, I was never ever thinking of starting a blog myself till then. I discussed about starting the blog with my friends Niranjan(Ashik) and Rakesh. Niranjan, who is a very good writer, was very much interested in starting the blog and so he started his blog and published a good story as well. I have been searching for a name for my blog for long, and as i was not the best in the business it took a long time for me to find a name, that too with the help of my friends. The names from which i tried to create blog was mostly titles of books written by Sidney Sheldon (and those were suggested by Niranjan, i havent heard any of those till then, as i dont have that bad habit of reading books :P) and i then realised that there are many guys who are cleverer than me and who have started the blogs earlier by using those names. I tried many options, inserting '-' symbols between words trying to find if that url is available, but all my efforts were in vein and i found that each and every one of those combinations has been consumed by those clever guys. But atlast i have found a name and has started the blog and you are one among those to read this . So now I am one among those who are called bloggers, not sure how many articles i may publish further to this, but I would like to make a move on.........