Simply, the Maski's Way...

My 10th class and exams

2008-03-30T21:46:00.001+05:30

It is the time to recollect, time to look back to your school days. Tell me what was the most tensed moment? I am sure you will remember your 10th class and exams. Before I get old and forget my 10th class, let me write some memories of my 10th class and how it went for me.

Ok, all started with my 9th class result. Result was hard to realize. Number was 515 out of 625 which translated to 82.4%. It was not too unexpected result but some where it went wrong. I had written my 9th final exams with viral fever. I was not even within top 5. I was some where at 8th position in the class. It was hard to digest. But the best thing was neither my parents nor my family people really took it serious and put pressure on me.

I think this was the beginning for my new thoughts and new attitude. If I go back to those days, I think this was a trigger to think about me and my abilities. This episode definitely helped me to change from very careless guy to careful, very naughty to little serious, very haphazard way of doing things to systematic way.

After the results, some of our class teachers from different schools got together and rolled out the tuition class in the summer holidays for the 10th class students. In our place, there were 3 schools which operated under Canara education society. My school Mahatma Gandhi High school (MGHS), Gibb Boys high school (GBHS) and Gibb Girls high school (GGHS) were under the Canara Education society. The best teachers from these three schools got together and had a plan to give the coaching in Science, Mathematics and English grammar. It was with the vision that more number of 10th class state level ranks to the Canara education society. During those days, state level Kannada medium ranks werereally hyped. From the previous two batches there were couples of ranks to GGHS and GBHS. This was treated as a prestige to all the schools. Unfortunately our school MGHS was not able to bag any ranks in its history. I decided to join this class. Class was about for 3 hours every day and started at 9am. There were two teachers from my school. Classes were interesting. I got more insight in to English grammar. There was a teacher for Mathematics who was also my house owner. He taught us Matrix fundamentals. The way he used to tell Column (Khamba in Kannada) and Rows (Saalu) are still in me memory. He used to repeat “Khamba Saalu” with actions at least 10 times. It is almost 12 years now (remember I am 1997 10th pass out and tuition was in April 1996) and I still remember those actions and classes. This gave me the opportunity to meet other students from GGHS and GBHS. Look at the world, I met the same people again after an year when I went for the college. Summer classes ended very nicely

Then started the June and the heavy rainy season. Fresh class, change in the teachers for some subjects, change in class room and change in the status as super seniors in school. All together it was again a fresh start. We had two classes A and B and I had belong to B. One of my friend who did not get first number is 9th class had left the school because of some internal issue. Two of new friends Ashok and Manjunath had joined the class from different school. Head mater of our school Gowdi sir was English teacher, C G Bhandari was Kannada teacher, Shastri sir was taking Science first time for 10th class and was head class teacher, Rukma madam was Hindi teacher, Prabhu sir was social science and the most intelligent SM Bhat sir was taking Maths. Perfect teachers were in perfect job. Our head master had only one vision. Few state level ranks to the school. Our Physical Education teacher was a great Ball badminton player. Every year he was building the team. Our previous batch had the solid team and were taluka level champions but some how they could not win the district level. I had joined MGHS school in 9th from Jawahar Navoday School. From then I got fascinated with Ball badminton game. I had started learning and practicing the game.

After the classes started, my parents asked whether I want to go for any tuition. I also thought I should go for it. My school Maths teacher SM Bhat was taking home tuition. He had a pair up with English teacher MT Bhat from the same place. Tuition was from 7.30 to 8.45am from Monday to Friday, 3pm to 5pm on Saturday and 9am to 11am on Sundays. Schools were from 9.15 to 1.10pm and then 2.30 pm to 4.45pm on Monday to Friday and 8am to 12.30pm on Saturdays. So school days were very hectic. 7.30am to 8.45am tuition, 9.15am to 4.45pm school and after that Ball badminton game till 6.30am or day light which ever was longer.
Let me try to remember my class people here: Nagaraj Udadangi, Manjunath, Diwakar, Santhosh, Dattatreya, Mahesh, Jairam, Sharth, Ashok, Manjunath Shet, Prashant, Shetti, Anil, Raghavendra, Shalini, Suvarna Pikle, Rekha Madiwal, Savita, Vishalakshi, Rekha Naik, Sunita, Prema Komarapant, Jayalaxmi, Leena, Surekha, Sunita Harikantra and so on.

More than my studies, I started liking the ball badminton. This was the game which I had learnt during my 9th class. I had mastered this game in short time span. So I was promoted as middle player. We had few players who were playing from lat two years. One of my friends Girish with highest experience promoted as captain. We had the best players with right combination and attitude in the team. Jairam and Narayan handling at the back side, me in the middle and Girish, Raju in the front. Our coach and physical teacher was a very good player. First three months of schools days were full of rain but those were the days where you need to really practice well. Taluk level and district level matches were in September. Out teacher really worked hard to practice with the best players in our place. He called many of our seniors and his friends to play with us. We had the best opposition team to play with my school team. We enjoyed every win/loose and learnt many shots and services. Sport funding was always an issue. School was NOT ready to give us the new rackets and balls. All school team players bought their own rackets to play. We collected money from team to play with the new ball every week. Every day we practiced hard. Our teacher was so encouraging that he used to treat us with his money for the best play. Team at one point of time was unbeatable. Sportsmanship was building every day. Confidence was boosting. Frankly I was at my best. Calm composed and best shots at right time made me the best player of the team. I enjoyed key middle position and dominated.

With all these, 9th class disaster result was always in mind. I wanted to over come and prove my best in studies. Along with sports, I concentrated on my studies too. I became more studious and systematic. I think these were the days I was slowly going away from my child hood characteristics. I started valuing the each minute of mine. Started stretching my sleeping time to 11pm. I managed to arrange my own table and chair for studies in the corner of my house. Same year my elder sister was moving out of house to study her Diploma course. Brother was in crucial 2nd year PUC. Sister was starting her high school. Every one in the house had one or the other to prove them self in academics. Totally it was study environment at house. More than us our parents were struggling to keep every thing in place and give us more time for study. Scene was typical middle class family struggling to come up with flying colors. Mom used to cook in the morning for my brother. I used to have break fast after morning tuition. I started talking bicycle to tuition.

During school starting days, one of my close friend Ganesh father passed way due to jondies. It was a shocking incident for his family. He was my close friend from 6th class. It was not the age to loose the father. His father was the one who used to take all of us to swimming in 5th and 6th class. He was so encouraging and wanted his sons and me to learn bicycle, different swimming styles, drawing etc. I personally share very beautiful moments with his father during my child hood days. He wanted us to have healthy fight in academics.

Then came the first unit test in the month of August. As usual syllabuses were less. Competition was definitely building within the class. We had two sections A and B. In our section, one of my friends Jairam who was intelligent but never bothered to study much had started studying in 10th class. Hard core maggu Jayalaxmi was putting her effort to be the best in class. In the other section Ganesh was as usual the front runner. 9th class topper Triveeni wanted to keep her position intact in 10th class. Nagaratna, child hood friend of mine was in the list of contenders. So there was tough but healthy competition between us. I had friendship with every one in the class. Things went smooth in fist test. I was in second position but the total marks were much higher than usual. It was around 136 out of 150. As expected, Jairam stood first in the class.

First anniversary with my Getz

2008-03-02T21:13:00.001+05:30

Today will be exactly one year since I bought my car Hyundai Getz GLS. More than 6000km run till date and it is going simply superb. There are some memories to share about why I decided to go for Getz and the whole process involved in buying the CAR.
It was a DREAM...

Being born and brought up in middle class family in moderate city, I never imagined that I would own a car in 25 and half years. The only car I saw in the road almost 20 years back was Ambassador. Maruti cars were seen only in movies those days. The first time when I went in car is almost at the age of 11 years and that was in 1992 during one of the RICH relative marriage ceremony. Luckily I got a chance to travel in car for about 6-7km. It was a moment of happiness to enjoy the luxury of Ambassador. After that I don’t remember any occasion where I got chance to travel in CAR.

After I shifted to Bangalore for my profession, seeing car became very common. Around 25% of the traffic population was occupied by Cars. Car was not at all affordable with the kind of pay package I had during my initial. After I bough VICTOR in August 2003, I started enjoying the bike ride in Bangalore roads. Going to different part of Bangalore victoriously in victor was nice. Especially parking was very easy in all the places. After almost 2 years of ride on Victor, I started thinking on some small budget car. By this time two of my friends have already bought the car. One of my friends Abhi going for BIG Ford fusion (7.1lacks) in September 2005 was an inspiration. We friends started enjoying the drive in FF (Ford fusion) with couple of long drives out side Karnataka. So every time I went for the drive, I wanted to buy one but always the budget was a constraint with the other heavy investments here and there.

Shaping the DREAM

Then came year 2006 and on September 18th 2006, I was completing 25 the year. I wanted to gift some thing big myself. Car was really cool stuff to gift myself. So really started hunting for the good deal. I had lot of options ranging from Maruti Alto, Zen, WagonR,Swift, Hyundai Santro, Getzs. Alto was costing around 3.4lacks, Zen was 4.3 lacks, Santro was 4 lacks, and Getz was 5.2 lacks. Other cars were way above my affordability. The only car looked more promising compared with my budget was Santro. With all these, some how I could not gift my self on my 25the birthday because of some other personal commitments.

I continued my hunting on the car. At some point of time, I thought I should go for second hand car with one lack budget. One of my friends Venu who is in Maruti helped me to get some deals. When I went to "Maruti true value" most of the cars were more than lack and half. Only that I could get for a lack was 1997 models and it was almost 10 years old car. After seeing couple of old cars I really removed second hand car from my head. So I again started short listing the car.
These few are my priorities. Not more that 4.5lacks, good space for family to sit in the back, low maintenance and preferable low running cost. As said earlier Santro was the first choice but some how I had a feeling NOT buy Santro. It was because of number of Santro on the Bangalore road. WagonR was a good Car but I though it is little over priced. During early 2007, there was WagonR Dual which was new model . This had the LPG fitted cylinders. So the running cost would have been very low. I got interested in this model and enquired the model. It was costing 4.6lacks without music system. In the same time, Chevrolet had launched U-VA model in India. This was in somewhere January 2007. During that time I had actually completed my car driving and learnt the driving. So I went for taking the test drive. It was good car but brand new in India. I would have been one of the first one to buy it. As usual I did not want to take the risk. This was costing 5lcks for the high end. Swift was good car but the inside space was not worth the money. Interiors and Engineering of swift was amazing but some how I kept swift out of my mind. One of colleague had Getz. Whenever we went for the team dinner I used to sit in his car. Every time I sat in his Getz, I felt this is the most comfortable car in that segment. Of course it was coasting lack and a half more compared to the mid segment but it was worth for its inside comforts. So with all these finally I short listed Getzs and UVA. When I compared these two cars engineering specs and the money, UVA sounded good. But since this was new, I decided for the Getz.

Realizing the DREAM

This was in February 2007.Finally I was all set to go for the Getz. I started looking for the good deals. I went to Hyundai web site to see more about the specification. Actually when I was buying Getz,Hyundai was trying to bring the new model of Getz called as Getz Prime with 1.1lts and 1.3 lts. But I was not ready to wait for it. I had waited enough to buy the car.
There were total four variants GLE, GVS, GLS and GLX. Below were the on road prices for each of the segment. .
GLE 4,92,160
GVS 5,28,156
GLS 5,53,636
GLX 5,98,676

As you all know there are only 2 Hyundai show rooms in Bangalore. Advaita and Trident. I went to Advaita MG road for the test drive. But some how, I was not convinced with the dealer. He was not offering me much. So I again contacted Trident for the better deal. The dealer Pratap(9945655666) actually came to my office for making the deal. By this time I had decide on the Getz GVS. This had the features like all four doors power windows, Power drive, AC. What it did not had compared to GLS was Defogger, Rear spoiler, Rear wiper, Digital clock, Seat back pocket, Body colored door handles, Body colored mirror, front fog lamps.
It was coasting me 5,28,156. Pratep agreed to give me total on 29k cash discount along with the remote locking. So finally car was costing near to 5,00,000. This was really stretch for me. I didn’t had much of liquid cash for the down payment. But still I took the decision to go ahead. So I finalized the deal. But after some one week when I visited the specification again, I felt if I pay 25k more I can get more features. Not all features were really required but I think it was worth 25k. So I called up Pratap and asked hime to change my model from GVS to GLS. There were only two things missing in my Car compared to GLX which was the highest end. It was Alloy wheels and ABS. These two were costing 35k more. So I though it is not worth going for GLX. So finally Getz GLS was my choice. This costed me 523000 after 29k discounts. This deal did not include the music system. Getz doe not come with the in built music system.

Mean while during the period I went to US for my business travel. So I decide to buy the music player(also called a Dash player) from US. Sony has been always my favorite brand. I never had any gadget from Sony in my electronic gadget library. So this time I wanted to go only for the Sony. These were my requirement.s Good display, preferable direct USB connectivity, Auxiliary cable connectivity for my iPod, MP3 player is must and DVD was optional. The best one suited for me was Sony CDX-GT510 and it was costing me Rs 6800. So I bought this. Please visit http://www.xplodsony.com/xplod/headunits/CDX-GT510 for more technical specification. Also for all the Sony models visit http://sm.crutchfield.com/App/Product/Group/ProductMenu.aspx?g=300&tp=5685.

The Finance Aspect:
After returning from US, I started looking for the better loan rates. I was buying in the time when interest rates were very high. It was around 12%. I wanted the maximum possible loan. Most banks were giving 90% Ex show room or 80% on road price. This was again subjected to your salary and the other loans you have. I went for the loan amount of around 4.45 lacks. For a loan for 4.45lacks with 12% and 5 years tenure EMI was coming to Rs 9899. This was little high for my monthly budget. So I started looking for 7 years loan. Only SBI was offering 7 years that time So I contacted them. So My EMI came to Rs 7855. This was around 2000 less than the previous one and it was well within my monthly finance planning. Only problem with the SBI was slow loan processing. So it took almost 20 days to process my loan. If I had gone with ICICI loan it would have been over in just 5 days. But my wait was worth waiting because of my EMI calculations.

On 28th Feb 2007 I visited Trident for the final down payment. Car speaker decision was still pending. I wanted to put the good one. Getzs car have slots for both front and back speakers near the door. Usually all the cars come with front speaker slot in the door. But my dealer advised me to go for the back oval speakers rather than round speakers for the better effect. These speakers would sit on backside on back seat. I agreed for it. I went for the JBL speakers. JBL speakers are known for the car speakers compared to Sony. It coasted me more than 10k. But I just thought I should spend for the better comfort. So my CAR coasted me total of 5,40,000 after discount and music system. I made the down payment of 88k and Pratap agreed to deliver on March 3rd 2007.

Dream comes true:

The day 3rd March 2007 came finally. Actually my parents told me to post pone the day as it was Not so auspicious day. Since I do not believe too much in those things, I decide to take on the same day. It was more of convenience rather that a GOOD day. Since I was not master in the driving I took 3 of my friends along with my sister. I reached the show room at 10am. As promised CAR was ready for the delivery. I made the final formality by signing some papers. Pratap GOT the key along with his General Manager. One of Trident colleague performed formal pooja. General Manager handed over the key to me. It was all simply superbly arranged. I was on top of the world to see my Silver colored Getz GLS. I took few tips from my friends who were already experts in driving. I took the CAR to Hebbal to meet one of my friend. I was driving with tensed mood. There were many tips from the friends while driving. After having the lunch I announced to sponsor the most Romantic Kannada Movie “Mungaru Male” to all my friends. So we drove all the way back to Banashankari Kamakya theatre. I even went to my other friend home Rajarajeswari to show my car to aunty. After watching the movie I was with my sister. I was little tensed to drive back home but took it very easy and drove back home safely.

A leaving Note on Dream

The March 3rd 2007 became the most memorable day of my life. This was a day where I realized a guy from middle class can buy a CAR at the age of 25 and half, it was a day to realize my unimagined dream in my child hood. It was a day to remember my parents for their support and care. It was a day to celebrate and enjoy. Now it is one year and till that sense of achievement and celebration still remains in MY HEART.

IF YOU ARE...
If you are buying your first car and you want any expert advice/openion, I am more that happy to help you out. Call me or mail me at anilmasakal@gmail.com to decide and finalize the deal for any car. It will be learning for me as well.

Social networks

2007-12-23T23:29:00.000+05:30

Social networks and my Thoughts……

Social networks are becoming the part of our life these days. Face book, MySpace and orkut are few among them. But have you any time took out some time of yours and put the thoughts on why and how it works?

Here are my thoughts and views on these social networks and especially on Orkut.com which most of us know.

Social networks at least to me go back to year 2000 of my Engineering days. There was batchmates.com which tried to get contact your classmates and connect you with them. That was an interesting to get more details about your seniors and their where about. But some it was not easy to use and user interactive. I am not sure what social network existed before to batch mates.

Some where in mid of 2004, Orkut came in the big way for the Indians. It stared spreading so fast that literally every one having internet access started getting a user id to the orkut. I started using it is some where September 2005. Let me tell frankly, it made me crazy and forced me to spend lot of time on it. The way it was designed the user interface and easy to use was simply amazing. The word “scrap books” was very catchy and impressive feature. “Testimonial” allowed others to express admiration or appreciation about some one. “Communities” helped to create some commonalities between the people and their interest. “Profile” section allowed you to introduce you self and your personality. All in one, it was total package and completely designed for who want to kill the time when they do not have any thing else to do.

Look at the year 2007. A year which considered as “broad band enabling” year where internet is costing as least as our daily salary per month or even lower some time and most of the internet users are now social network users. Here is the few lsit of social network and number of users.

Social network Number of users
MySpace 289000000
Facebook 73500000
orkut 67000000
hi5 50000000
Friendster 50000000
Xanga 40000000
Windows Live Spaces 40000000
Classmates.com 40000000
Bebo 40000000
Flixster 36000000
Tagged.com 30000000
Reunion.com 28000000
Netlog 28000000
Broadcaster.com 26000000
Cyworld 21200000

more thoughs to follow...

Green gates:Team outing

2007-12-22T10:37:00.000+05:30

Green gates.....Our Best team outing.... .......

As I always say “Between the dawn and dusk, what remain are the beautiful fun filled memories, As Days passes we live with these memories and enjoy”.

Before this trip goes in to our deep memory, I have written a small (rather big) article on Green gates outing during my weekend. Please read it. Best thing about this article is observe how I introduced every one in to the article and the about the places and how every one was feeling and enjoyed the trip. Please read in your leisure time.
Here we go…….

The Water, The trek, the photography and Tooth brush……

Introduction of people, early preparation and enjoyment :

An announcement has been made by Bobby, the chief organizer about the outing with the subject line as “All good things come to those who wait.... “On Friday 11/2/2007 11:52 AM. The option given to this mail was “Yes I am ready to rock” and “No, I am too old to have fun”. This mail had set the expectation in the team to enjoy it to the full extent in the FDM team outing. Especially one who has joined the team recently was waiting for this date. No one in the team had realized that this subject line would mean a LOT. This was the first outing for most of the people in the group.

On 14th November, when we counted the team member size for outing, it was just 9. Every one felt we need to post pone so that many other in the team can join. But since the money was paid already, the only option left was to go ahead with the plan. Patra, the chief in charge pulled most of the team members and made the count to 15. Proposition composed of 11:4(Boys:Girls). There were discussion within the team to name the outing team as Team gallant, team waves, team fusion and team tooth brush. But why the name “tooth brush”? It may look crap to you but if you were the part outing team,the name carried so many jokes throughout the trip.

16th November night 10pm, every one was set to leave for the weekend dhamaka out side Karnataka. The resort “Green gates” located in Wayanad district in God’s own country was the “Team’s” destination. The energetic boys and girls were fully charged to participate in the celebration. But it was a slow start. The bus looked very dull with 50km/hr speed on Mysore road. On the way to Mysore the team was divided in to two, “Oldies” and “Goldies“ to play the dumb charades. The obvious choice was bollywood movies. But our chief organizer wanted Hollywood too. Request was politely rejected with knowledge base as the reason. Prem’s standard question like “How many word in movie”, “new movie or old movie” became the standard question and they were named as Prem’s questionsJ. Rahul challenged “oldies” about the existence of some movie names as he claimed the movie name cannot exist if he has not watched it! Goldies had to repeat the movie name “Lamhai” three times to Rajashree and make her understand what it means. Ashok showed his talent in searching the 60’s bollywood movie names which were never heard off. There were quarrels and exchange of fun words between the team which as lead by Sandhya. Every one except early sleepers participated in the game. Then started the game of all times “cards”. Our Ex chief Ravi who carried the card every time in the trips, did not forget to carry this time as well. Learn and mater to ”Bluff” was shown by Pradeep consistently through out the game. Vikas thought us a new game and gave an alternative to earn the money! It was almost 4am when we got order from chief to sleep and reserve the energy for next day. Ever one slept at 4.15am. Bus was slower than the Bangalore Bannergatta traffic.

Almost at 7.15am we reached Green gates. We got a warm welcome from Green team. They suggested few place. Anil personally opposed Kuruva Island and suggested Soochipura falls. But the manger suggested, it is the best place in wayanaad and guide will be there to take us around the island. Finally it was agreed and team was asked to get ready by 9am. Green Villa’s were very neat and spacious. Room was fully furnished and could accommodate 2 people comfortably. Hot water bath in cold climate in bath tub was simply amazing.

Every one except the late comer Ajay turned up in main lobby at 9am. Breakfast contained the Kerala special “Putta”. It was heavy break fast. After the break fast, there was matrimonial photo session lead by Photogenic Neha(or Neeha??). The photographer Anil was ready to take the shots and instructed every one to pose with the smiling face. At around 10.30am every one was ready to leave a place called Kuruva dweep in local language and Kuruva Island for the visitors. It had many island with the kabini river stream flowing between the islands. One has to cross the river stream to visit all the islands. Guide Benny took the lead to show in and around places of Kuruva dweep. It was around 30km from the resort and took more than an hour to reach the island. Some of the team members were hesitant to get down in the water. But when they heard that after noon lunch will be served at other end, they had no option left. Tender coconut at dweep was simply the best. Out chief Patra got a dhoti from the shop keeper on a loan basis and came in Dhoti attire which was completely different. For Naveen his bag became the most important through out the trip. So how can he imagine leaving the bag this time? He carried his bag along with him. Amrutha the most energetic girl cheered and boosted other girls’ confidence to get in to the water. Finally the full team was in to water with the help of guide Benny.

Introduction ends. Fun part of the trip in water – The water

Guide Benny was so kind and so good. He took care of every one in the team and gave the confidence to people who were nervous. Water was up to neck level in some places. Every one was wet. What could have been a better place than this? At that moment this was heaven for every one. In every scary moment, team members never scared to take their pictures. Every one helped others to cross the water stream. Crossing one island after the other was great experience. There was one point where all could sit and have “Water massage” It was so chill and refreshing. We played for more than half an hour in that place. Benny took care of our bags including Naveen’s bagJ. Cameramen Anil never minded to take very ones video during the water game. Chief with Dhoti attire was scared to take water massage. Rahul, the care taker could not manage himself in the water current! Pream saved so many livesJ many a times and awarded with the family pack of “tooth brushes”. Brave Amrutha learned herself on how to manage in water. Silent Bobby did not experiment with water game and played safe. Ajay took massage as many times as possible. Pradeep, the silent enjoyer, enjoyed entire episode. Vikas was never noticed by others and expressed the happiness himself. Ashok, scared of every thing, stood aside and just watched people playing water games. Photo phobia affected Neha was posing for every snap. Scared and surprise Rajashree was thinking on how save her self. Enthusiastic Sandhya continued her fights with others and took some “panga”. Calm Ravi enjoyed the full episode with one complete water massage cycle. The game ended when Benny instructed that we were already late for the lunch and food is already waiting. We left this place and reached the place were it was full of yellow (green fields were just cut and grass were all around) and blue (sky) colored. We walked through the fields and reached place were our lunch was arranged. It was an open ground with some huts on top of the tree. This was one of the best lunches I ever had. Not because of food was great but the ambiance was just great. Hungry boys and girls eat a lot. Poor Rahul who was on fastening (he is praying God for the best wife!) satisfied with couple of apples and bananas. While coming back, there was a wooden made square shaped (I am not sure what do you call for this) which carried the people to cross the river. Some brave hearts like Anil and Prem swam in the river to cross the other end. After crossing it was told that, Benny found one crocodile in the river. So the lesson learnt was not to swim in any open place. Chief returned his Dhoti and not even paid the rentJ but we gave a business again to shop keeper by taking 15 tender coconut.

The lighter moments in the evening

When we were back it was almost dark and climate was slowly becoming cold. Every one was given with “personal time” to enjoy them self. Some of them took rest, some played the TT and one small group consisted of me, Ajay, Vikas, Amrutha, Ashok and Rajashree went for the walk to discuss about the Ghost stories. There was one live incident told by Ashok was very interesting. Ask him for the whole story! It was a cool and lovely walk. When we came back Flood light (just one bulb rather) was arranged to play the night cricket match for us. We played cricket followed by the foot ball. I and Amrutha got injured because of the fact that we were playing on the cement ground. After that we decide to go for the camp fire. But since there was other group enjoying in the same place, we decide to have dinner. After dinner when we visited the camp fire, there was no music as it was already 10.30pm. After 10pm, resort people were strictly ordered by police not to play the music in open ground. We played 2 round of musical chair. We again went for walk and cracked the jokes on each other. When we went for sleep it was almost 12pm. We decide to go for walk again in the morning at 6.30am. Every one was asked to assemble for the break fast at 8am.

Second day -,The trek and photography

Morning walk did not happen as most of the people were tired and could not get up. I suffered with the previous day knee injury. Thanks to Vikas for his caring nature and helping me to recover fast. Almost every one except some lazy people was in main lobby by 8am. Our plan was to check out early morning and go for the trekking to Edakall caves. This was around 30km from the resort and it was on the way back to Bangalore. Finally we managed to get all the member in the bus by 10am and left the green gates. The green memories of the resort remained in memory.

We reached the “edakal caves” around 11am and started trekking. Trek was around 1000mitres height and total of 3 hours. This included some scary points and a rope climbing in between. The rope section was very scary and exiting too. It was not an easy task to climb up and come down in short time. Some of them, it was a first trek. Team work made most of us to climb up and enjoy top of rock.
The experienced trekker Naveen took the lead position. Photo crazy Neha took the risk of trekking for the photo sakeJ. Rajashree remained calm and decide to face whatever comes along. Ravi started asking philosophical question like “why we really need to climb up”? Unexpectedly and surprisingly Patra proved all of us wrong by trekking easily. Safe Bobby played safe again and trekked slowly! Ashok, scared of every thing including heights decide not to go further and stayed at certain height. Knee injured Anil decided to join the group and have fun with team along with his photography. Vikas acted as a waiter boy and helped the team members when they came down and served waterJ. Pradeep gave the best pose of “Shivaji” in the trip. Ajay struggled to climb down in the rope section but never forgot to instruct the photographer to take his video. Amrutha stayed way from the photo jangat and enjoyed the nature at its best. Sound maker Sandhya tried twice before she climbed up in the rope section. Rahul was consistently posing and got the matrimonial photos he wanted from long time. Prem the true care taker helped all the members to climb up and down. When we went to top, every one was so exited and screaming. Every one lost them self in Nature. This is what every one in the team said during a small video session at the top.

Naveen: patriotic
Neha: It was simply amazing. We enjoyed every bit of it FUN. Its simply fun
Rahul: Excellent
Sandhya: FDM on top of the word. My first outing in profession was rocking
Prem: Marvelous
Ajay: Best outing so far
Amrutha: amazing
Rajashree: Very surprising
Pradeep: Experiencing the fun
Patra the chief: Good team work done! Expect the same team work to be done in the release
Anil: Thanks every one. We had nice fun. It was just rocking.

Time spent in the top of the rock was awesome. The nature, the air and the Sun was touching us and gave a warm feeling. We experienced the Nature at its best for a moment.We climbed down in reasonable time but took time in having cold drinks in a small shop near by. After that there was some shopping. Most of the articles were made out of bamboo.

We reached the bus at 2.30pm and decide to skip the lunch and rush to Bangalore. Every one was tired and took the rest for a while. Again team was back to bus games like atakshari and cards. Ravi’s invaluable collection of old bollywood songs gave a refreshing feeling. We took the snacks (rather kind of dinner who ate lotJ) at Mysore Nalapaka. Food was good there. We started from Mysore at 7pm. Again not to mention bus was like Bannergatta traffic speed. So we ended up in reaching Bangalore at 11pm.

Leaving note...

All together it was great memorable trip so far! The water, the trek, the photography and last but not the least Tooth brush remained in our memory forever. The subject line of mail of our chief organizer Bobby made more sense when we look back out trip moments.

This is what our ex Chief Ravi has written about the trip:

Some things to forget (remember)
neha’s scary photos
patra’s lungi (sorry) fundas
rajeswari’s “lamhe”’s (more than one)
bobby’s amazing video commentary
amrutha’s endless energy
naveen’s precious bag
Sandya’s friendly fights
prem’s accurate bluffs
vikas’s suggestions (from behind, if u haven’t heard)
ashok’s tipless service
ajay’s money littered on mysore road
anil’s swim with pretty lady (crock)
rahul’s bollywood ignorance!
pradeep’s shivaji poses

Cheers,
Anil Masakal … Not a bad story teller and good photographer

Corruption and our life

2007-10-21T16:36:00.000+05:30

Corruption and our life.....

A dialog from Rang de basanti “ Koi desh peferfect nahin hota, banana padta”. No country is perfect; we have to make it perfect. It’s a true sensible line which goes deep in to our heart. This triggers you to think about you and your society.

Dear readers, you might have read lot of corruption stories. But have you ever thought that you are also contributing to corruption? It may be direct or indirect…

You may be thinking, being software professional, you are no way linked with this corruption. You may assume you are very clean and perfect citizen. But think twice, you may be wrong!.

When I look back my certain moves and actions in the past, I feel ashamed sometime that I am supporting corruption. So I would request you, after reading this think about your self and your actions, and say was there any instances where you could have avoided and made your society PERFERCT! Here are some of my experiences on how I have got involved in to corruption directly/indirectly…

My battle against corruption goes back to 1999. Just passed out from 12th standard and had to submit the caste certificate to the CET counseling centre. I had to get this certificate from the district head quarters. All my documents were very clean and as per the rule. So I went ahead and submitted to some officer in the District commissioner Office Karwar. They told it will take a week or so. I came back. Those were days were there was limited phone connection or internet to get to know about your application status. After one week, when I was again going to the DC office my dad advised to carry some extra money to bribe them. Believe me, I told my dad that I am not going to pay any bribe amount as my documents were very clean. Going to Karwar was about 1.5 hour journey from my place and coasted around 18 rupees that time. So it was total of 36 rupees per one travel. This was really big amount that time. When I went again, the officer there was not ready to give my certificate and asked me to come again. I think he was expecting some bribe out of me. I had one of my friends Prashant in Karwar. So I requested him to ask the update mid of next week. I remember I traveled at least 4-5 times (36*5 = 180 rupees) to get this document finally without any bribe. If I had paid 100rs to the officer in my second visit only, I would have saved some money. But I think I was right to get my rights! This was my first fight against corruption.

Again the same story in 2002 in getting the two wheeler license. But the case was little different. I went with my friend to RTO office Mangalore without any agent. Officer was good. He just asked my engineering college name and CET rank. Other things were immaterial to the officer. He was happy to listen to these data and gave the green signal for the license. So I got the license easily without any hassles. License was given in the book format. But I wanted in single plane card format. Again I did not want to go through the agent. This time, I had to go to Mangalore around 4-5 times to get the card done. If I had bribed some one or went through the agent, card would have been issued directly to my hostel address!

But things are NOT the same after my graduation. Whether it is wrong or right, I got involved in corruption!

From the first year of my professional work, I started declaring HRA much more than what I am paying. Have I ever though that this is wrong. Yes I know this is wrong but if I start declaring it to the exact amount, my tax amount shots up! Question, have you ever tried to think on this and correct your self? Every one knows about this. Even our financial department knows about this. But whose responsibility to correct these? Isn’t it ours? Dear reader, do you belong to same category? Think before you claim that you are PERFECT!

I had been to on-site couple of times and earned some extra money. Have I ever showed in my income? Answer is NO. One of my close friends makes it a point to show it in his tax declaration. I admire him but have I taken any actions any time to correct my self? Dear reader, do you belong to same category? Think before you claim that you are PERFECT!

During the registration of the property, I have paid some money in hard cash and always registered for lower value than the actual property value. Have I ever taken a bold step to fight against these? Answer is NO. If I had taken, I will never buy a property! See the fatal condition. Dear reader, do you belong to same category? Think before you claim that you are PERFECT!

We always approach the agent to get the work faster, especially if it is some government office work. Involving the agent means supporting the corruption. Dear reader, do you belong to same category? Think before you claim that you are PERFECT!

Dear reader, I know if some one who is really fighting against corruption will sue me after reading my blog. I am worried about this but I want to put more things in practical rather than writing some hypothetical cases.

These above are directly linked to me, you and society. I think some time about my self, where are those qualities gone which I had in 1999 and 2002? Is it dead and do I have energy still left in to fight against them?

These above instances may be common in all of us. Either direct or indirect way, we have been involved in these. Being a responsible citizen of “Lead India”, we have to sit some time and think our self what we could do against these!

Charity begins at home, same way fight should start from you and me RIGHT NOW…

post you comments!

As Work becomes my life

2007-05-27T13:07:00.000+05:30

As Work becomes my life…....

Just a thought and may not be a Universal truth…

This is the history behind why I took this topic today…
Four Years Back, I think at this time (27th May 2003) I had finished my last but one Paper of my Engineering Graduation. I was all set to pass out from college (with Flying colorsJ). I knew that I do not have much time after my last paper. I already had a joining letter in my hand and joining date to Honeywell was June 9th 2003. So I hardly got 4 days to stay at house after my graduation and then I had to join company.

NOW…… As I approach 4 years of my professional life, whether I like it or NOT work has become my life…
I never imaged this would happen so soon in my life. During my initial days of professional life I was trying to access rediffmail.com during the office hours. Now I hardly bother about gmail.com even after the office hours. This is just one example how the transformation from “Work for Life” to “Work has become my Life” has happened.

Yes, I crib every day about the pressure and amount of work, but every next day I am again ready for it. I openly fight with managers for NOT to come in weekends and I end up some time coming to office on weekends!

Readers… please remember we are in “Shining India” age. To keep this momentum going I/we got to over work. There is no escape form that. If we start showing the negative attitude then all the foundation which was laid in late 1960-1980s will go for a TOSS. There is NO short cut apart from over working. But does this mean you screw your personal LIFE? Not necessary. Learn to manage both. Yes, there are certain situations where you really cannot control. But we got to go with this. I remember one week in this year where I hardly talked to my siblings and just working like “Donkey”. But next weekend I made sure I spent enough time with them.

I see many of my friends (software engineers) saying they work lot. This may be true with respect them. But look at others. They are also working hard from 9am -9pm. Even the person who has “Paani Puri” shop runs his shop from 9am -9pm every day. I am made to work using my brain and “Paani Puri” waala job is mechanical. But I am paid for that. So where is the difference? May be we get so much comfort (I word this as “change in Comfort Zone”) that we start expecting more and more. I get confused every time on this topic…

I think we need to realize that “Yesterday was always a better, Today is OK types and tomorrow is tougher than today”.

Lot more to come….

Mobile and FM

2007-01-06T14:58:00.000+05:30

Mobile and FM.....

Two things that I am amazed in Bangalore! Mobile and FM

It’s since long time I didn’t write about any thing. Every day when I was walking back from the office, these two impressed me a lot and I was thinking about how these two industries has grown over the period of half decade

I remember some where in the year 2002, there were advertisements floated by reliance with the punch line “Roti Kapada Makan Aur Mobile”. This line impressed every one. No one realized that, it was a “just the beginning” for the mobile revolution.

Some where in the same year I read a piece of article in paper saying “Radio” is going to hit the market in next decade. After reading that I was just laughing about the survey conducted by them. My thoughts were, are we going back to same 1980s listening to Akashavani without the image?

Now those two above sentences are history and we are seeing difference! Almost after half decade I am seeing the future for both. Mobile and FM.

Mobile Revolution:

Fixed line to pager to mobile was a great story in the field of communication. Communication and networking are in boom every where.
Mobile revolution started way back in 1999 for India. When it launched, it was very expensive. Not all could afford this box. All in coming calls were charged. Hand set was more than 10k for the basic features. Keeping a mobile was part of the status symbol and all the mobile numbers were kept confidential.

But look at in year 2007! Situation is completely opposite. In fact I would say reliance’s “Roti Kapada Makan aur Mobile” cab be rearranged as “Roti Mobile Kapada aur Makan”. Mobile has become our integral part of life. Revolution and innovations that are happening in the communication industries are beyond common men imagination. Every one is trying to give best deals to the customer. Mobile network is reaching “where ever you go”.

All Service provider are trying to attract different classes of customers. So many different schemes are designed to meets every ones need.

For students you have options like 100 messages free every day. Even then I heard from one of my friend who is still studying saying those 100 free messages are not at all sufficient. This shows how much students are addicted to mobile. The simple calculation come to my mind when my friend says this is, Say in 100 messages u forward only 50 messages and remaining 50 u need to type. And Say one message takes a 2 minute (I have seen their hands going as fast as I can type in the computer). So total time spent on just typing is 100 minutes and to read replies to those messages takes around 100 minutes.For reading fwd messages it takes at least 100minutes. So total of around 300 minutes which is equivalent of 5 hours per day!! I will come back to this point later.

So many companies give the free calls to mobile from the office phone. Hence people so called “Highly paid” are completely utilizing this facility to reduce their Phone bills. In fact some of the people (including me) bought a new set for the parents so that they can talk to them with lesser prices.

For people who are in love, there is separate scheme. Pay some amount (which will be more than the normal rental) and get unlimited hours talk time to some chosen two numbers. And it continues…

Look the mobile model available in Market. All companies are trying to put their best to attract the customer. You get a mobile just for Rs 2000 with FM loaded with color display. I remember paying 11.5k for my mobile which had integrated VGA camera, FM and color display. The same features you get it for less that 50k. It is in fact huge depreciation for any market. I really cannot imagine researches that are going in this field. Every other day I see some new models released to the market with completely new feature. Mobiles are nearing to the personal computer in capability. Once the 3G enters in to Indian market with affordable price, then day are no longer where mobile becomes your outlook!

Below are some of the articles which highlights the mobile revolution happening in India

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3585257.stm

http://www.connect-world.com/Articles/old_articles/7Telecomm.html

http://www.rediff.com/money/2006/aug/19spec1.htm

http://fecolumnists.expressindia.com/full_column.php?content_id=87933

FM Revolution
To be continued….

All about "STYLE" in Life

2006-05-29T19:42:00.000+05:30

All about "Style" in Life....

More than an article, this was a discussion which my friend had raised on one fine Monday morning.

This is about the “Style in life”. Read the series of mail exchanges!! Chand and Vinay (VP), Vickya and Udupa are my close friends. Here it goes..

Chand sends a mail on Monday morning to group
Life main style mangta hain.. what say people..???
Monday morning timepya topic..
Chand

Maski writes
All,
Why don’t we as group come up with mail etiquette??
Say Monday Morning till 2pm no one will put TimePyaa mails?? If some one does, he should be alone flooded with all fwd mails.
Timepyaa Chand be sure before u bring these kind of topics on MM (I mean Monday morning)!!!
We can add some more rules for the same.
And now Do not reply to this mail before 2pm

Chand writes
Life main style mangta hain..
what say people..??? - Maski (till 2 pm) :-)
Monday morning timepya topic..
Chand

Vickya writes
Monday morning till 2pm Maski will be toooooooooo busy in checking his love mails

Chand writes
hey dont digress..
its very important for me to get the answer..
life ka sawal hai yaar... please consider..
We wil discuss only after 2pm.. but do give me your thoughts....
maski .. happy..:-)

Serious Maski at 2pm sends his opinion as below
First one to reply with my comments!!
Life main Style Mangta hai: Yes completely agree. Life is all about Style

But what is style: Some thing to do with dressing (external appearance), Physical appearance, style in humor and Behavioral/Social style or Simply a style.

Life main Style we can some what correlate to the “The Passion about the Life”

If u look at all of us, we are consciously working on our Dressing style right from the birth. But this was always driven by our financial state. And From last 3 years spending on this has increased tremendously and at least I have over come this by dressing appropriately. Improvement is by copying others dressing style or my own view of dressing. So upan ka style idhar Bilkul Fit ho jaata hai

When it comes to Physical, I do not have comments. Some people gives too much importance to this and some one like me does not even care about this (May be driven by ur Physical appearance…isn’t it Udupa??)…. So upan idhar Bilkul Fail

Behavioral/Social style is always come by the society u live in, friend circle ur in, Company ur in and various dynamic factors. And this style is most important to progress in life. We can redefine some thing like “Person with better Behavioral/Social style is the person who dominates the society (Survival of the Fittest) “

Style, style and Style… working on style and constantly improving keeps us more Enthusiasm and Chill in Life..

What do u say chand about my Simply a Style?

Simply, Life main Style
Maski

Vinay appreciates maski as below,
wah wah wah ...
Another gem from the Master.
Maski, I should call you the Zen Master.
~Vinay.

Udupa writes
Ella ok.. style yaake??

Vinay writes
This is not right. Style is an essential component of one's personality.
One is either aware of it or not.
The ideal case is that one has an awesome style without that person even being aware of it.

What say Maski?

Regards,
Vinay.

Finally Chand comes back with his opinion
Nice one Maski..

As usual your thoughts are too good.May be that's the reason why you are the only person in our group to have a shishya....And your Guru Shishya combination is ultimate. I appreciate your thoughts and the way you have put them....Super..!!!

Ella ok.. style yaake??

I strongly feel style is one thing upon which your degree of impression sits. Most of the times its your style which makes you the fore runner. Take for example your work, Initially you learn things and you are recognized by the amount of your know how. Later on how you present what you know becomes important.. which calls for style in life...

The way you walk, the way you talk, the way you mingle everything becomes important. People around you will evaluate you on all these depending on the style you show in each and everything you do....

when you dine with people it becomes important on what topics you talk.. You cant learn about all these in a day or two... You could have learnt about such things if you had necessary style in you. else you get lost at times...

Style makes you look confident...which is the most important thing in the corporate world...

If you don't have necessary style at times you will look awkward. At those times we should see our face in the mirror.. then we will know the importance of style...

Bottom line is We should inculcate good style in ourselves if we want to excel..!!!! .....I liked corellating style to "The Passion about the Life"

Bbye...

P.S :
People develop "style" by taking interest in such discussions.

Chand
Life main style mangta hain

My Vision Twenty Twenty

2006-04-13T20:06:00.000+05:30

My Vision Twenty Twenty................

20 years back, a guy who saw Maruti 800 only in films can afford a Maruti Swift at the age of 25….....The Shining India

Dear reader,

So many people have already talked on this topic. But again it is my sincere effort to make people aware of this and make my India better place to live.

After we got independence, we had just a goal to form the Good governance for the country and to make life better for the people. The concept of “developed” country was no were in the picture. As we progressed on our own way with strong Democracy foundation, we started thinking of transforming from poor country to the developing nation. This mission was fairly successful. We had Planning commission set for that. We had series of 5 Year planning to look after that. Efforts until 1967 largely concentrated on expanding the farming areas. But starvation deaths were still being reported in the newspapers. Population was growing at a much faster rate than food production. This called for drastic action to increase yield. The action came in the form of the Green Revolution. Way back in 1967 we started “Green revolution“at achieving food self-sufficiency. In 1970, one of the largest program of its kind the known as White revolution Started. The objective of the program was to create a nationwide milk grid. Now we are the Number one in terms of the Volume of milk produced.

will be continued...

Trip to Kashmir of Karnataka

2006-04-04T08:28:00.000+05:30

Trip to Kashmir of Karnataka....

Madikeri known as Kashmir of Karnataka proved once again a nice place to hang out. It gave me even greater feeling when it was joined by our Child hood friends. This is a short trip update on Madikeri

30th March at 12am here in Bangalore 3 freaky genius leave Bangalore to spend their weekend. Replace “B” with “M” and same happens in Mangalore. Guy was very excited to see some of his friends after almost 7 years. Bus from “M” reaches Madikeri at 4am 30th March.

Ganesh Bhat, all alone at Madikeri bus stand thought, he should disturb the host and waits for other 3 to join from Bangalore. Sleeps at Bus stand till 5am and had nice experience with Police man. Then he calls up host Sandesh and gets the route map. Then he calls up Anil and asks about their where about. When he hears that they will be reaching at 7am, waits for then.

At 30th March 7am, Sindoor and Venkatesh gets up from their heavy sleep and realizes they reached the destination. There were hugs between the boys (!!!) when they meet in Madikeri bus stand. Every one was showed a way to free toilet room which was out come of Ganesh’s 3 hour stay at bus stand. Thanks to Ganesh on saving 3 RupeesJ

It was almost 5km from Madikeri when auto driver suddenly put a break and stopped like a James Bond (See the add in TV). Half slept Sandesh and his dad were waiting on the way to receive us. A joyous 10 minute walk from main road to Sandesh house in the morning was just amazing.

The rest of the trip was filled with Fun, Photography, and our old/present Love (!!!) stories. Trip was joined by Chinnu( not Chinna) and Lokesh on Saturday and Sunday

Watch out for more details after weekend.

Boy with iPod

2006-03-19T23:15:00.000+05:30

Unveil the story of “Boy with iPod”

...an article on “my device”

Adding new electronics gadgets to my E-Gallery was always fascinating for me. But all the time it was driven by my financial state. When company decided that I have to travel to Texas, US, I was very happy. US have been always a place for buying latest E-gadgets. Even before reaching there I had short listed some of the items to buy for me and friends.

As everyone gets, I also wanted to get a camera. As I have interest in Photography from my college days, I though I would go for a Digital zoom camera. One of my friends in US helped me in choosing the camera and I was finally set to go for 12x optical, 4x digital i.e. combined 48x Zoom, with 5mega pixel Canon S2IS. Predecessor of Canon S2IS was a big market grabber in camera world. I paid 487$ just for the camera

On second weekend of my stay in US, one of my colleagues took me to FRY’S (one of the US biggest E-Gadgets shop) and showed me Apple iPod nano with 2 and 4 GB capacity. At first site, I thought I should buy this. But after looking at its price, I just postponed for a while. It was 199$. Till then I never knew that such a device exists. Only I knew was USB memory with MP3 player from Creative. iPod nano with 4 GB has a capacity to store around 1000 songs.

The iPod nano, with its tiny size, sleek look, undeniable cool factor, unsurpassed interface, excellent sound quality and responsive controls was just amazing. From that day onwards http://www.apple.com/ipod/ became my favorite URL. I read lot about its Apple iPod products, accessories, reviews etc. For me it was very tempting to buy one iPod nano. But every time when I converted its price to Indian rupees, it was very expensive.

Starting of October, 2005, there were ads floated across about the 5th generation iPod. This was supposed to be the next generation of iPod nano. It played a video along with the audio. There were 30 and 60 GB capacity iPod released to the market. This model was named as iPod new. I visited Circuit City (one more US biggest E-Gadgets shop) to get the demo of this. It was just a masterpiece, state of art in its kind. Its touch key pad, video quality and the Photo gallery options were very impressive. This time I was clean bowled for duck!! I couldn’t give any reason, why this should not be added to my e-Library. I calculated my US dollar balance. Calculation resulted again in to disappointment. I was all ready over run by my spending limit. I came back to room with empty hand. Video that was played during demo just remained in my cherished memory.

Mid of October, I came to know from my team that my stay is getting extended by two more weeks, so as my per diem. This time my calculation perfectly fitted to go for iPod new. I had four choices now. iPod shuffle which didn’t had any visual display, just a MP3 player, iPod Photo which had visual display, provision to see the photo gallery, iPod nano the sleekest and sexiest one with visual display but only audio capability and finally iPod new which was union of all. It was 30 GB, Audio, Video and Photo gallery capability. I think it was my good decision not to buy iPod nano when I saw it for the first time.

This is how Apple showed up their ads on iPod new.

Witness the evolution of the revolution. First it played songs. Then photos. Then podcasts. Now iPod plays video, changing the way you experience your music and more. Again. In lighter, thinner 30GB and 60GB models starting at $299, the new iPod is music to your eyes.

Now I made up a mind to go for iPod new with 30 GB. It was coasting 299$ plus 8.25%tax plus the accessories. Actually Apple had a good marketing strategy. Just to make sure that prices are within 300$, they removed all the accessories with this model. One had to buy least accessories like USB Power Adapter (29$) to charge the iPod with any main Power line, Apple AV cable (19$) to view the videos in TV. This model initially released with only white color and then black.

4th November 2005 5.30pm, the day when I shopped nearly worth 1500$ which included Cameras, sound card, DVD player to my Colleagues and my new dream iPod new. I wanted only black color which I didn’t get in Comp USA, so again went to Circuit city to full fill my requirement. I also got a USB Power Adapter and Apple AV cable. Every thing including taxes coasted me 375$.

I came back to my room, connected to lap top after down loading iTune software. For the first time Lap top hanged for few minutes. Latter it recognized as USB device with Apple name. I could successfully download some songs and photos but video still remained as grey area. This model supports only certain formats like .m4v, .mp4 and .mov which I didn’t had in my Lap top. I was eager to see a video in my iPod. So what was the next step? I just goggled to get some codecs which converts from any format to iPod format. I got the one from net and downloaded. I was helped with one of my friends staying in the same hotel. Now the video was in my iPod. I was at top of the world. It was playing so superbly. My friend gave me “Love story”, an English movie which was one of the big hit during 1970’s.I watched that too in “my Device...The iPod new”.

The next experiment was to test with the TV. Unfortunately TV in my room dint had any Av cable connection port but I believed in Apple. By this time Apple had became one of my favorite brands just because of their simplistic, compact, well thought, bug free, user friendly design.

My Device helped me in killing the time during my travel. I am back to mother land. I am giving the iPod demo to every one I meet. Some people commented on over spending but every one praised its figure and design. I tested iPod with my LG TV. Now it acts as a DVD player too.

Now my iPod is laying in my e-Gallery which is now connected to Mercury compact speaker with woofer. Every day morning I listen to instrumental music and in the evening just by random play some music and enjoy. This has become a must item during my all travel. I am very happy with its battery back up, sound quality and its look.

Daily routine of “Boy with iPod” starts with iPod instrumental music and ends with filmy music.

Team FF To Wayanaad

2006-02-08T16:02:00.000+05:30

Team FF To Wayanaad

The Drive,The Trek, The Photography,

The Portfolios and The concept of NRV

I had been to trip last weekend to Wayanad with Friends. Went in our friend Abhi's ford fusion, hence team is named as Team FF. Visited the places Edakkal Cave, Kuruva Island,Soochippara Waterfall,Muthanga Wild Life Sanctuary .

Trip was wilh lot of fun, trekking, Swimming, amazing drive, PJ's, Fundas,Nice food, Photography etc. Here is the short update.

The history behind Team Ford Fusion.....

On 20th January 2006,wonderful Friday evening, just one week before release of Ranga De Basanthi. Maski gets a call at 6.30pm to join the Film Range de basanthi from TC. TC knew that maski is bad in keeping records of film releases, so takes its advantage and call him for the movie which was not at all released!! maski didn't even mind to cross verify the facts and just says Yes

maski gets sucked up in office again and joins the group at Richmond circle at 8.50pm. Ford fusion was ready to take all of us. News was broken, we are not going to RDB, but we are going to "ZINDA". Six masterminds myself, Abhi, TC, Ashik,Pai and Deepya gets in the car. There were discussion on Depya's future and past. Depya joined us just after smashing his GRE. In between Abhi uses his influence to book the tickets and hurry to get in to Maratahalli innovative multiplex. 9.45pm we were in theatre and had some food and watched movie. Movie was good. "Baala" had acted very well. Happy masterminds comes back to TC's house and switch on TV to see "Jogger's Park". Till then there was no plan for next weekend.

Ashik announces that he won't be available next day.

21st January 2006, 10.30am maski , TC abhi decide to go for a round near hebbal. While going every one just agreed to go further and visit "Nandi Hills" and Devanahall air port.

This was as start of our Planning to go for a short trip for two days. We 3 visited and saw the progress of Devana halli air port. Discussed so many things on international air ports and then we turned our vehicle to "Nandi Hills" . We were there at 3pm with hungry stomach. Food was good there. Spent good time there and made our mind to back by 6pm.

Forming the Team Ford Fusion...........

I don't really remember who started the Topic for the short trip but all likely minded so called " Architects" decided to go for two days trip and some of the short listed places that time were Madikeri, Dharmastala, Agumbe and Vythri. Actions were set to individuals by maski. possibility of two cars, participation of more people were anticipated.

maski took the actions to get the number of head count and accordingly accommodation and planning. The first call from maski's 6610i goes to our dear mam Rashmi.

Mam latter replies as below:

Sorry le..Will eb going to Chennai… to attend IIT fest..There will be a concert by Shankar mahadevan…J I will return on thrusday though.. It will be too hectic.. if I again.. travel on Saturday and Sunday..U people enjoy…

maski replies saying :

yes mam!! Enjoy maadi, TC: Our mam is not coming so as with our Hero I guess, But no assumption, I will confirm with him as well ..........Ashik: are u joining for the short trip this weekend??

Our Hero replies saying

Hi Maski, Your guess is right dear....I am also going to Chennai with Rashmi.. enjoy your trip.

The next Car owner Kaddi was asked to join, but as he was busy in his preparation for Us trip, smoothly denies, KG was not in picture as we wanted his to prepare for his IIMB interview, so we thought we will not call him.

So maski writes back to " Architects" saying

Dudes, Rashmi, Ashik and Kaddi are out. So Message is clear only five on Ford Fusion!! Only two places are left!! Options Shinya, Pacchi( still need to Confirm), Pai, Java!! Decide and short list and talk to them

Pai was not a god idea as she would be only female in the group, So we some how convinced her , then we wanted two people.... maski again calls 9880207727 to join, but our Pacchi was having second time US visa interview date. things went smooth after that when Shinya and Java simply agreed the plan. Till then Place was not decided. But our folks had only one thing in mind, Go out of Bangalore in FF for two days and freak out. Place does not really matter , it is group which matters most!!

Tean FF Was born: maski, TC(chand), Abhi, Shinya(Badi), Java to Rock in the Unknown place.........

On Wednesday, January 25, 2006 3:51 PM, mail goes from Chief Architect maski.. The new concept of Portfolios was born, individuals are exposed for their roles and responsibilities, Actions were taken, One mail made huge difference in the Entire trip. Believe me, our Folks never questioned Chief and just satisfied with their portfolios. Here is the mail which Changed the way of Organizing the Trip:

Hi Team FF,

here is the plan. Meet at Abhi home on Friday night. Saturday morning leave Bangalore by 6 am.

Here are the roles and Responsibilities:

Account manager : Includes writing all the spending and sending out the account detail at the end. TC

Route Manager : Deciding on the place and getting all the road map to reach the place safely Abhi

Safety manager : If we are going fast, just to instruct and some of the safety aspect like seat belt etc Java

Food Manager : To take care off food, see to it that it is hygienic and getting all chips etc Badi

Overall organizer : Key decision if there are conflict within team, maintain the discipline, and Time management maski

Actions:

maski to bring camera, and some chips and water bottles
badi to bring cam coder if it is available.
Abhi: to fill enough petrol, Check the vehicle before we leave, Get all the road maps and finalize on places
TC: to purchase some First aid medicines
every one: to have at least two pairs of extra dress,tavel, bed sheet (one), tooth brush,5k cash and Full enthu

Please let me know if there are any thing more

maski...Overall organizer

Places to be visited...

Edakkal Caves: If ur planning with parents, I am not sure whether u can take them for trekk. But Going till peak of Edakkal is a amazing experience. But, u can always go till caves and then return back
Kuruva Island is good place to hang out but drive is little tough. There is stream where u can just play in water. Good one to hang out for long time
Mathanga Wild life sanctury is OK types. U needs to have luck to see the animals there. If u have not gone to any Sanctuary earlier, then go for it
SoochiPura Waterfalls: One of the best water falls and worth going here. Drive is superb and u can stop in between for Good snaps
Thirunelli temple: I guess this is too good and every one talks about this. Also u can get a good stay there. We didn’t go because we were running out of time. But do visit and it is south of Wayanaad
Lakkidi is also too good place.
Pookkot lake, just don’t miss it

So plan for at least 4 days, do not hurry to wrap it up in 2 days. Take good camera and capture all memories

Route: From Bangalore to Mysoore then take Gundlepet Road from there to Wayanaad(not the Ooty route)
Then to Sulthan Bathery. From here u can go to Kuruva Island and Mathanga Wild life. Stay in Kalpete then go to Soochipura falls. Then Go to Thirunelli temple and Pookat lake

Also have enough money as ATMs may not be available all the time

Take the print out of below link before u go

http://www.wyd.kerala.gov.in/places.htm

LIFE as I See

2006-01-27T19:57:00.000+05:30

LIFE as I See

Just to irritate u more!! straight from my mind!! Just need to verify with some Maths fandoos...So subjected to verification

LIFE in my view is an nth order differential equation. It does not have any concrete steps to solve. With all your logic, one cannot be assured that he will reach a converging point. Solution for it needs more and more iterative steps, more and more value substitution and lot of complex calculation.At one point of time, one finds this is converging sequence and finds himself relaxed!! but as order increase ( I mean, one grows older), takes long time to relax and converge.

so ultimately, one can define
LIFE as Live Every instance and Forget Every bad past.

maski

Experience BG road

2006-01-19T22:07:00.000+05:30

BG road, experience the "HELL"

in ur life time.....

Dear readers,
So much have been written on this. This is just one more live and LIFE experience!!

9th June 2003, a historic day when I got the first experience of Bannera gatta road. I thought for a while , is it part of Bangalore??? ohh.. my god, my company is on this road!!! I got royally screwed myself on my first day of corporate life and it was so much of pain just to reach Bilekahalli from Jayadeva hospital( just two km apart). When I got in to my company reception, I was really relaxed.

But slowly day by day, I got adjusted to it. By then it had become my daily route. Traveling in BTS bus from Silk board junction to Jayadev hospital and then to Bilekahalli. Many a time, I felt it was even faster, if I start walking from Jayadev hospital to office.

Finally one day decided to go for "Victor". 28th August 2003, "Victor" was with me. Rainy season had already started in Bangalore. BG road got even more worse. Lot of pot holes appeared. Traffic jam increased. Add to this two fly over, one in Jayadev Hospital and other in Silk board Junction was under construction. I was under confident to go for a "victory" with my "victor" in Hosur road and in BG road. Found many short cuts in between to avoid "Jayadev Junction" but I could never bypass the "HELL".....THE BANNERA GATTA ROAD.....

Things got even worse when Gvt decided to improve the "HELL". Traffic jam increased, everyone including me forgot all the traffic rules in "HELL". I forgot that there exist 4th and 3rd gear in "VICTOR". My Bike riding skills improved a lot at a cost of "VICTOR'S" life. Forgot to keep my bike clean. Life time of dress reduced to a DAY ( believe me, it was once a week when I was in college). Starring at others while riding became common. Reaching the office fast and safely became "mantra" of LIFE.

With all these pain, "mind" started thinking( I do think when it matters most) for some alternative. Some of the short listed items were " Travel in company Bus", Travel in BTS bus, Change the company OR change ur living location!!! The last one looked more practical. On 12th June, 2004, exactly one year 3 days of "HELL" experience I and Pacchi decide to shift to AREKERE lay out.

Now, it is hardly once in a week, that I experience the "HELL" on my VICTOR. I have lost hopes that this "HELL ", at least upgrades itself to road which are in my native( Kumta..The city of Joy). I am sure by now my life time is decreased at least by 6 months because of dust and pollution.

My "VICTOR" is still fighting to keep its shock observer properly to serve its "maalik". It has also grown old. All ready had two major( I fell down twice) and two minor (tire got Puncture) injuries.

Finally, THE experience on BG road goes this way.............

"VICTORY" on "VICTOR" in "BG" road

was just a "DREAM" for me....

Simply,

maski...still starving for a "victory" on "Victor"

Extend you life time!

2006-01-13T16:55:00.000+05:30

How do you extend ur life time?.......

Maski again here with one more new invention!!

Assumption:

“Yama” does not have fundoo technology for his time, and he Calculates based on time and date irrespective of zone

So here we go:

Suppose say ur life time ends on 15th August 2047, 12am (I selected this because it is centenary Indian independence day, and u will get freedom after that) and suppose u want to extend ur life time by say 12 hours, what u need to do? any guesses!! If u had guessed it right, then please let me know. You can be my “shishya” and I teach u lot of these skills.

Ok, solution is, just u need to travel to ur western part of the countries like America and be there before ur end of life( u may ask, how do I know my death date?? That is left to ur wise decision). So when u reache there, with our assumption above, “Yama” thinks that time has not come and he will just wait till 15th august 2047 12am to take u to his “world”

Same applies for decreasing!! Only thin u need to travel to estern side

So do u guys agree with this? Please do not have any doubts in your mind and shoot me a mail if u needs any clarification.

Maski…..watch out for more