My World tour

I recently visited Antarctica, the earth's south pole, Hawaii islands, Amazon forests, Niagara water fall's, U.S, Jerusalem, and Italy.

My trip started from Antarctica..I directly landed in The south pole first, I could see national flags of many countries placed all over there. U.S , UK, Japan..all have their national flags there...the place is a frozen desert...Exactly at the center of south pole they have placed a pole, they call it the ceremonial south pole..I visited a few huts built by early explorers from England in 1904, Visited Ross island, penguins...etc...Due to time constraints I left Antarctica with in few minutes...

The next Trip was to Hawaii Islands in the US. Such a beautiful place. If there's heavens anywhere, it is one of them. I felt like sleeping on the seashores of Hawaii...so scenic...so scenic...watched the smoking volcano's of Hawaii and left to Amazon forests..

I landed in the dense rain forests of Amazon. It reminded me of rain forests of Kerala. Actually Kerala is equally dense everywhere. I traveled through the rivers of Amazons. After visiting the Tumbira Community of Amazons I left for Niagara water falls.

I reached Niagara within seconds, as my flight was traveling at the speed of light. The waterfall is so wide and so beautiful..it is indeed a wonderful sight. From there I went to the great USA.

I landed at the Space needle in the Seattle. Visited Golden gate bridge, Times Square, South Las Vegas Boulevard and atlast The Washington mall. From there I took flight to Jerusalem, Israel.

I landed at the mount of Olives. I saw a magnificent view of the old Jerusalem from there. Headed to Gathsamen, the place where Jesus Christ's disciples are said to have prayed before crucifixion. Visited the site where Jesus was crucified. From there I went to Tel Aviv and took next flight to Italy.

I landed at the center of Colosseum, Rome, Italy. The famous stadium was built in 80 CE. Gladiatorial combats used to happen here centuries back. It reminded me of the famous dialogue from the gladiator movie....

"My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, Commander of the armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, a loyal servant to the true Emperor Marcus Aurelius, father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife and I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next".


With this I ended the small but beautiful trip..and returned.

You might me thinking...what the hell....yes I visited all these places on a single day....
It was my long cherished wish to go on a world tour. I did it yesterday.....with-the-help-of Google Street View...  :)

You can also do it... here's the link :)

 http://maps.google.com/help/maps/streetview/gallery.html

He is cooking

Yes.. He is cooking...."He" is none other than "Me..Myself and Irene.." Sorry... Irene is not there....That's actually the name of a Jim Carrey movie... Its just me..and myself. :)

So what is he cooking.....I am a lazy cook.. lazy people prefer more with less effort... So my recipes are simple and scientific....all the items that I cook will have almost similar ingredients. The most common ones I use are green chillies, onions,  mustard seeds, and sun flower oil. Thats it...

So recently I tried a breakfast item... Its called "Uppu mavu" in Malayalam..If you ask me the English word...Its  "Salt mango tree" I don't know if there is any other name  for this in English... I realized that I can prepare this delicious item from my regular ingredients. So I bought some Suji ( Rava ).

First attempt....heated pan, oil, mustard seeds....water, salt.... And then Rava.... I stated stirring..thinking that I will get solid SMT( Salt Mango Tree)... but even after 10 minutes of stirring.. its still liquid....and more than half of Rava is sticking to the pan...Failure.... I tasted a bit ...That's all I got from the pan.

I generally don't give up so easily....

Next  attempt also failed due to excess water...
Third attempt... Last time I had used more water...so this time I should not add more water...heated pan, oil, mustard seeds....water, salt.... And then Rava....  I started stirring....Good..it looks good..then I felt..hey...its called SMT so I should add some more salt isnt it. I added one full spoon salt. Its ready within 5minutes..

I have washed a plate and taken the SMT on it..My mouth is watering...I am really hungry.... I took a spoon full and tasted....Shhhhhhit.... its full of salt... I tried to complete the first spoon..But I had to abort the mission..soon..I threw it in to the waste basket..

I could get it working only after next two trials..Now I can prepare eatable SMT.

So that's how he is cooking.. if you know any recipes..with my ingredients....let me know I will try it.

Traffic police fined me again

They did it again....This time they fined me for jumping the signal. I know for sure that it was green when I  crossed the signal...I am so angry that.... smoke is coming out of my ears....

It was around 8 PM..I was crossing the Sadasiva Nagar  signal.. as soon as I crossed, a police man stopped me. He told me to park my car because I jumped the signal.. I told him several times that "It was GREEN"..."It was GREEN"..

He asked me my license..the usual trick...I took out license and given to him..He took me to another AH.
I told him the same... "It was GREEN"..."It was GREEN".. No response ...Grrrr...I shouted.. IT WAS G-R-E-E-N. He did not even look at me... He is busy operating his Blackberry...

Finally he said..either pay 100 Rs. fine or take court notice.. Hmm..court notice..I know..what that is..I had an incident before..I had chosen court notice instead at that time..but when I reached court, they did not accept it..They said its a fake slip to scare people...there is no case...nothing..

So I confidently said..Ok give me court notice.. He said..I will cease your car..(another trick)...Ohoho...
You will cease my car for jumping signal ???

By that time lot of people assembled..I noticed...a queue forming behind me..they all told me in feeble voices.."Yes It was green" and they were murmuring each other..."Yes it was green" "It was green"....

Oh!..I have lot of supporters now..I shouted again.."This is unfair"..I asked the police man "Do you have proof that I jumped the signal?"..He said yes we have cameras all around this signal....

Finally my supporters told me "Bhaiyya fine dedo.. and get out of it." Ok. Ok... I felt that it is better to listen to them..than to waste the rest of the day..proving that I did not jump the signal....

Meanwhile I saw another funny incident..one guy..is giving 70 Rs. bribe to escape from 100Rs. fine..
He is almost hugging the police man, begging to accept it....who to blame for these ??? pathetic!!

I know for sure, whatever happened today was planned..It's a big scam..they are collecting a lot of money as fine and bribe too....
May be their they did not meet their monthly fine collection target..
Or May be its time to pay house rent..buy sarees and lipsticks for wives..

Today they stopped a lot of vehicles...the last ones who cross, before the signal stops are the victims..

To protest against this injustice.. I jumped the next 5 signals...even when it was red...By the time I reached home..I was relaxed that I saved 400 Rs..You must be thinking how..Its simple mathematics.

Jumping 5 signals, Fine = 500 Rs. But actually I paid 100 Rs. Only. So... profit 500-100 = 400 Rs.
Smart isn't it?

A Journey with the pilgrims

Last Friday I traveled to my home town...as usual by train..Bangalore-Ernakulam Express. I had reserved a berth in the sleeper coach..

There's nothing unusual about it..I travel quite often..once or twice in a month.. But this time as soon as I entered my coach...I felt something different..its full of people in black attire..yes..I can easily identify them..they are pilgrims to the Sabarimala temple in Kerala. The people sitting in my coupe is staring at me..I felt little uneasy..but I gave a nice smile at them...one of them suddenly asked a question...I couldn't guess their language initially... but I understood the question..they are asking which is my seat..I told 13 middle berth.

Very soon other people with similar dress code surrounded me...they are looking at me as if I am a monkey in zoo..and I felt that they are not happy with me siting in that place...But I have no choice..I told myself...All is Well...All is well..the famous slogan from 3 idiots..

They started asking me weird questions...I figured out that they are speaking Telugu..but its not the standard telugu I have heard from my friends....I could not  understand many questions..and we don't have any other language in common....they know only Telugu...

One among them.a very young guy...looks like the most educated in their group... started speaking to me in broken English..but we used hand signals a lot to connect words..

He asked me "Job..?.Job..?." then he types on a virtual keyboard in the air..I got it ..he is asking what is my job..I told in the same way... I typed a in the virtual keyboard in the air and said..Computer... Oh! oh!...they looked at each other....Next immediate question....Salary..? Salary...? I replied.. No.. Salary...

Then this guy gave a lecture to the other guys..which I did not understand...may be he told...This guy is doing computer job without salary!!...This I could make out from their sympathetic look..But what I actually meant to say was that I can not tell you my salary..!!

Meanwhile other people started coming to the coupe and I figured out that these people did not have a confirmed berth....but they were not willing to move from here. Since nobody knows Telugu ...and nobody is able to convince them that this is not their seat...it was really funny...finally TTR came and asked them to move out....

I have never faced such a situation in India before...I thought I can speak to all Indian's somehow...Telugu is the only south Indian language....which I can not handle...and there are people in remote areas ..not getting proper education and exposure..It was shocking to realize this fact when India is growing at an all time high rate!!

My Experiments with Indian Railways

The most difficult thing with Indian Railways is getting a train ticket...this is near impossible if your journey date is during a weekend or festival time like.. Onam, X'mas, Dewali etc... The funniest thing is that they allow you to book ticket 3 months in advance.... That's too early for someone like me to plan and act on...for that matter..any Indian..

I always think about things at the last moment...not because...I want it that way....but because...that's how my gene's are coded.. But It seems like Indian Railyway's is able to alter my genetic code with their 3 months advance booking feature...I used to book ticket always on the opening day of booking...and that too exactly at 8.AM. The reason is that, if I don't get train ticket I will have to travel..on local buses..that is hell!!

So.. the question in your mind is where do I go so often??.. Yeah! I am a home sick guy....My home is Kerala.. and I work in Bangalore away from home, 624km precisely. I go home quite often..minimum once in a month...anyway..its just an over night journey...you don't need to be home sick to go home so often...

But nowadays my gene's are fighting back...the trigger is Tatkal ticket feature of railways department...yes..now you can book Tatkal ticket just two days in advance...But the probability of getting a Tatkal ticket is the same as getting a Nobel prize for Physics...

But with my years of research and experiments..with Indian Railways booking service, I can now book a Tatkal ticket with almost 99% predictability...

But what I need for that..
1. A Core 2 Duo processor computer with minimum 256kbps..reliable Internet connection
2. An Alarm clock that works with 100% accuracy..

How to book a Tatkal Ticket using IRCTC

1. Get enough sleep the day before booking date.
2. Set alarm for 7.30AM and go to sleep with a calm mind.
3. When you hear the alarm, get up immediately ..resist temptation to press snooze button.
4. Wash your face, brush your teeth..urinate...
5. At 7.45 start your computer..
6. Start modem also..and check internet connection
7. If you see that internet connection is down...Dont think twice..go for Plan B described below.
8. Login to www.irctc.co.in ( I assume you have registered before)
9. After you login go to "Plan My Travel" page and press "Refresh" every 5 seconds
10.When the time displayed on the page turns 8.00.01 book your ticket..

You will get ticket..I always get..

Plan B - How to book Tatkal ticket using mobile phone

If Internet connection is down...Use your mobile..

What you need to use Mobile for booking

1. A decent mobile phone with Java support
2. GPRS subscription
3. Ngpay shopping software

There is a mobile application callled "Ngpay" download it and be ready to use it.
 http://www.ngpay.com

The above 10 steps are applicable for Ngpay also..

Internet - The World Wide Web

When I started using the Internet, the first thing I did was to create an email account with Yahoo!.. That was... I think in 1998. .....I dont remember anybody sending me emails to that id. It was just there to tell others that ..yes this is my Yahoo Id.

I remember, I used to go to internet cafe's after my college hours...It was around 45 Rs/ Per hour or so.. very expensive... escpecially when you are studying.. and you have very limited pocket money.. When I  go for browing..I use Yahoo Search. Yahoo Mail.. Yahoo was very popular at that time.. And the speed was amazingly slow...I think it was a 56kbps dialup connection shared by 10 people. So now you can imagine the speed.

Possessing a Personal Computer was my dream since I started using it in 1996..My dream partially came true when I assembled a PC(Celeron/128mbRAM/40GB HD) during my post graduation. And the cost was shared among my room mates. Even though It was a shared PC.. It was me who has used it to the maximum extend.. there was no part of the PC that I have not touched..I remember...Once the hard disk was crashed and it became completely unusable...then I had to seek technical support from Seagate(Hardisk Manufacturer) to repair it....I had this "Geek" image among my friends...May be because I used to crash the system quite often..I don't know.


In 2003 I have my first Personal Computer!!..at home. In fact it was the same old PC we assembled during my post graduation. When the course was over I paid them their shares.. and took it home with me..

At home I took a BSNL dialup connection..And you know the first time when I got connected to the internet from home .... I felt like..There's a channel from my house to the rest of the world...something like that....I don't know I can't explain it in a few words...

Are you a good manager?

This is the question people ask themselves if they manage people..
Surprise..!!  I found the answer.. this is the result of my several years of research and hard work..

So try to answer the following questions....

1. Do you pretend to be busy even if you are not? 
2. Do you ask your subordinate to repeat what (s)he said just now, even if you have heard it..??
3. Do you always look at your laptop wallpaper, while you are talking.. ?
4. Do you always follow "Walk when you talk" motto? ( Managers will never stop to talk to you. You will have to follow him)
5. Do you always call your subordinate to your desk? ( Even if you have to borrow money from him?)
6. Do you always win an argument even if you are wrong?
7. Do you scold credit card sales girls for 10 minutes over phone?
8. Do you send one liner emails?
9. Do you have easy solutions for every kind of problems under the sun? 
10. Do you have at least one person to manage?
    

If your answer to any of the above questions is a "No". You may not be a "good manager".
So... now the question is how to become a good manager.....The answer is simple..just follow the above..

Because these kind of skills you can not learn from Harvard Business School or IIM Bangalore....They don't teach these...it's inborn...genetic...or in other words.... genetic disorders you inherit from your parents..