After 8 years I managed to make time to visit Calcutta. And what a great trip down memory lane it was!

Met dear relatives, my cousin Bhagu (who is also expecting a baby) and visited old haunts which I would visit during the 4 years I was studying at IIT Kharagpur.

I spent a half a day on Park Street with Soubhik Dawn.

We intended to meet over breakfast at Flury’s, but it was insanely crowded at 11:00 AM. So we skipped that and headed to Barista just across the road, which seems to be languishing though it’s on a high street. We recounted our lives from the time we last met, giving and taking updates, advice, and frustrations.

Post that we headed to the Oxford Book Store on Park Street. It used to be my favourite haunt while at IIT Kharagpur, as it gave me access to a world of books. I really enjoyed spending time there, sitting on the beautiful wooden benches and reading/reviewing books.

That accomplished (and after I made a customary purchase – The Big Short by Michael Lewis), we headed to Esplanade. I had wanted to check out my regular haunts such as New Empire Cinema, The Globe (it shut down some years ago), Sriram Arcade and the Dominoes inside New Empire Cinema. We took a walk around the block, all the while talking/discussing/sharing.

We then ended up at Peter Cat for lunch. After all these years, I found the experience to be lacking/hyped, possibly fed by my standards and memories of visiting it as a student.

Soubhik Dawn then proceeded onwards, and we parted at Cammac Street. I decided to walk down Cammac in search of Vardaan Market, which I found.

This place allowed me to shop to my heart’s content for Ninaad’s clothes. Got him some good indian traditional as well as western outfits.

I then took a taxi to Suresh Kaka’s place, and we got sweets and visited most of our relatives in celebration of the birth of my son, Ninaad.

The rest of the evening was spent chatting with family at home. The next morning, I left for Bangalore.

Some photos from my trip can be found in my facebook album, Calcutta Chromosome.

Yesterday some old friends (24 years and counting) and I decided to head out on a road trip to Hogenakkal Falls near Dharmapuri, Tamil Nadu.

Shabbir, Shenaz, Vishal and I left early in the morning at 06:30 and came back at 20:00. It was a lot of fun, and I missed Shruti a lot throughout.

There were many funny incidents, many jokes were made, stories shared, and some booing as well.

Some incidents / jokes worth mentioning (may not make sense to all, but you can always ask me for context):

• Vishal: I saw this Chinese iPhone the other day, for only 5k man!
  Shabbir: You mean you saw a Ch(a)i-phone?
  Peals of laughter.
• Me [on seeing an actual chicken cross the road]: Why did the chicken cross the road?
  Vishal: So that it could end up in Chicken Soup for the Soul? (what???)
  Crazy laughter ensued.
• Shabbir and Me teaming up to throw half a ton of river sand onto Vishal, and him having to bathe for an hour with 4 rounds of shampoo to get it all out.
• The puncture that had as take a detour and spend 2 extra hours on our way to Hogennakal. Shabbir and I worked on it, while Vishal chilled out in the heat (lazy bugger).

After seeing this book many times and hearing a lot of rave reviews about the ensuing movie, I decided to get the book.

‘Che’, as Ernesto was popularly and lovingly know, was one hell of a personality. At such a young age, he had some really perceptive and socialist commentaries on what he observed around him. The book’s journey is probably what made him what he was in his later years.

The Motorcycle Diaries is essentially a travelogue, of Che and Alberto Granado, through Latin America. The initial part of the journey is on Alberto’s beat up motorcylce, the La Poderosa. After the bike gives up on them, they continue their travails on foot, hitching rides and telling sob stories (refined over the course of the journey to the extent that they had their act down pat!) to get food and lodging.

The book is not only about visiting lesser known, exotic and beautiful places in South America, but also a socialist commentary of the life and times of Latin Americans. Che is alternatively touched by and angered at the pathetic state of miners in Chile, descendants of Incan Civilization, and lepers across the South Americas.

Throughout the journey, Che (a doctor to be) and Alberto (a biochemist) make pit stops at leper colonies and hospitals to offer advice and study conditions of patients as well. This also allows them to secure lodging and food with ease, while helping the patients.

Che describes places and people with such apt words, that one cannot but visualize the scenery and situation in great detail.

I would recommend it as a must read for those who wish to understand the South American scene in the 1950s, and to those traveling to the South Americas even today. It has not only a history lesson, but also tells us that history repeats it self. The situation in South America today seems not much better than 50 years ago, at least in the rural areas.

If you are a travelogue lover, this book is simply amazing. One of the most heart-to-heart travelogues I’ve ever read.

Rating: 4.5/5

Ever since Shruti & I made plans to go to Malaysia in February, I’m unable to put down this urge to just be there, then-and-there in the here-and-now.

There was a line in Jonathan Livingson Seagull that comes to mind:

“To fly as fast as thought, to anywhere that is,” he said, “you must begin by knowing that you have already arrived . . . . “

I guess I want to arrive as well, in Malaysia. Only that the quote above isn’t about reaching a destination, but about having the right attitude to learn something new.

The reason I am itching so badly for a holiday is because this would be my first real break from work after April 2008 (~ 2.5 years).

I did learn (well, relearnt actually) something too, in the here-and-now, something that has always been out there for all of us to know and work with:

Good things come to those who wait.

So if I wait long enough, I’ll have arrived in Malaysia!

I guess I must focus on the here-and-now, and ensure that all tasks (personal ?& professional) prior to my Malaysia sojourn are completed on time.

The other thing I realise, is that sometimes shorter (and more frequent) breaks are better than longer (and less frequent) ones. I need to make this a goal, and act on it frequently. Maybe a calendar reminder to take a week off, every 6 months?

The last two days are a blur, except for the fun bits with BD. Let me be kind, and rewind.

House hunting is an art, not a science. Logic plays a part, I agree, but much less than the whims and fancies of the darned civil engineer and architect. How else does one explain the really insane apartment layouts? All bathrooms in a house had 2 entrances! One house had beautiful rooms and a spacious hall, but the kitchen wasn’t enough for 1 person to stand in. Sigh.

It all began when I visited Bangalore a week prior to the one past, and couldn’t finalise a house. The one I wanted went to someone else, and I was left with a lota in my hand.

This weekend I decided to take Shruti along to look at houses. We went and saw a few, but both of us had a gut feel about this particular house which was evading us through out the day. We had made 3 visits to the site, and even had a car-in-the-mud adventure that ended with 5 of us pushing the car out. That should have told us something!

But we persisted and finally at around 7:30PM we got to see the house. I loved it, as did Shruti. We decided to come back the next morning to see the house in natural lighting. It didn’t disappoint. We booked it on the spot!

Shruti (my lucky charm) made all the difference, and we got the house in a zippy!

Now the boring and tedious task of actually packing up Pune and moving to Bangalore begins.

I emailed my resignation to my manager on the 23rd of April, 2010. This Friday, 7th May 2010, is my last day in office. I began working at my present company, Symantec, over 4 years ago. It would have been 5 in just over a month (27th June 2010).

That is one hell of a long time to be at a company. It’d think differently if I ran the company, like Manish does. Then I’d want to be around for ever, or at least until I made the company so autonomous that it could run on it’s own while I went and did other things.

Coming back to my current state of mind. It’s been a wild ride here.

Lots of friends made, new things learned, tonnes of chai/coffee consumed, photographs taken, emails written and read, air fuel burned (MountainView, Boston, Minneapolis, Singapore) and very many books read/bought.

I remember the first day. The administrative staff had brought me flowers (as a welcome gift), and Sagar had decided to take me under his wing as his official chai partner. His opening line at fixed times of the day was, “Chai kaun pila raha hai aaj?” [who is buying me tea today?], which was a rhetorical question considering that chai was made and server at the company cafeteria.

I had always been in awe of Sagar from the day he joined, for various reasons. He had prime real estate (one of the corner cubicles on the floor), sat next to me, took me to chai, had an awesome set of creative speakers for good music, and sneezed like there was no tomorrow! His sneezes were are test of the building’s structural integrity, and I must say Mayfair Towers passed with flying colours!

Pankaj, Amit and very many others joined after me, and our team grew from the 10-12 odd to about 25 over the years. It’s sad that the trend is reversing and we are going down in size, even though the recession has ended (or maybe because it has). Oh well.

There were countless movie outings, Quake Arena gameplay sessions (in broad daylight, with our manager joining in as well), coffee conversations with the whole team showing up and crowding tables!

Some of the fun incidents I remember are:

• Brajesh bringing his “sister” to the Veritas Annual Evening. She is now his wife.
• Sonali “aunty” and I making sure to get each other biscuits (a particular one which would get over fairly quicky).
• I and Radhika going through harrowing testing sessions and then taking coffee breaks to discuss current affairs (gossip).
• I and Chris going on a wine tour and getting high on all the wine tastings we consumed.
• Random team lunches and having a ball of a time!
• Traveling for various customer centric events, and meeting colleagues as well as customers. It’s always good to hear a good word about our work/products.
• Met friends like Navneet, who have been both supportive and a guide through tough times.

Well, anyhoo.. things change, people change. I am now off to explore better and bigger opportunities in Bangalore. Pune has been great in many ways, as has Symantec.

My office is barren. Most people have stopped coming to work as it constitutes a public place with large gathering areas [the pantry being one].

Meetings with more than 3 people have been stopped, and folks are asked to dial in to such discussions if the need arises. There is fear in the air, with employees wearing masks at all times and avoiding talking as much as possible.

Out of my team of 22, only 3 people [including me] are in the office today. The others are doing [supposedly] the wiser thing by working from home.

Our Vice President for India operations has sent out a missive asking people to work from home if they can, and that various precautions were being take in the workplace like regular swiping of doors, etc.

Unfortunately, I cannot benefit from it because I have a lot of international calls to make, and hence need to be in the office.. at odd hours, that too!

C’est la vie!

Last weekend we decided to visit the Agha Khan Palace in Pune. I’ve lived in the city for 4 years but have never bothered to go over

This visit was to rectify that, and also to take Shruti on a small expedition. I had expected the place to be just about okay, but the history and serenity that the place exuded blew me away. There were a lot of beautiful trees, a lush lawn and lots of benches to sit and enjoy it all.

I expect to go there at least once every two weeks, armed with coffee and books, and spend time sitting in the shade enjoying the breeze and the read. Even Shruti found the place quite interesting. The Palace itself is amazing. To think that it was made in this century, fairly recently [around the 1930s], and yet have so much history in its fold is really amazing.

Here are some pictures

Agha Khan Palace July 2009

I just finished reading “The Great Escape” by Paul Brickhill, and what a book it is. Don’t miss it if you want some real life excitement. It’s a living example of how necessity is the mother of invention. The ideas in the book are truly inspiring!

That aside, the wifey has been gone for 2 weeks, and is back tomorrow. Just can’t wait The rains are yet to begin in Pune, and I can think of various small trips that are worth making in the monsoons. I truly want to chase the monsoons this time around

Currently ready “Go Kiss the World” by Subroto Bagchi and also “No Fullstops in India” by Mark Tully.

I will soon post a review of The Great Escape.

Our anniversary is this Saturday, so we decided to do an early semi-celebration by taking a trip to Dandeli about 2 weeks ago. Friends from my office were heading out there, and we decided to join them for a fun time!

All in all it was a blast, and included driving 900 kms (total) through day and night. We enjoyed sitting in a natural jacuzzi on the river Kali, white water rafting and a jungle safari.

Our route was: Pune > Belgaum > Dandeli > Belgaum > Pune. Dandeli is only about 80 kms short of Panjim i Goa.

We had a great bunch of friends who we hung out with, and had a blast. I think we’ll be doing more of these going forward. Driving down was worth it, and I intend to make most of my trips using the road from now on.

Enjoy the photos (we sure did have a lot of fun)

Dandeli Trip 2009