Change in Directions

After 8+ years of experience with Infosys, I have decided to change my career direction. Some of you know about it, many may not. I am planning to go to business school. Before stepping onto the MBA preparation journey I introspected about where I am and what I want to do going forward. I felt that it made most sense to take up this long overdue challenge. Ofcourse the big decision would not have been possible without my wife's support, help and adjustments (since the life will gradually change as I move closer towards the bschool door steps).

The tough part of the first milestone is done and my apps are submitted to the schools. I am waiting for to hear back and for the next steps. Answers to questions on Where, When, Which and How about MBA will have to wait for some time.

I am thrilled about what lies ahead albeit tough challenges and some sacrifices on personal life.

As for now the blog is again active with another post.

Life moves on

I checked my blog after a long time and realised that my last posting was in summer. Well summer is gone and fall is over with winter setting in. Past few months have been hectic on all fronts (details censored) but I am looking forward to winter in Seattle. I don't know why but this year I have started liking the winter in Northwest. I have started liking staying indoors. Waiting for the first snow in the city, though we had first hail fall this evening.

2007 is about to get over in another 6 weeks. Time is relative and it is moving much quickly than few years before. I wish we could stop it and experience the bliss in each moment.

Even world is changing so fast every moment. There's information over spill everywhere. Not sure where it will lead us; Darwin's theory would still hold.

I have been wanting to write some interesting blogs, I will keep it for next time.
Happy Thanks Giving !!

Summer 07 Open air movies schedule

A great line up of movies is scheduled during this summer at couple of places in Seattle and in Redmond.

Seattle Center: Movies at the Mural, 2007 Schedule

• Friday, August 3, The Princess BrideSaturday,
• August 4, House of Flying Daggers
• Friday, August 10,Young Frankenstein
• Saturday, August 11,Corpse Bride
• Friday, August 17, Hairspray
• Saturday, August 18, Moulin Rouge
• Friday, August 24, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
• Saturday, August 25, Casino Royale

Marymoor Park Outdoor Movies:

• Summer 2007School of Rock [PG13] Wednesday, July 18 9:40 PM
• The Princess Bride [PG] Wednesday, July 25 9:30 PM
• The Devil Wears Prada [PG13] Wednesday, August 01 9:20 PM
• Back to the Future [PG] Wednesday, August 08 9:10 PM
• The Pursuit of Happyness [PG13] Wednesday, August 15 9:00 PM
• Monster House [PG] Wednesday, August 22 8:45 PM

Get your calendars blocked !!

Modern Architectural Wonder

I am blogging this sitting in one of the recent modern architectural wonders of Seattle 'Seattle Public Library'. Took a small tour of this place, looked around, got my library card enabled and went to the topmost floor....all in all its amazing. The way this building is built is that there's natural light coming in all the floors from all directions (as you can see the whole structure is glass from outside). If you would like to take a virtual tour of this place, try the link. Or see more pictures of this place.

Let me get started on my work !!

What to do about work burnouts?

Read somewhere about few useful tips to avoid work burnouts !!

"If you are experiencing these symptoms, it's time to make some changes. You can start by talking to your boss or someone in your human resources department about how you can confront the problem together by redefining deadlines, delegating or outsourcing a project or two. In her book "Stress Management for Busy People," Carol A. Turkington recommends taking these proactive steps:
- Learn to say no.
- Reevaluate your goals.
- Reduce your commitments at work.
- Learn stress management skills.
- Get plenty of rest and eat a healthy diet.

Finally, give yourself a break. This means taking your vacation days, no matter how important you job is, and taking little breaks every day to re-group, re-energize and unwind. Remember, if you don't take care of yourself in the office, you work will suffer and your health may pay the price, too."

Rather IT burnouts.........

To Prashant

I had to write this blog sooner or later. One of my favorite blogs to read is of my friend and ex-colleague Prashant whose ramblings and thoughts fascinate me. Ofcourse you would be able to relate better to his posts if you knew him personally. Irrespective, his posts reflect of a generation that makes you think about life and the way you see this world.

Urge to ramble

I have not been writing any blogs lately. Thanks to my work life imbalance. Life has been a roller coaster and one just flows with its ups and downs, twists and turns. Most of the times you are chasing very short term material objectives and in doing so your long term dreams get lost somewhere. One ponders on the life in retrospect to find what they are after. When you think deep about the past and then try to change your way of living it does not succeed always. Next day you are back to what you have got conditioned to do.
Question should still remain "Where do you want to go today ?"

The Seattle Times: Local News: 136 stolen cars, 1 suspect: "He enjoyed driving"

The Seattle Times: Local News: 136 stolen cars, 1 suspect: "He enjoyed driving"
This comes as no surprise given what I have experienced before.

Recent statistics regarding vehicle crime in Seattle:
7 — The number of seconds it takes an expert thief to break into a vehicle. It often takes that thief less than one minute to drive away.
9,558 — The number of vehicles stolen in the city of Seattle in 2005.
66 — Percentage of auto thefts that occur at night.
68 — Approximate percentage of stolen vehicles that are recovered.
$5,800 — The average loss of missing parts on vehicles.
Source: Seattle Police Department

Solving Poincare Conjecture problem

Recently International Mathematical Union (IMU), announched 2006 Fields Medal (equivalent of Nobel Prize in mathematics) winner. One of the winners is Grigori Perelman who has solved the Poincare Conjecture Problem that is regarded one of the most difficult problems in mathematics since hundred years when it was found. The Poincare conjecture essentially says that in three dimensions you cannot transform a doughnut shape into a sphere without ripping it, although any shape without a hole can be stretched or shrunk into a sphere.

However the acclaimed mathematician refused to accept this award and another award of $1 million for solving this problem.
This makes me wonder that there are people in this world who are not fazed by the fame and money involved in pursuing a pure academic career. But for the pure joy of solving such mysteries that has kept the human mind always puzzled and thinking.

2006 Summer Movies schedule around Seattle

Movies at The Mural - Seattle Center
Experience moonlight, movies and fun for all under the stars at Seattle Center this August! This FREE outdoor cinema series presents films suitable for all ages. Come discover, or rediscover, the classics! Movies start at dusk.

-CasablancaFriday, August 4As time goes by, this timeless classic starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman only gets better.
-ShaneSaturday, August 5Amid stunning vistas, this Western follows reformed gunslinger Shane (Alan Ladd), whose determination to avoid a fight is tested by cattle barons who threaten a community of homesteaders.
-To Kill A MockingbirdFriday, August 11Gregory Peck is Atticus Finch, a lawyer who defends an innocent black man (Brock Peters) against rape charges, only to encounter the prejudices of the South.
-Singin' In The RainSaturday, August 12Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor combine their talents in one of the best musicals ever made.
-To Sir, With LoveFriday, August 18Sidney Poitier stars as Mark Thackeray, an engineer by training who takes a teaching job in a working-class London high school.
-Lawrence Of ArabiaSaturday, August 19The epic true-life story of warrior-poet T.E. Lawrence (Peter O’Toole), who helped unite warring Arab tribes so they could strike back against the Turks in World War I.

Movies at Marymoor
Lights, Camera, Action!!! 2006 begins the second annual FirstTech Movies @ Marymoor Park. Thanks to a partnership with First Tech Credit Union and Epic Events, King County Parks will be offering citizens an opportunity to watch some great films under the stars.
Movies are held at McNair Field in Marymoor Park and all donations go directly into supporting parks maintenance. Now that’s a happy ending!
Summer 2006
Tues July 11th (9:40pm)"March of the Penguins"
Wed July 19th (9:35pm)"Office Space"
Wed July 26th (9:25pm)"Field of Dreams"
Wed Aug 9th (9:05pm)"Ferris Bueller's Day Off"(20th anniversary)
Wed Aug 16th (8:50pm)"Raiders of the Lost Ark"
Wed Aug 23rd (8:35pm)"Monty Python and the Holy Grail"
Tues Aug 29th (8:25pm)"Napoleon Dynamite"

Fremont Outdoor Cinema
2006 Seattle Summer Schedule
Saturday, June 24th - Movie: Kung Fu Hustle
Saturday, July 1st - Movie: Shrek 2
Saturday, July 8th - Movie: TWISTED FLICKS: Black Scorpion
Saturday, July 15th - Movie: Batman Begins
Saturday, July 22nd - Movie: Shaun of the Dead Plus a local independent film - CREATURES FROM THE PINK LAGOON screening right after the feature.
Saturday, July 29th - Movie: Grease
Saturday, August 5th - Movie: TWISTED FLICKS: The Manster
Saturday, August 12th - Movie: March of the Penguins
Saturday, August 19th - Movie: Bend it like Beckham
Saturday, August 26th - Movie: TWISTED FLICKS: It! The Terror from OuterSpace
Saturday, September 2nd - Movie: King Kong

Addicted to Orkut....Are you ??

So my BIL introducded me and my wife to this social networking site called Orkut that is currently getting quite popular in India.

Usually I show no interest to such sites, but my wife first started using it. After spending saturday noon on browsing through it, she came to know to about many of her old class mates aka langotia yaars and their current whereabouts....

I was still reluctant to create my profile, but when I gradually came to know that many around me are hooked on to it, this was it. Its not difficult to get a software engineer aroused in his arena. After I logged on, I found many of my close friends active on Orkut with whom I had such great memories. And through their friends network came to know about more people with whom I had lost touch since ages.....

So now I am an active member of this new socio-networking concept.

Does this mean that yahoogroups has lost its charm or has failed to keep up. I don't think so, but may be people wanted another way to interact and keep in touch, something that is simple to use at the same time. Something that has a little more active communication, a different way of talking (known as scraping in Orkut world) and some more pictures than words

Back to my Orkut..........

And if you wanna join, just leave me a comment and I will send you an invite....

Sequel to the car episode

Few of my friends asked me after reading my blog, 'What happened to your car? Did you find it ?'. So I thought of writing a sequel to this episode.

As some of the Bollywood movies have, after intermission there is a twist to the movie. Something similar happened with this too. After about six weeks of my missing car, one afternoon I got a call from Bellevue cops in my office. They asked me to come down to a place close to where I live and identify a vehicle. I was happy that they found my car, and at the same time there was anxiety about what will be its condition.

By that time I had already bought my second car Mazda 626. So I called up my wife and we drove to this place. There was one cop waiting for us. We identified our car. Hurray, our car was found. There was joy on our faces. Then he showed some of the stuff lying in the car, which wasn't ours. He took finger prints of few places so that the thief could be indentified. The car was a mess from inside. Luckily he had not trashed the car, as most of the thieves who are also drug addicts do. We drove it back home that evening.

We had two cars for couple of weeks. I used to drive the black altima to work where as my wife preferred driving the red mazda. But not for long as we decided to sell the altima. If you want to get tips on how to sell the car in two days, may be I can give you few.....Once our ad was posted on Seattle Craig list, we received more than 30 calls in a day and half of them visiting to check the car. Seattle is apparently a hotter market for used cars as compared to Bay area. If you have a good condition used Japanese car, there is no dearth of buyers. We both had spend weekends when searching for a car during this course, getting some funny experiences looking fora car. Seattle Craig list offers the best possible ads, and one has to be quick in responding if there's a good car for sale in the market. So to cut the long story short, our car got sold in a jiffy when three buyers landed up at the same time.

So this is how I landed up buying my third car in US. Mitsubishi, then Nissan and now a Mazda.

Trekking or hiking in Pacific Northwest

Northwest US is one of the most beautiful regions in the country. The terrain is not at all flat. There is so much of greenary, mountains, hills, lakes and forests all over the place. No wonder Washington is called as the Evergreen state. If you love outdoors you ought to be here as there is always some activity to do in every season of the year. Summer is the best season of all, as the days are long and the tempratures are nice and warm. Perfect for all sorts of outdoor activities and adventure.

Sometimes me and my wife go out for trekking to close by places. There are abundance of them from a family hike types to rigourous steep climbs and those that require training (climbing Mt. Raineer types). Last week we went to a place called Franklin Falls that is half an hours drive from Seattle. It was hot day but the trek was through dense forest along side a river. If you want to go for couple of hours trek, I would definitely recommend this place.

Besides Waterfalls of the Pacific Northwest is a great site to search for nice places to hike and trek.
Have fun, till it suns.

One billion reasons to care

How is India progressing with its 1 billion plus population ? Well we are still labeled as developing country and people in the some parts of world still know as us as snake charmer's land. Of past few months I've had some reasoning inside me, which countries in the world are growing most fast. China of course is world's no. one manufacturing base, but India is not behind. Check out the this video and you would be full of inspiration for your country despite all the downfalls.
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=1674437

India is the biggest democracy in the world. India is a miracle !!

Life without a car in US

Last month when we moved to the new apartment, the first night our car got stolen. It was a shock when we found about it. Something that was difficult to get through for the next few days. To add to the misery, I had declined the comprehensive insurance on it about a year back. Some statistics on theft and crime in the city of Bellevue can be found here. Over all the crimes are reducing in Seattle region, but car thefts have been increasing by approximately 15% every year. Used car market is as hot as the real estate in this particular area. I was comparing the rates of used cars like Accord, Civics and Camry's with those in SFO and it was cheaper there. Can you believe it ?

It feels terrible without the mobility vehicle. Car is an integral part of your life in US. Without it you can't go to places on the fly, need to depend on friends, and your connection with the active world out in the streets gets reduced.

Once a person moves in a stable state, and is then dispersed from it, it is very hard to come back to that state.
So finally after a stressful search for two weeks I bought another car.

Hopefully someday my car will be found.........and it will be in a good shape.

Down memory lane: Hindi poem from my school days

Few days back somehow I got into a discussion with my school friends about a hindi poem that we had read in our school days from a book called Bal Bharati. I tried hard to get the right words and after picking up pieces from all, here's the best version that we could get:

Title - Missing, don't remember

Utho lal ab aankhein kholo
paani laayi mu dho lo
beeti raat kamal dal phule
jinke upar bhaware jhule
chidhiya chahak uthi paedo par
behne lagi hawa aati sunder
Nabh mein nyari lali chaayee
Dharti ne pyari chavi paayi
aisa sundar samay na kho
mere pyare ab mat so

Author - Don't know

To not write or what to write

Sometimes I have all these thoughts in my mind that I would like to blog about. By the time my laptop is turned on, they seem to fizzle away. I still find blogging about something or nothing still difficult. How much time do all these millions of people in the world who keep blogging all the time spend on writing one entry ? It could be a flick of a second or it could be hours of your most productive time ?
Hey did you see above ? There's another blog entry...fuss about nothing.

Thanksgiving sale

Today was a 'Black Friday", day after Thanksgiving. This is the time of the year when you can see hundreds of people standing out in long queues outside stores to satisfy their thirst for materials on sale fighting any harsh weather be it cold winter or cats and dog rains.
Most of the products that were on sale in these big stores BB, CC, Staples, WalMart, one could easily buy them on internet in different times of the year with maybe even more discount. Then why this mad rush to buy things at odd hours of the day ? As if all these items on sale were about to be extinct after the sale. I think its one thing thats the best in this country - Advertising.
And you can move masses !!!

Daylight saving ends and snow sets in

Another week starts today. Couple of interesting changes happened this weekend. First we got an extra hour as Daylight saving ended on Oct 30th 2am. This means an extra hour to yourself which no one knows how went by.

Second I saw snow strains on the tip of the Cascade mountains visible from my apartment. This is a good sign as last year's Seattle region received only 25% of the avg snowfall. I am looking forward to a good snowfall this year in the cascades around Seattle so that there's a good ski season.

Don't feel like working very enthusiastically today. Winters in Seattle is all gray and grey.
More later.......

Just do it !!

Should be the guiding principle in life.........We always procastinate ourselves about things that we want to do, about things that we like to do, wish we could have done them. Its simple Just do it.

Home remedies for Common Cold and Cough, with a pinch of Turmeric

This weekend was a hell of a one for me. I caught what is commonly called as Common Cold with a lot of Cough. There's no one who has ever escaped from these viruses (Viruses in general always cause trouble whether common or computer).

So here's a few home remedies if you have one or just remember them for times when you are in dire need of something like this:

1. Put about a glass of water to boil. Add to it 1/2 tablespoon turmeric, 1/3 tablespoon pepper, 1 tablespoon ginger and about ~2 to 3 tablespoon of jaggery. Let this mixture boil for about an hour till the quantity of water reduces to half. You will also notice that the liquid has become little thick. Sip it regularly twice thrice a day and it will soothe your throat and help reduce your cold.
2. Drinking little hot than luke warm water with a tablespoon of honey soothes your throat. This can be done multiple times a day.
3. Gargling hot water with a table spoon of salt soothes the throat. If you are have constant cough, I recommend this strongly. It will help you get instant relief.
4. Taking steam fews times a day also helps decongest the nasal track. It will though result in yellow mucous coming out, but that's the sign that your body has started fighting the viruses.
5. And this one came in just recently about an hour back from a friend. Warm the frying pan on the burner to a good enough temprature that its hot. Then sprinkle 1/4 tablespoon of turmeric on it, and immediately inhale the vapours generated. The vapors will last for a few seconds and the turmeric will burn to black. Clean the pan with a dry tissue and repeat it again for a few times.
6. Mix jaggery and turmeric powder and make small balls. Eat a ball whenever you want to get temporary relief from continous cough.

Few more tips:

• Drink lot of water and fluids
• Make sure that your digestion is good. Take laxative if you have a constipation
• Taking extra Vitamin C and Zinc may help, but its not proven
• Wash your hands often so that your near and dear ones don't catch from you
• Avoid staying in a warm dry place. Make sure that there is enough humidity in your place
• Avoid taking cough suppressants syrups or pills; instead you can go for expectorant kinds of medication syrups
• Sleep well and don't go out in the cold weather

If there are any remedies that have worked for you, I would appreciate if you can tell me by leaving a comment to this post.

(I will try to update this post, as and when I get more to learn about more home remedies)

Ten get hikes around seattle

http://www.nwsource.com/outdoors/guides/seattle_hikes.html

Good Trekking websites in and around Seattle

Whatcom county Parks and Recreation:
http://www.co.whatcom.wa.us/parks/trails/chuckanut.jsp

NWSource Outdoors (has excellent links and information):
http://www.nwsource.com/outdoors/hiking/