Rinikka!!!

Rinikka, our daughter has been the focus of our attention for the last 4+ years. I am using the term "4+" because that is how she is telling her age now "Dad, I am 4+ years old". I don't know honestly where these 4+ years have gone but they have been so much of fun.

It is so enduring to see her grow, ask questions, make faces, love, kiss, fight, get angry. I am go on and on with the numbers of emotions she comes up with everyday but that is not the point. The point is that I feel I am not spending enough time with her these days, and by her I don't mean only Rinikka but my wife as well. The reason for not spending time is the kind of attention my job is taking over my personal life, it sounds so lame when I write this but somewhere the age is also adding up to the stress level body can take!

I wish the time could slow down and each passing minute will give me an additional hour to spend with them, I wish I could go with her on holidays more often, I wish I could give her bath, dress her up and cook her breakfast everyday, I wish I could drop and pick her from school everyday, I wish we could go to a park and stroll endlessly. If wishes were horses, beggars would ride them...so damn true!!!

So what can be done?? I think going forward I have decided to do 2 things, one work from home atleast once in a week and try to minimize my time spent on laptop on weekends to 2 hrs each (preferably when she takes the afternoon nap). This is in addition to our unsaid protocol of 2 vacations per year. I am hoping that I am able to meet my expectations and give Rinikka and Trisha what they least deserve.

In the US, having fun!!!!

I am currently in the US, off to NYC and laving loads of fun, here is the story so far...

I started my travel on 30-April to Chicago via New York. I was very skeptical as I was travelling Air India for the first time on long haul. I must say Air India did surpised me, pleasently i.e. :) The food was good, the plane was brand new and clean, the hostess were very pleasant etc etc.

I reached Chicago for a 1 week training (management training!!). Yeah, I know what you are thinking but there was another surprise, the training was really GOOD, it was one of very few instances where I came out asking for more :) I met some amazing new people and co-workers. I also met my career counsellor for the first time and that was quite an experience as well. He is a very interesting person and he has influenced me in more than 1 way in those 3 meetings, thanks Raj!

From Chicago, I went to Bloomington to spend the weekend with 3 friends. We had soooo much fun, cooked, boozed around and chatted till late nights. It was like back in my college days and nothing to worry for 2 nights. Thanks Shaleen, Banner, and Gunjan!

I am off to NYC tomorrow and will keep you posted...more to come...

1st Day @ Nursery School

Day before was my daughter's first day at the nursery school. I am not sure if you've been reading this blog regularly but this is the end of about 6 months of exercise and running around. School selection, filling, submitting application, interactions, lists, lucky draws, fees payment etc etc etc...am so glad it's over and done with!! PHEW!!!

Also, I think we were extremely lucky in the process; our daughter got through all but 2 schools which was a very pleasant surprise and then choosing between the schools was not that difficult. My wife was instrumental in getting all this done, I was not able to give time due to the office chores and she was the one draining herself out. Also, need to thank Shaleen, a friend and a colleague and support and helping us taking the final decision. Thanks bro!

I think now the difficult part begins...I am sure there will be a lot of conversations, controversies, issues, problems in the next 14 yrs of schooling., but as I said earlier one bit is done, another one on the way!!!

My baby Graduates...

from the play school i.e. WOW!!!

I never work a graduation gown EVER, but my 3 yr old daughter already has a photograph in a graduation gown while I am not prepared at all looking at her like that!!! Well, times are changing and time for me to change or bend my rules I guess :(

6 month old @ Accenture!

I turned 6 months old today in Accenture :) I completed the necessary probation period and got a letter of confirmation. I must say I never realized the pace at which this period ended, the life has been absolutely fast lane in these last 6 months. There were so many changes I encountered, most of them pleasant. I must say that I have made some excellent personal and professional relationships which is one of the best.

Must thank a lot of people, particularly my family for all the support. This job has been very harsh on my family and they have taken a definite toll. My focus going forward will be to make up for all the lost time.

Nursery admission and us!

Tomorrow is a very important day for us, we are finally going to get our daughter admitted to nursery. It may sound funny to some and familiar to some of you, what I can guarantee is that the people whom this sound funny have never been close vicinity of a 3-5 year old kid.

I am not sure about the other cities in India but in Delhi, getting admission to a "good" nursery school is a pain at all the wrong places. I think we were lucky to see our daughter get through more than a couple of schools. Once you get through a school the next step is more painful, getting ready and paying through your nose. Take this, the average admission fee of any school here is 50K to 90K and then you have to pay quarterly fee of anything from 15K to 30K. The books, dress, shoes, etc etc are on the top of this amount.

My sense is there is something fundamentally wrong with our education system, the primary problem being confusion between the school and govt laid processes, another being no transparency in the admission process. Noone is sure of the final criteria and the no. of points you would have got as a parent. My worse experience was with a school which asked for grandparent's education qualification, my and wife's yearly income, our 3 year ITR, the car we drive and if we live in a owned or a rented house.

I hate to say that the whole system stinks, but are we ready to stand up and say a firm NO. Unfortunately, the answer is a firm NO.

Reincarnation of my blog!!!

It's been really really long since I last came here. The last year has been quite amazing in all sense of the word :) I changed my job in Aug'09 and joined the whole new world of Management Consulting, at least I thought it was the whole new world ;) It is quite different from the world i have been used to for the last 4 yrs at IBM, the first and the foremost was the personal life which took the hit! I was used to WFH atleast 3 days a week while at IBM, my family was so used to seeing them at home. These days I have to go to office everyday, sometimes on Saturday as well.

Of course, my online life took a beating as well, Post coming back from the long rip to the US in May,I hardly got any time for the blog posts. My friends have been pestering me to write stuff, updates, etc...but honestly, no time at all. I have so much to say, so much to share, I guess I need some serious sessions on time management.

Anyways, new job brought new challenges and new learnings of course. Some of it has been overwhelming and very difficult to cope with at times. Having said that, I am very exited and anxious...to learn, to contribute, to make a positive change, so copy book.

I will try and keep my bog alive, I hate to see it stale and would try and make sure there are some updates. Look forward to the excitement and happy blogging!!

My new dope, my new car :)

The new entrant in my life, we recently bought a new car, a Scorpio :) Some of my friends and family members were kinda critical of the BIG entry but I managed to convince them. For those of you who may not know, Scorpio is a 7 seater SUV manufactured by Indian company called Mahindra.

Absolutely love the drive and space inside, gives me a feeling of empowerment! Pics coming soon!!!

Out on the streets of NYC!

I really don't know how to start off with this post but I want to share with you all what has been one of the most memorable weekend of my entire life!! We were off to New York this entire weekend and man, it was fun!!!

Me, Debashish, and Upinder hit the NYC early morning and by the time we came back it was 10 at night and we are dead tired and we slept like dogs!!

One of the nicest part was that I met with my one of the best and long lost friend, Nishant. We were in the school together and he came to the US for graduation just after the we completed our school. So, I met him after some 12 yrs (damn, I still don't believe it's been so long since we were in school). It was so much fun catching up with him, I was literally in tears when I saw him (though I did not admit that to him :). I am hoping to visit NYC real soon again when I will be staying over for a couple of nights at Nishant's place, really looking forward to that!

We had loads of fun, went all around the times square, empire state and so on. I also shopped a lot at the ToysRus store at the Times square for my daughter. I am hoping she will like watever I bought for her. 

All and all, it was the trip and I was looking forward to this one for so so long...am so glad I finally made it!!

20 Days old, another 2 months to go!

It's been 20 days since I landed here in Philadelphia and may I say that the going is getting tougher. Not so much professionally cause I am learning new "Tricks of the trade", but because I am really missing home. Not that I have not stayed away before, I was in Hyderabad for about 1 year with GE and then almost 3 years in B'lore (2 years Infosys and 1 year IBM). But that was different, Hyderabad I was a bachelor and Bangalore I was with my wife and kid. I have not stayed away from them for more than a week in the last 3 years, so that's the thing killing me.

Also, we came back from B'lore in Aug'08, been almost 1.5 years. In this time I was comfortable (or rather too comfortable!!) at home. IBM spoilt me by giving this "Work from Home" option so luckily I didn't have to go to office more than twice a week (actually a devil in disguise). I can spend more time home and thus more time with my kid, which of course I rejoice so much. I have avoided coming alone to the US for sometime now, but this recession took it's toll on me.

Anyways, not much I can do except for cribbing. Trying hard for my wife and kid to make a short visit to the US, with crossed fingers. That will be awesome, atleast I will have someone to go home (or hotel) to! Help me God!!

First week in Philly!

It's been around 10 days since I handed in Philadelphia and I am beginning to find new ways to kill time. I got majorly bored the whole of last week with work and everythg and by the time it was Friday, the last thing I wanted to do was sit at the hotel doin nothing. So what do I do, I hitch hike with a colleague and went to New Jearsey to meet another friend, Debashish who is also on the same project.

On Saturday, we drove back to Philly and hired a car. To be honest, I was kinda hesitant to get into the car at first but then I decided, wat the heck!! I must tell you the following as they say, is pleasant history!! Both me and Deb had the most awesome weekend of our lives. We drove all around Lansdale, found couple of gems around and had loads of fun!

On Saturday we found a Patel Store here in lansdale and went there to buy some parathas and shahi paneer. In the evening, we went to a mall and then to Best Buy, I bought myself a GPS and a mobile phone, down 200 dollars. Then we went to a Mexican restaurant and ate Burritos with ice tea. By the time we came out, it was snow showering...did I tell you that it was beautiful!! For dinner, we cooked some chicken curry and rice which BTW came out amazing as well.

Sunday morning, post our breakfast at the hotel, we decided to hit the roads again!! First we went to an Indian temple which is close by, was an interesting experience and feeling is how I will put it. Then we went again to the same mall and spend some time. Came out at around 1 and decided to look for an Indian restaurant nearby. Our GPS was very helpful and found us a gem, "Sultan Indian Cuisine", had a lunch buffet there for 10$ and ate like there was no tomorrow. Post that lunch, it was hard for both of us to get up. Did that with difficulty, got into the car, drove to the hotel and hit the bed straight. Deb left to NJ around 5.

Now am just waiting for another Friday to hit me and we will be off again, for the ride of our lives!

Philadelphia, PA, US

I reached lansdale in Pennsylvania this week for a 3 month assignment. This place is close suburb of Philadelphia and about 30 miles from the downtown. I came to Newark and then took a connecting flight to Philly on Thursday. Its blurring cold here, the temp today is -7 celcius and it's snow all around. I had some difficulty getting off my jet lag, so I slept all of yesterday which was Saturday and I am doin fine today. I am planned to be here till April end and am already starting to miss my wife and daughter...I wished they were with me :(

New times, new age, new bond, new salvage...Happy New Year!

Am I am being too philosophical here?? Well, yes and no...details follow but let me start off with wishing everyone a prosperous 2009!! May this year comes with less (I wish I could say "no" instead but deep down I know that will not be!) terrorism, less strikes, less political crap, even less politician crap (dunno if they are the same), more happiness, more hope, greater vision and a happy nation.

The year did not start off though with what I wished for in the first para. There was blast in Assam on the day 1 of the year, then there was Satyam saga which continues till day, and then the strike by Oil PSUs and Trucker's union. Not to mention the 26/11 drama with Pakistan continues with both side talking more than doing anything substantial on the ground. I don't wanna say much here but I really feel that I am living in some sort of a jungle where anyone (and I mean ANYONE) can stand put, pull out a trigger and hold my life at ransom. Be it the government, the private player, neighbour country or the well established IT organisation...u name it and my country has it!! 

And my assessment remains the same, we are too used to all kind of crap now to react to anything under the sun. We fail to raise our voice, we fail to react in a way that matters, we fail to learn from our mistakes, and we fail to do ourselves or our country proud. This post is fast becoming another crib post of mine but this is the only way I can get my vent out!!

Is there hope, I don't know to be honest but I hope and pray for the HOPE!

What's happening? Recession, job cuts, pay cuts...

It's been quite some time since I wrote about what's happening on my professional front, what is it I am doing and am I going the way where I intended to? Well, come to think of it, it's more of a philosophical question than a straight objective one. Don't agree with me, well...that's what I think.

Anyways, these days I am working on creating a major chunk of online training for one of the global electronics major (can't disclose details for obvious reasons). We are creating web based trainings for them, been a very tiring project so far largely due to lack of clarity on what they want. It's very difficult to manage a client who is not even sure about the basic requirements. Another is quite an interesting project, we are developing a small mobile app which will used in the EMEA region of our organisation. Am really missing my flash development days!!!

Been hearing a lots about recession, job cuts, pay cuts. Touch wood, but nothing much has drilled down here in the IT industry in India. Of course there have been cuts, but those are more of waste cut than the cost/job cuts. I agree with Abdul when he said the more you talk about it, more you get worried about and more you get distracted from your work in hand. I am pretty clear on this one, we will think about crossing the river when we reach it :) 

I am sure prople here have different views, tell me yours for sure!

Angry, Disturbed, Disgusted: My emotions!

It's been over 3 days since the Mumbai Mayhem ended and it's been 2 days since our very dear politicians have started doing what they are best at: Barking!!

I read a placard in one of the peace marches yesterday "The politicians speak and divide us, the terrorists fire and unite us"...so true, I mean the least these idiots can do at this time is shut their f***ing mouths and sympathise. NO WAY!!!

Their insulated and inflated egos make them speak in patronising tones to a martyr's father. They make fun of a multitude of mourners. They make light of a calamity that has not only claimed lives but scarred whole families. They continue to show the world that if there is one are India exceeds everyone else is the lack of brains, heart and all the vital organs in our political system.

What we need as someone rightly said is another no-cooperation or a Quit-India movement here. We need to show these idiots that we don't need lame donkeys to sit on their asses and keep gulping my (taxpayers) money to feed themselves and their dogs (actually, am still ok feeding their dogs!!)

I am angry, disgusted, and disturbed. 

http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/dec/03mumterror-remove-politicians-security-now.htm

http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/dec/03mumterror-kerala-cm-deeply-pained-by-controversy.htm

Mumbai Terrorist Attack: and I feel sick!!

This is crazy, is it that easy to enter our country and create mayhem like this?? There is something terribly wrong in the way policing and intelligence is being managed here. These terrorist just keep on repeating the attacks and we are so sanitized with these that these have become a part of our daily lives.

I hate to say this but this is sick!!! These guys need to be taken to task in the worst sort of manner. I wonder why post 9/11 there has been not a single incidence like this in the US. Are we too scared or are we simply chicken at taking action??

Condolences to the families who got affected by this attack and my salute to all who unfortunately laid their lives just so that we could live!! Am really short of words now.... 

Updates 11/29: It got over today morning. Salute to all the security forces who killed the bastards. Condolences to the family of the deceased.

Russell Peters Live!

I had an awesome experience yesterday watching Russell Peters live! man, it was too good to be put in words, you have to watch him perform to believe me.

In case you don't know Russell Peters is a famous stand-up comedian. Too hilarious and can get nasty sometimes as well to the people in the front row. In case you haven't seen, take a look at some of the videos below and am sure you will end up laughing your guts out!!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3712334209880055660

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2579833089500205658

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5209176590989471022

Happy Diwali!!

Happy Diwali to all the friends and my readers. Apologies for not being regular with posts. I can blame it on loads of work lately!

Left alone in the sun!

One of my very good friend, Amit is leaving IBM and I am really feeling this awkward pain in my stomach. We have worked together before at GE, but the IBM stint was different. Not only did we integrated well professionally, we also came close as a family. Both of us with our wives and kids have had some real fun time lately. I also have learned so much from him during recent time.
Brother, am gonna miss you a lot and I hope we do get a chance of working with you again. We will be in touch for sure. Best of luck for your future and I know you will go great guns where ever u may be!!
Update: Amit has joined back Genpact in the Business Development function of their Learning competency. He will be heading a product line for the same.

Was not keeping well

I was not well and was hospitalized for about 3 weeks. Been back home now for a week and now and have just about started working.
It all began on the fateful Wednesday (28 May). I was at office working and suddenly I felt a severe headache around 11:00 AM. This is pretty usual and I just popped in a pain killer. After a while I suddenly felt my right side numb and also starting feeling a little drowsy. I shut down immediately and headed home, THAT turned out to be the biggest mistake of all. Instead of driving down 30 km, I should have gone to a hospital near office and consulted a doc there. Anyways, by the time I reached home, I was vomiting heavily and had almost lost consciousness. My blood pressure sky rocketed and headache turned into severe body ache. All this went on for the whole day and some medication did the trick by midnight and I slept. The next 3 days were fine and I was also able to work on Friday, 30 May.
On Sunday night, it happened again around midnight. Started off with severe headache and slowly I lost conscious. I was taken to the hospital of our family doc by the morning and was admitted there. They did all kinda of tests; ECG, EEG, CT Scan, MRI, and what not. Nothing, Absolutely nothing came out of any of it. They concluded that it was Migraine and suggested medication and exercises. Again, by Tuesday, I was again good and was going to be discharged.
On Wednesday (4 June) afternoon, it came back again, and this time it was the severest. Started off again with the headache which turned severe and then I lost consciousness. By this time, my family panicked and they decided to shift e to a "bigger" hospital. I was immediately shifted to "Sir Ganga Ram Hospital" and straight into the ICU. By this time, I had lost orientation and could not even remember my name. This hospital is supposed to have the best Neurologist in India currently, Dr. P.K.Sethi. He is a Padamshree and Honorary doctor to the President. I was lucky to have him as my doc and he started off again with some tests, phew!!!
To cut the post short, I was in ICU for 4 days and then in a normal hospital room for 6 days for the 10 day therapy for the infection. Turned out, it was a bacterial infection which is airborne called the "Herpes Menilegitis" which can get into any part of your body and start infecting the blood. Then when this infected blood travels through the specific part of the body, that part either gets numb or starts paining. In my case, that blood travelled through certain part of my brain and so I got headache and disorientation.I am fine now, out at home working. I will be going for a checkup to the same doc today just to be sure everything is fine and will be joining office by first week of July.
Lastly, Thanks to my family and all my friends who called, prayed and wished for my well being. I guess all those prayers were indeed necessary!!