Proud display of some of our efforts! More “nice-to-haves” to follow in the days to come…We have fallen in love with home that we are not feeling like going to office…!

Inspired by MBA League…! Why not have ISB League?

http://isbleague.blogsome.com

PS: Was so damn free in the weekend that I didn’t know what to do…so decided to put up this page, which was long due…

What I liked: The songs, The child artist Akshay Bhagwat, Moments of brilliance and twist in the movie.

What I disliked: The loongggg story line. Everyone in the theatre became restless towards the end…and at that opportune time comes a sher-o-sheri, which apparently are overloaded throughout the movie!

Worth watching half-the-movie…Which half depends on your preference!

The punchline of the movie:
“In life one comes across situations where the answer to life cannot merely be decided by choosing right or wrong, good or simply bad. Sometimes a person has to make the choice of choosing between what is Greater of two goods or the lesser of two evils…”

BTW:
Try watching the following comedy clip…Too good!
http://media.putfile.com/cricketcomedy

A message from a very good friend that disturbed me a lot….I know this chap very well…Damn good guy…He recently took up a significant challenge….and is determined to achieve his ambition….his father’s ambition….and all of a sudden this incident….God tests good people a lot…

I badly want this guy to succeed in his mission…

Just see the foot message…tells a lot about his character…

“….My Father passed away on the 8th of this April because
of stomach cancer.Couldn’t inform at that time as I
was/am totally devastated.

PS: For those of you who stay away from parents & who
don’t visit their parents frequently,a complete health
checkup for them atleast once in 2/3 yrs would help
immensely….”

The Graduation Group picture….

Giks and myself began the last weekend with a mission to set up the home. Over the next 40 hours, we completed many of the tasks in our TODO list. We explored quite a few places. By Sunday evening, the process of purchasing became mechanical. Find the shop which sells the item in need. Learn the price range. Know your BATNA (Best Alternative To Negotiated Agreement). Explore few more shops. Negotiate with the BATNA in mind. Get a new BATNA. By 4th or 5th iteration, we would reach the optimal price level. Complete the deal. Give the address to the shop owner for transporting the item. Get on with the next item….

Seeing the brand new items and installation people walking in to our apartment every 1-2 hours, our neighbours should have been wondering a lot!

PS: I just tallied the accounts. Realized that I spent Rs.4500 for sleeping items alone! [Cot, Mattress, Pillows, Bedsheet, Pillow cover, Quilt]. Well, I now have a comfortable setup to sleep…I really fell asleep within moments…which is a bit unusual for a ‘thinking…thinking’ person like me!

Saw the movies “Pink Panther” and “Poseidon” in the last couple of weekends. Pink Panther was quality fun and Steve Martin has done a splendid job. Poseidon, well, should have been renamed as “Upside down”! The whole concept was mentally challenging. How will it be if the environment around you is vertically inverted? The movie was non-stop action. But beyond a certain point, I started losing interest. Didn’t impress me much.

I am racing against time to complete the book “The Da Vinci Code”, so that I can watch the movie with the novel in my mind. I missed out the experience of watching a movie after reading the novel/book with “The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy. Anyway, I started reading the book on monday night and am half-way through. Man, I love the mystery presented and the way it unfolds. Add to the mystery some dark concepts, Controversial revelations and the elements of the genius Da Vinci, you have a perfect recipe for a great novel…

I want to watch the movie for the experience (Movie-after-novel), the beautiful actress Audrey Tautou and ofcourse the oscar-studded Tom Hanks. Of course, the movie will not have any suspense for me..but that’s fine.

Eagerly waiting for the weekend to arrive…

ps: btw, “THE CANDID VOICE” (the title of the post) is an anagram of “THE DA VINCI CODE”

Since my ‘luxury’ period in the guest house was over, I had to finally move to the apartment in Srinagar Colony. I shifted my things to the flat and headed to office. I purchased a set of bed, pillow and bedsheet the day before and kept in the apartment. When I came back in the night, it struck me that there is not even drinking water in home. All that was available were copious rooms, fans, tubelights and empty cup-boards! It was awkard to sleep in such an empty house! My flatmates would be joining me little later.

There are list of things to do over the next few days

- Get the house cleaned once more.
- Get the Cable connection.
- Install the television and DVD Player
- Get the Gas connection.
- Get the Broad band connection.
- Interview and finalize maid (!)
- Subscribe to newspaper
- Subscribe to milk.
- Subscribe to mineral water.
- Buy a study table and chair
- Buy fridge
- Buy washing machine (?)
- Buy iron
- Buy sofa sets and chairs
- Buy a good 2.1 speaker set.
- Buy cooking utensils, cooker etc.,
- Buy curtains.
- Buy some plants to grow indoor (!)
- Buy TV table.
- Buy a Cot (I prefer sleeping in the floor with the bed..so will take a call on this)
.
.
.

Huh, the list is not stopping…Of course, the common expenses will be shared. After 4 years of comfortable life-style, I simply cannot imagine living without the above basic facilities. Regarding the car/bike, will postpone the purchase until I get my driving licence and save some moolah!

I did not explore HITEC city when I was in ISB. All I had seen was the CYBER TOWERS, which does not reflect the magnitude of the HITEC city.

There are so many buildings in HITEC city. Some of them have beautiful contemporary designs. Lot of new buildings coming up…Latest addition would be from Dell.

As the guest house accommodates people from various organizations, I had opportunities to interact with them.

One of them was from Google. Google hyderabad is recruiting for its “Adwords” and “Adsense” program - for technical development and content monitoring. He said, the female-to-male ratio in Google is 80-20!! There are 600 employees in Google currently. Which means there are 480 girls! The men who join the company are keenly watched at and commented by the girls! High probability for Adam-teasing! Google is known for its culture. One among that is unlimited supply of food. Be it comprehensive buffet/snacks ranging from exotic cookies to indian samosas/wide variety of coffee and tea, Google is among the best when it comes to appetite . So naturally many of the Google employees are obese Convergys does a good job on that front too…Breakfast/lunch/supper/dinner are available everyday for a monthly fee of Rs.150/=. That’s not bad…If they provide a bed and shower, a person can stay here permanently

I met some guys from Wipro. I also met a person who has significant work experience. He has IIT-IIM combo as educational qualification. 8+ years of work experience. Working as Project manager. Couldn’t interact much with him…

I also interacted with a German. He joined me in the dining table. Only two of us were there. He was all cocky…to be honest. In spite of my best effort to grab his eye contact, he was looking everywhere except towards me. Finally he looked at me…and I smiled After exchanging few pleasantries, I began the conversation…”So, Germany is all set for hosting the world cup?”…That was enough to energize him…He was so proud to talk about Germany hosting the world cup…and then suddenly he took a jibe…”It’s a pity that India, with a billion plus population, does not even figure in the world cup football…”. “Forget about Football, not even in olympics…”. “Even in cricket they were 4th or 5th in rankings sometime back..”…He was going on and on….I gave my justifications…corruption, lack of transparency, red-tape, unfit politicians…everything…and how things are getting in right track…Well, Whatever he said was true…but I would not complain about the other person’s country when I meet someone for the first time…I could have countered, but he didn’t stop…”Indians also don’t have a good body frame. They don’t have broad shoulders. They are short. They don’t have balance between education and sports. blah..blah…”. All the while he was surveying my body frame and my shoulders His eyes sparkled. He was speaking as if he just came after obtaining Ph.D in India!! I mentioned about my visit to germany, munich, the beer hall, the black forest etc., all nice things…and I didn’t even mention about my visit to Concentration camp, as I thought the very word “Concentration camp” might upset him…I finally asked him one question..”So, What do you like in India and why have a captive centre in India?”. He was momentarily taken back….My eyes sparkled….While he was very generous in complaining…I could not find the same generosity in praising!!! Well…so much for trying to strike a conversation with him…Heard about the aggressive nature of germans….but witnessing for the first time Finally “Nice meeting you…I am leaving tonight”..I replied, “Nice meeting you too…have a pleasant journey back home…”

Recently, a phenonmenon swept over chennai and many parts of Tamil Nadu. The “Vazha meenu, vilanga meenu” phenomenon. The song, the picturization, the singer and the choreography took “Gaana Ulaganathan” to the cloud nine in a short span of time. He was iconized with a single song. Now, he has started endorsing products and services! He is endorsing for “BSNL - one India scheme”. He has modified the same song with which he became popular for this ad. The song goes like this…

“Sada phonukkum cell phonukkum oru rooba…
Kashmirukkum kanyakumarikkum oru rooba….
One India…One India…BSNL One India….”

With the look-alike of malavika shaking her hips and hands rhythmically in the background…Even “Thalaivar Thimingalam” is featured

BSNL seems to know the pulse of people.

PS: People who haven’t seen the song and the ad cannot appreciate this post…

Joined the Firm. Met with entire BU team. First impression is good. I don’t have anything to complain and I am happy about that. In fact, my immediate superior has built some hype about me I guess…I am just trying to ‘manage’ and bring down the expectations…”Hit” the ground running sounds good in paper. But in reality, it’s not that easy…There are simply so many things to know before I can be 100% productive…

It was tough to sit for 8 whole hours on day 1. It will be a while before I am comfortable with the ‘work’ mode. My work timings are 11 a.m to 8 p.m. The mornings will be more relaxed for me! The traffic will be less during the time I travel.

The guest house that I am staying in currently is very good. The room is VERY big. The breakfast, lunch, dinner everything comes to my room…

About the house hunt….After looking at some apartments, I have decided to settle in an apartment in Srinagar colony (The apartment is owned by my batchmate in ISB). The place will be convenient for travel (shuttle services provided by firm stops near the flat). There are quite a few restaurants, departmental stores, food world and hospitals surrounding the apartment. Ofcourse, the hyderabad central is just 2-3 km away. I am yet to find the fitness centre…Will find one. The best part is the rent. It’s a 3 bedroom flat and the rent is 40-50% lower than the nominal rates here. That’s because the flat belongs to our batchmate .

PS: I am planning to get an internet connection in home soon. I will try to blog more after that…Once the actual work starts, I think I will be able to blog only in the weekends.