Next?

Trying to keep my head up on next 3 months. I left the job for good, i joined some other company for good, i was fooled in an easy way.

Alright its almost over now, what next?

I am holding discussions with client about opportunity in India, which was an easy thing till some time back. Client provided me with hand full of options and i was damn positive about getting into India team and coming back. Now the process is on, but something in my mind says, No.

Should i come back to US? This is certainly a hasty experience for me. With my financial freedom, I could not think of leaving all these mess in the middle and going back. But i was not getting what i am here for. But little greed says "stay here, take money you should get and go home". With this thought process, i prepared myself to sacrifice few qualities and stay back.

Few people say am very cool, few say i am hard, few say i am incapable...i call myself "forget everything and stay, you can fu later when u get a chance"...

I will get a job in India in about 3 months if client doesn't show any immediate opportunity. But for future, sacrificing some important quality for money is no good. I am sure, i will be hard enough next year (haa, my hormone growth has been good with all these unstable events.......awful joke)...

Lets see if i can grab opportunity at Infosys, India or come back to US in another 3 months or travel some other country as per my wish :-)

Telangana Identity or AP Brother hood?

Argument sake, Telangana supporters may call it a struggle for identity. Looking at the leaders, i call it a dirty political struggle to keep "Divide and Rule policy" alive for popularity and higher ministerial posts.

On November 29th, KCR started his "fast unto death" demanding separate Telangana. To no one's surprise, He took juice on the very first day of his fasting. Not to hurt the sentiment of separate Telangana, everyone should agree that "KCR was reluctant and Doctors cheated him".

To make it loud, you must continue this struggle in state capital and create havoc there. Due to the health conditions (who is on "fast unto death" is worried about medical facilities and need super class treatment), party demanded moving him to state capital Hyderabad.

Osmania University students along with TRS activists went on creating havoc in city troubling public life.

Incompetent Government have chosen silent pause as their action for all the havoc in city. KCR was having VVIP treatment at NIMS with saline and all. Media spare no situation for their TRP ratings. Their breaking news contributed major chunk of chaos in the city.

Central Government, who is known for capitalizing vote bank on sensitive issues by supporting them announced "We are going to initiate separate Telangana process considering its sentiment and struggle" all of a sudden.

Ironically, this issue is taken care by 2 central ministers from competitive states. It is an easy assumption, this separation would take out Hyderabad from competition.

Now representatives from other regions started opposing announcement. Incapable and Incompetent representatives, who were supporting separate Telangana just for the vote bank couldn't digest it. Now they blame center of making some abrupt decision. Ironically, they do not remember the fact that their party has been supporting the cause.

State has lost its glory. It has gone for dogs now. It has no proper leader to lead them in crisis situation.

Even then, short memories of people keep them alive in politics. Students are on roads now. I never saw single student revolting their constituency representative for not working on development.

Finally few good quotes -

"Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them." - Paul Valery

"It makes no difference who you vote for -- the two parties are really one party representing 4 percent of the people." - Gore Vidal

India Shining

"Great Jharkand Robbery" hero Madhu koda campaigning his party

26/11 tragedy's first anniversary is not yet complete...ousted home minister is back to his seat

Convicted killer Manu Sharma spotted at Delhi Night club while on parole

Contradictory deals by Microsoft on Black Friday

Click on them to see clearly

Its my gadget on Win7



Its MSN Money site

Gimme another chance, i wanna grow up once again

I

-> wanna make changes to my mark sheet in a perfect way so that my Mom wouldn't have doubted that i morphed something.

-> want to stay calm rather than giving a crap answer when my English professor asked me for a definition there by avoiding the punishment of standing on bench. .

-> wanna stay more days in short term hostel.

-> wanna smoke with my intermediate friends.

-> wanna play more games with my engineering friends.

-> wanna take care of all release day activities pavan kalyan movies during engineering like getting more tickets showing my college ID and pushing all my college mates to movie theater.

-> wanna do more extra curricular activities during my engineering like music and all.

-> wanna slap a guy and say, you are the most fucking idiot i have seen in my whole life. No, not slap, kick his ass hard.

-> wanna enjoy last day of college

-> wanna inhale hookah with my college mates.

-> wanna take drugs.

-> wouldn't have slept like a drunkard on december 31st after having alchohol.

-> wouldn't have trusted some one in July and made this decision.

-> would have trusted some one else atleast in August.

Can't help....

Halloween @ Bellevue Square

Friday (10/30) was a long day at work. I was late to office. I had to deposit very little amount at bank and buy stamps from post office. I visited Commons @ Microsoft. Me being less informative, their fancy costumes, balloon spiders (best among what i have seen, whole roof of the bank was decorated with it), pumpkins made me think that Halloween is on Friday. Later i headed to work and my work kept me busy till 6:30 (little over board of friday, couldn't help). I was slightly disappointed when i saw candies at every corner and couldn't find any kids around by that time.

But i lately realized that, it is on Saturday. It was at 7 PM we visited Bellevue Square and we tried to capture all kind of spooky kids and of course few adults as well. This is my first Halloween, though didn't reach my expectation, it was a good one. Here are few pics -

Missed 2 important marriages...

Engineering life is more or less a matured stage for any person. For 4 years, you have to see each other in the class room. You like or hate or you have no feeling, you will spend 4 years sitting next to them. may be to the next bench or next row or next seat. You get to know in and out of every one. You will miss it lately.

Coming to my engineering life, i was enough closer to every one. But as every one, i had a circle :-). post engineering, i speak to many people and i am close to many people, but there are few whom i speak regularly. i find them easily available and find it very easy to talk to them.

3 people, Seenu, Rakesh and Sunil. I talk to them every morning, every night. The only thing we love to do is laugh out loud and we do it regularly.

One more person is Bhavani, this girl falls into same category. Though i will have some serious fights some times with this girl (Should i call her lady? may be).

I need at least one among these people regularly to talk and share some nonsense.

Coming to actual marriages:

Seenu got married this month 23rd and Bhavani on 25th. Both are must attend things for me if i was in India. I miss the bachelors party before night in hotel room and obviously their marriages :-).

Can this be considered as one flip side of staying away from friends and family? Oh Yes, i knew this thing during the planning (to US) phase that i am going to miss few things. For that matter, every one who travels knows it. But such events knock every time that you are missing something here.

sacrifice this for that. that's it :-) Happy Married life guys.

I am only talking about my engineering fnds whom i talk regularly, there are few others whom i love to share things :-), but out of context here.

Count Down # Null & Void

What happened?

Extension has been applied.

Is that Contenting?

Straight answer *No*. Conveniently avoiding If's and But's, *Yes*

What's the prayer to God?

No status should be obtained till January. so that the next step will be *Pack it in*.I am tired of praying for positives, to make it a reasonable deal, i started praying for non-negatives rather than positives.

Thats all for now about status.

Getting Closer: Day # 4

Lack of sleep makes my day dark and uninteresting. I was worried about bad sleep yesterday, but it was a fine one.

I woke up at around 7 AM today, my regular time. Being fall, it was complete dark. I opened my gmail to see if there are any updates from Thomas Cook and my employer. It is no surprise that my employer didn't mail and there was an update from Thomas Cook. I managed to get ready by 8 AM.

Picked my phone and called my employer, no response. I called my brother to get some contacts here. I know situation is getting worse. But while explaining him the situation, i am feeling it. After phone call, i couldn't keep my head cool.

I didn't feel like going to office. I sent across a mail at around 9 AM stating "Not feeling well, Couldn't come to office". After some time, a message popped up on my mobile. It was from my employer "will call you in 30 minutes". That was a welcome message.

All my room mates left to office, i felt constrained at home. I left to office. I got few emails from employer and there was some movement in extension process. So rest of the day was better than expected.

Though the process is not complete yet. Its certainly some kind of relief. So fingers crossed for tomorrow.

Getting closer - Day # 5

My visa validity (of stay) expires on 24th of this month. Still now no update about extension to current visa or new visa.

I am covering conditions off with various stuff like movies, shopping etc etc.

Few hours back i completed shopping, which was followed by "Zombie Land" in United states of Zombie land :). Movie was real fun and the rule # N "Enjoy all the little things", i loved it.

I know, it was 3 hours escape. Those girls at mall, romance at parking place (not by me, i was spectator), shopping, movie...everything served the purpose.

Now i reached home, i called Thomas Cook to postpone my flight to 24th. There is no availability on 24th. My agent is checking other possibilities. To reissue ticket, need money immediately. But money is in the air now traveling from my US account to Indian account. So i had to borrow money.

whats plan for tomorrow? Call my employer again -> If not received -> Call back after 2 hours, this time leave a voice message that you are so tensed and situation is going out of control -> Still no reply -> Leave a message and all other possible feat.

But planning to talk to some attorney as well tomorrow to seek some legal advice. Lets see how it goes.

Pre conceived notions

Not talking about my notions towards any gadget or towards any person. Its exclusive about others notions towards me.

Alright, now that i traveled across oceans and i have a job, i am the happiest soul in their circle. Few weeks back, i was having conversation with Friend1: As a thumb rule, we started with Hi and How are you? Instead of giving a formal response that "i am doing fine", i gave a honest response "i am little above Ok". His unacceptability dumbfounded me.

This is happening again and again (i have many friends ;)). This response took me different phases, Dumbfounded -> got irritated -> got frustrated -> Smiled myself. During the last phase, i decided not to exhibit self pity any more, I started responding "I am good". I decided to keep it plain.

Now it was about me, i wish to write about a "fraternity" as well -

Yesterday i have been to a temple, there was an announcement about a Swamiji visiting Seattle next month. A lady was sharing her experience, She was so excited about Swamiji's program and her speech revolved around "i am greatful to swamiji, you can see that in my face. After attending that program, my life is beautiful and Blissful"

whats wrong lady? Do you think others life has no charm? She is not the first lady(person) i am seeing, who ever attends such a program makes a statement "my life is beautiful now". I was never convinced with these "Subtle" sentences. I just wonder, will these programs bust all my problems? I will try my best not to allow any problems to over take my joy. But these guys never listen to me, they are never convinced with the fact that "Others life is beautiful without any programs"

Now talking about me,

I have a problem. My curiosity overrides my patience and purpose many times. He is taking care of my visa processing and it got denied once and we applied it again. Now when ever, he wont pick my phone, my thoughts crosses boundaries and i cannot stand on that. I become more n more curious and i wish to be loner. when some one invades my privacy, i get more frustrated. Now i will make an impression on this guy and it adds fuel every time i face similar situation.

I am trying to avoid it, let us see if i can avoid it without attending any "bliss engineering"

Wow...Bing visual search

I cannot encourage Bing for now, as i still have several google search pages around my head, but MS is releasing updates and add-ons to Bing every now and then. Recent update is Bing Visual Search.

http://www.bing.com/visualsearch

It is fun searching with the help of images rather than typing. Its a beta version, available only for US region? Not sure, i do not have answer to this Question.

One problem is, Make your computer MS. You need Silver Light installed on your system to use this coolest feature.

Image quality is good, Search is fast and effecient.

Go Bing. I Bing, you Bing :-)

Update: Yes, its Only for people in US region. ASDF...

Cricket screwing me again?

Come on you lazy game, you brought in so much trouble during my engineering. Now, you are all set to bring back some more trouble?

I am not the umpire for today's game, but some one from my team should do the umpiring. I voluntarily agreed to do this job for a match.

It is a sunny match. Final 2 overs to go. Team - B is chasing the target of 78 and have to score 11 runs from 2.1 overs with last wicket in their hand.

Batsmen has chosen a quick run and was almost run out. But there was enough confusion whether keeper handled the ball while hitting the stumps or not? I was about to have discussion with leg umpire. No team allowed me to complete decision and they group me, they shout at me...they do all possible nonsense there. Some one else from fielding side will say that "i am captain, talk to me" ...

It is now 2 overs, 10 runs situation...

One over completed with out any issues. I felt like moved to little comfort zone. Now 1 over 9 runs.

Again it started, batting side re-visited the score and said, it should be 8 runs and we are mistaken. Everything started again, Every fielder was coming and shouting " we will not play if this doesn't favor us" and one comes and asks other team captain to get off the field...

Now i dropped a complaint to League management about the rude behavior in a rude way. Is it going to put me in one more trouble? I give a damn, lets see..

On the occasion of Labor day long week end.....

We moved Monday morning Phobia to Tuesday. The images of recent portland trip during the week end are haunting. I am force requesting myself to concentrate on work. Felt like bunking meeting and write something about trip...So it went like this...

Considering economic conditions and time, we decided to take a bus trip from Seattle to Portland on Saturday and return by train...

Day 1:

we managed to get ready by 6:15 AM on saturday and started to near by bus stop to catch a bus to Seattle. Grey Hounds service to Los Angeles was standing there. No idea, if this is the same bus to Portland as well. We sought official confirmation from front desk regarding the same. We managed to get 4 seats for us near emergency exit. No offense, i just observed other part of US and i would make bus a final option when i plan a freaking trip. It is an experience. There was leakage from blowers in the middle of journey and water was leaking on to seats. I am sure, Its not a routine behaviour, but this is an add-on to my frustration or irritation or choose some good words you frequently use for discomfort. We reached portland at 12:00 PM. our friends picked us. We went to Chennai Masala for lunch Buffet (I must appreciate them for creating their mark by using the name "Chennai"). I loved Dosa and i had it after long time.

We are group of dedicated people, we headed towards Mt Hoods for some hiking, rope walk, what else....But bad weather punched back. We managed to get some snaps and moved to Multnomah falls. Excellent place to stop by if you are having interstate trip. Its crowd, a beautiful walkway and scenic view of Columbia river from the top of the falls are invaulable. We had nice dinner from PF Chang's, it was nice enough to get some good sleep...

Day2:

Headed to Astoria beach (Long beach). It was a drive on an undecent rainy day. With changing weather, we couldn't predict the weather at Long beach. But it was decent enough atleast for some time at Long beach. We took some grass at subway, sorry a sub from subway and completed dinner. As there was no activity left, we started to Canon beach which is 60 miles from long beach and presumed to be 20 miles. Thank god, it was sunny enough to get into river and enjoy the beauty of Canon beach. Those distinct rocks reminded me of Alibag beach at Pune. Beach is dog friendly and out pictures proves it enough. I feel, i must stay in the nearby hotel to enjoy the beach to the fullest.

Next stop is Tillamook Cheese factory, I could gain no knowledge about cheese but tasted different kind of cheese there followed by a heavy icecream. We had some brain storming discussion about evolution of world.

This is all one phase of the day, but the real good thing of the day(rather the whole trip) was nice dinner prepared by our friends (girls). some 7 members forming a circle, no dining table, etc etc added homely environment. It was truly a good one.

Day3:

Not much activity, couldn't plan one single thing but ended up with window shopping and a visit to water front at Portland downtown. It was enough pleasent and enough sunny to enjoy. Then farewell to our portland friends and caught train to Seattle.

We had enough fun during our train journey and it was a healthy discussion at dining bar with different people about different culture and 4 hours passed by in no time.

Not to miss out the little panic until we reached Bellevue from Seattle down time :-)

......

Time to do some work and start getting depressed about visa and all.

YS...RIP

My deep regret for the demise of our cheif minister YSR. I proudly say, we both hail from same place and may your soul RIP...

U turn

I should have waited before making the statement "Things started getting better".....not at all....It took U turn....Things started getting worst now...Good Bye for few days till i get the confidence that "things turned good"...

US doesn't accept other citizen's Blood!!!

On August 12th 2009, i booked a schedule to donate blood. I prepared myself for blood donation at 9:00 AM near campus,

I stepped into van, one lady took my details and gave some material to read. After reading the material, they gave long questionnaire to complete...

Few questions were focused on my health and rest(most) of the questions focused on other nations visited.

Were you in UK during this period?
Are you from Africa?
Ever had sex with African male/female?

i was uncomfortable to donate blood, but i was continuing as there was no 'India' there and my intention is just to donate blood.

Finally, after filling the application....lady opened a record and found out my city information. When i told 'Hyderabad', she told "we are sorry that, you cannot donate blood if you were in this place anytime for the last 3 years as there were reports of Malaria". As you visited US in 2009, you can donate blood only in 2012 if you continue to stay here...

Guys, this is so irritating....i know blood donation is for my good health but at the same time, for your emergency. I am sure, you will have sophisticated techniques to test donated blood. If you have all these obligations, put an Online form as to determine eligibility of the donor....F...disgusting...

How Music turns you On and Off

There were lot of hiccups in short time and slowly passing by. When ever i go down, i scratch my head and ponder "what went wrong?". At that time, i isolate myself from others and feel isolated. Though it sounds foolish, i accept that am a fool during some part of life. In that process, i curse others around me...It all happened all these days. Slowly things started getting better. But i ordered myself to be pessimistic till things get much better.

Going back to July 26th...After boarding on to flight...

I don't remember the music part a lot. But i only remember that i was more towards fusion, rock, kind of addictive tunes....no soothing or melodious tracks.....i wanted to move out every emotion/fear from my mind...British Airways didn't provide made it worst by not having movies. I was expecting journey from Heathrow to Houston to be much better because most of the flights operate in that way...To my surprise, It was much horrible than Hyderabad to Heath row.

Flight got delayed for more than an hour as it was not getting runway. To avoid pollution, Airport used same runway for Departures and Arrivals making it a nightmare. I opened "Quiver Full of Arrows" and started completing stories too fast. Finally we got some room to move and flight started. I know it is a long journey and as an add-on to my frustration with delay, there was no in-flight entertainment. I have to rely on books. I am not a continuous reader and i am not capable of doing that. I planned to share my journey between Books, Music and sleep. To concentrate on books, i relied on Music and i made a long stretch completing short stories and reaching half of "Alchemist". Some how, i completed that journey.

Now Port of entry, It is the hell i got scared of so many times. Lady was sitting there, i know dealing with ladies is the toughest thing. But Q pushed me towards her. I wanna act like i missed something, go back and come again so that i can reach a guy, but thought like "what if i meet same officer again?". I thought its fine, i will go. Interview went for longer time than first time and faced so many unexpected questions. I was expecting a question asking some documents (which i am scared to show), but she never asked me. I was happy with the result and headed towards baggage, Luck followed me, my baggage is delayed. I have to fill the form with my address to which baggage is to be delivered. I do not have it, i was not prepared for this situation....blah blah blah...finally i submitted form...

i bought some basic things and checked into hotel room. Took a nice bath and reached rolling hotel on top floor, had a nice wine along with some food. There was lot of fun there (one guy was on high)...i took nap for not more than 4 hours and headed to airport. This time no (vegetarian) food on flight. F......i switched on MP3 and went on with nice soothing melodious songs, while listening i recollected all incidents from the past and reached final destination....

I got my baggage after 4 days. It was so frustrating...even then it happens...things starting getting little better now...But one final thing to make it much better can change the situation...

Lets see...Sincere Thanks to God for what ever happened till date :-) Hope he will be with me for ............(no time frame)....ever :P

Short n Interesting Love story by Co-Passenger

Stories like this should make my blog interesting. After tired Saturday, i woke up early in the morning at 2:15 AM. I got ready and as it is supposed to be a long term trip for me this time, my Mom and Dad were not excited. I just rested on my Mom for some time and my Dad massaging my hair giving some safety instructions.

My Flight was at 6:35 AM and i reached Hyderabad Airport at 4:00 AM along with my Brother, Dad, Bhabhi and my room mate, My mom didn't come as she had to take care of my nephew and niece. I checked in Online and i had short Queue a head. One Indian lady standing to my side was having chewing gum at that early morning and showing excess confidence (unnecessary) in the Queue. She must be permanent citizen or serving other country for long time. She wanted to pass this message to all fellow passengers (that She is not the first time traveller) and she was quite successful in doing that in quite a irritating way.

I collected my boarding pass and i took some pad to fill up immigration form. I am down because i know i am going to miss my parents, friends for long time. One of the Co-passenger (should be of my age, around 26) who was filling the form beside me got a call. He dropped his pen on the board and picked his mobile out from pocket. Glowing face replied back the phone

"Gooooood morning dear, Happy to hear your voice. Will call you once i complete security check"

He looked at me and gave a smile. i returned him the same.

We crossed security check together, he picked up his mobile.

"I thought i will wake u up in the early morning, but u called me..I am so happy dear"

I left him for a while and walked here n there and later went to book shop to buy some books. I again found this guy there on phone

"Shall i bring DVD's"

i am not sure of response, but he listed few DVD's and finally went to some books and collected some books. Normally such phone calls irritates others, but this call was so interesting and this guy was not disturbing others moving to the remote places and keeping his voice low.

I followed him, as that is the way to my terminal.

"This is a very short term relation, but i am very excited about this relation with you."

Few miss you, love you's after that...i pretended as if i am not listening to anything happening there..

"Come to US soon, we will live together till we get bored"

i am surprised, how dare you are to say that? you should get a slap or phone call should end here i thought..

Now i asked my inner to concentrate more on this story. In between the words,

"Wait for a sec, there is a flight announcement, looks like they are calling my name, hold on for a while"

"mm, its not me"

"I want some coffee now, your coffee will be so good"

I couldn't get away from the scene and want to know what is happening as this is the only interesting thing in airport at that early morning..

"Why are you not around my age? atleast some 4-5 years gap would have made it easy, but certainly we had a wonderful relation for life time and expecting to see you in US and we will have some more tours and rides."

also cursing the marriage system for some time..

mm...now i got the point..girl must be aged (AFAIK,young girls are not that matured to hear all these crap and offer coffee at home ).

Finally, he hung up

"Looking forward to meet you soon there"

Again Miss u's and Love u's and a final bye...His glow continued for a while with a long call. But he was dull after the switching off his mobile on flight. Later i thought about it for a while and came back to my state.

I would tell him..

A passing cloud made the climate cool and interesting for some time..Enjoy your trip and go on with life. Be a friend to her, so that the relation would stay for long time.

this lady, i referred in my second paragraph travelled with me till the final port. Both of us lost our luggage, but i didn't initiate any communication with her. Still the same confidence seen...

As i said, this is a long trip and still have 2 posts pending...

Its 4:54 AM in the morning...Sleepless in Seattle :-) , not because i am missing something...because of jetlag...

very long trip

Very long one indeed, will write about it as soon as i get time...3 interesting things to be penned are -

-> A Short n interesting Love story by Co-Passenger
-> How Music turns you On and Off..Different phases of this long journey..
-> About the books on flight...

My baggage is missing and i am so tired to add anything now...but interest to narrate above things forced me to open the blog...So adding a post to convince myself...