I am enjoying my telecon with my on-site counterparts. Though it lasts only for around 25mins, we discuss about work and also find time to crack some jokes..:)

Started my day early on Saturday morning. I cleaned my car after a long time, probably after a month. There was so much of dust. Anywayz it was worth it, as the car looked quite pretty after the cleaning was done..:)

I was about 45 mins late for my health checkup. The ride was smooth as it was a Saturday and there was fewer traffic on the roads. I had to be on empty stomach for the health checkup. The blood test and the Urine test went on fine. The only delay happened when I had to undergo an ECG (Electro Cardio Gram) test.

As I waited for my turn, I was watching the National Geographic Channel on television. It was a show on marine life. For sometime, the focus was on the sting ray fish. It was recently in the news as the crocodile hunter Steve Irwin was killed by a sting ray fish. Looking @ the fish, it looks so pretty and swims so majestically and you will be hard pressed to understand why it's being labelled as a villain. It has wide fins and several breathing gills (which are in the shape of a straight line) below its body. It was amazing watching it.

In the meanwhile I was feeling quite hungry. I managed to lay my hands on a journal "Indian Journal of Urology". One of the chapters was titled "Urology in Ancient India". It spoke about Indian medicine in the ancient period. We marvel @ the advances made in medicine and the west is considered a pioneer in this regard. But surgical practices were in a far more advanced stage in ancient India.

The credit goes to Susruta who was the first one to have done "Rhinoplasty" which implies reconstruction of the nose. He wrote a treatise "Susruta Samhita". Susruta also specialized in the study of erectile dysfunction and remedies for various urological diseases. Most of his research was painstakingly done and documented by undertaking a study of the decaying corpses kept near the beach. There was no luxury of morgue rooms in those days. Not only that, there were around 54 surgical instruments which were used and documented by him.

Western medical experts to a large extent agree that Indian medicine was the foundation for the modern western medicine and Susruta's theories remain valid till date. It was an engrossing article and I learnt many things I didn't know. Thankfully I got the call for my test.

For the test, I had to take off my shirt, vest, wallet, watch and any jewellery I was wearing. I was a bit shy as I was thinking that the person who would conduct the ECG test would be a guy, however it turned out to be a woman..:)

I was @ ease after I lied down on the bed. The lady placed some gel on my chest and then fixed the monitoring instruments. Once the test was done, I had a look @ the ECG graph and was trying to make sense of it. There was an upward curve and a downward curve, the rest was greek and latin to me..:)

On the way back home, I visited my old buddy Agni and we had lunch together. I need to come back tomorrow for the medical report(s) and consultation with the physician.

Yesterday I got some documents and the .NET project files from my on-site team. The only problem was that the software which was set up on my machine wasn't able to run the project as the sofware used to create it by the on-site team was different.

It's a friday and I feel relaxed. In the afternoon session, I celebrated my birthday @ office along with another colleague of mine. New comers to the team were also introduced. Later we were given a game to play which involved stripping alphabets from the newspapers with our bare fingers. It was a tough task indeed..:) My birthday buddy came out the winner, she did a perfect job.

Tomorrow morning, I start off quite early. I will be undergoing a Wellness health CheckUp @ 8:30 a.m which will help me find out details regarding my haemoglobin count, Cholesterol levels etc. Hope the results come out fine. This is part of the package, I received when I opted for a "Artha Health Options" card. It offers coupons which entitles you to free consultations with physicians, dentists and orthopaedics. The best part is the holiday package thrown in. The locations are Munnar, Kairali and Kodaikanal. All these for an annual payment of INR 1994. Not bad..:)

It was a pleasant wednesday morning and it felt good to start my day on a fresh note with no hangover from the previous day. I am now getting used to my 12 p.m shift and to be honest enjoying it. The reason is I needn't be in a hurry every morning, I could do my morning chores @ a relaxed pace and also catch up on a good night's sleep.

We Indians are a superstitious lot and staunch believers in Sun signs and astrology. Most weddings in India are arranged on the basis of matching of horoscopes. So it came as a surprise to me when I read today's "Times of India" edition which states that zodiac signs in no way affect our future love lives /the reason we are married or stay unmarried . The results were based on a study conducted in Britain. Using the 2001 census, they looked @ 20 million husbands and wives across England and Wales to see if certain star signs were attracted to others (Source: Times of India, March 28, 2007).

Striking was the fact that not even one couple exhibited the special compatibility of the zodiac signs like Virgo's fancing Capricorns or for Libras to like Leos.

For example: In astrology, the union between Pisces and Scorpio is considered as a perfect combination. However to put across their point the researchers gave the example of actors Bruce Willis ( a Piscean) and Demi Moore (a Scorpio) who were married for 11 years and whose marriage broke down due to bickerings and marital discord.

Another example was that of actress Elizabeth Taylor (Piscean) and Richard Burton(Scorpio) who were first married in 1964 but were divorced ten years later, driven apart by drinking and feuding. Later they started dating again and remarried in 1975. This time the rowing started as soon as they got married and it ultimately ended in a divorce for the second time.

The survey results are credible as they spanned a broad spectrum of the population. It does hold many lessons for us that blind belief in the roles that stars play in our destiny is just that..a myth.

This is my 101st post and I have come a long way since I wrote my first blog on November 08, 2006. It's been a fascinating journey so far. As per today's "Times of India" article there are 200 million ghost blogs on the net. Ghost blogs are those blogs which were started by their authors and then abandoned. Lindsay Lohan's latest blog reads "I am soo sorry, I haven't written since a long time". The timestamp was 23rd October 2003. It's an example of a ghost blog.

The reasons could be due to lack of time for writing, they may have run out of ideas or moved on to newer trends on the internet. My only hope is that my blog doesn't end up as one of those ghost blogs. So far I have been a bit lucky that I find some stuff to write, however sometimes even I am worried when there's a paucity of ideas.

Monday was pretty cool as I started my work in the new shift timing i.e. 12 p.m to 9 p.m. I woke up late and after my morning ablutions reached office quite comfortably. It was the same story on Tuesday morning except that I am feeling a bit jaded due to lack of quality sleep yesterday night.

I don' t have a conference call today and hopefully I will be assigned some quality work to do either today or tomorrow, till then I am practicing some programming examples from a book.

If you are an avid cricket fan following India's world cup fortunes or misfortune(s) to be more precise, nothing could have been more heartbreaking than India's exit from the Cricket World Cup.

If you're not a follower of cricket and went through Sunday morning's newspaper you feel as if there has been a calamity which has struck India. The only difference is, it's a calamity of a different kind. I was watching with interest the discussion titled "India Bowled out" on NDTV @ 8 p.m. It had as it's moderator Vishnu Som, the other panelists were Navjot Singh Sidhu and Ajay Jadeja.

While Sidhu was doing what he was good @ it, Ajay had a few valid points. However it seemed that everyone had their own axe to grind. The one speaker I am most impressed with, was Imran Khan who was speaking from Lahore. I still remember the 1992 world cup when Imran despite being on pain-killers led his team from the front and eventually won the world cup for his team & the country.

His assessments were completely objective and unbiased. Take this quote "When you're talking about sweeping changes, make sure that the change takes you forward but doesn't take you to the bottom." It's this objectivity and willingness to think rationally that's missing among the fans, players, cricket administrators and the media.

It's understandable that fans are upset, however it doesn't give one the licence to threaten the family members of players, vandalise their homes and show ugly behavior on the street. Personally I have no compunctions to say that it's a good thing India lost. Instead of pouring money into cricket and getting low or zilch returns, why not encourage budding players in other sports like tennis, archery, gymnastics etc. All these games are played @ the Olympics whereas cricket is not.

The Advertisers must be in a state of shock, as per the estimates they have lost upto INR 30 crores after India's exit from the world cup and so did the tourism industry. It's better they put their money where their mouth is.

A piece of advice for the Indian players, learn from Australia how the game is to be played. Aussies may not be the best of role-models for their behaviour but the way they have played so far and yesterday's match against South Africa speaks volumes about their consistent approach to the game. Australia's 377 runs came against quality opposition.

You don't become champions by making a record word cup total of 400+ against minnows Bermuda who were like lambs put to the slaughter. I was most touched by the Bermuda captain's gesture. He loves India so much that he has named his daughter "India".

He said, if beating Bangladesh can help India reach Super 8 then he'll try his best to make that happen, this is inspite of the pasting they received from India.

It was a relaxed saturday morning that I woke up to..:) I haven't had proper sleep for the past couple of days. I have been regularly attending conference calls with the on-site team since wednesday.

The problem was that as we are in different time zones, it's people who are working offshore who need to make the adjustments. So the call was scheduled @ 7:10 p.m (IST). I had no other option than to wait for the 9:00 p.m office shuttle. By the time I had my dinner and reach home its 10 :30 p.m. I hit the sack around 11:30 p.m

Morning I am out of bed by 6 :30 a.m. After finishing my breakfast, I am already feeling sleepy @ work possibly due to lack of quality sleep. On Friday, I revised my timing. I started my work @ 12 p.m and this time there was not much sign of fatigue. I drove my car to work and this time it was a stress-free experience as there was no rush hour traffic.

I did a lot of household chores today. As usual, shopping for fruits + sweeping and mopping the floor took a lot of time. Then there was laundry to be done. It's been a long day so far but I am now relieved as my house was in a bit of mess and now it's how it should be..clean and tidy..:)

Let it be a guy or a gal, everyone is searching for the elusive Mr/Miss Right. Often it doesn't turn out the way we anticipate things. Yesterday night, when I was flipping channels while watching television, there was this soap which piqued my interest. It was on "Star One" channel.

It tells the story of an actress who goes down the memory lane. She recalls the episode when she had her first crush and her first kiss. Her name is "Padmalakshmi"or "Paddy"(that's how her friends call her). Paddy dresses conservatively, I mean she is always in a salwar or a punjabi suit with her hair neatly plaited. Being a South Indian she occasionally wears jasmine flowers on her hair. She still looks pretty though.

Her heart beats for this guy "Sadanand" or "Sad". Paddy despite trying hard is unsuccessful in getting his attention. Sad is a sort of playboy always hanging around pretty girls. Paddy in despair, turns to one of her close friends and asks her whether she isn't pretty..her friend answers "yes, she is pretty". Paddy again asks, then why isn't Sad attracted to her.

To this question, her friend has no answer but gives her a suggestion. She tells Paddy to wear western outfits and change her hair style, in other words to become modern. Paddy is initially revolted @ the suggestion, but then calmly thinks about it.

It's the fashion day @ the college and Sadanand who is among the audience with his girlfriend, suddenly sees this girl on the ramp. He can't help staring and his jaws literally drop. The girl is none other than Paddy who looks ravishing in a western outfit and a new hair style. Paddy gets her guy.

Fast forward, one year later it's time for the fashion show again. The same scene gets repeated, only irony is that paddy is Sad's girl friend in the audience. Sadanand's reaction is the same when he falls for another pretty girl on the ramp. Paddy is heart broken.

Cut to the present day, Paddy is now a well known actress. She tries her hand @ winning the beauty pageant, but is unsuccessful. She encounters Raj(a businessman) who she finds charming.

After a few meetings however paddy realises that something is still missing. Ofcourse the guy is rich, well settled but he is predictable and paddy likes surprises. Paddy falls for Rahul (one of her close friends) whom she feels accepts her as she is, however he isn't interested in getting married to her.

It's new year's eve and paddy comes home around 2:45 a.m. Her mom is still awake and chides her for coming so late. Raj's parents had called up and paddy's mom is worried as to what will they think about paddy as the marriage date comes closer. Paddy has tears in her eyes which surprises her mom. She says she isn't interested in marrying Raj and tells sorry to her mom.

Her mom instead of being furious is quite calm and accepts it. She tells Paddy atleast she called it off now, if she would have said sorry after getting married, it would have been too late. She wants her daughter to be happy. Mom and daughter hug each other.

Paddy is in front of the mirror and thinks about the whole concept of finding Mr.Right. She changed herself from a conservative to a modern girl to woo Sadanand and now Rahul has rejected her for being modern. He says that his parents won't like a modern girl. It was an interesting story which left me glued to the television for 30 mins. By the time, I hit the sack it was 12:00 a.m..:)

I am feeling a lot better today. As a precautionary meausure, I didn't venture out in the afternoon. I have a call again @ 7:10 p.m so will be reaching home late.

Before departing to Bangalore from Hyderabad on monday evening, I was dreading whether my Air Deccan flight will be on schedule given it's reputation for not sticking to time-lines. Much to my surprise and relief not only did it take off @ the correct time, it also reached Bangalore in 55 minutes.

Tuesday morning, it was time to get back to work. I had a few softwares to be installed today. The work seems to be gathering pace as I have received some documents regarding my project. From what I have seen in the documents, the work seems to be pretty interesting. Hopefully it should stay that way.

I am not sure why, but I am feeling a bit dizzy probably due to the sun and the weather change. My worst fear is that I'll fall sick. I have to stay back late as I am supposed to attend a training session with my on-site counterparts in the U.S @ 8 p.m.

Today is the festival of Gudi padwa or Ugadi depending on which state you're from. It's an auspicious day which heralds the start of the New Year coinciding with a celestial event, the partial solar eclipse.

I have a few hours left to spend with my family before heading back to Bangalore. My flight is @ 6:00 p.m and I need to be @ the airport early so that I don't face a repeat of the previous episode..:). 3 days have just passed by and I can't believe it. It feels like, I had come home only yesterday.

"Bangladesh Tigers not only roar but they also bite" was the booming voice of the anchor on CNN-IBN. If you're a Indian cricket fan it was really an embarrassing moment. Once upon a time, I was a die-hard cricket fan but not anymore. I feel as a nation we are very obsessed with cricket and players who don't perform. They would rather chase commercials than play for their country. It's time we look beyond cricket.

Today, most part of the day I spent indoors, surfing the web, watching television and chatting with my family members. In the evening I went shopping along with Shital for purchasing grocery. It was a bit of a rough ride as the highway which passes near our home is being widened as part of the golden quadrilateral project initiated by the "National Highways Authority of India (NHAI)". It's being made into a 4 lane expressway.

I was watching the movie "Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna (KANK)" on television. The story dwells on extra-marital relationships. I am not someone to pass judgement on Karan johar, however I did feel that some scenes in the movie was a bit exaggerated. What I did appreciate was the scene wherein Amitabh and Kiron Kher who play the roles of Shahrukh (Dev's) and Rani's (Maya's) in-laws. When they catch Dev and Maya red handed i.e. indulging in lover's tiff, there is no chastisising or any furious reaction, however the disappointment is writ large on their faces.

Witness the scene when Abhiskek (Rishi) after venting his anger on coming to know about Maya's affair, tells her with tears in his eyes, I loved you so much and yet it wasn't enough.

The other important chapter was how the betrayed spouses move on in life. When this movie was released most of my colleagues were very critical of the movie. Sure the movie has its flaws, but it was just holding a mirror to our society. The main characters in this movie fall in love however it comes at a great cost sacrificing the comfort of their homes, careers and their families.

Friday morning, it was a bit of panic attack for me. Everything went fine, I got my office shuttle on time. My flight was scheduled for departure @ 10:15 a.m. However much to my horror I was stuck in the traffic jam. My one eye was on the wrist watch and the other was staring @ the traffic. It gave me goose bumps coz I had to be @ the airport atleast 30 mins prior to the flight departure before the airline counter gets closed.

Thankfully I managed to reach the counter exactly 30 mins before departure. The flight landed @ the Hyderabad airport @ 11:40 a.m (25 mins behind schedule). As I came out of the Hyderabad airport, I started thinking that within an hour, I had covered a distance of 550 k.ms. If I would have undertaken the journey by road, it would have taken around 11 hours. The other good thing was now-a-days, the flights have become affordable. I have purchased my to and fro tickets for a steal..INR 3000. Can you beat that..:) Of course I had to book the ticket a month in advance but it was worth the wait. My outward journey by Spicejet was priced @ INR 99 and the return journey by Air Deccan is INR 324. The rest of the fare comprises of taxes + fuel surcharge + congestion levy.

My home is approximately an hour away from the airport. This time I wanted to try the MMTS service. It's the equivalent of the mumbai local train. It was a pleasant journey by the train. There was no pollution + the train was quite punctual halting @ the stops for only 3 seconds. When I looked out of the train window, I could see that Hyderabad has changed. What was once a city which was languishing @ the bottom of the heap when compared to the other metros in India has now transformed.

The swanky buildings @ HI-TEC City (Hyderabad Information Technology and Engineering Consultancy City), the wide roads, the neatly maintained railway stations, India's first I-MAX screen, IT parks which house the top IT companies, real estate which is experiencing a boom, it's all happening. The only thing which Hyderabad lacks is lots of greenery when compared to Bangalore and the climate which can really get worse in summer.

In the evening I watched the movie "300" which tells the story of 300 spartan soldiers fighting the million strong Persian army. The special effects was quite good and it was awesome watching it on the I-MAX screen. Google the company for which my sis works had booked the entire movie hall for its employees and their family + friends.

Today i.e 17th March is my birthday. It's customary for me to seek divine blessings on this special occasion. My mom took me to the temple and then I visited another temple with my kid brother. I am not a very religious person however I felt an inner peace when I visited the places of worship.

What better way than to celebrate your birthday by cutting a cake and sharing it with family members. I am now 32 but age as they say is just a statistic, it's the maturity and the experience that counts..:)

Today was a busy day. I had this interview in the morning unfortunately it didn't go well. I managed to reach the interview venue an hour behind schedule due to the sloppy handling of my time. I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't clear the interview coz that I would have landed me a visa to the United States. 1st April is the date when the H1B quota opens and is expected to end by 15th April.

My car had some trouble, so had to get it checked into the Concorde showroom. Need to pack my bags as I have a flight to catch tomorrow morning @ 10:30 a.m. It will be time to go home..sweet home and it's a special occasion for me coz it's my birthday which falls on the coming weekend..:)

One cannot underestimate the effects of a good night's sleep. You wake up fresher, bubbling with energy and enthusiasm. On the contrary if you ended up tossing and turning on bed or suffer from sleep disorder the day after goes haywire.

I am saying this coz after 2 days, I had a sound sleep y'day night. I feel better and there is a spring in my stride.

At work today I got to know that I have been relieved from the project and will now be assigned a new project (the one wherein I had mentioned earlier that I had cleared the client interview). I am a bit relieved that I won't be working on legacy applications.

In the afternoon, I had lunch with my Project Manager Dalia and a couple of colleagues. It was a sort of small get together. I am not sure whether I'll be staying back late or will be leaving @ 6 p.m coz there was supposed to be a client meeting @ 7 p.m.

Yesterday I was watching a television programme titled "Daughters of the suicide country" on NDTV wherein they showed the surviving wives and daughters of poor farmers from the drought stricken regions of Marathwada and Vidharba in Maharashtra being forced into prostitution. The poor farmers had committed suicide after fallen into a debt trap owing to crop failure and unable to repay the loans taken from usurious money lenders.

It was a heart rending story. The women had to bring up their children and the daughters had to support their family by selling their bodies. The pimps and middlemen have exploited the situation in the poverty stricken regions by trafficking the women to urban centres like Mumbai and cash-rich cities like Ahmedabad.

Most of the women(the faces were blurred to protect their identity) in this profession who were interviewed had only one thing in common, to send money back home, not let their children into sex trade, educate their sons/daughters so that they can lead a better life. They also had a desire to lead a normal life once their family is settled. Some were lured with the promise of better jobs in cities and ended up in brothels and others were sold by their family to middlemen for money.

Even though India has done well in sunrise sectors like IT, pharmaceuticals etc..there is a large segment of population struggling to come out of poverty. As Amitabh said in an interview when asked "What would he have done if he was the Prime Minister of India for a day?"

I am not sure whether it was an honest answer or whether he was playing to the gallery however his quick answer was "to eliminate poverty coz it saddens him to see so many people living in poverty".

The other day I was reading an article in "Times Of India" which compared percentage of tax payers in India with countries like Australia, France, United States and England.

France had the highest percentage of tax payers @ 54%. Contrast that with India which has only a mere 3% of people as tax payers in comparison to its population. No wonder the tax rates are so high in India as the government wants to squeeze the maximum out of the salaried class who form the bulk of the 3%. This is in addition to the covert taxes which the govt levies in the form of VAT(Value Added Tax) and other excise duties on petrol, diesel and the household items like groceries etc. It's not difficult to see that the government takes away a huge chunk of one's salary.

My point is after paying so much of taxes the people end up with bad roads, power outages, no social security etc. Why can't the government spend the money atleast on helping out the poor farmers by providing them support and finance in times of need.

Tuesday morning, we had to make do with a TATA Sumo as our office shuttle was badly damaged after yesterday's mishap. I got to learn some new things today. We had a 2 hour session on UNIX programming and Message Queue(MQ) series(product of IBM).

Apart from the training session, it was pretty much a dull day. Tomorrow we have our tele-con scheduled @ 10 a.m.

Saturday I went to the forum mall to meet my friend Agni. We went to the Landmark book gallery browsing through the books section and some other stuff.

Agni didn't have his lunch, so we had a pizza @ the pizza corner outlet located on the 2nd floor in the mall. It seems there was some birthday celebrations going on as cakes were cut and songs were sung for the birthday bunnies with pizza hut staff lending a helping hand. After a long time, I tasted a pizza and washed it down with a pepsi. So we guys really enjoyed the food.

Later I went to Agni's house and Agni showed me his X-Box game console. The graphics were amazing and when you are playing a war or the car racing game wherein you get hit by a bullet from the enemy fire or crash into the wall or lampost while racing the car, you could feel the vibrations in the joystick. The only dampener is the price which is a whopping INR 35000.

Sunday was the day when I finished my daily household chores and checked out some flats in the evening. Except for 1 flat, I was disappointed with the price, quality and location of the other flats.

Today i.e Monday I got a new lease of life. The office shuttle in which we were travelling met with an accident. We had just crossed the traffic intersection when the driver of our shuttle immediately slammed the brakes on seeing the public transport bus suddenly stop. Within a span of 3 - 5 seconds, we were hit from behind by a speeding TATA Sumo, we were all shocked and too stunned to react. The impact was so powerful that the Sumo ended up dragging our shuttle which went and hit the bus in the front. Our shuttle was badly damaged in the front and the rear and same was the case with the Sumo.

I was sitting in the rear and thankfully not the last seat. I could sense a slight pain in my back, but 2 of my colleagues sitting in the last seat bore the brunt of the impact. We later took an auto to our office. Before I was about to sit @ my desk, I folded my hands, closed my eyes and thanked god for saving my life.

We went to the St.John's hospital located near our office for our medical checkup. The doctor prescribed me some tablets and an ointment. The other colleagues of mine who were in the back seat were told to get their X-rays done as their injuries were far more serious.

The incident has left me shaken. People just want to rush @ mad speed maiming and killing others and also injuring themselves. No wonder India is rated as the 2nd country to have the dubious distinction where more people die in road accidents than due to any other reason.

Today and yesterday i.e Thursday has been quite hectic. Hectic coz I have been getting up @ 5:30 a.m so that I can reach office in time for our telecon scheduled @ 8 a.m with the on-site team in the United States.

By the time it's afternoon I literally feel like dozing off. Yesterday's telecon went on for an hour and today's session lasted for only 30 mins. Our PM Dalia couldn't make it today as she wasn't feeling well and joined the conversation from her home. There was a fair amount of work wherein I and another colleague had to work on the powerpoint presentation which captured the discussions we had with the on-site team.


It's friday once again and it feels good that the weekend is back..:) I always had the desire to visit the United States so I am hoping that luck favours me this time..:)

Yesterday's telecon with our on-site team in the United States went on for nearly an hour instead of the stipulated 30 mins. What did come out from the discussion was we will be working on legacy systems such as the mainframe and programming languages UNIX/Shell scripting, C, MSMQ. I felt as if we were going back to the stone age..:)

I was quite excited thinking that I'll be working on microsoft technologies like dotnet however on getting know that we will be working on legacy applications, all my excitement vanished into thin air.

Today it was pretty much the same affair, with the whole team going through the documents and giving our inputs in the form on an excel sheet. In the evening, we had a small discussion with Dalia wherein we analysed our SWOT(Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats). The silver lining was Dalia did agree that we will require training on the applications I had mentioned above as we had learned all these applications either @ the college level or when we were pursuing our computer course. We haven't used these applications @ a practical level.

I am happy that I'll be going home today @ our normal time i.e 6 p.m..:)

When I took the office shuttle today morning, I sat in the window seat and could feel the cool breeze blowing across. I went on a rewind mode..and compared it to the same time on Monday morning.

On Monday, as I had to get the number plate fixed on my car, I drove the car to work. I never knew that it was the beginning of a long and arduous journey. I started @ 8:20 a.m. My litmus test came when I stopped @ the traffic junction which was on a elevated road. As soon as the signal turned green, the car started moving back even though I had switched to the 1st gear. I immediately slammed the brakes. There was a Hyundai Santro car just behind mine. What happened next..was a nightmare.

As the car started moving back I came close to hitting the car behind. The driver in the rear car started honking. I was damn scared and it showed on my face with sweat streaming down from my forehead. I suddenly let go the clutch and pressed the accelerator with full force. There was a screeching sound from the tyres and a pall of smoke from the exhaust pipe, finally much to my relief the car moved ahead. I thanked my lucky stars and there was a sense of relief which was short-lived.

Now when I was approaching Bannerghata road, it was start and stop bumper to bumper traffic. The speed of the car reduced to a crawl. Though I had the option of switching on the air-conditioner, I thought it will be a waste of fuel as it will mean the car engine needs to be in the running mode. The only saving grace was the FM radio.

I never thought I would get stuck up in the traffic for nearly an hour. The sun was not showing any mercy and I was literally getting baked, well almost..:). If you need to test someone's patience,just put them bang in the middle of a traffic jam with the hot sun for company..:)

It was around 10:30 a.m that I finally managed to reach the Concorde showroom. The person in charge of car service @ the showroom gave me some tips about handling the car in such situations. After listening to him, I knew where I went wrong.

When I reached office, I distributed sweetmeats to everyone on the occasion of purchase of my new car which drew enquiries from my colleagues like which car was it, whether it's new or old etc..It was my PM Dalia's birthday today. It was nice to know that she was a piscean just like me..:)

At the end of the day, my car was ready with the number plate. I also got a miniature ganesha and a perfume bottle which I placed on the dashboard. I really need the divine blessings..:) When I drove back home, I was a relaxed man and this time I was not short of confidence..:)

Tuesday morning, we got loads of documentation from Dalia regarding our project. We had to study the same, most of which sounded greek and latin to me and everyone else. It was simply overwhelming. Dalia distributed sweetmeats on the occasion of her birthday on Monday.

Today is the last day of the induction program for new joinees in the project team.

We are scheduled to have a conference call with our on-site team from 6 to 6:30 p.m. That'll mean I will be missing my office shuttle and either need to wait till 8:30 p.m or take the public transport.

In Saturday's blog, I had mentioned that I was assured delivery of the car by 7:30 p.m and thankfully this time there was no twist in the tale.:)

When I reached the Concorde showroom, among all the cars parked, I could see a brand new car with the same colour i.e "Arctic Silver" I had chosen. My instincts told me that this was my car..and it indeed turned out to be correct..:) She(the car) looked stunning with tinted windows, clear headlamps, body coloured bumpers and the star attraction, the rear spoiler..:)

It had Blaupunkt stereo system installed and the car bonnet was decorated with ribbons. The customer service rep handed me the warranty manual, first aid kit, tool kit, a box of cadbury's celebration chocolates, a tissue box and finally my car keys.:) Only thing pending was a ganesha idol, perfume bottle and my number plate which will be fixed on Monday.

Sangeeta(customer service rep) took me to the car and told me the operating instructions for opening the boot, child lock in the rear door, the bonnet and the service instructions. I thanked Sangeeta and told her that I appreciate her help.

As I sat in my car, it was a strange new feeling. It was my first car and for a moment I took a deep breath. The feeling was yet to sink in. You can call it as a state of euphoria and excitement.

As I turned on the ignition, the stereo system came alive with FM radio..:)
I was a bit nervous whether I will be able to drive the car safely home without any scratches or fear of causing an accident. The last time I was @ the wheels was 2 years ago when I was abroad.

But that was something different, there was lane discipline and you could easily cruise along the roads. Here it was a bit scary with all the traffic. I knew that it was my acid test. Thankfully I managed to weave myself through the city traffic, although I got lost a couple of times and when I reached home the most scariest thing was climbing the steep gradient.

I didn't know how to park my vehicle on the steep slope and my worst fear was what if the vehicle rolls down the slope..:) I had the parking brake on and to be doubly sure put a couple of stones beneath the tyres. BTW I got a free body cover thanks to Sangeeta..:)

It was a lazy saturday morning. Even though I wanted to get up @ 8 a.m, my body clock had got adjusted to the 6:30 a.m schedule, I had to forcibly shut my eyes so that I can sleep a bit longer..:)

In the morning I got an SMS alert stating that the amount I had paid towards downpayment has been debited to my account. That brought a big :) on my face.

I got a call from the car showroom, the cusomer service rep wanted me to get a copy of my PAN card and the address proof so that she can send the car for registration and I can take delivery in the evening.

After sweeping and swabbing the floor,finishing my shower and my breakfast, I had to hurry to the car showroom. There was a bit of uncertainity again, as the ICICI bank rep told me that I can get the delivery of the car only on Monday as he hasn't received some details yet. That was like a trigger to me, coz it ignited my pent up fury. I was shocked coz I was expecting to take delivery atleast on the weekend and go for a nice drive in my car. I had handed all the required documents.

This time it was the agent's turn to face the music and he didn't know where to duck for cover..:) I told him bluntly that either I get my car today or I am least bothered about it and get my car loan from some other lenders who offer it @ a competitive rate of interest. I told him that it was nothing but inefficiency and I could have easily got the loan from some other lender in less than the time the bank took to process my loan. The agent didn't know what to say and promised me that I can take delivery of the car by 7:30 p.m on saturday. Let's see..:)

Thank God, it's a friday..that was the first thought when I opened my eyes in the morning..:)

Today there was a lot of fun @ work. It was a riot of colors and we were taken by surprise. All the team members went around smearing gulal(coloured powder) on our face, the occasion was holi, no one was spared..:) For a few minutes, it looked as if we were all kids playing around with colors. I felt really good as it's been a long time since I played holi. Initially I ducked for cover, but then gave in. Some hid in the restrooms and refused to come out..:)

One of my female colleagues came upto me and said that I was still looking clean and there was space for some more colors. I didnt want my clothes to get stained, so I told her to just apply a small amount of color on my face, thankfully she did just that..:) Later we celebrated the occasion with sweetmeats.

When we went to the cafeteria for lunch, people were looking @ us as if we were aliens..:) I guess seeing our faces and clothes smeared with colors, they would have been puzzled as to where did we play holi..:)

This happened 1 week before. I had gone along with a friend to coffee day @ forum mall. The bill came upto INR 104 and as I didn't have change I paid 500. The person manning the checkout counter was the Manager. This was around afternoon. In the evening when I had gone to pickup my sis and wanted to purchase something, I realized that I didn't receive the change. The next day I went to the same place and asked for the Manager.

As he wasn't there, I took his cell number. When I called him up, he promised to look into it and get back to me. After the call, I visited coffee day once again and spoke to the Manager again. I waited for a couple of days and when I visited Coffee day y'day, this time I was quite furous. I told one of the guys working there to call up the Manager. I spoke to the Manager and told him to give his superiors tel number. He was the area in charge. I spoke tough and gave him a piece of my mind.I also told him that it was not only a mere matter of money but also trust. He assured to look into the matter.

Within a space of few minutes, I got a call from the store manager who told me that he had checked the cash balances on that day and found no excess cash. I literally blasted him saying that what took him so long to give the information. I stood by my statement and told him that this amounts to cheating and I'll file a case with the police under Section 420. That threat seems to have worked. He finally relented and told me to get the cash from his boys @ 4:30 p.m

When I took the cash, I felt really good. I could have forgotton the whole thing and let it go (that would have been the easy part) however I fought for a cause I believed in and won..:) That also made me realize that "Knowledge is indeed power" and how much value education has in empowering each one of us.

I wanted to skip writing today's blog coz I don't know why..I am feeling pretty tired. My eyes feel heavy, shoulders are drooping and my legs are just not taking me to my destination i.e home.

As I have been getting up early for the past few days, I am feeling quite sleepy by 7:30 / 8 p.m. After watching a fair bit of television, I hit the sack by 10 p.m.

At work, I was introduced to a new member of my team, her name is Kiran. She is relatively inexperienced in programming although she has been with the organization since 1 year, the same fresher I had mentioned in my previous blog. It's a tough job to have a lady working under you and that too if she is very pretty..:)

Kiran's CV was quite impressive. She had a whole list of achievements to her credit. Apart from the academics, she was good @ carol singing, elocution, winning Miss personality contests consecutively for 4 years @ her college and the list goes on..:)

Anywayz as a professional it's my job to see that I am not distracted from the ultimate goal that is to make Kiran productive so that she can deliver the expected results. I drew up a plan for her which has a simple task assigned wherein she has to create a web application which inserts records into the database.

Today I have completed 2 months in Bangalore and tomorrow I complete 2 months with my current organization. I love February..coz it's the shortest month in the calendar year..:) Ofcourse the real reason is..you get your pay a few days earlier..:)

The documentation process for my car is not yet complete, I was expecting to take a drive during the weekend however in an unexpected twist my cheque got dishonoured, the reason given: it was an outdated cheque. I realized that I would have wrongly mentioned the year as 2006 in the cheque. How dumb of me.

Time to wrap up for the day..:)