No time..

..to blog.

1. Played two hours of hardcourt tennis with Rakesh at Wipro Corp. HQ at Sarjapur.
2. Good supper treat by Aravind (for his IIMA admit) at Lemon Grass.
3. Cisco training over thankfully. SNMP over y’day. Hands-on of net-snmp today.
4. Decent race at Imola. Zero overtakes, but Schu and Alonso were the stars of the race. Super pit strategy (and some lack of integrity) by former kept latter behind. McLaren kept me in good humor with a 3-5 finish from 7-8. They didn’t pull off the heavy fuel strategy.

I take it back..

My comments about iPod that is. As Vittu says, the iPod video 30 GB is fragile stuff (‘cuz it has an HDD), but thats precisely the reason I’m getting it. My nephew is sure to throw that thing if he sees it. It is hidden away until I can collect it.

I’m really happy with the Shuffle Vittu gave me. Passing it on to sis now. I stepped on the left earphone last week and the grey circle cracked and therez a dent on the silver surface but its still working fine. What sturdy stuff, I say! Flash rules.. and I’m now an iPod fan. Its begun working on my PC too, now I’ve installed WinXP. 🙂

Lately got a lot of video I want to take home and see (viz. Southpark and movies like Lock, Stock,.., Snatch, Super Troopers, etc.), so I sure could use that 30 GB! 😀

Happy days..

..are here again! Anand, Akuts, Harith, Raj and I went to Banyan Tree farm. This time we were spared the gruelling ride, thanks to the cab we rented. Had a few breezers, but the sun cheated us by going behind a huge cloud and robbing us of the orange light-diffusing sunset.

With the local actor’s death on Wednesday, office closed early and Thurs was declared a holiday (we’re working next Sat’day instead), so its been a bonus. Enjoying a four day long weekend. RV came here y’day and we had a Schnapp session. Kittoo landed a job at a law firm today and has left for Cochin with RV. He has to join on 24th..

Shaavi was s’posed to land from AUH today, but his ticket didn’t get confirmed, so he’ll be here sometime next week. After that, we’re planning to shift out to a palatial place. I’m right now at Vin’s place and the luxury of PC with broadband and fridge is tempting!

Gee! I cannot wait to join Chechi’s company which kicked off this week. But it’ll take a lot of time considering they recruit only highly-experienced resources. The rudimentary website is up! 🙂 I can’t wait either, for the next race. Amid rumors of Schumi’s shifting to Renault next year, F1 is bound to get very interesting indeed!

The happiest news this week however, is of Aravind making it to IIM A! 😮 Always knew the guy had it in him. Gaurav made it to MDI too, so it looks like I’ll have to search for a new set of pals at the workplace. I’m waitlisted 100-odd at MDI, who have confirmed 330+ people for the 120 PGPM seats, so my chances are bleak.

I’m not bothered anyway, as work is getting better and better and Kittoo and Shaavi will bring a fresh breath into Bangalore life. Also, I can keep earning and spending. I’m due to get an iPod from my BIL who works at CTS (they presented employees with the 30 GB video version! :-o). Whaddacompany!! 🙂 And WHATTABROINLAW!!! 😀

Time to get jealous, folks.. 😉

Appraisal

My PUM’s cribbin’ ‘cuz the self-appraisal per objective has a 2400 char limit. I wonder if I’ve filled in even a tenth of that! 😮 Meanwhile, I’m trying hard to turn a blind eye to the fact that I will have to continue in this profession, not for another year as earlier planned, but for the remainder of my lifetime in all probability. With the reservation quota at IIMs likely to climb up from 22.5% to near 50% next year, I just want out of this incorrigible country.

The good news is, my next activity in the project has been cancelled. The allocation was a mistake due to client oversight. So I’ll be engaged in “learning” about the domain now. I have a Cisco training to attend here, on Routing & Switching, the whole of the week after next. Next week will be spent reading up on that. Thats the news on the tech side.

Life is beginning to look up. My bird flu scare (slight fever, cold, cough, headache, sinusitis) disappeared after Panadol, Cofol, Sinarest n’ Cifran. I’ve begun having breakfast everyday before boarding the route bus at 16th Main, with a brisk morning walk thrown in.

Kittoo has landed today, to explore alternatives to a career as a lawyer. With his sporadic journalistic exploits, he will be interviewing with ET and the like. RV is getting here tomorrow, to spend some time with us before joining Aditya-Birla Group at Mumbai where he’s placed after PGPHR from MDI Gurgaon. Potter, Error and Cyborg might join us on a small excursion to Banyan Tree farm this weekend.

[Listening to: Bad (Michael Jackson) – (4:06)]

Roadtrippin’

The Chennai-B’lore trip was great. We started off at about 4 p.m. and got here at 10.30. We had a lot of fun on the way. Came across many of the “Lamborghini vs. Ferrari” drag races, Pranay’s satirical analogue for one truck doing 20kph on an acclivity, overtaking another at 18kph. We were doing 120kph otherwise, so it was quite irritating.

While we passed these trucks, Ashok would slow down whilst we rolled down our windows to shower the truck drivers with the choicest abuses we could muster. Language not being a barrier in the least, we berated them in fluent Tamil leaving Chennai and in Hindi nearing Bangalore. There was this guy cycling on the highway a la Tour de France and the look on his face was just priceless when we gave him gaali with surround sound: Pranay careening to the rear right and me making full use of the left front passenger seat.

As for Albert Park, Alonso drove superbly to take the chequered flag ahead of Raikkonen, whose last lap was the fastest of the race. Honda’s decision to abort Button’s race was foolish IMHO. Monty and Schumi stupidly lost control at the final corner. The former exhibited amazing skill in retaining control of the car (though in vain), something the latter failed to. Schumi crashed into the wall and later stomped into the wrong garage in frustration! :p

He wasn’t the only one to be embarassed thus. Fisi had to be egged on by his race engineer as usual and this time was told off for “being too slow with the same fuel load and machinery as Alonso.” He and Monty were 1.5s slower than their respective teammates over a single lap.

Cheers to one and a half years since Ferrari’s last proper victory.
They suck so bad even STR can beat ’em without breaking a sweat. I am loving it 🙂

[Listening to: James Blunt – Back To Bedlam – Goodbye My Lover (4:18)]

Need a little help

Giridhar, my best pal from my college days at REC Trichy, plans to relocate next month to Cochin, to commence Math tuition for serious IIT aspirants. He is currently employed with Career Launcher Mumbai, where he is a popular facilitator for IIT Math coaching.

I would like to know if any of you have your sibling(s) or friend(s) studying in the 10th, 11th or 12th std., who have plans to pursue engineering at the premiere institutes of the country. I’d greatly appreciate it if you would get back to me with contacts (Name, Tel No./ Email Address) of interested candidates and any queries you might have. Thank you very much.

I’m free

I’ve been quite busy over the last few days completing my OSPF module, appraisal, etc. Finally got some time off. Thurs was a hol for Yugadi. Went out with Chubby (Abhishek) on a whim to look for a 17″ TFT LCD monitor. Brigade Rd is not too far from BTM for a Pulsar 180! We checked out the HP showroom but screens are too expensive. The Dell online offer of a 19″ TFT for Rs.16500 is very tempting.

I took Fri off and came with Ashok in his Palio-D to Chechi’s place at Chennai. It feels good to be mobile again. Tore my plaster cast off myself last Sunday at Abesh’s place where I slept over and went to WebWorld later to play CStrike. I visited Aravind’s dad who’s ortho- he said my foot is OK now, though its still a bit swollen.

Amma was here in Chennai but she left y’day. I’m driving back with Ashok n’ Pranay today. Couldn’t meet Hari and the other ju’s though 😦 Qualifying’s just over and Button’s on pole after ripping a super-fast lap. He’s prolly light fuelled, but I hope the Renaults on 2-3 don’t zip past him like always. They’re followed by the McLarens. The Ferraris didn’t make the top ten, so its gonna be a good race tomo. 🙂