Wednesday, October 04, 2017

22 Years Since The Beautiful Journey Started - Manipal

It was the 4th of October 1995. The first day we started the Journey away from home, and probably at home away from it. 

The Journey has started, and as they say, the Journey is always beautiful than the destination. The journey has probably never ended and its only getting better by the day. The friendships made then are for lifetime, only getting matured every passing day. 




The View from the then 10th Block of the 9th Block and Annapurna Mess

The College Quadrangle

The Ganesh Temple in the Campus

Kamath Circle, the Gym, Basket Ball Court and the 4th Block(Boys Hostel Then)

Kaup

End Point - We cant see this view anymore


The Quadrangle again :)

One of my most favorite picture ever taken .

The Famous Tiger Circle

A few pictures from those days, most of them taken by me and countless more in my archives. 
Will update more in the coming days.

Friday, September 29, 2017

Can we Bank on these Banks??

I had to apply for a Loan and I approached two Banks. Two Huge Banks from India.

One of them HDFC while the other being SBI.  My first interaction was with the representatives from HDFC Bank, and though they promised earlier disbursement of the money, their approach of their employees was bad, to say the least. No respect for customers and no method to speak properly. Though I can say, maybe its an exception, and its the mannerism of people rather than the Bank, the feedback has been consistent from different sources.

I had a completely different experience in SBI Branch. The manager sat with me and explained it in a nice manner. Got all the documents together and helped me to fill the documents and within 15-20 minutes completed all the formalities. I must say that the attitude of the manager of a branch was so humble. Again this can be limited to certain people, but again, the feedback from many of friends with SBI has been really good.

I sometimes wonder, why is this such a big attitude change when it comes to such huge two Banks in India.

But one thing is for sure, I would never approach HDFC Bank for any slightly complicated work.

Sunday, September 10, 2017

Facebook Check-In

In your typical day when you visit your facebook timeline, do you see any check-ins from your friends on it ?
I do have some observations about them and probably some of my thoughts behind them,mostly sarcastic :)

  • When travelling outside India, its a must to check-in on Facebook. Else the airlines will never give you the boarding pass.
  • The check-in while travelling abroad should be at each of the transit airports. Else they can't use the washrooms in the transit airports, nor are they allowed to buy anything from the airport duty free shops
  • One of my friend in the US, checks-in almost twice to thrice a week, travelling within US. Its from Atlanta to Detroit or to New York or wherever. That's when I realised that in US it must be a mandatory to checkin first on facebook before you check-in at the airport counter.
  • Those who are abroad, say the US/UK kind of folks, will check-in when they visit a Temple. Probably the priest will give Prasadam  only for those who have checked-in.
  • You will not see any one in India doing a check-in into temples, unless if its a trek to a mountainous temple or visiting the temple has a historic reason rather than a religious angle to it.
  • If one visits a Five Star hotel looking beautiful photographically, then its kind of a must to check-in on  facebook. The taste of the food is immaterial. It should be visually appealing.
  • If you are travelling to Leh Ladakh , then its a sin not to to a check-in. The mandatory photo should be the Pangong lake preferably on your Enfield Bullet and a Nikon DSLR. 
  • One of the most important check-in especially for this year(2017) was to check-in before going to watch Bahubali 2 . Without the check-in the you wouldn't be allowed inside the theater at all.

The only real thing I see value in such check-in is marking yourself safe when there is some incident in your area or so. Your near and dear ones will know that things are fine. Else every time I see a check-in on facebook, I have to try real hard not to post any sarcastic comment on the same,


Saturday, September 09, 2017

Electric Cars In India

Just a couple of days back , there was a comment from the concerned Minister that there will be a strong push for the Electric Cars In India. I must say that, its a good move, and given the level of emission related issues in big cities and others too, it is quite a need of the hour.

But I do feel there is a lot of bottlenecks for reaching the usability which the Petrol or Diesel cars have reached as of today. And more importantly the cost of these cars.

If I go back a few years , November 2011, I was invited for the Launch of Chevrolet Beat Electric here in Bangalore. I had taken a few pictures too.




Those days the only Electric Car was Reva, and for me it was way too small a car. Smaller than Nano if I can say. And the cost, quite high. The reason for the high cost was right from their end, as the numbers were and are still quite less. What one spends on buying, would be made up on the spending less on Fuel.

But this Car , Chevy Beat was good and quite big, Infact its the same body of the regular Chevy Beat.
I did ask this person, (sorry forgot his name) as to when it will be launched in India. He calmly said, that they will not be launching in India anytime soon, Because it was not feasible due to the costs and the battery life. Had this car launched, I am quite sure, there would have been many who would have bought it, instead of the Reva(now, Mahindra Reva).

Coming back on the reform mandated by the Government of India that, we would need to change. I still have the same questions which were open when I had seen this Chevy Beat.


  1. The Battery Life and the charging capacity needs to be increased to give more mileage per charge. Yes, they have improved, but not really there.
  2. Where do we charge these cars ? We don't have enough charging points to charge them, Let alone outside home, even in our apartment complexes, we would almost need one per car park if we will all have electric cars
  3. We need sufficient charging points outside home. Yes, few malls in Bangalore,like Forum Mall do have special parking for electric cars and free charging, but we need a lot of them. Yes, the airport parking also has them in Bangalore :)
  4. Since there are not sufficient charging points, there have been talks of providing batteries on exchange at the so called charging points.
  5. This would mean, it would almost be imperative to have similar or same batter configurations required for all the cars, or maybe just a couple of categories to make them easily exchangeable.
  6. If there is still considerable charge left in the Battery, and still needs to be replaced, then we might be almost giving back considerably charged batteries during exchange. That will be another business of its own then.
  7. If we plan for long drives, then we would need such Battery Exchange Points. How would one really know, how good those batteries are and how far will they push the vehicle ?? We have already have lot of cheating while filling petrol or diesel. Will this not take it to another level ?
  8. Even if we have charging stations, and the speed of charging does go up quite high, like in the case of today's mobile's, but it wouldnt be too less a time. Not to mention the queues. We already have lot of queues at Fuel Stations for the given number of cars today. 
  9. Though we are trying to fix an environmental problem of air pollution, will there not be more batteries disposed with Electric Cars coming in ? and I dont think that these batteries are anything of less polluting, though much lesser than petrol and diesel, but the waste material of the batteries would be another thing to take care, especially the lead nodes and the acid in them.
It is indeed the future of cars and there is no doubt in them, more so considering the fossil fuels getting consumed at alarming rate. But there is an urgent need to take care of lot of things, when all the cars get into the Electric Mode.

But yes, the air would be better to breath and there would be no noise pollution from the Petrol and Diesel Engines. That would be something to look forward to.

I just hope that they come up, charging of these batteries with solar power also , which will make it a lot convenient, while driving , the batteries get charged on their own :P


Friday, September 08, 2017

Gauri Lankesh

We have been getting Lankesh Patrika at home since a very long time, and the paper for those times, ie when we were still kids was quite a brave one. They would expose politicians and actors and off course the killers etc. They were the Crime Patrol or Savdhan India of those days, if I am not wrong.

To be frank, though I had heard a lot of Lankesh ie, the Father of Gauri, in so many years being in Bangalore also, I hardly heard of Gauri. Only some news here and there , but nothing serious. 
I am not sure, what she was working on, but given the lineage I do feel she would be doing a good job as a Journalist 

Whatever the reasons be, that she was killed , it must have been some serious news which she had and hence the result. Cant be anything else for sure. But what I really didnt understand was, why State Honours for her ?
I am just not able to explain that to myself. Just a journalist being killed, so she should be given state honours..Just dont get it ..

Thursday, September 07, 2017

The Old 500 Rupee Notes

No matter what , I can surely say that the old 500/- Re notes during the demonetisation are the ones which I liked the most. Today, the grey colored 500/- ones are just not attractive or having a feel good factor.
The 2000/- rupee notes, must say, I hate them, both, for its usability as well as the color. Pink ? Really ?

Now we will have some more new ones coming, a 200/- and a 50/- . Lets see how they look.
But to frank, I think the new set of people who are designing the notes are from colleges who have got thru reserved category. Can't think of any other valid reason..


Small Apps

Its really been sometime, since I visited this blog and wrote an article. Facing a weird problem. The articles which I plan to write, after opening the laptop, I am just not able to remind myself. And then finally I give up and dont do anything. Today, I thought I will just try to run through my whole day and see if I can recollect. Not that I could recollect anything, but just thought to update something I did so that I do remember.

One of the things which I was planning to do was to create a small program or an excel sheet, which can compute the amount of EMI which are pending based on the total amount payable. I knew it would be simple, but I have been putting it off for a long time.

I sat with the excel for around 20 min and I was able to get whatever I needed from that small app. It gave me the insights which I was looking for and make more informed decisions on my repayments to the bank.

The point is, that, when many things are in your mind, one does tend to forget and all the clutter only makes life more miserable.

So, point to be noted is that, as soon as something comes up in the mind, get to it and take it to closure. Reduce the lists. Rather focus on completion.

Friday, August 25, 2017

Monday, July 31, 2017

The Place of Solitude

Everyone has their one space, where one finds his or her solitude. That place, where one finds himself and tries to be with himself.



Some do their own place in some quiet mountains, while some do find it in the comfort of their homes, whatever mess it might be in. 

But I have a different place to find my own space. I feel, its my car. The route between home and office. No one to bother you, and no one to dictate you what you want to do in the car. I listen to my favourite music in my car. Yes, I do feel irritated on the others who make my life miserable on the road, but thats just a way to get rid of your emotions by shouting at them. After all they are other  people. Not your friends and family ...



Sunday, July 30, 2017

Comfort Zone

How does one define comfort zone ? Various definitions, but all that I can say, is , something someone is most aligned, however inconvenient it might feel to others.
I know, its a bit difficult to others to gauge what I am really intending to say.

Some examples might be helpful and here they are...

One of my friend, loves to take pictures and kind of one of those wild life photographers. But knowing that this field doesnt really give you the returns that one need for that expensive hobby , still chose to thread that path. Its more of a personal choice. There are many issues, but going back to a full time job, he choses to do. There is no security, but maybe security might not even be a requirement for such people. All that need is that adventure. Are their parents happy ? Not very. But content that their child is doing what he likes.

These kind of decisions are very diffcult for me take. I guess its person to person. Some people think of them first and some of their near and dear ones first. Not all the work gives all the satisfaction one needs. There are pluses and minuses every where. Somewhere in the middle, one needs to take a call and thread that line. Not easy at all. But nevertheless needs to be taken. And mind you, not everyone will be happy with a decision one takes. But at the same time, one doesnt live to make others happy. One only lives to make happy those lives, which matter to him/her.

I do have a different view of such people. Like their attitude of doing something they like and not repent later in life. But then the things, which one failed to do, will they not haunt you later in life ? Something of the other, will definitely make you feel bad. Its only what you can take in your stride that one needs to do. Nothing else...

Monday, July 17, 2017

Sunday, May 07, 2017

Personal Gadgets

So, how many gadgets do you carry with your every day ?


  1. The Ubiquitous Smart Phone
  2. The Laptop/Tablet( Dont see the tablets much these days..)
  3. The Power Bank
  4. The Health Bands( which measures all the heart beats , sleep and what not)

These are the few normally everyone carries on themselves every single day. 

Then to add to these, we have the corresponding chargers to charge them all. So, all around your table or the side table around your bed, you will see, a series of these charges going all over the place. 

If the TV or the Wi-Fi Router is also in the same place, then god save you. 

Then came a time, I was frustrated to see all the wires around and I really didnt want more of them. Just for the phone and the laptop seemed okay to me, as they are the important gadgets which I use and consider them to be useful for me.

One fine day, on my birthday, my dear wife, gave me a present, which was a nice watch. It was of Titan Juxt series. I used them for a couple of days, and found the features to be good. I am a person, who still likes to wear wrist watches and that too of analog types. Am not a fan of the digital watches.

So, for using these, the first thing I had to do was,  charge  the watch. Another Charger and more importantly another device to be charged. The very thought of that kind of put me off. I used the watch for a couple of days. Yes, I could see my whatsapp messages on it, connected to my phone via bluetooth. But didn't make much sense as I could see it on my mobile also which was anyways, with me. Then it also acts like a pedometer and calculates the steps which I traverse. Again the Google Fit app, also does something similar, but then I dont carry the phone all over the place, but the watch is with me, most of the time. 
But do I really need that accuracy ? Not really..


So, in just a couple of days of using the nice watch, I returned it and got myself a nice Xylys watch. It was a nice and elegant swiss watch, and I think I was just feeling better to wear something, which didnt get in touch with your skin to calculate the different statistics of my body. No, I dont want something like that to be on my body 24 hours.

Probably I am still the old fashioned guy, but I must admit, I like it that way.

The gadgets are great, but I feel, one should know the limits as to how much one should be dependent on that, and how many of them, one  should wear on my body.


Friday, May 05, 2017

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Nokia Phone 3310

Nokia has recently announced that, its planning to come out with one of its best sellers ie Nokia 3310.
It was one of their best phones and I completely agree with it. Though my first phone was Nokia 5110, a huge phone, I never used a 3310. But yes, it was a brilliant piece. The question, which I was wondering today, during my drive back home, was, will I like to buy that phone, assuming its value for money...
Well, the answer is probably No.

If you ask me, which phone of Nokia, I would like to have back, then clearly it would be Nokia 6610.
I think, it was one of the classy phone and very very elegant looking one.

So my feedback to Nokia would be 6610





Any comments ? Any favourite mobile of yours which you want back..Hope its not Moto Razr :)



Friday, April 21, 2017

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Martyr's Day





23rd March 1931 - The day when Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev had willingly sacrificed their life for freedom of India from the Britishers, so that we can live in a free India.

Years later, today when we see the things happening around us, I sometimes wonder whether the sacrifice they made, have we really valued it ? Is this the India they had envisaged while they took the brave step ? I am saddened to say, no, we haven't.


Today while watching a program on TV, which show cases the lives of famous bandits during the British Era, I see that, two brave guys, who so called turned into Bandits, to loot the Britishers or those Landlords who were supporting the English. And the money they looted was shared among the other poor people, who were continuously harassed either by these landlords or the Britishers.
Finally, the British manages to catch them , but only after one of the insiders reveal their secrets to them,

Isn't it sad that, always Britishers have managed to play the divide and rule and get their job done. But do we really blame them ? Isnt it really who support the British who are the actual traitors of India ?
And yes they exist even till today.

I mean I see such people, even today in our offices. They are the so called Project Managers who aceept almost everything what their bosses sitting in US/UK are dictating and then without battling a eyelid agree to everything. They will hardly say no to them and make the teams here slog a lot to get the job done. Would these todays traitors  do the same against their Firangi bosses ? No. They don't . Infact they leave no stone unturned to lick their shoes when they come to India. Its sometimes so embarassing to see our own people dance to their tunes, not really because the Firangis ask them, but more to, on their own will.
Somewhere deep down, they still want to be slaves of the English, irrespective whether the English want them or not.

Its an incident which happened today in office made me write this post.

Sorry Bhagat Singh, Rajguru  and Sukhdev. We probably didn't live up to your expectations.

Sunday, March 12, 2017

Rahul to Canvas for Karnataka Elections

After gaining the expertise in canvassing for UP Elections and the not so recent 2014 Parliamentary Elections, Rahul has Indeed become a seasoned Election Campaigner.  And time and again, its proven that whenever he actively participates in the Election Campaign, it has given positive results for them.

Keeping this in mind and also the elections coming in Karnataka, the next year, they would definitely want Rahul to campaign aggressively in Karnataka . After all, Its the largest state which has Congress Rule. So things can’t be taken lightly especially here.


But at the same time, its been constantly observed that, whichever Government Rules in Karnataka in the past few elections, its always the other party which rules at the Centre. So, somewhere its a bone of contention, whether a win in Karnataka is good or not.


But then, this time the party in question has to win Karnataka, and that too by Majority, and going by the things which have turned, in the past 5 years, its not something which is difficult.

Hence, the BJP Senior Leadership has done all the arrangements and financing for Rahul to do complete campaigning in Karnataka and they have without doubts agree, that, if Rahul Campaigns, BJP can never lose. He is their real TRUMP card after all.



PS: Please note, this article is purely a Satire and meant for entertainment purpose only.

Friday, February 24, 2017

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

February

Isn't this a interesting month ? February.

It's good in two ways for the employees, not really for the employers or who earn from business.. It's definitely negative for them, and for the same reasons, it was good for employees.


So why is good for employees?

One only has to work for 28/29 days, while still getting paid for the whole month.
And then, many of the variable expenses get reduced, as there are two or three less days than regular month.

Just looking at the positive side, from my perspective








Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Wednesday, February 01, 2017

Disappointing Budget 2017

Probably one of the much awaited and hyped budget, and definitely, nothing in it for the Salaried Class.

This Budget has made me think that, yes, probably those who don't pay taxes are the lucky ones as they earn what they can and use it rather than paying taxes. The Salaried people were left high and dry.

Jaitley indicated in the Budget speech that, most of the tax payers are indeed Salaried, but absolutely nothing in for them. Even if there was no major change in the tax slabs or the cuts, people were hoping for some benefits, maybe in the conveyance, investments under 80ccc or medical insurance or anything, in that area. But then just nothing. 

I am highly disappointed today, and the faith that, Modi had indeed done a great thing by demonetization, has been somewhere eclipsed. 

Either they should have started to collect taxes from more people, or reduced the amount from salaried. Something should have been done. But I guess, its the vote that matters at the end of the day and nothing else.



Monday, January 30, 2017

Sunday, January 29, 2017

Why I dont Prefer Airasia to travel anymore

Over a  period time, I have started to dislike the Service Provided by Airasia flights and to be more precise, on the seat allocation.

Though I would like to add, their aircraft are good and the in-flights service has been good.



This issue which I am highlighting is quite frequent, or maybe always.  Most of the times, when I try to do an online check-in I almost end up getting an error, if I try and choose the *free* seats. Its only once I have been able to check-in correctly. So, I gave up checking in online for the free seats.

But then when I go to the counter, they will make sure to tell you, that they cant provide us with adjacent seats at all, and if I need I will need to pay. If I tell them to give me the free seats itself, then the next step would be give me discounts on that seat selection fee. That's when we end up going for the paid seats.

The last couple of time, I told them , to give me the *free* seats, they made sure to give me seats far away from each other. Their intention has been regularly to cause you discomfort on that front and make you pay. And at the same time, the folks at the check-in counter will try their best to make sure you pay, even at the cost of the keeping the queue on hold.

The Incident when I would to be specific here is that, I was told that *only* the last row seats are available and there the push back seats are not available. Hence I would need to pay, to get seats which have push back :) Now, isn't this pushing the limit ? 
And when I board the flight, I see a lot of empty seats:) 

But that's not the case with Indigo or Go Air. Their online check-in system has been very good, and also , even when I have not been able to check-in, they do try to make sure, to give us seats together.

That's when my last preference in the selection of the Airline has been #Air Asia.


Shouldnt the Taxation be done differently ?




In todays date, when all the eyes are set on the budget 2017, and the main component, which everyone is looking for is a cut in the taxation rates and the slabs. Well, thats something which even I have been looking for. However, just reducing the taxation, will it not hamper the amount the government will eventually have for the various programs ?

Rather than just reducing the tax rates for the majority of the salaried and other tax payers, why cant we have a much lower slab, which will make sure, a huge number of people pay a small amount of tax.

Say, if one is earning around 1 lakh a year, currently this person will not be paying any taxes. And I suppose a huge number of people are in this bracket. So why cant the government charge a very nominal tax amount say 1% or 0.5%. When we have huge numbers of these, will it not help everyone.

Why should only the middle segment people who are primarily in the salaried class bear all the wrought, when dealing with taxes.
When we have more and more people paying taxes , though very small amount, it will be better for the overall growth of the country , rather than taxing only a few.

The bigger and the more important part of taxation, is when, the amount paid, should be reflected in the amenities which is provided for the people. Only then every one will eventually like to pay

I do hope that, this does happen eventually.