Days of my life!!

The IT boom down south ensured a healthy influx of talented and non-talented proffesionals in the city of Bangalore. The city wasn't fully equipped to handle this and the locals had to do lots of adjustments. One of the most important provisions was to provide a place to stay, for the hoardes of people who came. Some folks used this oppurtunity to make some quick money. They renovated their bungalow style houses and added a few more floors on top of their own ground floor apartment, so that they could make rooms there and rent it out. It appears that there are very few Architects in Bangalore or the ones available are too expensive, but for some reason, the house owners here decided to put on their drawing hat and make the blue print for the renovation themselves. The consequences of their actions are visible for everyone to see when they go house hunting - 1. Ask for a house with atleast two toilets and the agent will show you a room with a single toilet having both an Indian and ...

It was the year 2004, I was on my first 'out-of-mumbai' marketing trip to Delhi. Among other customers I had to go visit the Jindal Steel Plant in Hissar, Haryana. Sometimes when I look back, I wonder what an Electronics Engineer, like me, was doing, selling water filter to a steel company....but let me not get there. This blog is about my experiences during my travel across India. I was to travel with my senior colleague, Munish, who was based out of Delhi. So, when he told me that we would be leaving at 8:30pm for a 4 -5 hour journey to Hissar, I wondered why he planned for us to reach an unknown place at 1am, but instead just asked him the following question: Me: "Kaunse bus se jaana hain?" Munish: "Jee...Haryana Roadways ki mil jayegi. Nahi toh UP roadways ki toh han hi" Me: (thinking) This was going to be fun. So we ended up at the ISBT bus stand in South Delhi and boarded the Haryana Roadways bus to Hissar. The bus was more than usually crowded for a ...

The latest hero to entertain this nation is none other than our Olympic Gold medallist Abhinav Bindra. Winning a gold in an individual event for the first time ever is an amazing task and will be remembered for a long long time. Bravo Mr. Bindra.....Thank You for making us proud!! Whilst on the topic of Beijing 2008, one can't forget the feat acheived my one Mr. Micheal Phelps. The young American swimmer has made his mark on the Games in a big way and changed the face of Swimming completely. I was reading an article featured on him - 'Life in the fast lane', where he said "Listening to the anthem with a medal around your neck is an amazing feeling". The very mention of this statement took me back a couple of years to 2007. I was one of the lucky ones to have been in Melbourne when the city played host to the Commonweath Games 2007. The Commonweath Games may not be as huge as the Olympics, but is a magnificent event in itself. The competing nations are fewer as co...

Following closely on the heels of my friend Nishat's blog....I too thought that I cud write about something I went through....I recently shifted into my new job. Even before joining, I was requested to make sure my name was spelt correctly, so that there was no problem going forward. So, after checking some three times, I was happy that all was fine. Than my first day on my new job....I am shown into my cubicle by the Admin Assitant. AA: "Here is your seat Prasan sir" Ok cool....A new CPU with a 17inch flat screen monitor. A little package containing a note book, a pen, a pencil and other stationery neatly arranged on my desk. But my eyes fall on the little name plate kinda thing that has been proudly displayed at the corner of every cubicle. Something that 'almost' says "This is Prasan's territory.....Enter at your own risk!!!" Thats when I checked the spelling "PRASAN SHANBAG" Me: "Excuse me, there is a H missing from my surname. It...

Weekend getaway from Bangalore No. knot knot 7.... Destination: Pondicherry (renamed now as Puducherry - around 100 kms from Chennai) Attendees: 4 guys Mode of Transport: Maruti Swift The advantage of four guys going on such a trip is that there is no need for any advance planning. Go and find some decent place to stay and eat. Roam around like wild animals without worrying too much.....or so we thought........ I was wondering all morning what to write about Pondicherry and finally decided that I will just list down our itinerary as it played out: Friday 10pm - Leave office. Saturday 1am - Take a wrong turn assuming that, in Tamil Nadu the KM unit is defined differently from the rest of the world!! Saturday 2am - Find our way back after travelling 80kms extra!! Saturday 3am - Have a near death experience, thanks to a slight lapse in concentration on behalf of the driver. Saturday 6am - Finally reach Pondicherry with a smile on our faces. Saturday 6:45am - Still searching for a decent...

On a day when the date reads 08-08-08.......here is an interesting story from my past:- It was a fine summer day. Five guys were lazing around in the magnificent drawing room of 3450/A, 4th Cross, Indiranagar. That's when a messenger came knocking on our doorstep with a flower bouquet and some wrapped items. We had to power-up our inactive brains to realize that it was February 14th - Valentines' Day!! Four hearts, including mine, were broken when we found out that the gifts were meant for Mr. NP. Our first thought was that N had obviously hidden something from us, but that did not worry us too much as we gobbled up the chocolates to satisfy our ever hungry tummies and than shifted our attention to N, who, by now, had opened up the greeting card and was reading the contents studiously. The card read something like this: Dear Bunty, Happy Valentines' Day......miss you....blah blah....chumma. Your and Yours only, Bubly. That's when we decided to interrogate N and make him...

This is a story of three guys who travelled down from Mumbai to Bangalore some time back and were given a warm welcome on their arrival in 'namma city'. After travelling for about 20 hours in the 3-tier coach of the train, they were witness to the efficiency of Indian Railways, which meant that they arrived at the outskirts of Bangalore some 30 minutes before the scheduled time. However, they then became victims of the efficiency of Bangalore Railway Management, which made the train wait near the K R Puram station for one hour, hence ensuring that the train rolls into Bangalore, late by 30mins!!! I must say here that the main culprit of the delay was the unseasonal rains. (Actually after staying in Bangalore for little under two years, I have now realized that over here, there is no season for rains. It can start pouring at any time of the day, in any month. But the rain only last for a couple of hours.) That day, however, it had rained non-stop for 3 hours.....too much raaa!!!...