Days of my life!!

Every once in a while, life gives you an opportunity to work on a project that benefits you in more than one way. Sometime last year, I was hit with a similar opportunity. At that point of time it appeared more like a challenge to me which I accepted with a lot of confidence. I worked hard, got a team together and a few months we had a very happy customer who blessed us with a load of praises. However, that wasn't the end of it.  Little did I know then that the person I interfaced with, was also a celebrated author of half a dozen books on Engineering and one fine day he sent me an email saying that he plans to write his last book on Low Power in ASIC design and wants me to review the same for him. I readily jumped to that opportunity and provided my feedback. Things quietened down as the book went into publication and it was only this morning that I received my complimentary copy. It gives you a very different kind of happiness to see your name printed on a boo...

Just yesterday dearest wifey asked me why I hadn't written a blog in a long time and that's when I realized that, forget writing one, I hadn't even logged on to my own blog for almost 6 months!! Well you could say that I wasn't too happy with my own writing. After all I have a phrase stuck in my head, which I have seen scribbled on all my report cards throughout my schooling days which loudly read out - "Can do better!" and I couldn't help applying the same to my writing. But No, that wasn't the case why I hadn't blogged (I am no quitter). In fact, something unprecedented happened to me in the last 6 months that kept me really busy - a phenomenon called voracious reading..... Now, a voracious reader in the real sense reads 3 books a day, but that's not me. For my own liking I read about 6 odd books in 5 months and that itself was like a new record I set.  It started with a sudden urge to read something on airplanes and science and...

As soon as we were done loading the books, one guy came up to us and asked us which school we were headed too. We showed him the list and he pointed to another guy standing in a red shirt and told us in Kannada that he would be our guide. We greeted the other guy and he told us that the first school was about 8 kms from where we were standing and the other two schools were within 3 km radius of the the first. We were to follow him on his motorbike as he would lead us to our destinations. Later, we found out that this gentleman was actually managing a few schools, representing the Government, in the district including the three schools where we were headed. We followed him and some 15 minutes later were being assisted by boys of the first school in unloading the sets of books that were stacked up in the boot of my car. As we made our way into the school, we were again greeted by an elderly lady who also happened to be the Headmistress of this school. She lead us into what was prob...

A newly drawn Rangoli welcomes you through a semicircular gate onto a typical rural-look one storied building. As you take a few steps inside and to your left, you see a small window, behind which a group of tiny little children are trying to desperately wave out to you shouting, " Good Morning Sir! " You wave back, and that gesture of your inspires them to shout out the same in an even louder tone! As you walk towards the window to greet them, a teacher suddenly steps out of the neighbouring class. " Namaste ", she says - probably the only Hindi word she knows. She tells us that the teacher of the class where, we were headed, is in the kitchen making breakfast for us. How nice!! We step into the class and are literally surrounded by the children in no time. My friend takes out his camera and asks them to pose for a picture, but obviously they don't understand a word of what we said, so he simply clicks on. Looking at the flash, the children get more ...

My hatred towards blood goes a long way back. I like to tell people that I hate the sight of blood after my unfortunate visit to the hopsital in Mumbai when I suffered a bout of phalsifaram Malaria, but I know in my heart that this enmity has being running within me right from childhood.  I still remember that unfortunate day in Saraswat Colony , when I had fallen of my cycle and hurt my knee. A little blood had started to ooze out and it was not the pain, but the sight of that red liquid that had made me feel nauseatic and not cycle again for a few days atleast! That was a long time ago and last week, when I got an email saying there was a blood donation drive in office, I willingly volunteered cause Prachi has been after me to do it for quite some time. She had convinced me saying that it was not only for a good cause, but also to ensure that some good blood needed to be re-generated within me! So, on Tuesday I went to the Gym room (where the drive was being conduc...

Last Sunday, I woke up feeling rather lazy after 4 days of hectic running around. I sipped some delicious coffee and breakfast that dearest wifey had made for me while watching Aamir Khan's Satyamev Jayate . At around 12, I started to feel hungry and I convinced Prachi that we head to ' Healthy Affairs ' restaurant for lunch cause a lot of people had warned me that my stomach was getting out of shape and control.  So, we went had a 'healthy' serving of starters, lunch and dessert, by reminding the waiter no to add any 'extra' oil atleast 10 times, so that we atleast feel better from within (as if that helps!) and as we were driving home decided to stop over at the local Namdharis' shop to do some grocery shopping. As we went through the usual routine of shopping for veggeies, fruits and some healty ladoos, I turned around and saw Vankatesh Prasad walk in with his wife. It was amazing to see India's premier bowler of a generation and th...

One of the first tasks assigned to us in our new office was to help organize the annual User Conference, which unlike the previous conferences we had organized, was far far bigger in size. Till date, for me, User conferences' were all about fun. Meeting old colleagues, friends, mixing around with customers, dining in a 5 star atmosphere and a few special moments when I actually got to work one on one with the CEO of Magma! This Conference, however, was quite different. Here, my team was actually involved in running the show and I was assigned the task of handling the registration booth for companies starting from the alphabet J to N for two consecutive days. In those two days, I learnt the art of handing out registration badges, welcome gifts, organizing attendee lists and keeping at bay serial perpetrators who only turn-up to collect freebies. Being a new venue, the people who attended only complained that some of the rooms for a few tracks were over-crowded and henc...