Back to School !

I am starting my final semester (I think so) in USC after serving a temporary working life in a company which is currently going through rough patch (Ref:Previous Blog). I have to say school life is far better. If someone funds and pays to attend school , I would do it forever. Reasons are quite obvious.

When you are working in corporate life , it tends to be monotonous. Get up every weekday at the same time , get ready , go to work , come back , work out and sleep.
Wait for weekend for enjoyment/relaxation and again curse Monday morning. Virtually its a cycle of predictable events. U feel life as if someone had programmed you.

In school life , every day is some what new. We don't have to wait for a weekend to sleep or relax. Except to attend class and submit an assignment it hardly matters which day of the week it is. You are the boss of your own life. Moments that you spend in school is the one which will remember for rest of your life.

Make best use of your education life rather that cribbing about it. Though u get paid when u work , money is not all it life. Funny thing is , sometime people get so much that they don't have time to spend with satisfaction. Thats the Irony life!
I am not denying the fact that one shouldn't require money at all. Most people are bound to work for living some day . Am only trying to say that you have to strike the right balance between your work and life. Work is not life!. I know this is hard to do , but once balance is found person will be content or happy in life.

Lay off , Live Show!

We all have heard about it , read about , experienced or witnessed. Well , I witnessed it . Live show , I would put it as. Reality in current corporate world , considering slow down of US economy. Well this post will describe one such lay off which happened dramatically.

I am currently doing an Internship in company called NextWave Wireless. It looked like a normal day , where I was just doing my low priority work. After all Intern does that, in most cases at least. Our team had a normal meeting at 2 , just briefing about status. Outside the room , through the window , I could see people with tense look , moving around here and there. I hardly gave it a thought , was kind of lost after heavy lunch. I returned to desk around 3pm to continue my routine work , and was chatting with a friend regarding full time opportunity here . Call it a coincidence , an High Importance mail popped up which described about need for force reduction (or lay off) of about 10% to protect companies financial security. Then I thought , well full time chances is almost ruled out , have to look for a new one. So , had not much worries. Yes , I was kind of disappointed. Well , the whole point of doing an internship is convert into full time job. So , I went to cafeteria to get a cup of coffee. On my way , I could see petty groups of people here and there with a concerned look. Well , I thought people are just thinking who might actually get fired. Sadly that wasn't !!!.


I returned to my desk , one of the manager came to cubicle of another manager near to my desk and said he will do some hand off , and said he will chill out for next 2 weeks and start all over looking for a job again!!. Then I realized , people actually are fired. Then I went to desk of another intern whom I know , he wasn't there at his desk . But he was in around group of 6-7 Desis who were just talking lightly. Then I came to know everything . In that Desi group , 4 of them actually got layed off.

It seems people who got fired , got a mail to attend all hands meet around 2:30 pm in the afternoon and they cant afford to miss. Believe it or not , at 2pm their systems where locked by IT department , to protect Company data. When they attended the meeting , they were told one of the groups (Network group) was not performing well , So they are forced to lay off. They took their systems away , badges everything. And they were handed over HR bundle for exit process. It seems there was even stack of cardboard boxes to help fired employees take their stuff. One positive thing though is that they were in payroll for next 2 months.


What a dramatic day it was , even though I was not involved , it was quite a shocker to witness such a thing. This episode clearly explained how unpredictable life could be. You came in the morning and without warning you are asked to leave. Even the most feared or pessimistic person wouldn't have thought about it.


I guess in life , you have to be prepared for the worst. If you are then it is easy to digest such shocks. If we are not ready to face the reality then its always difficult to get over such events in life. Having said that , one should not be to pessimistic as well, always hoping for the worst. One should be optimistic in life and think that what ever happens , happens for good. Even though it is hard to visualize the positive aspects of a bad event , who knows that could be blessing in disguise. After all every cloud has a silver lining. If this is difficult , at least we should never give up hope. Well I end this blog from my favorite movie Shawshank Redemption "Hope is a good thing , may be best of things , and no good thing ever dies".

OH ,U WANT THE SCISSORS TO BE USED???

One of the many things that I miss from India is a good hair Saloon. Nearly for 6-8 years my barber was same, I used to get cut by same person no matter how busy he was. Reason being, there was no need to explain how to trim my hair. I simply transferred control of my head to him, he used to crop the way I want it.

So, here I come to LA hoping for some what similar hair cut that I had missed. One quick information though, In Los Angeles you find mostly Mexican Hair Saloons for reasonable price. Being a Student, you have to go there with no option left. Also Mexican men (Most of them) will like to keep the hair as short as possible; virtually you can see the skin on the head. Women Barbers also like to trim the hair the same way no matter who is in the hot seat!

When I went First time around, it wasn't that bad. It was kind of short, but was manageable. But, at that time I thought it was worst. Worst was early due this year. It was almost like I just came from a Dharmastala or Thirupathi after donating hair to god. Only difference was it was Mexican goddess [:P].You have to be careful to choose words when you try to explain how to cut your hair. Mexicans know English which is enough to survive. I said, don't cut short or something, probably lady just heard short and was happy to cut it short as possible. Mistake could be on my part as well. You see, I have one weakness; I can’t make it how much hair has been cut unless I look closely. Having no options, have to stick with Mexican saloons


Now am in San Diego for an Internship. My roommate suggested that, there is Chinese hair saloon near by and it’s quite good. So, I went trusting his words. There was a big surprise. It had turned out to be an Afro-American hair saloon. Having no other choice, had to go for it. So, I waited. Then came the weirdest conversation. A barber came near to me (I think he was the owner) and asked me whether I was here for hair cut. I said yes. Then he asked how I would like to the hair to be. I explained my usual style. Then he asked a question, which I dint see coming at all. He asked, "OH, U WANT THE SCISSORS TO BE USED?” I said yes, but inside me I was shell shocked. After he went away, I realized why he asked such a question. Usually, Afro-Americans have shorter hair (or no hair) compared to Mexicans. Most Afro-Americans visit hair saloon to basically clean of little grown hair. I felt it will be kind of rude if I walk out after this conversation. So I stayed there and hoped for the best. Then came my turn. There were plenty of Afro-Americans around; being a Sunday I presumed it was Barber family sitting around watching Rocky Balboa movie. Barber looked kind of confused when I sat for hair cut, but eventually he asked, how to trim my hair. I explained.
Confused barber started using his SCISSORS to trim my hair. Funny part was; he asked how long the hair would be, I mean literal measurement. I had to think for a moment and had to answer using inches unit. While he was struggling to, there was Barber's grandfather who kept starring at me as if he was seeing a hair cut for the first time in his career. Soon after some time one more Afro-American came and started shaving using electric shaver. So simple!
He was trimming my hair in weird way, but at the end it was almost what I had asked for. Though he was not proficient in cutting my type of hair, he some how figured out a way and did a pretty good job. In fact I was happy when it was done. I tipped him a couple of dollars for the extra effort.

I guess life is all about adapting to new challenges. New challenges could be faced in an innovative way, even if you had no clue about how to go. There is no harm trying different, after all what’s the worst that could happen? In this case, he could have screwed my hair, but he would have learnt from that experience.

Wonder who will read??

I finally thought , I should blog something. My last post was posted on Aug 21st. It has been 10 months since I posted. So , what is the reason??

May be am very lazy to blog. Other reason could be , I get excited by new things and gradually loose interest. My mind is very wavering , my interest and moods keep swinging all the time.

One more reason , may be i felt not many people were reading my thoughts. So , I thought what is the point in blogging anyway?

So here I am again , writing some crap. I have no Idea till how long this interest will float in my pendulum brain. But one thing I realized , I should blog not for other people's sake , I should for myself. Write out what your mind really things rather than waiting for people's reaction. Once you start doing it for your sake , other people might appreciate it. Also , Some day when you read an old memory , you would exactly know what you are feeling , may be feel good or bad about it.

Well having given an explanation as to why one should blog , now I should decide how frequent I should blog. Well its a tricky decision to make . Right now I feel , should post once in a week at least. One week is a lot of time to to write something. It could be my personal life , others or current controversial topic and list goes on.

I have a new found purpose for blogging , at least that's what I feel now. Also , I should not just write and keep quiet , I have to start reading other people's blog.

Its a good time pass to get to know other people thoughts may be you will understand better.

So who ever you are , who was patient enough to come to this last line , I would suggest you to start (Or restart ) blogging.


That's it for now , will star blogging soon on some inter sting things happened(or happening) in my life.

US story!

Being in India from my incarnation into this planet , whenever you land up in a new country all together you are bound to make some comparisons. Am no different from the rest. I will just make a list of things that strike the most in US and gradually compare with one in INDIA.



As soon as I came out of LA airport , the very first thing that i did was jaywalking , it means crossing the street when there is stop signal for pedestrians , luckily there wasn't anyone to give a ticket to me . Common , you have to excuse me here , I just had a tiresome journey and expect to look into a traffic signal which I barely followed when was in Bangalore. Off course only people staying in Bangalore could have crossed that busy road :). One more close thing that I observed is that people stopped their cars 10 feet behind. So , people do give lot of respect to pedestrians as against India , where there is pedestrians manage on their own.



In US , one thing that I liked is street addressing model , the system is so efficient that even a person like me who just landed can go from one gully to other gully.Every street is straight and will be given just a single name no matter how long the street is. May be because of this Google was successfully able to map any location in US. I guess people here rely on online maps to commute to new places ,having this addressing scheme life is made even simpler for them. In India , there is no such thing , only postman understands the terms main , stage , block so that only he can decode it. So , an alien can't commute here , that's a good thing then whats the point of being a localite. That reminds me to say that , if you ask anyone any place over here , they go blind even if it is somewhere around. Startling right? In India , almost everyone will have some idea , so throw away all the Internet maps , we have maps in people we say daily.


Just imagine that you are hungry in evening and just wanna grab a bite from a nearest bakery shop or a pani puri shop , off course in US u don't find them. Here there is no such thing as a small grocery shop , even to buy smallest of things you have to go to super markets. Obviously you can't find a supermarket in each and every street , so you have to commute. Contrast this with situation in India , super markets are divided into shops who will sell their own class of products like Stationary , fruits and vegetables , ration , pharmacy etc. If you are living in city you find these shops all over the place. So in India , it is demand driven , meaning whenever you want you will get rather than shop everything and dump in fridge!.


Finally , almost every naya Desi will first start to convert dollar to rupee for each and every thing you spend on. I bought a veg burger from McDonald's once , which was just minus chicken from chicken burger. For just a bun and a sauce ended up paying 2.30$ , that's 102Rs nearly . With hundred rupees in hand , you could survive for days with healthy food in my country. No wonder why people having dollar spend so lavishly . Luckily for us , dollar has dipped a bit now. In first week almost what ever you spend on your mind will automatically convert it to rupees and feel sad. This is in a way good thing , you will become a spendthrift and be more responsible about finances. This is one good lesson that am continuing to learn. Gradually you will reduce to convert and you get accustomed to this new currency.

With these handful of instances I dint try to prove whether India is better or US. Just that things are not the same everywhere , countries have their own way of dealing with issues and we have to accept however it is . I end this with relevant quote "Be a Roman in Rome" and chill.

Home Sick!

I remember the day when i got my VISA(Student) ,was so relieved to clear all my hurdles to enter US and start a new career. I thought my life would change , will be filled up with excitement. I knew i would miss my home , coz i haven't been out of my home for study/work purpose in my life. But this was overshadowed by purpose of studying in US.

I left to Los Angeles from Bangalore on July 31st , it was raining as if rain Gods where shedding tears as though they were sad i was leaving Bangalore!.When I was leaving home , I got a weird feeling , as if am going to miss a lot. I couldn't stop shedding a tear seeing my family with whom lived. So , i left India with sadness , but worst was yet to come. I reached LA on August 1st evening , went to an apartment which we(roomies from India) had reserved from B'lore. There were 3-4 people already in that place for temporary accommodation. So , I was well received by Gururja (was living there from last year).I was very tired , and slept till around 9 PM , had dinner prepared by inmates in apartment. But couldn't sleep after 4 in the morning. So , I woke up and called up home from calling card which i bought it from airport. My grandmother took the call i said about me reaching safe and all. She couldn't stop breaking down on phone , i felt really bad at that time. Having less balance , had to cut the call short. But sickness had set in now.

I kept on thinking about home all the nite , and finally woke up around 8:30 in morning. having no one to talk , started watching TV. Slowly one by one inmates in that apartment woke up and were busy with themselves like taking bath , preparing their own breakfast etc. May at this point , my home sickness shot up , i felt there is no one to think about me which i was quite used to. I felt really bad and was thinking how will i manage this change. After all inmates left , I was all alone in living room, being idle all thoughts started to pop up my head.I hate to admit , but shed tears. Now i really knew what exactly home sickness meant.


Now ,after 12 days I landed in US , I still have home sickness. I feel have spent a month now , it was that difficult to spend time here. I wonder , what is the point in leaving everything in India and come to have a sad life here.Virtually there is no social life here.I even thought of going back home. My friends who are hear from sometime now , say that's a common feeling , u will get used to after some time.I must say , feeling that i currently have now , is really awful. You will know the value of family and friends and most importantly you will miss comfort level that you had in home country. People coming over must be prepared to face this fact.

Initially i thought it should be easy to overcome homesickness , but am still struggling to be over it. When u r involved in some work , u will not feel homesick but if you remember something memorable about home , its hard to overcome the sadness of things that u miss.Hopefully , will be over once I start my MS program in full swing.

Now Listen to your Playlist From Anywhere in world!

Yes , you read the headline right , u can hear your favourite playlist from any place in world provided u have a PC and off course an Internet Connection.
It very simple to do as well. I recently came across Media Master from one of tech programs on TV. U can upload all your songs , create playlists and just enjoy to ur humming music.

You need to create an account which is absolutely free and it will allow to upload unlimited songs.Its like a media player embedded into your browser , interface is quite good am sure best is yet to come. However Drag and drop feature is helps to certain extent.

Not only u can listen to Ur playlist , even your friends can listen to them by posting widget in ur blog or creating Internet Radio. My favorite part of MediaMaster is the "Radio" feature. Dragging and dropping songs here works the same way, but instead of the output being through the web interface, MediaMaster generates a .pls file that can be used from any software client that supports it (such as Windows Media Player or winamp). From there, you can simply stream the music from your Radio playlist to any computer. you can listen to my so called radio station by clicking this link

I find this one really useful , i can easily recommend songs to my friends , my just giving my .pls link them to listen to my radio or ask them to visit my blog rather then searching and giving links to listen to them.

Only trouble is you might need to upload all your songs which could take a while especially if u have low Upload speed , but once this is done experince is really nice.