Sound OK, horn

Sound OK, Horn. This may sound noisy, but unfortunately this is the most accepted cliche in India :-( This cacophony is at its best in the evenings, when everyone is hurrying back home. This is equally bad in front of our apartment in the early morning itself, when I wait for our office cab to pick me up. Having absolutely nothing to do till the cab picks me up, I tend to observe the vehicle behavior :-) I am not sure if our apartment is so attractive or distractive, without any exception all the vehicles honk atleast once there. Since there is no option but to accept these honking, sometime I even try to enjoy this early morning music. But it is tough :-(

So, having analyzed sound-ok-horn, I have been able to classify people into different categories:

• People suffering from Vehicle-syndrome: When you see a vehicle in front of you, just honk. Unfortunately in India, on any road, there is always a vehicle in front of you, and one hand of these people are always on the horn :-(
• Anti-social people: When you see someone trying to cross the road, honk. Someone is not trying to cross the road, but just standing by the side of the road? Honk even more... what if they decide to cross?
  
• Stress-Busters: Honking is a way of stress busting. More you honk, less stressed you are. Honk, Honk, Honk & be cool. Transfer all your frustration to others on the road & you have a smile on your face when you drive.
• Jam Busters: When there is a traffic jam, keep honking, hoping that jam gets cleared because of your decibel levels.
• Signal Busters: Even before the signal can turn green, start honking. Just to ensure that everyone at the signal are ready to do a race once signal goes green. If someone stops at the red-signal, Honk - why did the guy stop when it was just turning red?
• Road-o-phobia: Just saw a speed breaker? Just saw potholes? Honk, Honk, Honk. 
• Honko-Freaks: That guy honked at me, I honk at him. That guy overtook me, honk. I overtook this guy, honk. I need to scare this guy to give way, honk. Honko-freak guys just eat, sleep & drink honks.

All of us who honk does fit into one of these categories. When you drive next time & honk, just think why did you honk? You will get an answer as to which kind of Honko-personality is yours. No need to play an online quiz in Facebook to know the answer :-)

Gemini Circus : See to believe it

One of my friend had called me to wish on New year's. He just mentioned about Gemini circus which he attended during the last week of December & how much he enjoyed it. He said, he enjoyed it more than his 4 1/2 year old daughter did. I was little skeptical anyway, but I exactly had the same feeling after we attended the circus yesterday.

It was long time since I went for circus. During my Bhadravathi days (in late 80"s), I had visited some circus. Later I also had been to a circus show in US, in 1999. But the Indian circus has lot more variety & lot more interesting stuff to offer. Poorvi has never been to circus. So, I thought it is better to visit the circus over the weekend, before they pack & move to other city. I am always fascinated by circus. It is such a great art on the verge of extinction. :-( Unless people support them, they are gone & the next generation kids will have to just live in virtual world of entertainment :-(

We went there on Saturday evening & occupied the better seats available to watch the show. The whole setup was nice. There was orchestra band in the podium & the usual bells (3 times, last one being a long bell) indicated the start of the circus. From the word go till the very end, there was not even a single minute break, 2 hours of pure entertainment. Expectedly, the number of animals have reduced & the human touch has increased in the performance. They have performers from Russia, Africa etc & they set the stage on fire, literally. Each performance was better than the previous. Especially the ladder-balancing act, cycle show & the elephant performances (playing cricket, playing doctor-patient) are just memorable. When you just think you have seen the best performance of the show, next one will be much better. Wow. Such a talented bunch of people risking their lives day after day, show after show to entertain people.

Take a break from Idiots & Avataars to get the pure entertainment & thrill of circus. 

Here are the details of  the circus:

Place: Palace Grounds, you have ample car parking space, entry opposite to TV tower.

Timings: 3 shows daily : 1 PM, 4 PM, 7 PM  

Price : Rs40, Rs80, Rs150, Rs200, Rs250. My suggestion is to go for either 200 Rs or 250 Rs. You will have a good view. Rs 150 row itself is little back. Rs 40/80 are gallery benches.

Other points: Carry snacks/water. You will also get popcorns/juices/chocolates/candys/Coffee at your seat itself, but it is expensive. Try to sit away from the globe on which they do motorbike stunt, as it will be too noisy. Photography is prohibited, however I saw many many people clicking the photos & shooting the videos. Restroom services are not available, so take all precautionary measures :-).

31st Mania

Everyone has some obsession for some particular number, be their car number, their house number or any other just a lucky number. But for most people, it is their date of birth. Poorvi is no different & she has this obsession for number 31. In fact it is more than just obsession to be classified as mania.

When we took a flight to Orissa, she had her eyes on seat number - 31, even though we did not get that seat. She was wondering why 31 is always almost in the end, be in the month or in the bus/plane. :-( Hard to explain. She looks at the calender searching for 31. If she spots 31 anywhere else (even in the hotel rate chart), she wonders why they have written her birthday.

Poor little she, waiting for her next birthday from the day after she had her 4th birthday on October 31st. She tried counting days for the next birthday, but had to give up after counting around 100. Uh, So many days to go? She was definitely angry. As a short cut, she has consoled herself ("Aal Izz well") & thinks that 31st of any month is her special day. She was very excited today & we all wished her happy birthday. She gracefully accepted the wishes. Luckily for us, there is a big celebration for new years eve at our apartment in the evening, probably enhancing Poorvi's faith that today is indeed her birthday & people are celebrating the same :-)

Aal Izz Well.

Orissa - Some cherished moments

When we booked our year end trip to Orissa, many people had similar question - "What's there in Orissa"? We had a ready-made answer for this question - "We are going to explore what's there & let you know" :-) Well, here we are, back from a week long trip to Orissa, with lot of nice memories to cherish.

We visited Bhubhaneshwar, Puri & Konark. Here are some our experience:

Bhubaneshwar:

City of Bhubhaneshwar is beautiful with wide roads, big footpaths & some main roads even having Cyclist's path ! Almost all the common walls in the city are having nice handwritten paintings (something which we can see in Bangalore also these days).

Some of the must visit places in Bhubneshwar include "Nandan Kanan zoo", "Khandagiri caves" and a lot of temples like Lingaraj temple, Mukteshwar temple, Raja-Rani temple etc. Although I skipped visiting Lingaraj temple, Veena & Vidya had all praise for the architecture & beauty of this temple. Nandan Kanan zoo/sanctury has some nice white tigers, tiger & lion safari, apart from host of other animals. It looked like our Bannerghatta national park, with much less crowd.

Puri:

Puri is about 60 Kms from Bhubhneshwar. On the way to Puri, we visited Ashoka's Shanti Stup in Dhauli, a shopping place called "Pipli", where you get nice bags, umbrellas, bedspreads with lot of artwork on them. 

Highlight of our stay in Puri was "Toshali resort", which had a private beach of its own amidst jungle. This beach was exclusive to Toshali resort guests & offered complete privacy & relaxation. It was a great experience to just lay down on the beach & get a nice massage. It was just the sound of waves, clear sky and unspoilt beach. Uh, it felt like heaven for 2 days on this beach.

Jagannath temple in Puri is quite in-famous for the Pandas & I (alongwith Poorvi) decided to skip this temple for the same reason. They did not allow sub-5 year olds into the temple as well. 

Konark:

Konark is about 40 KMs from Puri. Drive from Puri to Konark was a beautiful one with sea on one side, trees on the other side. Roads also had trees on both sides (remember that Ashoka's achievements as king? :-)).

Konark is really majestic. The sun temple is amazing, with such rich stone carvings. We spent almost half a day listening to so many stories from the guide we hired. Hiring a guide here was worth it, as he turned out to be a great photographer also.

We also visited Chilka lake, supposedly the largest salt-water lake in India.

It was a vacation with a difference. People visit Puri to go to Jagannath temple, but I decided to skip it & enjoy at the beach :-) It was also nice walking around in the City of Bhubhaneshwar in those nice walk paths, with cool breeze of the night. Overall, it was a nice break from Bangalore & if you want to visit a place that is not a high rated tourist destination but yet want to have lots of fun, you know where you need to go :-)

Art & Science of PMP

Back after a long break. :-) First, it was my PMP exam that was taking much of my time in preparations. Then a trip to Orissa. Hope I will get more time to write more in 2010.

One of my long outstanding desire to be a PMI certified Project Management Professional came true in the first week of December. Initially when I looked at the 500 odd page reference book, I was little bit apprehensive about clearing the exam succesfully. People who had already cleared the exam also gave a hint to take this exam seriously, online reviews also said so. Some of the online feedback was so scary that I had kind of prepared for the worst :-)

But, around two months of preparation, some mock tests made this whole stuff look so easy. On the day of exam I was quite conident of clearing the exam, I only wanted to check my Proficiency levels in different categories (Knowledge areas). To my disappointement I did not get "Proficient" (90% + ) in many categories :-( Anyways, PMP is a PMP, scores does not matter later :-)

For any of you aspiring to take PMP exam here are some tips:

• Read Rita Mulchay's "PMP Exam Prep" and solve all the questionaire. Try to cover one chapter each day & take the questions related to the chapter.
• Once you complete Rita Mulchay, refer to PMBOK. It is easier to read PMBOK after reading Rita Mulchay.
• Take some practice tests from www.pmstudy.com, http://www.headfirstlabs.com/PMP/free_exam/

All the best !!!

Two decades of a master

(Article dedicated to the biggest icon in the world of cricket)

It was in the winter of 89, when a curly haired 16 year old boy made into the headlines in India, when he played a test series against Pakistan in Pakistan. 20 years later, he is still around, although past his glory days but still he is the best among the lot. Yes, it is Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, a name synonymous to cricket in entire India. As they say, Cricket is a religion in India and Tendulkar is God. I feel gifted to have witnessed this guy's heroics in last 20 years. 

Over the last 20 years he has remained the same guy, although his game has gone under some change. He is the same shy guy, who is so humble. There is no arrogance in what-so-ever he does/speaks on the field or off the field. In this era of "breaking & faking" news, he has provided the news for all right reasons & never for any kind of gossips. Kudos.

Here are some of his performances/incidents which is difficult for me to forget even in my dreams:

• He was just 16 year old, probably playing his first one day match (although it was an unofficial exhibition match). He hoisted Abdul Qadir (who at that time was one of the leg spin greats) for 3 sixes in a single over. Wow, it was the first impact of Tendulkar on me.
  
• Tendulkar getting hit by a bouncer in the nose & bleeding profusely & walking back without any expression of shock/angry/pain. He was just 16 years then & the Pak legend Imran asked his bowlers to target Tendulkar with bouncers to scare him off. 
• Little later, back in Newzealand, Tendulkar was on 80 not out in a test match, on day 1. He just needed another 20 runs next day to become the youngest ever cricket player in the history of Cricket to score a century. I almost had a sleepless night that day & woke up early morning to find out that Tendulkar was out for 88. Oh what a disappointment.
• The first test ton in England, when he was around 17 years. Amazing, I still remember those radio commentary when he scored the first century. It was just the beginning. I have had the opportunity to cherish more than 85 such instances in last two decades.
• Some years later, back in Newzealand again, Tendulkar changed the name of the game. Those were the days when a 50 run made out of 80 balls was very respectable score in a one day match. In one particular match, Tendulkar decided to open the innings & scored 84 runs from 48 balls. Wow, the commentators were going crazy, this was something they had never seen & never thought it as a possibility. 
• Kolkotta, 1993. SA touring India. SA needed 4 runs to win with One over to spare. Tendulkar bowled a magical last over to give India an unimaginable win.
• Tendulkar going back to England soon after his father's death to play in the world cup & come up with a Century. It was almost like a Pete-Sampras once winning Wimbeldon crying through the match.
• Best players reserve the best play against the best teams. Tendulkar has never let a chance to outplay Aussies, be it in India, be it in Dubai (those two consecutive centuries back to back), be in Aussie itself. 
• Just imagine, Tendulkar has played with greats like Kapil for a long time and now he is playing with players who were just born when he entered into international cricket. No wonder he is called the Grandpa of cricket now.

I can go on, on & on. There are also critics of Tendulkar, but it has made him only stronger. Let there be more critics, let Tendulkar become even more strong and let him play for many more years to come, which the ardent fans like me will enjoy. He is truly once a generation player & I want to watch him play many more times. Thank you Tendulkar for all your magic.