One more weekend is gone ... making sure that I enjoy the last few days of Bangalore.
The huge marvelous ISKON temple was the last weekend's spot. Wonderfully decorated Lord Krishna and other deity idols , chanting bhajans in such tranquility would touch to everyone. I bought a waterpiece - a balkrishna sitting and enjoying makkhan with flowing water and lights nearby :)
An this Saturday, it was a long awaited grand safari at Banerghatta National Park . White tigers , lions , bears were spotted during an hr long journey though bus. After appeasing butterflies in stomach ,it was time to check out 1st ever Butterfly park of India. Nicely constructed park with full of informative slides , short movie about this beautiful insect. Not sure if we missed the time or something else , not many butterflies came outside of bushes , flowers to watch me there ;) Then the Zooo... ! Have you seen White Peacock ? atleast I never heard of that till I actually saw. Popular animal of India , Elephant was taking kids on park ride. I also witnessed some miscreants feeding some food to animals , teasing birds in the cage, I made them clear their itself and warned about the harm they are causing to poor animals. In the end , as anticipated rain started and runnnnn to catch a bus. Pankaj , my engg. friend accompanied me. * Missed my iPhone camera , as it is locked after firmware upgrade , asking for SIM which I left in US :(

And after watching great T20 cricket yday night , I was in office today working on a application downtime activities in the afternoon.

I will be traveling a bit more in coming few weeks for VISA stamping , Diwali @ home and back to Bangalore n work. hmm , ending the longest blog I ever wrote :)

Sitafal milk shake ...

I had much missed Sitafal ( Custard Apple ) milk shake finally here , enjoying fruits of being in India , I never saw these fruits - Custard Apple , Chikoo in US in last 2 yrs. Last week was bit busy , meeting with new team , KTs , trainings on my project stuff.
Infy has also changed a lot since my last visit here before 3 yrs. Terminal food court & my workplace @ bldg 44 are truly amazing. Getting ready for a monday !

Today's fortune

"You will travel far and wide, both for pleasure and business" - this is my today's fortune on Orkut. how true it is ? Yep , it is almost going to be true .. I am flying for India on coming Saturday , 9/1. And to complete an earth round trip, I am going via Atlantic this time, Frankfurt is the stopover during my hectic itinerary. Here people will enjoy long weekend ( I canceled my Chicago trip for this ) and I will resume working from B'lore office on Monday - back to those tie days ;) I am excited. !

2nd Anniversary!

I guess you would have guessed it what is this 2nd anniversary about ? hmm , yes. I completed 2 wonderful , exciting years in US of A :) If I look 2 yrs back, I still remember that sunday 7th August 2005 when I landed in SF , my day had started with nice south indian lunch and bollywood movie @ Naz8 . Journey has been quite enriching on personal as well as professional front so far. There were lot of things to learn and unlearn & many more are yet to come. Few highlights include - A week long Thanksgiving trip , Crater lake , Lassen hikes , broken arm in car accident , changing roomies as well as colleagues , numerous rounds on our life line - El camina real and lot more..
Wish me good luck for year(s) to come :)

Jai Jawan , Jai Nissan!

What you would do if the car repair cost is more than actual car price? yeah , it can happen in US only :( and it happened with me , with my Nissan 200sx. You must have got an idea from my car is damaged badly from driver side after sunday's mishap with a midsize truck & our more than 1.5 yr long company came to an end. I have to start looking a new companion for the journey ahead!

i've Phone , iPhone !

it is simple phone , simple ipod , it comes with simple maps , you tube and lot more. yes it is simply superb! you will feel proud to be having one , it's iPhone!
finally, I emptied my pocket to get it , and actually pocket is more heavier now ;)
I'm still in learning phase , will post more pics and my first hands on experience!
lets go iPhonic....

Indian Ocean flooded everyone...

yep , that is perfectly true ... Indian Ocean band performed their 1st concert of US tour on saturday evening at Hayward. This was a spl. performance for noble cause - AID NGO. Just few days back I came to know about this band from one of IO hardcore fan and thought of experiencing their magic. I was mesmerized by their fusion music , style of putting impromptu funny -witty remarks. Though I don't understand much about their non-hindi vocals, but it was so sublime that it kept everyone tapping their feet and clapping hands throughout the concert. I jumped from balcony to dance area and didn't miss the opportunity to enjoy the show from just few feet away. my favorite - Ma Rewa & Hille le.
Go IO Go !!!

"I am here to eat ..."

" I am here to eat ..." whats the big thing if someone told u like this in any restaurant?
hmmm , but it depends on context too. I wanted some onion-pickle along with food @ Chaat Paradise ( fondly , we call it Narayanmurthy chaat house , as it has photo of our own NRN ).
So after loooooong wait for someone to turn up near table , I finally called one person and asked him , thinking that he is the actual helper/waiter there. And to my surprise , he replied with the first line of blog " I am .... " ( that same blue color T , he was wearing confused me) I felt embarrassed and to add masala to that some crazy person accompanying me was laughing endlessly ( loud enuf to get noticed by 3-4 surrounding tables ) btw , be careful next time :)

Don't miss the Rat act.

Independence day had great treat - Ratatouille , one more great creation by Pixar-Disney. I am sure it is going to set new records on chart.
"Anyone can cook ..."

ice cream with Steve!

yeeee! we had iPhone day celebration in office - Caffe Mac. And as you can see in snap , Steve Jobs was next to us (actually behind initially) in the queue , I had next scoop of ice cream just after him . :) Thomas & Teena were lucky to share the frame.

Infy Party ...

Grand Infy summer bash on coming friday ..
we have plannned lot of activities , games , prizes , dance DJ and lot more...
As usual , need to finish pending tasks in coming 2-3 nights , also CR tomorrow night :(
then I will go to WWDC on thursday.
humm , busy week thoughout ! njoy.

Rahman Rocks!

On Saturday , we enjoyed the magnificent performance by one and only AR Rahman and his troop. Oracle Arena , Oakland had the biggest conglomeration of bay area desis I have ever witnessed in US. Musical treat had great melodies from Dil Se, Lagaan , RDB , Roza along with hit Tamil songs esp. from Shivaji and Vande Materam in the end. Crazy crowd on the beats of Hama Hamma, Rang de Basanti & mobile light vigil during spl. dedicated song for needy people were one of the great moments of the night.

Post Yellowstone...

After a wonderful - refreshing (not physically) Yellowstone trip , things are not on track.
It is really difficult to come back to routine after 3 days of schedule packed with natural marvels , trekks , nice drive ( after 3 months for me ) stopping at every vista point and filling up Gigs of memory chips. :)

Details n snaps will follow soon.

Don't leave any Yellowstone unturned.

4 days to go for Yellowstone adventure.
All bookings like - Airline ,Car Rentals , Cabin , Car Parking at OAK , Whitewater Rafting are done. Grocery list is out , various ideas are flowing in . Big team of 15 guys are ready for adventure. Lets c . how it goes.

Stay tunes for more details!

chor , chor , pakdo

Here is our chor (smart kid) Mr. Raghu trying to take out AAA maps stuck in the vending m/c.
he managed to get "USA maps" and also made sure to confess in front of surveillance camera the reason behind this act.

Good Job , buddy :)

Welcome!

Hello ,
Thanks for visiting my blog site.
After endless deliberation finally I have decided to enter into blogging world!
Go though my albums & forthcoming posts, leave your comments and enjoy the wonderful biryani!

Cheers,
Sumit.