a good time in champaign

chicago skyline

After a hiatus, here i am back. This one is about my time in Champaign, US.

I went to Champaign in june end on yet another site trip. this being a new city and after spending 6 months in cyprus, i was excited and looking forward to this trip. and i had a nice time indeed.

as usual, i have some or the other minor annoying experiences while traveling and it had to happen here as well. onwards from ny to detroit, i got delayed and delayed and more delayed that finally i missed my connection flight to champaign and reached there a day later.

on reaching there, i was kind of taken aback in the hotel when i found out that almost 80 % of the rooms are occupied by people on site there mostly from india. didnt look like i was much away from india.

hoping to find some good company, i was happy to see my colleague and friend ayu there and more happy when later his stay got extended and would be leaving with me. 

and now onto describing champaign. was totally different from what i would have thought it would be. i was in us earlier in seattle and champaign was nowhere close to what one would think of a major us metropolitan city. it was a beautiful small town, not cramped by skyscrapers around, lot of greenery and nice weather. it was very welcoming place indeed.

a good thing was i got a car for the whole trip and since i love driving so much, its no surprise that i drove close to 1500 miles in 2 months of which 500 in a day when we went to chicago. the trip to chicago was amazing and more amazing was the return drive where we got lost and lost and lost. indeed driving without a gps may not appeal to all but the experience of finding the route and getting back on track without technology but relying on people and your instincts is amazing and worth it !

i was there during the 4th july weekend and got to see some spectacular fireworks. also didnt expect but ended up watching 4 movies in theaters. 

being the lazy butt that i am, thank goodness my friend ayu was there else would have been sitting and lazying around the whole trip in the confines of the hotel.

all in all, i had a good time in champaign, not much work pressure, good company, car for the whole trip, fireworks, 500 mile drive in a day, shopping, and munching on some great cuisines. 

hope the next trip whereever would be turns out as good as this one ! rumours are flying in the air about a possible travel to an exotic never heard of place. hope to write another exciting post soon :)

Seattle & Singapore

As a software engg, most of us have the inherent desire to have a site trip and go onshore after we have established ourselves. From my perception, this usually comes after 2-3 years of rigorous hard work and getting noticed in the boss's eyes. At my place, i was lucky to have 2 trips in 15 months. So here i go about describing my experience of the so-called "most sought after" thing in the IT industry  - the onshore trip.

Seattle - I went to Seattle, US in Aug 2009, less than a year since joining amdocs. Was very excited to go to the "land of opportunities" the US. Seattle is a nice city near the western coast. Tall buildings, shopping complexes, great road network, variety of people and restaurants, this city seemed to have it all. The famous space needle was just a min's walk from the hotel i was put up in. The office was right in the downtown area. Although the office was about half an hours' walk, walking in the cool atmosphere and lively city was kind of nice. On the weekends, there was plenty of stuff to enjoy, like the shopping complex, the downtown area, the ferry ride,  Seattle Pier.

One of the weekends, we rented a car and drove about 200 miles to Mount Rainier. The drive was beautiful all the more for me, since i  love driving. Mount Rainier is a beautiful natural park with snow covered mountains in the winter, paradise lake, amazing waterfalls, a very scenic picturesque place indeed.

I was in Seattle for about 45 days. Though i admit that the work days were very very demanding and most of the days, i would be in office till late nights, but i enjoyed the time i had there. I learnt many new things from this trip and would always remember the trip to Seattle. Truly as the movie name goes - Sleepless in Seattle.

Singapore - In december 2009, i got the opportunity to travel to Singapore and i grabbed it with both hands. Though i had a trouble time getting the visa which even delayed the travel but in the end i flew to singapore on boxing day 26th dec. Singapore is small but developed and by developed i mean its no less than any of the western developed powers. Huge buildings, roads, transport, infrastructure, food, entertainment, you name it this city has it. Recently it opened its own version of the london eye - the singapore flyer - a huge ferris wheel showing you the skyline of the city. I also got a chance to catch the magnificient new years eve and fireworks show on the marina bay. It was awesome. The sky lit up with dazzling fireworks at the Marina Bay. Also visited a great bird sanctuary and nigh life safari. Though there was a hard time finding vegetarian food near the office but other than that everything else was great. I had a great 2 weeks of Uniquely Singapore !

So that was it. Experience of my 2 trips i have had till date. Hopefully many more to come to places in between Seattle and Singapore :)

Identified

July-Aug,

Nandan Nilekani is the commander in chief chosen by the govt of India to drive its highly ambitious project of uniquely identifying every living Indian and the generations to follow. The task of identifying more than 1 billion Indians spread across the globe, spread across the economic and education strata, from the richest to the poorest, from the Harvard graduate to the illiterate masses, its one heck of a challenge. But then its for tasks like these you have people like Nandan Nilekani who become - the chosen one.

The Govt. of India's Unique Identification Project seems to be one of the most higly complex but at the same time highly rewarding projects in India. Complex-due to the sheer number of people targeted to benefit from it. Each and every Indian in the world. The UI will enable the Govt to know its people, its needs, and act accordingly to achieve the benefit of all. A single number when scanned will enable you all access, all priviledges granted.

No more worries of a thousand govt cards for different purposes. No more separate documents reqd. This unique number will serve as your finger print at election times, while applying for schools and colleges, bank accounts, driver's license, passport, buying home, paying taxes, applying for jobs and millions of other places. Just imagining the convenience it will bring to common man gives this project a thumbs up from the word go. Not only that, an identification like this endorsed by the govt of India will be accepted without any doubt in any organization.And in all likelihood it will come to rescue in foreign countries should we need to provide one.

And this is just the scratch of the surface. Billions of other advantages will follow suit, like the govt creating schemes and ensuring onlythe deserving get the benefits, no more duplicate voting, malpractices in the name of identity theft, fraudulent visas, accounts, licenses and many many more.

But all this will come only when this project sees the end of the tunnel and its one long tunnel. The complexities are daunting. The number of people, the bureaucracy involved, the security involved, the large infrastrucuture involved and ofcourse the money all make it no less easy for Nandan Nilekani. Its a big task where the slightest mistake can cause havoc with the project and maybe even with people's lives. Just imagining that the system may not be able to identify me or worse is hacked to identify me as someone else gives me jitters. So it has to be an almost fool proof and completely secure system, the information of which to be guarded like the country's most confidential data.

Sounding like a critic like the scores of others who may think and even criticize the govt for undertaking a project of this magnitude. To all of them i say "If you think it cant' be done, dont' stop others from doing it !!"

The project is a brilliant one and Nandan Nilekani is a capable man to ensure it sees the light of the day.

Let us all be rest assured that we are uniquely,securely and most important correctly - identified.

Splash !!!

Sunday, Aug-2.

A hot sunday morning it was. And to cool off the heat and have a great time fassouri water park was our destination.

Fassouri water park-just a stone's throw away from our home. We entered and headed straight to the water slides.

Tube slides, high speed body slides, mat slides, double and even triple tubes, you name it and it was there. Hitting the cool waters in that scorching heat, we were having a great time.

The time after lunch was spent relaxing in the lazy river. Lying on the tube floating in the slow moving stream.

Later that day, pradeep though had some dare-devilry (stupidity) to show off. Thinking that being abt 1.8 metres just above the depth of 1 pool, he went off to the cannon body slide even though it was advised only for swimmers. And so landed straight into the pool alone but needed a life guard to dive in and get him out. That was some adventure.

A relaxing wonderful day in the splash.

Stolen

July 28, Tuesday.

The title of this blog is self-explanatory enough about the content followed below. Read on.

Deva or for that matter none of us here in cyprus would have ever imagined something like this happening to us. This day morning when deva woke up to start yet another day in office, little would anyone have imagined that it would begin with a shocker. His scooter was nowhere to be seen at his home. And after confirming with others if it was a prank, his worst fears came true. The scooter was stolen.

This was the 3rd such incident of theft occuring to someone in our batch in just a month. Not so long ago, on the last weekend of June, I too woke up to find my cycle missing from my home. After searching here and there and in office, it became pretty obvious that that was the last i had seen of it. Since it was just a cycle, there was nothing much I could have done or have taken the trouble to lodge a complaint.

And then in that same weekend, sarvo's car which he parked in the parking ground near office thinking it to be the most possible safest place while he would be away holidaying (uhmm working...) in US, also became the target. On monday morning while parking my car, i noticed the driver window glass all shattered and the stereo system inside the car gone. Since sarvo was not here, there was nothing much we could do except take away his car back home.

So, 3 of us have been robbed in less than a month. Thankfully, all were only material losses and no physical harm was caused to anyone.

We just hope nothing else bad happens during our stay in this beautiful island.

a walk to remember

July 5th, Sunday.

A week before leading to this sunday, a plan was made to venture out about 150 kms away and have a never before experience. Protaras, a small tourist place on the eastern tip of cyprus was the destination. And the never before experience we had was really a long drive worth it.

So about 10 in the morning, we left our home to head to this place. 4 in deva's car and other 4 in my. Driving at about 140-150 kmph we reached the destination in just over an hour. In between, the police on the highway had signalled me to slow down as I was way above the limit of 100. So in the last few mins or so, i did slow down not wanting to spoil the day or my mood by speed tickets and all.

After reaching there, we joined the other group of 4-5 cars who headed out with us. And then we played the game follow the leader. This guy who was leading the pack of cars under the pretext of knowing the route, took us around and around for 3-4 times. We were driving on the same road again and again and again. And then we got lost. So we stopped and asked for directions and finally reached the place. A small resort where we had planned the novel experience. A walk under water.

Yes, you read that right, a walk under water. We headed out to this boat in the sea not so far from the coast. There we were given our gears - swimsuit and shoes and helmets. And then a barrage of safety instructions. We had the helmet on and climbed down a ladder 3 meters below into the sea and on the sea bed. It was amazing. Below into the sea, walking on the sea floor. We saw fishes, marine plants, rocks and sand all around. Looking above we could see the boats and people on the surface.

The instructor gave us food to feed the fish. We held the bread in our hands and a large number of fish would just bite it off our hand with a tickling feeling. It was amazing. Then the instructor took videos of us walking below and feeding the fish.

After about 30 mins spending below water, we climbed up to the boat. It was a surreal experience I never imagined would happen.

Later on we headed to ayia napa and spent some relaxing time on the beautiful beaches there. And then back home.

It was indeed a walk to remember.

Simply Roger

Sunday June 7.

The man completed his dream and joined an elite league of only 6 people who have achieved a Grand Slam. The man wrote off all critics who said he will never win here. The man had come from 3 lost finals to this one. The man came back from a scintillating semi-final match and won from the brink of defeat. The man was Roger Federer and he won the championship that eluded him for 3 years. He finally had his hands on the winner's trophy-the Roland Garros French Open 2009. And this completed his Grand Slam.

Roger Federer came into this match much like the previous 3 finals. He was prepared and ready to fight till the last ounce of energy to lift the French Open. He had the pressure and expectation of the whole world and billions of his fans on his shoulder. Only 1 thing was different this time than the previous 3 occasions. The other contender for the elusive title this time was not his left-handed Spanish nemesis Rafael Nadal. Robin Soderling 23-seeded Swede international was a player who shocked the tennis arena when he defeated Rafael Nadal in his own backyard. Soderling then wiped off Fernando Gonzales to reach his maiden French Open final. The only thing that was in his favour was that he was riding on a wave of confidence polishing off world class players above him. Besides he had nothing to lose and Federer had everything to win.

And so on a rough cloudy day with gutsy winds blowing, the match between Federer and Soderling began. Federer was into his sublime best from the first shot quickly racing off to a 4-0 lead in the 1st set before Soderling ended his run. But Federer never lost touch and he knew that this was perhaps his best and only chance to complete his dream. And after 3 straight sets he finally dropped on to the court and burst into tears when he won the championship point.

He displayed immense greatness through his humility and respect for the opponent. And who better than Andre Agassi to hand him his dream. After 3 years staying second and in the shadow of Nadal, Federer finally had the trophy to himself. Soderling was perhaps correct when he mentioned that Roger was the best player in tennis history in the august presence of Agassi. Both smiled and the crowd cheered.

Many may say that Federer won because Nadal lost. Federer won beacuse he deserved to win. He won beacuse he was the best. He won because he outplayed all. This time Federer faced a more formidable opponent than Nadal - history and he re-wrote it in the end.

The immense pressure and scare that he may never win the French Open is now no more. He can play more relaxed now that he has completed his Grand Slam.

Roger Federer - a tennis legend, a humble and great human being. Simply the best.