Just like that!

Manners!

2006-06-25T03:07:00.000-07:00

A few days back, I've read about the survey conducted by Readers Digest. That survey states Mumbai as the rudest city in the world :( That survey considered three good manners like whether people hold the door open for the person coming right behind them, whether they helped pick up papers dropped on a busy street and whether a shopkeeper said "thank you" when a purchase was made. Definitely these criteria are too western. So, I don't think we've anything to worry on this.

Anyhow, this made me think about the manners I learnt during my stay in Belgium.

The most important of them all is saying thanks to the person helping us anywhere & apologizing for any inconvenience we cause to others. This has a very positive impact everywhere, especially when I thank waiters, their face lits up immediately (Is it because it could be a hint for bigger tip? hope not.)

Next is holding the door open for the person coming right behind you. I couldn't follow this any more. In my company, tail gating is considered as an important security breach. So, we are encouraged to close the door, even if somebody is coming behind you.

Next is giving way to people coming in the opposite direction in a congested street. I tried to follow this in the initial days & soon I realized I am standing in the same place for a long time. So, alas, one more thing dropped totally!

One manners I really liked in Belgium is greeting even the strangers you come across. When you walk in a street, suddenly the person coming in the opposite direction will smile at you, will say "Good morning" and keep walking. Just imagine you trying the same thing in any of indian cities. I am sure the response won't be encouraging. So, I decided to try that only in a few selected places like elevators. Surprisingly, almost everybody responds positively. When someone wishes you with a warm smile, can you think of anything better to start a fresh day?

2/4 wheelers stopping for pedastrians to cross the road in zebra crossings. This is obsolutely impossible in India. If there is a zebra crossing, that means every minute a minimum of 2 people (in a few places, it could be as high as 20) will cross the road. So, if vehicles are going to stop for them, the traffic will never move. So, I think the current strategy, where considerable number of people gather in the road side & they demand vehicles to stop for crossing, is more practical.

Though I prefer to follow these manners, I would like to add a final word. In India, we give importance to the intention than the way it is done. There are lots of things we do to help people in different occassions. IMO, a bus driver stopping the bus in between two stops for a old man to get in and auto rickshaws giving free rides for delivery are more important than keeping the door open for a woman.

I am back!

2006-05-31T22:08:00.000-07:00

Finally I am back to India! And finally, after more than a month, I am getting time to blog about that!

My two years stay in Belgium has come to an end. These two years were very different from my previous period in many ways.

1. The life outside office was so organized to the extend I was feeling a bit bored after office hours.

2. Healthy: Playing squash once a week, walking to office covering a distance of 2kms one way, regular work outs, pollution free environment, stress free work, sticking to healthy office working hours, regular eating & sleeping timings, relaxing on weekends... what else is required for a healthy life

3. Educative: understanding & appreciating good things in a different culture, totally different way of working & discussing (you know, there can be teams which wrapes up all discussions within 2 mins! I still remember a 3.5hrs meeting we had in my previous company :( ), effective use of open source products, an excellent practical introduction to XP/agile methodologies. I couldn't expect a better team than the one I had Very friendly, helpful & highly talented.

Most important of all, I learnt cooking! One good thing about on-site is everybody learns cooking! You know, even ladies cook while on-site! :)

Now I am back to bangalore. There are many things to crib about: traffic, pollution, pressure at work, etc. In spite of all these, I feel happier here. Easier access to family and friends, more intimate work place, feeling like company is on my schoulder (!), etc. One more thing I love in bangalore is weather. Summer in bangalore is lot better than that in Belgium. Then think about winter. Belgium weather is horrible.

In short, so far no regrets about my decision to come back. That is really a good feeling, right? :)

A trip to Keukenhof!

2006-03-28T09:26:00.000-08:00

If you've seen the movie Annian, you wouldn't have forgotten the song with tulip background. The heroine running in tulip field taken from top angle... amazing shot. For those poor people, who don't have time to follow kollywood news closely, that scene was taken in keukenhof, holland.

The tulip garden in keukenhof is open for visitors for just two months every year, march end to may end. Last year I went there. It was a wonderful sight. The garden contains tulips in all possible colors, very neatly showcased. Next to the garden, in a very large field, different colored tulips were planted in long stripes. That is the exact shooting spot for the above mentioned song. We've clicked hundreds of fotos & spent a long time in that place.

With the same expectation, we went for that garden again last saturday. But it was very disappointing. Many plants had only buds... many more not even that. We were discussing why the organizers allow visitors, if the garden is not ready yet. We realized the reason, when we came to know about the procedure followed to bring up those flowers. The process starts as early as november (actually the seed preperation starts even earlier). The life time of tulips is just about three weeks. To have flowers for longer period, different kinds of seeds are planted in three layers at certain depths. This causes the plants to grow & blossom one after another. Ultimately tulips everywhere for two months.

We came to know an interesting fact too. In 17th century, a big house costed around 4,500 euros, while one tulip bulb costed 13,500 euros! Quite amazing, isn't it?

My Dreamland!

2005-12-16T08:35:00.000-08:00

From my childhood, Switzerland had been my dream country. Fuelled by lots of indian movies, I guess that is true for many indians. Once

the crown of India, Kashmir, became a risky place for shooting, indian film makers chose switzerland as their main foreign shooting spot.

From that time, lots and lots of song sequences have been shot in ice covered alps mountains. While the hero dancing in full suite, the

costume designer always falls short of cloth for heroines!

When my trip to Belgium got confirmed, one of the first things went in my mind was about visiting switzerland. But for some reasons (no

company, not good weather, etc, etc.), I couldn't visit their, though I have been here for the past 1.5yrs. Since my assignment completes

in the coming april, I thought I wouldn't have a chance for that much awaited trip.

All of a sudden, two of my friends over here decided to go there in december. When they asked me if I was interested, I got very

confused. December, one of the winter months, isn't the right time to visit such a place. That too this winter is predicted to be a lot worse

than the lost one. Even in Belgium, there was heavy snow fall in November end. I've not noticed such a one even in January last year.

Anyhow, after a short one-sided war, my desire to visit swiss won over the other odds. So, finally we set out to go on December 3rd for

a four day trip.

Though we've visited many places over there, three things blowed me away completely.
1. Goldenpass panoramic train journey:
This is a very famous train route from Geneva to Luzern. We took this trip from Interlaken, the city where we stayed to Luzern. It was an

amazing sight all the way through. Since it was winter almost all mountains on the way wore white cap. For people like me, who rarely get

a chance to see snow, it was a feast. There were a few beatiful valleys & landscapes too.

2. Mount Titlis:
One of the most famous peaks in switzerland. It won't be fair, if I don't appreciate the effort & money invested by the government in

building those cable cars till the peak. It was a nice experience watching the snow becoming thicker & thicker as we went higher &

higher. In the peak, the temperature was -15deg C (Shhhhh... don't tell anyone... it was only -11, we all decided to state increased cold

to increase the excitement of our listeners ;-) ). Before leaving, all weather forecasts sounded like they were ready to bet millions on

cloudy/shower. Damn them! Just like italy trip, this time also they were wrong completely. It was very bright sun throughout the day. We

were playing in snow for a long time. I'm sure those snow fights, walking in knee high snow heaps, sliding in ice slopes, etc. will remain

green in my memory for a long time.

3. Mürren:
The train route to Mürren was in mountain slopes covered with x-mas trees everywhere. When we were travelling, it was snowing heavily

& all the x-mas trees were covered with snow. It was just unbelievable view. We also travelled in sledge! It was fun.

Finally the question: Is it winter a bad time to visit Switzerland? Hmmm... I'm not sure. Though I've not been there during summer time, I believe, the winter experience will be a lot better for people, who are from hot regions. I have a feeling that during summer there won't be much snow in mountains except peaks & also murren won't be that impressive. So, it is upto you, what you want to see. If you are interested in nice landscapes & want to escape from hot sun, come during summer. If your aim is to enjoy snow & snow based views, may be winter is the best time.

Reviews of Sivakasi & Majaa - Very funny

2005-12-15T02:19:00.000-08:00

I've come across a very funny review about Sivakasi & Majaa in teakada. I'm sure it is very biased, with the only aim of teasing those movies & everybody involved in those movies. But, still, it is hilarious.

Sivakasi : A film that must definitely be watched first day, first show, so that you can warn all your buddies at the earliest.

Majaa : One that had a director bold enough to make a movie without any story and fail.

The final joke is too good.

Baby mosquito : Mom I am going to the theater.
Mother mosquito : Take care dear. People will clap hands, its risky.
Baby mosquito : Don't worry mummy, am just going for Sivakasi.

26 million cases pending in India!

2005-12-14T02:50:00.000-08:00

I was shocked to read the Deccan herald's report stating 26 million cases are pending in the country! That is a staggering number. If Indian government doesn't take any immediate action to dispose these cases, people will lose confidence in the judicial system completely, if at all they have some confidence left.

Hope they try out some of the suggestions put forward by Dr. Abdul Kalam to reduce this number.

Around Italy in 3 days!

2005-11-16T08:28:00.000-08:00

Last year November, few of friends planned a short trip to Italy. But, due to bad weather, the flight got cancelled. Now we planned a 3 day trip to Italy. Coincidently we booked the flight exactly on the same date (Nov 12) as those people. Fortunately this time weather was very good while leaving Belgium & throughout the trip in Italy. All weather forecast stations were confident of showers both in Belgium & Italy during that period. Heck, it was bright sun everywhere. When we reached back, it was very foggy in Belgium. Still lady luck followed us & the flight landed without any trouble. The very next flight was redirected to another airport for landing. Escaped by a hair!

We've covered Rome, Pisa & Venice during this trip. Though the buildings in Rome were beautiful, IMO, Venice is the best part of the trip. It wasgorgeous and very soothing.

Overall, it was very much enjoyable. Still, since we tried to cover too many places in a short period, we ended up in spending half of the time in journey. Should avoid that in future trips.

Shopping!

2005-07-04T09:17:00.000-07:00

Summer sale has started here last week! Shops are giving discounts upto 70%. So, the obvious, the whole of last weekend, we were shopping!!!

Our target was mainly dresses. Our group had equal representation from both the gendres. Hope you have guessed what would have happened. Yes, we ended up spending most of the time in ladies garment sections. I don't have any idea, from where those girls get so much of energy for shopping.

During the small amount of time we got for shopping, I could find enough stuff to buy. After everything was over, I calculated the total amount spent. Oh boy, this was the costliest shopping I've ever done! Before coming to belgium, I've bought twice the number of dresses in India for around half this rate. Guess, my next serious shopping will be only after I go back to India :(

Victory!

2005-07-01T09:02:00.000-07:00

It was a long time pending desire to learn french. Since now a days, life is very relaxed & I've lots of time, I joined a french course 6 months ago.

It was real fun. When the course was started, I was the only one in the whole class without any prior knowledge in French. Most of the other students were from Europe & they had French in their acadamics or at least had some exposure to it. The course was supposed to be taught comletely in french. Learning a language in the same language? Quite strange. Of course, I used to wave my hand & say "Excuse me... I'm here..." to make my tutor translate things in English. Probably I was the most difficult student she had ever.

The final exam was conducted about a month ago & the results are out now. Can you guess the result? Well... you've under estimated Karthi very much... I've passed the exam with whopping 83.5% and very comfortable second rank in the class. Third rank was 71%. (Btw, don't ask about first rank holder. I won't tell you that she scored 91.5%. Disgusting! :( My prime goal was to beat her. But, I failed miserably!)

Anyhow, learning a new language is very much exciting. Comparing the features of one language to another makes us to think about the way languages are structured. It is a very nice experience. If possible, try learning a new language & have fun!

Au revoir!

Nice quote!

2005-06-28T01:33:00.000-07:00

Came across a nice quote:
Do not blame yourself for past errors. You are no longer the same person who made them and you cannot blame a person who does not exist.

Cent percent correct! Learn from mistakes. Remember the learnings & not the incidents. Definitely the day ahead will be sweet & joyful.

Cycling - Diamond route!

2005-06-24T09:41:00.000-07:00

Last year september, we went for cycling in a small town called Turnhout (images). It was a very nice trip. The route was around 21 kms long. It lead us along a nice canal, then into the woods followed by a hi-fi village & finally back to the starting position.

Since, it was fun, I convinced my new set of friends for cycling. This time we chose Diamond route in a town called Lier. This route is very famous in Belgium.

My campaign for cycling was running in full-swing till morning of the planned date & finally I succeeded in getting the majority. Because of that we started very late. By the time we reached the place, it was already evening. When we hired cycles, we were informed that only 3hrs remaining. The route goes for 30 kms. 10 kms/hr, hmmm... quite challenging. Still we all decided to give it a shot. (Bad project planning!)

The route was gorgious! Going through woods, fields and villages. Really amazing!

After covering around 10 kms, we realized we've eaten up half the time. Since it was very obvious that covering the route was next to impossible, we decided to turn back. Traversing the same route again? No way. Brave men don't step back! But they take some other route back!! So, we decided to take another shorter cycling route back. After 30 mins of useless search to find that route, finally we gave up & took a very dry freeway back.

I was the only one having a little energy left by that time. Since, the odds of getting late for returning the cycles were high, I thought I'd go first & inform the in-charge that others may get delayed a bit. I started pedaling fast. Competition brings best out of everyone, right? So, I was searching for someone whom I can race with, so that I can reach the destination faster. Right at that time one cycle also joined that path. But, bad luck. It was a very old lady at her late 60s. Racing with a old lady??? I must be crazy.

Anyhow, just for the fun of it, I tried to beat her. My goodness, she was damn fast. The drama of I beating her in downhills & she comfortably overtaking me in uphills continued for quite some time. Finally with my tongue out, I had to accept my defeat after covering around 6 kms. Damn... Even european oldies are strong. MORAL: Never ever challenge an european on physical contests (a lesson I already learnt in my squash sessions :( ).

Anyhow, finally we all reached the destination on-time. (Agile methodology works!)

Kayaking!

2005-06-20T09:14:00.000-07:00

Last year summer, we went for kayaking in Lesse, the most famous kayaking route in Belgium. Few snaps are available here. We've covered around 21kms in 5 hours.

For all of us, that was the first experience with kayak & so it was just fun. One pair couldn't control the kayak even a bit. After a short struggle, they decided not to fight against nature. Meaning, if their kayak turns against the stream, they started rowing backwards instead of trying to straighten it! In first 30mins, they couldn't cross even 100 mtrs. Ultimately we had to separate them & form new pairs for continuing with the trip.

In some places, the water was very rough & few kayaks even toppled. My mobile phone was totally wet. After drying that, it started working perfectly (except one keypad bulb, which glows always). East or west, Nokia the best!

Why all of a sudden this story? Because, we went for another kayaking trip. This time to a hill station called Coo. Last year also we went to the same place, but for different reason: fun park, cable car, etc..

This time we had female participation also! So, we've chosen more easier & shorter route. This one was about 9kms long. Guess what? We've taken almost the same time, 5hrs, for covering this too!

Even with almost no flow of water, few people managed to topple their kayak! Within 20mins of starting, one guy fell into water & lost his paddle. So, all of us had to wait till he went back & got a new one. Very bad start :(

In some places, it was very shallow. So, we had to get down & pull the boat till we reach place with enough depth. Water was at freezing cold, around 5deg. So, we couldn't stand long in the water too.

This time also one guy's cell phone got wet. He asked another guy to keep it safe & threw that towards him, since getting down from kayak is not that easy! You know what happened? Yes, you've guessed it right. It fell down into the water. We had to search for around 10mins to find that (remember, the water temperature was around 5 :( ). One more stress testing for Nokia handset. After drying, everything was working perfectly. Including all bulbs in the keypad! But, alas, only two things were not working! 1. Antenna: Phone was not identifying any network, 2. Speaker: No sound! So, ultimately that phone deserves a place nothing better than a garbage bin. Very bad nokia!

After everything was over, we came back to the starting place & were about to catch train in 20 mins. On the way to station, we realized one very minor thing. The bag containing all the valuable things (4 wallets, 3 mobile phones, few belgium residence cards, etc.) is missing!!! By that time the kayaking office was also closed. So, we searched for the guy in the counter & found him in a nearby restaurant. Ironically, he didn't know english. Thankfully one more guy understood our english & explained that to him. Then we rushed to the kayaking office with him & found the bag there. Again running all the way back to the station & reached there just 2mins before train arrival time. So, we thought the trip ended with a nail biting finish. But, you know what, the train came 30mins late :(

Anyhow, the trip was very nice. It was a relief from a regular monotonous life. Planning to have more such trips in this summer.

Vacation

2005-01-05T09:49:00.000-08:00

After a long time, I had a big vacation from Dec 24 to Jan 3... i was missing India a lot during those days... india is more lively & i never wondered what to do on holidays... but here i had to break my head to find a way to kill a day.. visiting the same shopping complexes & roaming in the bazaars are not so interesting... (of course, my friend's wife seems to njoy it very much... more obviously, my friend doesn't like shopping, in particular shopping by his wife ;-) )

fortunately i got those two as my company during those days... somehow, we've spent the vacation in a not so bad manner... it was a nice break to come back to work with all the energy...

on dec 26, the next day to x-mas, there was a nice snowing here... i went to a park with my friend & his wife during that time & it was very nice... finally the whole purpose of my birth is fulfilled ;-)

for me, the last year was very interesting, educative & nice in many senses... hope the new year also will be a good year... wish you all a very happy, healthy & fun filled new year.... let us welcome the new year with heart full of love, hope & joy...

Cool Belgium!

2004-11-23T10:43:00.000-08:00

Now a days, the minimum temperature of belgium is touching 0... snow falls r predicted in a few days... in my childhood, i used to dream a lot about these... going to be a dream-come-true event! hoping to have a nice time with those snows... but these snowfalls will be very light... for seeing heavy snowfalls, we've to go to french border... planning to go for ice skating & skiing during these winter days...

few of my friends planned an italy, venice trip during a 4 days holiday... unfortunately, flights got cancelled due to bad weather & they came back & spent the 4 days @home only... i think we cant go out in the year any more... i suspect that most of the coming weekends will be spent @ closed houses only... :(

My Dreams

2004-10-15T11:03:00.000-07:00

Sometime back I've gone through an interesting blog Me and My Memory - 1. The author of that states the brain remembers things based on LRU logic. I felt the brain's logic is more complex than just LRU. It has lot more parameters like number of times accessed, importance, interest, etc, etc... Still it is a very interesting thing to start thinking about our brain behaviors.

While talking about brain, one can't forget dreams. Today morning, in a dream, I saw three girls whom I've met 5 years ago in my college. I've seen their faces with the clarity of maximum possible resolution I can imagine. When they asked me if I can remember their names, I said the name of one of those girls & when I was trying to say the second girls' name......... booom... the dream was over. From that moment, I've tried very hard to recollect their faces (of course, at the cost of my early morning sleep :( ) & I couldn't get even a single piece. Now I couldn't even confirm if the name I said in the dream is the correct one. May be the brain is surfing through all the memory links when we are sleeping & bring out the interesting ones as dreams.

Many of my dreams used to have very normal & realistic incidents with only few strange things. I used to break my head for quite some time to know why that thing happened in my dream in that manner. Most of the time, I could find out a really complex but very logical reason for those incidents. Definitely the brain is doing a lot of rehearsals before playing that dream for me. Hats off to the brain!

But few of my recent dreams are quite illogical & I couldn't find out any reason for that. I don't know whether my dream creator is going blunt or my active brain. Anyhow, I'm becoming dumb... that is very clear :( ... In yesterday's dream, I was surfing the net & my friend asked which site I was looking into. I was looking for the URL in all parts of the keyboard, then in monitor & after a lot of difficulty I found that at the bottom of the screen. All the browsers I use (firefox, opera, IE) have URL at the top. I dont know why I searched that in the keyboard & found that at the bottom of the monitor. May be I was looking into the keyboard I'll be using in the future? (crap!)

End of my french beard

2004-10-13T01:45:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness... even I couldn't tolerate my face like this! So the game comes to an end... smart karthi is back with a full clean shave... ok guys, you are lucky to escape this time... anyhow, it wont be much long before I become crazy again & feel like having french beard or something even crazier...

For the time being, bye bye french beard.

My french beard

2004-10-12T10:46:00.000-07:00

When I shaved today, I felt bored of seeing the same face again & again. Life should have change, right? So, I shaved leaving a bush around my mouth! Yes! Finally I've executed my loooong time desire of having french beard!

Till then whoever I meet I'm asking how I look with the great french beard. I also torture them to tell me the name of a movie hero who looks similar to me. Poor fellows... they are forced to quote some very famous personalities. This game is very interesting. I'm planning to torture everybody by showing my face like this for quite some time! ;-)

First Blog!

2004-10-11T09:39:00.000-07:00

Yep... I agree, I'm far far left behind in the world of blogs! Hope I'll catch up fast. Actually for long time, blog looked like waste of time for me... but, am very much impressed by few of the blogs I came across in the net (http://www.joelonsoftware.com/, http://chitrapandian.blogspot.com/, ...) & finally decided to join the community! Hope u'll find something interesting here in the days to come.

My life has always been an open book. I used to share all the interesting, sweet & bitter moments with my friends. Hope this will make that circle bigger.

Njoy reading my life!