Farewell trip and visit to alma mater - KSU

We group of 9 KSU friends try to meet every year (or more often than that) and I could see that there will be 8 less friends with me every time a get together happen. Though we had so many long conversation, every silent moment between them, kept me thinking, I will not get to hear them this often once I move back to India.

The trip was very nostalgic. Reliving all the college days, walking through the alma mater, trying to repeat the daily activity of college was exciting and fun.

Shopping through the local grocery store, where we shopped during college, finding all the things that we bought during that time was like revisiting those days. Aisle after aisle, with the shouts like "Remember this fruit mix can?", "Hey the strawberry vanilla ice cream bucket." to "The rice brand has changed." clearly sought how we were mapping ourselves to five years back.

"Ah the supervisor lady is still working" said of my friend when we went to have lunch at KSU dorm dining center, the place where we all worked to earn our first dollar. We remembered how we worked, filled the ice in the pop machine, loaded the milk in the vending machine, learned to do the salad bar and laughing over all the mistakes, paid off every dollar we spent to make this trip.

With all these nostalgic moments, everybody had a question - When will we all will be meeting again? esp with one friend missing this meet as he is in India and with my moving back to India. People were guessing when I will be returning back to US and I was giving some random answers, and that kept the faith and hope that it will happen. I think we will all will meet but just don't know when and where.

My eyes were like red sunset, wishing to catch some sleep after no more than 3 hours of sleep per day in last 3 days. Everybody pulled it to their max as this could be a last visit to Kansas State University, a place where we earned our degree, where we made some good friends, where we thought our dreams will come true and where we had unlimited fun.

Manhattan trip

Moving back to India

I have fastened my seat belts to finally go back to home. When I left India five and half years before, I always knew I will go back one day, it took little longer to accomplish it though. To keep the promise that I made before moving to US, to live more closely with family, to seek a new career in growing economy, to feel the sense of belonging, I am moving back to India on April 7th.

Its been fabulous time learning, earning, working, having fun and its time to pull the socks again to some new challenges, new expectations and new hopes. It will be tough to miss some great friends and great places to work and easy way of living life though. The decision had lots of question, lots of confusion and pros and cons, but am glad I was able to cross the ring of fire with support from family and friends.

Last few weeks have been so hectic, visiting friends, running errants to finish all things, packing that I couldn't get time to pen this blog early.

I hope my decision to move back to India and living there will be fun filled, successful and that I will reach some newer and important goals of life. Am excited to see family and friends, feeling happy that I could do this big step and excited about "change" in life.

FAQ's :P

What am I gonna miss most? - Friends and daily life.

Whats exciting? Authentic home food (though will miss continental food :( ), freedom from H1/Green card paper work , enjoying Indian music, movies, TV and cricket.

Will you be back? Well time will answer. I might come back on visit and on business visa.

Happy Days of CBIT

Last night I watched "Happy Days" Telugu movie and I felt that I lived my college life for another 3 hours. Every role, story, character that was showed in the movie, I could relate to something that happened in my college life.

With movie being shot in CBIT, it was nostalgic to see and cheer for alma mater.

Whether it was house wiring and filling labs scene, chemistry lab, bike stand or the buses, every scene of it reminded me of all the happy days of college life.
Whether it was Shruti event, Araku trip, Holi or campus recruiting there was something which we had too.
Whether it was bus ride, exams preparation and results, ragging or freshers parties our life at college was filled with all those too.
Whether it was first day at college with all parents around, or the cricket match or the farewell scene I relived every moment.
Whether it was computer science dept building, library or canteen every place made me think of what we did all those 4 years.

All I can say, I remembered all those good moments and all my college friends. I hope everybody who saw the movie felt the same and took a break from their purposeful days to remember their happy days.

5 years in US

Its been 5 years now that I am in US. It was Jul 26, 2002 when I landed in Kansas City airport at 10:30pm - first time stepping out of home, many questions, many goals and sense of fear on how it will go.

I still remember the 130 miles drive in the shuttle from Kansas City airport to Manhattan, KS and a cab drive to seniors apartment on a Friday night - college students on Aggivele street, coming out of pubs, shouting and having fun. The experience was much more different than what I heard about US. The excitement of being in US and missing the friends and family at same time, was a complex feeling.

I had promised my parents that I will be moving back to India after 2 years of MS and 2 years of job, so that I can pay off all my loans. Obviously I did not keep that promise, but will I move back in coming years? Only time will answer that.

For now I am just cherishing the feeling of an amazing 5 yrs journey. And on top of that for first time, we four family members in US are meeting today.

JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge

I took part into JP Morgan Chase's 3.5 miles run and completed in 35ish minutes. Results are at Link

Master's get together

Last May, my masters friends visited me and we had some good time. One of my friend has blogged it at http://madhavis.blogspot.com/2007/05/back-from-boston.html
We went to Acadia, Decordova Museam, Jillians and many other places. Some of the pictures are at

363Knights - Boston - 2007

And Guess what! we are meeting again. I am going to Manhattan, KS to my alma mater to meet my friends and to walk through all good old memories.

Inda losing to Bangladesh - depressing

I used to watch lot of cricket during my teens, but after match-fixing and India started doing terribly, I almost lost interest in cricket.

But after long time, I started gaining interest esp with world cup going on. Hershelle Gibbs six 6's in an over made me feel the world cup fever.

For last 5 hours I am watching India-Bangladesh match and its been terrible performance from India. Not only batsmen scored very low, but bowlers did not perform to their levels. Its just depressing to watch cricket again. And on the other side Pakistan is on verge of elimination. Like me, many would have dreamed of India-Pakistan watch, which may not happen.

More bad news from cricket while am writing this. The worst umpire decision of history - Irish batsmen A. Botha was given catch out with ball missing the bat by 6 inches!

Hope we beat Sri Lanka terribly to make it to super 8.

Buying your first car?

If you are buying your first car, you would need

• License: You need license. 
• • In Georgia (GA) if you want to buy car either you shd have GA license or the Car shd be registered in GA.
  • Check dmv.org to find what rules exist.
• Money: If you are get a private party car you need to do down payment..
• • Credit cards - they sometime give money at 1.9%. call customer service and ask the cheque in favor of your name.
  • • Word of caution - make the card to 0$, i.e. pay off all your credits, before you lend.
  • DCU.com - they are giving at 5.25% and they can sanction 120% of car value.
  • • They would need a copy of your paycheck!
    • and if private party they will need intent to sell form filled by seller.
  • Dealers- they can directly get you money from their associated banks - expect like 7-9% apr
• Tax - Check state tax rate
• • Some states like GA dont ask for tax if you buy from private party. so look for such rules in dmv.org...as you can save some.
• Car search:
• • search for local news paper...and search classifieds
  • search programmed car sales like hertz,avis...they start at 8-9000.
  • carmax - if u find one - they also start at about 9000.
  • search websites: autotrader.com/edmunds.com,cars.com,
  • search craigslist
• What to check while searching consider cars
• • which dont smell cigarette
  • power window, lock
  • keyless would be a plus
  • dual air bags - as it reduces your insurance
  • cd/mp3/bluetooth player - i hate to say that i dont have one.
  • Timing belt – if car needs a timing belt…it would cost you 500 – 800$.
  • Fuel economy – gas price is soaring…need to consider it.
  • Try to search model in google to see if it had any problems…like ford Taurus 91 had 1000’s of problem….
• Car value:
• • get the car value at kbb.com and edmunds.com
• Car history:
• • carfax.com they charge 25$ for unlimited enquires for a month.
  • you will need VIN# to check this.
• Car check: if you are not buying at carmax/hertz...its advised to go for a car check.
• • firestone does 20 point check for 19.99$
  • if you want complete engine check they charge about 127$
  • midas/grease monkeys/good years also offer something simillar
• papers: 
• • while buying, the seller will sign title on your name.
  • apart from it you would need bill of sale form to be signed.
• Deal time: when you are taking the car make sure you get
• • both car keys
  • manual
  • remote if equipped to player
  • car spare tire and jack
  • any service records they have
• Warranty: If you buy through dealer, he will generally offer you warranty. It would cost something like this
• • 2 years/24000miles – 1000$
  • 3yrs/36000miles – 1250$
  • If you buy thru private party you can get warranty’s at dealers/AAA.
• insurance:
• • try esurance.com, amica, costco
  • If you already have insurance then you can save. So, try to add your name to a friends insurance.
• lease:
• Leasing is another option. Sometimes it's a wiser option than buying. 

Wishing you a fast,reliable,economical,hassle free  car deal.

2007 - What's in the box for me

The moment it struck 2007, there were many thoughts in my mind. What am I about to achieve in this year? Will it be a simple and casual year like last 2 years - just do job, do some investing and keep thinking using my thought less brain [:)].

Well I think it will be different than usual and will be a crucial year on what all I am planning for my life. I am pretty sure that I will not be tying the knot in 2007 but probably is the last such year. I also want to do big trip to one of the unvisited continent.

Leaving me and my plans, I wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year!
Happy New Year!

'Loss' Vegas

I was at Vegas during Christmas time and visited Hoover dam and Grand Canyon too. I might have hopped at least 30 casino's. It is fun to visit all the casino's not just to gamble but to see their grandeur and their unique theme. I was most impressed by Venetian, Aladdin, Bellagio. And shows at all these casino's make them must to visit places. Apart from many free shows I went to Second City comedy show and Jubilee dance show.

Vegas

Grand Canyon is just a playground for photography lovers and nature lovers. And during sun set I felt it absolute splendid.

Hoover Dam is one of the architectural marvel, not only because it was tallest when it was built, and has big volume, but also that it was built during great depression period and was built before scheduled time. Quite impressive for such a large project.

And here are my latest lines.

Suraj naraaz hain shab se
Chand khafa hain din se
Unhe jo dur karta hain
Aapki nazroon se

Quixtar

There are thousands of pages and posts regarding not to join Quixtar and how you are fooled and hypnotized to join the cult. Recently I found couple of video's on youtube which shows transparent reality about the hierarchical structured multi-level marketing scam. Everyone who is approached by Quixtar, I recommend to see these videos.

Part 1, Part 2

In my perspective, Quixtar not only kills all your time but also that you will lose all your friends and self respect. You might earn couple of thousands per annum but its not worth cheating all your nearby.

Savings!

I had an interesting discussion with my friend recently on Savings. We wanted to know how much should you save from your salary?

First of all, why do we save?
Retirement? Rain check for bad time? Vacation and fun? Future prospects? or may be for all of these.

Say you are planning for your retirement (like 401K or any retirement policy) and you think you have earned enough to take care of recession, health issues and have enough saved for any small issues of life, do you still need to save? When do you think that we need not save anymore?

Well we just decided it all ends at your perspective.

There is no logical amount or % of your salary that can be determined, in general is needed to be saved by every person. Some people may not save and still lead a happy life, some may need not save and some may end up saving all their life for something or nothing. Some may feel its never enough savings and some may feel they need not save. So its just their perspective.

But from what I have read and heard about planning your future, a 10% saving of your salary is generally advised at least and upto a 40% depending on your requirement.

Hard disk down!

Ok therz been long pause in my blogging and the culprit is my hard disk. All of a sudden my system went down just to tell me that my hard disk went bad.

So what is the lesson learnt? Never rely on computers and always always always backup your data.

What did I lose? Many pictures, songs and videos. Oops not only that but thousands of bookmarks, personal files, playlists, tons of downloaded software and most importantly the files that I did not backup.

People so please backup your data as often as possible.

Back to my photography here are couple of bloggable photos and links where I took them. (That leaves a trial to what I did these days ;) )


Blue Hills Reservation



Cannon Mountains

Richmond to Boston

My last day at Wachovia Securities in Richmond was Friday, Sep the 15th and my joining date at VistaPrint 18th. Now that's just a weekend to move north by 550 miles and start working. So was planning to start on Friday but my friends at Richmond wanted me to stay to have a blast and to leave on Saturday. I said fine and everyone accompanied me to Washington DC, so that they can spend couple more hours with me. Now there was more to this, all of a sudden everyone wanted to spend more time with me and slowly the farewell was off for another day. I just couldn't take all that privilege and love for me, it was like a big mountain of happiness just fell on me. I just did not had enough words and smile to express my happiness that everybody want to stay back in DC to spend some more time with me. We spent lot of time talking about all the things happened back there.

Thanks guys for all the love and care you showered on me.

On my way I also got a chance to meet my KSU friends and their families in New Jearsy. And I finally arrived to Boston on Sunday night.

Ok coming to life at Boston.
The first week was good at office, most of the time went on getting to know people and getting used to system. I am liking it, its good work and good place to work. I hated traffic for a while and now am getting used to it. Basically I have understand that its not Richmond. Its more busy life, happening place, so much to do around and more time to commute anywhere.

Coming to this week Song craze
Am listening a lot to
Woh lamhe song - So jao mein agar....Lyrics ,Song and
Omkara song - Jag Jaa Lyrics, Song

Irony is am listening to "So jao agar" song after getting up and to "Jag Jaa" before going to bed. And I have no clue. Well both the songs are very good to listen and I could write tons of lines for them.

Adious Richmond

Richmond - If I have to write about my experience in Richmond it would just take millions of pages. All I can say is that I had all essence of life. Some of my happiest days are hidden in the pages of my Richmond's history. I been always blessed by bunch of good friends and Richmond did not fell short of it. It was amazing experience finding so many good friends, enjoying every day, learning something from each of them and it just hurts somewhere in my heart to leave behind such a good place. But life is to move on and its time to say Richmond - Adious.

So here is some news from my side. I been offered full time in VistaPrint at Boston and I will be joining them soon. So that brings an end to one of the most eventful and happening part of life and am pretty sure it is also beginning of something bigger and brighter future in Boston.

Its been always tough on my side leaving back a place full of friends, memories and life. I sometime define myself as build up of memories and I clearly find it when I plan on leaving a place. Memories just brace through me. I had similar tough time leaving Columbus, Manhattan and India offcourse.

Counting on my memories I thought I should write up all the people's name whom I met in my stop of life at Richmond.

Lee F, Vijay C, Stephen D, Pratul S, Srinivas K, Preeti D, Arekh N, Ravi, Shameen, Kalyan C, Neha V, Anand L, Latha V R, Madhavi B, David C, Mike P, James B, James L, Don L, Mike K, Darren, Hari V, Ratnesh, Srini, Chiti K, Rachana K, Rajrishi, Vimala K, Venus K, Deepthi, Deepika, Swathi R, Nilesh, Priti J G, Santosh K, Mahesh, David M, Shankar, Cecile, Eddie H, Bushan, Britt, Mark S, Venkat, Nateshan, Satish, Latha, Shiva T, Madan, Smitha, Amrutha J, Asish, Mansi, Kadambari V, Himanshu V, Abid, Vivek, Wilma, Snehal, Srikanth, Sunitha, Swapna B, Kiran, Srikanth, Hemanth, Nirmala, Naveen R, Srujan B, Radhika B, Yatin N, Jatin N, Harish R, Manohar S, Shivsagar T and many many others.


Coming out of my memories, I had an amazing farewell week. Overall there were 4 farewell meals and many more get togethers and cook outs. The week went like a breeze but it will stay in memories for ever.

Here are the photos of the party's and lunches.


With the Richmond Family. Dinesh, Swapna, Amrutha, Kundan, Srikanth, Kadambari, Me and Kiran (L to R).


With the Team. David C, Lisa, Me, Latha, David M (L to R).





With Office gang.
Ratnesh, Raghav, Madan, Solomon, Eddide, Chitti, Srinivas, Joesph, Me, Promod, Venkat (L to R).


Some of the golden moments of my Richmond history are below.

Richmond

Oct 1, 2005 - 15 Photos

Friends - Until we cross each others path you are all in my Yaadein.

Miss you Richmond.

Weekend trip: Luray Caverns

The long weekend went like a breeze. Apart from I got my house, I watched a very nicely made movie Lage Raho Munnabhai and illogical and crappy movie on relationships, Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna. If you haven't watched it, stay lucky! If you have watched the movie, do you think will they ever be able to stay together?

On Monday it was great to see bro visiting me. It was almost 9 months that we met. It was fun having long chats with him about every happening thing in his and my life.

We later visited Luray Caverns. I been to many Caverns including Borra Caves in Araku, AP - my best ever, Cave of the Winds - Colorado, Ruby Falls - Tennessee, but Luray was amazing, atleast with its beautiful reflection lake and natural piano.

Here is one nice photo of we brothers.

Home Sweet Home

Its been my long dream to own a house and today I am proud owner of a house in Hyderabad. It bring immense happiness in me.

Its been a long journey to achieve this moment and I have to appreciate my parents who worked so hard to search and go through troublesome paper work of bank loan and others. And with the soaring Hyderabad real estate prices, its been tough to find something in the budget. Everytime I used to call Sudhakar and YK, who have been instrumental in my quest, I used to find that the prices have gone up again. It just use to scare me up. But finally with help of one and all, my dream has come true.

Cheers.

PS: Near and dear email me for photos.

Some days

Earlier today I was having discussion with one of my colleague and he mentioned that all his three cars broke on this weekend and he had to tow two of them over 30 miles. So are you getting where I am going? I feel that there are days which are quite terrifying like this and there are also equally brighter days. I just do not get why such coincidences happen to make some days a very good day or a very bad day, but they do happen. Probably stars get alligned or get tangled on such days.

Well looks like I am having some brighter days. There are few things happening good on my side, though not yet concrete. I will definitely let you know once everything gets settled.

I just told my colleague that probably 3 good things are about to happen to him on one good day 'quite oppositely similar' to three cars going down on one day...that brought a big hope and a smile on his face.

Boston

I am in Boston this weekend and I am enjoying like crazy. It was fun meeting some old friends and also trying Golf. Golf looked to me interesting and fun sport, hope I do it more often. On top of Golf I scored my highest in Bowling (164) though lost to Arekh (175). And after 3 hours of poker I gained back from my loss, just to know that I made ZERO dollars! It was just fascinating that i made exactly nothing.

Well, here are my latest lines. I thought I should add english words to my verse, and thus here is my latest crazy poem...

To all my Crushes:

Barastha pani Ice banjaye,
Garajtha badal Calm hojaye,
Bijli ko Shock lagjaye,
Mera dil ka Bulb glow hojaye.

Hope it brings a smile..

pictures: To the newly wedded

This weekend some of our Engg. friends met to celebrate the wedding of our classmate, Ravi Kiran. Since picture speaks more than thousand words, I need not explain much.

Group photo of engg frnds met.

Photo at a Go Karting place. (If you are looking for me, I am the photographer ;) )

To the newly wedded: Happy married life.

More at http://kyadamakanti.blogspot.com/2006/08/get-together.html

Cheers,

Gang of four

Am so glad that now I have two of my closest cousions and brother in US. I was all alone for three years and suddenly in a year I have company of three people. So, now we are Gang Of Four. Welcome Swathi...hope you are enjoying your first day.

Lyrics: Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna (KANK)

Lyrics are the life line of the any song. I am always been fan of good lyrics and I hate the songs which do not make any sense. I try to go through the lyrics if I start to like the song. Ironically there are many songs which are either music based or video based and have not much of meaning nor sense. These lyrics are good to read and to remember so that you do not make such mistake if you want to write up some day ;)

Well, I recently started listening to Kabhi alvida na kehna's title song. Its quite impressive lyrics and after you listen the song for 3-4 times, you start liking it..something which usually happens with A.R.Rehman's songs.

Let me see if I can critic this song....this would be first of its kind that am trying to write up.

here are the lyrics that I found online (I have corrected the typos)....as time goes on, I will add my comments on the lines...

Lyricist: Javed Akhtar (one of my favorite)

Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna
Tum ko bhi hai khabar
Mujhko bhi hai pata

First time listeners would expect more from lyrics as Khabar and Pata do not rhyme, but you wont feel it after a while

Ho raha hai judaa
Dono ka raasta
Definetly situational
Dur jaake bhi mujhse tum meri yaadon mein rehna
This is the most important phrase of the whole song.
The beauty of this line is that even though you are referencing this line to other person, you are implying it to yourself; to remember and not to forget!

Its a huge difference from a usual line like "Dur jaake bhi mujshe, mujhe yaad rakhna".

Kabhi alvida na kehna
Kabhi alvida na kehna



Jitni thi khushiyaa
Sab kho chuki hai
Bas ek gham hai ki jaata nahi
jaata nahin
Samjha ke dekha behla ke dekha
Dil hai ki chain isko aata nahi
Aansun hai ki hai angarayee

Definetly you can relate tears to angarayee but here it creates much more sense with the next line, though redundant.

I wonder how the lyrcist gets involved into the poem. Its tough to write up without being in that situation. I know its the skill and that is why they are famous, but definetly appreciable.

Aag hai kab aankhon se behna

Kabhi alvida na kehna
Kabhi alvida na kehna
Rut aa rahi hai
Rut jaa rahi hai
Dard ka mausam badla nahi
Rang yeh haalka itna hai gehra
Sadiyon main hoga halka nahi

Lovely line....this brings out the complete picturisque representation of the song...sadiyon main hoga halka nahi....shows the gravity of the pain and you can relate all the feelings as if you are looking at the painting...

Halka nahi
Kaun jaane kya hona hai
Hum ko hai ab kya kya sehna
Kabhi alvida na kehna
Kabhi alvida na kehnaa

Tum ko bhi hai khabar
Mujhko bhi hai pata
Ho raha hai judaa
Dono ka raasta
Dur jaake bhi mujhse tum meri yaadon main rehna
Kabhi alvida na kehna
kabhi alvida na kehna

Photography: Reflection and Balance

(view it in enlarged mode before you read)

I have noticed that some of my interests are temporal and some are sinusoidal (they surface sporadically). And one of my craze is for photography. I tried to learn it from time to time but it's still very basic. Whenever I think too much to take a photo, I have ended up spoiling it. The best one's are always quick shots ruled by my instincts.

This is one of blogable photographs amongst my zillion photography shoots..

I like it because it has good reflection and the color balance of the sky and water to the train tracks and reflection is quite appropriate...kind of being in symphony..

So, far this is the most appreciated photo from my colleagues as it hangs in my office cube...

Define: Happiness

I feel the most complex word in dictionary is to define Happiness. It can be so different from one person to other and can change any number of times in one's life. Today I might feel happy about something and the same may bore me tomorrow.

Since some time I been thinking that how much time an average human is happy. If anybody is even happy for quarter of the life, I would say he has lived his life (obviously without counting the amazing childhood part). The biggest problem with humans is to understand the worth of whatever they have and to find happiness in it. Its always that he needs more or he is not happy with whatever he has.

Somebody defined Happiness as "Happiness is a journey and not a destination" very apt. To stay happy across the journey of life is to feel satisfied with what he has and finding worth of what all he owns.

Happiness can be from family, friends, health, wealth, nature, time, entertainment, food, sex, travel, being lavish, pride, power, past, making jealous, sadism!, fans, beer, achievement, victory and or any combination of these or many more...

If everybody can find what they have from above list and forget what they do not have from the list....probably that could make them happy...


I wish I can make atleast one person happy everyday...(I know that ONE person for most of the time will be myself ;))


Cheers,