Obvious-Rohit N

not liking the way the tweet uploads look on my blog...suspending the daily upload and also removed some previously shipped tweets

( Tweets )Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

( Tweets )Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Adithya is a colleague of mine and has, along with his friend Uday, taken up the task of educating children about the beauty of science. I was aware that Adithya was regular at yoga and photography apart from interests in classical music (he plays flute),it took the news article to know more about him. You can also read it here

( Tweets )Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

( Tweets )Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

I wanted to add this twitstamp to the sidebar..LJ allows style changes to paid accounts only.Grrrr!!


Then I thought of adding the twitstamp as my userpic.. but the resolution is bigger ..sigh :-(

I settled for LoudTwitter ...it posts your twitter entries at a predefined time everyday

• Aap ki aankhon mein kuchh


• Naam Gum Jaayega


• TUJSE NARAJ NAHI ZINDAGI(MASOOM)



• ruke ruke se quadam (Muasam, what a movie!!)


• Ankhiyon Ke Jharokhon Se



• Kitni Akeli Kitni Tanha and the remix is also good



• Gori teri aankhen kahen


Thanks to Sunda's comment, I got to hear these beauties


• Baredhe Neenu Nainna Hesara



• Hindustanavu endhu mareya Bharatha Rathnavu janmisali



• Olavina udugore


• Noorondu nenapu


• nanna haadu nannadhu -- One of the most played song on chitramanjari


• Premaloka- nodamma hudugi


• Jotheyalee Jothejotheyalee



• Nira bittu nelada mele


• banigondu elle ellide-Vijaya High School Vinay V's favorite :-)

This list will be updated regularly

update: corrected the screwed up links :-(,removed separate links & made links open in new window/tab

One of the most memorable trips with the office gang...the pictures tell the story :
A brief trip detail: Bangalore->Train->Shimoga->Winger(New Tata vehicle)->Nagara Fort->Kollur Temple (yummy prasada lunch)->Jeep->Kodchadri->Sunset at Shankara Charya Sannidhi->Stay at Bhattru Mane->Sun Rise->Jeep->Base of Hill->Winger->Byndur Beach->Shimoga->Superb Dinner -> Train->Bangalore

Uh Oh!! :-( that's what I felt when I looked at my blog archive(The "archive" link on my previous theme was not as prominent as it is now). I did not post a single entry in 2007. *yuk* . I am not sure whether it was sheer laziness or lack of time (I was working at ITPL) that kept me away from my blog...but definitely it was not lack of "things to blog about"....

Aftereffect of Chidambaram's Press Conf :-)



Combined Idea: Somu & I. Straigh line sketch : I
I need to explore how to write stick diagrams

Finally I sit down to write about my visit to Antharasanthe and I don’t even remember what dates we travelled. So I pick my trusted K810i, scroll through the photos and get the dates. :-)

I went to GV’s house on the morning of 2nd October 2008 and the plan was to leave Bangalore by 10am. But the loading of the “stuff” to his jeep took quite a time. We had to be extra careful as it was an open (soft) top Mahindra 540. GV was making this trip to install few solar powered lamps for the Anti-poaching Camps in the Antharasanthe range.

I won’t detail about this whole solar stuff and GV himself…that will be another blog entry by itself.

We finally started around 11am. Tip: have some cotton to stuff into your ears and eye gear to protect from dust when travelling in an open jeep


20kms after Mandya there was a blockade by locals. A Volvo had hit a two wheeler and unfortunately the rider had died. And finally when the police arrived and cleared the jam, our jeep did not start. We just parked it to the side and tried all the things. We got a mechanic’s phone number from a nearby petrol bunk. The number was scribbled on the window sill in a pencil. Talk about being lucky!

The mechanic turned out to be more proficient with two wheelers. But he tried his best to put up a show; checked the fuel pump, pumped some diesel out… and finally gave a solution...to push and start :-(

We had to get this “starting” problem rectified. You see pushing a jeep in a forest is definitely not a good idea. We managed to reach Mysore without anymore problems and drove to the first garage that we saw. The guy narrowed down the problem to the solenoid. We got it replaced, had lunch at the Country Club and drove along the ring road to join the HD Kote main road.

We reached Antharasanteh gate around 6:30pm. GV had spoken to the range forest officer (RFO) about the visit and he had sent one of his men (lets call him the “forest guy”-FG) to pick us at the gate. Just as we made our way into the forest we could see something rolling in the grass nearby. The FG before seeing closely concluded that it might some deer which was hurt by dogs. He thought we could get it some water. We all got down and were carefully closing to the spot where the “animal” was rolling left and right as if it was in a hammock. And voila!! It rolls to a sitting position and what wee saw was not spots on the orange-brown skin but.. STRIPES…it was a very rare tiger sighting…we could only capture the image in our eyes…it stared at us for a few seconds…and ran off...we could never know whether it went away or was just hiding behind the perfect camouflage of the bushes. That really was a good welcome we got.


Night 1: Rest at the guest house

Day2 Morning-noon: Installation of solar steet lamp and in door portable lamp at Hoskere Camp

Day2 Evening: Replacement of solar lamp module at JLR Kabini. I got to see Papa there.


Day2 night: Stay at Hosekere camp and testing of the solar installations- a success of course


Day 3 Morning-Evening: Visit to other camps in deep forest for feasibility study for solar lamp installation


Day 3 Evening: This got to be one of the most memorable experiences. We went for elephant chasing. The Antharasanthe range is dotted by villages along the periphery. The villagers grow cotton and sugar cane. During October there is standing sugar cane crop. The elephants cross into the villages and feast themselves on the juicy sugar cane. The villagers think it’s the duty of the forest dept to keep the animals at bay. But restricting the elephants is not an easy job, it has to be a combine effort. The RFO strives hard to involve the villagers and this cooperative venture is working.

Every evening starting 6:30 till 10:30 into the night the forest guards patrol around 10km of the border. They carry fire crackers to scare the elephants and drive them into the forest. Trenches are dug around the border but you will be amazed how easily an elephant can cross a 5 ft deep 4 feet wide trench. The villagers sit across the border on tree tops and burst crackers when they see a herd a crossing.

We patrolled in the jeep and reached one the crossing points at the right time to scare the elephants. Fortunately there were no crossings that night. But the villagers and forest guards are not lucky all the time.

The elephants use particular crossing points for quite some time…but when they see that it is being blocked…they find another and it becomes difficult for the guards to find exactly where the new crossing point is.
It was a night of bursting crackers, yelling, screaming and we were pretty exhausted.


We went to Balle camp for the night stay

Day 4 morning: We went to he beautiful Kaimara camp. The Antharasanthe range was one of the hunting grounds of the Maharaja of Mysore. And they had taste. They built beautiful camps deep in the forest for overnight stay. GV and I almost tried to find a real estate deal in that forest.


We left the forest at around 3pm…made a pit stop at my house in Mysore and drove to Bangalore. For GV this is very routine, but for me I had loads of beautiful images captured in my eyes, host of chirpy sounds of birds embedded in my ears…and the silence which you can almost feel and touch….


Our lungs were so accustomed to the relatively pure air...by the time we reached Bangalore both of us were coughing and next two days had cold…We were back to the civilized world…… :-) :-(

The photos are in the entry below….

I will add detailed report of my visit with GV to Antharasanthe range of Nagarhole forest..untill then enjoy the snaps...takes few seconds to load
you can also see the entire set with appropriate titles at Flickr

and after some years....

wait and watch :-)...it takes time to load..in that time watch the video above...if you have already seen it,watch it once more :--)

The weekend belonged to sports. You had the Wimbledon women’s and men’s finals, the F1 British Grand prix and the Asia cup finals.
The William’s sisters’ finals match could have been a bit more interesting…at least a three setter. I caught up on the F1 during the last few laps. It was all about the tires and sheer capability of the driver to handle the wet condition.
The most awaited one was the Federer v/s Nadal match. Federer’s excellent fore hand shots were keeping him in the game. But 2 set down and Nadal looking good on the grass were demanding more than good forehand shots. Nadal appeared to be a limited edition of Hancock ( Am yet to watch the movie…but the trailers and reviews give a hint) . He was every where the ball fell on his side of the court. Man that guy can stretch, regain and be on the other end in a flash. Wow! And then it started raining. I am not sure in what all ways rain affects a grass court match (the covers being drawn) but all I see is the players get time to relax and may be the time out acts as a stress buster.

During the rain, an old Bjorn Borg v/s Mc Enroe match was aired and it was tie-break…just like what happened when the match resumed after the rain stopped. I am blogging when the third set tie break is at 6-5 with Federer leading.

All this tie break games made me have a look into detail and history of scoring in Tennis

There was MS Gill, our sports minister in the audience.Free invitation or inspiration to hone some talents back home, not sure.

One of the things that keep me hooked to the television is political interviews and debates. The Nuclear deal, the Left's reservation on it and of late Samajwadi Party's "deal" with Congress are responsible for some of the best TV debates and interviews.

L K Advani, A P Bardan, Sitaram Yechury, Jyoti Basu, Amar Singh, George Fernandes  are some of the politicians whose interviews make for a good watch (good observation...no congress person in that list). They are not only good at their words but can prick the journalist where it hurts more.  I am pretty sure the interviewer is told to be better prepared for interviewing these stalwarts.

Some things that totally irritate about the journalist are:

1. They think they have the right to know and have to be told everything in that interview/debate  -internal party talks, personal relations..
 ( Bardan  answers to such rubbish with an indifference that makes the journalist to change the topic asap...Advani and Amar Singh do wit ha smile)
2. Vehemently ask some irking question repeatedly (most often because they don’t know anything else to ask or are afraid to ask anything else)
3. Statements like "So you are telling on national television that..." (As if it was supposed to be a for personal collection)...”...so you confirm to us...”, when all that the politician had said was that they will think about the matter...

Maybe there is sign at the entrance to the interview area which reads "Journalists are requested to leave most of their maturity and enter” :-)

Spare me the Devil’s Advocate hosted by Karan Thapar. For me, he is more of an  interrogator than a journalist.

 

After much suspense the monsoon arrived in bangalore and in what a way!!. I planned to leave office early and peeped out of the window and 6:30pm..and wow what a noise..for a change not of the traffic but of the rain !!. Yesterday night I didn't get much sleep and was drowsy at 9 in the morning today. I thought its better to dose off in my car in the street if it comes to that than risking it on the two wheeler. I don't think I would have left office before 9pm if I had taken Activa. I thank my sleepless night :-)

I usually leave in the midst of the rain since roads get log jammed when it begins to drizzle and when the rain stops.
The city drains or not ready (and never will be ). The open storm water drains are all clogged with anything and everything. The sewerage lines just cant handle the water rush and man holes start overflowing within minutes of a heavy shower. Fortunately some man-holes that were in the middle of the roads were properly closed and other sewer inlets leveled with the road. One rain water inlet (with iron grill) immediately after Lalbagh main gate signal(going towards Lalbagh west gate) used to turn into invisible ditch. Overflowing with rain water, it used to be like a booby trap for commuters- car and bikes chassis' getting hit badly hit . Fortunately it was repaired and concreted t o road level a couple of days ago - justin time I would say.

One other thing worth mentioning is that the traffic cops were on duty at every junction from Queens Road till Kathriguppe. Somethings are changing in Namma Bengaluru.

I shot this clip entering into the Lalbagh main gate signal. The 3gp format from my K810i is not that clear. You can here some ad on FM. The water was gushing at the footpath level. It rained for almost 3 hours today.

No, I am not getting paid ;-) by Purvankara.

May be I am being biased cause I did it but then its an observation. Quite a few of my friends couldn't stick to their second jobs for more than a year ....most of them had changed from their first job after 2-2.5 years

myself- Zilog (2.5)-Delphi(1)-APC(current)
Harish-Zilog(3)-Siemens (8months)-Mindtree (current)
Aditya-Bosch(2.5)-Infy(1)-GM(current)
Suresh-Zilog(2)-ABB-(6 months)-Avnet(6 months ?)-Vigyaan(Current)


The first job is a total learning experience- technical,corporate,interpersonal etc. One would want to expand on these aspects in their second job..but the learning curve might not be as sharp as it was in the first job..frustration creeps in over time and eventually you look for a change. 

But there are cases where people have settled in their first/second jobs for more than 3 years...taking into consideration the current demand and trends that really is a point to note. 

At the end of the day if you are given good work , healthy work culture and  a competitive salary there is no reason why one would look for a change. The root cause why people change jobs is that not all good things get packaged into one. A job offers varying degrees of the afore mentioned job qualities and is the reason for a person to start thinking about changing current job.