Opening a Wine Bottle...

         

     After a year long gap of keeping the occassional hobby of drinking aside, i had to celebrate one of a happy moments couple of weeks ago. I had before me a Carolina Red Wine bottle. With no cork opener at home, it was a struggle to see the fabulous bottle of wine (never tasted before) standing infront of us. So what is the best way to open the wine bottle? Any guesses? Well, i struggled for about half an hour and i could do it finally. Thanks to the youtube and google, but everything to watch on TV / Video looked simpler but in reality it was really a tough job. For those who are not aware, The wine bottle is shown below in the pic and the top portion (neck) of it has a long hard rubber cork very tightly placed at the top. There were various tips on the you-tube on how to cotinuosly pat hard at the bottom of the bottle facing a wall, facing a tree etc. but they all sounded different and not-practical to me, as i had no intention to break the bottle in the battle to open it. I couldnt take the cork out but i succeeded in opening the bottle cork by pushing it hard inside with various kitchen equipment with multiple tries and finally the reverse side of the spoon did the trick. I held tight the spoon with its reverse side and pressed it hard inside, so the cork fell inside the bottle (thanks to youtube again). I had a few sips of it and it couldnt go any inside. Probably many would like it, but to me the touch has gone long ago. Its no more an occassional hobby now :) Its no more in me...

Minerva @ Gaithersburg

      Every friday's lunch is very special for us with office crew. Minerva is an Indian Cuisine in Gaithersburg, MD which is about 6 miles from my office doors. Food at Minerva is targeted with spice and taste bought straight from back home. With just 12$ for buffet, you get to see a variety of un-stoppable yummy dishes and no-body waits there. Its the only restaurant in around 100 miles+ radius that lets you eat feel-at-home food. The Spicy Chicken gravy curry, butter Chicken, Fish Masala curry, Mutton curry, authentic chicken biryani, Naans are only of a few of a large variety that yummy a non-vegeterian. There are also a lot of vegetarian dishes as well. Gajar ka halwa, gulabjamon, fruit-salad form your desserts. You get to start with vada, dosa, idli etc. with tomato chutney, coconut chutney etc. With MTV roadies playing on the large TV displays across the restaurant, no body resists the temptation of the good food that we get in this restaurant. We've also tried Indian Palace on the middle-brook road, Madras-Palace on Exit 11, Sagar palace (earlier called as Bombay Dhaba), Madurai Masala also on 11th exit of I270. None of these restaurants get you the taste of Minerva, so its always a special and A month doesnt go without visiting minerva 3 times atleast. The chalupa's in Taco-bell are ok too. People say the 'Cheesy Fiesta Potato' is good at Taco-bell, havn't tried yet. We've been to Mi-Rancho in the middle-brook, and Baja Fresh beside the Library close by... both are Mexican restaurants... The Burito's of Chipotle are no special either to me. Toasted bagels with egg (omlette) is what i love to have for a breakfast at Dunkin-Donuts. Nothing can beat pizza hut / Cici's on a friday evening.. Cooking chicken biryani at home is also not a bad option for a weekend.

Dosa on Sunday Morning...

       It used to be a wait for most of us since saturday evening at BITS. We used to go in group for Sunday morning breakfast. Though some of us used to be nocturnals, "Wake me up for breakfast" used to be a phrase on the new wing facing mess of Ashok bhawan. It used to be special to walk in group into the mess on a sunday morning, walk-straight inside the kitchen room in the mess - Thanks to Ranga Rao (one of our wingies) who managed to become Veg Secratery unanimously during the last semester and getting us the royalty for specials at mess. We used to carry plates inside the kitchen room and wait for dosa's (about 12-14 dosa's would be made at one go on the big pan). There used to be a line, but the aloo sabji with dosa had always been special breakfast every sunday at BITS. Here is my version of the same, after about 4 years now... Making of dosa on sunday morning with no aloo sabji...

Just bought 'car' ......

     

It took a long time to build my credit history though. As i monitored my completion of 6 months after availing my first credit card, i was waiting to see my credit score. I saw it 720 points from Experian and decided on buying a car. Thanks to santosh (my collegue in office), who helped me open a North West Federal Credit Union bank account and providing me all the guidance and help in availing a vehicle loan. I just closed a deal today and finalized my car. Its a 2006 Honda Accord LX Sedan with very low miles on it. I bought it for 12000$. Its from a private seller (Tony, such a nice guy he is). I paid him the bank of america cashiers check for the amount and got my Bill of sale and odometer reading certificates noterized at the UPS Store. Tony has the car title at bank, so the car still remained with him until he gets the title from his bank in a couple of days after which he'll drop the car at my home. Here are a few pics of the car as it looks...

The Snow and Frozen... Winter Broke..

 

   When i stepped here in July @ Maryland, the temperature was 66 (F). It felt like, i was in bangalore. I really enjoyed the weather for my initial months. I got a chance to walk out of door without any problem all the time. While the temperatures @ Irving, Texas was shooting 90's I felt more relaxed here. After all the long long day time where sun sets after around 8-9pm, i was waiting for shorter days to come ahead. Early October showed the temperatures around 50's. November showed temperatures around 40's, December showed temperatures varying from 10 to 32... January joined hands with december and showed a new movie. A movie of Snow and frozen snow turning into ICE.. I have experienced my first snow here in Maryland. Thanks to weather.com and everyone in office knows how the weather is going to be next two - three days before hand. Its a must for people to read the weather before they plan anything. "Wow.. Its snowing outside"... Jim yelled sitting next to me at office. Its not common to have a snow here in Maryland. It snows about a maximum of about 2 or 3 times in winter. A few pics of the recent snow and the frozen snow turning into ice and making us impossible to walk on the ground. I had to skid almost about 10 times while walking about 200 feet. Its a great experience though.

My New Appartment...

    With my earlier roomate mitesh, getting married and our lease expiring in December... I've moved to a 2Bed room appartment. I bought a TV with Western Digital HD media player, a dining table set and complete kitchenware.. It feels good to have your own appartment where you have more responsibility to track your bills and have individuality in doing things you like and feel at your home when you come back.. No need to wait in line in que to go to restroom or wait for your roommate to cook on your behalf or whatever. The Hamptons appartments, has around 10-12 families from my office and definitely it doesnt feel lonely to stay alone with a lot of people around. Every day i keep meeting our group and this place makes me feel at india with a lot of indians around. A few snaps of my new appartment..

Back to Tennis... A Touch of Golf...

    Its been a long while since i held the racket. Tennis is a game which i learnt after i am here a few months ago but i would love to play atleast 3-4 sets without any break now. I am not a power player on the court but i have matured myself from being an ametur to a decent player. I still remember those early days when i used to learn to hit the ball with difficulty and played half court matches with crazy rules to begin with. I love the game for the only reason, it makes you stay fit and increases your body resistance exercising yourself while you play. I am not a great sports person though, to write a lot... But i enjoy playing it...

    Its good to be back to court with some new tips and tricks. After a long pause of winter, i felt i have grown an year older. I guess, i need to bring back all my energy to start on regular work-outs to keep myself great fit. I played 2 sets today and the strings broke apart on one shot. Decided to shop for a racket of my own sooner though. Need to work out more on the back-hand as well...

   I played GOLF for the first time today. Thanks to Sampat who had already spent a lot of money buying the drivers and knickers and pulling me for this... With his membership, today i went to a Golf Range where we bought a big bucket and started to shoot them with various drivers. The long ranger was 250, shot rangers were spanning between 100 - 200. It was a fun holding the Golf stick for the first time, learning the basics of it, the leg moment, the direction and angle of the hand, vision and distance... It was fun... For sure its a game that teaches you to being more patient but when you are into it, you will love it more and more... This game can be played well even after having a heavy lunch...

Gathering @ Vaideki's House

     

       On Dec 21, 2008 - we had a formal Invite to join the gathering mini-party with office collegues with families @ Vaideki's (my manager) house. The party schedule was at 6pm at her house in Ellicott City (close to baltimore downtown). It was about 40 miles drive. Sampat and I started and reached there by 7pm, thanks to my iphone 3g gps which could figure out the address without having to go round about (the mao gps was not good). I was happy to see the house which was very big and beautiful with most provisions including jacussi, gym etc. After going a tour of her house, some have already started with their share of bear cans. We've seen around 25-30 people in the house having great time after a hectic (not many had) schedules. The dishes were good. We had a good time looking at their digital audi-room in the basement with wii occupying most of the kids. I've worn the cap of a photographer for a few minutes, shooting with James 8000$ camera which weighed about 4kilos? including the external battery :) It was a great fun and a relaxing time and the best part is to meet most of our office collegue families.

Christmas PotLuck @ Office

              On Dec 23, 2008 we had a pot-luck (for those who are not aware, its supposed to be a group lunch where individuals bring/share their food with others) gathering in our office conference room. There was a paper roll-out a week ago on who would bring what food. Initially i was very skeptical about it. Everyday we (our small group) share our lunch boxes anyways, whats so special. But when the small organizers turned strict, it couldnt be skipped. I planned to make something really interesting this time. The list already had a lot of varieties most of them Indian dishes ranging from Idli sambar..samosa, puri, bajji to veg pulav, chicken curry, mutton curry, fried chicken and so on.. There were also a variety of dishes from others mexican, american, chinese etc. etc. For what i had thought it would be a small gathering, but when i learnt that it was a lunch time, the organizers have already ramped up everything to start the fun. I made chicken biryani (hyderabadi style) and when i ate it, i loved it [No more comments]. After a heavy lunch with almost everything that could be found at one place (the big table), it was time to relax. We started with BINGO (tambola). Everyone contributed 1$ to play and the winners ran away with prizes for rows, diagonals, first and second full house.. A surprise event at the end - where a few people gathered and got some surprise gifts given to people picked from the lot at random. For what i thought, it was a great fun which went on for about 4-5 hours... Great to be part of the show :)

A Kingdom Collapsed

     I couldnt believe myself when i saw the news. Hot topic in office this morning has been of "Satyam Computers" CEO admit to a fraud in the accounting by showing an in-existent 1B$ amount. The stock collapsed over night. It was one of the four popular software firms to work for in India. Infosys, TCS, Satyam and Wipro. The third name almost does not exist anymore. The NYSE stock fall of 99.89% overnight might have been a record. NSE removed the name from the listings. BSE has it 77% down. With 53k employees around the world, and a huge kingdom of its own - I cannot believe 1B$ is never existing?

    The discussion can go on and on. Many might have exchanged some statements about the chairman Raju who quoted all this and made it public. For whatever happened, he is just a human being born with brain that all of us have. 20 years back when the name "Satyam" never existed, He would not have imagined how he would start a company and where it would go. After 10 years, the name "Satyam" shined everywhere. Praises and appalauses everywhere for the firm who holds a lot of employees. It generated a lot of income for the country, state, and employing around 53000 (read it as families were surviving bcoz of just this name). Many Engineering grads walk out and inspire to join one of the 4 shining stars and work as a software engineer. All this never existed 20 years before and for what he shaped up for the company where it is today, i feel everyone should definitely unite to see the legality involved in the whole process and stand-by and get it going instead of collapsing it overnight. I feel a true person cannot do mistakes wantedly, and for what a person a CEO he is, i am sure his thought would have never been to see this day where the 20 year kingdom would collapse over-night. People hate to hear that name now and people step back even hearing about it today. Why should one be blamed for it ? A single lie and an effort to correct it by using "TIME" as a weapon to kill it, gets you on and on letting you more and more fall for it and it would have been all good, if things would have fallen in place for what he would have thought it should be for not what it is now. Shocking to hear but its sad, this would effect a lot of IT in India in a serious manner.

Happy New Year 2009 (a recall)

      The year 2008 passed pretty fast. For a while, when i liedown on bed and close my eyes, i see an year raced faster than i thought it would have. After a long one week shutdown at adobe in dec 2007 last  week, we get to see most collegues returning from their home places meeting on Jan 2, everywhere you get to hear "happy new year"... Early 2008 had seen me rushing myself to accumulate money for the yearly tax savings. I didnt had major to do though as my PF Contribution, LIC and my housing loan has filled it up. I didnt had to rush behind the best mutual funds for a 3 year ELSS as i did in year 2007 beginning just to fill up my 1Lakh  bracket. March had been lucky for me. After a 4 month wait, i got my passport stamped. Filed my taxes on time. Things at home started to look a little better with some extra money flowed in that was used for our construction of new house. Most of the building was constructed (but as usual, it never ends). We still had a lot of stuff to be done. Having determined to move to US on a work visa, i laid back a bit on my deliverables, though i had a lot to be done in terms of knowledge transfer and other stuff. Had to put back the offer from Adobe US for undue reasons and resigned Adobe on 31st May 08. It was the day i had to leave bangalore after staying there for about 3 years. I packed all my bags, sold my bike on the last day. Had two big suitcases. Thanks to Anniah, Subba [old buddy whom i met after about 4 years] and Srinath, who gave me a see-off in anniah's brand new car to majestic with some greetings card n gifts. I had my flight on 14th June 2008 to US (never been there before). I spent my 11 days gap at home, going to construction site in the morning at 9am and returning home at 8:30pm. I was working at my construction place like any other labor worker, monitoring the electricity work going on at the construction. For what i had been, sitting all these last few years in A/C rooms infront of computers, for once i was jobless sweating in hot sun, standing most of the day looking at what is going on at construction and getting tired at the end of the day was tough for me. But it was a memory for what i am, what i was, i was doing for myself. uncertain of where i am heading in life, many had reasons why not to move.

     For, i didnt get in touch with many of my good buddies, wingies or some good old friends / juniors from college staying in US. Getting a job wasnt a deal for me but waiting for other formalities here was a pain. A hectic project with a lot of pressure, i tried my best and got it all up and running now, working for about 12-14 hours a day. Today, I completed my 6 months on my first assignment here. It was a relief to clear of some of the bank dues and the borrowings we have done to unlock our minds to relax and concentrate on other things. Having heard from different people on hectic-ness, and after a lot of confusions on how to get, i got it all here in Maryland. Getting Drivers license and the road test was a moment to remember for me. BWI to CLT and vice versa, i have become a loyal regular US Airways customer and also a loyal Lake Norman Shuttle customer.... I Didnt miss much here as i cook my regular indian dishes well and thanks to a lot of indian stores around. Minerva had been my favorite, for the chicken curry and the biryani they serve - It just feels like @ secunderabad.

     I moved to a 2-Bed Room appartment on the long weekend of Dec 25th. Having my mini-quick-home setup with Nice closets, New bedding, Dining Table sets, TV with stand, HD Media player and Kitchen furnishing - I feel @ home when i get back from office daily. A car is definitely required here but for what i am, i'll take some more time to roll-out my construction dues before i wake-up to start to move-on. Hope this year 2009 goes smooth and nice....

Past Few weeks

    I shouldnt say i had been busy but there are a few things that occupied me for the last few weeks. I spent a few hundred dollars going for the Driving school. 100$ per 2 hours is what it costed me. Uncle Sam's Driving School - David was my instructor. I took first two classes with him picking me up daily at 7:30am and dropping me back at office. The First class with him, he taught me "Parallel Parking" which is the most deciding factor in getting a drivers license here. I got it done pretty fast. Thanks to the thought i had to learn the car with driving school and definitly my extra stress in reverse direction practise in bangalore with my 20 day driving school helped me a lot boost my confidence, get the parallel parking done in the first shot. After learning couple of tricks on the DO's and Don'ts which were clearly articulated by my driving master, i got it. He drove me to the MVA (motor vehicle admin) and showed me from far, couple of people taking the drive test. I took the second class just to get a feel of the car on the normal roads.

     The weekend started and myself and mitesh (my roomate) started to the Enterprise Rent-A-Car where i booked a rental car (18$ per day) economy. Thanks to the free upgrade they gave me. I got Black, Mercedes Benz 2009 Model which drove about 5000 miles for just 5$ extra upgrade. I got complete insurance on the car by paying extra and started on from there on. Saturday and sunday ran so fast. I have been on the highways I-270, I-495, I-95 running about 170 miles in two days and ofcourse doing a lot of shopping in between. It was really good to drive the Merc. I had been to my office parking lot to practise the parallel parking as well.. that was a bummer.

    Work kept me busy for a few days. The adobe software i had crashed all of a sudden and the way i used to work changed drastically. I was handicapped with no photoshop, no adobe contribute to blog. Writing a blog using the browser editor sucks, atleast to me. With Mitesh all set to end his 8 month long await for his marriage, he started to pack his bags and got really busy then on. I had a small trip in between for the long weekend to New York where the temperatures froze me completely. I could witness the crowd same as how we fight for busses in bangalore to hyderabad during the diwali season. Very long Que's to board busses and this long weekend took nearly 8-9 hours to travel while it should take 3.5 hours on a typical day.

    I started to get on with my driving practise for a class more before the exam and i was all set for the Day.Not for the sake of exam, the nerves were tight and the temperatures are freezing outside. With my appointment at 8:30am in the morning where the previous day rained a lot, i was lucky to see the sun just coming out. I started my drive test and finished parallel parking, k-turn, 4-way stop, reverse, park back. We have to do a lot of acting though in the test. I passed. It really took more time to me than what it would take normally. With initial confusions of planning to get a written test cleared in New Jersey to get a license went in vain.. I had to do Drug and Alcohol test here, followed by written test and then i scheduled my drive test appointment (almost 22 days later than my written test). I got my DL last week. I went to see off mitesh going to india for his marriage, and i am on a chase now to shift appartment. Planning to remain in the hamptons, just looking at the best options possible. I spent couple of days hunting for used BMW's and Mercedes, later decided to wait couple of months before i make a thought on moving forward to buying a car soon.

    I orderd a Nikon s550 from COSTCO which was for 150$. I recieved it a few days ago and it so sweet and very little. With Christmas around the cornor, and the black friday which went couple of weeks ago, i am all set on looking at daily deals. Planning to look for GPS. Garmin or TomTom?

Having Start-up Ideas?

I came across this link - Beginning of startup which is really good to read especially when you want to become successful as an entrepreneur. I realize that its hard for one person to make all of it, it should be a bunch (as typical man has no patience in doing everything short and on his own that impacts extremely high very soon)

My New iPhone 3g

Its been long i was using a low end mobile here after i stepped in US. It was more fascinating to join the crew who use iphone3g. iPod, Internet, Mobile, GPS everything in one piece with a much better user experience. I bought the new iPhone 3g with 16GB memory a few days ago. There are a lot of improvements suggested on this phone. One of the blogger had the patience to write down the 100 Missing features of iPhone 3g. Top 10 basic things missing in iPhone 3g are also listed down here in the list.

       Of all the above, there are a good bunch of people who love the way apple has created this soft piece which solves different problems with its own associated problems. But for sure, given the usability of iPhone and a scope to improve in the new direction of mobile technology, i am sure this would lead to a whole new feel of how people percieve the mobile not just to attend phone calls but to feel that they love their mobile with the ease of use and the way it reaches out to people. I used the GPS capabilities of this phone and it has really solved the problem of moving to a location i didnt know directions to (if not being the best navigator in the industry, it still solved the problem of taking me to the location i wanted with its limited power). I am just getting used to it, over all i am happy with the piece.

DST - Day Light Savings

                

       All the while, i was just using these terms in my programming modules to consider different time incase of DST - Day light savings. I got up yesterday (Sunday) morning to realise that i woke up early today. I couldnt believe i was so tired and the time didnt run as i expected? I then realised that i am experiencing DST for the first time. The clocks turn one hour back. So 8:30am was actually shown as 7:30am. I then peeped out of my window and felt yeah, the light outside somewhat matches with the timeshown. Otherwise for the past few days at 6:30am, there never used to be a light outside when i step out. So the day is longer now by an hour. When i stepped out at 6:30am this morning (which was 7:30am earlier), i could see some light outside.. To walk on the streets with autumn colors all across, its really great here. I saw that i have an auto time synch from the service provider on my cell phone so my mobile and my watch showed me different times. I then turned back my time by an hour, experiencing DST longer day first time. Its great to turn back time (just an hour though!)

   More details about day light savings are here - click here