Wednesday, April 23, 2008

1st week @ office

Day one
Got up early on Monday 6 AM. We had to catch Bus 22, we had 7 mins at the bus stop...there we were standing besides the road and seeing almost every type of car bmws, lexus, merecdez in all shapes moving at high speeds but still disciplined - following lanes... the big wall mart truck.. the list goes on...all your dream cars moving around you...Were we in some kind of a wonderland???...Pedestrians waiting for their turn to cross the roads... This is really good...back in India where you can max see 6-7 companies Honda, Maruti, Hyundai on road full of bikes, auto rickshaws and pedestrians... But one thing i did not like was that people here were wasting so much of fuel driving alone...Why is public transport not that developed here??? Pooling can save a lot of fuel... where's all this effort to go green, save fuel.. Aren't these guys doing something??? i do realize Time in Money here, still there is some scope here...ahah

There our bus came and we moved inside...we didn't even know where the bus will drop us..( We knew far sure that it will drop us near our office but where was the big question??) luckily last stop of the bus was cal train station which is 50-100 meters from our office...1 dollar and 3 quarters were the bus charges and you need to have change otherwise no chance of getting it back...We reached CalTrain station and started figuring our way to the Office...

There is these pedestrian system on all roads
where you need to press the button and wait for the pedestrian walk symbol (Patent pending is their claim, i don't know what and what all can get patentable... its such a simple system...well thats how it happens now) ...You cannot cross roads even though the road is completely free. you need to take the pedestrian walking... Who cares... Is this what we do in India?? but we had to..it was our 1st time and did not want to invite any trouble...and we both finally agreed upon "Follow the rules" policy...

We were finally in A9 Office, met all the biggies who decide our projects and directions back in India...My mind started playing the song "Boss kaun hai maloom hai kya, boss kaun hai??" from the movie Jhankaar Beats... Remote inhi ke paas hai and i am serious... nothing funny here :-) It was nice to see everyone in person... Anil, Slava, Vijay, Tamar, Ilya E, Ilya L, Raja ,Syam,Yoni and the great Mihnea... Everyone in office has a separate personal cube...somehow i did not like this system, I still miss the open cubes that we have in our office...could be since my first job was amazon and we always had open cubes :-)...kisi se baat karni hai... just wave hand... checking out funny youtube videos together... bettings for cricket...hello-hi...yaha to room mein hi pade raho... ek Computer bhai hi hai... tumhare gile shikwe sunne wale... I guess thats the reason for 9-5 system working here unlike India.. socially jyada involved nahi lagate hai yaha.. Apne kaam mein mast...(could be a completely wrong 1st impression, lets see aage aage hota hai kya...)

We had our 1st big grp meeting and not sure what was going in that meeting but I carefully noted down comments from one of our favorite US senior peer (Mr Phd, lets call him for now) ... He is an idol to us and his statements are worth revisiting and full of humor and something which will always keep you pondering... as an example "If in infinite we still continue to have the same revenue what we do.. Statistically speaking its gonna be that case..." and many such great one liners.. sorry there were many such witty one liners... can't write here..confidential information hmm...

Lunch : We went to a Jordanian restaurant ?? (forgot name...names here are difficult to remember, will need to get used to this or probably my memory power is reducing... Chywanprash ke doses lena chalu karne ka samay aa gaya hai lagata :-) Recalling one of ganguly's Ad - " sona for chust sharir and chandi for tej dimag"... just kidding..This restaurant served Mediterranean food..Everything in the menu was beef...beef and beef. If something is veg it may still have egg...so one need to be very cautious, huh ... I wonder how can these people eat non veg every day... (Back in India these guys would be cribbing in a very similar way... he he) There were 3 veg options so I ordered Veg Platter which looked the best option may be because of the veg word in it)... In US restaurants you need to say "Water with NO ICE" otherwise water served will be full of ice cubes..next time u are here, remember to ask for it ...Veg platter had Hamas, Falafal... soma ghas fuss served as salad and rice... I had some rice and a bit of hamas and falafal ...Bill was 45 Dollars... + 15% Tip...Aamdani athanni kharcha rupaiyya, Itni badi tip??? I will elaborate my thoughts on tip in my next blog post...Although I and Omkar keep arguing on this front... he is fine with it.. 1st foreign cuisine, half filled stomach, kya aisa hi chalne wala hai???.. kept thinking for a while... I cant afford to lose weight now :) After all the ha ha..OKaaay..coo-ool ..Ohhh... stuff our 1st foreign lunch was over...Thank God, our office pantry is a big saver..it has lots of veggie stuff enough to get you going in the day...Breakfast aur dopahar ka chutur mutur to aaram se office ke bharose... i felt completely relaxed ki chalo agar i am not able to eat properly i can still keep eating in small intervals...
There were some old mans also having lunch together a group... they had gone for cycling somewhere...US mein BUJURG log bhi kitne active rehte hai, cycle itni badi umra mein bhi chala lete hai... definitely worth admiring...

Afternoon : Then started all the code walk through and what we gonna do..blah blah...(This is not very interesting... lets not talk about it here at least) Other than one release for which i had to do spend some time... It was a great day full of great faces all around...

2nd Day
Work started and code walk through, wikis...nothing great here.
Lunch : Our senior colleagues gave us a treat in a Chinese restaurant...
Vijay one our peers in PA knows lot of veg items to eat and he's our guide, rescuer and safest bet for veg food... I don't remember what i ordered probably a veg TOFU with lots of GhasFhoos but it was good.. I liked it.. Till now both foreign cuisines were good but still difficult to get to the taste which can wholly suit my taste buds...could be more due to the fact because i prefer Indian food above anything... kaafi waste jaata hai yaar, appetite badani padegi... folks in PA go outside for lunch everyday which in a way is good i feel...This is the time when folks talk informally share their stories at home, jokes, taxes or offers they get while having their car wash from the car washer... felt good to be part of their discussion...

We played TT for an hour... looks like people rarely plays ping pong in our office...sabhi apne apne kaam mein busy...dedicated hai yaar...( i did beat omkar once or probably twice...final score though was 4-2 or 5-1 in omkar's favor, anything...does not matter.. but omkar can correct me and i am ready to update the blog...)

Aaram ki zindagi hai yaar yahan... 9 to 5 kaam aur phir ghar pe aaram... kewl

Hump Day
work as usual and some small meetings...
Lunch : This time we went to Whole foods.. Its a big super market where you will find all sort of organic healthy food to eat... Ordered a Veg sandwich..only once choice for veggies there...aside bread i was not able to eat anything... It was awful...really bad...Well thats what it gonna be here i said to myself, you cannot always play it safe and be in your comfort zones...

4th day
pretty much the same thing
We had a talk from one of HP's Director...very nice talk on Collaborative web and its dynamics..forgot the actual topic...but it was more or less revolving around it.. It was good and very informative presentation..We tried swimming... ulti thanda tha yaar paani... but sir pe to bhoot sawaar tha swimming seekhne ka.. after tasting success in wonderla, Bangalore i wanted to make sure i can swim more...thande paani me literally waat lag gayi yaar...but we did not give up...Let the fighting spirit prevail we kept saying to each other... After that we went to Sauna
(Warm room) to beat the cold.

TGIF
We played american soccer in one of grounds near stanford (yup, Stanford - the great university, dream school for many students worldwide)...Our team won 5-4, i managed to crack 2 goals, can you imagine? I have rarely played football and this very day i continued playing the worst football that i had been playing till date, though quite lucky...Omkar was in the other team (loser team..he he) He made some really good moves and made 3 goals...soccer exhausted all of us and after some rest at office we left for the day back to our hotel... our legs and backs were still paining...

1st weekend @ US

Got up early at 5 AM... Jet lag effect did not seem to be there...We had our 1st breakfast having veg Bagels(??) , a big bread with butter in mountain view...we then went back to the hotel, chatted with friends in US for a while... sachin, vaibhav, dheeraj, sarvesh, vikrant, sameer and humare pyare dulare paddy bhai...(Heard their voices after a long time, so nostalgic... everyone giving some tips sharing their 1st experiences in US...) lets see if we can meet all you guys sometime...YO everyone

LunchTime : we had our lunch in a Indian Restaurant "The new Saffron" half a mile from our hotel. 11 $ for a buffet which had gulabjamuns, gajar ka halwa (both favs of mine)...5-6 veg curry's and lots of options to eat...felt relieved, nothing to worry now :-) we do have good Indian food in US ahah...though quite costly when seen in the rupee world... After having a heavy lunch... We were back to Hotel..


Afternoon we were all set to drive to Santa Cruz...Speaking in omkar's language
"It was a bright sunny day" in bay area...The roads were wide and people in US seem to be very disciplined.. follow the lane is the mantra unlike India where the simple mantra "Do not leave any space un-utilized" works... The drive was very scenic all through the mountains full of big tall trees...small lagoons kept coming through our way...We had our 1st glimpse of the mighty Pacific ocean. It appeared to be calm but very cold, saw 2-3 beaches and people water skiing...Road trip from Santa Cruz to HalfMoon was nice in the special company of Mr Pacific ocean all besides you signaling us with cool breezes perhaps welcoming us to bay area :-)
Then we drove to Half-Moon bay which has 3 beaches... You will mostly see houses in bay area made of wood and cement house is a rare sight...Half moon drive is a very crowded beach with many people having their barbeque's or flying kites or may be skiing...


Santa cruz to Half Moon bay climate changed drastically...from a bright sunny day it became a foggy windy cold day very similar to what we see in Ooty.. Thick fog all around... We didn't even have our sweaters...somehow managed to keep up our toes upright... Coming back from HalfMoon bay we saw US's first traffic jam.. More than a mile long fleet of cars hoping for the traffic to vanish...So to escape the traffic we took a alternative route through Redwood city and back to Palo alto... On the way was saw many farm houses...
one day i wish to own one of them...

A total of 130+ miles drive on our very 1st weekend...what more can we expect... Our manager who would have been tired after the uphill full marathon, picks us from the airport in the night from SF.....and the very next day he comes up and drove us all around PA, to our office.. shows us places where we can get Indian veg food.. commendable job.. hats of to you sir...He is really really very caring..
Thanks a lot Mukesh and hope you had a nice and soothing return flight back to India...

Snaps available - http://picasaweb.google.com/omkar.kurode/California101Drive

1st day@ US

It was actually our first night...Welcome to the land of opportunities ( As its being referred in the movie flavours)...After all the immigration checks wee were in San Francisco...hmm my 3rd foreign country after (Singapore and Honkong) where we were supposed to stay for 2 months...Mukesh my manager was there to pick us up. He drove us back to our hotel Dinah's Garden in Palo Alto.. Freeways, 101's all were conquered in our drive with Mukesh telling us stories about bay area and things to look for during our stay..It's no more kilometers and litres here.. everything is in miles and gallons and $$ not to forget...

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

9+ hours @ singapore airport

Changi airport as its called is really a must visit. Its the best airport i have seen and as i have heard from people it could be arguably one of the best and well maintained airports...I always kept puzzling how much money these guys have put in to come up with such a beautiful airport and over and above it how they are able to manage such a big operational overhead???

Changi Airport is divided into 3 terminals. Its in a shape of pi with parallel legs being Terminal 1 and 2 and the cross one Terminal 3 ( If i am not mistaken)... There are sky trains which can be used to move across these terminals and are available every 3 mins...In spite of having such a huge traffic it never looks crowded which is rare sight in other airports.....

It was my 1st international airport outside India 2nd one to Bangalore and there's seems to be a big difference..We need to improve a lot..Lets hope that the new airport in Bangalore at least matches 25% of what you see in Singapore airport.... Its so clean and spacious... You will find toilets every 100 meters...

Although its a very big airport you never seem tired roaming around.. Thanks to the travescalator moving around the airport is pretty fast...its real fun... massage chairs all around you to sit and relax are a perfect icing over the cake... Maps and Airport guides everywhere telling you where you are and how to look for places is a really something which never makes you feel that you will get lost ...
Unlike India shops/retails stores are look so clean with everything put so gracefully in shelves...We found out something new "Hand Santizers" on the airport... I guess its used to clean you hands but remember it has 60% alcohol and the smell stays long.. luckily we had soap :-)

24 hour Free Movie theater is a good time pass (Its available in Terminal 2 and 3)
We had our lunch at Kaveri Veg restaurant(Terminal 3)... 11 singaporean dollars said the meal... my very 1st dollar bill :-) Free Internet (Wireless as well ethernet ports) all around the airport gives you time to catch up on news and mails and chat with your dear ones).. Sitting on the massage chair and surfing the web... its so cool and relaxing...
JUST IMAGINE

Singapore airport provides a free bus tour to all its passenger। There are of two type colonial and cultural. We got the colonial one... Our guide was very informative...have you ever wondered how does a map of Singapore look like... If you stretch your right hand with palm facing opposite to you and your thumb a little bit down...this is what it looks like...The bus tour takes you to the city center where you get a free boat trip through the river (name??)... You will see the giant wheel, its a replica of the London's eye and MerLoin Symbol
Mr Raffles is considered to be the founder of Modern Singapore...


Singapore is considered to be the land of pirates and if lucky you may find jack sparrow roaming around you :-) There are rain trees all across the way from airport to the city center...These tress give an indication by folding their leaves ( if i am right ??) that its gonna rain after some time today... Singapore means Lion city, ( there's a myth behind it that the ruler of सिंगापुर saw a big Lion... although you never see lions in Singapore... some people think it was some fish having head of a lion...Malay is the most commonly spoken language in Singapore...( Tamil is also one of the official languages.. quite surprising... probably many Rajani sir's fans here) Singapore as a city looks very clean and green with pacific ocean all around you...

Singapore Authority has already started work on the 4th terminal... I don't know how these guys estimate but definitely much to learn...Not even one third part of each terminal looks crowded and still they have plans for the new one...

To sum it up "If you are traveling to US then make sure u choose Singapore airlines and get at least 5 hours at the Singapore airport... It's perfect retreat and will definitely refreshen you... Do not miss it..."

Snaps available - http://picasaweb.google.com/omkar.kurode/9HoursInSingapore

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पहला कदम Blogging की ओर

मैंने काफ़ी बार कोशिश की Blogging िकंतु हमेशा लगता था ब्लॉग is just a waste of time and why the hell to bother about it.
Lets see how this exercise goes...and Ooops end of 1st post in my very 1st blog :P