Road Trip to Chennai

We decided to visit my parents in Chennai for Diwali. I always enjoyed being at home for Diwali. Watching one of those new tamil movie songs on sun tv, seeing interview with movie stars, eating mom's wonderful food, bursting crackers & visiting my grandmom & relatives.

So my wife, 7 month old son and myself packed our bags set off by road. Trunk was filled with pram, bathtub, toys, diapers, Arjun's bag of clothes. We somehow managed squeeze some of our clothes as well. My dad had earlier dropped off his SX4 so that we can have a smooth ride to Chennai. I ambitiously wanted to leave by 6am, so that we can avoid traffic and sun and reach Chennai before noon. But, with my son refusing to sleep early, we ended up getting up at 630am. We went to my inlaws place in bangalore for some quick breakfast of Poha and left from Bangalore around 10am.

It was a smooth 350 odd kms. The route was Whitefield - Varathur - Athibelle - Hosur - Krishnagiri - Vellore - Ranipet - Sriperumbhadhur - punnamalli - Chennai.

On the way, near athibele, I clicked pictures of the interesting onion shaped temple. Some puja was being performed in one of the road side temple and they were distributing curd rice prasadam to all. They offered us as well even though we were siting inside the car. I did not have the heart to refuse someone giving something with affection. It was hot curd rice. All of us already had breakfast and so we did not quite have the appetite for eating some more curd rice. My wife went on " who asked you to get this curd rice now? you should not have opened the window...huh..now you only eat it" i thought i will give this to some other hungry soul. So, I had curd rice in one hand and car steering on the other. After some 2 kilometers, i spotted one old man walking in the sun. I stopped the car near him, unrolled the windows and told him "hudi prasadam" and offered him the curd rice. He took it fom my hand with both his hands. I was happy to see the contended look on his face.

We went on with the journey. Vidya & Arjun slept through most of the journey, while I dutifully drove the kilometers. But, SX4 was a pleasure to drive. I did not complain. I was averaging between 120 & 140kms throughout. In addition to the road side pee breaks, we made the usual customary halt at Adyar Ananda Bhavan for some late breakfast of hot pongal at around 11am, and one halt for lunch at some Shree Ganapathi restaurant (not very good - won't go again) at around 230pm. The weather was slightly warm, but there was no traffic. The drive overall was pleasant.

Just as I entered Punnamalli, I had couple calls from my VPs, which I later repented for having answered the same. One was from my VP "G, are you available for another project? we might want you to travel to Chicago for an immediate requirement" I tried my best to dodge it. 15 kms later, I got another call from my immediate boss. She wanted me to check if i was interested. I told him, "I am not very keen, but if it is required, i will do it" I was like shucks, these guys wont let me celebrate my holidays at peace.

Finally we reached my home at around 445pm. My parents received us near the gate with a huge grin and whisked away Arjun immediately. I was like "ok, how about helping a bit with the luggages? and saying hello to us as well "

An Anglo Indian Village

On the 27th April, 1882, His Highness, Chamaraja Wodeyar, the Maharaja of Mysore, granted 3900 acres of land to the Eurasian and Anglo-Indian Association, Mysore and Coorg, (E&AI), for the establishment of Agricultural Settlements in the Mysore State (now Karnataka State). The Association was then about 170 strong, and is the only settlement in India that European and Eurasians can call their own.

The Village site formed a large circle 1500 feet in diameter with about 25 houses on the circumference and the School, Schoolmaster's quarters, Post Office, Play Ground, and Lawn Tennis Courts in the centre of the circle. Outside the circle there is a place for football and a Cricket ground. A Circulating Book Club is in existence and a Parsonage is being built for the Protestant Church. The Settlement itself lay to the south of a Railway Station, which is on the Madras-Bangalore line, distance 204 from the former and 12 from the latter place.

Till 1980’s the village continued to thrive with no commercialization. IT boom started in India 1990s and with that Bangalore became a center of the IT storm. Karnataka government decided to set up one of the countries technology tech park in this settlement. Soon, the settlement became the home for many multinational IT, BPO & Healthcare, R&D companies like TCS, Accenture, GE, Unilever, GE Medical Systems, SAP, Perot, Dell, Oracle, IBM etc.

Settlement is none other than Whitefield in Bangalore. It is currently an integral part of Bangalore. And it is definitely no longer a sleepy anglo Indian village in the outskirts of Bangalore.

One can still see the remains of the anglo Indian village if one goes to the inner circle area in whitefield. It is a beautiful circle with a huge playground & park in the middle. It has beautiful old anglo Indian bungalows nicely packed around it. It also has couple of old churches (one of which is built in 1890s) and schools around it. Winston churchil had stayed in one of these bungalows during his visit to India. This is the circle that is referred above in the second paragraph. This place makes an ideal location for a healthy morning jog. Everytime I go there for a jog, i cannot help but wonder the kind of life the anglo indians would have led in their closed set up for almost a century away from all the buzz of city.

PS: The Anglo-Indian community in its modern sense is a distinct, small minority community originating in India. They consist of people from mixed British and Indian ancestry whose native language is English.

Apartment at Whitefield

We are in the process of signing an agreement for purchasing a 3 bedroom apartment on the 8th floor in Whitefield.

It has been quite exciting in finalizing the apartment. We have made some changes to the layout to make it more exciting. We have made the kitchen open. We have created provision for french doors in living and master bedroom. Made the master bedroom a little bigger. Made provision for a puja room. Increased bathroom space.

It has been quite satisfying in getting involved right at the stage of construction. I infact make it a point to climb 8 floors atleast once in two days to see the progress of the construction.

I really like the location of the place. It has got a vinayagar temple and a huge playground right opposite. Forum Value mall is 2 kms away. My work place is just 2.5 kms away.

It has got an amazing view from the top. One can see the entire whitefield from the top in addition to the lush greenery all around.

The place is supposed to be completed by March 31, 2010.

In the business of life, Top Line is Love, Bottom Line is Money

I wondered in the middle of the day at work "What will I do if i quit my present job tomorrow?"

The following random thoughts that came to my mind were...
"I might just take a course in photography and try getting into professional photography.
Or, I might like to get into real estate interior decoration business - it kinda fascinates me. I could probably learn carpentry.
Or, go backpacking around India.
Or, set up a school that makes education fun.
Or, run my own cafe cum book shop.
Or, live in Goa near the beach teaching some water sports...."

Before it could get any wilder, my chain of thoughts were stopped by an new email pop up message in my MS Outlook. It was from my boss. It was a reminder requesting for the file i had promised to send him an hour back. "shucks" I totally forgot about it.

I got back to the real world and started focusing on the job that pays me my bills on a monthly basis.

Later in the night, I wondered again. "Is this really something I can do? what will I do for the money?" "Do I really have a choice at this stage of my life to indulge in my fantasy of doing something creative, fun & different?" I start pondering on these lines...I have the responsibility to provide a comfortable life to my wife & son. I have a housing loan to pay. I have to pay my monthly bills. Besides, it is not like I hate my job. I do enjoy my job. I get to travel around. I have had great experiences.

That is when it struck me in the business of life "Top line is love and bottom line is Money". If I am able to manage these two. Save enough money to take care of the people I love in my life, the profit will be the dreams I would like to indulge myself in .

I made a mental note "I must make enough money by the age of 40 to have my family set for life and then indulge in my fantasies" That leaves me 10 years to make the business of my life successful.

Summer of 2008

I had typed the below paragraph in Italics on 12 August 2008, but it was still in draft without it being published in Blogspot.

July 2008
"Well, it has been a while since I blogged. I started off aggressively and as usual, it came to a stand still. But this time for a reason. I have been busy. Well yea, that is the excuse.

I have been busy:
- Hunting for a new job.
- Relocating to Bangalore
- Vacated my house
- Watched Darkknight and Bachna eh Haseena"

To expand more on the above...I finally got the exact job I have been looking for. Bangalore, Great work environment. Good salary hike. I got it all after 4 months of serious job hunting. I had two offers infact. One in Connaught place, Delhi with Macquarie. Other one in Bangalore. I chose the one in Bangalore.

That was the month, we also found that Vidya was carrying Arjun at that time. Ofcourse we did not know the sex of the baby.

We saw this movie Dark knight in a mall in NH8 tollgate. It was one of the better movies I have seen. But at the same time, I was worried about the effect of sound in the theatre on lil' arjun inside. There was some big time seepage in my house in Gurgaon, we vacated the same and lived with my inlaws for about 1-2 months in Dwarka, Delhi.

Today (October 2009)
I have spent one year plus in the new job. I have a feeling I will spend lot of good years in this company.
Arjun is now almost 8 months old. Extremely hyper active. He is currently crawling all around the house.
We are loving living in Bangalore.
We have recently bought an apartment in Bangalore.

Well, now I am back in "Blogness" after a long break. Hopefully, this stint will continue for a while.