Aman's Blog….ANYTHING goes here!

(TTT) Tiring Week, Tired Me, Travel…. July 30, 2010

Some times, it just feels so relaxing to know that tomorrow there won’t be any work and also, there won’t be any travel! If you are like me who does it so often and so much, you can imagine how relaxing it feels to know that, even just for a day, you won’t be on the road, running from here to there. In this kind of times, getting few days of relaxing is also a blessing!

I was so much busy this whole week and I can’t really say that the next few days are going to be free either. There is tons of pending work around me and I somehow not able to keep up with it. The biggest bottleneck is that I don’t have a proper system with me where I can do all the testings and everything. For doing so, I must be present at the office or be at home. Both the options are not viable either as when I am in the office, I am not free and the nature of work I do, I must be interacting with lots of delegates on constant basis which leaves very less time for me to do something. At home, though this is not there but still, there are so many other things which do come in between. There is just a little of the work is left and I am really really willing to push it as soon as possible. I am working so hard to get it done! On top of this work, my regular work is something which also does makes me so tired. One can’t imagine how much it effects to travel for 12 hours , twice a week over the body. And then you have to stand for 9 hours, shout your lungs out, that’s just does the job of the final icing over the cake. Am I sounding really fussy and frustrated? Well, can’t say frustrated but yes, a little bit burnt up for sure! This week also, it was like the same! There was tons of work, tons of things were going on. I am still sitting in the session and waiting for the delegates to finish the lab practice. Most of them have gone for their lunch giving me an opportunity to write this post. I so wanted to write one when I left for this travel and did start it even sitting at the waiting lounge of the airport. But then, got couple of phone calls from office and there goes my post 😦 .

Though I couldn’t write the post but I bought two novels from the airport and also one movie dvd. Novels are from Khaled Hosseini. I have bought both The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. I shall be honest that I just bought both based on my instincts only and assumed them to be good. Its only later I came to know that both are very highly acclaimed pieces of writing. The dvd which I bought is of the movie, Ninja Assassin. I am hoping that the movie is going to be good but looking at the reviews, I am starting to have a feeling that I have wasted my money. Anyways, anything related to martial-arts is worth to watch for me, at least for once! So I think, I shall still enjoy the movie. I wanted to go for a movie so much before I had to come here but somehow, it didn’t work out. I didn’t want to go alone, there was no one else to go with me and my sister couldn’t get a leave or even some free time despite that she wanted to go so much! I hope I can make it happen this time but can’t be sure thanks to tons of the work that I have in my hands. Oh, I forgot to mention, there is this new mall opened here few days back, Inorbit about which I had heard a lot of praise. So I decided to have a look at it. My friend Pavan had bought a watch from here so he asked me to go and check a particular model for sure! Well, I did go and buy a watch for my sister last week before coming here so I thought I shall check back once again. The mall is on my way back to the hotel so there was no question of spending extra time on the road too for it. So I asked my driver to stop there and went inside to have a look. Well, I am  sure I must not say this sitting just few meters away from the mall, but I felt its a little over-rated. I am not saying its not good, it is but its not that good either! Or may I am just too boring to find any fun there, I don’t know. I did check all the floors( there are 3 I guess) except the food court and I didn’t find anything unusual in any of them. I did check the watches as well but may be its just not my luck to buy a watch, the particular model that I was looking for was already sold out! Nevermind, I do have my own antique piece watch with me so I don’t really need a new watch either! I wanted to try the coffee house there(forgot its name) but then left the idea and headed back to the hotel. May be some other time! There is nothing more you need than your bed when you are standing and walking all over the day, trust me!

Its the last day of the training and I am hoping that it will be finished in next few minutes. I do have to travel again tonight but this travel brings a smile on my face since I shall be going to have a holiday. Tiring for sure but worth every minute spent in it! Though there is work to do as well but still, I hope I would be able to make myself a little bit relaxed. But that’s tomorrow and at present, the delegates have come back and I must get back to them now! Time for some oraclism 😉 .

The True Legends…. July 23, 2010

I am too small to say anything about these people! Just a collage of the who’s who of the computer industry who have changed for forever the ways, thinking and lives of millions in this world! True legends, true gurus! Thanks to S for sending me this pic!

I always have believed in Steve Jobs saying “stay hungry, stay foolish” and looking at these legends, its just again strike me that how much lesser knowledge I have! Hats off to you guys!

Few Poetic Gems…. July 21, 2010

Its been a long time that I have put anything here beyond my travel and work related sagas . The biggest reason for it is that I am too busy in my work and there is nothing else that I am doing except traveling and working. So it makes a perfect sense to talk about both most of the times. But that doesn’t mean that I do work only all the time. I do spend a lot of time in reading and also to listen to the music. In reading, besides Oracle books( its just unavoidable that it wont be mentioned not for once even) I read poetry and that too, a very high quality poetry. There are many whose work I read but some stand at a very high position. S M Sadiq is one of those poets who are in my all time favorite list. If you don’t know who he is, I must say , you haven’t heard anything yet! I don’t know any poet who has written almost 35000, yes 35000 songs! Ahmed Faraz is one other poet whose work I admire so much! So today, just thought that would share few writings from both here. Obviously they are not in English so I shall be translating the writings as well.  The first one is from Sadiq and is in Punjabi,have a read,

Bedarda mereyan hanjhuan di, gayi saari aadat tere te,

Na tunhiyon rokeya rukda c, na eho rukeya rukde ne!

And its meaning in English,

Even my tears follow your footsteps only and have similar habits,

Neither you ever stopped when I tried nor they ever stop!

And here are a few selective ones that I like from Faraz,

1)Main kab tak doosron k dukh sambhal k rakhun Faraz,

Jis jis k hain wo nishani bata k le jaye!

And its meaning in English is,

For how long I am supposed to keep pains of others in my heart,

Whosoever has given, come, identify and take it back!

2)Jindagi mein kuch aise haadse bhi hote hain Faraz,

Insaan bach to jaata hai par jinda nahin rehta!

And its meaning in English is,

In life, certain incidents and accidents take place,

After which, person remains alive like being dead!

3)Mili saza jo mujhe wo kisi khata par na thi,

Mujh pe jo jurm saabit hua wo wafa ka tha!

And its meaning in English is,

The punishment I got was for no offense of mine,

I was declared guilty of being a lover!

4)Usko chaha to mohabbat ki samajh aayi Faraz,

Warna is lafz ki tareef hi suna karte the!

And its meaning in English is,

When I loved her then I understood what is love,

Otherwise had always heard only good things about the word “love” !

I am not sure how many of you would like such kind of poetry. It would take a lot before one can truly appreciate such kind of esteemed writing since its too hard to understand the actual meaning of this poetry!  I won’t be explaining it either since I am so sleepy now but I am sure, if you have read up till  this far , you indeed like above kind of poetry! So without spoiling the taste, I shall leave now as its quite late night and I have a working day tomorrow as well! Nites!

A Little Shopping, A Little Happiness…. July 19, 2010

Its actually my working week only and it hasn’t been a very smooth start either. The biggest thing which I find as a blocking factor is the absence of the physical presence of the delegates and not to know their reactions right at that when its important to know about it. Its a really important thing and if you do public presentations and/or seminars , you would be knowing that how much its vital and important! Anyways, I can’t do anything about it as its not something which is in my hands. All I can do is to try my best that all goes fine and smooth. I am trying my best to do so( I do it in all of my sessions) and just can hope and pray that my efforts bear fruit as well! Anyways, the idea of this post was not to mention my (usual) tension about the program but about a little happiness that I felt today so let’s move on to it.

If you know me or have been coming and reading things over here, it should be known that I am not much into shopping for myself. Its rather very rare that I would go and buy something for me and just for me only! I shall buy for my family only, that’s all! In that process, at times , I get something for me too but the proportion of that happening is very very less! I am rather pushed to buy something for me most of the times. That doesn’t mean that I don’t buy anything at all for me, no, don’t think like that! I do buy stuff for me but mostly when I need that! Its not that I would go for fun and buy stuff for me. And in that too, there is a condition that I would try to get something which is unique, both for me and for the rest of the world as well! Though, I don’t really care at all about what the worlds says/thinks but still, I hate being a part of the crowd and the same goes for the things that I shall get for me. Combine all of such (odd/weird) things, the chances that I shall like something and get it, are slim to almost none. But as I said,  I do buy stuff for me as well with the only condition is that I must like it! And the same goes for today as well since I bought somethings for me today.

I am mostly on the road and if you are like me, you must be agreed to this that its a real tough job at times to hold your phone and also push the luggage trolleys or eat or write something on the forms and the list goes on and on and on. And in this kind of situations, all one wants to be hands-free for using his phone. For this, wireless, bluetooth enabled devices are the only choice that one has. But the issue, which one to buy? Well, this question did boggle me as well when I first planned to buy it. But despite needed, I didn’t spend too much time for doing research( stupidity) and bought the standard one which Nokia supplies. Though its okay but it didn’t serve too well for me and landed up in my cupboard eventually . In the meantime, my friend Aman(deep) told me that he has got a headset from Plantronics . He bought the model, Voyager-Pro. Well, I completely got hooked to it the moment I saw that and asked him to place an order for me as well. Its not available so readily ( atleast where I checked last time) and has to be purchased via placing a  request. So we made the request and today, I got the call that my shipment has finally arrived. With lots of excitement and eagerness, I brought this not-so-little but awesome piece of hardware to me. I already knew about it and that’s why I know that its a real good purchase( if can’t be called be the only best we have) and having a feeling that you are the proud owner, increases the charm to the sky! I simply love and adore the sleek design and plus its cool features, for example like, voice noise reduction and couple of other things! Here is how it looks,

Yes yes I know that the pics are taken from the site only but so what? At least they are doing a fine job to show this awesome piece of hardware! I stopped at another showroom and there too the manager asked me that from where I got it with a comment that its just awesome! What did I say? If I shall like something and get it, its going to be awesome, be it anything! So this was the purchase that I wanted to do from a long time and finally did today! It wasn’t for fun so the happiness is there for too that I didn’t waste money. Overall, a complete satisfied and proud customer feeling has come today! After that I should had simply returned but what to do about eyes and heart, who normally says,why not to check, a very tricky question which has no answer! And this leads to the next part, keep on reading if you haven’t yet got bored!

After the first shopping for the day,  I checked in the showroom of Reebok as I was told that they have got some good t-shirts and new designs of shoes has come there. Well, I am not a big time Reebok fan but that doesn’t mean that I hate them completely as well. So I thought that I shall give a try to the shirt from them. There were many many t-shirts that were there but none of them was really appealing. Finally, the sales guy did shown some around 5 designs out of which I picked a white t-shirt! Needless to mention that it has got the best design over the chest and that’s actually “nothing” except for a small sized written Reebok! After this, I wanted to check socks for me and especially socks to wear with sports shoes! The sales guy did show me a packet which did contain 4 pairs of socks and was really good! So I got that one too! Both t-shirt and socks were having discount over them so I got discount over them too! And it did feel a little good that even though that I bought some stuff for just me and its not a bad one! In fact the bluetooth headset is capable to make people stop and atleast demand a touch of it! As I mentioned somewhere above that even the manager of the second showroom got little emotional at seeing the bluetooth handset and asked us to let him hold it in his very hands. He also mentioned that it looks like its not available in any shop(s) and we just mentioned Yes for it! It was a good feeling to know that what you have bought is really a good piece! Sigh of relief!!

So these were the 3 shoppings that I did today. I must accept, it feels great but the issue is, what to do about my nature’/habit which says, “no shopping” ! Anyways, I have spent the money today so no worries now( no use either) . Now, I am really really sleepy and have no idea what I am writing and where! So I just would be going to bed and if anyone of you have used this bluetooth headet, do share your experiences and also, inside tricks and tips as well! Its time for me to crash! Nites!!

Holiday & Travel Day…. July 18, 2010

How good it feels to know that today is Sunday, a day for official no work and being lazy! Well, actually, there is Saturday as well which holds the same meaning but at times, you spend doing tons of work on Saturday as well! But am not sure, on Sunday, since morning that lazy feeling starts to creep in 🙂 . But unfortunately, for me Sunday means travel day only as its very rare that I have enjoyed both the days of the weekend as like a holiday. For me, its Saturday which is a no-office but still lots-of-work day as I have to prepare some times the bills and other stuff for my last week’s work, do some reading, study for the next week, do some other work which I couldn’t do in the whole week and if possible, take some rest too! So its really not a true weekend for me. I know I know its not good but I have no other choice at the moment. That’s how my time is divided at the moment and there is very less that I can do about it!

Last week was mostly a quite one. Can’t say completely since there were some really small but significant issues which were there for entire week. I hate it when I am the only one to handle things and people who are indeed supposed to actually do it or atleast should assist me, just wash their hands off from everything! So on top of managing the program, managing the delegates, there is a lot of extra work that I would need to do so that all goes fine! I shouldn’t be complaining about it but at times, it feels a little irritating. Anyways, last week did have similar sorts of things happening. Fortunately, all did get sort out on time and also, the participants were really nice and supportive. They did understand the need of the time and support me for the entire week. Thanks so much guys! Besides that, they were really good as well. It always happens that when I shall be with some really smart guys, I shall learn something new and this time also, the same thing happened. There was a very good learning that I got about something in Oracle database which I shall be writing about soon. And that’s the best part of my work, I always get a chance to know something which I never even have heard about before or not even have seen too! For this,the entire credit goes to the delegates only! Thanks once again guys! Hope we can meet again in some other session.

Besides the delegates, the place where I went this time, its a place where I happen to go couple of times. I have couple of friends there too as well. Some I meet almost all the time and some, I don’t get a chance. This time, I made a point that I shall meet a friend of mine who has now shifted there(Banglore) and is settled there permanently after her marriage. I didn’t get a chance to meet her because I was under the impression that she sits at some other office location. But she was there only so I decided that I shall see her for sure in the lunch time at least. That’s the only time when we can meet because we work on different floors and she has to rush back to her home after office because she has got her little daughter who is just few months old still !. So that’s the only one hour when we can meet and I made a point that we indeed did meet! She is so good and almost like a tom-boy girl. She would always crack jokes and we normally would have lots of arguments on silly topics 🙂 . This time, the topic was her cooking as she, for one day, brought lunch from her home, obviously self-cooked and asked me to taste. Now, let me be honest, it was really bad and I can’t stand a badly cooked meal and that too from a gal and on top of it, a married gal! So when she asked me how it is, well I had to tell her the truth and that’s it, the fight started right there on the table itself in front of all her colleagues only ( who happens to be gals only) 🙂 . She was like what do I know and I said, eating and having an eye(or tongue) to see when the food is good and when not  😉 ! We did spend the entire hour doing all such kind of things. That’s another story that the food that I had picked from the office pantry was equally bad but I couldn’t mention it at that time you see 🙂 . Well, as soon as the lunch got finished, all the things went back to normal too 🙂 . She has asked me several times to visit her home and meet her daughter since I have met her hubby already but I just didn’t get time right now to do so. But I would love to see her gal and visit her home. She made a point that she won’t cook and would order food from outside only or would cook only non-veg food hehehe. Well, that’s okay I guess to order from outside, at least it would not be so bad 😉 . Just kidding! She is so good and have faced so many troubles in her life and I am just so happy that now, finally her life is getting back on track. She has a good job and she got permanent in it as well just few months back( she was a contractor before) , got the guy whom she wanted and now is blessed with a daughter. I just wish that things would keep on improving for her and for her family. Besides her, I also met couple of other friends of mine, most out of those are leaving the company 😉 . Still, its always a pleasure and fun to be there and this time also was no exception.

Yesterday, was a semi-busy, semi-fun, overall a semi-semi day 😀 . I wrote few pages of the last chapter of my book. I have to finish it it as soon as possible. I have got many things pending and I want them to get over as soon as possible! In the evening, me and S went to the Select City mall. There is a sales going on there in almost from all the brands there so we thought, we would check some shirts and jeans out. S got lucky and bought a shirt from UCB but there was none which I did like. We searched at couple of other places as well but nothing good was there that we could pick. So after having a Cafe Frappe and a Choco Frappe at CCD, we were back to home.

So back to from where I started, its Sunday and I need to travel again today. I am really not in a mood to do if you ask me. But I have to since I have a session starting from tomorrow and only being dead can escape me from it. So I have no choice but to travel today. Its going to be a looonggg travel as well. But since I shall be at my home, it would be so good even when I shall have a session for the entire week. Hope everything goes fine. I am feeling terribly hungry now and must go now and have my breakfast. There is nothing like having a good breakfast(food) to get you started for the long, hectic day right 🙂 !

Bed, Where Are You…. July 15, 2010

I am sitting here in the session, waiting for the guys to finish the practice session and am I sleepy! Well, all I can say is that I just had 2 cups of (yuck) coffee made from the vending machine, went for a walk in the corridor but still am not able to open my eyes! And its a bad bad , really bad thing to happen when you are in a session and you are the instructor 😦 . I have been feeling so tired and sleepy from last couple of months a lot and I know the reasons as well! But I have no other choice at the moment to push myself to complete the programs assigned to me. There is so much of work that’s around me and I just am not able to find enough time to do it all. How so I wish that there would be either 30hours in a day or I must not feel sleepy and won’t sleep at all for a minute too! I can’t mess with number of hours for the day since for that, I would need to do a fight with god with whom I am already not having a very fine tuning so leaving that aside, I guess I should start working to achieve the second goal  or “no-sleep” . Hope it can happen somehow, someway! But whenever that will happen,will happen, what about this moment? I shall try another cup of coffee and see if it would help to climb stairs over five floors to get that? Hope it would!

Monday Is Here…. July 12, 2010

I couldn’t get a chance to write anything in the past week. Even though I was not traveling in cabs, there was no holiday for me. I was doing a session through web-conferencing for few delegates in abroad. It was a grueling 5 days session and since it was not a face-to-face event, it took a lot to address issues than actually should have been. There were tons of issues that came on the first day itself about the non-clarity of my voice. I am not sure where was the issue actually though I was told that its not from my side but from was caused by the bandwidth at the participant’s side. Whatever may be the reason, there were issues almost in all the 5 days. To heat up things more, the module itself was so tough that even in a face-to-face session, it would have been so tough! Then for one delegate, the labs(hands on exercises) stopped working for no obvious reasons. Interestingly, those labs were working for others perfectly fine. Now, all the labs that we use are basically scripted and must run in the same manner what’s there in the manual about them. But if they won’t, there is not much that I or any instructor can do since we haven’t coded them. I did ask couple of other instructors too that whether they have seen the same issue or not but they were also clueless. Finally, what we did as the last resort that we let the delegates use the machine for one extra day i.e  Saturday! Normally, we stop the access to the machines on Friday evening itself but just because of all the issues, we increased the access time. Hope that have helped the guys somewhat and they had finished the labs. For all of such issues, even though I was sitting at one place, I was equally busy as I would be when I am traveling like today. Yes, I am on the road again. Anyways, it was a good session still. There were some very interesting comments that came for me from the delegates. Many thanks guys! Hope I was able to say something useful and also didn’t bore you with my analogies. I just checked the rating and it was really good! Thanks once again for everything.

I am having a really bad headache at the moment and have no mood to go for the session. Heck, I am having no mood to go and have my breakfast too as well! But I guess, I can only delay it or skip it. Session is something which even if  I want to, I won’t be able to skip! I need a break, a holiday for some time. Let’s see when and how it happens if it will! Have a happy Monday( is there any such thing really) all and hope the week remains good for you. Time for me to get ready and have a coffee in hope that it would heal my headache somewhat!

A New Milestone Set, 6th Largest Airport Of The World, New Delhi International Airport(Terminal 3)…. July 4, 2010

WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!!! Am I happy? I AM SOOOO MUCHHHH HAPPYY! I wish I could stand on the tallest building and say this as much as possibly loud in my best powers! We, India has done it and have given an answer to all those who used to taunt us for being inferior to them in the comparisons of airports. Yes airports reflect the country’s face and its that “first impression” which matters the most when one steps in any foreign land. I am so proud to say that now we have it now for all who would be stepping in India from our national capital New Delhi because we have our new international airport(terminal 3)  open for the world! Its the newest one in New Delhi but not the only best we have! We have similar sorts of airports in every major city of India and few of them like Hyderbad airport, has been given the best rankings comparing it with the world, see this news piece to read about it. 

Yesterday, it was a BIG day in the Indian aviation history when our prime minister Manmohan Singh inaugurated the new international airport at New Delhi. New Delhi’s new international airport is among the best in the world and holds the ranking as the 6th largest airport in the world after Dubai, Beijing, Singapore, Bangkok and Mexico City! Its among the best of the bests and with it, we have seen the start of a new age India yesterday. I am so proud and happy reading about it and just can’t wait to step my feet inside it! Many many congratulations to the entire India from me and thanks so much to our government who gave us this gift. No, I am not  much of a political person and the mentioned thanks has no political reasons too. Its just the expressions of a normal, ordinary guy who is just so happy that now his country too, comes under the “best rankings” in something. I have heard many (bad) comments while traveling at both domestic and international terminals of India from other passengers that “how much we were behind from the rest of the world” and here is our answer to all of those comments/taunts/criticisms! Once again, nothing here is mentioned for any political reasons whatsoever or to hurt any other personnel/country  and I give a damn to anyone who thinks about my expressions in any other way.

I am leaving you with a news link about the new airport, link to the photo gallery of it and also with a list of some of the salient features about it! I shall update this post once I shall step into the new airport and if anyone, who is reading this post, would do before me, please share your experience with me over here via comments! Here is a list of the features of the new airport,

• Sixth largest in the world after those at Dubai, Beijing, Singapore, Bangkok and Mexico City.
• One pier each for international and domestic operations spanning 1.2 km from one end to other.
• A city within, with a super-structure spread over 5.4 million sq ft.
• 78 aero-bridges, against less than 10 at the current international terminal.
• 63 elevators, 35 escalators and 92 automatic walkways.
• 168 check-in counters and 95 immigration desks.
• One pier each for international and domestic operations spanning 1.2 km from one end to other.
• Over 20,000 sq meters of retail area, including a large food court.
• Capacity to handle 12,800 bags per hour, with 6.4 km of conveyor belts.
• Multi-layer parking facility that can accommodate 4,300 cars.
• Exotic plants, material imported from Thailand, Mexico, Bahrain.

In A Real Upset Mood…. July 3, 2010

I should be happy since I am done with my program but I can’t be. In fact, I am really really upset because of my carelessness due to which I have forgotten my debit card in the ATM machine itself. How can I be so stupid to do such an act of foolishness? Thanks to my pure idiotic act, I spent the whole day at my bank filling tons of forms, signing them like giving autographs and finally got a relief from the manager that my card is locked! I must say thanks to that manager lady who helped me so much, sent the mail for locking my card with a highest priority set for it, gave me so many advices and suggestions ( purely free) ! Many thanks Ms Manager! I wished that I would be having a pleasant weekend since I am going to be in a traumatic week from this Monday, thanks to the so tough session, but “pleasant” doesn’t seem to be the right word for me, I guess. I didn’t eat anything in whole day in this whole “process” and to make things really interesting, its just so hot weather today and my scooter’s tire getting punctured proved to be the icing on the cake since in probably a temperature of 42degrees, I was pulling my punctured scooter! If you have not done it ever, you wont ever understand how terrible it feels to do so. Finally, the long and a really bad is over now and I am back listening to a very good song which I shall be translating in English from Punjabi. I have heard it for the first time and its been an hour since I am playing it non-stop. I am not sure that I do like the singer but the lyrics are good and that’s enough for me to like this song. Keep watching this space since its going to show up here pretty soon! And for now, I am going to have a cold apple juice to cool my mind off, still in a bad mood only!