Friday, November 28, 2008

26/11 - Terror attack on Mumbai - Taj / Oberoi on fire

The terror attack at Mumbai on 26/11/2008 has proved to be a deadly attack as it still continues even after 48 hours . The terrorists attacked in various parts of the city, Colaba, CST terminus, the airport, Ville parle, and suddenly Mumbai was under the terrorists.


The famous Taj Mahal hotel, Oberoi Trident , all situated in the Colaba region, has been under heavy terrorist attack.


It has been fourty eight hours and Mumbai is bleeding.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Another new day, new fun, new quarell

Yesterday, the medical tests got over and every passing day here, means that my trip to US is coming near. Later in the day, after Ritu had arrived from her office, we spent some quality time with Sonamoni.

During the evening Sonamoni said "Auto kore jabo". Sonomoni was having fever from the afternoon because of the season change, so all of us were worried about her. Later we decided around 8:30 pm to take Sonamoni along to a nearby shopping mall which has recently opened in our locality.

The earlier known Kempfort has now given place to Total shopping mall, and a couple of weeks back I had taken Sonamoni there to get her the birthday present as I wont be in India during her birthday.

We took a auto , went to Total and bought some gifts for Nadia, Auli's daughter. Richard and Mesho shall be coming to meet me on the 30th Nov, so I can hand over the gifts for Nadia. We bought some toys , one being a puzzle and the other that had to do with understanding sequences. These toys looked good to me as they would adding IQ to Nadia; also thought about buying the same for Sonamoni but she is too young ... chooooto Sonamoni . We love the pranks she makes , dont want to make her that serious right now. Alongside I have uploaded a picture of Nadia.
By this time Ritu and I had a quarell, amongst ourelves. As usual the effect of the quarrel was felt till today morning. Neither of us likes this thing , but it happens all the time.
Today morning before leaving Ritu , peeped past the door to see if I was coming to see her off , when she was leaving for office. I went just to see her go down the stairs. On the contrary Ritu has made dhokar dalna for dinner tonight.
Reminds me of Iris, the song by Goo Goo Dolls "When everything's made to be broken I just want you to know who I am".
Broken - Shattered - Fixed .... the story goes on.


Monday, November 17, 2008

Third marriage anniversary - becomes just another day

Today was our third marriage anniversary. Ritu had a off day, and I managed to take a leave too, so both of us could be at home. As Ma and Sonamoni were also there it happened to be a perfect day.

I started off the day with wishing Ritu , a happy marriage anniversary. It was Preeti's birthday too, and after I had wished her, she wished me happy anniversary too. Rangapisi too called up and wished both of us. Ma also wished us . Ritu's Baba who is in Barrackpore right now, also wished us a happy anniversary.

As for the breakfast, Ritu was lenient today in making luchi and cholar dal. I ate a lot of luchis, ( did not count the numbers) ; I like it very much. Sonamoni had luchi with mixed fruit jam. It was a nice breakfast to start the day .

Today we had planned to sort out the BSNL broadband issue, an erroneous bill of Rs. 30,000 had come, so we were supposed to meet the Area Manager (Indiranagar ) to sort it out. When we went to BSNL office it was around 11 :30 am , and the area manager had left. I then went to the Customer Relations Officer (CRO) and he said that the bill can not be waived of, only they can charge for the 2 days, according to the Home 250 plan. The bill for those 2 days was also coming at Rs. 6000+ ; the CRO said it can only be waived off if the DGM approves it.

We checked with an auto rickshaw for the route, and we headed for the Telecom Bhavan on Ritu's Activa Honda. It took around 30 mins to reach there. I did not know the route, so we had to ask several persons to get the correct route.

The DGM was a nice person, he listened to us, but said he can not waiv it off. That was very unfortunate for us ; as we had only come here to get the waiver - now we needed to pay out Rs. 6000+ . Both of us did not like the idea at all , we could have done so many good things with the money.

While returning back home , we were passing through Shivajinagar, a market place for furnitures in Bangalore. We were planning to get a sofa set for quite sometime ; so today we stopped to check out one. After checking out various shops, we found one sofa set ( 3 + 2) at Rs. 11,000. The price was reasonable I guess compared to the other stuff which we had checked out - the other were mainly in the Rs 16K to Rs 19K range. We had liked one more nice fashionable set, but it was around Rs. 16,000 - but again that set was something which would have looked pretty nice for a second garden sofa - maybe we shall try that later. It was 4 pm .

Then we went back to BSNL, Indiranagar and paid the bill , which was now Rs. 10000 instead of the Rs. 30000, which we had initially received. We reached home around 5:45 pm .... whew .. a long journey.

Back home , we had paratha and chicken, ( Ritu was not fond of my paratha idea - as in the morning we had luchi ) , but however I got past Ritu to have some paratha. Both of us gobbled up quite a number, as we had only Pepsi and potato chips in between.

Then we took some rest, spent time with Sonamoni by playing with her, and addressing all her pranks. Ma was also assured that the BSNL issue had been solved.

We had told Sonamoni that we would taking her out for an auto ride - she went to Ritu and told , "Mmm , ta ta jabi , auto kore". Neither of us could ignore this small request from her, so after a photo session , - Maa took two of our snapshots - it was nice showing Maa how to take pictures. Ritu was wearing a Mysore Silk , Rangapishi had presented her this time , when she had gone to Dum Dum - she was looking gorgeous.

Ritu, Sonamoni and me took an auto rickshaw from our house to erstwhile Kempfort, which had been transformed to a shopping mall, Total. We took a round trip in an auto and got down at N.R. Layout - the auto rick took Rs. 50, but it our marriage anniversary and after all Sonamoni had asked for it - so there was nothing to think over.

After spending around 20 -30 mins in NR layout, we came back to home, only to get ready for the next day for office.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Sonamoni has got a gift - Childrens Day 2008

Celebrating Children's Day, our oganisation has given a gift to the employees who are having a child.

I was one of the lucky few, and just right now I have received a beautiful gift wrapped pack from the HR.

I shall hand it over to Sonamoni once I reach home , instead of the regular chocolate she aks for when I open the door.

My trip to USA gets shortened

I was supposed to go to USA for 6 - 8 months, and was pretty excited about that . The trip was supposed to be starting in the end of September 2008 and the place was Wauwatosa, a small town off Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Then came the global meltdown, as the investment banks saw Wall Street going down. With the economies moving north - Lehman brothers going bankrupt, AIG USA being bailed out by the US Govt, Goldman Sachs, a leading investment banker turning itself to the retail banking, General Motors about to file for bankruptcy if there is no bailout, Merrill Lynch being taken over by Bank of America, things have started looking bleak. The Wall Street effect has been felt across many the globe, and the Indian stock markets have plummeted down.

The Indian IT which has 80% - 90% of its client base in the USA, has been affected again. The September 11th, 2001 ( 9/11 ) disaster in USA had left India high and dry as many companies scurried for cover. It should have been a spot-on lesson for Indian companies , to see other ways to grow their business, but somehow the message didnt get through to the Indian companies. Seven years after the attack, Indian companies are focussing in European region for their business.

The Wall Street meltdown again had its effect on Indian IT, as it saw closure of various projects for Wipro, Infosys and other IT majors. Added to that, as a cost cutting measure, various foreign companies have kept their projects on the pipeline. That has resulted in most Indian IT services companies having very less projects.

Today I got my update on the US trip I was talking about, from 6 months it has been reduced to 1 month .... the project shall go on till mid 2009 , but from Bangalore.

My plans of getting "rich" also melted down. Ma and Ritu are very happy that I dont need to stay for 6 months in USA; infact Rangapishi said me she was happy too . Everyone was very worried about the cold ,winters are harsh out there, with temperatures dipping to -35C (degree Celsius ) . Someway I also felt good, - maybe it was a start of a business development program. Or maybe it was the start of the architecture role , I always think about being.

Sad that I shall be missing out on Sonamoni's 2nd birthday, which shall be on 1st December 2008. The date coincides with my start date of work in USA - maybe I shall leaving this month end.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Sonamoni and Ritu are coming back tomorrow

Sonamoni and Ritu are coming back tomorrow from their trip to Calcutta. They had been there for the last week. One day they had gone to our home in Dum Dum , and Rangapisi have given Sonamoni two frocks and to Ritu , a silk saree from Rangapisi's collection.

Ma and me are here in Bangalore; we have got a very good maid servant Mary who is quite elderly and looks after Sonamoni and also does the household work. She shall be taking a leave tomorrow , and so Ma shall be at home alone. But Ma has become better now, and the maid servant shall cook tomorrows food today.

Need to make arrangements to bring Ritu and Sonamoni tomorrow.

Sourav Ganguly calls it a day

Dada after his Ton @ BGL!!!Yesterday Sourav Ganguly, fondly called Dada by Indians, called it a day. He is also known as the Prince of Calcutta, an apt name given by Geoffrey Boycott .

With an amazing record of over 7000 runs , and probably one of the best captains India ever produced ; at a time when Indian cricket was in the doldrums, it remains to be seen how good shall the Indian captaincy be in the upcoming years .

In his last press release , he was quoted as saying that he was never understood properly . The then Greg Chappell along with Kiran More had used various means to keep him out of the team - an expose of the letter had landed Greg Chappell in trouble. Later Greg Chappell had to quit the Indian coaching, because of the extremely poor performance as a coach. He, Kiran More specially had also become the eyesore to many Indians , for their dismal choice of player choosing. Mr. Chappell have recently come back to India again, and as Sunil Gavaskar rightly puts it, maybe Mr. Chappell has financial reasons to make him back to a country which does not want him ; where as Sourav Ganguly has a flourishing family business in Calcutta.

However, Sourav Ganguly had returned back and showed the critics with his scintilating performance once again.

Dada shall always be in our hearts, as a great captain, an excellent batsman, and a pride of Bengal.

Monday, November 10, 2008

BSNL Broadband Bill - Home 250 plan - A Shock

Today I have received my BSNL broad band bill . The amount has come to a incredible sum of Rs. 30000+ . BSNL customer care told me I had downloaded 27 GB ... of course I had downloaded, but was it so much . I was in the Home 250 plan ; seeing this usage, I opted for the Home 750 plus unlimited usage .

As for the bill I checked the portal usage for the specified dates and found it much less then what has been shown in the bill. I immediately checked with the Customer relations officer, and found I was right... the usage was not that high. I had to submit an application ; hopefully the amount shall be reduced substantially .

Keeping my fingers crossed, till I hear from them.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Barack Obama is the new President of the USA

the 44th President of the United States...Bara...A couple of days back , Barack Obama has won the US presidential elections. I had read it in the papers, but could not catch up with the TV till today.

Today I was astonished to see that many Americans are not happy as he is black. Facebook has lots of groups , by the name "Impeach Obama" .

And the group is 6000+ strong.

Where is the "black" when Carl Lewis, Flo Jo wins a Gold Medal in the Olympics .

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Sonamoni saying Bengali rhymes

Ma has taught Sonamoni some Bengali rhymes . Sonamoni can now say Bengali rhymes too; she is a little moody, does not say the rhymes in front of Ritu. Sonamoni is very close to Ma, and Ma has taught all the Bengali rhymes she knows till date .



This video was taken while she was in a good mood. In the bowl she is having fried potatoes and fried radish , which was been made for our dinner. In the video I am telling one line of the Bengali poem ( from Hasikhusi ) and she is telling the next.