Monday, August 23, 2010

Aug 23 Monday back to office - ONAM

Monday, Aug 23 2010
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Was only able to get out of bed by 6:10 so rushed thru everything and reached for the call by 7:05am off the call by 7:40am

Finished the Knowledge transfer early by 8:45 which was probably like 6:15pm IST.

then called up home and talked and wished everyone in the family, uncles and shaila aunt - HAPPY ONAM. there was too much disturbance on the phone lines.

Then called up anil to wish him happy onam too.

Wanted to go for some malu food, searched the web saw kerala kitchen. left work around 11:30am. with the hope of reaching there. Had to stop for filling up gas as the tank was empty.

Reached the address for Kerala Kitchen, only to find it closed and it seems to be a kind of poor neighbor hood.

Then returned back and ended up going to Wendys on broad st by work. There were all indians working inside. They got delayed in preparing the grilled chicken for me and so the lady gave an extra finger chips.
Well atleast I got something for free on Onam day.

wondering to ask malani for Vango tonite.

sent her a mail via iphone and got reply back that she wanted to go to reef tomorrow. I want to celebrate today. So told her I am going.

4 to 5 was defect meeting.

8:30 got out off a cat nap,,,,, again forgot to have anything to eat, just had half a glass of Mango juice and a piece of laddu,,, sugar loaded.

Reached Vango around 9:30 driving in the rain, thank ful that there were not many drivers on the Road.

Started off slow, as there seemed to be fewer women than men.

Then danced with Amber. Have not started trying to remember the names, was talking with Anil about not making the effort to remember anyone or their names. that is the problem , I was not making enough effort.
She turned out be a very smooth follow and she was delighted to be dancing with me.

Then noticed one gal very hyper and super pretty and seem to know most of the men there. Was mentally cutting her off my list of people to ask.
then the balarina like gal came and asked me to dance a bachata. she is tall very pretty wearing just tight shorts, would have passed off as swim suit underwear a few decades ago. As soon as we finished the bachata, thanking each other and the merengue came along.
Was just besides the pretty/beautiful latin gal out of impulse asked her. And boy we just hit it off, half way thru the song I noticed that there was a crowd around us and one guy was cheering and clapping.

Phew it was "amazing" in her words. sweet... her name is Jordana. I took a time out after that. the waitress in blue was kind off passing by me up and down and every time we just looked at each other in a flirty way. hmmmm

Latter after a few more salsa with others whos name I forgot, I had an amazing cha-cha flirty and GREAT Connection. was so surprised by the connection I was too dumb stuck to even ask her name. She had an amazing smile, curly blond hairs.. and the connection was all... via the smile.

Just got one 'no' from a gal who I don't think will ask again. But ended up dancing in the same song with another gal Makarita.

End to a great onam day. Aug-23-2010 Monday.

Aug 22, Time for Return flight

Sunday, 22 Aug 2010
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Woke up around 8am. was thru with and ready around 8:30am, Joe was at the door, wanting to come and hang out. He wakes up pretty early and poor kid was just hanging out side the door.

Had puttu about 10 and 10:30am and anils family went to church, we both hung around for a few more mins and then went to the neighbor hood wal mart to buy Soccer shoes and equipment for his elder rohan

It was another revealing experience for me with the Schools opening up, the school stationary aisle were filled with kids and their parents stocking up on the school supplies. It was great to see little kids mostly girls going about having a To-buy list and going form asile to asile and ticking off the things they got. Wow, responsibility and management.

Wow thats the american sense of responsibility with freedom.

Around 2 his wife takes the kids to rohs singing class

5:30 was the flight back so we started off from his house about 3pm stopped by Ikea to drop off some stuff.
Had lunch ,, heavy one, with fish, chicken, beef and mango pickle kerala style with rice.

the orbitz voice msg said A28 but my flight truned out to be E28. So had to wait for the shuttle and just barely made it past the check-in by 5pm

the security check was faster and on board by 5:10.

reached Philly by 10pm EST sharp. now to find the location for the Economy parking bus.
got dinged for 3 days as it was 2 days and 5 hrs. $33.
made it home with out having to stop for gas.

checked mail and then just went to bed.

Aug 21, in Dallas - Family life

Saturday, 22 Aug 2010
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Woke up around 7 with anils two kids standing and talking in hushed voices. Tried to scare them by saying boooo... hit it off with them kids. very social and high energy. So this is what Anil ment by them coming and waking me up in the morning. hehehe.

Had chicken, egg and chapathi for breakfast. nicee..

then we went out to different shops for his weekly family shopping.
First stop at the post office to send the pair of shorts he got to sell on Ebay. Huge crowd. so we backed out. and went to the malu shop. Wow, all the brands that I use for cooking was there and it felt like partially been back at home.

He brought a huge fish.

I brought some masala powder for the fish and meat, have to get it past airport security. Mostly with the hope of giving it to Eva and her parents when I meet them in Czech republic. Got the Eastern Fish Masalsa for Salmon curry.

Then we went to Target, eyeing all the lovely ladies in barest min showing off their assesets. hehehe.. well it was really hot outside. 100 plus deg F.

And then again back to Post office to and been a saturday it was closed by 12.
so we used the automated vending machine to weigh and post the package.

Back to his house about 2:30 and I was getting a head ach. So went up to my bed and just fell asleep. mistake as Anil and his wife ended up waiting for me to come down and have lunch.

So we all had lunch around 4 to 4:30pm and after that Anil and me decided to try out the bowling alley.

IT was a nice game, we got to play about 3.5 games in 1 hr slot. had a dark beer on the pitcher, it was kind of just water, we did not get any kick.

Anils kids and wife went for a Birthday party in the neighbor hood. So we returned back and started having bloody mary. I was not in a great shape to have more than one.

Then his kids returned back with their gifts and it was nice to see them all as a family trying to live it as a team. Not sure how the situation would have been if he had a non-indian wife. Who was going way beyond and been the tradition indian wife and trying to be the great host. wow! really made me think and appreciate the sacrifices the indian ladies make compared to the western wifes. Who would have probably got angry at my coming and asked him to order a take out or made me stay in a hotel.
And his wife is working too.

Got to see how it was difficult to try a raise a kid who was kind of having his own issues of not been able to sleep cause of dry skin and is learning to communicate as he grows up. Little things like this that put a family to test their patience and their ability to work as a team. And like every family he said they do have huge arguments that blow out, but been more tuned to Indian mentality, they patch up and live it out for the kids and the team as a whole.

ITs a different thing when you have a very sweet and quite kid. but not sure if I would be able to handle the pressure of having wild kids who may be always fighting. reminded me of why Chad did not want to have kids at all.

wonder if eva would ever be able to handle this kind of pressure, she would probably be so angry, might dump alll and just run away to some hike.
and anil said that one of his North indian friends wife just did that same thing, dumped the guy and their two daughters and just went away.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Aug 20, trip to Dallas

Friday Aug 20 2010
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Woke up early with the pressue of reaching work before 6:30am Got to work by 6:50am.
got ready to have an early call with Sweta from offshore.
Started KT with sweta around 7:30 in the war room was not able to call her net number so she again ended up calling me.

in between talked about her trip to vayanad in kerala and told her to go visit virajpet and travel to kerala from there. ahh was feeling nostialigic. so changed the subject before I start feeling home sick. more

2pm made it out after submiting the code review to ashish.
out of home after last minute packing with just the back pack by 3.. 3:10pm.

Did not expect the traffic. Just barely reached the airport about 5pm no time for parking so just drove into the airport hoping for the closer parking. and missed the costly one and ended up in the economy parking for $11. Then it was so full only got parking place at the very end. Luckily the pick up bus came by .. ran to get on to it.

landed DWF 8:44pm CST. met Anil who got lost in the airport around 9:45

Reached his house around 11pm

His poor wife was also waiting up

We had a couple of drinks, catching up on the past.... loved his new Car, of $40,000 only , fully loaded. Its huge Honda Pilot. I could have lived in it as a mobile studio apartment.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Aug 19 Phew what a night it was yesterday

Thursday 19-Aug-2010
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got out of bed around 5:55am :) no breakfast as usual, was not able to finish the Tea. Rushed out and reached work around 7:05am. Then had issues of connectivity. Got chating with sweta on her new connection and remote machine.

around 8 after the call went to the war room to show her the test envi. again issues with making an out bound net meeting call. was calling her number when she called me up.

Showed her the Mvc email that comes as additional only seen in test and not dev.

I am still buzzed with yesterday nights salsa and my best merengue thus far in philly, asked one gal who I thought was nice and she said no, and suddenly a sweet looking chinese gal walks over across the room and asks me to dance,,,,, wooohooo. And she danced like a pro. Turns out that she is from Oreagon. She was so easy to lead. Attitude I guess is the key to a partnership. Something I had difficulty in leading Eva, even from the first dance. That was the first sign that I ignored and let things happen. But again attitude is something that can be changed and worked on if the person is willing to. And given Eavs attitude of I am mightier than anyone and no one can tell me anything, I am too perfect for any critizism... pffff

And like a fool I was trying and trying and trying hoping that she would also put in some effort. Well for someone who tries to preach and live a superficial life of only showing off to other people that is not the whole truth, it is not something that will suit in their way of life. Not even the attitude of acceptance of all the lies she said and rather tries to turn the table on me and said that I am going around telling stories about her,,, hahaha..... re-read that mail to Amit so many times to see where I must have presented something that was not true..... its a lost cause when someone already had made up her mind to go in a different direction with someone else..... they will try to tell as many stories about me as possible to make me into the Villian so that they are not accused by others of been EVIL. and in a big way to justify that their own evil actions are right.
And after repeatedly telling the lies about me, even they soon start believeing the lies they say about me. And soon the subconsicious mind takes over and they are not able to face the truth even if its right in front of their eyes.

Tried to teach malini the polka bachata, she seemed nervous but seems to improve much more.
the crowd on wednesday looks and feels much better than on weekends.

3pm to 4 test status meeting.

In between worked on cleaning up the code and documenting it in the r19 Configuration Items1.xls

5:30 take off and drop Anoy at his apt and go home. plan to pick him up latter to go to King of Purssia mall.

around 6:45 get back and pick Anoy and head to the mall. Huge mall, with all the branded names. Was not able to find anything to buy for Anil and famil. Anoy brought a pair of dress.

9:30 get back to Sultan for some punjabi chicken biriyani.. not anywhere as good as the real biriyani.

10:30 drop him off and head home. to pack. just planning on talking a back pack, practice for the Euro trip.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Aug 18 Wed, got to get moving in life

Wednesday 18 Aug 2010
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After hitting the bed early with a lack luster sleep and looking for direction in life and the web of confusing clutter. woke up with the alarm at 5am and must have hit snooze atleast 6 times. Only got out of bed thinking about the conf call to bangalore. Had ginger tea and made it to work by 7:05am.

The climate outside is all dark and cloudy, but the forecast says sun. hehehe.. life and predictions. If what is in mordern day considered scientific weather forecast can go so wrong whats the guarantee and why is it so difficult to accept Astrological forecasts :) good Question.

Finished demo by 8:50 so that sweta can go catch her bus at 6:30 from office in bangalore. She reaches home around 8: to 8:30pm. two hrs of travel.

10to 11 weekly status meeting. and 3 to 4 QC meeting.
sangi asks me to work on the OMC code . to seperate the screen pop code from mvc. Atlast some work,, tried doing the Unit testing on dev, but seems not set up in avaya, so try and do that in the war room in test envi.

in between went to the bank and deposited the check I got from vancouver for the house deposite.

Around 5:45pm when stepping out of the office saw that malini had send a text msg for goin out salsa dancing. thats a good motivator. call her back and we planned on been there by 9.
told her that I am kind of feeling depressed and low thinking about my life and she was even more charged to motivate me to go out dancing.

Called up narayan and, Same thing I got from narayan in the evening after that to go out and socialize.

Got call from muhu and told him about the letter he accidently sent to me along with my mails.

8:18 too late to have anything for dinner, got call from malini that she is on her way from new jersey... so rushed thru some chips and washed it down with a bit of scotch.

Reached brasils around 9:40 great parking place... too many men than women. so sat out for the class. malini seems to enjoy it. and there were lot more hot and smoking hot looking girls.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Aug 17 Tuesday, got mail from Raj-finland

Tuesday Aug 17 2010
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Again the same lethargy to wake up to the 5am alarm. out of bed only by 6am made it to work around 7:05am and log on to the conf to be told by aji that our conf was else where. Sweta was on the call and heard something about Argentina in the call.

Had talk with her in bangalore upto 9am.

Got mail from RajUnn about his trip to Cali from fin.

getting ready for the trip to Dallas, still trying to figure out what gift I can buy for Anil and family. Malinis suggest of ice-cream maker sounded good, but I am traveling light with just the carry on. Its friday in and sunday evening out......

Afternoon ajay sends me a msg asking to go out to Dosa hut. So end up going there with ajay and anoy. Interesting inputs about experience from ajay. He is just got engaged last month after going to india and seems to have met a very good kashmiri gal. thou he grew up in mumbai. he went back last month after 4 years.
So agree with him about the wifey qualities that a guy looks for in a women he wants to marry and have a family with. ITs just not the question of Western women, even in India many women in the cities are so filled with Ego and wanting to be free they have little regard for the FAMILY and the need to be compromising and sacrificing our own individuality for the sake of the TEAM(FAMILY). Thats what team work is all about.

Just heard about a women who strapped her kids to the car seat and dorve it into a river. It seems she wanted to be free.

Sometimes when I think of the way Eva gets angry and reacts, I sometimes get the image of a angry women who may just kill all her kids and just go to be free from any responsibilities and accountability and go around the world. Hope things like that do not happen to her or anyone.

3 to 4 meeting test team.

Most to time was trying to log on to deve3 to complete the tests and understand the limits of what we have as compared to Test. mails going back and forth with Mat and then the bunch of noise makers tony and li wang. who seem to not have much to do other than going around trying to make a big deal about something that is not impacting them at all.

Got home early, was feeling lethargic and lazy. The intention and motivation to go out running lost the battle to hunger and after a heavy beef curry and rice dinner was in no mood to run..... just found that I almost put on about 8 pounds the past week. ahhhhh

Got to see bachelor pad..... wooo it was so revealing to see how low the loyalty factor in women are, how deviously calculating and manipulative they are. And how they paint a guy as bad viciously as possible with zero sense of accountibilty to their own actions..... its kind of like a universal disease that beautiful women seem to have. Like been blessed with the power of beauty that seems to drive most men crazy. Seems to paralyze their logical sense of thinking and bring about thier sexual greed out. After that he is no longer a human being, more living with the brain of a animal in heat. :)