Art of Living

The Art of Living HQ is in Bangalore, on Kanakapura road, 21st kilometer. You can find the map here. At a village called Udayapura. Not that I was keen on visiting but this post is not about interests. That said, it should give an idea of the view point, and now you may refrain from being influenced. The time was evening, the sun just about to set. After parking, we found a huge prayer hall with tin for a roof. We wondered how such wide roofs can stand with only support at the two ends. Yes, that reminded me of beams and trusses from college days. Further, a nice stroll around. By the time we reached a residential locality, there was someone who politely told us that this was a residential part of the campus (meaning that part was not of interest to us), and that we can walk up the hillock to go the main auditorium. I forget what it is called. This auditorium is impressively constructed, circular in shape, with five floors high in steps. There are steps leading to the auditorium with train of lights beneath each steps. Its a lovely view at night when viewed from a distance.
7:30pm begins the satsang. Its a gathering of followers who engage in bhajans.

Raipur and back

I was required to make a trip to Raipur, the capital of Chattisgarh, whcih turned out to be quite an experience. Waking early in the morning at 4:30 am was excruciatingly difficult, boy how I love my sleep. Then a flight to Raipur via Mumbai. The wonderful surprise came in Mumbai looking at the changed airport. Cool. Very cool. I certify "International Standards". And this is the domestic airport. Everything is changed. The floors properly tiled with granite, pillars are tiled with granite, the shops are remade and look excusite, the whole interior has AC that actually works, checking-in, security checks are all smooth. And more importantly the washrooms are clean by most standards. The outside of the airport resembles Toronto airport. This is the first sign of some progress made by a organisation that is gorverned by the central gorvernment.

Raipur being capital of a state of 5 years, has not shown an impressive pro gress. But going by what the local men say, it has made a little progress. This part of the state was a favorite industrial destination and is sorrunded by mining and steel industries. Since making the city a state capital has brought in politics but also crime in this once sober city. Oh, and it dosen't really look like a city. The hotel accomodation was very good I should say. Must be a 3 star hotel.

With work done, I was to fly back home via Mumbai again on my return trip. But I was late for the flight by about 20-30 mins. The gates were closed due to increased security on eve of Independence day. This was one of my nightmares that came true. I was always afraid of missing a train or a flight or an exam. But somehow, it was alright. I cursed myself and then just got on with making alternative arrangements. That was a miraculous to find myself not mad at me. A great (self-)realisation actually.

I called up the travel help desk but got no response. A private company boasting a 24/7 service didn't pick my desperate phone calls. This was more than a setback.
The Jet Airways ground staff supervisor was quite helpful and offered to put me on the next Mumabi-Bangalore flight if I bought a Raipur-Mumbai ticket from Indian Airlines. The Indian Airlines ticketing personnel were slow and initially gave a negative attitude to my condition. But with a bit of persuation and a little persistence, they did look at the case offering to book the tickets. The Raipur-Mumbai on IC had a high fare of 11K and 14K. Then he offered to put me on the Raipur-Chennai flight but couldn't because the booking was closed. So I asked for the Raipur-Delhi-Bangalore flight. Thankfully, I got both legs of journey at the lowest fares. I couldn't afford to spend one more day in Raipur for reasons that are a little off context here. So I brought the tickets and cancelled the Mumbai-Blore Jet leg.

The fiasco dosen't end here. The IC flight to Delhi developed a technical snag that delayed the departure by over 3.5 hrs. Hence, my connecting flight to Blore from Delhi would miss. (they both started at the same time). The Indian Airlines office helped by offering bookings for the next earliest flight which was in the morning. On reaching Delhi, the duty officer again started off with a negative attitude to the condition. But with a little persistence, he agreed to put me on a Kingfisher flight. I incurred some costs but I guess thats alright.

In general, the Indian Airlines officials, started off with a can't-do-it attitude but are helpful enough to go out of their way to do everything possible. Only with a little persistence.

You can get a driver's license without having to indirectly bribe via the agents, but takes much more persistence than said above.

A thought on the Delhi domestic airport, it was also cool as the Mumbai one. The Mumbai one is new and was more intact I should say. Wait and watch.

Verdict, the change in government organisations is setting in, albeit at a lower pace, but it is happening, starting from the central government. I can't wait when it grows fully and percolates into the state government run system too.

So, the disastrous day wasn't all that disasctrous but also opened me to the organistions around. Sitting in front of the PC trying to write a piece of code, and assuming the rest of world is doing fine was shattered but then it was also delightful to see the changes.

Broadband setback

I've been trying to get a broadband connection from Airtel and I've found that thier capacity in that area is all full and to increase it, they need 3 months time. How cool is that? Or uncool.
I'm left with getting one from BSNL who's procedures gives me the creeps. Or spend a hell lot to get a BB connection on CDMA that runs on half the speed. Excellanto!!

The Good German

I don't know if this movie will win any awards. If it does, why? Anyway, it was nice to watch a 1940s movie in 1940s style filming. I didn't understand why it had to be b/w? Was there no color in the 40s? The storyline is creepy. There are a lot of charachters. Many of the US military, couple of Germans and Russians. In the whole movie, there is only a suggestion of who "The Good German" was. And he's the one hiding from the Americans and Russians in some dungeon. When he gets out, he's killed. Is this person the center of the movie's storyline? Considerably pathetic I'd say.

day dreaming

And suddenly I hit upon the thought through my already confused thought process that as long as one day dreams of what one can achieve, the urge to put it in action fades away. Its probably the satisfaction that he can do what he thinks that leads to lethargy and eventually nothing.

Now for some psycho babble bullshit - It is said that dreams are meant to maintain the psychological balance. So one achives in dream what he cannot achive in reality. Mostly emotional part I suppose. Thus, once the dream is finished, there is little or no instability.

I tried conciously suppressing my day dreaming prowess and found my concentration had increased manifold times. I understood everything I heard or saw or percieved. It otherwise is clobbered by my own thoughts of whys and why nots.

Now, this is a great discovery for me but greater would be practising the same.

serious? naah!!

It was time for client meeting - telecon as we would call. Once our updates are over, we have to go mute to listen mode. Today, we had a football session and an art session. Once our end was done with all that we had to provide, 2 of us disappeared. The other 2 decided on a little football session with an empty water bottle. We kicked it all around the conference room with 2 ends of the rooms as goal posts. I lost 3 to 1.
I decided on a some art (should I call that?) for myself with white board marker and the white board. (we use the white board marker on almost anything). I drew something that didnt make any sense. But the passers by had a good time looking at this random act of insanity. And that during client meeting.

shoppers STOP!!

This is from a shopping trip that took place 2 days back. We were looking for bags and footwear. They had to be one of the high end ones like adidas and stuff. Well, what I found was that the hip-hop and rap culture has invaded the bangalore youth. And it becomes evident in these stores that sell above 1k products which I think are worth lesser, and aim only the youngsters with above 1k pocket money. They invariably play either hip hop or rap music, english or hindi. Now these guys think its cool to rock their bodies on the hip hop tunes and so do the those working in these stores. One of the stores had this song playing - "I'm a sexy, naughty, bitch"...One could call one self sexy - accepted, naughty - accepted, but bitch? Who would proclaim oneself as a "bitch"? Jeez.

2:58 am and working

2:58 in the morning. Drowsy. Hungry. Clumsy. And I'm stuck here for I spent most of my day either blogging or doing nothing. Oh yeah, I had lots of tea. And yesterday (today has become the next day), of all days, came to office at 8:30am. Anyway, there wont be any power at home. Thats an excuse. And I'll have the saturday to sleep.

Found a blog of oh-no-not-a-friend. One blog was quite disturbing to me, I'm just afraid if its me. Anyway, I keep my distance for untold reasons.

Will (not try to) leave at 5am catch the cab so I dont spend money and later get it reimbursed. That money is like stuck in ERA account.