A trip to Kudremukha - The Plan

The year 2010 has been a very dry year for me... Except for the Kolkata-Sikkim trip in the month of April, I haven't been to any other trip and esp. treks. Even though there were many a plans before a couple of friends' marriage, the plans never got implemented... The same thing happened even this time... Though no particular place was decided for the trip, the dates were all finalized... and we boys were all ready to wear the trekking gear and to start the trek, if need arises, from Bangalore it-self... But as expected one girl from the gang backed out at the last minute & the chain reaction started... many others also backed out..

I was so desperate to go to a trip/trek... I was ready even to go alone if nobody accompanied me... Luckily I found not 1 not 2 but 4 others who were ready for the trek.... During the planning stage the number had reduced to 3 but now it is finalized that 5 of us will be leaving at-last on Friday night for the trip. Guess one can understand my desperateness when I stress on the word "at-last"... my mind deserves a long break from all the thinking I am doing these days.... I just want to stop thinking about anything.. be in the midst of nature... enjoy the trek thoroughly... have some authentic coastal but vegetarian food... and last but not least... be away from the common Bangalore din!!!

Ok... So where are we going?

We aren't the type of people who keep thousands of options and then struggle to choose one place to go to... We had 2 options - kudremukha or kemmaNNUgunDi. We decided to go with the former one since one of my friends had already visited the latter one.

What other places are we visiting?

Below is a list of places that we have planned to visit on 30th and 31st of October, 2010.

1. kudremukha - our main destination

2. gangamoola - the birthplace of three rivers - tunga, bhadra and nethravathi

3. jamalabad fort - fort built during Tipu Sultan's time, around 65 KM from mangalooRu
4. horanaDu - devi annapoorneshwari's temple
5. sringeri - devi sharade temple
6. hanuma gunDi jalapatha - 32 KM from kalasa
7. bhadravathi Nature Camp

How are we going?

Initially, when the number was reduced to 3, we'd decided to board the KSRTC bus to kalasa and from there take another private bus to kudremukha. The reason to take the public transport was simple - cost. According to my estimation if we take KSRTC bus to-and-fro, we'd be spending anywhere between Rs. 1000.00/- to Rs. 1750.00/- Instead if we hire a cab we'd be spending anywhere between Rs. 2000.00/- to Rs. 2700.00/- That was a huge difference... and for a small group of 3 members, this cost was exhorbitant... so the decision to make use of KSRTC buses was taken...

Yesterday my other friend and his wife also decided to join us for the trip... and the group size has now grown to 5. Because of the increase in the number of people (3 to 5), we have decided to hire a Toyota Qualis. And now the cost estimation is anywhere between Rs. 1700.00/- to Rs. 2500.00/- and it was ok with us.

One might argue that going by KSRTC was still a better option. Though going by a private vehicle works out to be costlier than public transport, it is a lot more flexible when compared to going by a public transport. All of us stay in different locations of the city bengalooRu and finding local BMTC buses during the night is a problem. Since it is also a long weekend (November 1st being a holiday on the occassion of kannaDa rajyothsava) even getting tickets in KSRTC buses was a little difficult. Moreover, there are no direct buses to kudremukha. We have to get down at kalasa and from there hire a local private bus to reach kudremukha.

What exactly is the plan?

The plan is to leave bengalooRu on Friday, 29th October, 2010 night in Toyota Qualis and reach either horanaDu or sringeri by early morning on Saturday, 30th October, 2010. After taking bath, finish visiting the temple, and depending on the time, we can visit any/all the intermediate places listed above. Probably we may keep horanaDu for the next day! Reach an intermediate place, have dinner and sleep off! The next day, i.e. Sunday, 31st October, 2010, climb the kudremukha hill along with the guide. Once the trek is finished, climb down, get into the car and leave for horanaDu or bengalooRu. We'd want to reach bengalooRu by Monday, 1st November, 2010 morning so that we can take rest the entire day before going to the office on 2nd.

What websites did I refer to for planning the trip?

It wasn't easy finding the right information for the places we wanted to visit. Each one of them had taken either a different route or had visited only a subset of the places. So I had to take a help of all of the below mentioned websites to know the pros and cons and then decide on my own about our trip.

1. http://wiki.worldflicks.org/kudremukh.html#coords=(13.208528951673102,75.24742126464844)&z=13
2. http://usandeep.com/trekking/kudremukh.html
3. http://aravindgj.blogspot.com/2006/11/kudremukh.html
4. http://ponderingmusings.blogspot.com/
5. http://paachuprapancha.blogspot.com/
6. http://anushankarn.blogspot.com/2008/07/ramnagar-fort-and-palace.html
7. http://unknowntracks.blogspot.com/
8. http://sharavathi.blogspot.com/
9. http://letsgoforavacation.blogspot.com/
10. http://payaniga.com/
11. http://www.naanushande.com/2006/11/kudremukh-home-stay-trek-n-trip.html
12. http://theicywindblows.blogspot.com/2004/07/kudremukh-experience.html
13. http://shashankbjain.blogspot.com/2007/09/trek-to-kudremukh-peak-may-19-20-2007_6027.html
14. http://shashankbjain.blogspot.com/2007/09/kudremukh-ranges-if-you-ask-my-opinion.html
15. http://payaniga.com/2007/09/trek-to-kuduremukha.html
16. http://www.karnatakaspider.com/resources/3424-Kudremukh-Where-stay.aspx

All these websites are abundant with information about kudremukha, directions to reach, distances, accommodation availability, etc. etc.

I owe a big thank you for each one of these bloggers without whom I wouldn't have had planned for this trek.

Also do note that most of these blog posts were published long back and the information provided might not be accurate. So readers' descretion is required.

Further details about my trip, exact cost, route we took will all be updated in a continuing post, but after the trip.

Mid semester marks are out...

"At last the mid-semester marks are out... Check out by logging into Virtual University" My friend called me up on 19th October and told me this about my BITS Pilani mid-semester exams... and I was in front of the computer at that time... guess I was watching a movie or was doing something of lesser importance :D when she had called me..I immediately logged in and found my results...

I wasn't surprised or even felt bad about the results... coz, I'd expected worse... :D But what surprised me was my marks... The marks in each subject is actually part of the respective subject's code!!!

For e.g.
Comp code for Internetworking Technologies is 1624: and marks is 16
Comp code for Software Engineering & Management is 2115: and marks is 15
Comp code for Network Programming is 1627: and marks is 7
Comp code for OOAD is 1524: and marks is 25 (reverse of 52)

I felt the evaluators had given me marks based on the course code of the respective papers... though it wasn't true... Anyway... one fear I had in the last week is no more... but now I am waiting for the D-Day... my 1st semester final exams results...

Hope I pass at-least with a 'B' grade in the exams if not with a 'A' and I also hope I wont get a 'C' or a 'D' even though there is every possibility that my performance might fetch what I fear!!!

My first finals...

My first finals was exactly the way I'd expected it to be - difficult, surprising, challenging, tiring yet satisfactory - but my action towards it was not the way I'd wanted... It is sad that I miserably failed in not performing as per my own expectations...

If you are thinking what I am talking about... it is about my BITS Pilani MS first semester final examinations... The questions were as tough as I'd expected it to be... but I wasn't prepared well enough to answer all the questions properly. I did realize that a week's time for the finals is no way enough... even though the exam format is "open book" wherein you are allowed to take your books/notes/research materials/print outs etc. etc. you may still not find answers to quite a few questions... The case was exactly the same with me.... The first paper was of Network Programming... I did fairly well in this paper... but the immediate second paper was Software Engineering and Management.... man, was that a question paper? I  struggled finding answers to the questions in all the books I had for almost 1 hour... yet I couldn't answer all the questions... and those which I have answered aren't good enough to fetch me the marks I need to pass, the way I wanted to. :( The next two papers - OOAD and Internetworking Technologies - weren't good either...

The next semester I have much difficult papers... Multimedia Computing, Network Security, Data Mining and Advanced Operating Systems... all of them are difficult... exhaustive... and I want to prepare for the exams right from the start.

If there is a suggestion you want to make about the way I need to study for these MS exams... do inform me... I am not sure.. if smart work will work here.... the age old technique - hard work, I guess is the only solution.... Prove me wrong if you don't think so.... :p

One thing leads to another

Today I was testing the all new http://www.google.co.in search engine... which returns the results when you are still typing your search words.... Wow it is great... faster than ever... and I love google even more than the past... :)

When I was contemplating about the new change in my favourite website.... I, by chance, hit these words in the search area "who hates" trying to find out "who hates self" or actually try to find out "why one hates self"... the search engine.... predicted my search query and showed me the following hints in the same order...

1. who hates indians
2. who hates justin bieber
3. who hates harry potter
4. who hates selena gomez
5. who hates obama

At first I tried to avoid the first hint and completely avoided the rest... and typed "me"... lucky me... I couldn't find any websites... which had photos of me... or couldn't find a single resource on the net which had mentioned my name and had blogged about hating me... (even though there is quite a chance to find people around me who hate me... :-) )

The search results for "who hates me" wasn't satisfactory... so I decided to select the "who hates indians" and search for results...

The results were quite intriguing... and made me go though a couple of them for almost 2 hours... (that is quite a lot of time for me to spend-on esp. when I have my exams in another one week and I am not yet prepared for it)

I am not posting any results out here in my blog... if you want to read them... just google it out, yourself...

Anyway... initially my interest was to know what type of people (to be read as people from which continent, country) hated India more.... but as I kept reading blogs... and comments after comments....I did realize a lot of things about ourselves...

We Indians (I mean most of us)... always try to show a happy-go-lucky face... "Even though we see a dead donkey on our plate.... we are the type of people who look at the dead housefly on a neighbor's plate and comment about it...." This comment may make a few of you laugh and infuriate others... but on the other hand... I hate doing that myself... and hate it even more when I see others do it to somebody else. For e.g. My cousin's family is in a mess... still the woman of the family shows her smiling face to the outside world including to her own parents and in-laws who could help her in setting her family on track.... instead she talks about the neighbor's problems!!

The CWG (common wealth games) was a mess... everybody knows it... but then we dont talk about it... we don't ask the govt. to punish the people who were responsible for that... instead we avoid the topic as much as possible... and when somebody else (to be read as a foreigner) comments about it... we get angry and we feel insulted.... why so?

Of-course there are a lot of developmental activities going on in India, in Karnataka, in Bangalore... We are happy about all those... but that doesn't mean... we should avoid the bad that is happening to the country and let it continue forever... When I say bad... I don't mean the bad that has happened to the Indians in Australia and other countries (racial discrimination and physical attacks) or the terror attacks in Mumbai and rest of India but am talking about the internal problems... problems related to corruption, poverty, food, infrastructure, education, etc. etc. Like the elders say.. the biggest enemy of all is we ourself. We don't change... but we want others to change for us....

Many of us try to avoid problems thinking that it will go away one day... I myself had suggested the same to somebody on her blog when she had suggested that she is thinking of committing suicide!!! I'd said... "Try to solve your problems, ask others' help... if nothing works out... then close your eyes for a while... and let the problem go by the way it had come into your life..." Now I realize how wrong I was.... how could you let go of problems without solving it!!! How could you be even happy when you know you have problems in hand and just pretending that the problems don't exist!!! Some of them might be very lucky... the solution to the problem they are facing... may come from another person... but not all are lucky enough all the time... many a times we have to dig into the problems and go through bigger hell... at-last to come out of all the problems.... that is the irony of life....

I hate politics and politicians and hence I avoid talking about them, reading about them, discussing about them or even thinking about them.... this way I am not achieving anything... I know it... like Amir Khan said in one of his interviews.... When an interviewer asked Amir Khan about why he is commenting on politicians when he can't get into politics and correct the system... Amir replied "I am not made for politics and I can't do every kind of job on earth... but when I see that something is going wrong... I can raise my voice and/or inform somebody that they are wrong..." Well.. these aren't the exact words which were out of Amir's mouth... but this is exactly what he meant. :) This interview was actually published in The TOI.

And now coming back to the title of this article... one might have wondered... why on earth did I chose to call my article "One thing leads to another"... The reason is pretty simple... I didn't end up in the thing I started with... I started with appreciating google... but ended up thinking about the problems faced by the people generally in India and particularly in Bangalore... I guess the title also explains in a way how my mind works... and how fast it changes its track...

Unity in Diversity...

From my diary:

During our school days we have studied in various books and also have heard that from our parents/elders/teachers that India is a country where people live in unity in spite of diversity. But now I ask a question "Does Unity in Diversity exist at all in India?"

Recently a website called http://www.leavebangalore.com/ has proved that unity in diversity doesn't exist. This website opened up a new platform for lenting out our anger and esp. on Becharein Bangalorians. Those who were from outside Karnataka and esp. outside Bangalore condemned the cosmopolitan nature of the city and some even questioned its existence itself!!! The site coordinator concludes by giving 4 points

1. People will complain about everything

2. "Unity In Diversity" doesn't exist.

3. People will say anything when they think they're anonymous.

4. There are a few sane minds but they are overshadowed by the madness of the majority.

People will say anything when they think they're anonymous. But there are few people like Jaya Bacchan who are exception to this rule. These people just go out to the public and speak their mind. This is a serious offence. I mean in Mumbai you can't say that you will speak only in Hindi and you can't say that you are a North Indian! You are also supposed to know Marati! But when in Bangalore for an outsider learning Kannada is like committing a crime. A guy comes to me and proudly says, "...maamu, my house owner spoke to me in Kannada. I knew what exactly he was asking. He wanted his house rent. But still I acted as if I was dumb. That as****e doesn't know that Hindi is the national language and he was supposed to speak to me in Hindi only..." Well first of all thank you for accepting that you are dumb and secondly making me understand that it was a rule to learn Hindi to communicate with the outsiders. I mean all these days I was under the impression that India is a free and fair country and you can speak in whatever language you wanted to. And moreover, when the state and the central govenments are trying to provide basic education to the people, few extra conditions are also put across which makes teaching Hindi mandatory.

But let me tell you all monkeys, in spite of all these issues related to language, unity in diversity does exist in India and is on an all time high now. I mean how else can you explain so many people joining their hands to a reason... a reason to scold Bangalore which is giving them their bread & butter. Even the people who have commented in the website mentioned above and also in several such type of communities in social networking website Orkut.com, have agreed that except for their job they wouldn't care a dime about Bangalore. Well, if they dont have a job will they or wont they care about anything else?? Note the point your honour!!!

People will complain about everything. Didn't the constitution directly or indirectly allow us to do this??? Isn't that the basics of Democracy??? Hmmm.. I think we all have to sit in "Social Science" classes once again!

Mistakes I can never correct - 1

All of us make mistakes... and some of them make blunders... and I have made crimes!!! Well not literally but in my own way yes... I am a chicken... and I am scared to talk about this with anybody... but I want to... and hence this blog post.

This blog post contains few of the incidents that have happened in my life which I could have avoided... but I didn't... coz... I was involved in them... The incidents are not in any chronological order but just in the order which I feel most bad about. :(

Incident 1: Put a piece of cloth into my granny's mouth.

This must be the worst mistake/crime I have done in my life... and I can never excuse myself for doing this nor does anybody who has seen/heard me do this...

One afternoon, almost 7-8 years back, when my grandmother was alive but sick... and had become bed-ridden forever.. unable to move around on her own... and when she only made noises whenever she was too tired to tolerate the excruciating pain she was undergoing... I did an unimaginable crime... a crime for which I am unable to forgive myself...

That particular day I was at home trying to study for my BE semester exams... and the noise was too disturbing for me to concentrate on my studies.... and my mother used to shout at my granny whenever she made noise... Not that my mother had enough of taking care of my granny and hence was shouting at her... but just like all human beings.. my mother used to lose her patience once in a while and used to shout... That particular day... I guess my granny's pain was severe and she was in no way going to be the same old quite tolerant lady she usually was.... She kept making noises, shouting because of the pain in her body.. and my mother kept shouting at her whenever granny made noise...

I am not too sure why... but I have the habit of supporting my mother even at times she is wrong... that day too... I just wanted to help my mother and stop her from getting angry... and how could I do it other than asking my grand mother to shut-up!! :( Shit.. I did it... I went and told my granny to shut-up... but with tears in her eyes granny asked me put fire in her mouth in Kannada (means to see her dead)... which was the only way to end her miseries... I was taken aback... but I had lost my temper... I was too shocked to see my grandmother not stopping making noises instead telling me to burn her... I ran took a piece of cloth... and tried to push it into her mouth... She shouted.. shouted loudly... cried for help... and my mother came running into the room.... Mother asked me to leave the room immediately... and so I did by warning my granny to not make any more noises as it was disturbing me for my exams...

After a while.. I guess my granny's pain subsided... and she lowered her voice... and the guiltiness had already started killing me... slowly... to this day... each day... it is killing me... inch-by-inch... it is eating me up... Why on earth did I ever do this to a lady whom I had loved so much as a kid... whom I'd admired so much as a person.. and without whom I couldn't spend even a day.... I have done a crime.... and I can't excuse myself...

To add to this guilt nobody scolded me... nobody even asked me why I did what I did... not even my mother... and at times I hate her for doing this...

My grand mother was the eldest in the family... She was the eldest daughter.. and having married at an age of 14 years... she had done a lot... sacrificed a lot to bring the family of 4 sons and a daughter and their children and her sisters' families and her brother's families to the stage where they are right now.... But because of anger... I had lost control of myself... I became somebody whom I didn't know... and I did something I can't even imagine doing in my wildest dreams...

My grandmother didn't live for too long after this... guess in less than a year.... after I did all these she left me and my family and went to a place where she might have found peace forever.... the saddest part for me is that she didn't even ask for me in the last few hours of her life... She might have excused me for the gravest mistake of my life.... but I have sinned... so shall I bear the fruit for the same in a way or the other.

Sorry "Ajji" for all the wrong I have done to you... for hurting you... for having fought with you when you were alive... I was wrong many a times... but nobody corrected me... nobody made me change the way I did and what I did.... Guess this is my punishment.... I ask you sorry.... and also I request you to not excuse me for the crime I made.... coz.. if you ever pardon me... that day shall be my last day on this earth.

A site of our own... at last.

This is an update to my previous post....

Today (i.e. 4th of August 2010) we brothers ultimately signed the required documents and became the proud owners of a 1200 sq. ft of land in Bangalore South.

It wasn't before a long wait, some fights, lots of discussions and planning did we sign for this piece of land... And today I am happy that somewhere my positive approach did help in grabbing the offer we had in hand... Like Airtel's advertisement says.. "Never miss and opportunity", we too didn't miss the most valuable opportunity of life to own a property in the Bengaluru/Bengalooru/Bangalore city.

When in school/college/university many of my friends used to wonder why I (aka my family) live in a quarters and don't own a house... they thought I was a super-rich son of a super-rich dad with a super-rich brother to help out in whatever situations I was in.. how wrong they were... Many a times I did try to explain them and make them understand that I was not what they assume about me... they all appeared satisfied by my tries... but weren't convinced enough to believe it was true... until they saw me and my previous home in Bangalore North.

And now the long wait (another one) is over... its time to start waiting for something else.. to build a home of our own... which might start happening very soon.

Somebody wish me good luck... :)

Why are people so insensitive?

Well this is a question to which I am trying to find an answer from a very long time but with hardly any luck...

As I have mentioned in one of the older blogs... I am already a little under-confident because of premature balding! But to add to this people around me make blatant comments about me losing hair and about how difficult it is to find the right girl in the future to get married to... Of course not all the people make fun of my balding head.. some of them are just concerned about me... but still they manage to hurt me and my feelings.


It is very painful for me to listen to these comments... how much ever I may try to neglect these people and their stupid yet obvious comments about my raising hair line, I can't at times control my emotions.. Whenever I am alone... I almost feel like crying.. but somehow control myself to not cry... to not feel bad... but there is a limit to all those things... I am after all just another human being...

One thing I can't understand is why people give so much importance to something that doesn't deserve it... Like hairs on a person's head is given more importance than what is inside it... A person's physical beauty is given more importance than his/her inner beauty. At times when I hear to a comment about my receding hair line, I'd want to ask them "If a woman's boobs size matters to them to have sex or the interest in having sex?". "Does a person's physical beauty decide anything about his/her intelligence?" The ultimate question is should a person's hairs, limbs, height, weight, colour decide about what exactly he/she is and the way he/she behaves to a particular situation?

The obvious answer is a big NO... but I know, people out there aren't listening to my questions... they aren't interested in it... None of these except the person him(her)self is more important to live on this earth... yet many don't see the bigger picture...

Of-course even I am giving it more importance... to hairs which are more like "Today In and Tomorrow Gone" and to the people who pass the comments.... I very well know that I can't stop people from saying what they want... I should now learn and adjust to the world which is blind, ignorant and stupid.

The only silver lining in all these is that... at least my close friends, my family isn't that bothered and make the same type of comments as others do. But somewhere in the corner of their hearts (or minds) they too are bothered about me... and my future... Hope to bring some +ve light to all those who care for me with my new found confidence and bravery in dealing with the other stupid lives on earth.

This blog post is dedicated to all those who silently suffer because of no mistake of theirs.

Words of wisdom

I donno why... but today I am in an eclectic mood... to read the best to know the best and to do the best...

I was going through some best speeches in the world...and to start with here is one of them from my India's ex-President Shri Abdul Kalam.

When there is Righteousness in the Heart

There is Beauty in the Character

When there is Beauty in the Character

There is Harmony in the Hope

When there is Harmony in the Hope

There is Order in the Nation

When there is Order in the Nation

There is Peace in the World

So true are his words... What it means is simple.. yet difficult to achieve....

We all have our own principles... or what are understood as moral principles which either makes do somethings in a way or not do a thing in another way... for a vegetarian his moral principle says that killing of animals is bad and hence it is bad.. and for a religious Guru, praying to the God daily is something without which life cannot exist.... In whatever forms it might be, we all live and let others live because of our moral principles...

What our Abdul Kalam says here is that a strict adherence to the right morale, brings about a series of actions starting from beauty in ones own character to the hope of bringing order to an otherwise confused nation and in turn brings peace to the humanity.

Hope everybody in this country understands the true meaning of these words of wisdom and move ahead to make India the best country in the world it was in the past.

The longest wait...

I am not sure.. if waiting for a girl/boy friend is the longest wait or awaiting for the arrival of a new life is the longest one... but for me at the moment waiting for the hike letter seems to be the longest wait...

Its been more than 2 years since I have received a hike at my current office... My last pay hike was in the year 2008 and after that I haven't even heard of a rumour about me or anybody else' in the office getting a hike. For those who have lost their job, this might seem absurd, but for me this is the moment.... I will be completing 5 years at my current office.. and wouldn't want to stay longer here with the same wage... Even after putting a lot of effort in the past one and a half years, I have't been given a good rating.. and now if I don't get a good hike.. it would mean... end of the contract with the employer... I may not be the best... but I am almost better than the most found in my office... and am also sure that with a little more effort I can beat many others in the rat race to a higher salary.

For many it might seem why am I so interested in getting higher salary and also they might wonder about my current income... Let me say something if you have got such an idea... I am not the kind of a person who is after money... What I am trying to do now... is really difficult for me... it is making me go against my wishes... but at the moment I need money... and a wish/desire to earn more is not a crime according to me.... Moreover after a few years, my plan is to get out of this rat race to make money and instead get into my all time favourite career - teaching and research and development in the computer science field.

This week I shall know what would be that magical figure of my hike that would make me either stay for a little longer or move in search of greener pastures.

I am a bloody optimist.. and I wouldn't blame anybody if I don't get a good hike... after all I have been thinking of changing the employer for a long time now... and if it is possible in a way or the other... let it happen... I shall happily receive it.

With the market looking positive, getting a good hike with a jump isn't difficult... but that is only an alternative... my first love is my current employer... and if I can be satisfied with the amount of hike I might get..  I shall be happy to stay for a few more months... otherwise it will be a ta-ta goodbye to the current company and hi hello to the new one. :)

Shall soon update about the same....

Signing for the site...

Oh boy.... the elders in Karnataka have rightly said... "mane kaTTi noDu; maduve maaDi noDu" which means "Try building a home; Try conducting a wedding ceremony" It isn't easy doing either of them... And with regards to marriage... even after it is done... the difficulties don't go away :D

Continuing from the previous article, the deal to buy the site in Bangalore is almost finalized.. we have already applied for a loan at the State Bank of Mysore.. and now awaiting for their investigation to finish at the earliest so that the loan get sanctioned and we pay the current site owner and make the site to our own... Of-course this event triggers another event...of planning for the house and building our home...

Initially the problem was with the arranging of the documents to submit to the lawyer and to the bank.. and now after submitting... we are awaiting for a favourable response from the bank... If the bank doesn't allot the loan, God forbid, if at all it happens then we will not only miss an opportunity to buy the site at the currently accepted site value but also we lose extra 20,000.00/- Rs as fine for not accepting the deal. Hoping for the best at the moment...

Shall update when the deal is done.. and we start our dream to build a home again... :)

HOME SWEET HOME

At last something is happening towards buying a property in Bangalore.... :)

From years we brothers have been trying to buy a immovable property - site or house - in Bangalore. And now it has almost become true. It all started around 6-8 months back when we were at the heights of searching for a house to shift to Bangalore South. After almost 16 years we shifted back to Bangalore South from Bangalore North. This change was triggered because of my father's retirement and also due to other personal reasons. Before shifting actually happened, we were trying our best to buy a home or to buy a site and then build a home. But bad luck or whatever you call it (I call it good luck), we couldn't buy either of them. So ultimately we settled for a rented duplex house. The house is quite beautiful. But the quench for our own home didn't stop. Instead it increased 10 folds or even 20 folds. But our lives had become busy after moving to this new place. By being closer once again to our relatives my family and I had found our long lost joy. So we couldn't spend enough time in the search.

A couple of months back, my brother saw an advertisement in a daily and we rushed to see this new apartment that is being built near Kanakapura Road. The apartment is from HM group and is beautiful. When we approached the concerned people from the HM group, we were taken to a model apartment. And guess what, it was a first love to all of us - my brother, SIL, nephew and to me. On one side, we could oversee the swimming pool from the veranda and from the other side we could see the vast stretch of land covered with trees, smaller buildings and other things!! And as I said earlier the apartment was a first love to all of us, and we at once decided to buy it. Initially my brother and I were against buying an apartment. Our argument was- "Even if you own one, an apartment doesn't give you the satisfaction of actually owning something completely to yourself. Because you are actually sharing the same piece of land with 100 other people". Anyway,  we had softened over the last few months. Probably we had got desperate after searching for more than a year and not finding even a single home or site within our budget or satisfaction matching all our criteria. That evening we collected as much information as possible about the apartment from the manager and left for home. We were all kind of happy, kind of satisfied that at last we have actually decided to buy something.. something that we all kinda liked in the first look itself.

A couple of weeks later my brother and I decided to take a second look at the same apartment but at different time of the day - noon - and the Sun was burning like hell. In the last 2 weeks my brother had enquired about the possibility of loans from a few banks. We had also shortlisted 2 banks for the same. But we hadn't realized that this second look would actually make such an impact on us! It completely changed our perspective about buying the apartment. The model apartment which we had seen the last time was all fully furnished (model, you see, so it should look beautiful, even though the furniture was no good and we couldn't open or close any of the cabinets). We decided to see the same apartment once again. And this time we also decided to see another apartment without any furniture. So when we saw these for the second time and got the quotation for the apartment, we realized that it would cost us a whooping 60-65 lakh Indian rupees. That was too much of a price for us. We gave the manager some reasons and took leave of him and went back to our home. On the way home, I all of a sudden realized that instead of paying so much money to an apartment which cannot be extended or modified later in life, why not invest on a site and build our own home? Moreover ours is a joint-family. So there is every possibility of family growing bigger over the coming few years. And at the same time I remembered that we had discussed about a site in Bangalore nearer to our current home and according to our estimate at that time (6 to 8 months back), it would cost around 30 lakh Indian rupees to buy the site and then build a duplex 3 bed-room home which would cost us anywhere between 20 -25 lakh Indian rupees. Compared to the total cost of the apartment, we would have saved anywhere between 5 - 10 lakh Indian rupees. Moreover, we also can extend, modify our home in future. Not only that we could BUILD it the way we want. When I informed about my idea, my brother immediately called up the site owner and inquired if the site was already sold to somebody or if it was still available for sale. The owner said it is still available, and we told him that we are interested to buy it and this time we would go for it no matter how difficult we might feel to arrange the cost of the site.

I proposed this idea in front my family - my parents, brother, & SIL. The very initial question we all had was, which bank to approach and how much loan should we take? What is our repayment capacity... and even before we finished finding answers to all these questions, we had started dreaming about our new home. A home that would be planned in the dreams and shall be built for the future of our dreams. And today, I met 2 people - one from the bank and the other one a lawyer. After the initial verification, I was told by the lawyer that all the documents are correct and only one more document is missing which I/we have to get it asap. The bank guy seems to be a nice chap but kinda over enthusiastic. And I guess it is for our good (or may be even to meet the monthly target ;) or probably because of high respect for another person a relative of ours through whom we had approached this bank guy). The bank guy helped me fill up the application form.

Like the saying goes "Fortune favors the brave", this month bank is giving loans at 8% interest rate (for the first year) and from next month onwards it might increase to 9%. So we all are trying our best to get the things done ASAP... so that we can become the legal owners of the site and can construct our HOME SWEET HOME.

Wish me good luck :)

Conversation - a real Saviour of life - continued...

The part 1 can be found here..

Most of the opinions mentioned over here are my personal ones and also some of them belong to my colleague.  Readers discretion is very much appreciated when reading this article... :) (Too early to mention this? No?)

At my office a new batch of young graduates (that is how we refer to all the people fresh out of their degree colleges) have joined. They joined in 2 groups - first batch consisted around 50 of them and then 2nd batch consisted around 25 of them. I was asked to train the first batch of students for over a period of 1 month in various MS technologies. I really wanted to take this up, but because of the project work and also strenuous preparation that was required for the training sessions, I decided against it. But I took a half-day session for the 2nd batch students in OOP and basic introduction to the MS .NET technology.

Everywhere fresh minds bring about a change that is always welcome by all even though many wouldn't admit. I like to interact with the fresh minds.. they have so many dreams.. to do this to do that... and to do everything... to get appreciated by their seniors to get good pay-cheque, and at last probably not the least is to buy whatever they ever wanted to buy but couldn't ask others to pay for... Moreover it is also a great relief to get a job as soon as you are out of college and especially during a situation when people from all over the world with lots of  years of experience are being given pink-slips (to say it on the face - being terminated or fired or thrown out of the company). These so called fresh minds have also brought in their own attitude, proud in to the company. Well, I know I am comparing them with the batch of people who had joined the same company along with me almost 5 years back. We were around 150 of us. Always cheering each other, enjoying our days together in the training sessions, participating in competitions etc. etc. But these fresh minds aren't like us at all in many ways... To start with they didn't join together.. the first batch of people consider themselves to be seniors when compared to the second batch even though both the group have passed out in the same academic year or so!

Coming to the point, when we joined the company, whenever we approached somebody who was familiar to us, we wished them good morning or good afternoon or good evening.. used to say 'Hi' when we reached office or used to say 'Bye' when leaving for home... And then we were considered friendly, adjusting type by the seniors.. and the new group of people.... forget about wishing us, they don't even care to look at us even though they know us... Of course the 'us' over here is actually 'me'... because this short story I narrated here is from my own experience. :D

My colleague says that he doesn't like this western culture for many reasons - the main reason being that you may refer your seniors (age-wise or position-wise) by their first names. He particularly explains about one such incident in which a fresh graduate called a very-soon-retiring senior manager of the company by his first name as if he was his class mate. I do accept with my colleague. We do call our seniors by their first names. Even though I didn't like doing it at first, I somehow got adjusted to it as the days passed... I still do call couple of my managers as 'Sir' but its only in front of them.. whenever I am talking about them somewhere else I just use their first names.

I am not really sure if this culture is good or bad. The idea of the western culture is to bring in equality among everybody. But our culture is to give respect to the elders. But should we really follow the western principles in our day-to-day life? This may be a food-for-thought... I wouldn't argue much about this... except to say that yeah.. we are all becoming like them (the westerners) and they are slowly becoming like us...

To be continued... More about Yoga, westerners and other things in the next post.. Until then 'see ya soon' :)

Conversation - a real Saviour of life

Only yesterday I was having a serious discussion with my colleague in the cab on the way to the office... My office is nearly 25 KMs away from my home and it takes 1 hour 30 minutes approx. on a bad day and almost all days are bad with some worst days giving a break for the bad days. With the ever increasing traffic, I wonder if a day would come in future when traveling the same distance would take even half a day!!! Anyway... my conversation or discussion with my colleague (a senior) was one of the best I had had in the recent times.

We discussed in length about people, children, parents and their way of upbringing their kids, the right and the wrong they do, etc. etc. I shared many of my experiences and he too did the same. At the end, when I reached office, I felt happy and relieved in a way to know that I am not alone in this world and there are others who too think like I do!!!

The conversation actually started with me teaching him some Kannada words. My colleague is not a Kannadiga (meaning to say, he doesn't know Kannada) and he is trying hard to learn it. Daily he learns a couple of words and at times he learns 3-4 sentences. And yesterday, the talk silently moved from learning to chatting to discussing about some of the serious stuffs like understanding children and helping them grow in this world.

We both are of the opinion that we as parents (of course I am not married and do not have a kid yet but have a nephew who is nearing 3 years. So I am taking the position of a guardian :D) is the main reason for the downfall of a child. These days just to keep up with the competition (to buy the latest and the costliest things as possible and also to have a ultra luxury life), both husband and wife start earning. So they end up taking lot of loans may be to make a home or buy a car or even to travel across the world. When the wife gives birth to a kid, the husband will be in a lot of pressure to perform better than the best so that the new addition in the family doesn't reduce his performance and hence doesn't affect his total income. If it does happen then the baby is directly blamed and also the family will be put into a lot of pressure.

Well one might take different actions in these kind of scenarios, but the matter of discussion was how do these both-the-parents-earning family deal with the child's growth! The child will be spoilt with money and loads of stuff he doesn't need but wants just to show off to his friends who are also in the same position. Since weekends are the only days parents actually get to spend time with the children, they pamper them with blind love and may be also by buying them costly unwanted things, taking them to restaurants, malls, movies, etc. What we are actually doing is teaching the child that with money we can do all these things. But what the child misses is that he doesn't understand the pain that has gone through in earning that money and also he will never understand what caring and loving is all about.

.... To be continued... Loads of things to come up.

Friends... Are they really friends??

I get teased with this girl I am in love with... Of-course no body knows that I am in love... but since we all know each other in the group, I get teased more than the girl.

Last Sunday we both (the girl and I) had been to a movie and we both had decided not to inform anybody only because we were afraid that I will get teased even more than before. The choice of the movie and the reason why only we both went was simple... others weren't ready to come. :p Anyway, yesterday I had told them all that I had been to school to teach and didn't even talk about the girl. But today one of the friends suddenly asked how was the movie and to which theater did I go with the girl... I declined and said with an irritated tone that I didn't go out with anybody to any movie on that day... (I wasn't lying... I had been to the movie in the noon ;)) After I told this, he gave me his in-famous wicked smile understood only by me. Guess he had suspected something to happen last week. Don't know what it was... but then I was also afraid if the girl had told him about the movie... and after I was alone and at a safe distance from these devilish friends, I called up my girl and asked her if she had told anybody about the movie.. and she said no... Grrrrrrrrr.. I was angry on the friend who had teased me... Anyway... lucky girl and lucky me... got escaped this time... :D

But like I said in my previous post.. Life in fact is very difficult when you are in Love...

If this was to be shown in a Ripley's Believe it or not episode then you would surely hear "Can't believe it?? Believe me!"