so what's been happening lately people? Well with me, here it is:
-So my boss tells me this week that apperently my official title and grade for the last 2 years has actually been "Technical Program Manager". I am like "waaaat?". U see my business card says "Technical Applications Specialist". I guess in effect I dont give a rats a**e about this now. I was in fact running 2 programs so it was obvious to others but on the card. Besides Program Managers do not have anyone reporting to them directly. It's one of those magical Matrix organizations. I (and other program managers) had to get about 60 or so people internally to do stuff for us although we did not do their performance reviews. Was definitely interesting. Bottom line, the actual title will hopefully look good on my new resume that I will make up for B school recruiting.
-Saw two movies last weekend. "Indiana Jones: The Crystall Skull" and "Harold and Kumar II". The IJones movies was allrite. The ending was disappointing. Shia LeBoeuf (whose earlier work in "The Battle of Shaker Heights" and "A guide to Recognizing your Saints" was fantastic) as the kid of IJones was ok. Harold and Kumar on the other hand was funny. They pulled it off.
-I am throat deep in paperwork for school these days. I've had to apply for my Soc Sec card, send a letter to Selective Service for leaving me out of the armed forces (if you apply for a fed loan you need this), I have to get 4 vaccinations (my arm's gonna hurt like sh*t on Monday), Private Loans, fill out rental agreements, signup for exit interviews at work, post on Craigslist to sublet my place for August. Been a long week!
-I also did a prelim budget for school. And man, it's gonna be freakin' tight! Besides the fixed monthly expenses, I will have about $800 for Food and drinks and travel per month. I guess it's hitting me now that I'm going to be a student soon! My future roommates and I talked about this and one of them has come up with a 'strategy' for saving money in school. Here is his 'strategy':
-Buy loads of Red Wine bottles now and store up for the whole semester
-No taking a date to dinner outside on the first date. Cook at home
-On second or third dates, take the girl to someplace where we dont have to pay but still dont let her know we are cheap! Like a Zoo or a free museum exhibit (I've done the latter already!).
-Watched a little of the NBA playoffs this week. My rant from a few years ago is still valid about the Detroit Pistons. Whoever the next coach is (you better believe it that Flip's gonna get fired) should get into his team's mindset that the offense will flow through Rasheed. The Celtics look very shaky. My prediction for the final: Lakers in 5 (or 6 at most).
-Euro 2008 football (or soccer to you ignoramuses out there) starts next weekend (June 7). I am excited. Was in France the last time this happenned. Good times, good times! Unfortunately the games start at 12 noon or at 2:45 in the afternoon. I hope my workplace let's me slip out during lunch for some of the games (they did that for the World Cup in 2006). My prediction: France Vs Spain in the Final. France Wins!
That's all for now
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Sunday, May 25, 2008
State of the Portfolio, Remember the Portfoliio?
Can't remember the last time I checked in on my portfolio (was it in December or January?). Anyway, time for a review of how my picks are doing:
-COP: +1.4% since July 2007
-E: +7.2% since July 2007
-CHK: +44.1% since July 2007 (sweeeeeet!)
-CCJ: -19% since July 2007 (not so sweet)
-PAL:-36.7% since July 2007 (ouch!)
Overall, -2% since July 2007. Meanwhile, S&P500 is -11% for the same period. Not too shabby.
Just when I was trying to gloat about my CHK (natural gas) pick, PAL kills me! And CCJ as well. You would think any precious metal related company would be doing really well. Have you seen the price of Platinum recently? That's the reason I dont understand the performance of PAL. I passingly read some report that said that there is a supply deficit of Pd next year. So keeping PAL may not be a bad deal.
CCJ on the other hand is a Uranium company. Not sure why they are not doing well too. There is room for alternative energy PLUS CCJ has given out dividends of 5 cents three times and 6 cents one time since July 2007-that's four dividends in less than a year. And still it's down?
On the other hand, look at CHK (natural gas). Nothing extra-ordinary has happened to them in the last year or so. Four times dividends of 7 cents each have been given out. The 2007 annual report was very good but 1Q of 2008 was terrible. But still there is upward movement this year. Why? Let me tell you why. Energy sector momentum. People, like sheep, are buying anything to do with Oil and Natural Gas. I can't find any other reason.
By the way has anyone checked the type of dividends that Oil companies are paying these days. $1.25 for E (3 times the past year) and 47 cents for COP (3 times the past year). I have no comment.
So, I will post my last update of this portfolio in July 2008. Then it's all real time baby!
By the way, I opened a FX (currency trading) account this past week. Real time! I've started with a $250 account. I hope to concentrate on trading the spread between USD and JPY and USD and EURO. I am excited about this! Let's see how it turns out.
-COP: +1.4% since July 2007
-E: +7.2% since July 2007
-CHK: +44.1% since July 2007 (sweeeeeet!)
-CCJ: -19% since July 2007 (not so sweet)
-PAL:-36.7% since July 2007 (ouch!)
Overall, -2% since July 2007. Meanwhile, S&P500 is -11% for the same period. Not too shabby.
Just when I was trying to gloat about my CHK (natural gas) pick, PAL kills me! And CCJ as well. You would think any precious metal related company would be doing really well. Have you seen the price of Platinum recently? That's the reason I dont understand the performance of PAL. I passingly read some report that said that there is a supply deficit of Pd next year. So keeping PAL may not be a bad deal.
CCJ on the other hand is a Uranium company. Not sure why they are not doing well too. There is room for alternative energy PLUS CCJ has given out dividends of 5 cents three times and 6 cents one time since July 2007-that's four dividends in less than a year. And still it's down?
On the other hand, look at CHK (natural gas). Nothing extra-ordinary has happened to them in the last year or so. Four times dividends of 7 cents each have been given out. The 2007 annual report was very good but 1Q of 2008 was terrible. But still there is upward movement this year. Why? Let me tell you why. Energy sector momentum. People, like sheep, are buying anything to do with Oil and Natural Gas. I can't find any other reason.
By the way has anyone checked the type of dividends that Oil companies are paying these days. $1.25 for E (3 times the past year) and 47 cents for COP (3 times the past year). I have no comment.
So, I will post my last update of this portfolio in July 2008. Then it's all real time baby!
By the way, I opened a FX (currency trading) account this past week. Real time! I've started with a $250 account. I hope to concentrate on trading the spread between USD and JPY and USD and EURO. I am excited about this! Let's see how it turns out.
Inside HillDawg's Mind - May 24 2008
So, the following quotes (or some variation of them) have been attributed to have originated from Hillary Clinton in the past 2 weeks or so:
-“…I have shown to have the support of hardworking whites…”
-“…If you consider the democratic primary based on electoral votes then I have the clear majority…”
-“….If the Democratic primaries would have been based on winner take-all then I would have been the clear winner….”
-“…the popular vote should be considered since it is important to take people’s will into consideration…”
-“…considering what happened to RFK in 1968, I can’t understand why so many people want to me to step aside…”
I am not going into the analysis of these statements like so many of the so-called experts in the print media and the talking heads on TV have. To me all of these indicate one simple feeling: Desperation. She (and her coterie) is willing to say anything to stay in the race. This is not what I want to write about. What I want to examine is what exactly is going on in HillDawg’s mind right now. Here are a few possibilities and my takes:
-I want to stay in until August so that my rival’s campaign pays my $20 M debt. My take on this: not very likely. If she wants the debt to be cleared she can begin behind the scenes negotiation NOW and be taken care of. I am sure B Rack and his campaign would be ok with this considering they are doing so stellar with fund-raising. No need for her to prolong this until August just for money.
-I want to make B Rack a better candidate for the General Election by putting him through this process beforehand. My take: Bullsh*t! Not sure how you are helping a candidate by repeatedly mentioning that he can’t carry an important party base publicly and that too at every opp she gets. I think her decision to stay in until Indiana and N Carolina was a valid one. You could probably even justify staying in for WV and KY. I agree that by staying in she made B Rack a better candidate since he faced a couple of political crisis situations. But this reason is not valid anymore esp now.
-I want to leverage my good showing in the primary into seeking a senior and powerful Democratic party post (Senate Majority Leader/Powerbroker in future elections). My take: somewhat likely. Face it, she has won more primary votes than anyone in history except B Rack. More and more people seem to be coming out of the woodwork so to speak to support her-the media pays attention to the fact that B Rack is attracting young people but forgotten in this is the fact that HillDawg seems to be bringing in more women and others who would not vote otherwise. With her impressive showing in most states she can lay claim to the most powerful role in the party outside the Presidency (if B Rack does win it that is).
-I want to use this to get on B Rack’s tkt as a VEEP. My take: not likely. I just don’t see alpha dog personalities like HillDawg (or her husband) wanting to play second fiddle at any position. People like her always want to be in control. If you don’t think so, read a bit about her background. She has been laying the groundwork for a political career since she was 18 for crying out loud. Yeah she played second fiddle to Billy boy for 8 years (+8 more in AK) but she was setting things up. Plus the way she tried to influence public policy in the Clinton administration is already in the folklore. These type of people (and I don’t mean that in a bad way) can’t see themselves taking orders from others unless absolutely necessary. But then again, what do I know. Come August She might be holding B Rack’s hands in public showing her love.
-I want to stroke my ego. My take: likely. I don’t see any other logical explanation for her behavior (of course logic and politics are an oxymoron). One example of this. Apparently on the nite that she lost NC and barely won IN she was conducting an interview with the press corps on her flight when suddenly Blackberrys of her campaign staff starting blowing up. Apparently Tim Russert of NBC had just declared B Rack the winner of the primary or something final like that on NBC. So what does HillDawg do? She right away calls an impromptu meeting of her staff and without seeking any advice tells everyone: “We are going on until the last primary, no question”. Just like that she made the decision. Not sure if that was made out of spite for the rest of the world that has not agreed with her or an ego driven decision to show to the rest of the world that she will not listen to anyone. I don’t see any other evidence but the the latter reason.
How all this will affect the Democratic Party and the General Election remains to be seen.
-“…I have shown to have the support of hardworking whites…”
-“…If you consider the democratic primary based on electoral votes then I have the clear majority…”
-“….If the Democratic primaries would have been based on winner take-all then I would have been the clear winner….”
-“…the popular vote should be considered since it is important to take people’s will into consideration…”
-“…considering what happened to RFK in 1968, I can’t understand why so many people want to me to step aside…”
I am not going into the analysis of these statements like so many of the so-called experts in the print media and the talking heads on TV have. To me all of these indicate one simple feeling: Desperation. She (and her coterie) is willing to say anything to stay in the race. This is not what I want to write about. What I want to examine is what exactly is going on in HillDawg’s mind right now. Here are a few possibilities and my takes:
-I want to stay in until August so that my rival’s campaign pays my $20 M debt. My take on this: not very likely. If she wants the debt to be cleared she can begin behind the scenes negotiation NOW and be taken care of. I am sure B Rack and his campaign would be ok with this considering they are doing so stellar with fund-raising. No need for her to prolong this until August just for money.
-I want to make B Rack a better candidate for the General Election by putting him through this process beforehand. My take: Bullsh*t! Not sure how you are helping a candidate by repeatedly mentioning that he can’t carry an important party base publicly and that too at every opp she gets. I think her decision to stay in until Indiana and N Carolina was a valid one. You could probably even justify staying in for WV and KY. I agree that by staying in she made B Rack a better candidate since he faced a couple of political crisis situations. But this reason is not valid anymore esp now.
-I want to leverage my good showing in the primary into seeking a senior and powerful Democratic party post (Senate Majority Leader/Powerbroker in future elections). My take: somewhat likely. Face it, she has won more primary votes than anyone in history except B Rack. More and more people seem to be coming out of the woodwork so to speak to support her-the media pays attention to the fact that B Rack is attracting young people but forgotten in this is the fact that HillDawg seems to be bringing in more women and others who would not vote otherwise. With her impressive showing in most states she can lay claim to the most powerful role in the party outside the Presidency (if B Rack does win it that is).
-I want to use this to get on B Rack’s tkt as a VEEP. My take: not likely. I just don’t see alpha dog personalities like HillDawg (or her husband) wanting to play second fiddle at any position. People like her always want to be in control. If you don’t think so, read a bit about her background. She has been laying the groundwork for a political career since she was 18 for crying out loud. Yeah she played second fiddle to Billy boy for 8 years (+8 more in AK) but she was setting things up. Plus the way she tried to influence public policy in the Clinton administration is already in the folklore. These type of people (and I don’t mean that in a bad way) can’t see themselves taking orders from others unless absolutely necessary. But then again, what do I know. Come August She might be holding B Rack’s hands in public showing her love.
-I want to stroke my ego. My take: likely. I don’t see any other logical explanation for her behavior (of course logic and politics are an oxymoron). One example of this. Apparently on the nite that she lost NC and barely won IN she was conducting an interview with the press corps on her flight when suddenly Blackberrys of her campaign staff starting blowing up. Apparently Tim Russert of NBC had just declared B Rack the winner of the primary or something final like that on NBC. So what does HillDawg do? She right away calls an impromptu meeting of her staff and without seeking any advice tells everyone: “We are going on until the last primary, no question”. Just like that she made the decision. Not sure if that was made out of spite for the rest of the world that has not agreed with her or an ego driven decision to show to the rest of the world that she will not listen to anyone. I don’t see any other evidence but the the latter reason.
How all this will affect the Democratic Party and the General Election remains to be seen.
Monday, May 19, 2008
No no people!
-how about a 2nd Red Sox no-hitter in 2 years!
-how about a young pitcher farmraised doing it?
-how about an athlete who survived cancer doing it?
-how about a 21 year old kid who was roughly 2 years ago lying in bed not knowing if he would ever live doing this?
-how about a quiet no frills sportsman doing this?
-how about the first Red Sox lefty in 50 years doing this?
-how about that?
-how about a young pitcher farmraised doing it?
-how about an athlete who survived cancer doing it?
-how about a 21 year old kid who was roughly 2 years ago lying in bed not knowing if he would ever live doing this?
-how about a quiet no frills sportsman doing this?
-how about the first Red Sox lefty in 50 years doing this?
-how about that?
No going back now!
yeah I know, it's been a while since I posted. I fell sick on the flight back from India and it has taken me a good part of 2 weeks to return to normal. Lesson: Dont go running when you have a high fever and can't breathe and when you are weak. Anyway, back to normal now (almost).
so, I told my boss today about my career plans. and it seemed to have gone rather well with him(so far atleast).
-He was genuinely interested in the application process, the cost of the education, and my career choice.
-He mentioned that I am welcome to work here if interested after school-in a different division and role obviously.
-He appreciated the 10 week notice (July 31st is my last work day).
-He seemed to be pleased that I was going to attend MIT. Mentioned it 2-3 times.
-He also said, "Congratulations! And now let me go panic about hiring a replacement!"
-He then went talked to his boss.
-Apparently his boss took it coolly (is that a word?).
-His boss apparently told him that he was expecting me to make a move to the corporate division of the company at some point. But they did not expect me to do this this soon. So not exactly surprised apparently.
-They are cool with me working here until July 31.
-I just saw an email from my boss to the HR dept informing them that I have decided to leave and that July 31 is my last day here.
so no going back now! Set in stone more or less.
so, I told my boss today about my career plans. and it seemed to have gone rather well with him(so far atleast).
-He was genuinely interested in the application process, the cost of the education, and my career choice.
-He mentioned that I am welcome to work here if interested after school-in a different division and role obviously.
-He appreciated the 10 week notice (July 31st is my last work day).
-He seemed to be pleased that I was going to attend MIT. Mentioned it 2-3 times.
-He also said, "Congratulations! And now let me go panic about hiring a replacement!"
-He then went talked to his boss.
-Apparently his boss took it coolly (is that a word?).
-His boss apparently told him that he was expecting me to make a move to the corporate division of the company at some point. But they did not expect me to do this this soon. So not exactly surprised apparently.
-They are cool with me working here until July 31.
-I just saw an email from my boss to the HR dept informing them that I have decided to leave and that July 31 is my last day here.
so no going back now! Set in stone more or less.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
4 days, 5 nites, and a New Tolerance Level - Part IV of IV
Anantapur-to-my grandparents’s place
-After going through the 7hr long journey from Bangalore I was looking forward to a normal incident-free car ride to my grandparent’s village from Anantapur. Well, when the poo hitteth the roof it hitteth more than once!
-We drove about 120 KM incident free with the a/c purring away when suddenly our car driver decided to get adventurous and navigate a heavily flooded part of the road by driving right through about 1 feet of water. Well, our rental car had a relative low road to car floor tolerance and voila the car stalled right in the middle of the water pool!
-Dang it! Two consecutive days of travel adventures were not what I had in mind in the middle of an Indian summer. Our car driver seemed shaken, more worried about what his owner would say about this rather than worry about our situation. I guess to each his own.
-When he turned the ignition there was nothing, so I knew it was a serious problem. He would not listen to me and was confident that if someone could pull the car out of the ditch and give it a push it would start. Off he went and recruited a passing mini-truck and convinced the driver to tow the car backwards out of the ditch.
-Mind you this is in the middle of a main thoroughfare road and we are by now a spectacle for all the locals to watch, comment, and laugh. The car got pulled out of the ditch rather adventurously after which I asked my mom, sister, and aunt to get out and wait in a nearby store. I then went along with the driver and we recruited a couple of bystanders to give the car and push backwards first and then forward to start the car.
-I was bitching internally as my new sandals were ankle deep in muddly water! Well, no choice. After a couple of attempts it was clear that the car needed serious repairs.
-I went back to where I had left my mom and others and in the interim a bystander had started chatting with my mom and by the time I walked back to them he told me that there were rental vehicles, heavy duty landrover types even, not far away. This is one thing about India that is special, people are always willing to help out random strangers. Maybe this is the case in other places as well but I find it refreshing that people actually approach YOU when YOU are in trouble even if YOU don’t make the first attempt.
-We successfully then negotiated a new rental vehicle contract and off we went. Of course we went in a non-air conditioned vehicle. This part of the journey would last 2+ hrs under a scorching Sun. My little nephew cheerful through most part of the trip finally gave up at the end. It was brave of him to withstand it so far anyway.
-By the time we reached our grandparents village and offloaded I was in no shape to even talk to anyone. The thing with heat combined with dust and humidity is it saps you! I did not even have the energy to shower or wash my face.
- I had slept 2h in the last 48h and traveled 15h in hot metal boxes with dust blowing from all directions in 110C temperatures.
-I have to say though, seeing my grandparents’s place, the place where we hung out all summers when we were children, was a bit of a relief. I took my nephew on a little walk to the lush green grass fields. He did not stop being transfixed at the sight of a cow and goats grazing in the fields. A bit of my energy returned.
-Of course there was no power when we got to the village. Regular scheduled daily outage apparently. Which made me wonder how the Indian government is going to deal with the never ending purchase of air-conditioned units everywhere. Where would they get the power from-historically India had always been short of the power it needed to run smoothly. Anyway, back to my situation, I just laid out in the open under the trees in the village and dozed off.
-I remember being awoken for dinner at some time, and I sleepily ate (cant remember what) and quickly went back to sleep.
-The next morning was better as we had all recovered. I chatted away with my grandmother and grandfather and uncle and aunt. It felt good to be seeing them. My grandparents (mom’s side) cant travel due to health issues so to see them happy when we went to see them was good. It is always cool to speak to my grandfather as he is one person who is absolutely in his own world. In a cute way. For example, when I was leaving to the US for grad school (I was 20-21 yrs old mind you) he had asked me how I would manage on my own. “Are you not going to be scared by yourself?”. It was so cute I had to laugh out. He was not doing well but recently had recovered. It was good to chat with them. My aunt prepared my fav meal and it was a great time.
-My dad’s family is also from the same village and in fact they used to live a stone’s throw away from my mom’s family. What used to be a relatively large area of four homes lined next to each other and that used to house 16 kids is now crumbly and un-occupied except for one person. Everyone had moved away or passed away and it was a disturbing sight to see. My sister, aunt, and I walked through what we can call ‘ruins’ and felt sad about it. Plush green agricultural land lied unused and destroyed as there is no one to take care of it now. We could only sigh and reminisce the good times from our childhood. My aunt who was born in one of those homes and had grown up there told me that at one time people wondered if these four homes were large enough to hold all the families that were supposed to spring forth. Well, I guess not.
-We left early that morning on another car to catch a flight back to Hyderabad. And luckily the car-ride was un-eventful. We returned to Hyderabad at 6pm the same day. I had managed to survive what turned out to be an interesting 4 days and 5 nites.
-After going through the 7hr long journey from Bangalore I was looking forward to a normal incident-free car ride to my grandparent’s village from Anantapur. Well, when the poo hitteth the roof it hitteth more than once!
-We drove about 120 KM incident free with the a/c purring away when suddenly our car driver decided to get adventurous and navigate a heavily flooded part of the road by driving right through about 1 feet of water. Well, our rental car had a relative low road to car floor tolerance and voila the car stalled right in the middle of the water pool!
-Dang it! Two consecutive days of travel adventures were not what I had in mind in the middle of an Indian summer. Our car driver seemed shaken, more worried about what his owner would say about this rather than worry about our situation. I guess to each his own.
-When he turned the ignition there was nothing, so I knew it was a serious problem. He would not listen to me and was confident that if someone could pull the car out of the ditch and give it a push it would start. Off he went and recruited a passing mini-truck and convinced the driver to tow the car backwards out of the ditch.
-Mind you this is in the middle of a main thoroughfare road and we are by now a spectacle for all the locals to watch, comment, and laugh. The car got pulled out of the ditch rather adventurously after which I asked my mom, sister, and aunt to get out and wait in a nearby store. I then went along with the driver and we recruited a couple of bystanders to give the car and push backwards first and then forward to start the car.
-I was bitching internally as my new sandals were ankle deep in muddly water! Well, no choice. After a couple of attempts it was clear that the car needed serious repairs.
-I went back to where I had left my mom and others and in the interim a bystander had started chatting with my mom and by the time I walked back to them he told me that there were rental vehicles, heavy duty landrover types even, not far away. This is one thing about India that is special, people are always willing to help out random strangers. Maybe this is the case in other places as well but I find it refreshing that people actually approach YOU when YOU are in trouble even if YOU don’t make the first attempt.
-We successfully then negotiated a new rental vehicle contract and off we went. Of course we went in a non-air conditioned vehicle. This part of the journey would last 2+ hrs under a scorching Sun. My little nephew cheerful through most part of the trip finally gave up at the end. It was brave of him to withstand it so far anyway.
-By the time we reached our grandparents village and offloaded I was in no shape to even talk to anyone. The thing with heat combined with dust and humidity is it saps you! I did not even have the energy to shower or wash my face.
- I had slept 2h in the last 48h and traveled 15h in hot metal boxes with dust blowing from all directions in 110C temperatures.
-I have to say though, seeing my grandparents’s place, the place where we hung out all summers when we were children, was a bit of a relief. I took my nephew on a little walk to the lush green grass fields. He did not stop being transfixed at the sight of a cow and goats grazing in the fields. A bit of my energy returned.
-Of course there was no power when we got to the village. Regular scheduled daily outage apparently. Which made me wonder how the Indian government is going to deal with the never ending purchase of air-conditioned units everywhere. Where would they get the power from-historically India had always been short of the power it needed to run smoothly. Anyway, back to my situation, I just laid out in the open under the trees in the village and dozed off.
-I remember being awoken for dinner at some time, and I sleepily ate (cant remember what) and quickly went back to sleep.
-The next morning was better as we had all recovered. I chatted away with my grandmother and grandfather and uncle and aunt. It felt good to be seeing them. My grandparents (mom’s side) cant travel due to health issues so to see them happy when we went to see them was good. It is always cool to speak to my grandfather as he is one person who is absolutely in his own world. In a cute way. For example, when I was leaving to the US for grad school (I was 20-21 yrs old mind you) he had asked me how I would manage on my own. “Are you not going to be scared by yourself?”. It was so cute I had to laugh out. He was not doing well but recently had recovered. It was good to chat with them. My aunt prepared my fav meal and it was a great time.
-My dad’s family is also from the same village and in fact they used to live a stone’s throw away from my mom’s family. What used to be a relatively large area of four homes lined next to each other and that used to house 16 kids is now crumbly and un-occupied except for one person. Everyone had moved away or passed away and it was a disturbing sight to see. My sister, aunt, and I walked through what we can call ‘ruins’ and felt sad about it. Plush green agricultural land lied unused and destroyed as there is no one to take care of it now. We could only sigh and reminisce the good times from our childhood. My aunt who was born in one of those homes and had grown up there told me that at one time people wondered if these four homes were large enough to hold all the families that were supposed to spring forth. Well, I guess not.
-We left early that morning on another car to catch a flight back to Hyderabad. And luckily the car-ride was un-eventful. We returned to Hyderabad at 6pm the same day. I had managed to survive what turned out to be an interesting 4 days and 5 nites.
4 days, 5 nites, and a New Tolerance Level - Part III of IV
Bangalore-to-Anantapur and Anantapur
-I should have listened to my cousin and waited for an air-conditioned bus to take me from Bangalore to Anantapur in the evening. But no, I had to get stupid and envision romanticism on a regular bus ride in the teeth of summer (my bud was right about my IQ I guess).
-So off I went on what is usually a 4h ride on the bus to Anantapur in a regular bus which had no a/c and almost metallic seats.
-Let’s just say it was an interesting experience being on a 7 h bus ride from 1 in the afternoon until 8 pm in 110F temperatures with no air-conditioning. By the time the bus came to Anantapur I was so sapped that I had no energy to even talk to anyone. Adding to this, there was a power cut as I got out of the bus making it difficult to see who had come to pick me up.
-I hustled to a motel, showered, and changed quickly as I was already late for my cousin’s wedding reception.
-The exasperation of the bus ride disappeared immediately as I met my little cousins and uncles and aunts at the reception. I enjoy hanging out with my little cousins who are in the 16-24 yr age group with razor sharp sense of humor. We hung out at the reception hall for a bit and headed to my cousin’s place for a nite of playing cards. This is always exciting! We had to stay awake until 4 am in the morning as the actual wedding ceremony would take place at that time due to it being an auspicious time. And lo went the card playing and giggling.
-We survived the nite and managed to head back to the wedding hall in time for the wedding. There were very few people left-only immediate family (which is a relative word in my family) and it went off well.
-We scrambled back and managed 2h of sleep. Soon after my mom, sister, little nephew, my aunt, and I were headed off to my grandparents’s village in rural AP in an air-conditioned car. All in all it was a good time at the wedding.
-Another disturbing trend I noticed in Anantapur, which is a reasonably large town, is the lack of public infrastructure. It seemed like there was no change at the central bus station or train station in the last 15 years or so. It was very discouraging. I kept hearing that the local politicians were preventing the improvement of roads, and other public infrastructure whenever one side proposed to go ahead with it. Why? Well, because the other side believed that if the roads and other items were improved the people would give all the credit to the political party which proposed it thus making it difficult for the opposition party to come back to power!
-I should have listened to my cousin and waited for an air-conditioned bus to take me from Bangalore to Anantapur in the evening. But no, I had to get stupid and envision romanticism on a regular bus ride in the teeth of summer (my bud was right about my IQ I guess).
-So off I went on what is usually a 4h ride on the bus to Anantapur in a regular bus which had no a/c and almost metallic seats.
-Let’s just say it was an interesting experience being on a 7 h bus ride from 1 in the afternoon until 8 pm in 110F temperatures with no air-conditioning. By the time the bus came to Anantapur I was so sapped that I had no energy to even talk to anyone. Adding to this, there was a power cut as I got out of the bus making it difficult to see who had come to pick me up.
-I hustled to a motel, showered, and changed quickly as I was already late for my cousin’s wedding reception.
-The exasperation of the bus ride disappeared immediately as I met my little cousins and uncles and aunts at the reception. I enjoy hanging out with my little cousins who are in the 16-24 yr age group with razor sharp sense of humor. We hung out at the reception hall for a bit and headed to my cousin’s place for a nite of playing cards. This is always exciting! We had to stay awake until 4 am in the morning as the actual wedding ceremony would take place at that time due to it being an auspicious time. And lo went the card playing and giggling.
-We survived the nite and managed to head back to the wedding hall in time for the wedding. There were very few people left-only immediate family (which is a relative word in my family) and it went off well.
-We scrambled back and managed 2h of sleep. Soon after my mom, sister, little nephew, my aunt, and I were headed off to my grandparents’s village in rural AP in an air-conditioned car. All in all it was a good time at the wedding.
-Another disturbing trend I noticed in Anantapur, which is a reasonably large town, is the lack of public infrastructure. It seemed like there was no change at the central bus station or train station in the last 15 years or so. It was very discouraging. I kept hearing that the local politicians were preventing the improvement of roads, and other public infrastructure whenever one side proposed to go ahead with it. Why? Well, because the other side believed that if the roads and other items were improved the people would give all the credit to the political party which proposed it thus making it difficult for the opposition party to come back to power!
4 days, 5 nites, and a New Tolerance Level - Part II of IV
Bangalore
-I flew into Bangalore from Bombay to spend 3-4 hours meeting my cousin and my uncle and aunt before I took a bus to a town in AP where another cousin of mine was getting married.
-The cousin who lives in Bangalore is one of the few kids from our family who decided to quit his day job and follow his entrepreneurial dreams a couple of years ago. He along with his undergrad buddies started a venture based on a rather simple idea. Obviously the conservative parents and family members did not appreciate this bold decision but it is paying off already. They now employ 80 strong and are looking for an exit strategy of an IPO within the next 6 months. They are about to break even and have another round of VC money setup. My cousin is the CTO. Impressive kid.
-TV stations and newspapers have already done bits about them. Naturally he has become a source of pride for his parents and our grandparents.
-He seems to be planning for his next phase already. Apparently he wants to go to B school once his firm is on its own and move onto the area of developing public infrastructure in India. Excellent idea like always from him! I gave him a few suggestions, not that he needs any, on things about B school etc.-I spent too few hours in Bangalore to notice on the goings on but one thing I remember is the Majestic Bus station- it seemed the same as it was since I was in undergrad (which was about 13 years ago!)
-I flew into Bangalore from Bombay to spend 3-4 hours meeting my cousin and my uncle and aunt before I took a bus to a town in AP where another cousin of mine was getting married.
-The cousin who lives in Bangalore is one of the few kids from our family who decided to quit his day job and follow his entrepreneurial dreams a couple of years ago. He along with his undergrad buddies started a venture based on a rather simple idea. Obviously the conservative parents and family members did not appreciate this bold decision but it is paying off already. They now employ 80 strong and are looking for an exit strategy of an IPO within the next 6 months. They are about to break even and have another round of VC money setup. My cousin is the CTO. Impressive kid.
-TV stations and newspapers have already done bits about them. Naturally he has become a source of pride for his parents and our grandparents.
-He seems to be planning for his next phase already. Apparently he wants to go to B school once his firm is on its own and move onto the area of developing public infrastructure in India. Excellent idea like always from him! I gave him a few suggestions, not that he needs any, on things about B school etc.-I spent too few hours in Bangalore to notice on the goings on but one thing I remember is the Majestic Bus station- it seemed the same as it was since I was in undergrad (which was about 13 years ago!)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)