Cleaning up Indian political system

I have aired the below views purely as a patriotic Indian whose blood boils like every other Indian seeing the quality of politicians and how rotten the whole system has become that it has reached a stage where it has gone beyond hopes of restoring honesty, dignity and concept of service. We have a half-a-thousand idiots sitting and eating the tax-payers money.

To me, the Dec 13 attack on parliament was the biggest opportunity we ever had to clean up this political system. Few security guards who sacrificed their lives fighting out the terrorist, did their duty as per their training, preventing the terrorist from getting into the parliament house when almost 80% of elected idiots were present. But if they been little sensible, they could have allowed the men to get inside, and then nabbed by circling the whole building. They (terrorist) are suicide attackers and so they would have committed suicide instead of getting caught. But this was the best possible chance that we ever got to clean up. Yes, there could have been deaths of some gentleman politician – who have always worked for the people, have not misused their power, have not received single penny as bribe, lived a simple life, but they would have gone down in history as who sacrificed their life similar to what great freedom fighters did to this country.

One has to be a VIP to get darshan (of Lord Ranganatha) at Srirangam temple

I was a little skeptical when I started writing about this as a prickly feeling ran through my mind that I am going to write about the temple in India which still attracts major crowd, probably second to Tirupathi. I was born, brought up, educated in the city of Trichy and had been regularly going to the temple at an average of once a week (till I was in my college). Looking now at the increasing malpractices being committed by the temple authorities, I have to admit that the temple is being grossly mismanaged with its funds.

It is sad that the deity which is the only one to have been worshipped and sung in praise by 11 azwars (Tirupathi is next with 10 azwars) is in such a bad state that it has become a VIP temple and not a temple for common man. For the millions of devotees and rupees that are poured in by the people, the temple can be managed in a much better way.

One needs to have special rapport with the temple authorities to get to worship the main deity, Lord Ranganatha, more than his / her devotion. It will be a rare occasion if an individual gets to worship by paying the nominal fee as specified.

During the Vaikunta Ekadasi festival, apart from the indiscipline that people exhibit, acting with little common sense and throw an artificial display of bhakthi, the ad-hoc arrangements by the temple to regulate the queue adds woes. On this day, people who couldn’t get to go in the early morning auspicious hours, tend to go in the afternoon. A special fee of 50 is charged (which might increase next year without any reason) and without any mercy, the people will be asked to wait coolly even for 2-3 hours to catch the glimpse of the deity. Two years back, on this same occasion, four of us went to experience the vaikunta ekadasi by paying up 200 Rs per head. The funny part was that the temple authorities didn’t had a clue on the number of such tickets issued. We were asked to be in by 1 AM (early morning) and without planning and foreseeing the number of people who can be accommodated in the small enclosure, they kept on allowing the people who had the tickets. It was almost 4.30 AM and almost after frantic crying and shouting by the people in our section due to suffocation, they opened the gate to allow us inside. The cruelest part is that people who buy this ticket is supposed to go through a pain-less worship!!

The above is not just a one-off incident, but a regular feature of Srirangam temple. You have to be a VIP and then you get all the respects. If you are able to pay a huge amount (in terms of lakhs probably), they might even bring the lord to your house for a special worship. The temple has become a business house and sadly, unlike Tirupathi, there is no accountability and responsibilities for the atrocities being committed. When large number of people would be waiting for hours in the queue, a VIP (of all the reasons, he will be cine actor) will walk in casually with his brigade and he will be accosted by the authorities themselves ignoring the poor people. One can accept the reason if the VIP is a religious scholar or a great personality, but why on earth the temple should allow someone because he happens to be a cine personality?

I feel that the recent flood alert is just a warning from the deity himself on the growing atrocities in the temple. The day of punishment is not too far away for those who had been earning the hatred of common public. Srirangam is no more a temple for the public, but becoming a private temple with no one to question the management.

Paying tax and filing returns

Dear Mr.Chidambaram

I fully agree to your point that it is the foremost duty of every citizen to declare their income and pay up the taxes properly. It is very heartening indeed to note the steps being taken by you to uncover the black money. But do you honestly think this make the people realize and declare their proper income every year and thus make a better India?

Have you ever thought of asking your politician friends to declare their income which would suffice this nation for at least another 5 years without collecting any tax from ordinary and salaried citizens? If the politician b****** (starting with letter ‘b’ could also be bigwigs) are coughed up, the revenue to the government would be to such an extent that it can catapult India’s treasury.

You are only targeting the salaried individuals who do pay taxes properly and often they are the ones who are burdened with additional revenues to the politician pockets - in the name of relief fund for floods, earthquakes and natural calamities. You don’t mind asking the state government when they request 1000 crores as relief fund (on how it is proposed to be used) for natural disaster aftermath. Has the government at least once tried to find out how the funds have been used and whether the affected people have been really benefited?

Every time, a disaster strikes, the relief is always sanctioned in the order of crores without evaluating, because the people who approve very well know that they will get sufficient commission and strike a handsome deal. By the time, the money is on the verge of reaching common man, it would have got diluted by so called peoples’ representatives (in the name of ministers) acting as middle men for swindling money for their own personal use. And no government dares to question the use of the sanctioned money because everyone in the line got their lions share.

Oh how ridiculous was the proposed policy to levy 10% of transaction fee for every 10000 withdrawal from savings account? Mr.PC - only the common man has their savings in bank account. People who swindle money do not keep them in SBI or other nationalized or private banks. God luckily gave you that insight and at the last minute, you changed it to current account. But pray, among all the people, what made you hit upon that strange idea of 10% will be a mystery for ever.

As a first step, can you please make your politician friends to declare their income and pay up taxes and also reduce the amount of luxury you people enjoy being ministers and secretaries? Starting from air traveling concessions, you people enjoy almost everything to telephone bills, and electricity bills. And it doesn’t stop when you are in power. The president of India, after retirement from office, still enjoys the best life and comforts and his house is excluded from any CBI raids. Wonder why there is no retirement age for politicians which will at least stop the money swindling to an extent.

There is no way you can expect the people to be honest when you politicians, self-claimed as “honest and clean”, start discharging the duties that were promised during election campaigns. You can’t make a better India when we have politician, with many of them with criminal records and still get re-elected every time.

- View of a patriotic, sincere and tax-paying Indian

Cyclists on Indian roads – bane to the country

I had been thinking of writing an article on this, but somehow kept prolonging. Today, a rush of blood, forced me to write.

Today while crossing the road by foot at Mylapore Luz signal, I was almost hit by a cyclist who was going in a direction for which he didn’t have the green signal. He came from nowhere and gave me a stare as though it was me who tried to violate the signal. I just shouted and cursed at him and he replied me with the most polite word used in Chennai (starts with B…) and carried on. I was fuming for few seconds and then calmed myself that ‘we are like this only’. I slowly reconciled myself that I should not be having this rush of blood when someone violates because it is me who gets affected mentally and it spoils rest of my day thinking about that. All I should be saying hereafter when similar things happen is to keep my cool and just curse our country's fate and continue walking or driving.

I agree that motorists also do violate some of these, but the number of people who do is negligible compared to cyclists.

Today, the reckless cyclists have created such an impact that even law abiding people irrespective of their age always have an apprehension that a cyclist could ram into them from anywhere.

Being a cyclist, it is of the greatest advantage in a city like Chennai. He

need not have any kind of document to prove that the vehicle belongs to him

can drive on any side of the road

need not treat one-way differently

need not have lights and if it is there, need not be switched on. It is for the others to watch and drive

can violate signals

can escape even if he gets caught by traffic police - the maximum they do is flatten the cycle's tyre or detain him for some time

doesn’t have to respect anyone on the road

can quickly project his arm and move whichever side he wishes to go.

need not have bell installed and can signal all his requirements using his mouth as whistle.

The cyclists little realize the risk they are taking by doing all these kind of violations. I wonder how come, in spite of all these, the number of accidents involving cyclists is low.

There are only two solutions – either the cyclists should reform themselves, which is near impossible or they deserved to be hit on the spot moment they violate –using your vehicle itself or whatever weapons you can lay your hands upon. If that can teach other cyclists a lesson to obey the law, it can be thought of as the best solution in today’s scenario.

Can't help quoting the dialogue in the famous movie Nayagan - "Naalu peruku nallathu pandrathuna, entha karyamum thappu illa"; translates to "No job is a bad job if it does good to few people".

New face of Indian Administration

Source: The Indian Express, July 2
Scene: A flood affected area of Vadodara, Gujrat

Cast: Joint Commissioner of Police, K. Kumaraswamy, riding on the shoulders of a Constable to evade flood waters.

I don't think I need to eloborate on this. Read the full story at
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=74383

Bloggers' meet @ Boat Club, Chennai

Boat Club: Though I had lived close-by (R.A.Puram for a year), had gone past numerous times around that area, and read about it in some of the articles in the newspapers, I never had an opportunity (or should admit as laziness) to visit the boat club. But the news of bloggers' meet at that place on July 23rd made me to cash in on the chance. A big thanks to Kriba for organising this meet, without which, I would not have bumped into so many other bloggers, couple of journalists, and a representative from Royal Enfield who sponsored the meet. It was so nice to be there during the evening when the weather was very merciful and even threatened us with dark clouds hanging over.

It was interesting to meet and know few age old bloggers led by Kriba Shankar, and newer ones with interesting and catchy blog names. It was nice to meet up persons like Ravikumar who had written an article on that day in the newspaper 'The Hindu' on the bad habit of spitting on the roads, Chinmayee, the singer who has sung for the film 'Mangal Pandey', journalist Liffy from New Indian Express, Samanth - the quizzer and freelancer journalist, and few others. I want to mention many more, but it's just the matter of time that I am not able to list them down (no, no .. not bad memory)

Reading a person's blog after knowing them makes it more interesting and some times, addictive also as it indulges you to read more and more blog. I was just kicking myself on my late entry to bloggers' community. But as the saying goes - 'better late than never'.

PS: Chandra choodan, another seasoned blogger took few snaps and has uploaded them in his blog.

Reunion with college fine arts gang friends

Happened on 9th July, 2005

After writing about college days, this is about the reunion that we had at our college. Though the turn out was small, meeting at the college and talking about vintage days was neverthless sweet.

After passing out of college, we were still in touch with each other through e-groups. We have got settled in various areas - IT, BPO, HR, Advertising, Media, Social service / NGO, Chartered Accountant, Bio-Medical research and few more. And in various places in India and abroad. Usually, we meet maximum twice a year when Vivek used to come down to Chennai from Delhi for a vacation. But we never tried to meet with all of us who are in India.

The idea of reunion at the college where we studied started when Vivek said he is planning to visit our college before he flies off to Syracuse University to pursue his Ph.D. Then we thought of how we can make the reunion a better one. Three of our gang members from Bangalore said they will also join. Then we thought of meeting up the students and share our experiences and provide them a sort of career guidance. We spoke to college management and they were very ready to have us there. The date was decided as July 9th, Saturday. Each one of us prepared PPT for the various areas and got PPT's from those who are not able to make it.

It was very good when me and Vivek landed at our college on 8th July. It gave a good feeling when lot of professors still remembered us and chatted about the old times. I should admit that we were taken by surprise by the onslaught J. It gave us an immense amount of satisfaction that our team had created such an impression that it is very difficult to erase from their memories. It took us almost one and half hours to come out.

July 9th - Myself, Vivek, Alan, Isaac, Prabhakar, Neville and John Suresh met up at college. The program started around 10.15 AM. The crowd was much more what we had expected and in fact more than what the college management thought. The venue was filled up to the last row and it would be definitely close to 350 students – from ours plus couple of adjacent colleges. It was equally well received. The program got winded up around 1.30 PM and then took few snaps to make meaning of the reunion and parted ways with fond memories.

Pic: Standing(L-R): Issac, Arumugam, Alan, Rajsekar, Vivek, Prof.Suryakumar and our beloved Prof.G.Balakrishnan. Sitting(L-R): Neville Smith, myself and John Suresh

Sethu Samudram project: Is it needed?

I have been hearing and reading about this project for quite some time and the advantages as claimed by the authorities is that it cuts down the distance (420 odd nautical miles) and time taken (approx. 30 hours) by ships than navigating around SriLanka, indirectly also saving fuel expenses.

To make that happen, the sea bed is being deepened (dredged) for the ships to pass through and hence the whoopla is all about. This project is estimated to cost Rs. 2427 Crore. Let's break that up and see - One crore converts to 100 lakhs or 10 million i.e. 1 followed 7 zeros, written as 1,00,00,000. Multiply this number by 2427 and my goodness – that’s the amount estimated. So we have 2, followed by 10 digits!!!

Some basic apprehensions ...

Do any of our politicians / bureaucrats / authorities know this mathematics? I sincerely doubt. God only knows how much is going to be really needed for this project and how many people are going to be more richer.

How were they able to estimate this much big money when we don’t have previous experience of performing such an exercise? For example, If ISRO gives an estimate for satellite launch; we can deduce that they have experience in launching satellites earlier and that helped in arriving at the estimate.

What do they do with the soil and other particles that are being dredged? I see that it is just thrown through a huge pipe, but where do they go?

Will this not have an adverse effect on the surface of earth and trigger land slides or under sea quakes because of the force applied?

How much impact the dredging have over the innumerable fishes and other creatures living in that area?

Finally, do we need this project when we still haven’t built the basic infrastructure of providing facilities such as adequate drinking water, drainage, electricity, better roads, PDS, communication systems in the event of calamity, etc. to our own country men.

My trip to the USA

This write-up may not be as big as my Australian trip; the only reason that can be attributed is it happened 5 years back. But if you thought it will be small – eh! No. I have still managed to tickle my grey cells and come up with a not so long type.

This article is dedicated to the team members at Ramco's PMG during that time.

I was with Ramco Systems then when I got this opportunity to travel to USA for four months time (Jan 2000 – May 2000). I traveled with my manager Mr.Sankaranarayanan and a colleague named Nandakumar. Later, my team mate Vivek and another manager TS Krishna Kumar joined us. Our destination was the city of Ontario (one and half hour drive from Los Angeles). We had stop over and change of flight at Singapore and Hong Kong en route to the US west coast.

The Indian airlines flight that we boarded at midnight had some technical difficulties; the door wasn’t closing properly. I was thrown aback when I saw one of the crew member bringing in a hammer kind of thing. It was my first flight and I was surely expecting things to be not scary like this. Fortunately, the hammer wasn’t used and things became normal and we were on. The change over time at Singapore was a grueling 9 hours. We spent the time taking the free trip of Singapore and roaming the airport and sleeping for some time. Then we boarded the Cathay Pacific flight to Hong Kong and from there to LA. We reached LA around 9.30 in the night and reached our place by taking a shuttle as advised to us before we started. We landed at LA and after clearing the customs and immigration, took the shuttle as told earlier to take us to the hotel where we will be staying for 2 weeks or so. The first things that struck me were the sheer size of the airport, roads, and supermarkets compared to what I had seen in India. But yes, I got used to it as the days went by and I guess this is the similar feeling each one gets when they land in US. Our colleague Srinivasan had prepared good south Indian meals and it was consumed in moments by us after been starved of a complete food for more than 24 hours. Another colleague Suresh Mangalath was there who took the great pain of getting us everyday to the office and dropping us back. My boss, after two months, took a car and rental and started reducing the load of Suresh.

The work was very hectic (believe me; it was like being in furnace). The customer was Sunkist, a company that produces all orange related items from juices to chocolate. Basically they try and make all possible products out of orange. They had implemented our ERP solutions and we were there to migrate to a newer version particularly the database part which had undergone major change. The initial two months was literal firefighting, and usually it stretched late into nights almost everyday and consumed few hours on Saturday also.

Pic: @ Sunkist (L-R)- Srinivas, Padmanabhan, Sankaranarayanan, Vivek, Krishna kumar, myself and Nanda (sitting)

L-R:Vivek, myself, Suresh Mangalath, Nanda, Krishna Kumar and Srikanth


But we did have fun and didn’t want to miss out visiting some places. The two places that I missed were Golden Gate Bridge and Las Vegas. Other than that, the colleagues (especially Suresh Mangalath) were very helpful in taking us to various places.

Sea World: They had tamed and trained killer whales and Dolphins. It performed so many feats as instructed and it was just amazing to see those big fishes executing some commands perfectly and after every feat, it will skid to the area where the instructor is standing to get a mouthful of fresh water fish as a token. We also saw the bird show where they had trained preying birds like Eagle, Vultures to obey their commands and entertain the crowd.

Pic: At Sea world with my boss and Nanda Kumar


Pic: Dolphin show



Disney World: We were given a map of all the rides and entertainment places. The Indians Jones ride was thrilling end enjoyable. It was a good day

Universal Studios: By this time, another manager Krishna Kumar and my team mate Vivek had joined the gang and six of us went.

Pic: Universal studios – Entrance


Pic: Universal Studios - Shark mouth


Pic: Universal Studios - Climbing to the top


Pic: Universal Studios - Roof top


Pic: Universal Studios - Enjoying Cafe Mocha


The studio drive was impressive where we were taken through the sets that were created and some of the spectacular scenes that were filmed – the killer shark that comes in Jaws, the bee that appears in Mummy, the sudden flash of flood, Apollo 13 landing, the infamous ‘Motel’ that appears in the film Psycho and Terminator. It was very interesting to know how those scenes were shot and funny that it produced such an effect whereas it all looked miniatures in actual. The climb to universal studios took almost 45 minutes after going through five stages of escalators. It was a spectacular view from the top and surely, it was a memorable day.

My boss was kind enough to grant me 2 days off. I coupled it with a weekend and visited my brother & family at Houston and had a good stay – nice food, learning to shoot basketball at my brother’s place, visiting the Rice University where my brother worked then, driving a Toyota (of course, within the small lane, but sure to give me the excitement).

Whenever we know that we are going to stay late, we used to go to the Dennys / McDonalds / Taco Bell. Otherwise, almost every weekend we used to drive us to the Balaji temple at a place called Malibu (don’t know if there is a connection to the liquor brand). We had three Business Champions testing and certifying the functionality after our work - Venkatesh, Balaji Ranghachari and Srinivas. Whenever we visited the temple, Venkatesh used to take us to Udipi restaurant where our standard order would be South Indian thali food – compensating for the whole week.

Pic: Card Session at the apartment.


Apart from that, we used to hang around the Ontario mall during some of the weekends. It was so big that we used to cover fewer parts of it and have the remaining for next time. Similarly the other places where we used to hang around and buy groceries / things to be brought to India were Wal-Mart and Costco supermarkets, 101 direct factory outlet shops where we bought good cordless speaker phones at 20$ a piece, the 99cents shop and so on.

Pic: At the Ontario mall after done with shopping


Interesting Incident: since we always work late at nights, we were given the access to the company by means of secret numbers which we need to key-in every time we enter. Only then, the alarms set will get disengaged. One fine day, Krishna kumar walked first punched the keys and the door opened. Just when we crossed the verandah, the alarm got activated and it started the siren. The alarm goes to security agency. Unfortunately, no one picked up there and so it got routed to 911. We were not sure on what happened and so kept walking here and there to contact some one. Meanwhile Krishna kumar went out for a smoke and suddenly he was on the spotlight, with a helicopter above him casting a white beam of light on him. KK froze and luckily he just stood still without doing any action that would have invited a gun fire. Moments later, a tall well built police officer came to him with a hound like creature (actually it was a police dog) and after knowing what we did, explained and advised us on not to repeat like this in the future. For few moments, we were like mice being rattled by the snake.

Good Samaritan: I had bought lot of things during my four months stay to be taken back home and given as souvenirs / mementoes / gifts. On the day of leaving, I had packed everything neatly, but at the airport, to my shock, I discovered that I had excess weight for check-in and had to unload close to 8 kg. I didn’t have anybody to see me off as it was a working day and so I was clueless on what to do. Just then one of the airport authorities, a Pakistani, came to my help when he saw me struggling to juggle around the suitcase trying to figure out which of those items to leave behind that would make up that 8kg. I was the only one in the LA airport who was sweating like hell, frantically packing, unpacking and readjusting. Finally, with his help, I got the right weight (was still exceeding the limited weight by 2 kg), but since he knew the airline authorities, he talked to them to allow me through. I still had a big carry bag and backpack. He advised me not to take both of them as it would invite a scrutiny. He suggested me to leave one of them behind, get a boarding pass and when the call comes for boarding the flight, get in as one of the last passenger so that they wouldn’t be keen to check the last few passengers. His suggestion worked.

Had it not been for him, I don’t know how I would have cleared the check-in at LA. For a moment, he forgot the nationality and helped me like a friend in need. I will never forget his timely help.

That's what my US trip is all about - Thanks for your time!!

"BLACK" is beautiful !

A good, strong story conveyed in little over 2 hours in a stunning way.

I didn’t get to see Sanjay Leela Bansali’s Devdas, but I felt lucky not to have missed BLACK. It depicts the story of a child who is born blind, dumb and deaf and how she gets a teacher / guardian who transform her life from poltergeist like, arrogant child ill-treated by her father into an educated, cultured and a graduate, very well portrayed by Rani Mukherjee.

Amitabh, as I came to know through some of the magazines, didn’t receive a single penny for the role he played, brings the real teacher before our eyes who displays a ‘never-say-die’ attitude even when the child’s parents had left all their hope on reforming their child. For the girl, her teacher is ‘the world’.

Unfortunately, the teacher gets gripped by Alzheimer disease by which he forgets his past and the story ends with the girl slowly repaying her debts by nursing and bringing him back to his senses in the same lines of how she was taught by him.

The director could have still taken the easy route of performing a surgery to bring back her visual senses (the family of the girl is portrayed as a rich family and question of affordability could not have risen) and taken the story, but some essence of message conveyed would have got lost.

This is a serious movie and not an action oriented or romance filled type. So get a copy of VCD / DVD and watch it before it gets BLACKed out from your memory.

My college days (being part of the Fine arts team)

JAM (Just A Minute): It is my pleasure to admit that this is a big passage as I have tried to condense and present the six years of my fine arts life.

This article is dedicated to my fellow fine arts team members of St.Joseph’s college, Trichy.

One of the most fascinating phases in one’s life is the years spent at college. It adds more enjoyment and brings in different kind of experience by staying in hostel. Fortunately or unfortunately, I was a day scholar right through six years of my college life. I would consider myself lucky to have got into a college like St.Joseph’s for the particular reason that it helped me to instill quizzing capabilities in me and take it to further heights. I have recollected below, how my quizzing career started, and how it bloomed.

Fortunately my college had been blessed with good quizzers before me and they were able to help me to become a decent quizzer at an inter-collegiate level. I was never into quizzes till my school days except watching Siddartha Basu’s India quiz in the national channel every Sunday 9 PM. During my first year, we classmates (3 of us) casually participated in an open quiz conducted by Rotary club where over 100 teams participated. A total of 25 questions and we just managed to get 3 correct. We were just ogling at the girls who had come to participate and eager to watch the finals. In the list of six finalists that was announced, to our shock, our team was one of them. Another team from our college was in the finals. Of course, we finished last. Later, for the annual inter-department meet in our college, I managed to represent my department for the quiz. One of the members of our college quiz team, Lego Joseph, who was two years senior to me, felt that I have some interest in quizzing, took me for inter-collegiate and inter-department quizzes in the town just to give an exposure to quizzes. It drew me more towards quizzing and started reading newspapers and magazines with the intention of collecting information whatever I felt apt. That’s how my quizzing appetite started.

My senior Lego was doing his PG and he always used to give a run for money to opponents. In the inter-collegiate meets, the quizzers from other colleges would frown on seeing his face. Usually every quiz has written prelims and then followed by finals. Towards the first half of my second year, I managed to get into the finals on few occasions. That was the time the annual Gandhi Quiz came around hosted by our college. Lego asked me if I would be interested and I gleefully nodded. I took the Louie Fischer’s biography on Gandhi from our library and memorized the facts inside out. On the day of the quiz, there were 10 teams (2 per team). I just blasted my way through and when the quiz got over, our team had secured 130 points (10 for direct, 5 for pass over) and the next score was somewhere less than 50. We won the overall shield and were given mementoes. This was my first prize. After some time, the professor in charge of Quiz & Debating club asked me if I would be interested to participate in an inter-college quiz at Gandhigram University, Dindugul. Why the hell I would refuse? He told me that a guy named Ramprasad doing his third year Commerce will be my team mate. We won that quiz there by a whooping margin and it helped me to firmly establish as a successor to Lego and continue the quizzing fraternity of our college. Qualifying for the finals, then, became a formality for me in the quizzes conducted in and around Trichy. When I was into my third year, Shrinivasan, who earlier did his UG, joined M.C.A and he, also being a good quizzer like Lego added strength to our quiz club and along with the juniors – PK Vijay and Mukunth, we were set to rule the roast for next 3-4 years to come.

The third year started with an inter-collegiate hosted by Aptech computers (competitor to NIIT). Our team had qualified for the quiz finals and so many of my college mates whom I don’t even know came and wished me good luck. I was surprised and butterflies started churning in my stomach. It was purely due to the reason that our college was neck-in-neck with Bishop Heber College in overall points. We put up a good performance, won the quiz beating Bishop Heber and paved the way for claiming the overall trophy. There was no looking back after that. I began to flourish in lot more inter-college festivals winning quizzes or securing second or third prize.

I have tried to highlight few of my inter-college experiences (though not in specific chronological order)...

CECRI, Karaikudi: The inter-college meet in the name of ‘KALA’ was purely literally events with mild touch towards arts such as vocal music and instruments. The quiz was tough since IIT students from Madras used to participate. They dominate all literary events in a ruthless fashion. In our two years of participation, we were able to put up a good show. Our team won the second and third prize beating a team from IIT in the buzzer quiz. It was a nice and nail-biting experience as every question has to be answered on buzzer; 4 points for right answer and -2 for wrong answer. We also put up a decent show in other events such as JAM where my college mates Sherwin and Vivek reached the finals, GUESS WHO where our quiz team won the second place, Vocal solo – bagging the first prize in both Carnatic and Light music category, and Painting where our college’s trump card Antony Maria Joseph left his incredible marks.

I simply couldn't forget the night when we were returning from CECRI, Anto and Sahayaraj were drunk and smoked beedi due to non-availability of cigarettes. In the middle of night around 1.00 clock, we were all deep asleep due to tiredness when couple of us felt that the train has stopped and to our shock, it was Trichy junction. We all hurridely wanted to get down before the train starts, but Anto and Sahayaraj simply refused to move and semi-aware of the urgency. Lego cursed Anto and Sahayam using bad words in tamil (only occasion on which he was forced to use) and somehow we were able to get you two down.

Agricultural College, Madurai: This is an unforgettable meet. We were just 6 – me, Fredrick, Vivek, Antony, Kingsley, and PK Vijay. There were other colleges who had come with strong contingent of 15 members or so and honestly we were never aiming the overall shield, but wanted to put up good show in literary events. There was a variety event and though none of us had been part of that team, suddenly struck upon the idea of putting up a show. We just managed to recollect some of the jokes that our college team staged did some tweaking and introduced some new things at top of our head and our show was decently appreciated by the audience. When the results were announced, holy s***, we got the third prize. We then just went for the kill. PK Vijay and I cracked the quiz, Vivek and Freddie won the debate, Anto won the painting events, clay modeling and soap sculpturing and on the final day, we were topping the points table with just couple of events like light music and fashion show to follow. We decided we don't have the expertise and so didn't take part, thus helping American college to take the lead, but looking at some of the other teams that put up the fashion show, we were banging our head for not taking part. Had we had done a walking on the stage for the 10 minutes time, we would have surely got the third prize!

A special mention on soap sculpturing done by Anto – he had never done that before. But while relaxing a smoke on the main road after lunch on the second day, Anto bought smallest Rexona soap available in the petty shop. We didn’t bother to enquire why he bought it for and then in the late afternoon, he was into the event. He carved the figure of Gandhi so beautifully and accurately in the tiny space that it deserved to be given the first prize.

Saarang '97, IIT Madras

I don’t think there needs to be an introduction to what Saarang is all about. Riding on the euphoria of the success at Bardfest and following it up with runner-up status at Festember ’96, we thought we should give a shot at Saarang and create an impression of what SJCT is all about.

Around 25 of us went in from here lead by Prof. Jayaraj for a 6 day gala. We were given accommodation in the Brahmaputra hostel with five rooms to share. But the events were tougher than we thought. The awful part of Saarang was that it allowed the host to participate in large numbers and they also qualified for prizes. I have never seen the host college participating in such a large number and there were no external judges for any of the competitions, at least literary events. The only place where the host college participated was at REC Festember, but they won’t make up more than 50% of the finalists and don’t qualify for the prizes. IIT students are better than many other college students when it comes to literary events such as JAM, Debate, Extempore and Quizzes, but here, it was exceeding all such limits. I wonder why they should invite other colleges when they have enough people to get those prizes.

I, Mukunth and PK Vijay managed to get into the finals of a quiz called ‘India Quiz’; there were six other quizzes which we couldn’t get into the finals. Imagine how it would be when we were one of the six finalists, the rest 5 teams from IIT Madras itself. Somehow we grabbed the questions that came our way and there were some thrilling moments till we secured the second place. The team that came third started to claim that they got second and we were actually third in spite of the scorer announcing the scores. Luckily, I was keeping track of the questions we answered and scores at the end of each round. I then showed the sheet of paper to that team after which they had to shut their mouth.

The prelims of ‘sports quiz’ was conducted in a large open area with the quiz master sitting under a tree trunk and firing questions and the participants required to find their own place to sit and write answers in sheet of paper they have got with them. His voice was never heard properly because of the mike system and breeze blowing around.

In JAM, it was so pathetic to see the JAM master in the first round becoming a participant in second round. Eventually all the JAM masters participated in at least one round. We were deprived of prize in debate, although our debating team was given good reference on their performance indirectly before the results were announced. I wonder why they didn’t give the prize then.

Anto did a superb rangoli, a huge sized one which impressed every on-looker. Just we thought he will get, it was given to some other painting which was artistically much lesser than what Anto had done. Finally, all Anto got was a consolation prize which contained a huge cash prize of 25 Rs!!!

In dance, we got lot no. 12 and to our shock, our famed dance song ‘Cotton eye joe’ was staged by at least 4 teams before our turn came. It became boring for the judges and naturally didn’t get the attention it deserved. Probably we didn’t had the hindsight to have prepared for alternate songs, retaining the steps.

We did enjoyed the six days stay at IIT, the food, numerous bush-walks we did in the sprawling campus, seeing events at OAT, consoling Anto who was so dejected that he didn’t get the prize (he spent the 25Rs on drinks and it was tough time to make him come back to him senses) and so many other small incidents.

Overall, it was a good learning experience for each one of us and we decided that 'it was not our cup of tea', after seeing the way the competitions were organized and amount of host participation.

Pic: The train journey from Trichy to Chennai

Relaxing in the hostel room at IIT:


More to come...

Festember, REC

Confluence, Bishop Heber

Bardfest (University selection)

Version, All India MCA meet, REC

The great Australian trip

JAM (Just A Minute): This trip took place in the period Sep 2002 to Jan 2003. It is my pleasure to admit that this is a big passage as I have tried to condense the four months I spent. It will be surely interesting for those who had been to Melbourne or Australia. Anyway, hope this makes an interesting reading for others as well.

Getting Started

I got the unexpected, but delightful news that I am being sent to Australia for 3-4 months time to work on the Pharmacy product that was recently acquired by iSOFT and probably assist when the transition happens to Chennai. The name of Australia was enough to keep me excited and the city of Melbourne where I will be going to, only added to the excitement.

Since no one had been to Melbourne before (4 of iCM team members went to Perth for two weeks time), I had no idea about the geography and other details of Melbourne. That’s when Satya (my boss) gave me a copy of the core city map of Melbourne and some information on transportation, culture and lifestyle. Since Satya had lived in Melbourne as part of his PG studies, he was able to provide a very good account of the city.

Landing at Melb

It was a normal morning on 28th Sep, 2002 for everyone at Chennai whereas I was rushing towards the airport to catch the 9.45 AM flight to Australia via Singapore. It was Air India and the first mild shock we got was that we haven’t been told about our choice of food. Usually, it is more difficult for veggie like me as they used to carry limited stock. They said they would try their best to get some veggie food. Luckily we got (after everyone in the flight was given the food) and just moments later, there was air-turbulence which lasted for few minutes. I felt something wrong with what had just gone into my stomach; a kind of nauseating feeling crept in. The fact that I hadn’t slept properly for the last few days added to it. I just took the airsickness bag and kept it ready (pro-active you see). The expected happened. Blurb; I vomited everything that had gone in and best part was I felt a lot relieved when the flight made the touchdown at Singapore Changi airport.

We were coming out of the flight, we met another Tamilian, Venkat, who was also traveling to Australia to work for HCL (later in Australia, through Venkat, we came to know another 3 people from HCL, namely Ram, Srinivasan and Bharani who had also come to work for HCL in another project). We spent the 3 hours at Singapore airport wandering around.

The flight to Melbourne was a superb British Airways Boeing 747-400. It was seven hours travel. The interesting part is that it takes an hour or more to enter the Australian continent, but have to wait for another five and half-hours to reach Melbourne since it lies at South. We were provided breakfast (being a veggie, the standard is bun (soft bread), cheese, some mixed rice, curd and pickle) at 4 AM local time in the morning!! And that too they courteously wake you up to have that breakfast. All I could funnily think was the lyrics from the song ‘Hotel California’ by Eagles - they wake you up in the middle of the night just to provide breakfast …

We landed at the Melbourne Airport at 6 AM local time on Sunday 28th Sep morning (in terms of GMT Australia is behind India and so it was still 28th morning even though we started on 28th morning from India - work out your basic maths, you will find out). I was not sure about the climate and was happily traveling without even a sweater. Before landing, we have to fill the formalities of declaring any items we are carrying since Australia (and Newzealand) is very strict about carrying food, wood and fruit items(during the Indian team's tour of NZ in the early 2003, Sehwag and Dravid were fined for carrying shoes which were dirty and was quarantined). I was carrying our south Indian curry powders and so safely declared them. If not and if you get caught, we may end up paying a hefty fine. The customs asked me to open and explain each and every item I was carrying. Luckily I had packaged them very well and labeled appropriately as ‘Sweets made of sugar and milk’, ‘Dry processed powders’ and ‘Deep fried in oil’. He allowed me to pass through. The moment I came out, I realized that I did a grave mistake of not carrying any protective clothing. It was breezy chill and my palms started freezing and my teeth started typing out pages. I didn’t feel the effect of wearing the jeans at all. Venkat went off to a place called Richmond after landing at Melbourne.

Our company colleague (an Australian named Jemahl Lutton) had come to airport to pick us up and we were taken to Travel-Inn hotel for stay on Sunday alone. We were told that we would be moved to the apartment by Monday evening. We took good rest and woke up around 2 PM. We had some information before leaving India about the places around and so we went to have our lunch at Lygon Street, which was next to ours. The street is full of restaurants of tastes from all over the world, but dominated by Italians. We had Pizza and seemed to be ok as I was eating it after a long gap.

I had a relative of mine in Melbourne till 2 years back and he had sent me some contacts. I spoke to couple of them and one of them came on that evening to meet us. His name was Venthan, a Srilankan tamil. He also took us around to some places including a Siva – Vishnu temple at a place called Carom Downs, and later to an Indian restaurant where we bought some curries for dinner and to K-Mart store. I pounced upon a full arm sweater. It was priced at 10 AUD and hence wasn’t too expensive. I felt lot more comfortable after wearing that.

We reported for duty on the next day, Monday and were given a very nice welcome by the staff members. The funniest part was that all three of us went so formally dressed with ties, etc and we found that we three were looking odd men out in the office with rest of them being in very casual clothing that suited them. We had our workplace set up with machines, name cards, mail ids and after rounds of introduction, started getting into the job for which we were entrusted to.

Melbourne

From the next day onwards, we started traveling by tram. It took 20 minutes to reach our place with 5 minutes walk before getting into and after getting down from the tram. The city is well planned and well maintained. The basics of people are met beautifully. Transport is one of the best in this city and Melbourne has been always praised for its transport and liveability. The traffic is streamlined and more importantly people follow the rules. From our apartment, we have to cross the Yarra River to enter the CBD and the place around the river used to always lovely with lots of visitors and shopping activity.



The city of Melbourne is well planned. All the core business offices are located in the heart of the city called CBD (Central Business District). This area is laid out as grids (rows and columns). The residential area starts outside the CBD. There are three zones – 1, 2 and 3 into which all places (including CBD) will fall into. The tickets for traveling can be purchased in terms of 2-hour journey, short trips, daily, weekly and monthly per zone basis. The monthly card of course will be cheaper compared to all others. The weekly and monthly cards can be used to travel up to zone 3 on weekends alone.

Melbourne is known for the quick change in the weather. One can see the four seasons in a single day. General saying I could hear from one of my colleague was that Melbourne’s weather is like a woman’s mind.

Day to day life

We were told that an apartment has been booked for three of us and we would be moved in the evening. We bought few vegetables and groceries once we heard that the apartment is equipped with cooking facility. The apartment was actually huge – a big hall, for rooms for each one of us, a decent kitchen, balcony on the front. But the catch was there was just one bathroom and the rest room was inside and to top it all, the bathroom door had no lock!! Everyday we would wake up in a well defined sequence, so as to use the bathroom in the same order and get started for office. I wake up early, followed by Vivek and then Shankar and this continued for all the four months. The next important task was to prepare food for the night. We boiled the rice we had brought and mixed it up with the curry powders and had a satisfactory meal. On that day, we were desperate to follow the ICC finals between India and Srilanka. We got the information that the match will be shown in a gambling place called Crown Casino, located adjacent to our apartment. We finished our dinner and went there and I should say it was awesome to see that casino. It’s been planned and constructed beautifully. We kept walking through the numerous gambling machines and reached a place where they were showing some football matches on giant screens. We waited but the second half of the match wasn’t coming up. Then we realized that it is somewhere else and kept walking and finally reached a hall where they had three TV’s. And my goodness, there were around 200 people inside the hall, a mix of Indian and Srilankan supporting and cheering their teams. We watched till rain interrupted the match and walked back home around midnight.

Pic: The view of our apartment


The best part of Australian life was the acquaintance with Venthan and introduction to his other friends primarily Mukunthan and Niranjan. Since Venthan's family was away at India, he was also able to spare most of the weekends for us. We usually spend the Saturday’s at office browsing, listening to songs, and just spend remaining time roaming the grid and doing window shopping. Almost every Sunday, Venthan used to pick us up from our apartment and take us to key places in Melbourne. I can very definitely say that if not for him, we would not have seen most of Melbourne. I owe a lot and lot of thanks for taking care of us till we were there.

The first week in office went of fine with each one of us taking our share of work. On Oct 5, Saturday, I visited another family friend of my relative, Raju and family who stay at a 40-minute train journey. He came and picked me at the station and took me to his home where we had couple of more guests – one who is a doctor and other a professor at Monash University. Both have been living in Australia for close to 30 years. I had a very good dinner that day – Bisibelabath (sambar and rice cooked together), pappads, Avial (mix veg curry), Rasam and curd rice; a full fledged south Indian cuisine if I can say. I started back around 10 PM and reached my apartment at 11 PM. It was my first train journey in Australia and it was good. The train system is simple and wonderful. We need to buy the ticket and validate it (otherwise we won’t be able to go near the platforms or if you had outsmarted that, there will be regular checks inside the trains). The doors open and close automatically and the train runs on high voltage electricity. And needless to add – the trains are maintained very well by the authorities and the public.

At office

I am not going to bore you down with the work I did over there. Mind you, don’t interpret that I didn’t do any significant work. I should admit that it was a not a stressful official work, more for a reason that we 3 of us were helping the development activity and not typically in any implementation fire-fighting. I think I was there during the right time when there were parties after parties, starting with iSoft's birthday party, Christmas party, and the last one being the Kris kringle (picking up a staff name from the lot and present a surprise gift without revealing the source). And of course the many go-live, new contract parties and Morning Tea parties. I enjoyed every moment of work, chats, kitchen rooster (just for one week) and the last, but not the least, pool game. I haven't played that before in India nor seen it except on TV, but I think I was able to pick it up fairly well probably because we have a similar game called Carom in India (nicknamed finger billiards) and I can claim myself to be very good on that. The Melbourne iSOFT office was located on the first floor and was big considering the number of staffs. Approximately 1/3 of the office was just open space (with no cubicles) and they had a pool table and TT.

There were only one or two occasions when I have felt isolated - The first was during the Christmas and New Year vacation when we were partly doing the job of security because every other staff member except 2/3 had gone on vacation. The second is an interesting one due to kind of a communication gap. My colleague Murray Verbeek told me that I will be taken to a site visit at a place called Grampians (3 hours drive). When Murray didn’t see me when he started, he left a note that I catch a taxi and reach a place called Ring road. I got hold of a taxi and told him the location and he also courteously dropped me. Not a single soul was seen except cars passing by. I was standing in white shirt (yes, the same iSoft shirt) and formal pants and waiting for my colleague Murray to pick me up on the way to Grampians Site. Almost everyone who passed by gave a kind of puzzled look and I started feeling uncomfortable after some time as I felt that Murray would have definitely gone past. And the next issue was getting a taxi back here and I had to run to the nearest signal where I caught hold of the person who was in the front and waiting for the signal and told him to call the taxi and send one down to that place. After 45 mts, I didn't see a sign of taxi that way which was indented for me and then luckily one came by the leftmost lane and he answered my frantically waving hand.

The hunt for Indian food

The people in the office used to wonder when we started asking about Indian hotels as they were surprised that why can’t we have our food at any other restaurant. I could easily escape citing that I was a vegetarian and also explained them about our style of food, spices and mixtures that we use, to make them understand that style of preparation matters a lot. Much to our happiness, we were told that there is indeed an Indian restaurant on the Lygon Street named ‘Balti Indian Café’ and were taken there. Click the link in the links section to know more about Balti. The food was nice and seemed to be authentic and I decided to try it everyday as the price was also economical. The next day, I introduced myself and got to know the owner's name as Rajesh Wahi and he has been here for almost a decade. Since I know Hindi, he also felt at ease to strike conversation with me. Little I knew that we will be developing very good friendship in the days to come and would cherish the times I spent at his restaurant talking about all the topics with the frequency of our thoughts matching so nicely.

Pic: With Rajesh Wahi, the proprietor of Balti Cafe


There was one more restaurant named “Cross Ways” run by the ISKCON group just three tram stops away from the office. The lunch used to be a bowl of mixed rice and juice and we used to be content with the quantity. Since Balti Café was open for lunch only on Wednesday through Friday, myself and Vivek will have lunch at ISKCON on Monday and Tuesday and go to Balti on the remaining days.

A note on Balti Indian Cafe

Rajesh Wahi was employed with Centaur hotels at Delhi and then he was working in Bahrain as chef for a business man. Later he moved to Newzealand and set up his restaurant named Balti Café at Auckland. During one of the Indian team tours that he met up with Harbhajan Singh, who was the 12th man in the team. Bhajji talked about cricket and his uncertainty in the team on whether he will be selected or not and since he liked the food, he visited frequently and also brought Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad. Later, Rajesh moved his restaurant to Melbourne at Lygon Street. When the Indian team toured Australia under the captaincy of Sachin, Bhajji got in touch with Rajesh through his earlier contact. Through Bhajji, Rajesh met up with Kapil Dev, who was the then Indian coach. Since he also liked the food very much, he asked Rajesh to supply lunch for the Indian team for all the five days during the Melbourne Boxing day test match.

We visited few nearby places which were walk able distance or reachable by tram from the place of our stay.

Crown Casino:The first place we visited in Melbourne was the Casino! And it was on the first day of our apartment life. No, not for gambling, but when we heard from one of the locals that they show cricket matches on the TV, we started for the Casino to watch the India-Srilanka cricket match that was happening at Columbo (Singer cup). We were able to see the towering casino, and after couple of unsuccessful attempts, discovered the way to main entrance. It was so beautiful, huge one with lots and lots of gambling machines and people cranking out machines. Suddenly felt that the city was so busy at night that it won’t make a difference on whether it was day or night until you come out and see the sky. We managed ourselves to find the exact location inside the Casino where they screened the match, just before the second innings started (local time 10.50 PM). We couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw the hall filled with 200 odd people (Indians and Srilankans) cheering at their teams. But sadly, rain interrupted the match and so we were forced to return home by 12.

Rialto Towers (or) Observation Deck:Located within the central business district, this was a place from which one could get a complete view of a major landmass of Melbourne. After a 20 second lift drive to the 52nd storey, the view of Melbourne was a treat to the eyes.



Pic: A view of the city from the tower. In the Front, the tall building with the Crown symbol is the Crown Casino, located along the Yarra river bank. The buildings to its right are all part of the casino. The second building to its right with green meadow is actually tennis court. The King's cross is seen as passing through one of the casino's buildings.

The best part was that one could use the same ticket bought on the day at night to get the view of Melbourne under lights. I visited the tower and sight seeing twice during my stay.

The “Great Ocean Road” drive: From the first day, I used to hear people say that one must experience the. I used to wonder what the fuss is all about till Venthan took us one Sunday. It’s a drive towards the southern part of Melbourne to the Pacific Ocean. The drive was studded with breath taking nature on one side with glimpses of Ocean making it certainly one of the most romantic places. The place in the Ocean was called ’12 Apostles’; basically rocks carved out in the sea due to winds and ocean waves. They were named since they reminded of 12 disciples of Jesus.

Pic: A partial view of 12 apostles.


This is the same place that comes in the song ‘Columbus Columbus…’ from the movie ‘Jeans’. There was also couple of places nearby, known for the roughness of sea and notorious for breaking apart ships. The area itself is described as known for ship wrecks in the early part of century when settlers were entering Australia. It was good experience and nice sight seeing.



Pic: Taken at a place called Erskine falls on the way to 'Great ocean drive' with Mr.Venthan, our saviour and companion


Healesville Animal Sanctuary:Another dream come true for me, as I took the life long ambition of seeing a Kangaroo in close quarters and also take a snap by sitting close by and patting its back. It was a nice feeling though I was afraid of the kick it might give.

We saw wallabies, platypus, wombats, bird show where they had trained preying birds like Eagle and last not the least, Koala Bear, the rare animal that doesn't take water and feed only on Eucalyptus leaves

Melbourne Zoo: We often used to hear a great deal about witnessing Penguin walk at a place called Philip Islands, but somehow couldn't plan the trip as it required overnight stay. One has to reach Philip Island by evening and the tourists will gather well past 8 / 9 PM in the seashore. The penguines walk to the inland from the sea every night and the place has to be absolutely calm and devoid of any lighting arrangement so as to not to frighten the penguins. Since we don't get to see penguins in India, we were kind of hoping for a visit. One day we made a visit to the Zoo in Melbourne and after seeing Kangaroos, Dingo, Platypus, Ostrich, we were delighted when we saw a enclosure for penguins. They were not like typical Antartic penguins, but probably a local version. At last, we were happy that we did see some penguins and save money had we traveled to Philip islands. This way also, we can go back to our country and recount stories about Penguins as I did here.

Australian gallery of Sports:
A must visit place for any ardent sports fan. This houses the MCG (Melbourne Cricket ground). We made a visit one day and took a tour of the same with a guide who gave an account of MCG, the records that were created / broken in all discipline of sports, the place in the stands where the biggest sixer fell, the museum with history of MCG (it contained the photo that Sachin had taken with Sir Don Bradman on his 94th birthday), press box that has housed some of the famous commentators, and VIP boxes. We were also taken to the cricket ground; it was a very pleasant and unforgettable experience to walk around the cricket outfield. The grass was so soft like a mattress. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get near the pitch as some renovation work was going on and had to be content taking few snaps in the outfield. The renovation work is part of the 150th year and a part of stadium itself was being reconstructed.

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We were taken by surprise when we heard that MCG is also used as football stadium during the winter season. I quizzed the guide on what they would do with the pitch and was taken aback when he mentioned that the pitches (there are 3 pitches for cricket) would be air lifted and the cavity will be filled with materials apt for playing football. This is during winter. At the arrival of summer, the cavity will be created and the pitches will be brought back and placed. I was amazed at the brilliant idea of having a ready-made pitch that could be air-lifted and fitted back. I took a pledge that day that I would surely make a point to be there one day for watching a cricket match. Having achieved the unexpected chance of visiting the sports gallery and learning so much information and walking on MCG, I returned home with sweet memories.

A day at MCG:
A dream come true for any cricket fan - is to watch an international cricket match at the MCG and I have been lucky to be one among the list and full-filled the pledge I had taken earlier. Though I couldn't see an India-Australia match, it was a treat for me to watch the world's best ODI side Australia against a struggling English side on Sunday, the 15th of Dec.

It was a D/N match, started at 2.15 PM. Three of us went around 1.00 PM. Since we had already bought the tickets, we didn't waste much time in the queue. All the bags were checked and tickets were scanned for validity before we were allowed to proceed. Our seat was 10 rows away from the ad boards so provided a good enough close view of the action. We had taken Mixture (Deepavali sweet given to us by a friend of mine), bread rolls, strawberry fruit box and biscuits. The weather was warm and we were out in the sun and had to bear the 35 deg Celsius for up to 7.30 PM or so. Luckily small packets of cool breeze kept waving in and so it was kind of ok. The total people who turned up for the match were 35K out of the available 70K seats.

The match started at the precise time; the giant electronic score card was back to us and so had to turnover and see the replays and other things. MCG has been branded by ICC for worst crowd behavior. Much different to crowd in India where they throw bottles at the players’ even if India is winning. There were a section of crowd who kept all of us happy through out by creating the Mexican wave and shouting and cheering the teams. Often, there will be a big commotion when the police swung into action to pick up the troublesome guy in that lot, but the play was going on. There had been four arrests and 25 were sent out due to unruly behavior (much less this year actually).

Ronnie Irani was fielding on the third man area and the crowd behind him made a good entertainment. When Irani was doing the stretching exercises, they would do the same (started by Merv Hughes) till he gets ready to field the next ball. It was nice and fun to watch. He once did a somersault also. In fact the rest of the people including us were watching that section when the bowler walks back to his bowling mark.

It was a great & wonderful to see Gillie and Ponting play with some breath taking strokes. They duo were simply unconquerable till Aus reached 240 making the partnership to be the highest second wicket partnership for Aus in ODI's. Then there was a middle order collapse, but the total of 300 was always there. We knew that it was difficult with this kind of English side. Nick Knight played really well though he was instrumental in Irani's run out. Hussien also played well, but couldn't stay long. Then Stewart ran himself out. When the score was 100, they had lost 5 wickets. Blackwell and White made sure England reached a respectable total. So when Lee broke the stumps of Kirkley, it was 10 PM local time. Probably England would have sniffed a chance of coming close if the total would have been 270 or so or if the top order batsman had stayed for long time at their crease. But sadly it wasn't the case and turned out to be another one side match.

I thought they will allow us to walk on the outfield after the presentation ceremony was over. But it seems they are not permitting any one to step on the arena at any time. So I had to go back with wonderful and proud memories of watching a ODI match at MCG.

A short trip to Sydney:

We planned for a two day short trip to Sydney provided we get a good flight deal and other things also work out. I approached our front desk colleague at iSOFT Brisbane office who takes care of flight booking and accommodation for inter-state travel for many of our employees. She got a good flight (through Virgin Airlines 89$ one way) and accommodation deal in the center of city (60$ per head per night) and travel plans was to start on Jan 10th (Friday) evening, reach Sydney at night, check into the hotel, stay on Saturday and Sunday and come back by first flight on Jan 12th (Monday) morning .

We reached the hotel by 8.30 or so. We then got a bit of shock as the reception guy told that the amount has not been paid at all, but only booking has been made for our stay. He refused to accept that it has been already paid through the company agent. So we paid some cash and got the room and then I called up the person who booked this for us (luckily I had taken some contact no). She then spoke to the hotel and gave them some more details like booking no., date, card no, etc and made them to understand. It was nervous half an hour or so. Apart from that, we hadn’t had absolutely any other problems.

On Saturday, We got day pass tickets for Monorail. Monorail has a fixed circuit with some specific set of stations and runs on a specially laid rail track on a particular height from the ground level. We went around in it quite a few times as the ticket we bought was valid throughout the day. Then we went to see the Opera House and the Sydney Harbor Bridge. The Opera House is a breathtaking construction. I wouldn't consider that as an Engineering marvel, but very skillfully and artfully constructed. The Harbor Bridge is definitely an Engineering marvel. There is a climb also available which will take us to the center of the arch and one can really have the 'best' climb and view of one's life. But it was too expensive for us (145 $ whereas our flight ticket was just 89$). But there is a pedestrian pathway available and we had a good view from there. The Harbor Bridge was so wide that it had four lane traffic systems for cars, buses, trucks and apart from these; there was a two way railway track!!

Pic: Darling Harbour

Pic:Victoria mall in Sydney

Pic: Near one of the tracks of mono rail

Then we went to a place called Manly Island by a ferry and had some slight nervous moments due to some rough sea. It was a big ferry capable of carrying close to 150 people. But it was a good thrilling experience. We were standing in the front portion of the ferry and so could really feel the butterflies in the stomach when the waves lift the ferry and the next moment the ferry comes down and splash on the water. The Manly Island is predominantly beaches and bush-walks. After coming back, we spent time at the Sydney Aquarium. This is one of the world's top 3 Aquariums and has got collections of over 11,000 species. We had close encounters (of the third kind?) with Shark and other sea living creatures (of course through a glass tunnel). It was a good experience to see the ferocious shark in close quarters. We would spent close to two hours and then came back home.

On Sunday, we walked around the city for some time and then went to a place called China town. It is a huge Chinese market and we all made some purchases to take back home till we realized that our purses will soon get emptied if we don't get out. Then we proceeded towards the famous Bondi beach by bus (45 m journey) and spent time taking snaps and climbing some of the uneven rocks near the shore and walking around the place.

Pic: At the famous Bondi beach with friends (L-R) - Shankar, Vivek and Srini


On the way back by bus, we got down at a place where we had spotted some Indian restaurants (on the way to beach and 10 minutes walk from where we stay). It was a North Indian rest and run by Punjabi Sikhs. He thought I was from North India as I started conversation in Hindi with him. I then told him that we are from Madras. We had a good dinner there (what else we would have done!!). He gave a soft drink as part of our dinner in the end. I asked if I could have a lassi (sweetened / salted butter milk) instead which he readily complied. It was a good filling lassi. All the other three were tired reaching the hotel and so I myself then went to the Opera house in the night by walk, to take some snaps of the Bridge and Opera House.

I would call Sydney's Central business center as a concrete jungle! The business buildings are so tall and each of them has not less than 25 floors. The buildings are also closely constructed to each other. There is also a place in Sydney place which has the old style needs a ferry / bus / train to travel, but we really didn't had that much time. Except for the Monorail, Ferry ride and the bus journey, we covered Sydney by walk. It made us tired some times, but nevertheless was very good. The climate was kind of warm around 25 - 30 and so it didn't had any such impact. Of course, by walking, you'll naturally find and explore more places.

On Monday morning, we all got up by 4 AM to catch the 6.15 AM flight and reached Melbourne by 7.30 or so.

A day at Australian Open:

After been to MCG, I didn’t want to miss out on the life time opportunity of watching a tennis match at the Center court of Rod Laver arena. When I checked out, the price that came closest to my affordability was for a 3rd round match. The prices keep going up towards the finals. The price of ticket for the finals was 120$. So myself and Srinivasan (the friend from HCL) booked the tickets for an evening at Centre court (Costed 41$) and hoped to see a good 3rd round match and I was anticipating Llyton Hewitt or Andre Agassi. Actually, when one buys a ticket for a match at centre court, they can see the matches that happen in other courts. On that day, we went in somewhat early and much to our delight, we saw Leander Paes and Martina playing doubles in one of the adjacent courts. They played quite well and won the game and then we got into center court. Luckily for us, Mark Philippoussis was scheduled to play against the Armenian Sargsian that day. We let out a sigh of relief that at least there was one top seed player. The match turned out to be interesting, as the Russian struggled initially against the strong serve of Scud (nickname of Philippoussis), but recovered soon and gave Scud a run for money. Though the Armenian lost the first set, but recovered well and won the next three sets 5-7, 7-5, 6-0, 6-4 creating one of the major upsets of 2003 Aussie open. The match got over around 8:30 PM and we walked back home.



Pic: Centre court / Rod Laver arena of the Australian open. I was able to get this picture decently with the crowd bustling around. Due to lights, the court (in the background) appears very bright.

Encounter with toothache:

In the last week of October, I started feeling a occasional sharp shooting pain in my last tooth on the right side. I ignored it initially by consuming pain killer Panadol tablets (luckily one of the few tablets that can be bought OTC. It is not easy in countries such as Australia to just walk to a medical shop and buy tablets of your choice except OTC drugs. For others, you need a prescription without which they will not give you the drugs unlike India, where one had every right to demand or even ask the guy at the shop to suggest a suitable tablet for his complaint and walk away with that). Coming back - the pain persisted and the frequency increased and wasn’t able to sleep a whole night. On the next working day, I was wondering what to do by keeping my hand on my cheek (like the ‘Thinker’ status sculpted by Rodin). The CEO, Richard Craven, who was at Melbourne office saw this unusual posture and asked me what’s wrong and when I told him he ordered me immediately to check with a dentist. I managed to get an appointment with a dentist who had his home / clinic at 10 mts walk from office. Till that I was consuming two panadol tablets every two hours to control the pain. He took an x-ray and confirmed that there is root canal decay and it has to be operated upon immediately. He ruled out the chances of temporary relief before I can go back to India. He asked me questions on when I had last checked my teeth with dentist at India to which I replied very proudly that we don’t have the concept of periodic checking and only go when we feel pain. He gave a perplexed look and wondered how you can have such a system to which I gleefully replied that “we are like this only”. He told me that I can come for the first surgery next day itself and one week later for a follow-up and injected some pain killers to sustain the ache for a day.

The real shock came when he told me the cost of the surgery - 1200 Australian dollars. I couldn’t stop tears coming out of my eyes because I was pretty sure that it would have been less than half of it if I had done a check-up in India. I then soberly reported the cost to my CEO the next day. My journey insurance didn’t cover things like tooth ache and had much more simple things such as accident and death. I didn’t expect that he would immediately call up the HR at Brisbane office and ask her to bear the expenses. I would be ever thankful to him for the timely intervention and arrangement to bear the expenses of my surgery.

So friends, if you are going on a business trip, make sure you remember these little things, as in India, we seldom go for a master check-up every year unless we are pressed to go for it.

-- To be added depending on my mood --