My Web Log

World wide, almost 5 lakh people die prematurely just as a result of smoking. Smoking is injurious to health. This will be written in better font and better size on the cigarette packs but smokers ignore. There are ways to help you get rid of this dangerous habit. Google out. Find the ways-implement-stop smoking - live long - let others live long. When ever i see something like SMOKING ZONE in theatre or public malls it  looks like......                      So, next time when ever you smoke, just ask yourself...                                    " AM I READY TO DIE? "

Finally Andhra Pradesh Government woke up reg. the accident prone so called Elevator Express High Way namely Nehru Outer Ring Road(NORR) in Hyderabad! Its a appreciative gesture and everyone welcomes it! Better late than never. AP's honorable home minister ordered today to control the accidents on NORR: "Speed limit controllers and monitors to be installed", "Regular patrolling vehicles to be active always", etc etc.... All orders welcomed! But, why now? All of a sudden. NORR spanning 162KMS has been a death trap for many...many many accidents till now. As per a television news channel on an average around 45 people die on this route monthly. Its been a common news for hyderabadis about some or other accidents ranging from minor to fatal.   In 2010, tollywood actor Kota Srinivasa Rao's son lost his life on the same NORR.  Government didn't feel the pinch.  Recently, around a month back indian cricketer Mohammed Azahruddin's son Ajmal lost his l...

The Little Italy in Greater Hyderabad. Its a pure vegetarian italian restaurant. You hardly find a pure vegetarian restaurants in Hyderabad. I found another restaurant where i can take my parents along. I have been hearing about it since long time but never got a chance or rather i say occasion to visit it. Last week i had been there with some of my buddies. The food didn't represent anything desi and so as were in Little Italy, the taste should be italian certainly.     The ambience was pleasant and it was located right on the top  floor of a building constructed at the edge of a hill(obviously one among jubilee hills). We were there by 12:30PM and hardly no crowd. We opted for a corner table which gave a nice view of the surroundings and especially the Kasu Brahmananda Reddy National Park in short KBR Park Nature Trail and the most of jubilee hills. The interiors are not so great but nice. The decor is classy and relaxing. The decorat...

Since 2007 she was the one companion which accompanied  me every day in all my lows & highs. She stayed with me in all my sorrows & joys. I was harsh with her when in hurry & in sorrow.....i was smooth with her in times of joy. I ride her high in times of high spirit...i grunted on her in times of low. But she never disappointed me. Never excepted anything back; just some care. Except during my two months US visit and 7 months bangalore visit she was with me every day. She served me so much to my satisfaction. Its my Splendor+ bike which i bought in 2007 and it crunched around 40000Kms since then and is still counting. My bike never disappointed me for my needs. I'm not on it to race. I use it for my general needs, for general commuting & sometimes purposeless rides. It do gave me some hiccups when it was down due to some crank shaft sound in enginer. Except regular services it is the only major cost i incurred on it afte...

I'm back to office after 7 days. I was down with chicken pox for the last 7-9 days. I was off from work for a continuous 7 days and thats the first time in the last 3 years. Chicken pox(CP) is an air borne disease and its absolutely non-seasonal. There are several myths surrouding CP. Traditional myths and regional myths for the attack but the technical reason is a virus named varicella-zoster . I wonder why scientists name viruses or diseases in so tounge twisting way. CP generally shows up many visible changes in your body for easy identification. Itchy scalp, small insect bite sized blisters growing up to red lesion all over the body. The blisters start generally from scalp, face, trunk and then crawl to lower body gradually if the intensity of CP is more. You will feel a deep urge to scratch the blisters. A big NO to scratching. Scratching leaves you with scars once the lesions are healed after CP. Sometimes these scars may be life time. You may not be able t...

Its peak time 7:30PM. Obviously it is then you get to see some traffic police ACTIVE at the signals. If you have lived in india for a while now, you get what i meant by active. The CI or SI sitting beside on a bike or in a patrol vehicle and some constables trying to catch the terrorists. I mean the two wheelers. This is a regular scene you will get to see at major junctions or traffic points. These extra active constables makes sure to let go the autorickshaws or APSRTC buses, running autos etc leaving out huge cloud of black smoke. Its doesn't look like pollution to them. But they would certainly stop the two wheelers with full gear helmet, registration certificate, pollution check, insurance papers etc. What the f***...you guys? Is that what you are trained for? Is that what you are asked to do? Last friday, i was on my way to home from work. I stopped at the red signal. I was in the first lane of the crowd. Just a moment and i felt a snatch of my bike keys. I...

Ok! Pega CSA is my second certification. One before this was SCJP Certification in 2009, where i excelled with 89% . I know, 89% is bad considering many 90+ & 95+ or even 99+ percentiles you generally hear about. The reason was that i didn't depend on dumps. Infact, i just spared 10-12 hrs going through the dumps. But i'm happy with 89% i scored in SCJP. Fast forward to 2011 and now its Pega Certification for a Certified System Architect(CSA) . I know theres lot many CSAs out there in the Pega community. But its special for me. I was the only one being trained at my companies Hyderabad location. So, the formal class room training went for some 16 odd hours and a bit of bootcamp and a small poc compromising 5 screens and some database interaction was all that i had. Ofcourse some 10-15 days went into preparation for the CSA certification. So, you see, its not a formal training phase by any trainer who is trained to train people.  I accomplished 91% . I'm really rea...

Have you ever watched an advertisement on tv or paper or somewhere for Maruti Alto in the recent past? I haven't. But, why would they advertise for the best seller of the country? Why would they advertise for the model which sells around 20,000 units per month across the country? Then, Why now? Yep, you guessed it right, competition boss competition. Maruti woke up from the deep slumber it passed in to after the launch of Hyundai EON. Now India is ON. Well Maruti is the 1st to take the shock on. Now Alto is advertised on blue screen, freebies offered, cash discounts & more importantly Maruti Suzuki introduced the limited edition Alto Xplore, mere hours before the unveiling of the Hyundai Eon. Now, the Xplore gets over 10 new features and now imagine leather Seats in an Alto. Till yesterday Maruti Suzuki didn't have much of resistance for the Alto. After the Maruti 800 is stopped in Tier 1 cities, Alto took the top seller slot. Most prestigious Tata Nano tried...

26 October'2011. It's Diwali & i wasn't home as i have to be at work on the day 'coz as per my office calender the next day was holiday. Yeah yeah thats bad. Smooth traffic & not much of happening at office either as it was an holiday for all the companies. I was out by 5:00PM. Planned for a dinner with some of my friends. Lot of options Paradise, Bassera Inn, GreenPark, Fourseasons, Hotel Daspalla etc etc. Finally landed up at City center for Indijoe. But no buffet and no north indian or south indian food either. So forced to come out and look for an other option. There it was Sahib Sindh Sultan. Some time back when i had been to Indijoe for a lunch buffet, Sahib Sindh Sultan caught my eye. But heard from one of my friends thats the prices are sort of a bit high & franckly never got a chance to visit either. So, it was the chance. Being diwali, not much of crowd.The staff was neatly dressed and was quick in reception and led us to a table in no ...

Two days back i visited new Chutneys restaurant inaugurated right in the building of Kalyana Kanchi Showroom beside viswanath theatre at JNTU X Roads in Kukatpally. Chutneys is a chain of restaurants in Banajara hills, Himayathnagar, Secunderabad and now in Kukatpally. I personally am a fond of Chutneys for its speciality in varieties of chutneys served and healthy & wide range of menu. Being a Idly fan, i was tempted to visit the new restaurant in view of huge reputation Chutneys gained though its wee bit expensive. All the previous tastes and reputation Chutneys gained faded away in a flash. The food was crap and also the service was very late. I took my father to Chutneys for the first time giving him an boasted up description of sumptuous meal i had in other branches. But this experience didn't even left a impression, good immpression is far away, for a second visit. Disappointing! We ordered Mango Uthappam, Guntur Idli, Babai Hotel Idli, Paneer Tikka Dosa. W...

At end of the day, every one works for money, its true & correct as well. But, atleast some % of ownership in your job would be appreciated. "Ownership" was the first thing i learnt at my first company Effigent. It seemed like it was an integral part of every employee with whom i worked at Effigent. This indeed reflects in all the work you do & complete. It has lot much to do with all other factors which help you excel your job. It induces you with all the competent features to show case your capabilities. In my 6 years stint which included around 3 years in team leading position, i came across some team members who never owned their job. They just worked and never loved their job. Just as mechanical robot. Mechanical work output from them will not contribute much to the company or either themself or either the team. This attitude is quite annoying and will not earn them any points anywhere. In most of the cases, it was apparent that their such attitude was the re...

For those living in Hyderabad Telangana related agitations are quite common in the past 3-4 years. Its just a matter of excuse the political drama troop need to call for a bandh/strike. Media hypes that the telangana state formation agitations are intensified by showing some footages. Don't know whats the truth. The currently happening "All peoples' agitation" called for by Joint Action Committee, government employees of the Telangana region have also boycotted duties to press their demand for a separate statehood. But, how many of them volunteered to boycott the duties? Inspite of the government warning for "No work no pay" clause, how many of them would have volunteered? Transport - APSRTC reports about a loss of 25 crores due to the last 2 days of strike and Hyderabad had lost Rs.250 crores of business due to commercial trading. All this traffic load is being taken over by the railways to commute in & out of hyderabad and telangana districts. Le...

As Shakespeare quotes: " What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet ".   Isn't it true? Good will is the component which builds up the BRAND value of any organization or person. Well, will that count in the day-to-day changing dynamic corporate world? Does any HR seriously incline towards the individual from a branded company from a list of prospective candidates(with same level of qualification & same level of education background) for a job? Does a job seeker from a branded company has an edge over the other job seekers? This has always been a point of argument between me and my close friend Jeswani. However, i give a damn to the brand "thing". When you have the required skills & capabilities of executing a role responsibly, why the heck any employer will not hire you? Personally i never faced or came across such second-level treatment or never heard from any of my friends of such instance. Yeah brand m...

On every teachers day, i only remember my mathematics teacher Mr. Ramesh Babu of Nalanda High School, where i passed out my 10th class. I owe him my heartful tributes for what ever i am today. He is the one who inspired me & motivated me. This motivation came out of his sarcastic comments. Though the comment was harsh for me to digest, it generated some +ve energy within me which helped me to clear out my 10th class easily with 86.3% in final public exams. This % may not look superb...outstanding. But how does 86.3% fit for a student who narrowly missed out failing with just pass marks(35%) in the quarterly exams? Yep, i see u raise your eyebrows mumbling "Wow!! Superb". And thats how i feel, successfully standing out with 86.3% in my 10th class final public exams. Going back in time, probably july or august 1997, on the day of progress card distribution for quarterly exams, Ramesh Babu sir called me out after his class.  He asked, " Yendhu...

For the past one month i have been looking for a house to rent for myself. I engaged 3-4 house rental agencies to find me one good house for rent. I myself searched for many hours together on weekends or whenever i get some time. I find lot of 'Tolet' boards. And lot many such "Tolet" houses match my criteria too. Then whats the problem?!?!  Here's how it generally goes, Owners: Bachelor or Family? Myself:  For some time, i live alone and my parents will visit me now and then. Owners: Sorry, we only rent it to families. Myself: See i will be living alone and my Mom will be visiting me every month for 10-15 days. Either i live alone or my mom will stay with me. Then how can you say its not a family. Owners: The other apartment residents/secretary will not accept if you live alone & this falls into a bachelor category. Myself: Ok. Thank you.(I mumble, WTF ,  you idiot!!!! ) I don't understand, whats the problem if you rent the home to a bachelo...

On  3rd June'11 i had been to to Mumbai for one day visit to my client. I had my return journey scheduled for the last flight to Hyderabad on the same day. The Spice Jet flight was scheduled at 9:20PM. I reached  Santa Cruz  Domestic Airpor t  by 8:00PM as i couldn't do web check-in. Not much of crowd and my check-in was through in just 15 mins. I grabbed a bite and walked the lounge waiting for my manager. We passed through the security by 8:30PM to be at the Gate06 by 8:40PM. The terminal was very small and fully crowded already. I hadn't seen much crowd in this terminal in any of my previous visits to Mumbai. It was raining heavily and the delay in all the flight departures was the reason for the sudden crowd in that terminal. We could find two seats vacated at the far corner and grabbed them at once. Just as we took our seat in the lounge, there was an announcement about a delay of 40 mins of our flight. It was re-scheduled to 10:00PM. It was ob...

It was my sister Mrudula's wedding reception on 19March'11. The occasion is itself to create an festive atmosphere among our family members & close circle of relatives. The platform was decorated in grand setting....photo sessions with friends....wishes.....cake cutting....dances...lot of fun. It was 11:00PM and the reception has reached the climax. Shyam, our photographer, was still having his creative juices flowing, trying to get the poses right from my sister and brother-in-law. They looked tired, it was obvious. Infact they were standing the platform since 7:00PM. My Suresh & Ramesh mama were at the kitchen busy in discussions with the chef for the next days menu. My dad was standing there down the stage talking to the orchestra party and reg. their payment for the services. The orchestra was quite a good hit this time in contrary to my elder sisters marriage reception orchestra(which was dull due to the unfortunate incident of theft of some money). I was standin...

"Are you coming from office now?", inquired one of my team member Mr.Krissh(proxy name). "Yeah", i nodded and continued with my dinner. "Its 11:00PM yaar. Is there so much of work?", asked Mr.Krissh after a short pause. I smiled and replied, "You are new to the project, you will come to know after few more days. You will also be late". "Don't even expect that", said Mr.Krissh. I looked up at him by the blunt reply, i said, "What??" "What ever it is, i will never work after 6:00PM. If you need an extra hour i will start an hour early at office. But after 6:00PM, i have my personal life to take care", replied Mr.Krissh without any pause. "I too wouldn't insist as long as you complete the assigned work on time", i replied. Infact, the frank and blunt answer put me in into thinking. Cut..... I know, Mr.Krissh is true and correct in every sense. Its not Krissh alone who feels so, every body wa...

Since ever i'm into BPM domain from Java, i have been travelling like almost like i'm on some roller skates. Never been at hyderabad for more than a month continuously. Before that i was at hyderabad only for 4 years without any relocation/client site work etc. etc. Now, not to blame anybody, but the work insists me to travel a lot. I had been to bangalore, mumbai multiple iterations for different clients. Though the demand of stay at different locations is for more than a month or so, i manage to close the assignment within a month. Its knowledge gain, exposure to the quaint clients requirements...seeing different places...meeting different people...different food is all nice. But at eod, my wallet is not weighing more. Then whats the point!?!?!

Its about my sister Mrudula's marriage. Its about the event of bidding my dear lovely sister a happy farewell to her new home. A telugu idiom says, "Illu katti choodu...pelli chesi choodu". This translates to "Try to build a home or try to organize a marriage". Its basically conveys that the building a home is as leathery & strenuous as organizing a marriage event. Its absolutely true. I have seen my parents working hard to get the marriage done in a smooth manner without any hindrances and to facilitate the guests to the most possible extent. The actors & crew of this beautiful marriage goes as, Hero: Raghavender Heroine: Mrudula Director: GeerVani Producer: Lakshmi Narayana Assistant Director: Anna Purna & Vinutha Aunty Production Control: Thrinath & Suresh Mama Creative Team: GeerVani & Vinutha Aunty Onsite Support: Thrinath, Ramesh Mama, Suresh Mama Psychological Support: Anna Purna (My eleder sis. She is l...

5 February'11, a saturday evening. I was at work at my client ESSAR in Mumbai. My phone vibrated with my friends PrakashAV number displayed on it. I thought, he must be calling to invite me to his marriage which is scheduled in March. I lazily answered his call, still looking at the computer screen busy with work. He yelled, "Arey Ranjith chanipoyadata ra!!!"..."What? Which Ranjith?? Ranjith Chowdhary??" i said in sudden shock. "Mana Ranjithey raa", he replied. This sent shivers up my spine. Our talk went on. "This cant be true. He got married just 3 months ago. This is not fair". My eyes filled with tears automatically during the conversation. God! This is not fair on your part. He just started his life. Bought a home in USA, got married with lot of plans in mind about life. Pschh!! Buts its true. My dear friend Ranjith Chowdhary Kamma is no more. That night, i couldn't sleep. He came to my mind again n again. I cant digest t...