Germany: Koln and Bonn

A local bus seen on the taxi ride from Bonn to St. Aug

Travelling to new locations is an experience that we seek for pleasure and for business. During one of these trips in 2010, when I was traveling a hell lot in the first six months of the year, I got a chance to visit Germany for a business trip.  It was indeed a marathon trip, where I had to fly from Oslo – Germany -  UK – Oslo in a span of four days. The first two days, had to spend time in Germany for a Business Meeting. Took a  flight from Oslo, Norway to Dusseldorf in Germany.  From Dusseldorf me and my manager took a local train to Koln. One of the harrowing experiences was – everything was in German and the ATM Ticket vending machine for the train journey won’t budge if we did not have cash. Credit Cards for some reason were not accepted. Luckily my colleague had some Euro’s that were perhaps saved for a rainy day and we were able to get tickets and board the train.

Once in Koln, we took the Taxi to our Hotel. While on the taxi, saw some really long German buses, a host of different architecture and way of life, Lindt Factory and other interesting sights.

Lindt Chocolate Factory

Hotel Hangelar, St Augustin

St. Augustin Church

Deserted Main Street of St. Augustin

We wanted a hotel in Koln / Bonn but there were very few hotels in these places and were fully booked – thanks to the summer. So we booked a hotel in a quiet town called “Sankt Augustin” which was at a distance of 8-10 kms from both Koln and Bonn.  We stayed a couple of nights in Sankt Augustin and had overnight internal preparatory meetings and the actual business meeting  (for which we had to travel to some other place) the next day. The town of Sankt Augustin is a small quiet town somewhat in the middle of nowhere. Though not that far from Koln and Bonn, it usually has tourists who come on a religions pilgrimage to Koln, Bonn and other areas. The day we arrived, we checked into a hotel and then  walked down to the main street to find a place for dinner. The streets were totally deserted, though it was hardly 6 pm and we saw a Church (L shaped) and quiet streets with bilboard signs in German. We soon had a quiet Pizza place where they spoke decent English and had a beer and pizza and retired back early to bed for a hectic day of business meetings next day.

At Bonn Square

The next day, after the meeting was finished,  we travelled back to the hotel Hangelar where we stayed and the others who had flown in for the meeting left their own ways. I and another colleague of mine then decided that now that we are done with business, it was time for pleasure. We decided to meet at Bonn Square in the evening to walk around Bonn. Bonn as a city has a lot of historical significance and was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990.

The Bonn Square was very picturesque and had the typical European touch of cobblerstone footpaths (which i have begun to enjoy and cherish so much!) with scenic buildings with sloping roofs giving a feel of the "old world"  with comforts of the new world.  Bonn is also the birthplace of Ludwig van Beethoven - better known as Beethoven, the German pianist and composer.

From the Bonn Square, we walked around and saw the "University of Bonn", "Born Minster", Sterntor (star gate), Beethovenhalle (birth place of Beethoven). The town is a strange concoction of history and modern lifestyle. Most of the American Brands like Pizza Hut, Mac D's etc have a shop at the center.

The Bonn Minster is one of Germany's oldest churches having been built between the 11th and 13th centuries. At one point the church served as the cathedral for the Archbishopric of Cologne

Bonn Minster

University of Bonn

  

The Sterntor is a reconstruction of a gate of the medieval city wall

Sterntor (star gate)

American brands have invaded Bonn!

River Rhine

River Rhine with wonderful skyline of trees and churches

At the birth place of Beethoven

Indian Restaurant in Bonn

It took us sometime to walk around the city, enjoying the weather and the new surroundings. On the way to the riverside where the Rhine flowed, we had "Crepe" - a common street food item ( a la Vada Pav/ Double Roti / Sada Dosa in Indian term) in Europe. It was a long walk to the Rhine, but enjoyable. From there we walked parallel to the river toward Beethovanhalle. Finally exhausted after a long day at work and now walking around Bonn, we decided to have food and luckily found an Indian restaurant just overlooking the Rhine. Had loads of food to keep ourselves stocked and make up for the compromised lunch in the morning.

Sculptures depicting the heads of Saints Cassius & Florentius in front of the Bonn Minster.

Life @ 80 mph in AutoBahn

                                                                       In this trip i not only saw these exciting places as mentioned above, but also had a chance to travel through the "Autobahn".It is another name for a highway (like the NH in India) or Interstates (like the I90/ I91 highways). In fact, for highways in Austria, Germany and Switzerland the word Autobahn is used.The advisory speed limit of the German autobahn is 130 km/h (80 mph) and i could literally experience the same as depicted in the snaps! It reminded so much of the US interstate highways in terms of nature of the road, the scenery that flies by as you speed up to your destination and also the way the "Exits" are laid out. The first section of Autobahn was created between Koln and Bonn - the section that i travelled in. It was indeed an enjoyable experience to be driven around so fast on world class highways. After indeed a long day, finally decided to call it quits. Took a cab back to Sankt Augustin to my hotel from Bonn and slept the night out, before leaving early the next morning to UK.

A typical fountain

Bonn Minster

Life on the fast lane

The classic tourists nightmare. Where to go?

Tribute to the Dell Inspiron 5150: My first laptop!

Setting the Stage:

It was the month of July in 2004. Almost 2 months since I was in the United States, on an official assignment for my earlier company – Infosys. The quiet town of Middletown in Connecticut was my first real life experience into the American neighborhood and way of life after having seen it and secretly wished to be there in those numerous English movies. The world was changing then.  Though the long distance international calls over the telephone were still a tad expensive, the explosion of the power of internet for VOIP, voice and webcam chat was well under progress. It is during this time that I needed a way to communicate with my family split across Asia (India) and Europe (UK), while I was in America.

My companion during my sabbatical

The option for a desktop computer was ruled out even before consideration as the visibility for my official assignment was not more than 6 months. The pains of trying to take it back to India or finding a buyer who can buy it were ones I did not want. So I decided to buy a laptop. Had never aspired to buy one that desperately while working in India, but now seeing the necessity, I thought – Why not?

It was time for my second purchase in the US (post my Digicam) and the research started. The numerous visits to website and brands and the features of the machines started.  My life after office work revolved around Hard Disk Drive capacity, RAM Capacity, ability for wireless internet etc. Soon enough, me and another friend cum colleague of mine - Gyan, decided to buy the robust Dell brand – known for its sturdiness and value for money features. After doing research and the various brands available – I finalized on the Inspiron 5150 Model of Dell and loaded it with all the best features I then could (including Wireless Network Card, a 15.4 inch screen, 40 GB Hard Drive, 512 MB RAM, Intel chipset). It totally cost me USD 1456. 

The painful wait for “Union”:

In Norway - ready to be a companion to my spouse

I eagerly waited for a week for her to arrive, to have the first glimpse, the first touch and the first feel. I almost infuriated the apartment support staff in Hunters Colony where I resided checking each day if a parcel for me at 41 Hunters had arrived. Though the online shipping status showed it in transit, something in my heart said that the status might not be updated yet, but she would be there waiting in the small room stacked amongst other boxes – waiting desperately for me to lay my arms on her. Then after the fifth day of ordering – she had finally arrived. My heart knew no boundaries and was overjoyed. I brought the box home and unwrapped the contents with the utmost care. Then wrapped inside white crepe paper, I slid her out with the most delicate moment of my hands and my heart almost cried out when I saw her top lid with the galvanized blue coating that was split horizontally into two by a  straight line of steel with a circle in between saying “Dell”. It was love at first sight.

The good times:

One of the numerous movies watched on her

Once she was unpacked, it took time for her and me to know each other. We did it the right way, now when I look back. I was not desperate to force her onto things. We took it step by step. She needed to know a lot about me – a login name and password, which gave me private access to all that we had in between us during our relationship, a disc of other softwares that I could install on her so that the needs that she can’t fulfill herself  - can be fulfilled by someone else. Once she was setup totally and our trust established – we had  a joy ride. We had our dates almost every day in exotic locations like Google, Yahoo, Deals2Buy, EdealInfo, TimesofIndia, Rediff and host of other sites. We networked a lot with her other family members spread across the globe through our high speed internet and exchanged web pages, images of happenings the world over and some cookies that we could much on when were hungry and skipped authentications. When I was feeling low, she used to sing out the loudest through her speakers, reading whatever she could find in her playlist in Winamp and make me feel better. When I was excited and want to celebrate – she shouted out loud the peppiest of numbers to further add to my happiness. She was frank enough to admit that she couldn’t directly carry my voice or video to the external world. The gracious lady that she was – she offered me two ports, where I could plug a handicam and mike to speak to family and friends across the globe and see them.  I don’t think she needed letter of references from these devices in the form of a software install to ensure they work on her. Her all encompassing compatibility with host of hardware devices easily allowed these devices to “Plug and Play”.  We also ended up in watching a lot of movies / documentaries. Though she could not remember all of the movies in the world – she liked crunching onto a VCD/ DVD that I fed onto her mouth through a DVD drive and while she crunched and spun it in her mouth for proper digestion – I could in the meanwhile watch the movie on her 15.4 inch display screen, shielding the moving from other prying eyes around me. Being hidden behind the laptop screen is a boon in disguise for a lot of folks who share apartments with roomies and gives an opportunity at times to skip critical tasks that you are required to do as a part of your share in living together. 

For the last 6 years – the number of movies I have seen on her would have outnumbered the total no. of movies I would have watched anywhere else in my life. 

Adding humor to our miserable lives:

Caught red handed in each others company!

Weighing close to 7 kgs, she was not lean in any way. She was bulkier as compared to other cousins (read laptops) like the Samsungs, HP’s, IBM Thinkpad’s.   She had no intentions to loose fat or alter her appearance, as she felt comfortable in her skin. I accepted her as she was and have no regrets for not choosing a leaner black Thinkpad which looked more like a iron tin box that could store rusty screws or a Samsung whose mouse was as untrustworthy as the Indian politicians – toggling their locations on screen when there was no movement of the hands on the mouse, just like politicians switch parties for no real reason.

To cool her brains (processor), there was a fan at the bottom.  Most of the times since she mostly graced my laps or the pillow on my lap, the fan never got a chance to vent out the outburst (heat of the processor) that was generated day in and day out. Due to this, the heat slowly spread throughout her base, which heated her up real bad – red with anger. As a result, when it was too much for her to handle – she used to quietly display on her screen that it was a high temperature and she was shutting down for sometime. She used to politely request that if there is anything blocking the fan vent – to unblock it. After realizing this for the first few months, I felt bad and guilty and asked god –

 “Why is she called a laptop when I can’t have her on my lap?”

“ Why does this happen only to me or my beloved ones?. I can’t stay separated even an inch from her”

A part of the fun in MBA school!

To this, something in my mind said “Son, if you both want to mutually co-exist, its necessary that you give her space in this relationship. If you are too close, you will burn your balls” Now when I look back, the thought could have come from God through my mind. I philosophized and decided it is not wrong to give her “Space”. Hence from then on I started keeping a book below her, so that she was not only balanced on a flat surface, but there was also open spaces below the fan (where the book couldn’t reach) – so that all the heat generated could immediately go into the environment. This proved to be a master stroke and no wonder my “Heating Bills” in the snowy months of November – March for 4 years in the US never peaked high. My friends used to chide me saying “Now that you have Dell, your heater bills will be less” and laugh out. Or some used to say – “Why don’t you invert your laptop with the base up, so that while her base is all hot and fired up, I can break this egg and create a quick omlette on her” and burst into a silly laugh.  Her self deprecating humor in showing off her heat made all those friends and well wishers of mine forget their sorrows for a moment and laugh out on her and made her “the butt of all jokes”.

Doing some serious stuff on her, while in UK

Then there was the other humor about her weight. There was a time when lots of laptops in our neighborhood were getting stolen. In a week once we lost 5 laptops of friends and colleagues living around Hunters, which was a record. People started double locking their doors or some even started keeping valuables like laptop into their suitcases and then locking and tying the suitcase with chains and putting long sheets of clothes on top of it – to make it look like a seating area. It was then that there was as wisecrack who said “Lets shift with Deepak, so that our valuables are safe. When a thief comes and tries to steal his Dell laptop, the thief will burn his hands with the heat and will sag with the weight. He can even trip and fall on the laptop and be caught!” and burst out immediately laughing.

When some of my roomies started getting the Thinkpads, the Apples and the HP’s, they used to make fun of her saying “One day when Deepak is married and has kids. His kids will ask – Dad what is that thing that looks like a laptop, but so huge and lying around in the house? Some of our friends came home today to play and when we showed them this, they got scared and ran away”

Some others used to further be kind, yet poky and say “Years down the line when there is a museum built to show the historic evolution of computers, like the “National History Museums” shows the evolution of living organisms, this Dell laptop will show the emergence of laptop in the twenty first century. So you will be making tones of money by selling this to a museum Deepak!”

Commemorating over 6 years of togetherness:

On the eve of the bday, sleeping next to her

Dad playing a computer game, in Mumbai, India

This July 2010, I completed 6 years with her. In these six years my Dell has not only been in USA, but partnered me in the journey across geographies and my life as well.  Born in Malaysia and branded in US, she was at ease in India where I took her for vacation or for good. She was with me when I was working from Infosys Pune in the rainy months of 2006 and also came back with me happily during my MBA in 2008. She also enjoyed her time in UK and in 2009 when I travelled to Norway, I chose her over the Sony VIAO  (my second laptop till date, which I got about 2 years back while in B-School). She has not only seen me being promoted in Infosys from Software Engineer to Programmer Analyst, but also allowed me to write my resignation letter on her when I wanted to quit Infosys. She was eager to help me prepare for my applications for MBA or the GMAT exams, but was also a part of my MBA course throughout.  She not only was instrumental in helping me work on my TCS application forms, when I got through post MBA, but at times, she helped me work from home while in TCS.  She has also seen me get promoted this week to the next level in TCS. She has been magnanimous enough to get connected to my TV set to display movies that are played on her hard disk while in US, India through an S-Video cable.  I chatted  (text, video, voice) on her backyard using enablers like yahoo chat, google talk etc. with friends, relatives, prospective brides and also viewed their photos. In a way she was also instrumental in helping me find a life partner through an online portal. I have learnt the tricks of the stock market and invested in IPO’s and stocks using the browser on her back. She has also been with me when I had a taken a sabbatical from work in 2006 to prepare for GMAT. She was the only one with me in CBD Belapur, listening to the quietness of the house and the gushing of the waterfalls. We were both preparing for GMAT. I read the recipies on her screen to prepare the most exotic of cuisines or plugged her onto the power socket in the airport to spend time accessing the internet, while we waited for our flights back to India. I blogged and opened up to the online world only through her. In fact most of the blogs on this website between 2004 and 2009 were written on her.We also played a lot of computer games one her.

Mingling with other women:

Knowing the times my Dell has spent – lying on my tummy when I used to doze off watching movies in the US or getting my first touch in the morning when I used to switch my laptop on before opening my eyes or brushing my teeth, she indeed warmed up nice to the other women in my life – my wife.

When I moved to Norway and my wife joined me, I used to travel regularly outside of Oslo and Norway.

She also mingled with my friends

During those lonely times in a lonely place like Norway where we knew no one, she gave unhindered support and company to my wife throughout. I knew that while I went out, I could count on the Dell to take care of my wifey.  My wife though used to poke fun at times on her initially, over a period of time melted and enjoyed her company. She kept her as lean as possible by cleaning up all the things that made the Dell slow. And together they laughed out loud while watching “Sex and the City”, “How I met your mother” or other such programs / movies in the emptiness of Waldemar Thranesgata 11.

A pride of our parties in US

She has also been equally kind and nice to my neice Sanjana by allowing her to watch “Bee”, “Incredibles” and a host of other animation movies / cartoons in London / India.

The True Survivor

The world has been through two World War’s. The Dell has seen two such crises in her life in 2006 and 2008.

Good old times

This is a true life incident. There was some issue with the design of the Dell Inspiron 5150 laptop. An issue so serious that class action litigation was filed in the US. There were complaints from users that the laptop heated up a lot and at times burnt thighs and other parts of people. There were some cases of batteries exploding while users were working on the laptop. As a result of this, Dell was made to give a 1.5 year service vendor during which – irrespective of the warranty period of the laptops of this model, Dell had to service it with parts replacement etc. for free of cost and also give free pick-up and delivery of the laptop.  During my second trip to the US in 2006, she started having some problems. There were ulcers in her mouth which was reflected with the bad behavior of the CD rom drive. There were also some issues on the display or motherboard, which I do not remember. I was worried and hoped she pulled through. I immediately punched the 911 (Dell Helpline No.) and was delighted to know that she could not only be cured immediately, but for no cost. The Dell helpline swiftly arranged for DHL to act as an ambulance and there was a stretcher (cardboard box) on my door step the next day. I packed her with the utmost care and also covered her with crepe paper and thermocol around to ensure there were no vibrations that impacted her. I got her back in eight working days. Those eight were the worst days of my life, waiting for her to be cured and come back to me. I was worried if she was meted the right treatment in the hands of the strangers, but since they were her alma mater, I tried convincing myself to wait patiently.  She was finally back and not only working like before, but also cleaned and looking much brighter and working much faster! I couldn’t help observing new plastic sheets near the mouse pad and on the blue galvanized outer coating, that were put to avoid dust sticking onto her. I let them stay on for years from then on, till one fine evening in 2008 I peeled them off as the cover had real gone dusty and bad.

Sleeping with her, next to me

The next heartbreak came in 2008. All was going on well between us. My B-school assignments, class presentations, in school assignments were all on her. She was also a critical part of my placement committee work and most of the emails/ planning were done on her.  In September of that year suddenly one fine day – the unexpected happened.  Her hard disk drive crashed. I tried everything I could to retrieve her. Tried booting in safe mode/ use DOS to log in just hours before the indications of crashing. Nothing worked and she was zonked. I felt bad and worse. She was my first major investment in my life in the US and how could I let her go? Also because of lack of computational power, my B-school work, placements work all got impacted. Life was harder than I believed it was. Thankfully I got a spare Dell laptop from my roomie Deepankar, which helped me pull through those days. Thanks to my brother in law (bil) Mahesh, I got her fixed with better hard drive and RAM from bil’s office. But when she came back, I was so glad. I didn’t care the data I lost when her hard drive crashed. Though data can never come back and impacted me to some extent, I still had her back! She was also in for a surprise after coming back. While she was away, I got infuriated of the spare Dell laptop, which though was doing its best to support me, still felt short. I finally decided with a heavy heart to think of alternative laptop. Though I had a desire to buy one for long, I did not really want to upset her. Finally now being a chance, my mind thought through and thought she would do good with some company. After all even she knows that when she is not around there is someone who needs to take her role. Instead of spare laptops from other places its better to have one in the family. This led me to buy the Sony VAIO. Though Dell was back, she was still amicable and went along well with the VIAO. They exchanged numerous files with each other and enjoyed sitting next to each other and network with each other through the internet.

Finally:

Laptopping even before brushing teeth!

I have seen many friends who changed their laptops like babies change nappies. At first even I felt like doing the same, but then thought of the good times that I had shared with her. Just because there is someone better, faster and sleeker available, does this mean I ditch her and move ahead? When will I stop to wander my philandering wishes if I am always inspired and instigated to buy the latest machine? After brooding over this, I decided – It has to be her or no one. Come what may – through the “Heating” problem and “Weight” issues – we pulled through. Cos she is heavy, at times my back ached during those walks through the gravel footpath from my hostel to MBA classes at SPJIMR or during the times I carried her across airports, bus travels etc. But in the end if you really love someone, it is never a burden as your love overcomes the challenges and increases your endurance.

Even now, she is there with me as I write this tribute to her. She is lying on top of a book, with enough exposure for her fan. Though I don’t switch her on always, she still has power going onto her all the time and she keeps blinking, as if keeping an eye on me. In this lonely house in Stavanger, when I long for companionship or the presence of familiarity – the very fact of just running my eyes over her is very re-assuring.

Some say – “Buy a Dell and go to Hell” and I say ‘Bought my Dell and love her like Hell”.

This blog create history!

This is a momentous day for this young blog. Though it has been operational for the past five years,
its this month that has been the most voluminous month in terms of the no. of blogs written by me or the incoming traffic. Glad to share the following milestones:

#1 Article "Global Delivery Model" became the first article in this blog to cross 100 page views early this week. Though written in 2005, it indeed proves "Old is Gold"!

#2 Article "Tribute to Bangalore Roomies" posted just 3 days back has now had 84 page views. Here comes the fastest blog to reach such a high hit. This can lead to one conclusion that a sincere tribute to your past can indeed be rewarding!

#3 Today this blog overall crossed 1000 page views in all! See the split of people visiting this blog from various parts of the world. US of course tops the chart, followed by India, Norway and UK. I have also already turned off "Don't track my page views" so the Norway numbers are from elsewhere!

Apart from the above countries, there were clicks also from countries like Argentina, Brazil, Finland, Phillipines, Pakistan - which is not visible in the Graph above due to volumes lower than 1%.

#4 The blog has total of 1018 page views as of now, of which
     18 pageviews were from August'10
    980 pageviews are from Sept'10 alone!

Hopefully by September 2010 end, we are able to cross the magic figure of 1000 pageviews for Sept - the next aspirational milestone!

# 5 The blog is unique as i have blogged not only from US, but also from India and Norway.

#6 I had another small blog which was the earliest of my blogs. Posted all articles from there to this blog early this week for simplification.

#7 Feature of "Labels" added for easy searching related to common themes.


#8 The first series of "Short Stories" started and already 2 part's are published. Another firsts!

#9 There are now seven followers for this blog! A record so far!

#10 This blog covers following different themes: Travelogue, Real Life Stories, Fiction, Bachelorhood 2.0 series and Humor as of now. I am trying to develop a versatility in writing on various themes than being specialized. I am refraining from writing on Personality Development as i am already a regular columnist on a different website. The analytics provided by the "Stats" feature of the blogger along with your commets/ feedback will help me to then specialize in one form of writing.

#11 Early this week the blog also crossed two consecutive days where there were more than 100 page views (on Mon and Tue)

It wouldn't have been possible without the support of all of you who patiently searched for this blog or clicked on the links i share on Facebook, Orkut, Gtalk and Twitter!

Thanks all and i will ensure i keep this blog rocking! Comments, Feedback - pls email / post!

How Apache Indian unknowingly transformed my life: A rapper is born

“The time has come mon fe apache,

Fe  find one girl and to get marry,

But listen when me talk tell everybody,

Me wanna Arranged Marriage from me Mum and Daddy”

These are the lyrics from the song “Arranged Marriage” by Apache Indian from the Album “No Reservations”, released in the early 1990’s. An awesome song– that had taken the country and the then nascent Indian pop industry by storm. This song was not on the lips of many, but on the “hmmmm hmmm” and “lalala lalala’” of many – that is part of humming from many but not many were able to sing it. The reason? The lyrics were a tad complicated. The video was also popular with the “ragamuffin like a shaan” seated on his chair like a king and beautiful Indian ladies with sarees draped around their bodies did mesmerizing dance sequences.

I happened to accidentally see this song on TV when the options for channels were few and cable TV channel was just on the verge of explosion. Something in me stirred a wish to hear it on my two speaker tape recorder – commonly called “deck” during my growing up times. I borrowed the cassette from one of my friends– Deepesh Golatkar in my apartment complex and happened to take it home and played the cassette on my deck in full volume. The thing with cassettes and deck is that – its not simple to play the song you want per your wish as in the case of an MP3 player, discman or  on youtube. You have control to listen to the first song on either side of a music cassette and if that’s not the hit number, you end up rewinding/ fastforwarding the cassette till you find your favourite song. This is because there is no other option in a cassette – but to serially play the songs one after the other in a sequence. Over a period of time I happened to correctly know when my song would be played and I had a sense of pride about it.

Listening to the cassette umpteen times and having the lyrics book with me further helped me to hum along and sing along with Apache. Though initially difficult, I over a period of time mastered the entire song by rote as it was almost in my DNA now – listening to it 10/15 times a day, famously abusing the “Play”,”Pause”, “forward” and “rewind” buttons of my deck much to the rage of my folks around who usually like to maintain things with the highest degree of care. I could remember it better than any other Sanskrit Subhashitmala’s or any such of my academic requirements! The only challenge then was to master the energy, ability to hold tone and breadth and have the accent right by eating away some words with the accent to make it stylish. I happened to do that over a time. Over a period of time, I was able to sing the song without using the lyrics book and by holding my breath for a pretty decent time! Yippe – a rapper was born!

Though over a period of time I expanded my portfolio to singing “Dil Dhadake”, “Aage Aage Ladki peeche main hoo sayana” by Baba Sehgal , “Here comes the hotstepper” by Ini Kamoze and finally “Boombastic” by Shaggy (including the nasal “ummm umm”) with my broken vocal voice – I still owe a lot to Apache.  Transformed from a guy who was low on self confidence to interact with people and especially people of the opposite sex, good on academics, well verse to converse in Marathi, Tamil and Hindi than English and boring to be with. Transformed to – a guy who worked on growing confidence in interactions with people (though the interaction with opposite sex was still low on confidence if they are from my school / classes), had a good flow of English and more importantly – who could pep up a party/ picnic or environment with his vocals.

The final meant a lot to me as I was able to shed a lot of inhibitions about myself and get out of my shell and be talked about and welcomed and egged to sing songs. Though at times the audience gave reactions from “wow he is too good” to “what the f&^%*” to “ok now get on..when are you gonna end?” in words and over gestures, i still tried to stay self-motivated to complete singing the entire song I knew. It didn’t matter if some didn’t like the song / me or the way I sang it. I wanted to just complete it with one motivation that some part of it atleast may hit a chord with them. Even if it didn’t – it helped me to feel accepted in the groups I was and feel better about myself, which was something I needed desperately as I was neither good in sports (which I am still not!) nor arts ( I flunked the drawing elementary exams by the way – as Mr. Smart Pants tried to use crayons in the final exam for a real life painting which is like trying to take water from the Niagara by holding a spoon in front of it with your hands) – basically good at nothing apart from academics (even hear I hovered between the 2^nd and 10^th rank in the first 10 years of schooling life). I may have attracted some envy from peers for my “Apache” antics as I may call it – but when I look back I was being the Apache just to get myself feel better about me and nothing else.

Be it the picnics organized by our group from our apartment complex to “Malshej Ghat” or other places, get togethers on our terrace for New Years, in school or in my coaching classes – the “Apache” was a hit. Unfortunately the only regret is that it could never woo me a girlfriend – the ones I secretly eyed and wished! But again – if a guy can’t speak for 2 cents with confidence to opposite sex – it would remain a dream  further on for some more years. No regrets though – things have their own charm in your growing up years. The “Apache” bought me more fame and confidence to me than I could ever imagine in my limited circle of influence.

The icing on the cake was my first singing in public – in front of a crowd of 100 odd if I remember it right. That is when I volunteered to sing in the nearby pandal for Ganesh Utsav. Mumbai is famous for celebrating the “Ganesh Utsav” – which is a 11 day long event of festive activities. Temporary make shift tents (called pandals) come up in various corners of the city hosting the Elephant Headed “Vignaharta” (Destroyer of Obstacles) or Lord Ganesh. There are fun and events organized apart from the prayers to the Lord, to have inclusion of people from all strata of society and ages. In one of these events - Solo Singing competition - I had enrolled to sing “Arranged Marriage” – and as usual was the last one to give my nomination. There was a pre-screening, where I had to sing in front of 3-4 people who were more like deciding authorities to see if I can sing on stage. Though their appearance branded them to look like bullies – I was able to soften them with the rap. Now when i look back, maybe it was exotic for them too. They had nominations from people singing Nursery Rhymes, a short Marathi song, patriotic songs or hindi film songs. The “Apache” was a welcome addition!

The jeans jacket is now up my shoulders and I am ready to be called onto stage, eagerly waiting for all other people to complete their turn singing and wooing the audience. Finally I was the last one – and not called on stage. Shit! What the heck! The butterflies in my stomach seeing the large crowd , mixture of claps and abuses for other singers wanted me to run away. Saner part of my mind told me – “Bro, now that you are here, as well give it to them. You are the Apache. Remember!”.  Just as the Master of Ceremonies was to announce the end of the session – one guy who was 4 feet 6 inches walked up to him in the crowd and told in Marathi:  “Maza naav dila hota. Bolavla nahee. Ata gana mhanu ka?” (in English  this means – I had given my name. Wasn’t called. Can I sing my song now?). He told “Oh sorry, see the mistake”. He looked at the audience and said on mike in Marathi:  “Ata sadar karit aahet baal gayak Deepak Chandrasekaran je gaatil Apache Indian” ( Now presenting young singer Deepak  Chandrasekaran who would sing “Apache Indian”).  My stomach was rumbling louder than the churning of the Arabian Seas in Mumbai at that moment. After the initial dash of welcome applause dashed down, I began. Being a first time with mike, maybe I held it too close to my mouth – could feel that from the effect my voice initially had on the loudspeakers. Over a period of few seconds, brought it at the right distance and sang “The time has come mon fe apache, Fe  find one girl and to get marry….”When I finished the song, the applause was thunderous – or I would like to believe so. Because even if it wasn’t – I had broken my internal barriers and turned the “Donn Raja who wants a princess”! Phew – what a walk down memory lane! 

The rapper was born - who is now alive  but the rap is now restricted to listening than spewing it out short of breath from my mouth. Occasionally i do sing in the shower or with wife, family or close friends. 

This post is in gratitude to Apache Indian, Dipesh Golatkar (for the cassette), my family, friends, well wishers and the Ganesh Pandal (Bal Mitra Mandal in Mulund East)  who gave me so much of encouragement that instilled self confidence and self belief in me!

Norway: Stavanger: Rennesoy

Rennesoy Concrete Bridge

When: September 5th, 2010
Where: Rennesoy, Stavanger
How: Local Kolumbus Bus
Who: Myself along with Krishnakumar (KK), Ragish, Raghu and Maju.

Kolumbus Bus @ Sentrum

All of us were in one way new to Stavanger city. We were no older in this city than 2-3 months. Happened to bond well within a few interactions during "Onam" celebrations at the Malayali Association in Stavanger and outside. It was the last of the sunny weekends in Stavanger, so we thought why not go to some place this sunny Sunday. So based on recommendation from other friends, we decided to explore an offbeat uncommercial location - Renneoy. It is an island that is about half an hour from Stavanger. The exciting part of the journey recommended by our friends-friend was the journey through under sea tunnels. Since most of us were still dreaming of taking the train that connects France to England through an undersea tunnel, we thought this is the best opportunity to get closer to that wish. Also as a place, though there is lot of natural beauty around Stavanger, this was one of the less commercialized - off beat locations that appeared to be interesting to explore.

We met sometime in the afternoon around 3 pm in Stavanger Sentrum and waited for the bus that would take us to Rennesoy. Rennosoy is a municipality in the Rogaland county of Norway and about 30-35 mins by bus from Stavanger Sentrum. Thanks to our Greeen dabba - "Kolumbus", which took us to experience this unique experience of sliding down an undersea tunnel which seemed endless to finally come out of it to climb a curvy flyover bridge connecting two islands, which then again took the next undersea tunnel to finally reach Rennesoy.

To get to Rennesøy ,  the road (also called Rennfast link) passes through  two under-sea tunnels (8,5 km and 6 km long), a concrete bridge and roads to the northern corner of Rennesøy (Mortavika).

Tunnel under the water near the horizon

The impressive Rennfast link with bridges and tunnels 233 meters below sea level.
In more recent years there has been a program of bridge and tunnel building, which has provided direct road links to many of the islands to the north of Stavanger. One of the most spectacular of these projects is the 'Rennfast' link. This consists of two under-sea tunnels and a bridge. The longest of these tunnels at 5860 meters is the Byfjordtunnelen, which at its deepest is 233 meters below sea-level. At the time of its completion in 1992, it was the world's deepest under-sea road tunnel. The other tunnel, Mastrafjordtunnelen, is 4424 meters long and 133 meters deep. This and other projects have eliminated a number of ferry routes and served to widen the bus net. The best part is you can pass through all these beautiful tunnels in your regular “Kolumbus” bus, enjoying the curvature traced by the bus to go below the tunnel and climb up to emerge out of these tunnels. It definitely makes you remember the tunnels along Mumbai – Pune Expressway. It would be more fun to drive down these tunnels here. Only if renting a car was not that expensive a proposition in this part of the world!

None of us were sure of the stop we need to get down at. After the "this stop" or "next stop" dilemma, we finally were able to get down at the right stop, which was about 2 stops before the last stop. Happy to read the "Rennesoy" signboard.

We then decided to look around and walk around a bit to see the scenery around.  It wasn't disappointing at all!'After walking around a bit and finding the entire town almost empty, we found ourselves to be hungry. We entered a nearby grocery store - "Coop" and get some bun and bread for ourselves.

 

We then entered a cafe under the "Rennesoy" signboard near the bus stop where we alighted and had some coffee with buns n bread. We sat on the outer portion of the restaurant which totally opened up to the scenic view of the Rennesoy mountain and the sea. Was indeed relaxing, enjoying the scenic beauty and doing nothing but sipping coffee beneath the thousand splendid sunrays - as can be seen from the smiles of KK and myself in the pic below!

Thats when we saw one of these guys - enjoying the wind by surfing amongst the clouds, enjoying the scenery of the mountains, sea and the birds like no one else would have - barring god at that time!

And while all our heads were up trying to trace the path of this guy floating in the winds, what brought us down was the small boat with a UK flag that got parked around the docks. The sailor and his girlfriend disembarked and were immediately met by their friend - the lady in blue who had driven down and almost was to drive onto the sailor's boat. We caught this pic for multiple vested interests in the background - but what came out well was our intentions channelized through Ragish's expressions in the foreground as well! The evil in me wants to use a sketch pen to draw a small heart around the two ladies in the background and cut an arrow across to Ragish's head as if to show the thoughts in this mind :)

Then began our long walk to the bus stop after we figured out the right bus stop. The next bus was in 15 mins and if we managed to miss that we had to wait in the middle of nowhere for the next two hours for the last bus to arrive. 

It was about 6.00 pm when we started the walk up to the bus stop. And once we reached there, had this group snap

The Indian Explorers!

 This trip did clear one thought which has stormed my thoughts for long. What is it so different about an Under sea tunnel ? Does water gush out onto you once you enter/ leave the tunnel? Is it any different that going through tunnels under mountains / railway bridges? Answers to all this is - there is no difference and no - water does not gush out. All the time you just fear that you may drown and die if the tunnel collapses as you would really be "under the water"! 

We looked back to get a last glimpse of the mountain and the water at Rennesoy and this was last etched on our minds, before we again wriggled through the tunnels sitting in the "Kolumbus". It was indeed a very relaxing trip - no noise, no people - all of nature's beauty just for ourselves. And my mind began to subconsciously sing the hit John Denver number "Country Roads...take me home, to the plains.."

Change Agents in SRK's transformation (Part 2)

“I am SRK”

The transformation wasn’t easy. It never is and never will be.

What brought about the transformation in SRK were the forces created by the chaos of unkind worldly perceptions. Perceptions that were either expressed directly through words or indirectly through gestures, expressions or accidentally overhearing conversations.  It was a dosage with a double whammy.

The neighborhood nosy Sheela aunty’s son was also of SRK’s age and both used to go to the same school. The boy – young Vinod was the one with whom SRK would spend time playing cricket in the nearby streets during the summer vacation or “choi” (a game played typically in coastal areas and rural, semi-rural parts of the country using small conch shells found in the shores of the sea. Its similar to playing a game of ludo/ snakes and ladders – only difference being there are no defined boundaries available commercially where the conch shells of players can take their place) when the weather outside was not good.  They used to take turns in playing the games at either of their houses. “Choi” over the years made way to watching Television– the latest of the “English” and “Hindi” channels shown on Television which was in way metamorphosing the genesis of their middle class upbringing.  Vinod always had been a likeable guy. He was not only good in studies, but also slightly better than SRK in sports and other extra-curricular.  When SRK used to go to Vinod’s house to play the games / watch TV, Sheela aunty always discriminated in the way she treated Vinod over SRK. Vinod used to always be asked for refreshments or got the fully loaded cream biscuits, while SRK would at times not be given things of the same quality and quantity that Vinod got.  As if these wounds were not enough, Sheela aunty had a nack of rubbing salt further onto the wounds by saying “Look at our Vinod. He is so tired of doing well in school, extra curriculars and now playing with you. After all he needs more energy to be better than you, doesn’t he?”  SRK used to meekly nod, trying to control himself from an outburst of tears in public, which Vinod could sense, but never do anything about that would annoy his mother. Once back home, SRK used to get onto the small corner of the house where the idol’s of various gods were placed to secretly cry over the happenings of the day and then cover himself up before being seen by anyone.

But more important than that  – Vinod did not have the fear of public speaking and had the confidence  to communicate with the opposite sex, which is where SRK envied him the most. Vinod could not only converse easily with all the girls in the class, but also be liked for the way he used to maintain the interest in these conversations. No wonder Vinod was never a hit amongst the girls during times of “Raksha Bandhan” – the times when girls innocuously look for making brothers with boys whom they either had no special romantic liking for or for whom they would never develop such liking in the future by tying a Rakhi  (a colorful thread signifying the bond of trust, respect and love)around the boy’s wrist.

Contrast this to SRK, he used to always be the person who could never muster enough courage to talk to any girl in the class – except for asking for their marks in various subjects and overall ranking once the results of the examinations were out. And that too he used to ask only the top 3-4 ranking girls to understand what was his competitive positioning. SRK’s usual ranking was amongst the top 6 in the class, with Vinod always edging him out by a higher rank miraculously during all those schooling years. During times of “Raksha Bandhan” SRK’s wrist was filled with so many “Rakhi’s” that at times he used to wonder how will he ever have a romantic liason with a girl or get married? He felt it was only upon himself that the responsibility of executing the Pledge recited in the morning school prayers was bestowed. The Pledge where he and his schoolmates recited “ India is my country. All Indians are my brothers and sisters. I am proud of its rich and varied heritage….” SRK suspected if Vinod and all the girls just lip synched like in the Charlie Chaplin movies while saying “All Indians are my brothers and sisters” and did not say it from their heart like he did.  The problem with “Raksha Bandhan” was that it was  a big dampener on his already marginalized pocket money as the newly made brothers had to gift something to their new found sisters.  While Siva used to save money in the Summer, getting money for good will from his relatives and family and by selling the old newspapers to the nearby old newspaper mart, he used to spend it almost instantly in the rainy season of Aug – September when Rakhi used to appear in the Hindu Calendar. The worst was – in the last year in school, even Mallika, the neighborhood Marwari girl had tied him a Rakhi.

Sheela aunty left no stone unturned to show off her son’s superiority over SRK – either in her conversations with SRK’s mom when they used to shop together or exchange delicacies during festivals or even while talking about the kids growing up so quick during the weekly informal meetings of the ladies of Satyam Apartments in T Nagar. Her urge to bring in comparisons and feel superior and better in comparison to Ms. Krishnan propelled her to steer conversations from totally unrelated topics to the topic of how great her son Vinod was. SRK’s mom used to be a mute spectator in most of these conversations. At times when enraged she would still be calm and hold her ground  saying “Kids are different in the way they think, behave and interact. They take their own time to blossom and spread their wings in this world. I am sure our Siva would one day blossom and ape Vinod in all the right aspects”. Sheela aunty, never to give away her line of thought used to grunt and say in Tamil “Pakalam yepudee pogardu na”. (Lets see how it goes)

To be continued...

Tribute to Bangalore Roomies

Living with roomies has been an exhilarating experience over the past eight years that i have stayed out of home. It all began way back in 2002 when i moved to Bangalore, fresh after my Engineering degree and joined Infosys. After the initial one month in the "Maurya" Hotel, we had to find accommodation on our own.

I already made 2 friends before moving to Bangalore - Vishal (he was my mate in Engineering college) and Utsav (he was also from Mumbai). So once my stay in Maurya was over, had to look for new people with whom i could share a house with.

Accidentally it so happened that all five of us came together - myself, Vishal, Rana, Sudarshan, Ashish and Kapil. We had an awesome time together in those 1.5 years i spent in Bangalore from 2002 - 2004. The pic above is one of those rare pics of the good times we shared - be it Hooting for India during the 2003 World Cup, watching n number of movies on my small tv set, eating out in most of the bangalore restaurants, boozing in pubs / at home or  buying those cheap Rs. 100 T-shirts on Brigade Road, MG Road during the weekends. Watching movies in the movie halls, shopping at Marathahalli and Commercial Street, going for Go- Karting or walking down in the middle of the friday/ saturday night from MG Road to Koramangala singing songs (just cos we did not want to pay the Rickshaw guy 2-3 times the fare)...was awesome! We had a memorable time!

Mulianagiri Trek 2004

Our group spread beyond the roomies to others - Eti, Manu, Maria and other batchmates from September'02. Its going to be 8 years this month end since we had joined Infosys and it looks as it was only yesterday! Almost all of them have now moved out of Infosys and even Bangalore - barring a few!



Weekends were spent making plane maggie noodle - 4 packets, putting in a common plate, putting sauce in some areas of the maggi per personal preferences and having it together. We had also kept an ecosystem of support around...and did not let the statistic of 1 IT job creating 4 support jobs wrong. We had a maid servant to wash clothes and clean house, a cook to cook food. It was funny - the maid servant was a Tamilian and none of my other roomies could communicate with her except for sign language, when i was not there. When i was there communicating and getting things done was my cup of tea. Apparently after i left Bangalore in Feb 2004 , these guys still had her for sometime and continued with the sign language!

We indeed did some crazy things - like this tent which Vishal had got from his first onsite trip to the US (Suddu and Vishal were the first guys in our group to live the dream and go onsite to US with 1.5 years of joining Infosys. All others like me, Ashish, Rana got our due later). We hoisted the tent right in the big Hall of our 3 BHK, 1350 sq feet apartment in National Games Village, Koramangala and spent silly times over the weekend doing silly stuff like this!






Again this was the time when we had a party in one of the best hotels in Bangalore near Airport Road (probably Taj - can't remember). It was a combination of onsite treat of Vishal, Suddu and bday treat of Rana and someone else and we had a ball of a time. It was a big thing for us then to be in restaurants like this and eating and having wine! Man..those were the days!

 This was taken during the Vishals 22nd birthday. Heheh - it was a typical practise in A-301 Yamuna, NGV to cut cake the night before the bday and smear it on the face of the person. Also the rest used to pool in and buy a gift like shirt / shoes etc. In my case i opted for a VCD Player, on which we saw tonnes of movies for days together on that small TV set i had borrowed from Dad. This then gave way to our days playing X-Box computer games which Vishal had got from his stint in the US. Man - that was more fun - the way each of us had a preference for a charachter in the "Dead or Alive" game and used to compete with each other.

I was admitted to a hospital for the first time in my life in Bangalore where they suspected Dengue fever. Was in the hospital for 5 - 7 days under observation and i am indeed grateful to these guys for taking care of me as they would for any of their family members. Each night i had someone to give me company to sleep in the hospital and got all the food from home. Battling work pressures and other personal priorities - am indeed thankful for the attention and support these guys bestowed upon me. I infact had also informed my folks pretty late (2 days before being discharged) and assured them i was in good hands and there no need to travel to Bangalore. Hands down to you guys!

Then in Feb'2004 me and Vishal decided to move back closer to our homes in Mumbai. So we took a transfer to Pune office of Infosys. Indeed cherished those days with all of these guys. We did have some reunions later in the US - if not all of us together, but still in good groups. Those days and those times will never come back, but glad they did come the way did ! Hands down to my first set of roomies in Bachelorhood 1.0!