Few Photos to share - India 2008

I would like to share few photos that we took since i reached India during AUG 1st week.

2008 India - Anniv, Diwali and Others

This colletion includes Mom Dad Anniversary, Diwali and other occations in 2008 (during the period of AUG to DEC 2008).

Hats off to people who made these things work

I didn't blog for long time... But now, I was not able to resist.
I like to share this with you.

I just came back to India after spending few years in US. I could not see much changes in India by a glance. All I could see is same crowd, same pollution, same narrow streets (few good & broad streets - Exceptions), same terrorism & bomb attacks, same slow processing judgments, same, same, same...

Surprisingly, I could see India much improving in IT. But this time I am not talking about private sector. I am talking about Government sector.

I got amazed after visiting a TN govt website... It has computerised so much information and process. Do you know that we don't have to spend anymore for school books. Yes... All the books are available for free access. The website interface looks great.... Check this out... http://www.textbooksonline.tn.nic.in

Also I am able to see lot such websites these days.... For eg... I just visited TN electricity board website... http://www.tneb.in It looks like we are moving in right direction. Hats off to people who made these things work.

Also have a look at Govt Data Center http://www.tngdc.in/

Lincoln is what I got - My first car in US

Since we have lots of TCS people in Schaumburg and lots of Indians around Chicago and Shaumburg, it is really difficult to get good deals in cars like Honda, Nissan or Toyota. I searched in and out for these three cars for nearly 2 months. Nothing got materialized.

Finally, one day I decided to buy a Honda Civic 1999 model from a dealer and went to meet at 8.30 pm. But the dealer was busy with other customers and so we came out without seeing the car.

Similarly, I had few incidents where i used to search for good car deals in website and call the dealer/owner and check for availability of the car. And immediatedly 2 minutes after i end up the call, he will call me back saying he has sold the car to a person just walked in.

One day, we worked whole night in nielsen office to extract the Q4 POS data and validate and FTP the extracted files for Scoring process. We completed the work only the next day at 9 am. So they asked us to leave office and take rest that whole day.

I thought that it is a good chance for me to go and hunt for cars. So searched and found a Lincoln 2001 LS model (Luxury segment car) for $7900 from Woodfield Nissan Dealer. Started at 10.30 am along with Venkat and reached the dealer. Pradeep drove in directly from office at 12 noon along with Hari and Jay.

My First Car photos - In Pandi's Camera - 8th MAR

Pradeep helped in negotiating and getting a good deal (after 1 hour of negotiation we fixed the deal for $7500 including tax and plate). Deal was made for $7500. Then i took the car to Firestone to get his feedback. After inspection, firestone recommended not to buy the car. They gave a long list of issues which they claim they can fix all those for estimated price of $2500.

After that response from firestone i lost a bit of interest to buy that car. I was in dilemma. Then I called Pradeep and checked with him. Later i learnt that, in general, firestone used to upsell its service and tries to make money by servicing the car. So i finally decided to buy the car. I paid partly in cash and partly in Credit card (Pradeep's Card).

The car looks great and i am happy and satisfied with the car. Only dissapointment is, it consumes more fuel than Japanese Car. But Luxury comes with Cost.

Went for Ice Skying and then for buying (actually collecting) spree in Auto Show

Its Friday (FEB 15th 2008). Not yet planned anything for the weekend. Bilesh (One of the roommate) has left to India. Myself and Pradeep were in the house. Hari and Jai joined us and we started planning for the weekend.

Pradeep gave a wonderful idea. Ice Skying. Yes. Everyone said "We shall go". And so we booked a rental car for the next day (SAT) as Ice Skying is in Wisconsin (nearby State - 1hr drive).

The next day, we picked up the rental car from Enterprise (Rental car company) and we hit the road. We reached Alpine resort in Winconsin at around 3 pm and we entered for skying.

Wisconsin - Ice Skiying - FEB 16

For the first one hour it was like "Oh my God. I am going to hit someone and fall all the way down the hill". We took the Novice track and did practice. It was really difficult for those who are afraid of doing something new. But for me, its like walk on the ice cake (May be a lie). As, i would like to do something new, something interesting.

After an hour of fall, I started balancing well and worked more on controlling my path and speed. I was not able to have full control over those till 9pm (around 4 hrs of skying and falling). If i am able to achieve those, then it is really easy to do skying. Anyway, it was full of fun filled with new experience.

The next day (SUN FEB 17th) - We used the same rental car, and drove to Chicago Downtown to take part in the final day of the Auto show. Its around $10 entry fee. But its worth to give $10 to see and take photos with those mighty speed machines on this earth.

Chicago Downtown Auto Show - FEB 17

We are very smart. You know how. We spent $10 entry fee and gained $20 worth stuff (like t-shirts, posters, college bag, car sunglass holder... etc). Thanks to all credit card and Insurance companies who sponsored all those stuffs.

While returning we could not able to pay the parking fee as we parked the car in a different location (than the location for Auto show parking). Payment should be made in the automated machine before leaving.

We walked all the way to the car and then we found that we saved few bucks as we didn't park in the Auto show parking location. (It was $5 extra for parking in Auto show parking location). Again we proved our smartness (actually we are dumb enough to park somewhere without reading the signs and walk searching for Autoshow. ha ha...)

My Birthday Blast - Live from Orlando

My birthday (Dec 08 2007) started a bit dull in the morning... As it was a weekend (Sat), everyone (Sameer, Chakradhar, Pradeep, Koti and myself) were lazy and half asleep. Koti suddenly got up and heard some bad news about his car. Koti's (Roomie) car window got shattered and was attempted to steal the car. Koti called 911 immediately. A cop came and assessed the situation. She took the finger prints and went. (There was also attempt to steal one more nearby car. Police assessed that car too).

Koti checked with a neighbour for replacing the glass and we all were waiting for the neighbour to come back with replacement glass. Suddenly Pradeep got remembered my Birthday and wished me. Then all of them wished and we all planned to celebrate the day.

I treated all my friends with Indian Restaurant food (Kohinoor Restaurant) and in the night they brought me a cake and a bottle of champaigne to celebrate. We invited few other L&T friends (Praveen, Muthaiya, Ravi and Srithar) too for the party. It was so fun... My face was jammed with chocolate cake and pictures were taken. Then we had good fight with champaine splashing all over. Finally i received all my friends birthday bumbs and card. You too enjoy a few photos of my birthday here.

My Birthday Party 2007 - Live from Orlando

I would never forget this day as it was my first birthday in US. I was so lucky to get such wonderful friends around me.

Last year birthday (2006) too was soo special for me as it was the day when i got my Visa stamping in Delhi.

Gatlinburg - Smokey Mountain Trip Photos (OCT 2007)

Gatlinburg - Smokey Mountain Trip Photos (OCT 2007)
Bilesh, Chandru and their friends directly drove and came to Gatlinburg. We drove from Orlando to Gatlinburg via Atlanta (where we picked up Gokul in Atlanta Airport).

The trip was excellent. For White water Rafting, myself, Koti and Sreekanth (Koti's Friend) went in wrong route and missed the time slot. So the rafting company asked us to come some other day as they will give credit for the money we paid. But Pradeep built up story saying they are there for a bachelor party and so they want to wait for all others to join (myself, Koti and Sreekanth). This worked out and the rafting company took us to the rafting place, even though we reached late. Thanks to Bachelor party story.

Gatlinburg Smokey Mountain 2007

Similarly on the next day, Vatsan (Pradeep's Friend) took the Cabin (Hotel room) key with him and left Gatlinburg. We didn't know what to do. We thought we have to join Bilesh and his friends who are there enjoing Camping, and sleep in tents. But suddenly an idea came up. We dialed 911 (Cops/Police) and said we lost our key and the emergency hotel number is not reachable. So cops helped us to reach the Hotel owner and informed them to supply us spare keys. Within 25 minutes a car reached us and gave us a spare key for the Cabin. Hurrah.... We went to Cabin and had a wonderful sleep. Thanks to 911.

Few Albums For You

Universal Studios 2007

Keywest and Daytona 2007

Tampa and Casino 2007

Atlanta and Savana 26MAY2007