Mistimed Trip

In recent times I have been a very good guide to many people for their trips to different places. I have also been traveling for past 2 years and never had an issue at any point of time. My accommodations, tickets, bookings etc were all done before hand and were well planned. I boast myself of planning things so well and do not waste any long weekends or do not miss any occasions.

But my recent trip to India has gone bizarre. Nothing has gone as planned. Right from Singapore airport until I came landed back, nothing went well as it has to go.

At the Singapore airport:
Every time I buy the luggage before hand. This time I did not buy any and thought I shall take it at the airport. I went to airport on time and stood in the line for buying the extra luggage. As I reached the counter, I asked for 15KG extra luggage. The lady on the other side asked for 25 dollars. I gave her my ATM card, she said only credit card or cash and I had neither of them. Since the day I landed in Singapore, there wasn't a day when I was without a minimum of dollars in my pocket. But today I did not have any money in the pocket and thought I shall take it from the airport ATM. The ATM in the airport was not working and there was no ATM near by. I had to call my friend (Nagraj) and he came all the way to airport to give me the money.

At the immigration:
As I grew long hair yet again, the immigration officer questioned me for a while as she couldn't match my photo in passport with my current look.

At Bangalore Airport:
I tried helping one of the co passenger and hence had to stuck with the customs for a while.

At Bangalore Airport Ticket Counter:
Normally I buy this ticket from Bangalore to Hyderabad after landing in Bangalore. But today the night 3.30AM flight tickets were all over and had no other choice other than waiting all alone till morning 6.30 and take a Jet Airways flight.

Jet Airways Flight:
Normally my flight from Bangalore to Hyderabad takes 50 mins. This flight I took was a ATR flight and took 1 hr 30 mins for the journey.

Yadagiri Gutta Trip:
As soon as I reached Hyderabad we planned to go to Yadagiri Gutta. But as my flight got delayed, the whole trip got delayed and we started very late at 11AM. By the time we reached Yadagiri Gutta, it was around 1PM. As it was a weekend, there was huge crowd at Yadagiri Gutta and we did not even get the parking over there. Dad decided to stay in the car while I, Swetha and Mom will get the darshan. But when we went to see the special darshan line there were around 400 people already waiting in the line. We dropped the plan of taking darshan today and came back to Hyderabad. This was for the first time, that we came back from a temple without darshan.

Same Night:
The night of the day I reached, I and Swetha went to meet Aparna. We were roaming around her house for more than 30 mins but couldn't get a proper way to her house.

Last Day:
Morning of the day of my return we thought of again going for Yadagiri Gutta darshan. But because of some reasons mom said today we cannot go and hence my Yadagiri Gutta darshan has been postponed to some other time when we go back to Hyderabad.

I was just wondered the whole trip why things go well. Since my childhood days, mom used to say not to leave house or do something when somebody sneezes. But this time while coming to Hyderabad, I sneezed and immediately started for the trip. I know this is stupid to believe such things, but then this happened to me coincidentally.

Hope my future trips go well.

Going Home

In another 3 hours I will be flying back home. Its been a long time (4 Months) I have gone home. This time I am going for my parents marriage anniversary which is on 15th June. I just wanted to be with them on that special day. I will be back on 16th morning. I have many things on my agenda and I hope everything goes as planned. Till then Good Bye and Take Care.

Lighter Moments

I wanted to share some of the Lighter Moments that I have come across in my life. This is one such incident at my office.


It was time of appraisal at CA for the first time after 6 months of joining. My manager called for a one on one meeting with me. Below is the funny conversation which we had during the appraisal time.

Mgr: Hi
I: Hi

Mgr: So, its been 6 months. How are you feeling?
I: Great

Mgr: Great? Why?
I was a bit worried. Now what can I reply if he asks me why. I took a while and replied.

I: I have learned a lot after coming to CA. I have been in support and got a chance to work in Development. So overall its a great experience for me.
Mgr: Good.

Mgr: Normally at what time do you come to office?
Casually I replied.
I: At 10AM (Which was the office time)

Mgr: So when was the last time?
Now everybody in my team knows that I come late to office :-). What else could I say? I just smiled. But I was sure that he was trying to make some point there.

Mgr: How much time do you spend on breaks.
This time I wanted to be a bit careful and tell little facts.
I: Its just 1Hour 15Mins. 1 Hour for lunch and 15Mins for coffee in the evening.

Mgr: I guess you spend more than 2 and half hours on breaks everyday.
I was like no way what the hell is he talking about. I replied immediately.
I: Nooo (As Russel Peters says Nooooooooooo the Chinese way .. he he)

Mgr: OK let me tell you. You go to lunch at 12 come back at 1.15 and sleep till 1.45 and go for coffee for 30 minutes.
I was shocked. No Shit man. This guys observes everything I do. Ok now the facts, what ever he said was absolutely correct. Now I took a while about what I should tell him.

I: Yeah I understand, but I need some sleep everyday. I have migraine and I have to sleep to keep my headache away.
Mgr: So do you think sleeping in a place where others are working looks good.

Now anybody would say that, this will not be repeated or sorry about what has happened etc. But to my managers shock below is our conversation.

I: So where do you want me to sleep.
He was shocked. He never expected that from me. This time he took a while to answer.

Mgr: OK, book a meeting room and sleep for a while there.
I: OK, I shall do that.

Now you can think as what could be the rating I have got after that :-)

Days passed and after a week, I was sleeping at my desk and my manager came and woke me up.

Mgr: Why are you again sleeping at your desk?
I: Meeting rooms are full.

Ha ha .. after that my manager never ever touched me on any issue as he knew what kind of answers he is going to get from me. I know the performance appraisal had a inversely proportional affect because of this. But then there should be such lighter moments in life to tell to friends at some point of time and laugh :-)

Mixed Feelings

I have been in Singapore with my friends for more than 1 and half year. Now came the time to move on as I got married. Yesterday I moved into the new house with mixed feelings. I don't think I will ever be able to enjoy that kind of bachelor life again. I have never been in a hostel or a room before coming to Singapore. I was not sure how I would be here away from home. My friends here have been of great support in every aspect right from partying to some important decisions in life. They even helped me in every aspect while shifting the house. I will miss all the fun we had during this time.

At the same time I am very much excited that I will start living with Swetha. This will be again a new experience for me as I am going to take the responsibility of Swetha. I am happy, excited and at the same time tensed with the situation as I am not sure how well I can manage things in life. I have always been dependant on family and friends for most of the things and now somebody else is a dependant on me. I am looking forward to take great care of Swetha as this new chapter in life begins.

Below are some of the pics of my new house that I have rented.

Ritual when going into a new house

Owner's display of Coke tins .. a valuable collection.

Master Bedroom. This is a corner apartment and no disturbance from other people. Outside you can see a large empty ground.

Kitchen

Hall. You can see Srini and Nagaraj in the picture.

May god bless the couple :-)

Congratulations Rahul

I have always liked my friends and cousins getting visas to go to USA (Frankly speaking not only to USA but to any part of the world). I have always cheered them and wished them the good luck and finally congratulated them when they got their visas. OK now this post is to congratulate my cousin Rahul who got his visa today and will be heading to University of North Carolina. All the best buddy.

I am a Life Saver

Do not get into conclusions, its just the quote on the pen given to me by Red Cross Singapore. Today evening we had a Blood donation camp organized at our office. Previously in India I donated blood twice and thought I shall do it once here also.

At 4.30 I went to second floor (ok I sit in the fourth floor) and asked for the registration form. They gave me a 4 page registration form in which I had to select all "No"s. I did that in couple of minutes and submitted the form.

Forgot to tell you the funny incident happened during this filling of the form. There was a question asking if I had taken any medication in the past 3 days. I had headache yesterday and took panadol and hence wanted to ask them if I have to select Yes or No. I went to the nurse and below was the conversation.

I: Hi, what should I fill in this field. It asks if I had taken any medication in past 3 days. I took a panadol for headache.
Nurse: When did u take it?

I: It was yesterday.
Nurse: Hmmm thinks for a while.

Nurse: OK fill it as no as you have taken yesterday and it ask past 3 days.

I was like shocked and wanted to laugh aloud, but then kept calm smiled at her and came back to my seat.

Coming back to the main topic, after submitting the form there was a blood test done which said I am fine and I went ahead to a nurse. She checked the form and then she checked the nerve on my hand and said she would take it from the right hand.



She took out a needle and started taking out the blood. I have always been scared of needles which I told her. She tried making a conversation with me asking if I have given blood previously and all that stuff.

After a while I started feeling giddiness and told the same to nurse and within seconds I fell unconscious. When I woke up, I saw that I was totally wet with sweat and was surrounded by as many as 10 people. My hand which was being used for taking the blood was having a bandage. I started feeling nausea and asked for a bag so that I can vomit. It happened twice and I was feeling bad about it as they were cleaning that whole mess.

After 30 minutes I became normal and then asked them if it was normal to happen like this to a person. They told that it was common and not to worry about it. Later I came to know that they have taken about 500ml blood while I gave about 200ml blood in India twice. So I decided one thing that I will not donate blood in Singapore again.

I came home and discussed the same with my roomies and one of my roomie had a similar experience in Singapore and then my decision not to give blood in Singapore has become stronger. Over all I am happy that I have donated the blood even though the aftermath was bad.

Surya's Happy Birth Day

I am just back from the party which Surya gave on occasion of his 27th birthday. Actually his birthday is June 1st, but then as it is a working day we roomies planned to have the fun today. We had a great time at the Indo Chine Lounge at Wisma Aitra at Orchard Road. Place was very good and happening. There was a live band playing for more than 2 hours when we were there. The singers were awesome and were funny. They also encouraged the people in the lounge to come and sing.

We had 8 or 9 rounds of drink each and were still wanting more. As it was about to hit the midnight we wanted to rush home for the cake cutting. We had a burger at McDonalds and took a taxi back home. At 12 Surya did the proceedings of cutting the cake and I took the honour of giving the birthday bumps :-)

Birtday Cake

Thats Surya talking to his Bro while cutting the cake

Thats the gang

Overall it was fun filled evening and looking forward for June 29th which is Srinivas's birthday.