This is my first visit to the Noida and second to Delhi – although last time I was here for just a day on my to Varanasi.

I am super excited to be here, as I really wanted to visit these places and spend more time in and around Delhi. Expect to see a lot of photos and read a lot about my various outings over the next couple of weeks!

I joined a Yoga and Pilates session at office, last month, to try and do some good to my abused body. Our group went on a one day trip to Mekedaatu last Saturday (3rd March 2007) along with the aerobics batch!

We left early Saturday morning and picked up people on the way and had breakfast at some restaurant in Jayanagar and proceeded to Sangam (where Kaveri and Arkavathi rivers meet). Time flew in the cab amidst games of Antaakshari and Dumb-charades! We reached Sangam by around 10:45 AM and stopped our cab there and then started off on a 4 km ‘trek’ (rather walk) to Mekedaatu.

Mekedaatu

Following an interesting walk and some time spent admiring the gorges and scenery at Mekedaatu and many photos later, we returned to Sangam on a rickety old bus, sucking on a ‘lolly’ (ice-candy), on a bumpy road!

We then spent the rest of the evening playing in the waters at Sangam. There were quite a few water-battles between us and we had lots of good fun! We left the place by around 5:30 PM.

Sangam

The day out was good and the place is ideal for a one-day escape from the madness of the city. Made a lot of new friends and some good ones, especially one special person, and will never forget this trip for the people I met. It felt like my soul was covered with dew drops!

More photos here

Anyway, here is a photo feature of various events and memories of the past one year at Perot and as part of the TIP 2005 batch -

Wonder where life will take me over the next one year…because I’m not really sure what to do. Higher studies? Shift jobs? Stick around? Only time will tell.

I’ve been attending some training on advanced oracle and sql tuning since Thursday at work and by Friday it got too much and I just had to go out and have some fun. Met Anshu and a friend of his and had dinner at Desmond’s on Lavelle Road. We had lots of fun talking about life at college (PUC) and spent a lot of time laughing the night away!

After a long time I went to office on a Saturday, to attend day 3 of the training and as usual most of it went over the head and so as to not fall asleep and also getting into football fever, Kiran and I spent the afternoon playing book-football (dont even ask how it is played!!). The matches were exciting and close, but finally I won the series 3-1!! ;)

Went out with mom in the evening and I got home in time to finally see Saw. The movie comes under the genre of dark/psychopath killer/horror/crime and was one of the best movies I’ve seen in this genre apart from Se7en. The movie revolves around this psychopath killer, ‘Jigsaw’ – (but you can’t really call him a killer, because he doesn’t kill anybody. He just gives his victims a reason and the means to kill themselves) – who abducts people whom he accuses of not being grateful of being alive and puts them in a ’game’ as he calls the sick situations wherein they end up pretty much killing themselves or others just to stay alive. Lots of gruesome stuff and definitely not a movie for the faint hearted. But overall a great chilling thriller. The ending is a blood curling unexpected twist and just leaves you wanting to see Saw II.

I followed Saw with Mission: Impossible III. It was an okay movie. Nothing new. We’ve seen this kind of action before. Similar hero, hero’s babe, villains, babe gets kidnapped by villain, fights, gadgets, plot etc… similar to any number of movies in the past.

Hmmm thats about all I can remember about my lost post. A nice Sunday afternoon now and about one and a half hours to go for the British Grand Prix. I hope Schumi wins!

Anyway after a long time I finally went for a haircut (much to the delight of many people, especially mom!). I was supposed to meet a friend after the haircut, but unfortunately this got cancelled, so I decided to go for a movie (Taxi 9211) with Sunil, Sharath and Ranga. The movie was at 7.40 PM at PVR Cinemas, and this meant I had about 3 hours to kill before the movie. I ended up shopping (all alone) at Lifestyle. Got myself some clothes and then proceeded to the multiplex.

Taxi 9211 was a nice and different movie, although the ending kinda became cliched and predictable. Great acting, nonetheless, by both the lead actors.

On Sunday went out with parents for more shopping and later I took them out for dinner at Tandoor.

Back to work on Monday after a long break and had some pending work to finish up and got some new tasks to work on. Tuesday and Wednesday was spent in the training hall for the Business Communication Skills training session, taken by a Ms. Lata. The session was great and all the participants enjoyed the two days and I learnt a whole lot of stuff and discovered a lot of common communication mistakes and how to be more assertive and communicate better. On the second day we had to give two presentations and I chose Photography as my first topic (and so did Chandru) and Blogging as my second topic.

Also bought a few books from Crosswords on Tuesday and hope to finish some of them this weekend!

Reflecting back on Holi!

Kundan, Nitin, Chaitu, Arun, Vinay and me

Bonds from AP – Bhargav and Kundan

Read more about Holi here.

Kundan and me

Kundan and Vinay

Kundan at the “best ethnic dress” contest

Enjoying the “ethnic” view
(L-R): Yathi, Manoj, me, Kundan, Roshan, Praneeth

The trio from Nitte: Bhargav, Ajith and myself

All in all it was good time pass and we were told that more such events would be held at regular intervals.

It was a welcome break for all of us and we had a great time in the river!

We also went on a small trek to a nearby hill -

I would have written more about the trip, but my colleague has written a detailed description of the trip here. I took some great photos of the trip, which you can see here.

It is now just over 2 months since I joined Perot Systems. The last 2 months was spent in undergoing various technical and non-technical training. The technical training was primarily focussed on various Microsoft technologies and .NET in particular.

It was an interesting and at times tedious 2 months, especially the 9AM to 8.30PM Monday to Saturday schedule, but I learnt quite a lot! The batch (TIP 2005) I was in, was good fun and we had a lot of good times together!

Today, our batch was taken to ECC (a very calm and beautiful place at Whitefield) and had various team building exercises. Major TP!

TIP 2005 Batch 1 – Perot Systems

Last Saturday, we had our first Microsoft Certification Exam –

Exam 70-315: Developing and Implementing Web Applications with C# and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, after clearing which, I am now an MCP -

I also have my second MCP exam coming up shortly -

Exam 70-229: Designing and Implementing Databases with Microsoft SQL Server 2000, Enterprise Edition.

This is going to be my last day or two as a trainee and sometime this week I will be allocated to a project, along with my batchmates.

I guess my life is starting a new phase now as the last two months were more like a 9th semester rather than work.

I wonder how it will be…

Well lucky you! You needn’t wonder so much, because you can read all about it here, as it unfolds, straight from the horses mouth!

Blogging after a long time. Still at office – now on a break from our training.

Nothing much happening to blog about.

Life is now very monotonous. I am at work Monday to Saturday 9AM to 9PM.
Sundays are spent doing various odd-jobs. Catching up with friends and the pending activities.

The weeks are just whizzing past…

I am re-reading Armies of Hanuman by Ashok Banker now. It is book 4 in the Ramayana series. The book is great and the story resumes 13 years into the exile of Rama and Sita. There are more interesting battle scenes, which Ashok is so good at writing (I just can’t wait for the big battle of Lanka). The book soon reaches the point where Sita is kidnapped by Ravana in disguise, while Rama is chasing the golden deer, and Lakshman leaves Sita to look for Rama. The love between Rama and Sita has been portrayed very beautifully by Ashok and Rama’s angst and distress at the loss of Sita has also been dealt with properly. Finally one of the most loved characters of the Ramayana – Hanuman – makes an entry into the story. Ashok has described in detail and in a very touching manner the interactions between Rama and Hanuman. The book goes on to describe how Rama helps the Vanar Sena and they agree to help Rama get back Sita.

On the whole a great book. If you still havent read the Ramayana Series by Ashok K Banker, then I suggest you do so immediately! Check out the author’s website at: www.epicindia.com for more details. And did I mention that Ashok has acknowledged me in the Armies of Hanuman?! Thanks Ashok for the honour!