96th Day!!!!!!!!!!!

In the Engg. days, I never thought much about coming abroad or anything,,All I was thinking of was a JOB(thinking of a small town boy). Once I joined the rat race in Indian IT Hub "Bangalore" - probably after two years, I seriously started thinking of ONSITE - to earn some quick money. But due to various reasons(lottery rejection, recession, etc etc), it took me so long to fulfill that[my great luck:)].

And now, here I am Santhosh Chikurambotla spending my 96th Day in "United States of America" :)

May be due to that little waiting period, lost most of the curiosity/passion, but still having fun so far.

Been thinking of summarizing many thoughts over here from many days, and somehow, got the mood to write some words.

First thoughts after stepping in US:

Did not feel much difference in the airport except, lot of foreigners around[sorry I am the foreigner by now and they are the locals :)]. Some Pakistani cab driver came to me and took me to the hotel. Watching the city from the Windows was a great different feeling. It was as though I was watching those Hollywood movies from the window screens. After reaching the hotel and talking to receptionist, slowly it was sinking in to my brain.

I came during the end of winter over here. The temperature was around some 5  Degree Centigrade[The lowest my body has been in 28 years :)]. The trees around and whole envi around was awesome. The images r permanently flashed to my memory,,

It was by then more than 24 hours I had been mentally alone except for the fellow passengers. It was getting on my nerves. Luckily, a friend came by within 2 hours of checking in to the hotel. Went out with him for the rest of weekend. That made a huge difference. Saw couple of stores, a mall, couple of restaurants, met his friends and spent great time with them all.

With all that, the whole abroad thing got sunk into my mind.

Earlier experience of working at client locations had helped me. So, at least that part was not new to me except for the new country.

Have a big bunch of Wiproites over here. And all of them very helpful. From then, it was all cool.

Things I love here:

• -          The travel journey to and fro from apartment to office is around 20 minutes. So, suddenly I had around one and half hour more time every day[to waste J]
• -          Everyone has a car, and u always travel in car J
• -          The facilities in the apartments make life very easier(gym, kitchen with refrigerator & stoves, washing and drying machines). So, even though we cook ourselves and wash our clothes, it is not as much a pain as we do in our place.
• -          The variety of food to try. I always like to try new food items. Here there r probably endless varieties to try(Mexican, Italian, Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, Ethiopian, pancakes,,,,,). So, it’s a good place for foodies. But definitely can’t try out daily. The stomach graves for a routine of Indian food J. All the above r only once in a while to break the routine,,
• -          Everything is very properly planned over here:
•  The streets, roads, traffic, flyovers, highways, offices, stores.
• -          The Unity In Diversity principle applies even here too. There are just so many different kind of people in this country(Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Indian subcontinent, some European, middle east and native AMERICANS ). It’s just good to see such a wide variety of people all staying as a community.
• -          These were on the top of my mind. But if I think more, I may add some more. May be later.

Things I don’t like here:

• -          Not great public transportation. We can probably say NO public transportation. So, until you have a car, you are not on your own. Coming from India, with such a great n huge local and intercity public transport, this will tie your legs.
• -          Definitely miss all the friends n family. If by any chance, the Bangalore, Hyderabad n Chennai gang was here, the FUN WOULD HAVE BEEN AT PEAK. But sadly, it is not possible and that’s life. lol!!. So, again realized that, happiness just does not come with money or some other things, u need people to share with J
• -          The mobile devices are cheaper, but the carriers charges are huge. They even charge for incoming calls and even even for incoming messages J
• -          For safety reasons, can’t walk alone outside after sunset. Again, in Bangalore, I was happily walking on the roads at 1:00 AM or 3:00 AM. Never felt feared. So, have to live with it.
• -          That’s all I can think of as of now.

-Cheers
Santhosh

Swades - We the people

                Just now, finished watching the movie Swades, including all the seven deleted scenes available in youtube :). I am not sure how many times i've already seen the movie. 

From the very first time i've seen this movie, I've become a big fan of the movie as well as Ashutosh Gowarikar. He is a marvellous Director who has done some excellent meaningful movies.


Coming to the movie:
    Shahrukh was perfect to the character, an NRI who came to india for his nanny. Not a bit of over acting any where[which he normally does :)]. Perfect in cute little romantic scenes as well as serious scenes crying or preaching the villagers. I would say this is his best performance till date(Sep 1st, 2010).


    Gayatri Joshi is also very natural and apt for the role. She might not've acted greatly in some scenes, but that makes it more natural.[No Human being gives perfect expressions in real life :)] I am really surprised why she couldn't act in many movies[atleast big movies] after that movie. 


    The director was able to properly everything in the movie:

• Romance/Love between the lead pair was shown in  a very cute and decent manner. 
• Emotions were perfectly brought in all the scenes showing various problems/people's sufferings,,etc. Never over the board. This is very difficult to achieve.
• Some simple solutions were shown in a nice way. Lets not debate on the possibilities of those solutions.
• The whole village environment was captured very well.

I feel/think, India needs many such Mohan Bhargavas for it to resolve all it's problems and become a properly developed country.

I will feel really happy/proud when ever I read about such people who fight/bring  change in the society and show solutions to the common/poor people's problems. Recently I've read about Bhagavatula Parameswara Rao, an indian who completed his PhD in US and returned to India in 1967 and since then been helping many people using his Bhagavatula Charitable trust.

More information can be found at http://www.bctindia.net/

Jai Hind

Easiest way to download images from picasa website [Other user accounts]

Hi,

 

Many times, our friends will upload the pics to picasa and send us the links.

 

But, how can we download all of them to our desktop?

Picasa doesn’t provide any such options. And we cannot waste all our time right click on each image and downloading.

 

We can use DownThemAll but with a slight twist.

If you directly use it to download all images, you will only download the thumbnail size images.

To download the actual full size images, open the RSS and use the tool from there.

 

1. Install the DownThemAll extension
2. Go to the picasa album url.
3. Click on the “RSS” on the right side bar and you’ll get album’s feed.
4. Right-click on the page, select DownThemAll/DownThemAll in the contextual menu, expand the Filters section and check "Images". Don't forget to enter the folder where you want to save the photos.

 

Cheers,
Santhosh

 

 

[Some time pass] Observations on Population & Population Density stats :-)

Today, I am getting damn bored in the office and hence wasted time doing R&D on Population and Population Density.

And here is some of the gyan I gained: (Thanks to Wikipedia J )

 

Total world population as of now: ~685 crores

• (2^nd) India’s contribution: 17.26%
• (1^st) China’s contribution: 19.52%
• (3^rd) USA’s contribution: 4.52 %        [See the huge difference from here J]
• (4^th) Indonesia’s contribution: 3.41%
• First 10 countries among the 223 countries in the list contribute to 58.65 % of the population

(China, India, US, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Russia and Japan)

• The 80-20 rule(Pareto principle) applies here also:

• 80% of world’s population live in less than 20% of the world’s countries(33 countries out of 223 countries)

 

 

Population Density:

• Among the top ten populous countries, again India is the second densely populous country after Bangladesh J

• (9^th rank in population density ) Bangladesh: 1126 humans/km2
• (9) Bangladesh: 1126
• (32) India: 360
• (36) Japan: 337
• (58) Pakistan: 211
• (72) Nigeria: 167
• (78) China: 139
• (91) Indonesia: 121
• (178) US: 32
• (192) Brazil: 22
• (221) Russia: 8

 

• This to some extent explains poverty in our countries and wealth in US and Russia,,

 

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_density

 

Cheers,
Santhosh

 

 

**^H@ppy Sund@y^**

From the past 26+ years, except for the first 3 initial years, i think the ever sweetest thing is SUNDAY. And I am sure, each of you would surely say so. [If u do not think so, better u visit some doctor(not kidding :))].

During different stages of life, I was enjoying them in a variety of ways:

L.K.G to 5th Class: Full of playing inside n outside home.

6th Class to 10th Class: Some games outside, movies with friends and very importantly IDIOT BOX[TV]

+1 and +2(Intermediate two years): BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS[all others r negligible :(]

B.Tech 4 years: Nothing special[same enjoy as other days of week ;)]

Of late, probably after I am little grown up, following three are really helping me in enjoying my Sunday.

Eenadu: 

Like many people in Andhra, my brain has now got completely programmed to such an extent that, reading any news paper other than eenadu, I will not feel like I read a news paper. Hence, first thing I do once I get up is to get this.

Why do I need the news paper?

I will not claim to be a responsible citizen just by reading a news paper. The imp. reason to read it is, probably it provides me what I am interested in(movies, sports, politics, happenings). Easiest way to know about the world u r leaving in is reading the news paper. It tells u about the real-time meanings of all the following words including their counter words. 

Good, bad, ugly, great, faith, bold,  generous, secure, sensitive, responsible, honorable, creative, humility, ignorant, tolerance, determine, loyal, truthful.

Swathi:

Ahhhhh,,,, "I almost enjoy each and every letter printed in Swathi weekly."

I know it's little exaggerating. But it's not completely false. I really love each and everything in swathi: serials, stories, nannu adagandi, kothi kommochchi, ee sheershike meedhe, all the cartoons and drawings from Baapu, editorial by balaram sir, film reviews and news, articles about various things, articles about god, health tips, that, this,, etc and everything.

FULL TIMEPASS. I cannot say this, as I make the time for it and again pass it ;)

Some people think, it is for ladies. But, I am proud to say I am a fan of Swathi. I am not at all ashamed of reading it.

Bru Coffe:

Start the day with a bru coffe. Even though u've it daily, but having it so leasurely on a Sunday morning, is a completely different experience.[Again aaahhhhhh],,May be caffeine is little poisonous to health. But it is worth the joy it provides :D,,

Apart from the above, movies(inside and outside, men only parties :(,  :), friends, internet, and of course, IDIOT BOX complete my Sundays.

Another sunday is almost finished,,,,Waiting for one more [:)],,,

Cheers

Santhosh 

""Little philosophy""

I have been thinking from a lot of days or probably months to write about this, but but but, it took a little while for this lazy bugger to put it on paper(mail).

 

Lord vinayaka is my favorite god for reasons I can never think of. But, I even worship all the other hindu gods my parents worship. I really like stories about each god. They will all be really fascinating, captivating, gripping, charming, etc etc *ing.

 

I don’t know from when, but suddenly I started getting convinced that all those gods and all their stories ARE ALL COMPLETE FICTION created by some great great writers for what ever reasons GOOD or BAD.

 

But, even after that I still pray in front of their idols in the morning, occasionally go to their temples, actively participate in all the pujas my family does, go all pilgrimages with them all without any complaints.

 

I again started thinking why am I doing all those if I am fully convinced that it is all fiction. Following are the answers I could get:

 

• My mother will not leave me if I do not follow them J

 

• But, to my surprise, the main reasons I was doing all those as I was enjoying them.

• Every day after finishing the bath, go and stand in front of those beautiful/peaceful/ever-smiling/ever-blessing idols:

• I feel real cool.
• Close your eyes and pray for some time. You will feel relieved. And your whole heart feels light.

• Okay, then why do I enjoy pilgrimages and pujas:

• Above reasons still hold good.
• Other main reason is due to the family I think. It’s normally little difficult to get all ur family together doing the same without any external thoughts(not even TV J ). But these are the times, I think we all sit and get a feel of togetherness. I really like that feeling and hence enjoy these also.
• Other reasons for liking pujas is the whole environment is made so delightful, devotional, divine that I again feel happy.
• And new places and picnics are always enjoyable ;-)

 

 

• Some other philosophical thoughts I’ve:

• Even though, the story about that particular god may not be true, but when I pray him, it means that I am praying someone powerful who is definitely responsible for the existence of everything/anything and even nothing. No way I can compete with him and I have to pray him for all reasons.
• When ever I succeed, it’s all because of me J. But when I fail, I need someone else to blame(actually we sometimes give our 200% and still fail. The only logical reason I find for that is him. This is world works on too many random happenings that we can’t always plan ur success.) [at least I think so]

 

 

• Other very interesting question, I many times think of is “Does GOD exist?”

• U should be really stupid, if you say there is no one powerful than man and everything got created on it’s own. Everything definitely can’t come out of nothing. Come on,,

• Yes. 2H2 + O2 = 2H20. Man has found this equation and that’s how water is formed.

• But, why the hell should the result be 2H20???????(unless someone had made it so)

• I think, man is just discovering the rules which are written by someone(something or somesome) . He has never invented(I mean created) anything.

 

• But then who created that powerful someone/something/somesome??????????????????????????????[I get mad here. Hope u 2 get mad L]

 

• Okay, now I agree that GOD exists, but still I am not sure if that GOD is same as the religions promise(At least the religions I’ve been seeing):

• Will he fulfill our wishes if we go and ask him? [But, if god has created us, then why should he wait for us to ask him. He should definitely be generous enough to grant all our wishes directly. Waiting till the devotee asks is not a good attribute for god!!!(at least I think so)
• Why are some people lucky and some not?
• Does everyone’s life will be balanced with both good and bad?

 

• WHY THE HECK SHOULD GOD CREATE US AND WATCH US SUFFER OR ENJOY? WHAT IS THE NEED MAN??

 

• If I am a creator, would I really care about things we create and their feelings ,,etc [ do we feel sorry for our programs if they go and crash customer machines? Everyone would’ve definitely broken their toys(need not be beautiful one. Any thing we play with in childhood). Do we feel anything for those toys?

 

 

With all these, I am sure I am not conclusive!!!!!!

 

Just thought of putting it to written(typed J) form once. Finished it. That’s it. Cool.

 

Best way to lead the life is to lead the way u want.

• U find happiness in praying the god. Go ahead do it.
• U find happiness in blaming the god. Go ahead do it.
• U find happiness in dying for the nation. Go ahead do it.
• U find happiness in violence. Go ahead do it. (But, there will be many others who will find happiness in giving it back 2 u. Be prepared for it then. J)
• U find happiness in not doing anything. Go ahead do it J
• Go ahead do it. Go ahead do it.
• Go ahead do it. Go ahead do it.

 

I am now going ahead doing it, but what makes me happy???[Again a thousand answersJ ]

 

Cheers,

Santhosh

 

testing mail update.

Hi,

Testing mail update.

-Santhosh :)