28

This is a number I have been dreading ever since I turned 25. In fact I am scared of going home now in fear that I may return married – I have seen instances of that. According to my Mom this is  the age when you should start “Planning your future” or “settle down”. For me I am still planning on what game to buy next for my XBOX – so isn’t that an indication that I am not ready? Hope would have been my brother but he decided to miss the spectacle that will happen so I am on my own.

The birthday itself was amazing had a blast with lots of special people around both in Office as well as at the Party which was at Hard Rock Cafe@Hyderabad. The last time I had been there it was a dry day but this time we celebrated properly – I will be feeling the pinch next month . The birthday continued into the weekend, a friend came visiting from Chennai. The weekend was good but cud have been awesome had it not been for the Bandhs mentioned in my previous post.

All in all.. an awesome birthday… which is only possible with awesome friends.. so thank you guys n gals!!!

India self destruct.. the countdown is on

India has this beautiful tag line of Unity and diversity. It looks great on paper but the reality of it doesn’t seem so.
People in North India have opinions about people in South India and vice versa. People in West India in the great state of Maharashtra have a problem with people from other states living there and working. People generally have opinions about people from UP n Bihar.

We are definitely diverse but where unity is concerned .. it only seems to happen at times of external threats and natural calamities, the rest of the time we are too busy using the DIVERSE to change from UNITY to DIVIDED.

These days there seem to be some riots in every part of the country. In Andhra Pradesh a political leader went on a hunger fast unto death because he wants a separate state of Telangana. Unfortunately people are stupid enough to actually give a crap about him and went on riots…. I mean who is he? Nobody forced him into it, nobody told him not to stop the fast – not entirely true – the students at Osmania University seem to be crazy too (they actually went wild when this guy had some juice ). Either way 11 days later after starting his fast he is almost dead and his supporters go crazy. What do they do .. they wreck the city.. call a bandh.. halt the city in general. But yes he finally got his demand.. the govt should have probably waited a bit more. Less problems that way… Now we have bandhs in other parts of the state protesting the division of Andhra Pradesh… as if nobody could predict that.

We even have other states demanding division of their states into smaller ones as well. Hell.. I wouldn’t mind a state of ‘Robinsons’ in a part of Andhra where everyone speaks English and the state food is pasta.. so should I start fasting as well?

So what did this whole thing do? It just proved the point that in India everything can be achieved with public support and riots.. and that learning Geography is going to become a lot tougher for our future generations.

India has its share of problems with its neighbouring countries. Why do we need to add to our problems with internal ones?

The burglary

In the end of May 2009 (28th) my apartment at Kondapur was burgled. When I got the news I was in Khairtabad with a friend. Driving back was perhaps one of the fastest drives considering the traffic and not the safest. When I reached my place I found that the latch holding the lock was busted and the door ajar. Of course my roommates were already there and so were the cops. My roommates made the precaution of not touching anything; I guess the idea that the cops would be searching for fingerprints was a hope we got from watching too many movies. The cops basically opened all doors, touched everything, questioned the watchman and left.

We then left for the police station at Madhapur (its supposed to be ISO 9002 or something – don’t think its good for anything) to register an FIR only to be told that we should return the next morning – then why do they call it a First Information Report? The cops were quick to point out that in Hitech city area only Laptops, cameras and other electronic gadgets get stolen – hurray we got hi-tech thieves!!! The next morning we went to the station again to register the FIR and to take a cop to our place so that they can start their investigation. There were two of them one was a OK, the other was a gorilla of a man whose sole purpose seemed to be to intimidate anyone he got into contact with. They reached our place and Gorilla immediately pounced on the Watchman for not maintaining a register of people entering the building – which should be done. The watchman in question is a total buffoon who lets anyone into the building, i think his wife does a better job at watching the people in the building. So the cops came into our place and we took them around the rooms explaining where the various things that got stole were placed. Me being me I naturally explained in English only for the Gorilla to pounce on me for not speaking in Hindi or Telugu – luckily the other guy knew English and we managed to proceed. The cops also insisted that all apartments should get internal door locks, which was also implemented by the building owner, however the damage was done .

The total number of Items stolen were: 2 Laptops, 3 digital cameras, 3 watches, 1 backpack, 1 electric razor (doesn’t the thief know about personal hygiene), 1 external hard drive, 1 Motorola cell phone charger. The cops estimated the total cost of stolen items to Rs.35000 where is the logic in that – one laptop and 1 camera were 1 month old each, those alone amounted to Rs.64000. On returning to the police station we were told to submit the complaint and return after 5 days to collect the FIR. In truth we got the FIR notice after 3 weeks after repeatedly getting new dates to complete to collect the FIR notice. The last time I went to the police station to collect the FIR the SI even asked me why I wanted a copy since it was not a company laptop nor insured – the honest answer to that is to ensure that the cops are doing their job – but I replied saying that I had some company data on the laptop; but that brings to mind “Will the cops only go after thieves who steal company laptops and insured property?”.

Fast forward 2 months after the burglary…

On July 25th, my roommate woke me up at 8am to say that we had to go to the police station – it seems that they had found the burglar and recovered some of the stuff. With lots of expectations we went to the Police station. Once there, the new SI (the old one got transferred) informed us that they caught the thief and can recover one DELL laptop which belonged to my roommate but not the COMPAQ which was stolen from me. He also said that the laptop is another DELL laptop and not the same laptop which was stolen – then why bother us in the first place? He said that it will be impossible to get the same laptop again since it has been sold of in pieces in Iran – what can you do with laptop pieces? We asked if we could see the other DELL laptop and the SI said that it has not yet been “recovered” – then how can he be so sure that they can recover it? The cop also mentioned that he traveled 3600 km to recover the laptop and catch the thief based on some network data – so if he traveled that far, how is it that there is no laptop to show for it and how could he track it if it was sold in pieces? The SI also said that we would have to sign that we received our laptop and not a replacement. My roommate refused to accept the other laptop saying that he would feel uncomfortable accepting a laptop which was not his – the cop said that nobody would miss the other laptop. His logic being “If we don’t call anybody how will they know that their laptop has been recovered?”. Either way, my roommate refused.

We then proceeded to inspect the cameras. I was more interested in the cameras than in laptops because by this time I had already purchased my new laptop. I was considering buying a new camera as well but did not get to do that, so I was hoping that my camera was among those recovered. The cop proceeded to remove cameras from a plastic bag, so much for taking care of belongings. No such luck, out of the 3 cameras which were stolen we found the Nikon S200 and the Sony T100 among lots of other cameras; both these cameras belonged to my roommates. My Canon IXUS 100 IS was not on the table.

We left the police station saying that we would think about taking the other laptop which we did not do. It makes me wonder is this the procedure followed for all thefts? Do the cops always give you something, rather than concentrating on giving you the things that you have lost; I’ve been told by friends that this would happen long before the cops called us.

The Bangalore – Singapore – Bintan – Chennai trip

April is a wonderful month, the beginning of Spring and in my particular case always holding a nice surprise.

We, ie. my Bro, a friend of his and me initially planned on making a trip to Thailand and a 1-day stop at Singapore. However because of the political situation in Thailand at that time we had to either cancel the trip or alter it at the last minute. So we opted for the latter.

On the 18th I took off for Bangalore (I will never get around to calling its new n stupid name) where I met up with friends and partied at Athena. For those who are familiar with the new and de-proved Bangalore…partying is limited to 11pm.. the rest has to be private. Luckily the limited party time has not affected the dressing sense of the party goers cheers to that.

The next day I caught my flight to Singapore via Tiger Airways, the flight was uneventful, and there were a lot of Mallus in the flight.. there is no place without us The flight lands in a different section of the airport, my bro insisted in showing me the main terminal so that I don’t get a bad impression of the Singapore Airport.

On the first day in Singapore my Bro took me to Raffles, it took all of 5 minutes to get lost, so I purchased a SIM Card which I could use during my Singapore Stay. We then walked and reached the place the with Merlion, Singapore’s mascot and according to my Bro “I’ve u’ve seen it u’ve seen Singapore”. Unfortunately my camera conked and I ended up purchasing a new Canon IXUS 100 IS – only to have it stolen a few months later (more on that later). The evening was spent in a German Beer bar called Brotzeit. Loved the place and the fact that they served Paulaner n Wuerstchen. This is also the place where my Bro won his 3 L beer mug, unfortunately I wasn’t there to witness it but the phone call which I had with him at that time speaks volumes.

The next day we were off to Bintan which is a resort island in Indonesia and can be reached via ferry from Singapore in 45 minutes. Once there we checked into a lodge and headed for the Beach, half-an-hour on a Yamaha Waverunner all by yourself without any driver is money well spent. We weren’t counting but I lapped my bro 4 times on that thing . After that we tried sailing on the Katamaran with a guide of course, its much tougher than it looks and it goes pretty fast. We then headed back and I went off to get myself a massage (any weirdos thinking funny thoughts.. it was just a massage). My whole body was paining after that…so never going for that again.

The next morning it was back to the beach and snorkeling… it was fun and tiring. Unfortunately the camera wasn’t waterproof so couldn’t take any pics. We then headed back to Singapore. That evening we spent met up with a German friend of mine who is in Singapore. Met in a club called Insomnia – the club was filled with Germans and the occasional French. “Entschuldigung” got you through a crowd faster than “Excuse me” .

The next 2 days I went solo coz my bro had to go to office. So went to Sentosa during the day, its kind of a theme park on an island. In the evening I went to Clark Quey where I met up with a few school buddies and with my bro. Friday I met up with another friend and the Singapore trip was officially over.

Next stop Chennai. It was AGAIN a blast. reached the airport, picked up a Ciroc vodka and JW Black and headed over to my friends place. There the guys were already sipping on Margaritas n playing Poker. The next morning we broke open the bottles and went on a morning to evening drinking session sipping on Ciroc + Grape Juice, I love that combo. In the evening we headed over to Dublin which is one of the most happening clubs in Chennai and it was AWESOME. Unlike Bangalore which has a reputation for being a cool city (check with anyone abroad – Indians already know the hard truth), Chennai has a nightlife. The club was packed and open till around 2.. it may have been 3. I never thought I would say this, but thats the truth as it is. The next day it was lunch at Zaras and then back to Hyderabad.

A week well spent of course since these things happened in April my memory is a bit rusty so missed on some stuff.

Catching up

Its been a while since I’ve posted, nearly a year, hence the post to keep the blog alive .

Since last September a quite a few things have happened.

A school buddy got married which was a perfect occasion to catch up with school mates.

I went to Pune for a Xmas party with friends where I got introduced to the German Bakery and its inhabitants who are generally members of the Osho Ashram.

Went to Kerala for Xmas n Bangalore for New Years 09.

After a few months of hibernation in the city of Hyderabad I went on a travel spree in the month of April. April always holds a pleasant surprise for me (two years ago I got the news that I would be traveling to Zurich and joined a German project which allowed me to travel to Germany for almost a year and last year I made a holiday in India from Germany).
Anyway as I was saying, I went to Mumbai for Easter and spent the following weekends in Bangalore – Singapore – Bintan (Indonesia) – Chennai. The pics for this trip are posted in Facebook.

May started with a Bang when I went to attend a friends Wedding – it was AWESOME!!! The best wedding I ever attended. The pics are again in Facebook.
May continued in a good way with a friend visiting from Delhi thus ensuring that weekends were fun and worth looking forward to.

All good things must come to an end, thats how May ended for me with a burglary in my apartment which cost me my Laptop and my new camera. Will write a separate blog on that.

Also my dream of going to Germany again are constantly delayed making me wonder if it will actually happen…anyway still hoping for the best. I like to plan things out and relocating to Germany is definitely part of my long term plans.

Being the kind of guy who can’t live without his gadgets I managed to wait for 3 weeks before splurging on a new Laptop – a dark beauty DELL XPS Studio 13 and a new camera (Canon IXUS 100 IS) a week ago

Well this pretty much brings things up to speed.

The next few weekends are something worth looking forward to: An engagement in Cochin and a trip to Chennai/ Pondycherry.

Hopefully I will be blogging more frequently from now…

Chennai showing its true colors

After a loooong time I decided to visit chennai, mostly because my bro was leaving for singapore… The weekend I spent there was simply fabulous.. I mean .. i hated chennai from the bottom of my heart.. avid chennai lovers please note that i used the past tense.

This time I got to see what Chennai as a metro was all about, and I was simply blown away -> The nightlife is great. I spent more time in areas of the city I haven’t been to before. I remember people saying that chennai grows on you.. now I am at least ready to believe it.

Of course the climate is still unbearable.

The Dark Knight Returns

This is what happened this weekend. A friend came to se Hyderabad…and on offer as a tourist attraction was the Dark Knight in IMAX and it was worth watching it again a second time. This is definitely one thing that is in favour of Hyderabad. Apart from IMAX I also managed to finally finish my bottle of Tequila.

Flyin on the information highway

This is referring to my internet connection. Its a 2Mbps connection.. and these days I am getting most of it. The provider is Beam Cable Systems in Hyderabad. Of course I had to suffer for the connection to be initially set up.. but once that was done.. there have been no complaints.. I always able to connect on demand..not like before (ie. last year) where the internet wouldn’t work if there was a power failure. The download limit on my package is 2.8GB which will get over pretty fast..but 2Mbps.. definitely worth it.. besides larger packages are available.

Now I hope I am not pushing my luck by writing this (as in touch wood).

The rain and power cycle of india

There is always a state of no power, i.e. no electricity.

When it rains it is more than likely that the power will go. And when there is no rain .. there is the excuse that that there is no water in the dams which again leads to load shedding.. This year Mumbai has 6 hours load shedding  per day.

So what will be the ideal situation where there are no power cuts? A week with no power disruption of any kind would be a sign that there is hope after all… Metros are not counted

A good weekend

For the past couple of weeks, ever since coming back to Hyderabad.. I reached the conclusion that this city is not for me anymore.. Nothing to do.. n most friends have relocated. But there is something in Hyderabad that cities like Chennai, Bangalore and recently Mumbai can only dream of – IMAX. So it came as no surprise that when The Dark Knight was released in IMAX that I had to see it and it was well worth it. Considering that I am in Hyderabad it may not even be that big a deal that I watched the movie in IMAX, hw bout people coming in from other cities, in this case Chennai n Bangalore (will never get used to Bengaluru) to see it? Well that would be my bro n Johnny.

Needless to say.. anybody who has googled The Dark Knight will have already read awesome reviews about it – and its true .. the movie is AWESOME… watch it…and if possible try for IMAX.

The rest of the weekend was good…but at the end of the weekend ..it only reinforced my feeling that the city is not for me… Possible new places of interest are Bangalore and Frankfurt