Thursday, February 28, 2008

Unfortunately I was not around

Feb 18th was indeed a very painful day for me and many people I know. Baba(my grandpa) passed away that day. He was a very strong and positive person. Every person in my family and extended family spread across the world has very good memories about him. He was a very knowledgable and took interest in helping everybody. We will always miss him.

I hoped I would meet him when I returned home, but thats how God willed. My sister mailed me the bad news when I was in middle of a very stressful situation at work. Thats when I felt most helpless. I wanted to be at home but couldnot help. Im in a place where not even a funeral stops the show. This was one day perhaps, I will always regret not having been in India.

Anyway, all I can do is pray for Baba's maghfirath and whoever reads my blog please join me.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Work, work and more work

This week has been the most hectic one of my life. Its sunday afternoon and Im in office went home last night at midnight. Never did I study or work so much even during my exams. We have a delivery scheduled on 29th feb and we are way behind schedule. More we test our code more defects we find and more changes we have to make. I think this is how the software industry functions. The approach is much more relaxed in India where "its human to err(ocassionally)". In Japan mistakes are a cardinal sin. So we have to test our code again and again and again before the tester has a look of it.

Having said all that, I consider myself lucky to have found a very friendly and understanding team over here. The atmosphere is professional yet fun. Last night I had my dinner in our favourite Neel Gagan at midnight with my project manager Deepak. Saw a bit of the movie Sunday there and returned home around 1 am. Best part of this country is anybody can go anywhere at anytime and feel safe. There are cops everywhere and everything is systematic. Maybe this system is a result of the workaholism that defines the Japanese.

On lighter note I think I can suggest Rajkumar Hirani to make a Munnabhai sequel (Munna san in Japan). Preaching the japanese to go a bit easier on work and have a "tension lene ka nahi tension dene ka" attitude. Even as I write, I have another defect to fix. I better get back to fixing the bugs.

Monday, February 4, 2008

Not so eventful...

My biggest achievement last weeekend was cooking dal all by myself. On sunday it snowed like mad I could barely step out of my home. Before 10 am all the cars were under a mountain of snow. I had bought some goceries from the Srilankan store. I wanted to experiment my culinary skills. The dal was not bad. I had it with some roti's. The biggest contribution to this skill is my stay in Kolkata. My roomies were awesome in the cooking department.

Next, I plan to make some chicken curry whenever I get some time. But for now I have lots of work to complete. Even I have to prepare for my Japanese class. I have to try reading some of the basic alphabets. Its easier to learn talking than reading it. Besides, learning to read there written script (katakana/hiragana) is just the beginning. Most of the instructions on the street and elsewhere are written in the Chinese derived script which is based on pictures rather than sounds. This is a very technical topic for both me and whoever is reading my blog Im sure.

One thing I have understood in my limited experience here is that most japanese live to work. So often I have seen people come to office with there tooth brushes. Its not a surprise to see people stay overnight and most of the wash rooms are full of people brushing there teeth aroung morning 10. Fortunately I work for an Indian company with a slightly different attitude to work. But providing service to these Japanese clients has its own side effects. There work culture and sense of punctuality hits you straight on the face. But the situation is not that bad as they are very courteous and make the situation comfortable for anybody especially foreigners.

One of the following weekends I plan to go to one of the hills near Tokyo where I want to try skiing and other winter sports. The issue right now is company. It was fun when Vijay was around. I think he will be back for 10 days again in feb. I think I'll wait for another week before I make any plan.

For now its back to work. Not much to write actually. More on this blog as anything new happens.