Moving on...

Having been in tcs for more than 2 1/2 years(3 including TCS BTS), and been with different teams, locations and projects I have finally decided to move on. It was not an easy decision to resign from a company like TCS but made up my mind after a hell lot of thinking.

I have been offered by satyam. Looks like a good offer as far as hike and nature of work in concerned. But will know whats in store only after I join.

I am expected to be open for travel. Might have to relocate to Japan around end on Jan 2008. I am looking forward to the opportunity of living in a new country & a new way of life. I think it will be a very interesting phase in my career.

Feels pretty senti to move out of TCS but this is the better option on hand right now. Watch this space for more updates as they happen.

Chao

Mere yaar ki shaadi hai

It was a lazy weekend over all. I planned to study some stuff, just to prepare for the interviews coming my way. That dint happen. Enjoyed the saturday, with my cousins. Sunday was a big day for two of my old friends, Jinesh and Chetan. I had both the weddings to attend.

Jinesh was my classmate and a very close friend in St. Josephs IHS till my 10th std. After school I had kept in touch with him, but intermittently. He was the only classmate from Josephs I had managed to keep contact with. Others were close to him but I joined the IT bandwagon and our ways drifted(all others studies commerce). It was great to see Hetal and Jigar after so many years. Though we just met for a little while I went into the flashback. I was reminded of my good ol' highschool days. Had a great Gujju meal and drove back.

Then I went to Chetan's wedding. I saw this guy after a decade atleast. I had no contact with him. He being an airforce guy was all over the country for all these years. I reached this wedding around 10 30 pm, when rest of the THS(The home school) gang was about to leave. Chetan was tired towards the end of the photosession on the stage. I thought he would not recognise me but I was surprised he recognised me at once. He looked like an emperor in his wedding dress. But, we were just witnessing the transfer of power from him to his wife.

The otherwise lazy weekend came to an end, just bringing back my childhood/teenage memories. I feel somewhere I have stopped growing and its like a reminder when I see my friends getting married, having babies and so on. Its time to get a little more responsible and mature in the way I deal with things. But, at the same time I feel the child within is an asset to all of us. The later the child goes the better. I am looking for more weddings and gettogethers with my old school buddies.

Nothing to do nothing to write

I have been sitting in the office for the last 6 hours trying to make a change to the code but the link is down and I am not able to upload the few changes I have made to the code today. Meanwhile, in another window I am trying to write something in my blog, I am not getting anything to write. Its one of those days when nothing moves inspite of your best efforts. This is a way of life in the IT services industry. You spend so many days doing nothing but the client gets billed and pays your company for every moment you spend chatting/coding/blogging. Moreso, when the network is really slow that the real work we are paid to do just doesnt happen. Meanwhile, most of us spend our time browsing the net looking for stock prices/cricket scores or other job opportunities.

I spent most of the time today reading blogs on the net mainly political ones. I search for topics related to national and international politics. The most controversial topics always grab my attention. Be it the Ramarsetu, nuclear agreement, Nandigram issue, Kashmir or Palestine conflict the politics behind it is very complex and very interesting. The politics is not so different from the K series soap opera's, which Indian women love to watch. By the time I've managed to write this much nonsense on my blog today its time for me to leave.

I will send a status mail to the client guy and leave for the day now. This is a typical day(when there is no deadline to complete a project) in a software engineers life in a huge Indian software services company.

Gotta go bye for now!!!

Darde disco fever

Wonder what Javed saab ate (drank rather) when he wrote this song. I am still trying to figure out its meaning. Well, it could mean the pains a 40 something would feel if he shook a leg on the dance floor after years of lethargy. And who better than Shahrukh to talk about the pains of 40+ junta of our country. Its not that bad after all if someone like Shahrukh inspires the country to hit the gym and do anything within there limits to get the six pack. It is actually a trend now. Not only Shahrukh, but also Shekhar Suman and Anil Ambani are a part of this six pack 40+ bandwagon. It is a very pleasant sight to see the otherwise lethargic beerbellies hit the gym and get in shape.

However, it would look terrible if men became really obsessed like the ladies with their looks. And spent too many hours at the gym or beauty parlour err... salon's just to look more like the "6 pack Khan". Thats the flip side of the consumer culture, though it keeps us on toes to bring out best out of us. It should not make us a slave to populism at the cost of our normal lives. I have seen kids as young as 14, avoid outdoor games just because it would tan their skin.

Let this darde disco fever just encourage us to go out play hard and lead a healthy normal lifestyle and lets leave the beauty obsession to the showbiz guys/gals.

Some thoughts atlast

After weeks of coding and basically warming my chair at office, I finally decided to go on a weekend drive. Was the first long drive with my friends(atleast in my dad's knowledge). I asked Asif to decide on the destination a week back. He decided to fish on the net and finalised "Cauvery fishing camp" a place famous for river rafting. I was too lazy to do any research myself and had no choice but to go with his choice.

Got the car repaired on friday. On the saturday morning Asif, Shoaib, Avik, Prashant and myself started for our destination. We drove through Kanakapura road for a 100kms. Road was good but not great. Atlast we reached our destination to find out we cant enter this fishing camp as we needed to book 7 days in advance. That was a wasted effort having driven for 100 kms.

We couldnot waste this weekend, so we decided to go to the nearest picnic spot and decided on Shivanasamudra. We relied on a hawkers directions and took off. Asif drove from there to Malvalli a sleepy town nead Mandya. We had our lunch at around 4pm. Relaxed for a while over there and left to Shivanasamudram about 30 kms from there(70 kms from Cauvery fishing camp). Our initial plan was to get back home before 7 PM. We reached Shivanasamudra at 5 PM. Thats how well I plan.

Now that we reached our destination, I must say it was one of the most beautiful sights I have seen in karnataka. I had never been to the right places at the right time(went to jog falls twice when it was completely dry). The view was even more beautiful because of the recent rains. One thing I forgot to mention is our friend Avik hadnt eaten anything from morning(the meal in Malvalli was just grass for him as meat is the most component of his diet). He was happy now that he found an eatery serving chicken noodles. Now he looked like a healthy guy. Hitherto, he looked like he might go to coma any moment. We spent about 1 hr over there clicked some pics and decided to get back home.

One most important thing I forgot to mention is my dad calling me every 15-20 min asking if I was fine. This was the first time he knew that I had gone for such a long drive with my friends. Till then every trip was a secret and an adventure. The reason he called so many times was that Bangalore was flooding when we were enjoying the lovely weather 130 kms away. Anyway no complaints about the calls as it was this concern I missed so much when I was in Kolkata. Nobody would know when things go wrong.

The return trip was 130 kms. We drove from Shivanasamudra back to Malvalli. From Malvalli we drove to Maddur and got on tthe Bangalore Mysore highway. It was an awesome drive from there to Bangalore. On reaching Bangalore we took the wrong flyover and reached right in middle of the city which was almost knee deep in water. That was the reason anybody who called us from Bangalore wanted us to stay back. Then we dropped the other guys in Koramangla. Asif and I drove back to our homes in Jayanagar.

Was overall a nice experience, especially the drive was very scenic and the adventure of finding our way on a new highway. Next time we better make sure, where we are going and better not travel without reservations. I am looking forward to the next drive to Cauvery fishing camp. Asif will do the booking.

PS: Whoever had the patience to read this complete blog I am sure is completely jobless. But not as much as me, I wrote this in my office during my work hours. ;)

First blog

Hi everyone. Before I start posting my thoughts on my blog let me first introduce myself. I am Mohamed Talha (yet another) software engineer from Bangalore. As any other Indian a big cricket fan. Love to play, travel & meet people. Though by nature I am a terribly lazy person, I try my best to be active. All my education has been in Bangalore. Went to The Home school, St. Josephs Indian High school, BHS First grade college & did my engineering in KSIT. I think all my long lost friends can identify with this much information as my name is pretty rare. Having been with a huge company like TCS I have had an opportunity to live in three different cities Coimbatore, Kolkata & Bangalore so far. Well thats me in a nutshell. Will post my thoughts in this blog as and when they strike my mind.

Cheers...