Year in Review 2011

For last one week I am not having any work and getting bored. Today was no different for me. I’m sitting here at my office and getting bored. All day I have been looking into cricket statistics. Getting into mid of February, my blog is still waiting for a review post of what happened in last one year. I have couple of hours to go home and as I am waiting I’d like to take a quick look back at 2011, with a YEAR IN REVIEW

I am trying hard to memorize as what has happened in this year. So in parallel I am taking help of my own blog postings and Facebook timeline and activity log.

JANUARY 2011: Year started off well with a nice Year end count down and party. Watched lot of movies as usual. Had a good time on the occasion of Swetha’s birthday. Yet another year without any hike and do not have a reason why I should stay in the current job. As the month came to an end, the only positive feeling that took into next month is about mom and dad coming to Singapore.

FEBRUARY 2011: The month started off with mom and dad visiting Singapore. We travelled around in Singapore and also visited Malaysia and Indonesia. We started the year of runs with the Zoo run of 8KM. February 12th was Ramya’s second anniversary and February 14th, Valentines day was my second marriage anniversary. Swetha & I were very happy as we spent quality time with mom & dad. Cricket World Cup 2011 has started with a bang.

MARCH 2011: March has always been special for me as its the month of my birthday. Had a great time on my birthday with mom and dad. After mom dad left Singapore, our good time continued and we enjoyed all the weekends. Holi was a highlight as we had a great time at ECP. In World Cup, India defeated Australia and Pakistan in Quarters and Semis respectively. We also started our $1000 budget month in March. Most important, I completed 3 years of blogging.

APRIL 2011: April started of with Ramya fooling me about her trip to SG. India won the world cup after 27 years beating Sri Lanka in the final. We all cheered Team India and Sachin. Started using Windows Live writer for my blogging. My best buddies marriage anniversary. This is the month when my blog reached 14000 visitors. Celebrated Ugadi nicely with all the friends coming home. Celebrated Nagaraj’s birthday at Khalsa Club. Our running continued with 12KM run at 2XU compression run. After mom and dad, my brother came to Singapore for a short trip. I had a nice time with him.

MAY 2011: May was full of fun as Nagaraj’s family was in Singapore and we had a great time. As they were in Singapore we went out for Bowling, Wake Boarding, Ice Skating and did many other activities. We also went to see the Air Show where we got a chance to sit in the F-16 fighter jet. My team also won 2 matches comprehensively after 6 straight losses.

JUNE 2011: June started off with birthday party of Surya at Arab street. June 4th weekend was frenzy as I watched 13 Movies, played 4 Hours of Badminton and did 2 Hours of shopping. First week was awesome with lot of movies, games and parties including Rakesh’s anniversary party. This is the month when we discovered about the hottest chicken wings at Sunset Grill and Bar. We successfully completed our first ever National Vertical Marathon by climbing Singapore’s tallest building. We also did a charity walk barefoot for Barclay’s bare your soul walk.

JULY 2011: July was a calm month for me with not much activities other than running. We successfully completed Race against cancer – 15KM and Marina 21KM. Both the run I was able beat my best timing.

AUGUST 2011: August month also did not see any activity for us. It was just the routine. We had a nice time at Santosh and Sowmya’s birthdays. Other than Credit Suisse beach volley ball and Director’s Premier league cricket, I haven’t played much. Wished my brother and dad on their birthdays. We ended the last weekend with bar hopping.

SEPTEMBER 2011: September month was rocking and hectic for us. Swetha & I went to Hong Kong and Macau. It was an awesome trip and we also did our world’s highest bungee jump. couple of weeks later we went along with my whole gang to Bangkok for Bachelors party of Amar & Praveen. We also did our level Rock Climbing certification this month.

OCTOBER 2011: October started off with a day trip to Pulau Ubin, where we have taken some very nice action photos. Diwali was fun as we have again tried some skills of photography. We had a crazy weekend night when we left home in the evening and came back only in the morning at 7AM. It was also special as it was the month of mom’s birthday. Amar got married this month and we all wished him at the airport. The most exciting part of October was a present from Swetha. I was very very much impressed with her work. He created a video with my photos and a song in the background. The timing was impeccable.

NOVEMBER 2011: November was a tragic month for my family. Swetha and her family have gone through agony and pain due to the tragic death of Sreekanth.

DECEMBER 2011: With in a month we had another bad news of my grand father’s expiry. I was not so sad as he got relief from pain that he was going through. Swetha & I have done our Singapore Standard Chartered Marathon. I have done the full while Swetha did the half marathon.

Even though I started writing about this on a weekend, I am ending this on a weekend as it took some time to recollect of what has happened over a year. I wish my new year will have more and more adventures and stories to talk about.

Weird/Amazing Experiences/Things that I did in life

Name at least 10 weird/amazing experiences/things about your life.
I came across this in some blog hopping.

Now once I started this, I couldn’t really stop as I got many endless experiences to write here. But I thought I will only mention the ones which can be shared with everyone . Some are good, some are funny and some are sad.

As it is at least 10, I did not limit it to 10.

1. Singing in a school singing competition. My brother had to face the embarrassment (we both were from the same school) as I literally read the wordings of the song rather than singing.

2. When I was a kid (may be 5 or 6-year-old), I was almost drowned in a river. I almost took my brother who came to help me. At the same time god has sent a saviour who was washing his clothes there.

3. After being a grown up kid, I almost killed Kishore by choking his throat. I cried for more than half an hour after that.

4. I am the one who bought the first drink for many of my cousins & friends (mainly the female ).

5. Once I drank Pepsi with full of chilli flakes as part of a challenge. I would never do that again in my life.

6. I climbed Mount Kinabalu and had explored both the Timpohon and Mersilau trails. I would climb again if Swetha would join me.

7. I had many close encounters with “death”. I was never worried about any of those accidents, but cannot forgive myself for one such accident in which Vijay got badly injured.

8. Did the world’s highest bungee jump at Macau and I would do it again and again

9. Took money from dad’s pocket when I was a kid and got a nice bashing for that.

10. I had twice touched 160 km an hour speed in a car and once touched 130 km an hour on bike. It was an exhilarating experience and hope to cross those speeds.

11. Had hiccups for almost 2 full days and had a real bad time. Mind you hiccups just seem so simple, but they are not.

12. I wasted 1 year 8 months in my life without having a proper vision to my life. People don’t believe but I feel bad about it even today.

13. Due to my sleep I missed my destinations many a times since my childhood and it’s still going on now.

14. I have done a marathon of movies and saw 20 movies over a weekend. This is something which I am trying to beat almost every month

15. Did couple of half marathons without any practice and now planning for full marathon this December.

16. Climbed Singapore’s tallest building using steps. It was definitely painful, but the view at the end was relaxing.

17. I was drunk so much in a party and even today I do not remember what I did that night. I have to believe all the weird stories that my friends tell me.

18. Went to airport to drop off a friend and flew to India without any planning for a weekend.

19. Slept in almost all the important exams. I wish I used that time in reviewing my answers .

20. I shouted out answers in an examination hall .

21. Travelled alone to Ho Chi Minh City and actually enjoyed the trip. I am missing that experience these days.

22. Travelled South India for 4 days without a break and sleeping only in the SUV.

23. Did a weird journey to Singarayakonda overnight without knowing the route and address.

There are lot more weird, exciting and amazing things that I want to do. Hope this list grows leaps and bounds and very quick

Have a happy day to you all!

Careless

As everyday I & Swetha got ready for running and went out of the house and locked the door. As soon as I locked the door, I realised that I forgot the key inside. I asked Swetha, if she took the key and the answer was negative.

Next step was to call the owner and get the key or totally change the door key. As both the phones were new we did not save the owner’s number in our phones. First step failed.

Source of Photo

Next step was to call the agent and take the owners number. As both the phones were new we did not save the agent’s number in our phones. Second step failed.

Next step was to ask the neighbors if they got the owners number. Luckily one of the neighbor got the number and they called the owner from their phone. I took the address as BLK 919.

We thanked the neighbours and took the taxi to Tampines BLK 919. Taxi driver dropped us at BLK 916 ST 91 Tampines and told us that 919 would be somewhere around. We went around to see where BLK 919 was. Ran around for 30 mins and called the owner twice and still were in the same place with out any success. I asked the local people around if they know where this BLK was. To my surprise they told me that they were here for last 20 years and there is no BLK 919.

I SMSed the owner to send the street number and area. She gave me the same address as where I was standing. I took yet another taxi just to go around the same road and end up near BLK 916. Finally owner lost the patience and she asked us to wait near BLK 916 and she came over.

I and Swetha were telling her the whole story and in fact showed her the sign boards where there was no 919 written. She said it is written there and its just that the light is not ON. I was shocked and looked carefully at the board again.

My owner said “Nine VO Nine” and I heard it as “Nine VON Nine”.

Fools Day

Yesterday I got a mail from Ramya with the subject “Singapore osthunna may27th…call chei details cheptha..”.

I got excited and called. Left Voice Message. Ramya called back and here is the conversaton:

I: Hey Ramya good .. so whats the plan?

Ramya: Yeah planning to come to SG after my exam.

Excited yet again

I: Wow thats awesome, we can have a great time.

Ramya: Whats todays date?

Not realizing

I: I dont know. Anyways so tell me is it only SG or other places also? or you will do a stop over enroute to India?

Ramya: You dont remember todays date?

Still did not understand what was coming my way

I: No whats so special. Anyways I am outside and there is lot of disturbance. I Shall go to office and call you.

Finally Ramya couldnt resist

Ramya: APRIL FOOL

source

Oops .. I am a fool

Singapore osthunna may27th…call chei details cheptha.

S$1000 Challenge

Swetha has been a vivid follower of TIME in twitter and have been forwarding me all the good articles that she came across. On March 23rd I got a similar mail from Swetha which had a weird subject. I thought this was a spam mail. It read $1000 Challenge. I called Swetha and asked if she has really sent me the mail and should I go ahead and access the link. After confirmation I have clicked the link and read the content.

source of image

To my wonder I read the whole article and got inspired. It was about Chris Butterworth, a marketing manager who recently completed a four-week “$1,000 challenge.” This was very much necessary for me & Swetha as we were going through a unaccounted spending period for last 2 years. We were spending around S$3000 dollars every month other than the rent of S$2000 that we were paying.

After reading the article, the same evening I and Swetha discussed and decided to take this challenge. We identified the areas where we were spending a lot and decided to cut down all those costs. We are starting this challenge on 1st of April and will start tracking all the expenditure until May 1st. We are confident that we would succeed in this challenge and be an inspiration to all other friends of mine who are yet to realise about their expenditure.

A Parting Note

Same as last 3 days even today morning everything seemed very good and I was hoping the day to go well. I was not aware of what was in stock for me on this fateful afternoon. It was 3 hours ago when she decided to leave me. Everything happened all of a sudden. Neither me nor anybody else could see it coming. I never anticipated this to happen.

She was very very very important to me for so many reasons. She was always with me in both happy and sad occasions. She stood by me in both tough and glory times. She have always taken care and made sure that I was never alone, and left out. She was my beautiful personal secretary and would do everything for me that is there in her limits – right from waking me up, to help me organize myself, to help me reach my friends, to book my movie tickets, to check my balance sheet etc. She would sing and entertain me when ever I was bored or stressed out. I was always connected with the world when she was with me. I say that she is everything in my life but still she meant a lot in my life. She came into my life unexpectedly and left in the same way abruptly. Neither her arrival nor her departure from my life was expected by me.

Yes, you expected it correctly, I lost my iphone on the day of holi in the cab . That means – no calls, no music on the move, no alarm clock in the morning, no organizer to remember important dates and activities, no pastime games when bored and no SMS to friends just to kill time during the meetings, most important no facebook and no internet. I can overcome all this just by buying any other stupid phone. But here comes the worst part – I have already lost my 350+ contacts – something I always feared when I heard about this from friends.

I have been depressed since last night. I have been calling my number and I can hear only one voice: “The number you are calling is not available”. I called customer support and blocked my Sim and the only positive point out of this is that I can retain my number, so there is no need to update my phone number to all my friends.

Then after all this anger and frustration, I remembered this song from Munna bhai MBBS -

which has lyrics as

Sapna toota hai to dil kabhi jalta hai
Haan thoda dard hua par chalta  hai
Sapna toota hai to dil kabhi jalta hai
Haan thoda dard hua par chalta  hai

Phir, phir kya hua?
Phir, phir kya hua?
Agle din apne mohalle main aishwarya aayi…
Apna khopdi phir chakkar kha gaya
Phri truck ke saath phir chakkar kha gaya

This has given a boost and went straight to Starhub to renew my contract and took iphone 4. Now I and Swetha are proud owners of iPhone 4. Now I am trying to get a backup for contacts.

Ignorance or Stupidity?

A: Hi

B: Hi

A: Do you work on Saturdays?

Surprised B answers

B: No

A: OK, then I will organise the meeting on Monday.

B pissed off

Why Married men are less Anti-Social

I have seen an article in TIME website regarding this. I started thinking and relating to many people whom I know and have changed to less anti-social. The statement seemed so true. A good marriage civilizes men.

Once the men are married, they start taking more and more responsibilities. The agression starts converting to passiveness. They tend not to get involved in any illegal activities. They stop eating outside food and reduce boozing which would improve their health when compared to what they were as bachelors. Men start thinking about cars for bikes after marriage for different reasons and one among them would be safety.

I felt that many men stop or reduce socialising with friends which would actually not give them a chance to think about anything other than the family responsibilities. This would reduce right from fist fights between the friends to drunken driving with the friends to racing on the roads with them.

As men grew older with the marriage, that also would play a significant role in these changes in men. At the end is this change for good or bad – Definitely for good.

How difficult is to follow our dream?

There were so many days when I had this debate and argument with my friends. What are we aspiring for or what is our dream or what are we chasing in today’s competitive world? Most of the time people were confused. They were not sure why they have joined a course or doing a particular job even though they cannot enjoy doing it (Including me).

People have done their Engineering or MBA or Medicine even though they had interest in something else. This was the result of the peer pressure & family pressure. In Indian families people decide what their kids want to become the moment they are born (Same as what Madhavan faces in 3 Idiots). Our parents normally show a cousin of ours who is successful in some field and want us to pursue the same profession or do the same degree.

When compared to good old days when people used to follow their father’s profession blindly,  now a days parents are giving a choice to their children to decide as what to do. But I still feel that parents are scared to think beyond Engineering or Medicine. Not everybody can become a doctor, engineer or CA

In India people should start thinking of making their hobby which they really love as their profession. This is very common in the western worlds where people are ready and can dare to follow their dreams. We should understand that everyone has a different set of hobbies and their intellectual capacity vary depending on each individual. Some people have their left side of brain more polished than their right ones.

Everyone wants to earn money and hence they try choosing a profession which gives them lot of money. This shouldn’t be the way we should think. Money has become so much important for us in life for different reasons on which we do not have control, but at the same time we should be aware that we forget to enjoy the precious moments of  life. I think that is why we always long for US education and working there. 1 in 100 would actually join the course that they love, but most of them just do it because they have to.

So how difficult is to pursue our dream? Life isn’t a fairy tale for every body. We have seen many people in our life who were able to follow their dreams rather than getting stuck with life doing something which they don’t like. We can think of working for few years in a lucrative job, earn enough and they go for what we love to do. As I said, life is not a fairy tale to everyone and If we are not lucky enough, then we can get stuck in the same job which is absolutely a wrong fit for us only to suffer everyday. In those cases we can only compromise. Again not all stories have a happy ending.

The whole definition and goal of education has been changed in past few years. The goal of education is to  make good citizens, but it is now seen as a premise to a good job, huge salary & a comfortable life. As Baba Ranchhoddas has said in 3 Idiots,  “Chase excellence & success will follow you itself”. Hope we understand that life is not just about money but passion. So live your passion & follow you dreams.

Its June

I know its an accurate yet pointless title. The fact is I have been real busy all these days and I wanted to write something here.

For last two months I have been working even on the weekends and the schedules and unplanned work is killing my sleep. I have so many complaints from family and friends that I am not being in touch with them. I guess I should convey these messages to my managers.

This month has been special so far as it was my parents 32nd Successful Marriage Anniversary. Even though I was not there I was hoping that they would have a great time and celebrate many more anniversaries. Its also Father’s day this month and it would have been great if I was there with my dad. Last but not the least, Its French Open, NBA, FIFA & Iphone 4 release.

I also saw some real good movies this month which includes Prince of Persia, Karate Kid and Toy Story. I also saw Raavan which was badly made. For the next whole week I will be again busy with my work schedule. Thats all from me now.