HERE IS WHAT HAS BEEN GOING ON WITH US FROM AUGUST 2002
(for older stuff, please visit our 1999 to 2001 page)
And for how our 2003 adventures were (!!) click here
And this is a prizewinning article about Worldtech's services in transcription Faster Cheaper Transcription
Subho keeps his blog up at jejune diet.
July 2002
Whoa, just realized that if I use commonly available tools, I can go ahead and set up a not-too-dull webpage even though I don�t have a clue as to how to write html. Wow! This happened when I was fiddling around with the idea of a workshop on pediatrics and one of the suggestions that came up was to have website where info could be shared. The worldtech gang went clomping to our software team and asked if they could help. They looked at what they wanted to have on the website and informed them it would take at least two weeks. They came back to me with sad faces. That was when I spent one afternoon trying out with what I could lay my hands on, and at the end of it, the stuff that loaded didn�t look very bad. So I looked up help files at all the applications that I felt might help, went around asking people why things werent looking or working the way I wanted them to, and after a few days, here I am, ready to stick my cyberneck out!!
Today Sunitha and Mohan and Anju are to come over to spend the day and Suni has warned us that we should not cook and we should not complain about what she makes and brings.
Friday, August 30, 2002
Went and got our moonbeam silver Maruti 800 E2 home from Varun Motors after running about all day getting the money in place and papers in order.
Sunday, September 1, 2002
Went out driving in the morning and on the way home, got the car on to the pavement in front of the skoda showroom. Got all shook up and decided against taking the car out later in the day. Sunitha and Mohan dropped by in the afternoon to see our new acquisition.
Tuesday, September 3, 2002
Got the car registered with help from yallesh. Will get the number and plate in a couple of days.
Thursday, September 5, 2002
Teachers' day. Took sweets for the admin folk and for the core team. The P13 gang got cake and coke and made Lata and me feel very embarrassed and pleased at the same time. Called up Tipu and Chandreyee as well as Subho's mom and dad. Mohan has got orders to go for training to lead to commissioning of a ship, so he is thrilled, but Suni is not. She is teary eyed and zombied at the prospect of having to stay on her own for an indefinite period of time.
Saturday November 2, 2002
Subho's birthday, had a cake brought in at the office, very embarrassing, song and dance, and then Shai and I went and had a standard southie lunch at Roti's. Caught the bus in the evening and moved out to Icchalkaranji.
November 3, 2002 to November 10, 2002:
At Icchal, Shishir also joins us, sleep loads, watch loads of TV, eat loads, to the point of boredom.
November 16, 2002
Our 4th wedding anniversary. Shai got flowers at the office. Some madcap broadcast a message like "Let us all wish subho and Shai on their wedding anniversary," so the whole office kind of came up and greeted us. PML brought us flowers too. Worked the whole day and then went to Coastal Spice for dinner, fairly tired, came home by 9.30 and was asleep soon after.
Sunday, November 24, 2002
Finally was able to make time to go on a proper outing. Went to the Nehru Zoological Park. It was quite good fun. We first looked on the roadmap and found it was 30 kilometers away, but after speaking with local folk, we discovered a different route that would work out to 15 kilometers only. We calculated what it would cost us, loaf of bread 11 rupees, roll of film 115 rupees, entry fee 30 rupees, parking fee 20 rupees, gas credit card, etc. So we woke up early, having already given the day off for Kumari, packed sandwiches and cake that we had baked the previous night. We lathered ourselves with sunblock, filled our pockets with candy and mint, filled our water bottle, and at the door, the phone rang, it was Shai's folks, then after speaking with them, at the door, the phone rang, it was Subho's folks, and after that, much relieved that we had not missed either of the calls, we set off.
The weather was beautiful and cold and misty. Most of the route was on the excellent roads that we have here, except for one long stretch that wound through semi industrial semi residential predominantly Muslim area that was not easy to navigate, with anarchy and population adding to the bad road conditions. However, we asked for directions every now and then, and in half an hour, we were there. It was 9, the zoo opens at 8.30, it looked like the place was closed for some reason. There was mist everywhere and no people in sight. We went up to the counter to check and there was a guy selling tickets, we went and parked, and ours was the second vehicle in the parking lot. Then we realized we were just early. By the time we were through with our visit about four hours later, the place was swarming like a village fair.
We went in armed with a guide map they were selling officially at the ticket counter but which, according to staff, was 20 years old. This zoo is almost entirely built keeping natural habitat intact for the animals and with very few cages. We walked along deserted tracks and suddenly came upon the first enclosure, the white tiger. The enclosure has a large moat around it, and we looked hard to see if we could spot the fellow. We heard a noise in the moat just ahead of us, and the huge cat was walking around right in front of us in the water. It was a beautiful sight and we were both transfixed by the awesome beauty of God's creation. We went on to see a wide variety of pheasant and peacocks, several great cats, panthers, pumas, jaguars, lions, tigers, bears, hippos, rhinos, reptiles, nocturnal animals, crocs, parrots and other birds. We missed the apes, butterflies, zebra and giraffes, we were exhausted by then.
We went on a safari ride through a reserve for lions, then one for tigers, then one for bears and then one for bisons and buffalos. The lions and tigers were great, we were lucky to get real close and clear views of them, they come right up to the vehicle, look at you, walk around you, stand in the way and refuse to move, go around hillocks to come back in your way again or sit on top of rocks so that you get some good pictures. It was very nice. The bears and bison were disappointing, we hardly saw any bison, we saw one bear in the brush and couple of wild buffalos. However, it was a good safari, and we learnt later that rarely do people get such views, many a safari returns with nothing seen or things seen from a distance and not clearly either.
The nocturnal animals section was scary because it is built like a cave and is dark and has several tunnels that have to be entered through a curtain of metal chains that come at you in the dark with their cold wriggly feel, very creepy, but a nice display. The reptiles too were few in number but superb specimens, several pythons, couple of cobras, and a host of other "lesser" snakes. The aquarium was an absolute let down, more like a hobbyists display. The walk through aviary (though you really walk around it) was nice, good range of birds, huge collection of parrots, cockatoos and cockatiel, some very unusual and uncommon ones.
The zoo does not rate greatly in terms of range of animals on display, perhaps it rates badly, but the park is maintained very well and most of the animals are in large enclosures, most of the animals looked fairly healthy and several looked happy with their living arrangements, we did not come across many animals who looked "imprisoned." The 400 acres seem to have been put to good use. There is also a large water body called Mir Alam Tank, which we did not find time (or energy) to see that adjoins this park and is supposed to be home to birds en route.
The staff is extremely friendly and helpful. When we walked in, there were no people, no guides, no "school" to follow. However, we asked about and found our way around easily. Several times, people offered us assistance, sometimes they overheard us talking and helped us out, overall a very pleasing experience.
We came back by 1:30 but we were kind of full with all the snacks we had eaten and we settled into a lazy Sunday afternoon, waking up to watch TV and laze more. We took some pictures, but will have to wait till the roll gets used up.
Wednesday, November 27, 2002: Boss leaves for the states to visit our offices as well as his son in law and daughter.
Friday, November 29, 2002
Got Christie and her friend, Heather to come and talk to the training batch on American lifestyle and society. Yogita calls out all the banchmarking volunteers and has a meeting. Shai and I go lunchless to Food World late in the afternoon, snack to keep ourselves going and buy provisions for the month.
Went listened to Ratan Sharma (vocals) and Shiv Kumar Sharma at the 30th annual concert organised by Pandit Jasraj in memory of his father and brother. Earlier we would always worry about transport back and have to leave early. This time, we could stay till late and enjoy the music.
Saturday, November 30, 2002 ANNUAL BENCHMARKING DAY
The day went off smoothly, minor hiccups all having to do with hardware. Otherwise, the test went off smooth, people were hardpressed to find reason to complain. Lunch was organized through Coastal Spice and was decent and well presented and thanks to the two counter deal, well organized.
In the evening, we had a kowsuey party with sunitha and mohan and anju over. Shai and I prepared the kowsuey and it was quite a fair job.
Sunday, December 1, 2002
Went for the annual Jasraj concert at Nizam's and heard Rimpa, a young girl from Calcutta, do a tabla recital, amazingly good. The confidence and the skill level that she performed at stunned everyone. Her performance was followed by a string of paeans from all the bigwigs. This was followed by Sanjeev Abhyankar, a student of Jasraj's who sounds every bit as good as him.
Monday, December 2, 2002
Went to Medha's, ICICI Financial Services, Park Lane, 95 and Dastakar Andhra, Shai picked up a couple of sarees for her upcoming birthday. Hogged for lunch and slept, woke up, Shai went for her dance class, I hung out at home, visited medha's again in the evening, came home, watched tv and crashed after a dinner of aloo parathas.
December 13, 2002: Mom leaves cal for Pune.
December 17, 2002: Boss comes back not looking very well. Has a bad cold. We try to keep him away from work but he insists on meeting people and talking to them.
Thursday, December 19, 2002
Shai's birthday. Shobha sends flowers to her at the office, very nice bunch of white gladioli. We work till 5-ish and then in the evening go to Utsav in Secunderabad. Nice restaurant, pleasant ambience, fair service, reasonable prices, and very good food. Went to Coffee Day and had coffee and dessert. Went to Sunitha's place for a quick visit. Came home tired and full, and crashed. Took the next day off from work.
Thursday, December 26, 2002
After having planned for a few days, drove down to Nagarjunasagar along with Sunitha, Mohan and Anju. Shai made lunch of bisibelebath and stuff, packed it in the large picnic carrier, which we had not been getting a chance to use. Sunitha packed breakfast and cakes and stuff. I bought maps and made enquiries of Zaheer and Madhusudan about the road to take. They landed up at our place at 6.30 in the morning. We set off through the deserted streets and in half an hour were out on the highway. A very pleasant drive, beautiful and well maintained roads. We stopped for breakfast once and for coffee once at a small village and were at sagar by 10.00.
The Nagarjunasagar dam is still the longest dam in India, and the national highway goes over the embankment itself. There was very little water, but it was still a treat to see. We were able to persuade Sunitha to step out and come down to the waters and to the dam. However, we were unable to persuade her to visit the museum for which you have to travel by motor launch to a place called nagarajuna hill. Shai and I decided that we would do that when we visit on our own. After a quick nimbu soda, we went off to Ethipotala waterfalls, about 22 km from there, though it says 11 on the tourist guides. This was a very nicely done up (by AP tourism folk) place overlooking the falls. There is a well maintained garden with a clean restrooms and a restaurant and a souvenir shop.
Started driving back at around 1.30, stopped on the highway for lunch. Mohan serving all of us with great agility and commitment, regardless of whether we could serve ourselves or not. We sat under a tree beside the road, and after the lunch which was most enjoyable and simple and tasty, anju and mohan and I played around on the fields for a while with her frisbee, which she was most worried we might end up "wasting." Then we set off homeward. Shai and Suni and Anju slept for a while and Mohan and I realized only then that they had been talking nonstop from the time we set out from home. We stopped a couple of times for cokes and coffees, and finally hit the city around 4. It took us an hour and a half to get from the city outskirts to home, were fined by cops for jumping signal once.
Came home and Shai got some basic dinner going. We all had dinner and then they left and we hot showered and bedded by 9 or maybe 9.30, very tired and very pleased with our selves.
December 27, 2002: Mom leaves Pune to return to Calcutta.
December 30, 2002: Shishir lands himself a call center job with a company called msource in pune.
And for our enthusiastic hate club, for our 2003 adventures (!!) click here
