Posting from my new setup!

Its been a long time now since I updated this space. We've recently set up a new desktop at home, so here comes a post from and about it..

The new set up is nice - we assembled components for this system at home, starting from a barebone CPU. The order came with the tower, a power supply and a motherboard with the CPU of our choice installed. We ordered it at http://www.portatech.com and they delivered the unit promptly and in good condition.

We ordered the other components separately - some RAM, a 500 GB hard disk, a keyboard and a mouse, a wireless adapter and a DVD drive. The interesting thing this time was learning about SATA; we realized that we needed Sata cables for both the DVD and hard disk drives. This was new to me, since the last time I saw a hard disk, it did not use these cables. Anyway, turns out these cables are pretty nifty and easy to use; no more headaches trying to figure out how to connect the cables ! Amazon.com has been quite nice to review stuff and buy them with free shipping !

Next, we burnt a DVD with Ubuntu's latest and ran it on the new system. Installing was quite a breeze, and I loved how the set up recognized all the hardware comfortably and everything worked so well ! Ubuntu is pretty good to use too.

Some nice points:

We'd ordered a HDTV / monitor from LG, and used that as the display. The resolution being a little large, I was afraid whether it will require special configuration, but no, Ubuntu took care of it by itself !

Sound was next, and we connected our mini Logitech speaker system, so thoughtfully gifted by Sandeep. The sound is quite awesome now !

One other fun part was how nicely our old HP printer works ! We'd replaced the cartridges with newer ones from cartridge world, but windows on our laptops refused to print. We were almost ready to give up and buy something new, but Ubuntu came along and is printing B&W and color merrily!

We haven't missed any Microsoft products so far; Ubuntu seems to have a fairly reasonable alternative to everything we've needed so far. Drivers work well, Open Office works beautifully, the printer and wireless adapter needed no configuration and even VPN got installed like a charm !

My final IT trouble at home was connecting to the office network from Linux; I'd tried to get it working on the older Ubuntu on my laptop, but it just refused. The new Ubuntu liked the Cisco VPN software, and I am enjoying wfh on this fine setup. We were looking at a window on unix inside windows inside unix, and decided this warranted a post!

The best part is switching the display between the computer and TV !

Just a post.

- Bangalore is fantastic. I don't want to come back now.
- Our RTO gives car driver's license without tests if you have a valid foreign license, did you know ? Although they made me run around, I got a car DL for myself.
- Driving in Bangalore has become crazy nowadays. I initially started off with the bike, and have finally got around to driving tha car. The left-right confusion only came up in the latter. I look back over my right shoulder, and the right hand goes for the gear every now and then. But otherwise, its quite comfortable.
- Lunches and dinners with relatives and friends, piggybacking with the brother/sil's invitation. Great food. Good company.
- The Bangalore office is fun. Where else can you eat chat on the terrace, while watching Tendulkar play against Pakistan ? ;)

I am off ...

to India and home.!

Moving to Palo Alto

It's time to bid adieu to Sunnyvale and say hello to Palo Alto! The new place is nice - large, located in a beautiful 'hood, close to work, and a little expensive as well.
#628, Forest Ave, Palo Alto, CA

For some strange reason, the move is making me step back and take a look at the big picture. I think it's the change of the inertial state of rest. Every feeling is heightened - the wistfulness of how I pictured my life to be and how it is, sadness to leave the almost homely place in Sunnyvale, excitement of Palo Alto and a promise of new beginnings.

It does feel like spring.

ಸುದರ್ಶನ ಹೋಮ, ನೆಂಟರು, ಹೊಗೆ, ಊಟ !

ನಮ್ಮ ಮನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಶನಿವಾರ ಸುದರ್ಶನ ಹೋಮ ಮಾಡಿದ್ದೆವು .. ಕೆಲವು ಚಿತ್ರಗಳು ಇಲ್ಲಿವೆ:

ಈ ಚಿತ್ರದಲ್ಲಿ ಅಣ್ಣ, ಅಮ್ಮ, ಮತ್ತೆ ಮಾವನ್ನ ಕಾಣಬಹುದು. ಹಿಂದೆ ಮಾಧು. ಅಘ್ನಿ ಜೋರಾಗಿದೆ!

ಚಿತ್ರಾನ್ನ ಇಲ್ಲವೇ?

ನಿಧಿ ಮತ್ತೆ ಸುರೇಶ. ಆರಾಮಾಗಿದ್ದಾರೆ!

ಆಹಾ! ಇನ್ನೂ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಹಾಕಿಸಿ ಕೊಳ್ಳಿ!

ಎಲ್ಲಾರು ಚೆನ್ನಾಗಿ ಊಟ ಮಾಡಿದ ಹಾಗೆ ಕಾಣುತ್ತಿದೆ ಅಲ್ಲವಾ!

Mysore, Nanjangud, road, driving, good day out

• Early morning start to a long day. Out of home by 6:15 AM. Anna, amma, Viji and I.
  
• Breakfast at Maddur Tiffanies, with the famous Maddur vade.
• Visit to Nanjangood. Crowded, extremely sweatly and hot. Almost like Tirupati now, the crowds jostling and pushing. Fights broke out in front of the Lord.
• Food at DasaPrakash in Mysore. Finally, I eat at the famous place. Everything seems to be much smaller. Serving sizes, I mean. I seem to have kept ordering. BBB, poori, one more poori, rose milk...
• Driving our new vehicle was good, the road is awesome in most places and being fixed in a few. Except fro the aggressive drivers of the Scorpio.
• Coffee in a Coffee Day just after Channapatna.

Some interesting pictures: Sumptuous mangoes, they seemed like they would fall into our car if the lorry braked. We waited for a while, but no luck.















These slow fellows brought traffic to a halt on the 2 lane express way for a minute or so.















A view of Mysore palace as we drove by. No time to stop and admire today.
















The road was awesome, except in patches where work was going on as we drove. Really cool.

Home sweet home

We had a nice little puja last sunday - Satyanarayana puja. All our close relatives and well wishers had graced our home. About a 100 or so folks.

Here is a picture of Mr Venky, feeling right at home!













And a picture of how home looks today. I could'nt cover the entire width in one shot this time...

















That balcony has been my favorite spot of 'em all. Very cool place, with a Victorian style light ( can you see it's profile?). And, if you notice really carefully, the ground floor's light is actually a Ganesha. Isnt that cool ? And here is the balcony:


















Early in the morning, some of us watching the puja on the ground floor:














It was pretty awesome to come home for a week and meet all the people I wanted to see in one go, right at home.

Really glad to have planned this trip.

Bangalore rocks

I meant the rocks on the road, so many of them now thanks to all the construction!

The last three days or so, I have been experiencing the dreaded Bangalore traffic first hand. I first drove around the city on a motorbike without a licence ;) and faced buses, autorickshaws and other impatient bikers edging me off the streets.

Today was especially tiring. Our branch in Bangalore is right next to Hosmat hospital, my ride back home got delayed, so I decided to take a bus home. Left work around 5:30 PM, walked to Mayo hall and realized Residency road is a one-way! Walked up to M.G road, and I didn't see Majestic buses! Relutant to ask for help (this being our adda !) I roamed around a few minutes till I finally found the bus stand, only to see a thousand people waiting..

OK, so I struck a deal with two other commuters, hired an autorickshaw to Majestic bus stand and split the cost(pat pat pat). One of the guys just got his passport renewed, and gave two thousand rupees as a bribe. Our auto-wallah asked for 10 rs more than the meter reading, and our friendly neighborhood commuter flew into a royal rage. ;)

Majestic was as I remembered, thankfully. 96A still comes to the same spot, and still enters from the same place.. I was the first on the bus, jumping on to it just as it was entering the bus stand. By God, I felt alive again, remembering how I used to prowl around the bus stop during college days for the next bus to arrive, so I can run on to the bus and get a seat before the crowd hits. :)

Otherwise, life is good. I cant believe how much life happens in India. People's lives overlap, there are more things to do, more, oh many more pretty young smiling faces, family and social events.... It feels like I went into a shell in the US of A! Wonder if being released from prison after 2 years would feel much different than the way I feel now. Of course, the moola is a big difference...

And, I postponed my trip back to the US of A by a week, by popular demand from my colleagues (and meself). They are a spirited set of people.. Did I say we have a party tomorrow on the terrace, where everyone is arrive in patriotic clothes in honour of our Republic Day ? The flyer said "expect controversial things". Folks at work participated in a poll - " Most outstanding employee - who is the employee who is most seen standing outside!". Hehe.

Seriously, should I stay back ?

Home improvement

Already, the balcony seems like the favorite place for everyone at home. It has turned out to be a superb idea. Nice place to sit and read The Hindu and sip coffee! Admittedly, it will look better after the French door and a few potted plants are added. Stand here, and you can hear a large umber of birds chirping, perched on the huge tree right in front of our place. It is a very pleasant experience...

As an aside, I vividly remember seeing Ramakrishna Hegde standing in front of the brown gate, when he visited the Hegdes who live in front of our place. I was a young kid, and seeing a celebrity/politician in the flesh was a big deal then.

Another cool idea is the skylight. Half done, it looks like this. I especially like the eclipsed Sun effect from the inside, thanks in part to the Motorola Razr's simple camera. Too bad that tiling and painting will take a while more to complete. The architect took us around the first floor and explained what kinds of paint would do good. Was pleasantly surprised to hear about the scientific choices he suggested. Small rooms with less light will look good with bright colors. If you want to draw attention to a wall(say to highlight a painting on it), paint it a different, rather dark color. And so on.

How I wish my trip had lasted longer!

What do you want to eat today ?

Singapore airlines was decent, although this trip was more congested than I remember from 4 years ago.

The 14 hours from San Francisco to HongKong was the worst of them all. I felt especially cramped and couldn't sleep. Arrived dreary and red eyed.

In anycase, food was awesome. I had some really tasty food, see the menu on the left. And, combined with the movie "Sarkar", it was a nice experience. The movie itself was very enjoyable, quite close to the GodFather.

I travelled most of the time in this. Singapore was hot and humid as usual. Changi airport was nice, with free internet, free x-box games and free foot massage machines! I thoroughly enjoyed the massage machines, they are soo good after a long walk in the airport....

Meanwhile, its been three days in Bangalore. I started riding the bike almost immediately; its more easy that I thought it would be. Rode from home to Shankar Mutt, M'lakshmi layout, Tippsandra, Indiranagar and back home. Traffic was not as bad as I had imagined, although the fumes got to me.
Food has been excellent. Everyone I visited till now has fed me to the brim with delicacies. Yesterday night's dinner was in a new restaurant on airport road, Bombay something-or-the-other. Cant believe it was as tasty as it was ! I have now resolved to try out a new chaat place every evening in Bangalore.

From around the world!

I now post from halfway around the world. My plan of surprising folks at home was a hit. I had to face a locked gate at 12 PM when I arrived. I had to jump the compound wall, go to the window and wake my dad through the window! For a while, dad, mom and bro were totally shocked to see me and did not know how to react ! Operation success! If you are planning it yourself though, coming out of the airport in Bangalore and seeing al those eager faces waiting for loved ones, and having to go take a taxi yourself - its heartbreaking.

It does not feel like its been two years since I left home. Everything feels just as before, anna, amma, Viji, friends nearby, relatives. People have changed in subtle ways, and it is obvious that a long time has passed in everyone's lives.

The flight itself was rather uneventful. I bumped into a few young folks en route and we stuck together till Singapore. One dude was a Google base engineer, another was travelling from Boise and worked with Micron. We all went on the famous Singapore city tour (yes, again) although it was wet, rainy and humid. Pictures are in order.

Construction has been coming along superbly. I finally see all the intricate details that I had to mostly imagine all this while. Here is a full shot. It's now time for grilling, painting, installing the vitrefied tiles and the wooden cupboards and redoing the ground level.

Our architect is a young fella with bright ideas. He carries around a Razr V3 ( yes, same as mine) and gets calls every minute or so. Yesterday's talks centered around highlighting one wall with a dark color while the rest of the walls remain dull! Modern touch, he says. It's a shame though, how aesthetics has to take a hit for the sake of security. Folks are worried about the recent breakins and want us to be 'grilled' - if you know what I mean.

In other things, meeting relatives has been good. I have now formally met three cousins' wives and a new kid - all additions to the family I had only heard about. Met my next door neighbor Sudheer after 5+ years and we took a spin in his new Hyundai Getz. Pramoda now has a Scorpio, an SUV way too huge for Bangalore roads, but really superb in itself.

I am suddenly realizing that I have way too many people I want to meet, and too little time for it. Should I relocate to Bangalore ? I wonder......

Photos and more posts coming up shortly..

ಮನೆ ಮನೆ ಮನೆ !

ನಮ್ಮ ಮನೆಯ ಮೊದಲ ಮಹಡಿ! ಇಂದೇ ತೆಗೆದ ತಾಜಾ ತಾಜಾ ಚಿತ್ರ ! ಇನ್ನೇನು ಒಂದೆರಡು ದಿನಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಮುಗಿಯುವ ಹಾಗೆ ಕಾಣುತ್ತಿದೆ, ಅಲ್ಲವೇ ? ಸುಣ್ಣ-ಬಣ್ಣ ಹಚ್ಚಿದ ಮೇಲೆ ಇನ್ನೂ ಚೆನ್ನಾಗಾಗಬಹುದು.

Our home in Bangalore, appears to be close to completion. I especially like the circular pillar and the balcony. It should get better when the painting gets done.

Homesick

I have not been this homesick in a long time. I want to go home right now.

What is it about the holiday season, that breaks up your routine, makes you step back and take appraising looks at life and feel sad/sentimental for being away from family for a long time.

Why, O why does this holiday season happen ? And why did Oracle decide to buy Siebel just when my vacation hours were peaking, making my life more difficult ?

Our home is expanding...

Construction at home in Bangalore is coming along well now. Here is a look at the latest that dad clicked. I especially love the curving top of the balcony. We are also breaking up all the walls down below, so as to create a larger flowing space...

Being in the US for a while now, I didnt realize how closely packed houses in Bangalore are. At least, in the area where our family lives.