Posts filed under 'Personal'
Like last year, we have an year-end shut down this year as well and amidst all the telangana struggle, the bandhs and protests, reached hyderabad safely yesterday morning 
. And the first thing I checked after reaching home was the internet connection. Switched on the desktop here and everything seemed to be fine and was quite happy.
Later when I switched on my laptop and connected my WRT54G2 router, I realized that my modem’s ethernet port was not up. Only the USB port was working and that’s how the desktop’s internet was fine. And I can’t even use the USB port with my laptop as this has some strange issue with it. The internet stops working after a few minutes of browsing 
and when I pull out the USB cable, the laptop just hangs and I have to do a hard restart. And this is 101% reproducible 
. Now tried with other cables and tried connecting the modem’s ethernet port to laptop & desktop directly. But nothing seemed to work. Finally decided to give a complaint as I was strongly suspecting that the modem’s ethernet port was having some issue and the modem may have to be replaced. So, called up the BSNL customer care.
Took a while to actually find out the customer care number itself. And finally was happy that I got the number and the phone was ringing on the other side and some non-human response was heard. And after a few button presses, got to talk to a human and this is how it went.
Call#1 -Â Some lady picks-up and after the routine greetings from her, she says she can help me out in resolving my issue. Was happy that BSNL customer care also works and thought that things are improving with BSNL as well (this is ofcourse proved to be wrong later ). Now she asks me to check if I have dhcp/static ip settings and then asks me to ping to the router’s ip address which would not work. I was telling her that the modem’s ethernet link itself is not up and its definitely not going to work. But she won’t understand it and finally she says its some issue at their end and it will work in 2-3 hours 
. Now come on, what is it got to do with their end when the modem’s port itself was not working. That’s when I understood that she never understood what my issue was. This is how the tech support of the BSNL customer care is .
Call#2 – Then called up again after some 30 mins hoping to get someone else on the other side now. This time it was a male voice and I explained to him the whole situation. And the way I explained to him, he understood that there is no point in asking me to check ip address or any other routine settings. He puts me on hold for 5 mins and then comes back saying that it could be some hardware issue and I have to get help from some technician. Now that is what I called them up for and this guy in turn expects me to get some other techinician to check the port. After insisting that it was the bsnl modem that has an issue and someone from bsnl has to come and maybe replace the modem, he says some techinician will call me back in an hour and he does not even register a complaint.
Call#3 – More than and hour passes now but still no sign of phone call. So, thought of contacting them again and this time a lady picks up and says a complaint was already registered and it actually takes 24 hours for someone to respond back and she happily gives the complaint number and hangs up. And its almost 40 hours at the time of writing this post and no sign of follow-up from them .
It was only today evening I realized that I had to work on something very urgent and was supposed to complete it by the weekend. That’s where my problems started again. Thought I have a datacard, the response on vnc would be so slow that one can hardly work on it. The other backup plan was to go to a cousin’s place but somehow got busy with some other work at home and it was already midnight. So, finally thought of coming up with some solution using whatever I had with me (a desktop, bsnl modem with working usb connection, linksys wrt54g2 router, laptop with integrated wi-fi & a few cat-5 cables). More on the solution part later………….need to finish up my work now ……………………
December 28th, 2009
Had it not been for the third time in 3 months, I wouldn’t have written about this . In my 25 years, I barely remember forgetting stuff like this. This is about how I got locked out of my house twice during the night and once during the day and how I managed to get back in .
The first time it was around 9 PM and I went out to get some stuff and when I came back realized that I left my keys in my room itself and it got locked. The good thing was I do have a duplicate key set in my office drawer. So, called up another colleague of mine and went to office. I was requesting the security guys to open the drawer in my cube to get my keys but they say all the keys are in some safe and a seal has been put and it can’t be taken out . Only when I said I can call the campus security head they said they will call their incharge and see if something could be done (and in fact they could get the keys but you know people are not always ready to help so easily). Finally they broke the seal and got the key to open my drawer.
I told to myself that I will never again be so careless but that’s what exactly happened for the second time. But this time it was just after I got ready to leave to office. So, luckily I had my drawer keys in my pocket. So, called up the same colleague and asked him to stay at my place until I get back with the key and lock the house .
And today yet again I got locked out during the night . I went out for groceries and came back home at around 9.30 PM only to realize that I didn’t had my keys with me. And this time I could not recollect if I left my keys inside or if I lost it somewhere on the way as I was on my bike wearing shorts. So, it was the same routine again…. a colleague….campus security…..but this time I really had to call up the campus seurity head and only when he told them to help me out, they let me in and got the key to open my drawer. But this was not the end and I was really tensed until I reached my home as I was still not sure if I lost the keys or forgot to take them. And finally I found them safe in my room .
So, now I decided to keep this duplicate key in one of my friend’s place because I am pretty sure the campus security people are not going to entertain me for the third time . I hope I won’t forget stuff like this again….but this is seriously not a good indication . Anyways will keep updating here if it happens again…….
December 18th, 2009
Just got my new Hyundai i10 delivered. Its i10 1.2 magna, silver colour. Don’t have a camera right now……will upload a few pics here later. As of now I am restricted to drive only in and around the city . No long trips approval received yet . Hope to go on trips later but for now its only bangalore . More to come later……
December 17th, 2009
Finally, I watched a movie yesterday after a gap of 5 months . I think this was the first time in the past few years that I haven’t watched a single movie for more than 5 months. Yeah, that’s a looooooooong gap for a guy who used to watch movies almost every week. Even if I was not going to a movie, I used to atleast check the pvr site to know about the currently running movies. And this time when I opened the site after 5 months I was surprised to see that the entire UI of pvr site has changed.
Coming to the movie that I watched, it was a telugu movie Konchem Ishtam Konchem Kashtam. As always, I haven’t read any reviews about the movie before booking. I just go to any movie when I feel like watching one. Not very particular about the story, the cast,e tc. Movie was the same routine love story and how the hero and heroine make it up at the end. It wasn’t that bad but not a great movie also. To me the first half was better than the second half. The comedy was also good enough. But towards the end I didn’t like all the sentimental stuff that the director tried to put in. And somehow in this movie, I didn’t like the dialogue delivery of the actors.On the whole, I think it can be watched once and you won’t feel bored at any point.
To me it was a nice break from my daily routine and a good start to get back to my old movie going habit.
Update: I started going to gym ………….will post about it sooooooon
March 4th, 2009
Its been a long time now since I posted anything new here. The last post I made was on September 2nd and since then there haven’t been any updates. There have been several comments in my latest post asking me why aren’t there any new updates . I never knew there were so many people checking this place. Anyways was actually a little bit busy since the last few weeks. So, could not post anything. In fact I still have the draft of quite a few posts that I was thinking of posting since 3 weeks but could not complete them.
I even saw many movies recently but couldn’t update about them as well. Anyways now you will all see some regular posts here again as before. Thanks to all those who were curious to know why there haven’t been any posts recently . And the funniest thing is that all of them know the reason .
September 29th, 2008
An update from my side is that yesterday I bought a new Nokia N-81 graphite gray colour 2GB version. I was eagerly waiting for iPhone to be launched in India. But looking at its current price in India (Rs.31000 for 8GB and Rs.36100 for 16GB) , I had to look for other options and finally decided to buy an N-81. So, far I am happy with its performance….lets see how it turns out to be .
Update : Its been just six days since I bought the phone and it had crashed (restarted on its own) twice and hanged once (could not even switch-off and had to remove the battery) . Maybe time to go for a firmware upgrade. Apart from this I did not face any other issues as of now. I keep installing new free applications and am loving it.
August 25th, 2008
Last week a friend of mine had come from hyderabad. So, took him to forum…and by default I went to landmark also. This is the place where I will never get bored……I can spend hours together in landmark looking at all the books. Finally bought two books and one of them was this one Games Indians Play by V. Raghunathan.
Coming to this book, I had heard about this book already but didn’t knew what it was all about. So, when I found it in landmark, I just saw the contents and it seemed to be really interesting. This book is basically about “why we are the way we are” i.e., why are we Indians the way we are….an interesting read isn’t it??? I came across many new concepts of game theory through this book and the way the author correlates them to the way Indians think and behave is quite interesting. Especially the prisoner’s dilemma framework was really good. Also the different variations of this and then trying to understand the characteristics of human rationality, irrationality, egotism, competetion, co-operation among we Indians, etc through this framework was really good. Also the author discusses about the various scenarios that he had used when he was teaching at IIM-A and a few experiments that he used to do in parties, etc.
On the whole its an interesting read and would definitely recommend it. If you don’t have the time to read the book atleast try reading about the concept of prisoner’s dilemma, pseudo dilemma, wolf’s dilemma, etc. They are really really interesting concepts worth looking at. Also original articles on prisoner’s dilemma by hofstadter that were published in scientific american in 1980′s are worth reading.
Of all the quotes that I came across in this book, the one I liked the most is this
“India is a functioning anarchy” —by J.K.Galbraith (US ambassador to India, 1962).
May 30th, 2008
Last weekend I had a blast with my btech friends. For three days it was lot of fun. Its been a long long time since I had a good time with my btech friends. Those three days I had such a good time that I don’t feel like working now (anyways I never felt like working 
). I am still in that mood only. Thanks to nandini and bhavana who came to bangalore all over from hyderabad.
Initially all of us planned to go to coorg but somehow it got cancelled. So, we decided to go to places in and around bangalore. Let me start from Day 1.
Day 1:
What a day it was!!! Thanx to air deccan and BIAL (Bangalore International Airport Limited) it took my friend a total of 7 hours to reach bangalore from chennai . For me the day started at 5.30 AM. I had to first pick up my friend from railway station. After reaching the station, I came to know that the train is running late by one hour. And this is just the beginning….so to pass away the time I had my breakfast at comesum in the station..then had some tea…then went around the station for sometime and still there was no sign of the train . At last I get a call from my friend that the train has arrived…what a relief!!!! . After a long wait at last I dropped my friend at her friend’s place and came back to my room. Had a short nap and got up to go to the new devanahalli airport. Got a call from my friend in chennai that the flight was on time. So, started off to the airport immediately unaware of what was in store for me at the airport . Thought of trying the new volvo buses to the airport. Luckily found one as soon as I reached the bus stop. For people who are not aware of these volvos and new airport stuff…..the scenario is that the new international airport at bangalore was opened on the same day and airport people had put these volvos in service to reach the new airport which was around 45 km from my place. It took me 1 hour 45 minutes to reach the airport. I thought my friend’s flight would land first. But the situation at chennai airport was that the flight got delayed by some 30 mins initially…then another 30 mins and then another 30 mins and then after boarding it was delayed by another 30 mins 
…..thats what is air deccan’s speciality. So ultimately the flight that was supposed to reach bangalore by 11.15 AM reached bangalore by 2 PM ….. thank god it reached . Just to pass away the time I had a sandwich, a cool drink and read the whole Economic Times paper . So, today whatever the food I had was just to pass away the time . Now again from the airport to reach the city its another herculean task. Took a volvo and this time it took almost 2 hours to reach our place. So, ultimately by 4.30 PM we were at our friend’s place. So, for my friend it was a total of 7 hours journey to reach the destination.
In the evening we planned to go to hogganekkal falls the next day. So, went out to book a cab and then thought of going to dinner from there. But thanks to these travel offices, it took us almost 2 hrs to get a cab……after a lot of arguments atlast we had to pay what they wanted us to pay . And then after everything was decided, they could not get the vehicle we wanted and he kept us waiting in his office . Looks like today it was the day of waiting waiting and waiting for me . Anyways finally we booked the cab and then went for dinner. Another friend was also supposed to join but thanks to the travel people who made us to wait so long that it was too late for her to join us. Anyways three of us had a nice dinner at bombay post on airport road.
Day 2:
I had to get up by 5 AM as we asked the car driver to come by 6 AM. This guy came in time. Picked up the other friends from their places and we started off to hogganekkal falls. It was around 160 – 180 km from our place. Reached the place by afternoon. To see the actual falls we have to take a coracle. We were total of 5 and for Rs. 600 we could get one. This guy took us near the falls…we had proper shower…all of us were completely wet. Initially none of us thought that we would be wet..but ultimaltely none of us were dry . Initially we thought that this being summer there won’t be lot of water. But it was really good. Maybe in monsoons the level of water would be still more and the flow of the falls would also be more. But still the place was too good. The water going through the rocks, the coracles, the hills at a distance all made the place worth visiting.
Then we went around in the coracle for some more time and then were back. There was one crocodile rehabilitation centre also here. One can find lot of crocodiles here. After all this we were all set to go back to bangalore. The only problem in the journey was that the last few kilometers to this place, the road was bumpy and all of us had this vomiting sensation. Anyways by 6.30 PM we were all back home.
The plan for the next day was supposed to be decided over dinner. Had our dinner in mainland china on 100 ft. road. Here we decided that next day we would go to shivasamudram and this proved to be a very good decision.
Day 3:
Again I had to get up by 5 AM . After pickingup other friends from their places, we started our journey. We took the mysore road and then the deviation at maddur. The road till maddur was too good…..ofcourse it was the bangalore – mysore road . Had our breakfast on the way. Now from maddur though the road wasn’t that good, but the place was awesome….on either sides of the road we could see the paddy fields, sugarcane fields, the coconut trees all over, banana trees and many more. It was an awesome view. Just this bit of the journey made us feel like that it was a good decision to go to shivasamudram. After reaching the place we first went to see if we were allowed to see the dam. But visitors were not allowed . By the way this dam was supposed to be the first one in South Asia..built somewhere in 1902. Then we went to the gagan chukki falls. The sight of the falls was too good. It was really really worth coming to this place. From there we went to bara chukki falls. Its around 14 km from here. On the way we stopped at the dam reservoir. Had some fun here by climbing trees, etc. We spent almost 45 mins to get on to a tree and get down . Ofcourse if you look at the tree you would know why . Then reached the bara chukki falls. And here we can go to the bottom of the falls by walk. There were even the coracle’s to go in the waters but we were not interested in it. Thought of exploring the place ourselves . After crossing the small stream and getting on to the rocks we went to the point where the falls reach the ground. It was worth the effort. Spent some time here and started to walk back to the top. Had real fun at this place when compared to hogganekkal falls. And as always all good things come to an end, we started off back to bangalore. On our way back I had to bear the three females singing at the top of their voices ……..had no clue as to what happened to them . After having some food at forum went to yeshwantpur station to drop my friends and then came back home.
So, atlast it was the end of all fun and back to the same routine again
Will be uploading the photos soon……………..so keep checking.
May 28th, 2008
Till now I was using picasa to create the web albums and then was uploading the album on my server. But atlast I decided to go for gallery as I will be getting more features with it. I will be getting a lot of features like allowing users to add comments, add descriptions to the photos, providing slideshows, creating new user accounts (users can upload their photos on my server)and many more. So, installed gallery on my web server yesterday. The first album uploaded through gallery is my shar trip album.
You can check out the gallery here. The link to the gallery can also be found in the sidebar on the right side (My Gallery) and also in the Photo Album page on the top. Will be writing my shar experiences soon.
May 11th, 2008
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s the doctor finally says “the reason for your headache is this error in your vision” and then he prescribed glasses for me. So, finally on December 6th 2008, my childhood fascination for glasses became a reality. You can see my new avatar in the pic 
