Monthly Archives: January 2004

Closer to a closure

Life is like that

This weekend I had a severe wheezing problem. Wheezing came back on me after returning to Chennai due to its heavy dust and smoke pollution. When I went to a doctor to check, he advised that I stay out of smoke and dust! Funny it sounds, but that is what he said. If one have to stay out of smoke and dust in Chennai, either he has to stay home or get under the grave.

Usually whenever wheezing comes, I would take a theophyline tablet and it would reduce. But not so on Sunday. It went on and on and not just in duration but it got intense as well. There was a point when I was thinking probably it would turn out to be a permanent stop!

When it turned worse, I went to a doctor. Seeing the intensity he injected a mixture of three medication. Even then it stopped only after 20 minutes. He has given few heavy dose tablets which make me feel like a zombie. I have to continue the medication for couple of more days.

India is shining

General

Oflate Indians are brimming with pride about their fast growing economy. We should be, for it has grown by an incredible rate of 8%. And if the financial predictions are anything to be true, it will grow on par with that of Japan and Australia, even more than that of European Union. For the first time that I can remember, our debts to the world lenders, like IMF, are paid fully. The confidence is so much that our PM announced that India will set up a fund towards world poverty elimination. Some sort of miracle is happening in India.

Of all these growths, what I am proud of the ruling politicians is, about foreign policy. Even China wants to be a friend with us. Unbelivable, but true. Hats off to Vajpayee, the moderate man in the otherwise right-wing party, for taking these bold initiatives.

Late night training

Nothing official about it

Due to bad organizing, I had to attend a training, two hours after midnight. Just now the organizer at the offshore end realised that the trainings are also conducted at a more comfortable timings.

The training is on a time entry product called Niku. We will have to get the training from onsite people and train all the offshore resources. Hopefully our training and successive offshore trainings will go well.

…and Hello Madras

Life is like that, Travel

We took a bus to Coimbatore. Then we were picked up by a college friend of mine. I am meeting him after 9 years; after leaving college, we didn’t meet, though kept in touch. He is now married with 2 charming baby boys. We had dinner at his house and then caught our train back to Madras.

We reached Madras on early Sunday. Sunday went almost taking rest, preparing for office, checking our (my BIL’s and mine) motor bikes and viewing photos. I got a severe cold, probably due to weather changes.

And today I am back to office. I opened my inbox and there were 200 emails. Gosh! it took me almost entire morning to read through and segregate.

In my absence, a major release went through without any trouble. I contributed process improvement, inaddition to teaching the team on Vantive. So it is a good news to start the year.

Unlucky to view Mudumalai

Travel

We planned to visit Mudumalai, a wild life sanctuary. We booked our trip with Sri Murugan Travels. We booked the trip a day prior and promptly the guy came and collected the money. The van was supposed to pick us by 14h00. But around 15h00, he called us to say that there is seat only for 2 persons and would we be willing to postpone our trip. What a customer service!

As we didn’t have another day, we couldn’t make it to Mudumalai.

We went on with walking around the city, watching TV, and talking to a German couple staying in YWCA.

Kotagiri

Travel

For a change we decided to use the public transport to go around. So we took a bus to Kotagiri, a near-by hill station. There is another reason as well, we were told there is not much to see in Kotagiri except the Kodanadu view point.

Kotagiri is 30 kms from Ooty and it takes one and half hour by bus and from Kotagiri we had to catch another bus to reach the viewpoint, which is another half hour by bus.

From this view point one can see, Moyar river formimg a natural boundary between Tamilnadu and Karnataka. It takes curves and bends and beautifully enriches the land for vegetation. Together with the river, other peaks of the western ghats presents an idyllic view. The stylic ‘M’ shaped Ramaswamy peak is a unique sighting.

After around an hour enjoying the scenic beauty, we left back to Ooty.