Canonic 2011

As the year 2011 rings out, I thought, it’s time to log the significant moments that I have passed through....

This year for me started almost one month early…during first week of Dec 2010, when I started to Melbourne, Australia. The excitement in taking up the task on hand, prioritizing the trip above various things just happened personally & professionally... Before I go further, I would like to confidently say that till date whatever I desired to have in life happened.. It is just with the blessing of my parents and more importantly the bunch of friends around me... Can’t leave any single name behind, but I credit all successful strides in life to my friends...

Adjusting to the time zone was the only thing that I struggled and still struggling little…, the life style of the people here and the dynamic climate always surprised and let me enjoy,,, The laid back life style and doing things at ease made me comfortable in moving ahead.., There is absolutely no rush for doing things here…

Other than few initial hick ups at work, because of little uncertainty in roles and assignment, the entire year have been smooth and straight…

After finding a good accommodation at my friends place, with excellent Gym, Pool, Spa, facilities, I have decided to put in all efforts to learn swimming. This experience in learning how to swim boosted my confidence and made me think different… The initial days have been very struggling where I ended up swallowing the pool water, or go very deep on to the pool floor… But once I started to manage balancing myself on water, I could witness some change in the thought process while doing day to day activities… The confidence that I have got is immense… In fact one should learn swimming for sure and at a very early stage unlike me J

By mid of this year, it was an important moment of life when I became Dad… Of course, as predicted, it happened that I had to wait for some time to see my daughter… I could enjoy those exciting moments as well and felt happy to see her when she grew up little (turning 3^rd Month) recognizing people around… could spend some quality time for almost 3 weeks during Sep, in the context of her Naming ceremony at Hyderabad. With the blessings of my Dad, could name her “Vijaya Wangmayee” meaning who speaks, experiences Success in every deed she does…

With these two important achievements for this year, I look forward for another successful year to come in which I could do something much better for me and my family…

Signing off for now and will share the details of my experiences during Boxing Day Test match, Drive towards Great Ocean and few people whom I met this year and turned out special in my list of friends J J J

Majestic Melbourne

As my stay in Melbourne is almost coming close to 6 months, I wanted to share the experiences with you all...
Post closure of my assignments with the US based projects, got an opportunity to look for projects across Rest of World. In the first look out on these lines, I have been offered a position in Melbourne to work for one among BIG4 banks in Australia. Having my desire to live a life in Australia (with DilChahtaHai inspiration) was really excited about it and given my willingness to be here.
It was a matter of 4 weeks that I could close out on the Visa process and all set for the travel.
December 2010 has been a mixture of emotions for me taking hard decisions on personal and perofessional front. With the support of my family, I could proceed taking up the opportunity on hand and geared up myself for the travel.
Thai Airways has been the option given for me which allowed maximum baggage. On 11th Dec 2010, flew to Melbourne with a break at Bangkok. Journey to Bangkok was around 4 hours and it was quite a short trip in sleep where I dont remember much significant. In Bangkok, there was a wait time of around 3 hours. Not so excited to shop anything or roam around much, went ahead upto the Gate to catch the Melbourne flight and layed on the chair. Tired of many things in that week, had a deep sleep out of control. The flight was about announce the last calls and just then one of the co passenger (Abhishek Tiwary, will talk abt him later) could make out that I am deep in sleep, woke me up to get on to the flight. Not sure what should have happened if I missee that flight.
Then onto the flight to Melbourne, again been lucky not to have anyone next to me and stretched myself and slept well almost for 5 to 6 hours. Not even cared to eat much and was deep sleep. Then at around evening (not sure of time zone in air :) made myself comfortable to sit and had some snacks served. Dont think too much, snacks are nothing than pumpkin seeds (if counted they may be some 15 in the pack)...
Had dinner which was served and was all set for landing at around 8:30 pm local time. There were not many questions at the immigration and had to lose some pickles as a part of the process. Not really sure how to reach the hotel, I approached the near by travel desk at airport and have been directed with a AUS $ 20 ticket in a group taxi.
The driver was too good and explained almost all about Melbourne and showed the landmarks while reaching the hotel Travelodge.
Travelodge is nice place and being the Christmas time, there were lots and lots of crazy tourists to the hotel and had to wait for sometime for my turn. Post formalities, i was given the room key which is big big surprise for me as # reads 1211 (room number 11 on 12th floor). of course my B.Tech friends can have a smile reading this as they only knew that my roll number was 1211 during college. Me always sentimental about 11, as there were so many dates, room numbers specially associated for me, I had my first step into the room so positively.
Then realised that I am so hungry and felt bad for not planning anything to carry with me. Here comes my friend Abhishek who also happened to stay in same hotel, and offered me some biscuits that he carried. The hotel was fantastic and here is the link to view some snaps in hotel:https://picasaweb.google.com/107051423475076950830/Melbourne?locked=true#
The toughest of the moments I faced and have been facing is about the sleeping habit. I really wonder at times if I am suffering from insomnia,... Being ahead in timezone, I have suffered and been suffering on the sleep since that day. What so ever I managed to be there at office and met my manager. With the help of my friend who has been staying here for long time, managed to buy a mobile at the near by Dry Cleaners shop where we get cheap phone. I got "Whiteberry" that I nicked it as..(in fact a Sony Erricson phone with all features of Blackberry). Second day I got challenged with the sleep and snoozed alarm and woke up almost late and rushed myself to office.
As days passed, I started to understand the discipline of typical Australians and their way of life. It has been a Live "f" TV as I roam in the city and people make ultimate fashion definitions here.
Men are always in suits and I started absorbing the culture here. Got to buy a suite month on month... and started dressing as needed. The body language got changed because of the dress I wear and really felt good about the same.
People in Australia are most friendly in contrast to the stupid media reports that float around in India. The city is so welcoming and the facts support the same; almost people from 140 countries reside here and imagine the extent of mixed cultures and celebration of life here. Restaurants in Melbourne are very famous as none of the people come here miss anything of their interest. If you are a non vegetarian, no need to explain the varieties that you can try. Me being a veggie have fun eating out at SubWay, Hungry Jacks, Lord of the Fries, and many other Thai restaurants.
Cooking being my famous stress buster, I could excel well and never missed an opportunity to eat what I wanted at home.
Weather in Melbourne is the most crazy and dynamic which cannot be predicted. One of my friends quoted saying "If you dont like weather here, just wait for 5 minutes"; it can be rainy, sunny, cold, warm ,, am not sure what all varieties one can experience with weather.
As I explain few of the important things about the city I will continue in future posts why life in Melbourne is really MAJESTIC... Untill then bye byeeeeeeeeee

8 Years after College

Just imagine how fast the time has gone. It is already 8 years that we are all out of college by this May 2011. Thanks for Ravi who solely owns the credit in letting all of us stay in touch every now and then. Kudos to his website and the active posts in the recent times,.
Special regard to all of us who were in Bangalore and had fun, may it be joining for dining, or riding all the way to KalavaariHalli Betta in the midnight on our Black Horses, or to help each other educate and grab the postions we are in.... Special memory for all of us would be surely that reunion during 2008 at Hyderabad and we need to have one more time again anytime in next 1~2 years. May be on compeltion of Xth year mark, 2013 sound good, but too much planning will lead to failure ( out of experiences...)...
What so ever, it is always fun to look back and recollect the past and especially those "Happy Days"... ha ha haa,., sure some one, may be everyone will raise their nose / ears quoting them as Happy days,..... as we being 40 different stellars in the available 9 planetory motions,, we never accepted that we were happy during the college...
I still remember the way we started the initial catchup with Ramesh leading us to have a group discussion on topics, the way we had the CR elections...
Most of all the my Birthday celebration during first sem (July 2000),,, and the bang we made on that day leading me to give explanations to our belowed Chairman and Secretary.... ha haaa... Thanks to all my dear friends and special regards to those who arranged for it...
The hostel episodes can be recollected and I still have the moment when O Kiran danced with his head phones leaving us mute audiences... So crazy is it not... But had fun...
Instance by instance, time wont be sufficient for any of us to narrate the most significant days of our lives...
Will continue sharing those moments which ever comes to my mind and wish some one join me in writing their moments of Memoir...
See you soon.... Miss you all for sure....
Regards ...
Pinak
31 May 2011