A Software Engineer's Day Out

Today I had a heavy task. To impart MicroStrategy into my PM and another person who works in Cognos. Heavy, as I have been sitting idle for a month and had never taken marathon session (This was going to be a long session)

There was in interview going on in the room so had to wait an hour to start the session. I won't give any details of the session because it really doesn't bother to you what I taught. Leaving all that aside. I felt very confident of training. It was a a good session. I felt damn happy. Specially they asked the doubts that I had while being a noob. Loved telling them stuff. Teaching is in blood.

We will be having another session tomorrow. Let up hope to continue with same warmth.

After office hours, I and Srikanta had gone to buy spectacles for him. A small things took us 40 minutes due to the rush and loads of offers and choices of glasses available.

Mumbai ka trafic mashaallah

Yesterday I had gone to attend a schoolmates sister's wedding. Hate not to go out on bike, but decided as I had no idea about the place, which came out to be true. I had not been to that area ever before, never had to. Well, got out by 7 from home and by 7:15 I had a shave. Reached bus stop to go to Ghatkopar (E). While traveling on bus (340), I spoke with Prafful if he was free to meet up. We had not met for quite some time, but he had office. Reached close to NASEOH, where the wedding function was going on, by 8:25. Thought to get a bouquet. I opted for a orchid flower bouquet for Rs 250 bucks. Finally managed to get one and reached the place by 9:15. Met the bride and groom. I was pleasing surprised that she remembered my name. We had never seen each other. As I had seen my friend Sudha going out just about to meet up bride, I decided straight hit for dinner plate. When I finished sweets (I eat sweet before meal as sweet increases your hunger) and a chapati, I saw her coming back. We were really surprised because we had never thought that we would ever meet up. We got the reconnection due to Orkut. I believe time was less. She asked to finished the dinner and then meet up. I finished the dinner. Something that I really like about wedding parties is that no one stares me for my unusual way of eating. Call this the bad effect of pampering. I had food and left soon. I believe that was good as Sudha must have been damn damn busy with her own relatives. I know it very well how busy you can be during wedding parties. At the time of leaving party, we planned to meet up with all classmates before she leaves back (on 11th feb).

After this the agony starts. It was 10:30 when I left. I was not out of time so decided to go by bus "somehow" (I was not knowing the place at all, so which bus to take and stop was totally deserted). I waited for 5 minutes and decided to take a rick. I had traveled just 200 meters and on the flyover there was a jam. It was damn irritating. Took me 10 minutes to get out of that traffic and the stupid Maruti Swift driver who was just ahead of us really gave the driver a harrowing time. It was past 10:45 and the road connecting Chembur and Ghatkopar was crowded. Mainly due to people jamming into No entry zone. I was shocked to see all that. Never thought people in Mumbai also do it. The the road that lest you cross Ghatkopart East to West was pathetic experience. There was three lane traffic in the no entry against us. Wow.... India teri jai hai... I reached Ghatkopar station by 11:15, a distance that would take me just 5 minutes on my bike on a zerotraffic day. Well, worst was ahead. The link between LBS Road and Asalpha which is a vital road is just 30 feet wide and mere 15 meters away from the corner there was a punctured rick. People looking to cut across all lanes adn take left right and center. Woof... There were some gentlemen who were managing the traffic and they did a pretty good job. Finally even that traffic got over. I had never thought that anyone on Sakinaka junction would ever dare to cross lights, but yes, when bus reached Sakinaka signal, there were so many bikers who jumped signal. I wised the bus crush these guys. One of them actually stood right ahead of bus negotiating the traffic, coming from right (direction) side. Driving dangerously is cool, breaking singanl is not. I just checked my watch. It was 11:40. I was shocked that such a small journey took such a long time. I reached home at mid night. For first time in life it took me more time while returning back. People in India need to improve their traffic sense a lot. I have broken lights once because I was confused if the signal does exist. Generally there is free left turn leading to high way. I go for a tea break with my teammates which is a one way. But I see a biker and have seen even buses and trucks in wrong direction. who just f*** up traffic. one bloody god damn guy screses up the whole lane in other (correct) direction.

Many more chopping @ Ivy

Just got news from a friend from Ivy. There is going to be complete shut down of the BPO section by June 30. Don't know what they have in mind about Technology. But Technology would also follow suit. In past the CEO had explictly told that they would not cut the work force, after parent compnay Party Gaming lost US $ 9 in three trading session, but it did happen and there was 25% reduction of Technology. BPO has been already reduced by 75%.

Mumbai office has life

Leaving Ivy has been very good. Just have come to know that there have been bad. People work for more than 12 hours a day, either from office exclusively or from home, including the PM. Though there is no doubt that Ivy takes good care of employees in terms of food, EOE, leaves, food etc. But never thought that there would be sooooo much of work. I saw Raj working very late. At least twice after 2 AM. I don't know why was he up so late in office. Didn't even reply on Yahoo. But I do see most of Ivies working late and office environment is not so good. I just feel sad. Never thought of this thing happening, but it is.

I've told HR to get me assigned to a new project ASAP. It is damn irritating to sit idle for such a long period of time. Someone called Mr. Kanan (of Chennai branch) will get back to me on this. Let us see how soon they get me a project with rest of team either in Bangalore or Chennai. We had monthly birthday celebration during closing hours today. That was really good. A rapid fire Q&A session on Republic Day of India and a debate. Office was divided on 4 groups. And two groups had to debate. That was really good. I didn't have the cakes thinking that would be having eggs. All stuff for the celebration was from the shops I knew very well. Happen to know name of a gal whose birthday fell during January. A new pretty tall gal. [She has a BF :-)] "Where some see difficulties, we see challenges." someone called Sharad is going to leave for an assignment at Germay for long term. He sings very well and on public demand he sang "Kaho na kaho". That was great.

MicroStrategy 8.1 to be released

Wow.... Such a kewl faeture by MicroStrategy... Dynamic Dashboard...

One thing I must say (based on the views of people ho have never worked on MicroStrategy and seen me working on MicroStrategy). MSTR Inc has real innovative people. They always come up with new ideas to make things easier to end user. I have received several mails on MicroStrategy Inc manager, where they openly talk about (In mails) how their competent are duping their own customer and they (MSTR) should not follow the same. They should give their (MSTR's) client fresh UI and complete stuff no half baked ideas like others.

Well this was very well confirmed by several people working on Business Objects and Cognos.

Initial cost of MSTR is exorbitantly high and maintenance is high, but cost cutting advantages in longterm are immense and no other BI tool can stand against MSTR.

Read about this new happening here.

BTW, I'm "still" working with Cybage. MicroStrategy haven't been told that I left Cybage in Nov 2005 itself.

Back to Square ONE

So it is official now. I'm released from project. and I'll be contacted by Resource Management Group anytime soon and will be allocated a new project. I have three options

1. Work in a MicroStrategy project from Mumbai
   
2. Join SAP Testing
3. Join SAP BI

In the order of preference.

Let us see what happens? Life is very bad? Ivy made me feel bad about not accepting H1-B (for a moment) and now Covansys is making me feel bad for not accepting offer from CapGemini. And now if I change job that would be my 5th employment in last 14 months :-)

I know it very well what is job security but sometimes you are willing to take the plunge.

Saw a Dead unicorn driver.....

I was going to my sister last saturday... On Narul Flyover in New Bombay.. I saw an accident.. accident of a biker... His body was covered with thick papers... One nad half lane were closed and the policewla was asking ppl to move (Not to stop at thepalce of accident.).. I was crusing at 80 on thesame lines which was blocked ahead... When I came close at around 50 mtrs I could understand what had happened.. It was all blood everywhere.... His shoes were peeping out of the cardboard covers... I almost brign my buike to stop.. tried to see what had happend and policewala was asking people to move fast... I crossed.. Soon after this I (actually) laughed a bit tinking which useless bike this F***er was driving.. I said to my self "zarron pulsar-wala hoga".. I turned back.. His bike was a brand new Honda Unicorn... I was take na back for next 2 minutes... By the time I crossed the flyover I was feeling like vomiting... (I feel it even if I see non-veg or people talk about it)..Next km I drove at 40.... I drove the remaining journey at 80+ but whole way I was thinking about this accident... why.. how... all that happened?? He was driving Unicorn. Unicorn drivers are pretty sinsible than other bikers.. what a bloody ~!@#$%^&* biker.... The raod was smooth and there were no trye streaking.. there were two bikes standing but hadno signs of any accident so I beleieve thosewere just passers by or may bepolice vehicle.... I can't imagine.. My bike badly needs servising but don't know the service station numbers... Brakes and clutch are loose.. Springs very badly need oiling.. battery needs to be charged up... Gosh.. I gotta take leave and do all these adn will do this by next weekend.... Please drive safely....

Do bandar Covansys ke anadar

Well.. I and my lead (Srikanta) or rather Srikanta is very much troubled by two newbies in the projects. On 12th Shamir had not come to office , had some personal engagements so on leave. The onus of sending mail was on Srinivas. Two mails to be sent from shared inbox of Shamir. I left office at 6:20, time when higher management people were coming back to office after a meeting at near by big hotel. I happen to see my PM (he is one of the big guys at Covansys), but we didn't cross each other's way as I take the path gate nor car gate. Well, at 7:00 I realized that 15th is Pongal and its holiday. There were too many reports to be sent on Monday. I called up Srikanta who is on way home. He said that monday is not holiday. I was not able to open Covansys intra-net from home, so called up Sripati. But he asked me call up after 10 minutes as he was busy with some reports. Well, fine! at 7:15 I get a call from Sripati asking to come to office. well w/o asking why I told them I'd there by 7:30. When I was about to leave home, I get a call from Srikanta, asking to meet up at J.B.Nagar bus stop and take a package home as Courier company refused to send it in Orissa and going back home to keep that package would definitely make him miss his bus to Pune at 8:15. Well, I reached the meeting spot and within 2 minutes of that even he arrived. I just took th the package and ask him to go as he was becoming late for bus. Well here is the real fun. I was in casuals. The guard was taken a back for a moment when he saw me. I asked Srinovas and Sripati about the matter. It was ridiculous to hear that they were not able to send mail. The Reason.:They had not put recipients names. This was straight. Second doubt took me a moment to crack. They were not knowing that when mail format is HTML/Rich Text, attachments are sent in-line (you can drop files inside mail) where in Plain text mail, attachments become separate parts. They were struggling with same for hour or so. Came back home.

Funny MicroStrategy Job Ad

Hey.... Funny MicroStrategy Job Ad.. sound strange.. take a look... Pleasing Personality under Personal skills.... Lagta hai.... Client thoda mastikhor hai.....

A heavy weekend ahead

Life is very uncertain. I had plans to go to Pune (preferably on bike), but I gotta my yearly society get together on the same day. I’m yet to throw the pending party for the job at IVY. I’ve gotta meet Arvind my CDAC mate and colleague at MSTR@cybage Prafful the coming weekend. Well there is another twist. My College mate Don. Unfortunately I copied wrong number from the mail he had sent and I could never connect him. But alan contradicted and gave me the number. What a fool. He is leaving on 7th 30 minutes past midnight. Don’t know what to do and he seems to be damn busy too. Don is not planning to come back to India in future. J Let me see what happens this weekend. Don would be first priority on Friday and Society Party would be on Saturday. So I can go and meet Arvind or Prafful or Saturday noon or Sunday whole day. I can meet don at Airport which is just 5 minute drive from home, but will keep as last option to pay a visit to him.

I gotta meet Gautam too, who has joined Teradata. But not heard from him for pretty long time.

Alt+Ctrl+Del (Restart)

I believe if I look for reason to start my blogs regularly, I'd never start it. So now I've decided to write my blog on daily basis no matter what. Lots of things have happened in past 2 months. Mostly funny and few depressing. I'll put them as and when I recall. I'm finally back to Mumbai after roaming several cities on India for several months spamming for years to few months. Last but not the least, location of Mumbai office as Covansys is just a stone's throw away from my home. Feel like heaven after having eaten out for two and half years. I come back home for lunch. Save two hours of my daily life that I would have had lost in traveling to and fro office.