Yes, over a month since I posted. Has been crazy lately. The US economy is totally down & its my first recession after entering my professional career.
Well the tech slowdown in 2001 too effected me any many in my age group and it was pretty bad. Almost our entire class lost an year due to the 2001 slowdown.
This time around the situation is quite bad compared to the previous slowdown, and USA is officially in recession. The major difference this time is that its not just the IT industry thats hit, but almost all sectors are hit badly. Specially the housing & the financial market here in the US. And in today’s world, everything is interconnected. So, people from all walks of life are impacted one way or the other.
On the work side, many projects are being axes or postponed, budgets are being slashed and people are more and more cautious when it comes to spending money. For now, I have enough work lined up for the coming months. Must see how it turns out.
In other news, Amogh, my son turned One on feb 8th. Time fly’s by so fast!
Like mentioned in my previous post, both Amogh and Chitra are back in India. … and I could not miss Amogh’s 1st birthday. So, I flew all the way back to India for a week! :) and it was worth it! The special thing about the trip was, it was a surprise trip!. Only Chitra knew that I would be flying. So, it was fun to see the reaction of every one who saw me there on his birthday!
….even for Amogh, the day I landed, it took a while for him to realize that it was his father who had suddenly disappeared from the scene sometime back. And then, after a few minutes, he knew it was his dad :) … and clearly seemed to be very happy that day.
The Trip was quite hectic — 30 hrs of travel one way — 1 week in Mangalore & again 30 hrs of travel back to Houston!. So for around 2 to 3 weeks, my biological clock was totally out of sync due to jet lag/timezone changes! But it was worth it.
Its a pleasure to see Amogh these days. He now walks and virtually runs all around very comfortably. …and has now started to climb the stairs. He blabbers in his own baby language! ….. and has become very naughty! :)
If all goes well, Chitra & Amogh should be here soon — may be in a week or two. Waiting for thier arrival !
It has been pretty hectic. The much anticipated vacation came and went past soo soon. Landed back in Houston on 3rd June. Well, must say the 1 month vacation was really hectic. Sooo many things to do, places to visit, and soo little time! Well, that’s how it is I guess!
Things done/Places visited in one month:
Around 4 trips to Karkala – Visited Karkala Sri Venkataramana Temple, Tellar Devaki Krishna Temple and other deities, visited relatives – √
Two trips to Puttur – visited relatives, temples – √
Trip to Manipal – Visited Relatives, MIT, and Manipal — back to Mangalore via Udupi – √
Visit to Gurpur Satyadevata temple – √
Visit to Chennai – For visa stamping (via Bangalore). The trip was uneventful. Amogh was pretty quite on all the flights. – √
Bharat Mall – √
Around 4+ visits to Infosys Managlore (Mangala) – √
Upgraded home computer (in mangalore) with more RAM and networking support – √
Setup a wireless network at my home – √
Attended Swami Ramdev’s Yoga classes in Mangalore – √
Pabbas – Chocolate Dad, Tiramisu, Parafait – √
Cherry Square – Some like it hot – √
Chefs, Prax – √
Family Photos by Professional Photographer – √
Most of Mangalore City, Kadri Temple, Venkataramana Temple – √
Visited/met lot of relatives – √
Now that its all over, I am back to work. …….. and I am missing Chitra and Amogh. Both of them are back in Mangalore and will join me in sometime. I don’t know how Amogh would react once he is back here in US!…since he likes to have lot of people around. I have posted some of Amogh’s pics on my Orkut Profile! Check out if you are on my orkut friend list.
Well, on work front, I would be joining a new Project here at BP. So, kind of excited about it.
Well, its been a long time since I wrote here. Its the first post of 2008!!! Hope all of you had a great new year.
Well, all is good at our end. Baby is due pretty soon, and both me and Chitra are geared up for the big event! The official due date is 21-Feb-2008, but anything + or – 2 weeks is considered as a ‘term’ baby.
It has been kind of hectic the past month or so… shopping for baby stuff, childbirth classes, baby shower(s) :) …. and so on. Well, the child-birth classes were pretty informative and helpful. Things like these are unheard of in India. In a way its good, and in some ways, its bad – as-in they give too much of information! Well, shopping for baby stuff is another story …. All in all, its been hectic and fun so far :)
Life would go for a spin for sure, pretty soon – for the good!!
Well, I also realized that I am not really finding time to play with the Wii that I bought a few months back.
So, decided to put it up for sale on eBay. Its a amazing game system, but I don’t really see myself sitting and playing given where I am in my life! :). So, if you are interested, bid for it! BTW, its still hard to find Wii’s here in the US! This thing still has very high demand!
Well, after waiting for years, the new Infosys Mangalore development center is ready for business. Its named Nethra after the river Nethravathi which is the lifeline of mangalore (and its pretty close to the river too!!) .
Unofficially, the center started operations on 15th October, with 83 people on-board!
When phase 1 is fully ready – it would accommodate upto 3200 people. And since its in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ), it means that certain percent of the people working there must be freshly recruited! Which is a great news to the entire Dakshina Kannada region. Phase 2 and 3 would bring in more growth!
This has been a much awaited project. Have been hearing about it even before I joined Infosys in 2002!
Kudos to everyone involved. An official inauguration ceremony is planned sometime in the coming months!
Will try to post more pictures as soon as I get them!
Mangalore, my home town has been featured in Time Magazine! Came to know about this from Harsha’s blog a couple of days back.
Hampankatta. Mangalore – Photo Credit: Bharat Sikka for Time Magazine
The article talks about the recent growth-wave that’s hit Mangalore. Sure enough, Mangalore has changed a lot in the last 5 to 10 years, and I am sure that by the time I am back at Mangalore, it would look totally different!
Just checked Google earth.. and it looks like there has been a major data update. Lots of places are much clearer. Not very high resolution, but much better then before!. My home town, Mangalore now looks great, and I can see my house ! :)
Check out this picture of Infosys Mangalore – My office back at Mangalore…
This weekend was work and fun. I was in office on Saturday to catch up with work. But Sunday was fun. It was the grand finale of Synergy 2005. As mentioned in one of my previous post, Synergy is the annual sports event of mInfosys. The finale is always held on the beach side. This year, the program was at the a place called called “Samudra Darshana Guest house” near Hosabettu. Hosabettu beach is around 10kms from mInfosys.
This year, the program started started in the afternoon, and finished with dinner at around 10 PM.
Various games were played………..started with Triathlon, followed by Lagori….
But the most interesting game was Beach volley ball. The finals between the Green Team and the Red team was really thrilling. Thought fight till the last minute. Finally green won the volley ball finals.
After volley ball, there was tug-of-war. This year around, no major fight in tug-of-war, compared to the previous years when the rope itself used to give up!!
Update (13-Apr-2007): Apparently, I heard recently that they have changed the design – due to the nature of the soil at the construction area. I think it won’t be a inverted pyramid as shown below.
OK. This one is for real, unlike the major HOAX forward mail that was floating around a couple of months back.
The real proposed Design of the new Infosys Campus at Mangalore looks as shown below:
