Its so refreshing to see this video! “Taste of street food in Mangalore” featured on the program “Zaika India Ka” on NDTV.
Link: http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/videopod/default.aspx?id=22165
Special thanks to a friend of mine who forwarded this link to me!
1 comment | February 2nd, 2008 at 01:07pm
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!
Add comment | October 26th, 2007 at 03:23pm
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!
Main Article:
http://www.time.com/time/asia/covers/501060619/mangalore.html
Photo Essay :
http://www.time.com/time/asia/photoessays/2006/remaking_india/mangalore.html
10 comments | June 20th, 2006 at 04:11pm
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…
Infosys Mangalore - Google Earth view - Click to Zoom
Infact, tons of places across the globe have new images!. Enjoy! I am off to side-seeing! :)
Try out Google Earth today!.
2 comments | June 10th, 2006 at 12:13am
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….
After Lagori, there was Sand Castle competition.
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.
Beach Volley Ball - Click to Zoom
Beach Volley Ball - Smash - Click to Zoom
Beach Volley Ball - Click to Zoom
Beach Volley Ball - Smash - Click to Zoom
Beach Volley Ball - Red vs Green - Click to Zoom
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!!
Tug of War - Zoor Lagake Haiyaa - Click to Zoom
Then there was the prize distribution ceremony…..
mInfoscions - Prize Distribution - Click to Zoom
This years overall champions were Red Bulls! (that’s the name of the Red team!).
Red Bulls - Winners of Synergy 2005 - Click to Zoom
My team, the black hawks had to be happy being in the third place.
Prize distribution was followed by small time dance party….but it was already 10 PM by then.. and we had to wind up.
Lets Dance baby - Click to Zoom
Overall, a great day and had a nice time.
2 comments | December 19th, 2005 at 01:38pm
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:
Source : http://www.hafeezcontractor.com
Will post more pictures if I get a chance!
You can find designs of other proposed Infosys buildings at the Hafeez Contractor’s website.
11 comments | November 11th, 2005 at 12:41pm
Apart from the normal project party, at Infosys, we also have a quarterly unit party. i.e, folks from the entire unit would present. We had this quarters party yesterday at ‘Pegasus’. We started at around 5.30 PM from office. Pegasus has a section with a disco floor. We had booked that place for the party. Initially the crowd was bit less, but as usual, quite a lot of people turned out as time passed by.
Started with fresher introduction. i.e, people who joined our unit in the last quarter. It was kind of ragging and fun :). Then there were the normal games, and then finally the floor was open to dance!.
One thing good was, the music!.. The DJ did a pretty decent job this time around. He did a good mix. The food was also decent. All of us had a great time.
Well, this was kind of my first official party. I had attended Unit parties before, but as a spouse! Got to attend one more party this Sunday, this time its for people who volunteered for the mInfy10 event.
1 comment | September 23rd, 2005 at 08:44pm
Update - Oct 25, 2005: Finally my GPRS is working on BSNL Prepaid. Check update number 4 given below.
Does anyone knows how to activate the BSNL’s GPRS service for prepaid connections in Mangalore, Karnataka (south) ? Please leave a comment if you can help.
Here is what I have done so far (I use a Nokia 6600):
1. Sent a SMS to 3733 with the text ‘ACTGPRS’.
2. Received a SMS within a few minutes saying my request is received, and the message asked to wait for a confirmation SMS.
3. Confirmation SMS from +444 received tell me that GPRS and MMS service has been activated.
4. I called up the customer care for the configuration settings. They SMS’ed me the settings. (You can get the settings from : This Place too. Its available on the BSNL site too.)
5. Installed the settings. Its as simple as saving the SMS.
6. Tried to connect to the net using opera/netfront/services (built in browser), using the access point created by the configration settings.
7. It tries to connect, but so far no success. The GPRS signal indicator (the little “G”) blinks for sometime and then disappears. No specific error message.
9. Sent a SMS again to 3733 with the text ‘ACTGPRS’, to which I got a reply back saying, ‘GPRS and MMS services are already enabled’.
Has anyone successfully set this thing up ?
I have called the customer care, spoken to them ‘n’ number of times, but its of no use. Typical government stuff.
Any pointers to success would be really helpful.
Update 1 (Around Sept 19th, 2005) : BSNL customer care folks told me that the GPRS service is down for a few days and should be back online withing couple of days.
Update 2 (Sep 26th, 2005) : Called up local customer care center at Mangalore. The person says that Nokia 6600 handset has some problem with BSNL GPRS network! - Can anyone confirm this ? Cant directly trust these folks. Everytime you call them, they give you some new reason. If I get a chance, i will check it with an different handset. BTW, the solution suggested by the BSNL local guy is to upgrade software (firmware to the latest version - costs around Rs. 500).
Update 3 (Oct First week) : Spoke to one more person at the local exchange. Could reach that person after getting redirected atleast 5 times. Almost always, the person at the enter end, conviniently gives one more number saying that the next person is ‘the’ person who can handle this!. Finally, I end up talking to a technical guy (I think!). Now, this person doesn’t say anything about Nokia 6600 problem. He says even he wasn’t able to access GPRS for a couple of days. Asks me to call in a couple of days. I call back after couple of days. He says some settings have been changed just a few days back, and he doesn’t have the settings. Asks me to call back after 20 mins. I call back. Says, settings are too lengthy. Says, he cant tell the settings over the phone (WTF???). Points me the BSNL webpage mentioned above to download the settings. I downloaded the settings again. No change. Still no GPRS. Anyone from BSNL with a decent knowledge of whats happening … reading this ?
Update 4 (Oct 25, 2005) : Finally got my GPRS activiated today. The endless calls to the customer care turned out to be a total waste. Yesterday, I called up the local customer service center in mangalore. They refered me a the number of JTO of mangalore. JTO inturn gave me one more number. It was kind of endless chain. Finally I landed up with some technical person. The person confirmed that all my settings were fine. Then he checked the system (HLR) and told me that my GPRS wasn’t activated at all!. WTF!!!!!!!. He told me that at Mangalore, he wont be able to activate it, and he gave me the contact number of a person in bangalore. The person at bangalore told me that I need to call him up again today. It seems this is happening all the time and that he is fed up. Some how, the reporting system says that the GPRS is activated, but in reality (switch) it isn’t.!
So, I gave the same person a call today. And finally, he enabled my GPRS access. Now, I am able to browse on my phone. But its quite expensive. Only in emergency!
Update 5: For the benefit of all everyone, here are the correct GPRS Settings for BSNL south users for Nokia 6600. These settings work for me.
Navigate to : Menu -> Tools -> Settings -> Connection
Select GPRS (Second item on the screen)
GRPS Connection -> When needed (if you select when available, GPRS will be always active, and you would be charged. So, use with caution)
Access Point -> gprs.cellone.in
Click on ->Back
Select Access Points (first item on the screen)
Option -> New Access Point -> Use default settings
Connection name -> bsnl-gprs (can be anything)
Data Bearer -> GPRS
Access point name -> bsnlwap (not bsnlsouth)
User name : ppp
Password : ppp123
Authentication : Normal
Homepage : http://localhost/home.wml
Then….
Options ->Advance settings
Phone IP address -> Automatic
Primary name server : 0.0.0.0
Secondary name server : 0.0.0.0
Proxy server address : 10.31.54.2
Proxy Port Number : 9401
Done.
If you want to browse the net using Opera, then you must set the proxy server address and proxy port number mentioned above in opera settings too. The same holds true for other browser too.
If the above settings don’t work, then clearly, your GPRS is NOT activated by BSNL. Call up the local BSNL exchange, and ask them to check if GPRS is activated in the HLR.
298 comments | September 16th, 2005 at 02:19pm
Yesterday was the big day for Mangalore Infosys. We had our 10th anniversary celebrations. The venue : Dr. TMA Pai International Convention center.
The program started at around 4 - 4.30 PM. Lot of dignitaries had come down for this special occasion. We had S. Gopalakrishnan (Kris) - Director, K. Dinesh - Director, N S Raghavan (ex-infoscion, emp# 1 of Infosys), R G Bhandi (ex-infoscion, the first DC head of Mangalore), M M Mohan (ex-infoscion), Binod H R, Bikramjit Maitra, V P Kochikar, Shivshankar, Capt. Sinha and couple of other folks.
The entrance was strictly for Infoscions and their family members.
Banner at the Entrance (Click to Zoom)
Entrance of the Convention Centre (Click to Zoom)
Here is the stage setup :
The cake was damn beautiful. It was a replica of our Infosys Mangala office. Check out the pictures.
The mInfy 10 Cake - Front View (Click to Zoom)
The mInfy 10 Cake - Front View (Click to Zoom)
The mInfy 10 Cake - Back View (Click to Zoom)
The mInfy 10 Cake - Side View (Click to Zoom)
The function started with a snapshot of the past 10 years. “Story So far” kind of thing. Was very nostalgic indeed. This was followed by a short movie on Mangalore Infosys.
After that the formal function began.
Sudhir, Bhandi, Kris, NSR, Dinesh, M M Mohan (Click to Zoom)
Then then there was cake cutting. Two young mInfoscions who share their birthday with mInfosys got to cut the cake along with other dignitaries!. But, it was kind of sad to cut such a beautiful cake!!
Cake Cutting - Kris(Click to Zoom)
This is how the auditorium looks like… it can house around 1800 people.
Inside the Auditorium (Click to Zoom)
The cake cutting was followed by speeches by dignitaries.
Kris sharing his thoughts (Click to Zoom)
N S Raghavan - The first employee of Infosys!(Click to Zoom)
K Dinesh addressing the gathering (Click to Zoom)
Bhandi - The first DC head of Mangalore (Click to Zoom)
Bhandi and the second batch folks sang the Song “Zindagi Milke Bitayege” from Satte Pe Satta, bringing back some old memories!
Batch 2 folks (Click to Zoom)
M M Mohan sharing his thoughts (Click to Zoom)
After the stage event, we had a Inter-DC short film competition. It was a competition among various Development Centers of Infosys to come up with a short film on the topic “Social Consciousness and Community Empathy”. This program went on for about an hour. 12 films were played. In the mean time, cake was served. Mysore DC won the competition.
Next up was the Rock Show from a group called Aquaflow from Mumbai. They did a pretty neat job. One good thing that they did was, they did manage to sing some non-rock stuff too, although it disappointed some small set of rock fans. So, it was not a pure rock show as such! After a couple of numbers, mInfoscions were all set to rock and roll and didn’t want to stop! (as usual!)
Rock Show by AquaFlow (Click to Zoom)(Click to Zoom)
Rock Show by AquaFlow (Click to Zoom)(Click to Zoom)
Rock Show by AquaFlow (Click to Zoom)(Click to Zoom)
mInfoscions on the stage (Click to Zoom)
The last part for the day was.. the dinner :). Taj Manjarun were the caterers for the day, and the food was good, specially the non-veg part!
All in all, a day to remember for all mInfoscions.
Related Post : Narayana Murthy in Mangalore - Inauguration Program
2 comments | September 10th, 2005 at 08:40pm
Woke up late yesterday, and got a much needed hair-cut :)…. cut my hair pretty short. So, should not be a problem for the next 2 months ;). Went to the office yesterday to finish of some minor chores.
Got up late today too. Weekends = Get up late :). I expect the next couple of weeks to be pretty hectic. We will be celebrating the 10th birthday of Mangalore Infosys on 9th September, and I expect quite a lot time to be spent on this activity. The function that we had on 18th August was just the Inauguration function.
The September 9th function would be held at the T M A Pai - MAHE Convention center at Mangalore. Its a huge building with two domes in Mangalore. Kind of a landmark. Infact, one of the dome is supposed to be the biggest one in Asia!. Not sure how true that is!
Here are the pics of the building :
TMA memorial convention center at Mangalore (click to zoom in)
Left wing of the building (click to zoom in)
Left wing of the building (click to zoom in)
Last Friday, we had been to the building to plan for the 9th September function. Its quite impressive. The entire building is Air conditioned. It has 3 conference halls, 1 dining hall, 1 big exhibition hall, and an auditorium. The auditorium can accommodate around 1800 people easily! The Auditorium has 10000 PMPO Bose speaker system !.. cool!……It also has ample parking space in the basement. Last Friday, we had been to that building to plan for the arrangements.
Mangalore is growing…. Lot of other big building projects coming up in Mangalore. There is a building right next to this convention center called “The Empire”. Its supposed to be a big shopping center. Similarly, a big multiplex complex is also under construction in Bejai, near the bus-stand. Construction is going on in full swing. … so, Mangalore would be a much more interesting place few years from now! So, watch out!
1 comment | August 28th, 2005 at 10:07pm
