R-Rated

Taxi fare from Fridley to Megabus station in Downtown Minneapolis - Distance: approx. 5.5 miles, Fare: $25 (incl. tip) Bus fare from Minneapolis to Chicago (2 tickets for 2 big suit cases) - Distance: approx. 400 miles, Fare: $110 (2 tickets) Taxi fare from Union Station in Downtown Chicago to Buffalo Grove - Distance: approx. 40 miles, Fare: $68 (incl. tip) Fare Total: $203 Coming home in absolutely "blizzard"ly conditions and negative temperatures in one piece with all luggages intact and 12 hours later - Priceless India trip in 3 days' time. It is already beginning to feel like the trip time (25 days) is way less. Specially in comparison with other colleagues who have taken "extensive" holiday times. Add to that 2 visa interviews crunched in and a big family event planned, there is no downtime.... or is it? Talk about "this-does-not-make-much-sense-at-all". The time it has taken for me to get ready for the visa stamping (incl. checking the VFS sit...

Last December I re-started blogging and I am glad I continued writing through the year. 50th post of the year. Lot of things (good and horrible) have happened. Kirti started working (and will continue to work in 2009), bomb blasts all around India (Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mumbai, Malegaon and many more..), given the pink slip and then Wipro puts that on hold, going to India first time after marriage (almost 3.5 years later) and lots of other highs and lows. Got a Canon Vixia HG20 High Definition Camcorder. Pretty neat gadget and a light weighter too. Manual is 10,000 pages long but it makes interesting reading since I am a first time owner. At work, since I am the last person to leave for India, there is tremendous pressure on me to deliver before I leave. Most things are ontrack for completion, but it is/was a nightmare dealing with the situation. No back-ups this time around unlike last year when everyone who went to India almost had 2 backups. 7 working days to go for the shut...

Since the last post, a lot of good things have happened (temporarily..). We have been un-laidoff at least till March 2009 as the BSC project got extended till the first quarter of 2009. This means the India trip is going to happen. Thankfully this news came just before Thanksgiving and hence those 4 days were spent happily and a sigh of relief could be heard from my parents in India. Ya, it was that big a burden off the chest. I don't want to write anything about the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. A big salute to those who fought valiantly against all odds (including the 24x7 media coverage, shameful politicos making an unwanted trip and the hordes of mumbaikars who wanted a piece of the action...and yes, the terrorists as well). God bless the souls of the departed. Coming back to the project extension, December seems to be gearing upto an extremely busy month with the new work starting in full swing and since I am the last to go to India, the responsibility falls on my shoulders. No...