R-Rated

Nicely settled in Bommanahalli, about 12 km from Electronics City. Good roommates to hang out with. The 3 others that I live with are from Delhi, Lucknow and Ujjain. The guys from Lucknow and Ujjain have a feel-good nature about them and life is very comfortable (for now). Finished a small assignment and attended the induction program (normally reserved for freshers). Why I have not been inducted even after 2+ years in Wipro could very well be a topic for another day. Kind of getting restless about staying in India (direct contradiction from the first paragraph). This restlessness is coming out due to professional committments only. Have to, have to travel back to States at the first opportunity. Awaiting my turn very patiently. Had my first tryst with the "stomach upset" bug couple of nights ago and I am still not completely out of it. Root cause analysis and preliminary investigations have led me to the Daal that was served on Tuesday night. FIR has been lodged at the near...

Nicely settling in to a kind of routine. Getting re-used to the dust and traffic, cows and dogs, shit and trash. No complaints what-so-ever. Hasn't rained for the past few days but the weather has been kind. Cool breeze still wafts through the air and the sweat glands are keeping their mouths shut!! Just getting hooked onto Suduko on the cellphone. Let's see how long does this love affair lasts. Planning to go to Mumbai soon. Just don't know when.

Seems like a weird occurrence in the Cyber Zone inside Wipro El. City. There are about 50-55 PCs through which one can surf personal email websites like Gmail, Yahoo etc. I have used about 5-6 computers for my personal use and the alarming fact is the number of resumes/CV that are saved on the desktops. Employees really want to get the hell out of here seems like. Hope they get what they want. Going to check my first house today at a place called J.P. Nagar about 8-10 kms from EC. Lets hope the search ends successfully and I get to move in to a house before Sunday. More to follow.

So after a chaotic and scary air travel from New York to Bombay to Bangalore, I reported to work on Monday, July 13th only for my Manager to tell me that he was at another location and would not be in the office the whole day. Great start. With the help of a colleague, managed to look around the campus (which to me looks more like an engineering college campus than a technological major). People are hooked on to their cell phones all throughout the day. It is going to be fun little experiment for me trying to settle here. I am not familiar with the city and it is going to take some effort from my end to get those nerves settled. I was almost expecting to be duped once I landed here but that adventure so far has been smooth. The weather here is fantastic. Cool and calm. Guest House is comfortable and within the campus and the office building is exactly at a 3 minute walk from the GH. Workwise things are a bit slow (it's only been one day for God's sake)!! Will write more as I co...

Whichever way you may want to put it, my US journey has been halted by my visa extension denial by the USCIS, because of which I am heading home to India this Saturday. Reporting to work on the day I land in Bangalore is going to be a challenge along with the other issues that I might be facing during my stay there. I don't want to think that I won't be back in the US. I am going to pursue all means to convince my managers back in Wipro to send me back on a new H1B visa. It is going to take some work and a lot of persuading but it must be done. Looks like I have all my bases covered there (for now) although several questions are yet to be answered, like how to reach the Guest House from the airport at 5:00am in the morning, how to contact people without a cell phone etc. I guess I will figure those out as and when I reach there. Leaving Kirti behind is going to be a big heartache but again me being the ever optimist, I am sure things will work out for the better. Moving back to...