Friday, April 25, 2008

International Tech Park, Bangalore

For today's lunch, our team planned to go out somewhere nearby to eat, and we zeroed up on ITPB's Food court. Most Tamilians would have sighted this in the Film Ghajini where Surya and his PA walks along with a laptop and attends a call from Asin :) This ITPB is built by Ascendas. The plush green grass and the glass buildings looked pretty sophisticated.The Food court, other amenities, and the people coming out for lunch made me think as though we were inside a Mall or something. I wonder how one would get the mood to work from there :)

Thursday, April 24, 2008

The wrath against the Software engineers

The Software engineers are the poor souls who end up being criticized, be it in films (Tamizh M.A, Arai En 305il Kadavul) or in the walks of life for the high renumeration package that they are receiving.When it comes to the dilapidated rise of commodities and real estate prices in Chennai and Bangalore, the software engineers are the most bashed.The people on the other side find the high salary unreasonable and undeserving. Point Taken that the higher salary has created the divide, but why spitting the flame at the software engineers who never committed the crime for the divide, the only thing that they did was in selecting computer science as their major in the college. The Real estate people took advantage of the higher salary and rised the prices, the common people who owned the plots earlier took it as a cue and raised instantaneously. At a grocery store people never question why beans are always priced higher than the potato, but they expect every job to have the same salary level.

During the 1960's Government jobs were the most soughted,In the 1970's it was the era of Industrial revolution in India giving ample scope for Civil and Mechanical engineers, 1980's it was the time that a Job in a Bank was the most lucrative, from the 1990's the craze for being a software engineer could be sighted.nobody bashed the previously most soughted jobs of their times.When the employment at the core companies were reaching the brim in the 1990's the alarmingly rising levels of unemployment was extinguished by the IT Industry. Could any industry challenge the IT industry for its ever increasing intake thereby keeping the unemployment levels at its check? In fact because of the higher salary the software engineers falls into the 30% tax slot and end up paying most part of their renumeration as tax, this goes unnoticed by the masses. When Dr.Manmohan singh ruffled the feathers of the Corporates asking them to cut down on the CEO salaries, did he consider whether all the MP's and MLA's in India had a PAN card on their names first of all and declared their asset owning properly? In a System where quota is given based on the caste rather than on the scale of poverty you cant expect anything better.

The Projects of the IT Industry predominantly comes over from Americas and Europe and hence the salary levels are compared with the salaries up there and tried to be in par with them. It might also lead to fluctuations if the foreign currency rate decreases. Due to lack of Domestic market this Industry is highly prone to Various risks like cut-offs and lay-offs. Ever heard of the core company shedding off its employees in thousands?? On parallel lines, this is more like a Stock market where you profit when there is a Bull-run and bear the brunt when there is a Bear-run.Easily said, but the high lucrative package of the software engineers would continue to be grudged untill a new burgeoning industry replaces the IT industry.

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Goa Trip - Cavalossim to Baga Beach

The idea of going to Goa got conceived two weeks back and the preparations eventually followed for a 3 day trip to goa from 4th to 7th.

Day-1 : Colva to Majorda Beach
Inmates: myself, Senthil, Musi, Sap, Prabhu, Rajesh, Keyankay, KB, Venkat, SenthilKAS.

Taking the Marmagoa express on friday night, we chugged through the Deccan Plateau and then through the scenic Western Ghats to reach Goa by 1100 hrs. The train went through many tunnels and we had a chance to cite the Dudh-Sagar waterfalls as soon as we entered into the state of Goa.We stayed at the Vailankanni Guest house near the Colva Beach.Colva, a south bound beach in Goa is prominent for the low waves and white sands but it is somewhat isolated.We then proceeded to the colva to take a dip and then started off with the beach volleyball.Lunch was at Josefa's corner, a beach shack.

By Evening due to the non-availability of any motorbikes in the area for hire, we had to dump our plan of going for the Goafest @ the cavelossim beach.But we hired autos to reach Majorda beach relatively nearer to colva. Majorda had only a few takers and is devoid of many refreshment parlours.We watched the sunset over the horizon here and continued on with a dip and football.Instead of taking the auto back to colva, we treaded to colva beach by walk (more than 5 kms) along the beach.@ the colva beach we dug up tunnels and a huge pit, Prabhu anna fell for the trick of measuring the depth of the pit by getting in.We then buried him in it till the hip and took snaps :) Totally exhausted we had our dinner at Sher-e-Punjab.That night followed with a round of playing cards.

Day-2 : Colva to Baga Beach

Next day we hired 5 Honda Activas(Rs 300 per day) and started of to visit the north bound beaches till Arambol (65 Km from colva approx). First hit was the Dona Paula, but instead of the beach we visited the Dona paula Jetty from where we had a good view of the sea below us.The road as it uncoils to the top unveils the scenic beauty of the seas below springled with yachts & boats bordered by palm and coconut trees.From there we reached Panaji(by now we had travelled 30 kms) we crossed the River Mandovi along with our bikes in a Ferry at free of cost provided by the Goa Tourism development.We then set out for the coco beach,the most isolated one where waves could not be found in the water.Here we set out on a Boat to spot the dolphins @ 100 per head. Yeah, we spotted some dolphins and then the ship's captain :) set out on a sight seeing tour showing us the Palace owned by a malaysian, Kingfisher's Cruise, Aguada Jail, Portuguese building ruins etc.

Having our Lunch at the Octopus, we visited the Aguada fort, a portuguese strong-hold in their times.Now it holds a Light-house nothing more.Taking some snaps of the sea atop the highly forted walls, we started towards Sinquerim beach.Sinquerim is a visibily rough beach(b'cos of that water bike rides are famous here) where the sky blue water strikes against some old rocks and fortified walls near the beach's edge. One by one went in for the waterbike ride @ 150 per head. As i stood there taking photo of Sap and prabhu, i was nearly run over by the Bikes in which they rode :)We vacated the place soon after to visit Calangute Beach. Here myself and KB in the bike got lost and by the time i almost reached Calangute our set was returning back as they found the beach highly crowded. We then went to baga beach, but managed to see it only in the moon light as the sun was already down.The beach was crowded and it looked heavenly with a highly lit-up resort on the road overlooking the sea and the water strinking its bolstering walls.There was also a shallow back-water going in.It was almost 8PM and we missed out visiting Anjuna, vagator & Arambol Beach(atleast 30 - 40 more Km to travel)

We started heading towards colva,and because we lost track of the bikes in the front and back, we had to stop here and there for a reunion.By the end of the day the speedometer showed that we had travelled some 145 KMS. In that I drove for nearly 105 KMs and i found that really fantastic, remainded me of the motorcycle diaries :) We had our dinner at one of the beach shacks @ the colva beach.We found ourselves playing Beach Volleyball by 1:30 at night in the Colva beach.Trully it was amazing and we enjoyed every moment of that.

Day - 3 : Colva to Cavelossim - Old Goa - Panaji

We planned to visit the south bound beaches till Palolem (55 KM approx from colva) First pit stop was @ the Cavelossim Beach where we hardly sited people. Cavelossim beach stretches for eons together at both the ends and we treaded only for a small distance by walk along the shoreline after a quick dip in the seas.We then set out for Palolem beach, but due to lack of time(40 KM approx more to go) and petrol we turned back after covering some distance. On the way back we visited Benaulim Beach where we had our breakfast & rested ourselves in the recliners under the umbrella.That day we had travelled 48 KMs.After returning the bikes and vacating the Guest house we boarded a bus from colva to marmagoa. From there we boarded a bus to Old goa through Ponda.The whole bus trip consumed some two hours of our good time :( we had onion pakoda,Mysore Bonda,Chilly bajji,potato Bajji for lunch at a way-side yummy joint @ old-goa.We visited the Basillica Dom Jesus Church here and then boarded the bus to Panaji.

From Panaji bus stand we made our way to Panaji market buying trinkets and Cashews(its really cheap just 270 per Kg) all through the way.This way is bordered by the River on one side.The well lit-up pavement with stone seats at regular intervals overlooking the river makes one wonder whether it is Panaji or Venice!!! We treaded our way to the bus stand to catch the Bus @ Sharma Travels.It was a nice and enjoyable 3 day hang-out for us.

Would upload the photos and give the links soon...