Year end outing - Innovative Film City

As part of year end outing, last week we had been to Innovative Film City. Initially we started off with Go-Karting. I never tried my hands at this sport. After the ride, felt that track length should have been longer. All of us enjoyed our rides. Then we went for 4D movie. The movie was screened for around 15mins. Enjoyed every second of it. All of us were taken into a different world for 15 minutes.

Next tried out Mirror Maze. Found it complicated to get ourselves out of the maze. After struggling for few minutes we managed to sneak out. Then we wanted to vist the Haunted Mansion.Well, a haunted house may allegedly contain ghosts. We just wanted ourselves to explore the haunted mansion. This was not frightening as we expected it to be.

Next, me along with Tarun and Surendra geared up for skating. After a very long time I got an opportunity to put on the skating shoes. During my school days I tried skating for couple of days with the help of my friend. Anyways that was way long back and I was eager to get on to skating. I knew it was very tough task ahead for us. After going down a few times at the start, I finally did manage to do skating for couple of rounds without falling down. Had fun at roller skates. Then we had our lunch at food court.

After lunch we visited Ripley's Believe It or Not! museum. Some of the illusions were fantastic. Then moved to Aqua Kingdom to keep ourselves cool. Finally made the return journey at 5.30. Overall had a great time at Innovative Film City.

Migrating from Mircrosoft Visual Studio C/C++ to Eclipse

Since last couple of years, I have been using eclipse IDE for developing Java applications. However, few days back I had to move to C++. As I was familiar with the eclipse IDE, I wanted to migrate the project from Visual Studio C++ to eclipse. I was on look out for steps to migrate the project from Visual c++ to eclipse. Googled for c++ plug ins that are available for eclipse. Found CDT plug here.Apart from CDT plug in, you also need to install a tool chain.You may use either Cygwin or Mingw.Below are the list of sites that list the steps in detail on how to configure CDT and how to get started with C++ development on Eclipse.

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/library/os-eclipse-stlcdt/
http://eclipsewiki.editme.com/UsingCDTWithCygwin
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/tips/CPP_Dev_eclipse_CDT.aspx
http://www.daniel.jp/joomla/info/general/how-to-setup-eclipse-as-a-c-ide.html

Additionally, I found the below site useful for migrating from VC++ to C++:

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/library/os-ecl-vscdt/

Tour to Shiva Samudram, Muthang

Couple of weeks back, me along with my iiitb buddies planned for an outing. We planned to go to Shiva Samudram, Muthang forest. We stared on our Independence Day.. .i.e August 15th morning. We reached Shiva samudram at around 11.30 AM. The water levels were high. The driver of our cab informed us that this time the water levels have risen. The waterfalls was great. It was a feast for our eyes. It is must for everyone. It was cloudy and we could not ask for more. We enjoyed the waterfalls and the weather. We took the steps and got little closer to the waterfalls. I cannot express the feeling in words. It was amazing.


Then we stared to Chamundi hills, Mysore. This was my second trip to mysore and to Chamundi hills. Last time I was here Chamundi hills was Dec, 1999. That time I was studying my 9th. After a very long time I had been here. We had our lunch at pizza corner.Then we stared to Mutang, the place were we planned to stay in the night. One of my friends booked a tree house for us.That night we stayed in the tree house. The way to mutang is great. We have to travel thru the dense forests. You would be covered trees. If you are lucky then you could come across some wild animals. The next day we went for a safari. We saw elephants, Malarbar squirrel and some deers. We just managed to see the paws of the tiger. May be we would have seen a tiger if we went for a safari in the morning. The driver of the jeep told us the he came across the tiger in the morning. Anyways we were happy that atleast we got to see some wild animals.



Next we started to Eddakal, to see the eddakal caves. The drive to eddakal is fantastic. You would be seeing a lot of greenery, you would be driving thru dense forests. We reached eddakal at around 12.30PM. We started climbing the hill and finally made it to the top of the hill. The climb to the top to see the claves is not so easy. It is very difficult and to add to our woves it started raining. So it became slippery. Carefully we made it to the top. The view from the top is fantastic. One should be there and experience it, I cannot put it in words. Inside the caves you would find the inscriptions of the tribals , who lived at around 4000B.C. For more details about the claves visit: Edakkal Caves.

Then we started to Bandipur National park. On the way we had a close encounter with an elephant. We noticed that a vehicle was parked just next to the National high way. So the driver slowed the cab to see if there was any wild animal near by. And we happened to seen an elephant, along with a baby elephant. So, we started clicking some photos of the elephant from the cab. But the man from the car got down and got a little close to the elephant, around 50 mt and as soon as he clicked the photos the elephant turned wild and stared running towards him and raised its trunk and a leg on the person. The person backed off at the last min. Suddenly the elephant turned wild. Fortunately, for the man the elephant did not come chasing after him. This was the first time we happened to seen an elephant from so close.

Then we started to Bandipur National park and planned to go for a safari in the evening. We stopped for the lunch at around 5 Pm. As we could not find any good restaurant on the way it took us so long to have our lunch. At the counter of the shop we just enquired if we can go to safari in the evening. To our disappointment, the person at the bill counter replied that the last trip for safari would end at 4.30PM. This brought disappointment to all of us. Myself and Ravindra wanted all of us to stay that night at Bandipur resort and had plans to go to Safari the next day. However, some of my friends wanted to go back to Bangalore because we never knew if we can see animals the next day. There was some confusion whether to stay or not that day at Bandipur or start the return journey. In that confusion, all of us agreed to go to Bandipur and then decide whether to stay there or not depending upon the availability of rooms. So we started to bandipur after our lunch. In about 15 mins we reached Bandipur. We happend to see large number of deers. We checked with the forest department for the availability of the rooms. We came to know that all the rooms were booked and they informed us to check with the resorts. We checked with couple of other resorts and the bad news was that all rooms were booked till sunday. Already some of our friends wanted to make the return journey. As we could not find the rooms, we obviously had to make the return journey. In the middle of the journey we had two punctures. We were fortunate enough that the driver had two spare tires. This proved useful. We made it to Bangalore at around 12.30AM.

Bowling @ Amoeba

Last friday we had an outing to Amoeba, Bowling Arena at Chruch street. After a long time we had a break. I had never been to bowling arena before and was eager to have a go at this sport. We got an email couple of days back that we would be taking a break from work and would be going to the bowling arena to recharge ourselves. The atmosphere was good. My team mates gave me some tips on how to go about playing this game. My self, Ram, Bino and Nikhil played two games. I stood third the first time and made some improvements in the second game and stood second. After Bowling we had our dinner at 20 feet high. Above the bowling arena. Food was okay. Then mid way thru our dinner it started raining heavily. One of my team mates Arun dropped me at the richmond cirlce bus stop. I made to my room at around 10.30.

First Day at Kodiak Networks

Last Monday i.e July 7th was my joining date at Kodiak Networks. Well, I am not new to Kodiak Networks. I actually joined Kodiak Networks in Jan 2008 as an intern. Our internship was for a duration of 6 months. I was happy with the work at Kodiak Networks and most importantly Kodiak was happy with my performance during the past 6 months and they offered me the job. End of Intership meant that it was end of my course work at IIITB. Its very hard for me leave my college IIITB. But then its time to move on.. This marked the ending of the most happiest days of my life and begining of the most purposeful days of my life.. Straight away my manager had some work for me. I had to troubleshoot some issues. This kept me busy during the day. I left to my room at around 6.30PM..

Trip to Hyderabad

Since my joining date was july 7th.. I had a one week break. So I thought of finishing all the formalities at my College and then leave to hyd.. I was eager to go home.. Its has been 2 months since I visited hyd. One of my iiitb friend Raj said he would also like to come to hyd.. so I asked him to book the tickets..As we are done with our course work.. we were told to leave the campus by july 30th.. so we also had to find a room and shift the luggage. I along with Prabodh and Chandu were on the hunt for a 2BHK near Domlur.. After looking at around 4 flats we decided to go with the one near kemp fort. We gave the owner advance and said that we would come on july 30th.. We shifted the luggage from IIITB to room on 30th of july. I slept in the room on the 30th and in the morning left to college. I had to pay the remaining amount that was due. With the that I finished all the formalities. In the evening thought of returning to the college. However it was clody, so stayed in the campus. Next day put my luggage in my room in the evening. It started raining heavily mid way thru the journey to my room. As soon as I got down it started pouring down heavily. I took an auto and reached the room. It was already 8 and we had our bus to hyd at 9.15. Got myself ready and went to Raj's room. Their room is very close to ours. From there both of us went of indiranagar. the place we had to catch the bus to hyd. We reached hyd the next day morning at around 8 am.

The next couple of days I met my B.Tech Friends. We went to Gandipet.. There was not much water. The water level came down drastically. It was cloudy and the atmosphere was very good. We stayed there and enjoyed the weather. We had our lunch in the near by Dhaba. Food was good. Then we got back to our respective homes. Overall had a very good time in hyd. Partied hard. Had a good time in Hyderabad..

Trip to BIA..

It was time for Ranga to leave iiitb and take a flight to Germany.. All of us were very happy for Ranga.. He worked hard during his internship and he could see the results immediately.. However on the other side we were litte unhappy as Ranga was leaving us.. All of us were together for the past 2 years. Almost everyday we used to go out for breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner together.

It was also our last day at IIITB.. We had to vacate our rooms by july 1st.. So all of us packed our luggage. Ranga booked a cab to airport. We left the campus at 6.30 PM.. First we left to our new room. We kept some our belongings in our room. Then we went to hyderabadi house at kemp fort. Biryani tasted good. It struct 9PM. Ranga had his flight at 2 am. We had our plan to reach airport by 11 PM. We wer on target. We started at round 9.15PM from kemp fort to the new BIA.. All of us enjoyed our journey. At around 11 we reached the airport.

The road to airport was good and the traffic was not heavy.. However, all of us felt that it was too far from the city.. I think people would prefer rail and bus for places like Hyderabad and Chennai rather than flights. The journey to and from airport itself would be more than what one travels thru flight to reache hyderabad and chennai. We roamed around the airport for few mins.. After around 1 hr we started our return journey.. Myself and chandu stayed in the new room. Prabodh and Praveen left to campus.

Placement heat at IIITB

Well.. I am out of this heat as I got an offer form Kodiak Networks.. I joined as intern at Kodiak Networks and I am absorbed by them. The question that is in all my friends is whether to go with a start up or not.. Each has his own opion.. I think there is a risk associated with anything you do and its upto you to decide whether you want to play safe and wait for the big companies or take risk.. The list of start ups that are visting our campus are Redbus, Perfint, Yos, ReadiMinds, Outdu, 8kMiles, Tyfone,Mango Technologies, Perfint, Mobisy.

My journey with Kodiak

Urrfff... finally I get the offer letter from Kodiak Networks.. Now I am no more an intern at Kodiak.. I am an employee at Kodiak Networks.. :).. Well, the only day when we get to know that we are interns is at the time we get our salary credited. We are always treated as employees.. we are invited for team lunch and team outings. I must say we had lot of fun at work during our internship.. All of us enjoyed our work and the people at Kodiak are friendly and down to earth. Except for the first 1 month the rest of the days I had work to do.. Initially, I just had to get myself familiar with j2me and flash.. Meanwhile our team were working on the design. Once we got started with the project there is no looking back.. At the time of internship we were told that we would get lot of work to do.. and Kodiak lived up to its promise.. we were kept busy daily during our internship .and I hope we would get to do more work in coming days..

I got to learn a lot during my internship.. I initially had to implement a generic sort. I knew some design patters but never seen them in action.. Here I got the answer for why and when to use them.. I got myself familiar with some design patterns.. Factory, Observer, Singleton..

Sudheer's Engagement..

Drafted this post long back.. sorry for the delay.. I think its better late than never.. :)

One of the reason for me leaving to hyd on April 3oth was to attend one of my best buddies engagment..Well it was Manik a.k.a Sudheer's engagement. Sudheer got engaged to Ramya. He and Ramya were B.Tech classmates and know each other well. I have been living with sudheer for the past two years and know him closely.. I must say Ramya is one of the lukiest girls in this world. Its very difficult to find a person of nature of sudheer.



Intially Jadoo said that he would be coming a little late as he had some work to do. So I and Ranga decided to go on bike. However,later Jadoo told that he would come along with us. Then ranga told that he would meet us at reception..I and Jadoo left to reception.. Parbodh , Rapaka, Raghuram and Seema joined us.. They came to hyd on the same day of the reception.
We had our lunch.. Lunch was very good. Later me along with Praveen, Chandu and Prabodh went to Jalsa again..

Later in the evening me along with the my B.Tech friend Prasanna kumar went to Kiran house.. There we talked about our college days.. We continuously laughed for around 1 hr thinking about the naughty things we used to do in SNIST.. Later in the night we went to Bawarchi to have dinner.. We had chicken biryani.. As usual Biryani tasted good.. Later that night Prasanna and i left to vanasthalipuram. My friend dropped at the guest house were my iiitb friends were staying..

The next day morning left to my house. It was time for the return journey. Within a blink of eye four days had passed.. Good thing was that we can now escape the hot weather in hyd :).. however the sad part is that I have to leave home..:(.. We had our return bus to Bangalore at 4.30PM.. I reached bus stand at 4.00. By the time I reached MGBS Chandu and Dileep were waiting.. Later Ravikanth and Co arrived.. They had their bus at 5.00 PM . We reached Bangalore at round 6 in the morning. Got myself ready and me and praveen left to office.

Trip to Hyd.. May 30th

Well sorry for posting this late.. Drafted it long back but forgot to post.. finally posted :)

It has been long since I had been to hyd. I was busy with my intership. April last week I went to hyd.. Thanks to Sudheer engagement. one of my best buddies. Also one of my best buddy Ravindra's brother marraige. I started to hyd along with my friends at iiitb on sat May 30th.. We had to catch the train at 4.30 PM at Yaswanthpur.. We started at around 12.30.. We got a direct cab to Majestic. We had to go to majestic to cancel some tickets.. as Prabodh, Srinidhi and Chandru had some work.. we had to cancel their tickets.. Then we left to Yaswanthpur by Auto.. We reached there at around 3.45 PM.. Anna and rest arrived at the station ahead of us..

So all of us reached station well ahead of the scheduled departure time.. In the journey to kill time we played cards.. Least count and bluff.. We reached Kacheguda station at 5 AM.. My home is very near to kachaeguda.. It just takes around 10 mins if one goes by walk..

At station we decided to have lunch in Paradise.. I went home and refreshed myself and went to bed.. I felt asleep and at around 10 Shanki called me up and told that there was a change in plan and asked me to come to lakdikapool at 10.30.. By this time I was in deep sleep and told that it is not possbile for me to come.. and asked them to go ahead and that i would join them in the evening.. at around 12 Shanki called me again.. and told me to come to Paradise.. However, at the same time i was having my lunch.. Told them to go ahead.


Later, shanki called me at around 3PM. They came to pick me up. so that we could attend Ravindra's Brother marriage.. However, I had to visit a hari saloon to get my hair cut. One question my mother always asks me when I go to hyd is Don't you find any Hair Saloons in Bangalore? :).. I had to get my hair cut.. Meanwhile shanki and co told me that they would go to Dilshuknagar and get another car.. Nareen recently bought Swift.. they said they would get that.. so that all of us can go..

By the time Nareen and co came back.. I was ready.. We left to Lumbini Park.. me along with Jadoo, Dieep, vijay went for a speed boat ride.. The ride was too good.. Had good time at lumbini Park.. After that we left to Ravindras house.. It was around 5.45.. Nareen, Shanki, Ravikanth wanted to go to their respective houses and get themselves refreshed.. Shanki asked me to accompany them.. so i left along with them to Bhel.. It took around 1hr from Ravidra's house.. The environment in and around bhel is cool.. I and ravikanth went to shankis house..Later Nareen and Rakesh came to shanki house.. Later we left to Nareen house so that we can park one vechile there and leave in one car as we were 5 in number one was sufficient for us..

We left to Kukatpally.. Mallikarjuna function hall.. On the way we planned to watch a movie.. Jalsa..As the marriage was at 3am we thought of going to second show.. Movie theatre was next to function hall.. Sudheer and Chandu joined us.. We went to the theatre to book tickets.. We were suprised to see a huge line.. We had to stand in a long queue. Since each person would be given only 2 tickets five of us stood in line.. We had to wait a long time for our turn to take tickets.. Finally we managed to get 12 tickets. to the delight of everybody.. We returned to function hall and had our dinner..

Dinner was good.. After dinner we went to watch the movie..Half way thru the first half i was feeling sleepy and in the second half i was out.. felt asleep.. :).. one of my friends woke me up when movie was over
We went to function hall.. I was feeling sleepy and slept on the chair for a while.. later we were served tea in the night infact mid night.... Tea refereshed me.. I was not feeling sleepy.. at around 3.30 we left to ravindras house.. In the morning we had our breakfast and dispersed to our homes..

IIITB Cricket Champions..

After Volley ball, now it was the turn of Cricket. We were up against our seniors. We had another good day. Yahooooo… we are the iiitb cricket champions. Thanks to chandru for making our day memorable.

The match started at 3.30PM on 8th march. Intially we thought of playing 15 overs. Later both the team captains, Rakesh and Dhruv agreed to play 12 overs. Dhruv won the toss and elected to bat first. Sun was beating down hard. As usual Chandru started off with the new ball for us. I cannot stop myself from appreciating our bowlers. They did a fantastic job on a hot day. They ran in hard and made life difficult for the batsmen. The batsmen could not adjust. Our bowlers got wickets at regular intervals. Especially our captain Rakesh bowled well. The batsmen tried to disturb his line and length, but they found themselves getting out in that act. A fine show by our bowlers meant that we had to chase only 70. I must say anything under 7 an over is excellent in our playing conditions. The boundaries are too short.

In the break all of us had one thing in mind. If we play for 12 overs we would come out as winners. I and Jadoo aka Santhosh went into bat. Jadoo took strike. Jadoo was our inform player. However, soon he returned to the pavilion without troubling the scorers. Rakesh also departed in the same over when he went for an expensive shot over the bowlers head. However, he got a leading edge and the keeper took the catch safely. In the second over, I got a juicy full toss from Ankit and I was in two minds, whether to loft the ball over the mid-on or play along the ground. Finally I just scooped it to mid-on.

Anna and Guru followed soon. Our top order went down like pack of cards. We were reeling at 11/5 at the end of fourth over. We were down and out at this stage. We were looking down the barrel. Someone in the crowd said that we could end up scoring the lowest score in the tournament. We required another 59 from 8 overs, with just 2 wickets remaining. Chandru joined Srinidhi. Sagar was the next batsman to come in. The target seemed next to impossible. With Srinidh still at the crease we had hopes of winning.

Our seniors had upper hand. However, they got complacent and they wanted to keep Chandru on strike. They moved their fielders in when Chandru was on strike. Chandru is more a bowler than a batsman. We wanted Srinidhi to keep strike most of the time as he was better than Chandru when it comes to batting. Chandru was nervous for the first two balls. Somehow he managed to keep the ball away from stumps. For the third ball he swung his bat and the ball just raised to the boundary, much to the delight of spectators and us.

Next over Chandru backed his abilities and launched two sixes. This brought some life into our innings. We all thought to ourselves that we still had a good chance to win. However the chances of winning were bleak as we just had two wickets in hand with just one batsman in Srinidhi remaining. One good ball could shatter all our dreams.

Meanwhile Chandru called for a help runner.. Guru went onto the field to run for Chandru. Chandru continued his good form and kept hitting sixes consistenlty. Srinidhi just remained as a spectator. I must say he had the best seat in the ground non-striker to watch the innings played by Chandru. Chandru took most of the strike. Contrary to what we were thinking when chadru went in. We wanted srindihi on strike for most of the time. However Chandru’s mix of aggression and defense meant that we moved closer to victory. Within no time Chandru moved into 40’s. The required rate came down drastically because of some lusty blows from Chandrus bat. We needed just 20 from last 4 overs. Chandru and Srindhi kept the partnership going. They did not want to leave it for Sagar, the next man to come in. We required 5 of the last two overs. At this point Chandru was on strike and was batting on 45. We could hear the ringing bells of victory. Chandru defeneded intial two balls and the third one, he deposited over mid wicket for a six. This shot sparked off wild celebrations in all of us. Chandru kept running. We kept running towards Chandru and caught hold of him and patted him on his back for his excellent innings and put him in pond. After that all of us gathered together and celebrated the victory. The match could have gone either way. Our seniors had done a good job. In the end we were better than them on that day

In the evening we went to Dominos. We had pizzas. Overall the tournament went well. All our teammates put up great performances. Cannot wait for the Spandan 2009.. :)

Yahoo...We are the Volley Ball Champions

Well, I am delighted to inform you all that we won the finals of the Volley Ball Match played against Guru's Team on 19th February. I would like to take you all thru the events that followed that day. The day before we had the finals I must say Rakesh's team did an excellent job. They put an amazing show the other day. They had to play a league match against Guru's team. It was a virtual semi-final. The one who wins that match would play against us in the finals. Rakesh' s team started of well and they went to win the first set against all odds. They also did well in the first half of the second set and were leading 10-2 half way thru the second set. However Guru's smash hit Chandru on the eye and he suffered a minor injury. There was a long pause in the game and this broke the rythm of Rakesh's team and Gurus team made use of this break and regrouped themselves and came back well to win the second set 13-15. And the match was evenly poised. Two teams had equal opportunity to win. Though Rakesh's team did well in the third set, Guru's team was better that day and went on to win the third set and set up a final between then and our team.

We had defeated Guru's team in the league match. So all of us were confident of giving the same treatment to them in the finals. However, we thought to ourselves not to be overconfident. It has been long since we played volleyball. As we had to go to office daily, we did not find enough time to practice. So all our team mates decided to come early on the day of finals to do some warm up. I too thought of coming early. However, as bad habits die hard, I went late to office on that day. So I had left office late in the evening. So i could not join my team mates and I came to campus by 8.30PM. I got myself ready and did some warm up just before the match began.

Lot of people turned out for the match. The stage was set up for the big match. Both the teams arrived on the ground. Our team captain Prabodh a.k.a James won the toss and we chose the court. There was lot of support for both the teams. We had a team meeting just before the match started. We just wanted to keep it simple and play our natural game. The umpires for the day were from junior batch Adavan and Khanana. The match started with huge roar from crowd. Initially ducky was little rusty, understandable as he did not play for a long time. We know each other well and we know he just needs some time to get settled before he can get going. We soon went into lead half way thru the first set. At one point the score read 14-9 in favour of us. However because of our mistakes and some good play from Guru's team they got thru the first set. After few minutes the second set started. We knew that to win the game we had to win the remaining two sets. Once again we had a team meeting and wanted ourselves to keep it simple. Second set was neck and neck. Mid way thru the second set the score read 9-9. It was Ravikanth's turn to serve. He kept it simple and we comfortably went into lead once again. Raj by this time got into the groove and started smashing the ball. We went on to win the second set 15-10.

The game went into the final set. Both the teams had to battle it out in the third set. The crowd were excited. We were also excited. We wanted to keep the rythm going. Third set too was neck and neck. At one point the score read 9-9. Once again it was Ravikanth's turn to serve. Ravikanth's serve was lucky for us that day and soon we got into lead. The score read 14-9. At this time we knew that if we do not make any mistakes the cup would be ours. However, there was an incident. The ball hit the tree and Raj hit the ball on the second attempt. And Nareen took it on the third attempt. However, it was a difficult ball for him. As the ball hit the tree we asked the umpire to rule it as reserve. Umpire Adavan ruled it as reserve. However, the opposition team were nervous by this time and wanted the decison in their favour. There were some heated arguments exchanged and finally we decided to put an end by asking umpire to give the decision in their favour. Soon we broke their serve. Prabodh made an excellent block and it brought smiles on all our faces and all those who were supporting us. We wer inching closer to win. It was Raj's turn to serve. He made a simple underarm serve and after a few rallies the opposition team hit the ball out. It kicked off wild celebrations in us. All of us were delighted to see the ball going out. All our supporters came running towards us and congratulated us. It was the most satisfying feeling. We were on cloud nine.

It was a great team effort through out the tournament. We all know each other's abilities well. Well Prabodh made our job easier. Guru known be the best smasher in our college was blocked. Prabodh made our job in the back lifting the ferociously hit balls lift easier by blocking most of his smashes. Ravikanth in the centre did a fine job. Raj and Chandu did a fine job in the smashing position. Nareen and I had to cover the second half of the court. Nareen also played his role well. Overall all of us enjoyed playing in each others company. The secret of our success is knowing each others abilities well and jelling as a unit. Last but not the least the support we received from our friends.

Team Outing Kodiak Networks

The final semester of our M.Tech course at iiitb is designated for industry internship, or the writing and defense of a research thesis. I opted for industry internship. I got placed in Kodiak networks. Our team planned for a team outing on 15th February. We went to Confident Cascade, 19Kms On Bannerghatta Main Road. I woke up at around 5.30 am. Thanks to Naveen L, one of the employee at Kodiak networks, who called me up in the morning to wake me up. I have a bad habit of waking up late in the morning :). The other day we were told to be in office by 7.30 am so that we can start early and reach the place by 8.30 am. Reason to escape the heavy traffic.. I made it to office by 7.15AM. Only few people made it to office by 7.30 AM. We had to wait for the rest before we get started to Confident club. We started at 8.00 am and reached the place at round 9.15am. On the way all of us were made to dance in the bus :).

After reaching Confident Cascade we had our breakfast. We were served Bread, Omelet and Puri. Later had tea. After that we straight away went to cricket ground. All were eager to play cricket. Two matches were played. I was in Pratap's team. Though the team against which we played i.e Naveen's team..went on to win the match we all enjoyed the game. Then we played Badminton for a while. Later, we went to play Billards. Well, this was the first time I was getting a feel of Billiards. Thanks to Shesi who helped me out in learning this game. He gave some instructions on how to go about playing this game. We played for an hour. With great difficulty after taking shots at around five balls, I finally shot one red ball in. Mission accomplished :). Had a good time playing Billiards.

It was already 2PM and it was time for our lunch. Lunch was okay. Ice Cream tasted good. After lunch we played some team games. Thanks to Raval Prakash, Naveen L who had come up with some games which entertained all and kept us engaged.

We just ran out of time and it was around 5 PM. Time just flew. It was time for us to make the return journey. Since driver was not available, We had to wait for a long time. To kill time some of our team mates started playing Badminton. After half an hour the driver returned and we had to make the return journey to office. There was heavy traffic and we reached office at around 7.15 PM. I had a great time with my Team mates @ Kodiak Networks. I Hope we have many more outings in coming days.. :)

Celebrating Birthday the iiitb'ian way ....

Well Rajshekar's birthday is on Feb 7th. We at iiitb celebrate the birthday in a different way. First all of us would assemble in front of the MH-2 block at 11.55 PM. The Birthday boy would be given bumps - round one infact. Then he would be taken infront of Womens Hostel and round two starts there. After that final round begins near the pond.

Later the Birthday boy would be thrown into the pond, popularly known as holy dip. Then cake would be smacked on his face. You would be mistaken if you think that this is the end. Well lot more add on yet to be followed by the Birthday boy. Then the birthday boy would be taken in front of the womens hostel. There he must do puli dance. Followed by snake dance, then people would be calling out a girls name. There would a specific reason for calling out a particular girl name. We start shouting in chorus .

Vachadu Vachadu "Birthday boy name"
Vachadu Vachadu "Birthday boy name"

Raavaali Raavaali "Girl Name"
Raavaali Raavaali "Girl Name"

This would be followed by pole dance. All these add-ons are fun to watch as spectators :). Well this is not the end.. there is more to follow. Finally the birthday boy after taking bath would be taken to TV room in MH2 floor, where he would be made to cut the cake.. celebrating in traditional way after celebrating it the iiitb'ian way..

Well this time it was Rajshekar's turn. As usual all of us gathered infront of MH2 building at 11.55 PM on Feb 6th . Round one began. As soon as round one was over.. I was lifted and people started hitting me.. This time I was at the receiving end.. Then round one started for Ranga. Reason for myself and Ranga getting hit is that, our Birthdays had fallen during our holidays. As a result we were given our quota during ducky's birthday.. Round one was bearable. Round two was unbearable.. Thought to myself why one should get smacked this way for just being born on that day.. Later was thrown into the pond.. The water was too cold.. Then cake was smaked on our faces and Thumsup was spilled on me, Ranga and Raj. Later all the three were taken in front of womens hostel and we were made to follow the traditions mentioned above i.e puli dance, snake dance and pole dance. After taking bath we had cut cake in the TV room. Well we had struggled to blow off the candles. As soon as we blew the candles off they got lighted automatically and we had to start all over again :). After struggling for few minutes we finally blew off the candles. Time just flew and it was 2AM when I finally came to my room after all the events. It was one of my memorable days . Thanks to all those who turned up..

Finally..off the mark with my First blog

Well, I wanted to post my first blog long back..however as I was busy doing my masters in Information Technology at IIIT Bangalore I could not find enough time to post my first blog.. During free time we used to play volley ball, cricket, LAN games [COD, UT] at IIITB. As a result delayed my first blog :).. In this web space you would get to know more about me as we go on..