Thursday, April 28, 2005

Spectrum Completed One Year In Mind Tree


To celebrate the event of one year completion in mindtreeMindtree, Spectrum went on a trip to Ranganthittu, a bird sacntuary near Mysore and the near by places on 15th April 2005. Spectrum consists of me and my friends, who joined Mindtree on Arpil 19th, 2004. We are 31 in number. We consists of people from almost all parts of India.

We assembled near Mindtree Consulting Pvt ltd, around 8.00 am and started our journey towards Mysore around 8.30 am. 17 spectramites joined the trip. On the way, each of us talked about our one year experience in Mindtree and about their interests, and about how do they feel about other spectramites. On the way we had our food from a restaruant, don't know which place it is.

We reached Ranganthittu around 12.00 PM and after a small rest, we went inside the bird sanctuary. It was a very beautiful place with lots of greenaries inside. The main attraction of the place is boating in the lake. While boating, we can see lot of different kinds of birds in the tiny islands in the lake, as well as corcodiles in the lake.

Later we went to a nearby temple, went inside the temple, after that we had some sncaks and cool drinks. We moved to a river nearby, and had the lunch which we have brought packed with us, from the bank of the river. We rested there for some time, then spent the rest of the time in the water.



Here are some more photos.






Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Spectrum's First Anniversary Celebration


We, Thirty-one graduates joined Mind Tree on April 19th, 2004. Our batch includes people from almost all part of India, and it’s a perfect mixture of Indian culture. During the last one year, only one of us left Mindtree. On Tuesday April 19th, 2005 we decided to arrange a small cake cutting function at Mind tree’s cafeteria, which is named as Neem Tree. We invited Subroto Bagchi, COO & President of Mind Tree and delivery heads and those who lead our training program when we joined Mind Tree. We called ourselves spectrum and the individuals as spectramites. We enjoyed a lot during the training periods and organized many programs in Mind Tree. The SPARCS activities where mainly done by us, the spectramites. Our training was over by 2 months and we were allocated to different projects. Even though we were separated by projects and distance, we were in touch through small gatherings and mails.

This kind of a program is organized in Mind Tree for the first time by a batch. The function started at 6:30 PM, few of the spectramites shared their experience in Mindtree. The guests like, Subroto Bagchi, Babuji Abraham, Srinivas B Rao etc, shared with us what they felt about us. Later we cut the cake and sang Happy Birthday to spectrum. Subroto pointed out that spectramite's willingness and mentality to come out with the celebration themselves, and not waiting for somebody else to come and say "Congratulations for the successful completion of one year in Mind Tree" is really great and he asked us to keep up this enthusiasm through out the life. Nandini Ray and Sharmila Prakash presented us with to nice Hindi Songs. I played the Tamil song, “Ennavale Adi Ennavale – Kadhalan – Unnikrishnan” for spectramites. Later we all went for the dinner in Chung's restaurant, Jayanagar 4th block and reached back home around 10:00 pm.

The one-year in Mind Tree changed our life a lot. We learned many things technical and many other soft skills through organizational training programs and from people of Mind Tree.

Friday, April 22, 2005

God, the perfect Artist


I took this picture from Ranganthittu, a bird sanctuary near Mysore. This was taken during the picnic with my batch mates (Spectrum) from Mindtree, to celebrate the successful completion of one year in Mindtree.
Notice, that the creeper has perfectly wound over the bamboo. This is only one of the wonders I noticed there.

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Bangalore, Is it a safe place?

Bangalore city is not growing fast enough to accommodate the sudden increase in human population due to the IT boom. Neither is it capable of accommodating the increased number of vehicles. Even though BDA (Bangalore Development Authority) is building new roads and over bridges, by the time the project completes, the need is almost doubled. IT industry is the major share of business in Bangalore and every individual here is having at least one or two vehicle. Government has proposed the idea of quota based registration for vehicle dealers, like each of the dealers will be allowed to register only a limited number of vehicles per month. But restricting the growth will not work and I believe that the Government will not be able to implement it.

Three things that BDA should take care:-
  1.  Increase the efficiency of public transport.
  2.  Make strict rules to reduce atmosphere and sound pollution.
  3.  Take strict action to reduce the crimes happening in Bangalore.

Need for increased efficiency of public transport.
Even though there are city buses reaching every location in Bangalore, its not sufficient to handle the morning and evening rush of people going and returning to offices and institutions and back to their home. Big companies are therefore forced to start their own transport facilities for their employees. Even at the non-peak hours the number of the BMTC (Bangalore Metro Transport Corporation), is not sufficient. One may have to wait from 30 to 60 minutes to get the particular route bus. So, currently the situation is like no one will hire the BMTC bus if he has to be in time. One another important profit from the public transport being efficient is that, individuals will start using the service, which will reduce the number of private vehicles and auto-rickshaws, which will definitely decrease the noise and air pollution. We can feel the intense level of air pollution if just drive away from the outskirts of the city. The air will suddenly become cool, and we can feel the difference easily.

Atmosphere and Noise Pollution Issues.
Sound pollution is mainly due to the very old auto-rickshaws, which are barely alive, still running as taxi! The riders with the modified engine, especially in bike add to the sound pollution. If we are behind a rickshaw in Bangalore for 10 minutes in Bangalore, we will become almost deaf. That’s the condition here in Bangalore city. Its mainly due to old vehicles, especially rickshaws, which are not maintained properly. I feel that there should be strict rule against modifying the vehicle in such a way that it increases the sound. There are lots of vehicle modification centers in Bangalore, which should be under observation. If we are riding an open vehicle like a bike for about 30 minutes in the city, we can see the dark lining in our dress due to air pollution. Another reason for air pollution is the use of adulterated petrol and diesel; the rickshaws uses kerosene mixed fuel.

Increasing Crime in Bangalore.
I am thinking that Bangalore police is supporting the gundas or local "dadas" here. It is not at all safe to travel alone in Bangalore after 7.00 pm and before 6.30 pm. Last month two of my colleges working in Mindtree were robbed and injured by Gangsters who turned up in the form of a taxi driver and his gangsters who appeared to be passengers. He was offered a lift by the taxi, at 10.00 pm to his house. They took his mobile, credit cards, money, watch and left him in some lonely place after a lot of physical attack. The worst thing happened after that, he went to the nearest police station around 11:00 PM, and the police was not at all ready to here his complaint. They were just behaving like; it’s not a matter of them. They asked him to go to the nearest police station where he hired taxi, and when he reached there, they pointed to some intermediate police station. They demanded bribe from that guy, to register the case whose everything was just robbed!! The Bangalore police is not even ready to register a crime, because they want the crime percentage to be low, so they won't be forced to work more. They just want to sit idle and collect bribe to satisfy their wives. It is the case with mobile theft. Mobile robbery (pick pocketing) is a common thing in Bangalore. The police will not at all register a mobile theft in FIR (First Investigation Report), they will make a report saying that a mobile is lost. So no mobile theft is happening in Bangalore!!!!
One another big crime is rickshaws with false meter. I have experienced this many times. The taximeter may just jump to some few points. Once I had this experience, the meter was going like 17-00 ... 17-50 ....18-00 .... 18-50... then suddenly 29-00 instead of 19. The taxi driver threatened me when I questioned him. And many of my friends shared the same experience with me when I described it. Another problem is that most of the rickshaw drivers will not be willing to take us to our destination. And the rule in Bangalore is one and half charge from 9.30 pm to 5.30 am, but never kept. They will charge us double and more. I have heard about rickshaw drivers attacking the passengers in gang, like if we are hiring an auto, their gangsters will be following our taxi and we will be eventually attacked for money. While I was coming back from my hometown to Bangalore, I reached the city around 3.00 am. I hired an auto and the total charge was 140 INR. I had exactly that much change with me( 4*10 + one hundred rupee note). I first gave him the 100-rupee note, and I took the other 4 ten rupee notes from my pocket. Suddenly the guy showed me a 10-rupee note and argued with me that I handed over him a 10-rupee note initially. It was dark; no one was there to help me, no help lines. At last I lost.

So dear Bangaloreans, think about this. We have to do something against this injustice.

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Golden Palm & Spa, Bangalore - Team Outing


Me and my project members working in Mindtree went on a team outing to Golden Palm & Spa, located at 40 kms away from Bangalore. We spent there one complete day. The place is very cool, away from the polluted and noisy environment of Bangalore, very calm and beautiful place. We reached there around 10:30 am, had some snacks, then played tennis, squash, snooker, billiards and later we started to enjoy swimming.

Around 2-O-clock we had our lunch, and by evening 7:30 pm, we had the dinner. The food was good, and at dinner time one of the artist who's name is Frank; if am correct, played Violin with the accompaniment of a key board. The performance was super.



We reached back our house around 9:00 pm. That night, I was not able to sleep well, since my muscles started aching, because I was playing tennis, squash and swimming throught-out the day. Any way that day is still in my memory.


Some More Pictures From The Location




Monday, April 04, 2005

Eternal Love

Pope John Paul II
Once Again god says that his kingdom is not earthly.
Our dear Pope rest in peace in his eternal kingdom