Brisbane, one of the beautiful town in Australia

I know, its been long time i have not blogged so thought of write something.

When I started it was afternoon and when I reached Brisbane, it was morning. I dont know why i cant sleep in flight which force me to watch screen continuously and get tired so i can have better sleep next day when I reach my destination. Same thing happened again, I reached early in the morning and was very sleepy. You wont believe I almost paid 1600 Indian Rs. to reach to apartment where I had booking.

Unfortunately it was full and I cant get in till someone vacant the room. I had to wait for 3 hours in reception to go to bed. Finally! the receptionist (a very beautiful Australian girl) confirmed the booking. Again another fine problem, She was not able to swap more than $500 AUD on credit card so I had to use my debit card & travel card to pay all the apartment bill. It was like $500(credit card) + $500(debit card) + $300(travel card) + $73 (cash)..... coooool! Please dont ask me why i did it like that.

I had a good sleep for 6 hours till 5. Went out for couple of hours to discover city. There is famous place called Brisbane Street which is most famous shopping place. Imagine! I dint shop anything. I was running out of money on my travel card and really dont wanted to use credit card as I have stopped doing it long back.

Grab my dinner from subway (Fresh chicken and plenty of vegetables with bread). It was good. Again went for sleep. Really having a good time. I did not get free internet access at the apartment which forced me to watch soccer matches highlights all the time when I am in. 1 hour of internet access cost $8. bad!. Raleigh (USA) was much much better. They gave me TV in my bedroom, free internet access next to it and most important Complementary breakfast. I am really missing that. Next time I will choose a hotel/apartment where I can at least get complementary breakfast. Hope my manager allow trips to happens so frequently :). Red Hat is very strict about travelling and policies.

Monday and Tuesday went fine. Nothing special I did except preparing presentation and getting most of the stuff online. We went for a lunch to Japanese Restaurant, had Extreme spicy japanese chicken dish. Extreme spicy is not really for any Indian. It was just a normal dish. But yes chicken was good. Oops! I forgot to click snap. Here I usually have dinner around 8 as everyone office leaves around 5 as they start early in the morning. Shampa must be happy that I am at least having good sleep over here.

I had a presentation today which was good as per the feedback I got from the people over here. They did not know most of the stuff that we have. So I am happy that I am able help them out. Hope I will get more work once I go back to India.

Going to Gold Coast tomorrow with John and Pranesh (South African Guy). Please dont go by name ;). Heard pretty good things about it. Lets see how it goes. Have fun and wish me luck for rest of weekdays and a weekend.

3 idiots

Again extra ordinary performance by Aamir khan and I loved it. Very sensible movie. everybody should watch at least once. Its based on book of "five point someone" by Chetan Bhagat. Its little different from book but whatever changes made in script does surprise to people those who already read book.

It has comedy, love, passion, will n lot more. I would suggest everyone to watch this movie at least once. I had idea about the theme but script change does surprised me. Let me not talk about movie go ahead and watch!

There are no mistakes in life.... only lessons.

I like this quote from Robin Sharma's book. He is awesome writer.

I have been going through hard time from past 2 months. I lost my dad, my job, my confidence. But good thing was I dint loose my mind, there was something which was keep inspiring me.

Shampa was telling me that I have been doing regular traveling and was in stress so god has given me chance to rest. I feel my dad wanted me to come back Pune/Mumbai and now take a responsibility of family. He always wanted me to behave like a gentleman, he mean responsible person but I never took him seriously as he was there with me and he will be there always. I am missing my dad very much.

My dad was a nice person, has his own principles, values, ethics but he never forced anyone to follow them. I wasn't knowing that god will take him away from us so early. Day by day I am realizing my mistakes, my principles and trying to recover from this soft injury.

I dont know how much days it will take for me to forget my dad last days. I know he must be watching me and will help me to take decisions.

love you dad.

PRINCE - A known journey, unknown friends.

It wasnt a beautiful day, not even a peaceful night. I had a fight with shampa a day before I decided to go to Pune (An unplanned journey), which she is always against of.

I had to catch bus around 6.30 from majestic so I finished my tasks in hand and left office around 4:30 as traffic is worst here in Bangalore. I was in hurry as i dont wanted to miss the bus, i reached there around 5:30-5:45. I was happy that i reached before time, but when i came to know that bus will come around 7.30, I was surprised. was feeling bad that i could not go office and finish some more work.

A manager of the travel office was very short temper person, I was observing him since the time I reached there office. That guy was shouting one every person coming for an enquiry. It was holiday on friday(Ugadi in South and Gudhipadva in Maharashtra, A new year for Maharastrian's). So everyone was in rush to reach home and have some rest from daily hectic work schedule. I had some other plans. It was 7:45 when I asked again about the bus, they said bus has already left kalasipalyam(bus starting point) and must be in traffic. It was ok for me as I am very much aware of bangalore traffic.

I also wanted to charge my battery but there was no open(free) socket, I was in impression(wrong impression) that bus may come anytime to decided not to charge it but that travel guy found one free socket and asked me to charge. I said its ok, but he said, "Go! and charge sir, there is plenty of time.". So I got his point that bus gone take lots of time, I would have make my mind that its gone take more than a day to reach Pune, but here I made mistake. I was keep telling myself that I will be late by 2-3-4 hours not more than that.

In the meantime I met Satyajit from Mumbai and Ganesh from Sangali but living in Vashi, Mumbai, looks typical Maharashtrian. Let me tell you about Satyajit, a cool guy and hardcore traveler. Unfortunately, for everyone, this bus(PRINCE) was a last choice. We all decided to ask that travel guy one by one about bus as it was 8:15. He was smarter than us, answer was same "Bhaiyya gadi idharich hai... traffic main", "Ap baitho abhi aayega 5 min. main".

We were waiting for more than 2 hours now, Satyajit was already drunk a beer so was ready to get into bus and sleep :). He believe's, when you know that travelling is hectic get drunk and sleep. It helps you to go into heaven soon without stress, a perfect solution for these kind of buses which take more than 20 hours for 600km distance. It was all new for me as I never travel with these buses before. He was keep telling me that go and have your food but I was in impression(wrong impression) that once we leave bangalore bus gone stop at some point where I can have food in peace. Sometime's you should listen to experience person, it really helps. Later I had to pay serious cost.

At last bus arrived around 8:45, we were in again in wrong impression that our seat numbers are confirmed but they were not. You need to be very polite to get into bus even though you paid for seat. Luckily I got a good seat. There was a Rajstani, Marwadi guy beside me, later he told me that he is a businessman, does oil import/export business. Although he was married, he was behind one girl who was giving him signal since the time they got into the bus. Everyone get a chance, you have to recognize it.

Bus took another half an hour to start. It was 12 when we left Bangalore city. I was happy that at least we left Bangalore but that happiness was for only short time. Bus got punctured around 1:10, both the rear tire were burst and there was no workshop around so driver had to run bus for some time until he found workshop. It took more than one hour to repair both the tire's. We found one grocery shop, there we had chips(an unknown brand) and banana's (South indian special fruit). Satyajit was keep telling me, if we follow this bus will reach Pune late evening. I was laughing at him but I wasnt knowing that it was his experience. When bus started I had a small sleep of 2-3 hours. When I woke up, I was still seeing coconut trees around, it was indicating that we still have to cross Karnataka boarder. Then I made my mind to leave this bus and get into any other bus or truck. I started discussing this with Satyajit, Ganesh and other few Maharastrian guys. Fortunately Satyajit and Ganesh became ready to leave this bus.

Hubli was the next big town, where we planned to get down and hire the car. Rajstani guy gave me a number of one car owner in Hubli. We finalized on 2500 till Kolhapur. we had to pay him return journey fair. Me, Satyajit and Ganesh started checking other people so that we can share the fair but no one was ready to leave the bus, could be money problem. So we all get down at Hubli bypass and called driver "Sadpa", an old man nearly 55-60 of age. He came with nice, decent Maruti Swift. It was 10:30 in the morning, when we left Hubli. Instead of taking bypass he took us into City to fill the Diesel, he also wanted to save 40 Rs. toll tax. To reach to bypass, you have to cross Dharwad, it is 17 km from Hubli where you can not run your vehicle more than 40 km/h. Its a govt. rule. "No one no the reason.". Somehow we reach to bypass and when sadpa started running vehicle like anything.... 80...90....100...110.......120. :). We were crossing town after town. We also saw PRINCE standing in some motel. We were so happy that we took a right decision to leave bus. After belgaum, we stopped for snacks, Satyajit was looking for wine shop to get a beer, As you know.... "Where this is a WILL, there is a WAY". He got a beer and I got a chakna(snacks).

Satyajit wanted to have one more beer, but I stopped him. As we were in hurry to reach Kolhapur. We also planned to have lunch on the way. We found one good "Maharashtrian" hotel on the way. There we had awesome chiken masala, with unlimited gravy and roti. I was feeling like reach to heaven. I was having such a wonderful lunch after so many days. Sadpa also had lunch with us. This hotel was 55-60 km away from Kolhapur, so it was only one hour journey to reach Kolhapur. We had to finish it fast and hope onto vehicle.

We reach Kolhapur at 2:20, paid 2500 to Sadpa and thanked him for wonderful driving. It was like Bus for Pune was waiting for us :).

Thanks to Satyajit and Ganesh. It was a hectic journey but I got new lifelong friends. Whatever happens it happens for good.

Say "SORRY" and fix it.

During a stopover at the Frankfurt airport, I seized the opportunity to have one of my favorite European meals: good coffee and a pain au chocolate. So I ordered a fresh chocolate croissant and waited for my espresso macchiato.

Out came the pain au chocolate. Loved it. But the coffee was full of milk. The server had given me a latte rather than what I ordered.

I just couldn't be bothered to say anything. It was a small thing and I had a flight to Calcutta to catch. But as I got up, she wondered why I didn't drink my drink. Where I told her I'd ordered an espresso macchiato and this was a latte, she said "Sorry". That was good. But she didn't fix her mistake. That was not so good.

"Sorry" means zero if the problem that led to it remains unfixed. You know what she should have done - if she was a Leader Without a Title. Say sorry and then replace the coffee she gave me with the coffee I'd ordered (and paid for). And if she really wanted to play at wow, she would have given it to me on the house. Now that would have been a real turnaround. And a Sorry that fixed everything.

Please remember, mistakes are nothing more that gorgeous opportunities to make things even better. And a mistake is really only a mistake if you make it twice.

Words....

redundant - not necessary because something else means or does the same thing.
Ex. As the economy weakens, more and more jobs will be made redundant.

Leaverage - influence that you can use to make people do what you want:
Ex. diplomatic leverage by the US

robust a robust system, organization etc is strong and not likely to have problems:
Ex. The formerly robust economy has begun to weaken.

hyp‧o‧crite
someone who pretends to have certain beliefs or opinions that they do not really have - used to show disapproval

"Tingya" a story of a boy. - Awesome movie.

A story of a boy in a village, Mandve who has lots of affection for his bull. Its a a story of a father who has to run his home but dont have enough money.

In india that farmer's don't have enough money to survive, to feed there family. "Tingya" a son of "Kaba" love's his bull very much as they born with the difference of 2 months. So tingya grown up with his bull friend "Chitangya".

Once Chitangya and failed to work in farm because its leg got hurt in some accident. Kaba has no choice to either sell his bull or give him to Khatic ( A person who kill these animals and sell there meat). When Tingya hear this, he doesn't ready to sell him to khatic. He had a right intention, when a human fell sick we take them to doctor why not animal's. He asked his father, Kaba to do so but his father don't listen. Its not like his father is not ready to Chitangya to doctor but he doesn't have money to feed his family, so from where he will get money to get doctor for his bull.

So the boy decide to get doctor. He manages to go to nearby town and get doctor, but that doesn't help as local doctor suggest to take him to big doctor. As Kaba already decided to sell bull, in weekly market, Tingya tries all his possibilities not to change his fathers mind.

Farmer never wants to sell there own land, animals, home but they had to sell it to survive. for whole life they work in others farm on very small amount of money on which they hardly buy food. Is there life gone change ever? Such movie make you think about them and do something.

Do I really understand people ?

Even though I am away from home from last 11 years, I feel that I don't understand people well. Agree that we learn from experiences but is it necessary that we should taste every experience? I always blame myself and try not hurt others but don't understand why people take me wrong. I do frustrate sometimes, but again invite myself into life. I remind myself a wonderful sentence from Robin Sharma's book "Run your own race".

move on.....

When i left pune, i had a plan of actions to follow at Yahoo!. But unfortunately nothing worked. I jumped into more problems for no reason. I never cared for money before but i realized value of money when i couldn't able to buy my own home. I decided to move on....