Rujith Anand's space

Snow in Spring (April in UK)

2008-04-06T03:55:06.049-07:00

Well, I was happy rather amazed to see snow on a Sunday in April :). Last week was pretty hot in this part of UK. I met a old gentleman at the station last week he was saying "finally it seems like we have a spring here", and I come back home, see weather forecast for the weekend, its cold and possible snow.. ha haa .

Anyways it was a wonderful experience in snow, we enjoyed taking some pics and tried to clear snow from our car etc.

The most expensive care I've ever bot

2008-04-02T03:38:23.43-07:00

Well, I am again owner of a car. Yes I just brought a Ford Mondeo (2.5 litre V6 Engine), and as the title says it is the most expensive car I have ever bot. (This is my second car.. ha ha haha). It is a powerful beast, well this comment is obvious especiallly the previous car I've driven was a 1.6 litre engine one :).

My meeting with some wonderful people on Earth or rather UK

2008-04-01T03:48:55.243-07:00

Well, I started a new job, and today was my first day in office. I was introduced to some wonderful and friendly people I have ever met. (hope they are reading this... :)). Well truly it was very nice, every one was very friendly, I have seen places where they just ignore contractors, and some places you will feel like you are alien. But on the other way this experience was very nice, they even took me for lunch. Eventhough I am not very good talking at lunch meetings :(, they managed to adjust me.

I am sure that, this will be another wonderful place to work for the short stay I am here.

-Rujith

Letter drop boxes on Map

2008-03-12T10:48:40.8657635-07:00

I was searching for a my nearest Royal Mail collection box. The first thing I (rather We) techie people(or consider as techies) will do is to do a google to find out if there is any maps or mashups from Royal mail to see the post boxes. Or is there any letter drop box locator, where you give your post code and get the nearest box, easy isnt it :).

Unfortunately (or fortunately) till today, the only way you can find the nearest letter collection box is the ancient way for going through each street and find out a letter box, and see which one is near.

Well being a techie to find out which one is near, I have used local.live.co.uk to measure the distance between the box and my home:). and the nearest one for me is .3 miles away.

Oh my god HD DVD is dead…

2008-02-25T09:05:26.9408864-08:00

Well not exactly dead now, but soon will be killed!!!. Last week Toshiba announced their decision to stop producing more HD DVD players, and today Microsoft also announced about decision to stop supporting HD DVDs. If you think in the ‘Gandhiyan’ way it’s a very good decision. Nice for consumers and very nice for the companies. There is only one format no confusion in selecting the format when you buy high definition DVDs, but what about **** me???? I have spent 120 quid on a brand new Toshiba HD DVD player. Oh my god, what I’ll do with it now. But I made vice decision there, although I am bit unlucky that there is no future for HD, my DVD player can upscale the normal DVDs, and so I can get near HD experience. Anyways the blue ray players are very hot to touch in the market now J(they are very expensive for me). So I am happy with HD DVD player now, and to be honest it was good deal when I bought it, it comes with 7 HD DVD titles… good isn’t it ? I am not expecting answer from you, I know the answer, its YES.

-Rujith

Kabbe Holidays

2006-07-12T05:53:35.989-07:00

See more about Kabbe Holidays (Coorg) here….

http://www.kabbeholidays.com/

-Rujith

Driving in Bangalore / India

2006-06-06T05:52:48.847-07:00

This hilarious article was written by a Dutchman who spent two years in Bangalore, India, as a visiting expert. A little long article but worth reading it!!!

Driving in Bangalore / India

For the benefit of every Tom, Dick and Harry visiting India and daring to drive on Indian roads, I am offering a few hints for survival. They are applicable to every place in India except Bihar, where life outside a vehicle is only marginally safer.

Indian road rules broadly operate within the domain of karma where you do your best, and leave the results to your insurance company. The hints are as follows: Do we drive on the left or right of the road? The answer is "both". Basically you start on the left of the road, unless it is occupied. In that case, go to the right, unless that is also occupied. Then proceed by occupying the next available gap, as in chess. Just trust your instincts, ascertain the direction, and proceed. Adherence to road rules leads to much misery and occasional fatality. Most drivers don't drive, but just aim their vehicles in the generally intended direction.

Don't you get discouraged or underestimate yourself except for a belief in reincarnation; the other drivers are not in any better position. Don't stop at pedestrian crossings just because some fool wants to cross the road. You may do so only if you enjoy being bumped in the back.

Pedestrians have been strictly instructed to cross only when traffic is moving slowly or has come to a dead stop because some minister is in town. Still some idiot may try to wade across, but then, let us not talk ill of the dead.

Blowing your horn is not a sign of protest as in some countries. We horn to express joy, resentment, frustration, romance and bare lust (two brisk blasts),or just mobilize a dozing cow in the middle of the bazaar. Keep informative books in the glove compartment. You may read them during traffic jams, while awaiting the chief minister's motorcade, or waiting for the rainwater to recede when over ground traffic meets underground drainage.

Occasionally you might see what looks like a UFO with blinking colored lights and weird sounds emanating from within. This is an illuminated bus, full of happy pilgrims singing bhajans. These pilgrims go at breakneck speed, seeking contact with the Almighty, often meeting with success.

Auto Rickshaw (Baby Taxi): The result of a collision between a rickshaw and an automobile, this three-wheeled vehicle works on an external combustion engine that runs on a mixture of kerosene oil and creosote. This triangular vehicle carries iron rods, gas cylinders or passengers three times its weight and dimension, at an unspecified fare. After careful geometric calculations, children are folded and packed into these auto rickshaws until some children in the periphery are not in contact with the vehicle at all. Then their school bags are pushed into the microscopic gaps all round so those minor collisions with other vehicles on the road cause no permanent damage. Of course, the peripheral children are charged half the fare and also learn Newton's laws of motion enroute to school. Auto-rickshaw drivers follow the road rules depicted in the film Ben Hur, and are licensed to irritate.

Mopeds: The moped looks like an oil tin on wheels and makes noise like an electric shaver. It runs 30 miles on a teaspoon of petrol and travels at break-bottom speed. As the sides of the road are too rough for a ride, the moped drivers tend to drive in the middle of the road; they would rather drive under heavier vehicles instead of around them and are often "mopped" off the tarmac.

Leaning Tower of Passes: Most bus passengers are given free passes and during rush hours, there is absolute mayhem. There are passengers hanging off other passengers, who in turn hang off the railings and the overloaded bus leans dangerously, defying laws of gravity but obeying laws of surface tension. As drivers get paid for overload (so many Rupees per kg of passenger), no questions are ever asked. Steer clear of these buses by a width of three passengers.

One-way Street: These boards are put up by traffic people to add jest in their otherwise drab lives. Don't stick to the literal meaning and proceed in one direction. In metaphysical terms, it means that you cannot proceed in two directions at once. So drive as you like, in reverse throughout, if you are the fussy type. Least I sound hypercritical, I must add a positive point also. Rash and fast driving in residential areas has been prevented by providing a "speed breaker"; two for each house. This mound, incidentally, covers the water and drainage pipes for that residence and is left untarred for easy identification by the corporation authorities, should they want to recover the pipe for year-end accounting.

Night driving on Indian roads can be an exhilarating experience for those with the mental make up of Genghis Khan. In a way, it is like playing Russian roulette, because you do not know who amongst the drivers is loaded. What looks like premature dawn on the horizon turns out to be a truck attempting a speed record. On encountering it, just pull partly into the field adjoining the road until the phenomenon passes.

Our roads do not have shoulders, but occasional boulders. Do not blink your lights expecting reciprocation. The only dim thing in the truck is the driver, and with the peg of illicit arrack (alcohol) he has had at the last stop, his total cerebral functions add up to little more than a naught. Truck drivers are the James Bonds of India, and are licensed to kill. Often you may encounter a single powerful beam of light about six feet above the ground. This is not a super motorbike, but a truck approaching you with a single light on, usually the left one. It could be the right one, but never get too close to investigate. You may prove your point posthumously.

Happy Driving :) :)

Trip to coorg

2006-05-28T05:51:10.61-07:00

Last week (not exactly last week, lets say few weeks back). I started this blog some days back, so last week also makes sense. Ok so the point is I have been to Coorg (The Scotland of India). Truly it is Scotland. When I told my friends about my trip to coorg for the long weekend, everyone advised me this is not the right climate and time to go to coorg. Bangalore it was very hot (29oC). If you compare with other places in India, Bangalore is comparatively cool. But still we banglorians consider 29oC as very hot. So even after hearing advices of my friends to not go, I decided to go.

I didn’t have an ‘Official Honey moon’, we (my wife and me) had been to many places after marriage, but never had a ‘honey moon’. So we decided to go. My colleague Sandeep Chug and his wife Raakhi (lovely couple) who recently got married, less than one month now, also want to have their First honey moon (that’s what Sandeep says). And we started from Bangalore in Sandeep’s new Ford Ikon, and our destination was Kabbe Holidays, Coorg.

I’ll give a small history on how we got the destination, Kabbe Holidays. We planned our trip (Honey moon) just 3 days before the long weekend. The present culture in Bangalore is to hang out at some lonely place like Coorg or Bhandipur and relax your weekend. So when we approached our travel agent, he opened his hand saying all are booked. Our intention was to go to Bhandipur forest, where there is ‘Jungle Lodges’ which is a wonderful stay in the middle of the jungle. Now that’s supposed to be really adventurous and thrilling. But we couldn’t get any reservation for any of the place. Then the next day the travel agent rings up and tells us that there is a cancelled reservation for Coorg which we could take up, and it’s a home stay called ‘Kabbe Holidays’. Even though we were not satisfied with the idea of a home stay, we didn’t have any other option, and we decided to go for that.

I’ll continue this over the next week… hold your fingers crossed…