Hanuman Chalisa

shri guru charan saroj raj nij mane mukure sudhaari
varnao raghuvar vimal jasu jo daayaku phal chaari
budhi hin tanu janike sumirau pavan kumaram
bal budhi vidya dehu mohe harahu kalesavikaar

jai hanuman gyan gun saagar
jai kapis tihun lok ujaagar
ram doot atulit bal dhaama
anjani-putra pavan sut naama
mahavir vikram bajrangi
kumati nivaar sumati ke sangi
kanchan varan viraaj subesa
kaanan kundal kunchit kesaa
haath vajra aur dhuvaje viraaje
kandhe moonj janehu saaje

shankar suvan kesri nandan
tej prataap maha jag vandan
vidyavaan guni ati chaatur
raam kaaj karibe ko aatur
prabhu charitra sunibe ko rasiya
raam lakhan sita man basiya
sukshma roop dhari siyahi dikhaava
vikat roop dhari lanka jalaava
bhima roop dhari asur sanghaare
ramachandra ke kaaj sanvaare

laaye sanjivan lakhan jiyaaye
shri raghuvir harashi ur laaye
raghupati kinhi bahut badhaayi
tum mam priye bharat-hi sam bhaai
sahas badan tumharo yash gaave
as kahi shripati kanth lagaave
sankadik brahmadi muneesa
naarad saarad sahit aheesa
yam kuber digpal jahan te
kavi kovid kahi sake kahan te

tum upkaar sugreevahin keenha
ram milaay rajpad deenha
tumharo mantra vibheeshan maana
lankeshwar bhay sub jag jaana
yug sahastra jo jan par bhaanu
leelyo tahi madhur phal jaanu
prabhu mudrika meli mukh maahee
jaladhi langhi gaye achraj naahee
durgaam kaaj jagat ke jete
sugam anugraha tumhre tete

ram dware tum rakhvaare
hoat na agya binu paisare
sub sukh lahai tumhari sarna
tum rakshak kaahu ko darna
aapan tej samhaaro aapai
teenhon lok haank te kanpai
bhoot pisaach nikat nahin aavai
mahaavir jab naam sunavai
naase rog harai sab peera
japat nirantar hanumant beera

sankat se hanuman chudavai
mann karam vachan dyan jo lavai
sab par raam tapasvee raaja
tinke kaaj sakal tum saaja
aur manorath jo koi lavai
sohi amit jeevan phal pavai
charon yug partap tumhaara
hai persidh jagat ujiyaara
saadhu sant ke tum rakhwaare
asur nikandan ram dulhaare

ashta sidhi nav nidhi ke dhaata
us var deen janki maata
raam rasaayan tumhare paasa
sada raho raghupati ke daasa
tumhare bhajan raam ko pavai
janam janam ke dukh bisravai
anth kaal raghuvir pur jayee
jahaan janam hari-bakht kahayee
aur devta chit na dharehi
hanumanth se hi sarve sukh karehi

sankat kate mite sab peera
jo sumirai hanumat balbeera
jai jai jai hanuman gosahin
kripa karahu gurudev ki nyahin
jo sat baar paath kare koyi
chutehi bandhi maha sukh hoyi
jo yah padhe hanuman chalisa
hoye siddhi sakhi gaureesa
tulsidaas sada hari chera
keejai das hrdaye mein dera

pavantnai sankat harana mangal murti roopa
ram lakhan sita sahita hrdaye basahu sur bhoopa

Microsoft Vista

I parted with my 3 year old office laptop Compaq nc6220 - got a replacement as part of the refresh program - a Compaq 6910p with Windows Vista Enterprise pre-installed. It has a Intel Core 2 Duo CPU @2.0 GHz with a whopping 2047 Mb RAM.

After migrating to the new PC COE environment, I encountered the blue screen. Still, I'm quite excited in exploring the Office 2007 and Vista.
- विक्रम कुल्कर्णी ।।

Tiger's Masterpiece

My first shot at Mashups + Google Chrome

I installed Google Chrome, the open source browser from Google - found it cool and comparable to Mozilla Firefox. I liked the "New Incognito Window (Ctrl + Shift + N)" feature.

Also got a chance to create my first mashup using Google Maps.

India Post - Stamps in 2008

Out of the set of stamps released in 2008 (India Post - Stamps 2008), my favorites have been: Shri Shirdi Sai Baba, Civil Services and Jasmine. The Jasmine stamps are perfumed and I love it.

By the way, India Post redesigned their logo.

Obituary - Shri Bindurao A Desai

We deeply mourn the passing away of our beloved ajja yesterday evening at his Desai Cross residence. His simple virtues, we shall cherish; his vision will light the way for our actions.

Buying a car

I called Mr. Omprakash, the Loan guy at State bank of India this afternoon and got the good news that my car loan has been approved. Thought this deserved a post at my blog. It has been close to 6 weeks since we embarked on this journey to own a car - a middle class indian dream. I knocked on doors of various banks - HDFC, Indian Overseas Bank, Karnataka Bank, Corporation Bank, ICICI Bank and State Bank of Patiala. I was very close to getting a loan from State Bank of Patiala - but the Saturday morning spent 3 weeks back at their City office will always be remembered - for a Mr. Harish who made me wait for 2 hours and was too busy and heavy handed to see the business he let go.

We decided to buy a non metallic Maruti Alto after deliberating on Hyundai i10 and Chevrolet Spark.



All in all, it was a learning on how to deal with various car dealers, bankers and how to collect the documentation needed. Hope this helps me in my next dream - owning a house in Bangalore.

Nokia 3110 Classic

We bought the Nokia 3110 Classic with Yahoo! Go and were very excited about listening to the FM stations in Bangalore. It has been more than a year since we stopped listening to Radio after we moved from #51, Koramangala.

Bangalore Metro Route Map

Weekend getaway to Puducherry

We are planning a weekend getaway for the long weekend (15-17 Aug, 2008) and the popular choice is Puducherry - The French Riviera of the East. Have read a few reviews on Mouthshut and Lonely Planet and concluded that it would cost about Rs. 3000/day. I'm having a tough time figuring out what trains go from Bangalore. Found this Indian Railways Time Table website and downloaded the Route Map with table numbers Adobe document. Looks like the closest town via rail is CUDDALORE JN(COT) or VILLUPARAM JN(VM). KSRTC runs two Volvo bus services - one in the night and one during day and costs Rs. 380/- per ticket. Found this travelbyvolvo blog informative.

Attempted to book the Volvo tickets via AWATAR Online Booking System but it only allows ICICI credit cards and SBI cards.

The Pupil Tree

We resumed our search for a play school for Pranav. I accidently dropped my spectacles yesterday and therefore took time off from office this morning to get it fixed. This gave us a chance to enquire at The Pupil Tree, Sarakki (J P Nagar) branch. They started this branch a few weeks back and still haven't got kids enrolled. Pranav seemed to enjoy the place.

We heard about this school from Deepa's elder sister Jayashree. Her daughter goes to their Bellary school which is also famous for their school building architecture.

DPT Shot

Pranav got the HIBERIX and INFANRIX shots and Polio drops from his paediatrician Dr. Seema Misra at the Apollo Hospital on Bannerughatta Road. The HIBERIX (Hemophilus Influenza Vaccine) cost Rs. 440.00 and the INFANRIX cost Rs. 750.00

Scholastic India book fair @ EC Bazaar

We have a book fair at the EC Bazaar by Scholastic India offering books at less than 50% of the original price.

MICR

I decided to file my ITR by availing Spearhead's services. According to my Form-16, I paid 254625 INR as income tax for FY 2007-2008. While filling the Basic details, came across the field MICR to be provided in case IT Office needs to refund. Fond this MICR Codes Bank Master file document on the Reserve Bank Of India website that lists all the Bank codes.

BMTC - Vayu Vajra buses

Last month, we shifted offices. I have been taking the company buses to get to my new office in Electronics city and kept seeing these beautiful Red coloured volvo buses that BMTC has started - Route BIAS-08. This website had lots of information that one can use if really looking at the public transport system. To check route details, check their Online Route Information Service.

Found a GK Vale CD containing pictures from Giri's visit to Japan in 2001; flickred them into my Flickr site.

Income Tax Return Electronic filing

Inspired by the Income Tax Return Electronic filing statistics, I created an account with Income Tax India eFiling website. I'll try and file my income tax return for FY07-08 online and do my little bit to save the environment.

Year up @ Dollar Point

We completed one year of stay at Dollar Point. I have paid 1,52,400 INR as rent for the whole year.

Looking back at the year gone by, we got so used to the breakfast at SLV.

Microsoft Office Outlook Connector

I installed Microsoft Office Outlook Connector. Now, I can use Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 or Microsoft Office Outlook 2007(the client I use for my office emails) to access and manage my Microsoft Windows Live Hotmail account, including e-mail messages and contacts for free. I have registered my hotmail email account with IRCTC and CitiBank - it makes it so easy to catchup on emails now.

Looking forward to the Germany V/s Turkey Semi-finals match of Euro 2008 UEFA. I loved this Tournament browser developed by the euro2008 website.

Wisdom Lost

Finally had my long due wisdom tooth extraction - Dr. Deepali Kenkere performed a surgery on my right wisdom tooth. The surgery went ok - the pain after the effect of local anaesthesia had subsided was real bad. Deepa joked that I looked like a pregnant lady having labour pains. I'm sure, her labour pains must have been even worse.

I'm on Divon Plus paracetamol tablets.

School search

We just got back home from a round of Sunday afternoon shopping at FabIndia and Pranav had dozed off. So, I decided to get online and my search for a school for Pranav's education offically kicked off today. A simple google search led me to this interesting site: Bangalore Schools.

Some of the prominent ones that I listed out for followup are:

Bishop Cotton Boys School
Bethany
Baldwin Boys High School
Ryan International
HAL Public School
National Public School
New Horizon Public School
The International School, Bangalore
Inventure Academy
GreenWood High
Indus International
Freedom International
Canadian International School
Mallya Aditi International School

Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme

Read this article in the newspaper today that Navjyot Sidhu tops MPLADS (Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme) funds usage. He spent 5.35 crore, an impressive 90% of the Rs. 6 Crore fund allocated to each MP. Every year, two installments of 50 Lakhs are made.

A quick check on what Prahalad Joshi (MP from Dharwad North) has used shows he has three more installments left.



The Regional Passport Office went bilingual - it is now available in Kannada and English

wisdom tooth

Last Friday, my wisdom tooth revolted like no one ever before did and a visit to Dr. Kenkere, my dentist was envitable. Monday, I had to work from home so that I could keep the appointment. An X-ray revealed that both of my Wisdom teeth were positioned vertically and were pushing the adjacent tooth. He put me on Tinimox and a pain killer : ?????. The damage was already done - my last visit to my dentist and I had been warned to get the extraction of the wisdom tooth done as soon as possible - alas, I had to shell out 3000 INR for the root canal of this adjacent tooth - I call it tooth31. Now, I have an appointment for a surgical tooth extraction next week.
During the root canal treatment, I was wondering if there is any naming convention followed by the Dentist community to refer to each tooth - all that I know is that we have 32 teeth.

Some questions that came up and I ought to explore :
What is a wisdom tooth?
What is root-canal treatement?

Thaaankyoou papa

Pranav had been pestering mamma (Deepa) to take him to the Gudi (Temple). So, we stepped out of the house and visited Sri Venkateshwara temple at J P Nagar, Phase 2. It was disappointing since the temple had no bells for Pranav to ring. The good bit - on our way back, Pranav uttered, "Thaaankyoou papa". I was thrilled.

He has been talking a lot lately. Wish we could record his attempts to speak for posterity.

Here's a list of words he has learnt:

Manomi = Mango
Kakaa = "I need to go to the Potty"

Pranav Plucks Jamuns

Sheeresh and Divya were plucking Jamuns while Pranav watched excitedly shouting "Daadaa" & "Akka". Deepa made the most of this "attraction" to feed him tuppa anna. Then, this country maid came by selling nerle (Jamuns called in Kannada) in a wicker basket. She was selling jamuns for 5 Rupees per chitte (which is a small can). Dad bargained and she sold two chitte for 10 Rupees. Naturally, the kids weren't interested in the nerle purchased, but the ones they were plucking on their own; reminded me of my childhood when we plucked nerle, mangoes, peru and another fruit which I can't remember now (it was bean shaped and spiral and you need to peel of the outer green layer and eat the inner white core).

Later in the evening, we took an auto to visit akla ajji - badi ajji (great grandma) at Jamkhandi Compound. We met baby Aryan - Meera Maushi's grandson.

Pranav's First Bus Ride

Today evening, Pranav had his first bus ride - that too with Grandpa. It was a bus ride from University Cross to Dharwad bus stand and he freaked out.
We (me, Deepa and Dad) decided to catch an auto into town to get the repaired Philips mixie and buy some vegetables & fruits. As we neared the auto stand, a bus glided in and Dad commanded that we hop into it - so it was unplanned and I shall cherish it. I asked Deepa to preserve the bus ticket so that we can show it to him when he grows up.

69 Delimited Assembly Constituencies of Karnataka

Last fortnight, I voted for the Karnataka Assembly elections 2008. The assembly constituencies have been redrawn after delimitation. Karnataka is the first state to hold the elections as per Delimitation of Parliamentary and Assembly Constituencies by the Delimitation Commission of India. I need to check and confirm if my name is listed in the Electoral rolls for Bangalore at the CEO, Karnataka website.

The Eight districts: Bidar, Gulbarga, Bijapur, Bagalkot, Belgaum, Dharwad, Gadag, Haveri went to polls in the Phase III on 22nd May, 2008.

1-18: Belgaum District
Nippani, Chikkodi-Sadalga
Athani, Kagwad,
Kudachi (SC),
Raybag (SC),
Hukkeri,
Arabhavi,
Gokak,
Yemkanmardi (ST),
Belgaum Uttar,
Belgaum Dakshin,
Belgaum Rural,
Khanapur,
Kittur,
Bailhongal,
Saundatti Yellamma,
Ramdurg

19-25: Bagalkot District
Mudhol (SC), Terdal,
Jamkhandi, bilgi, Badami,
Bagalkot, Hungund,

26-33: Bijapur District
Muddebihal,
Devar Hippargi,
Basavana Bagevadi,
Babaleshwar,
Bijapur City,
Nagthan (SC),
Indi, Sindgi

34-46: Gulbarga District
Afzalpur, Jevargi,
Shorapur (ST),
Shahapur,
Yadgir, Gurmitkal,
Chittapur (SC),
Sedam,
Chincholi (SC),
Gulbarga Rural (SC),
Gulbarga Dakshin,
Gulbarga Uttar, Aland

47-52: Bidar District
Basavakalyan, Homnabad,
Bidar South, Bidar,
Bhalki, Aurad (SC)

65-68: Gadag District
Shirahatti (SC),
Gadag, Ron, Nargund

69-75: Dharwad Disrict
Navalgund, Kundgol,
Dharwad,
Hubli-Dharwad-East (SC),
Hubli-Dharwad-Central,
Hubli-Dharwad-West,
Kalghatgi

82-87: Haveri District
Hangal, Shiggaon,
Haveri (SC), Byadgi,
Hirekerur,
Ranibennur

The affidavit filed by the MLA from Hubli-Dharwad-Central, Mr. Jagadish Shettar would have been interesting to understand - wish I could read Kannada. A detailed analysis of the Karnataka Assembly polls can be found with Election Commission of India

The directory of official websites of Government of India was helpful.

Matchbox Front Loader

I purchased this Matchbox Front Loader truck for my 1.5 year old son in the Learning Express toy store in Atlanta and he loved it! It is very well made and looks like it will last a long time. I picked it at a discounted price of 14 USD.

Updating my resume - herculean effort !

Today, I finally got a chance to work on my resume after 5 years. Wish I had regularly updated my resume - it wouldn't have been a herculean effort now.

America

During our F2F meeting here in Alpharetta, I came across this american expression: "Hindsight is 20/20". While researching this expression, I found this interesting site phrases.org

Yesterday, I had my "Wal-mart experience".

I have been noticing various things American - like the Coca Cola Classic 12oz Can. Measuring things in Fluid ounces is so alien to us - no wonder they call the foreigners as aliens. The other thing I noticed was the television commercials that advertise these cars which have a milage in MPG - Miles per Gallon

Coincidently, I was reading the copy of NewsWeek back at the hotel which quoted - America, Myanmar and Liberia are the only three countries in the world that use the Imperial System.

During my stay here for the past 10 days, I frequently used the Georgia 400.

Everything is BIG here.

Next Generation Data Center

Just got back from a visit of the HP Next Generation Data Center. It's awesome !

First week in United States of America

It was my first week in United States of America.
Today, we kicked-off our EEM move to the NGDC. I also coded my first web service using WeLogic Workshop - was suprised how easy it was to do it.

Aishoo's surgery

Aishoo got her ankle operated on today at Pune.

Pranav Speaks

Deepa called up to check if I had eaten my lunch. Thats when I spoke to Pranav on the phone for the first time. He said, "PapPa". It was exhilarating.

Happy Fools day !

First mango of the year

I tasted the first mango of the season today. Santhosh and Reshma had dropped in on Satuday and passed on inviting mangoes sent by uncle (Santhosh's dad) from Mysore.
Not surprising that they were lying on the table for the past two days with no one attacking them. Normally, Girish, the Mango aficionado of our family would have finished them on day 1.

HP - Coffee Spill by Chandra

HP - Coffee Spill by Chandra, originally uploaded by Kulkeez.

Chandra and the coffee spill at the Embassy Prime - CV Raman Nagar office pantry. Interesting photo !

aye - doon kya ?

Pranav loves this Poppins Ad: Doon Kya



Every time the ad is aired, he stops whatever he is doing and starts dancing towards the TV.

Hey Diddle Diddle

On my way to the General Post Office, I was passing through SBI Road and decided to drop into Shankar's Book Shop. I purchased a picture book for Rs. 205 - my first book for Pranav called "Hey Diddle Diddle"; by Ladybird.

Hey Diddle Diddle has the following rhymes:
1. Pat a cake
2. Little Miss Muffet
3. This Little Pig
4. Hickory Dickory Dock
5. Incy Wincy Spider
Out of these, I only know the fourth one; I decided to memorize the remaining four.

Interestingly, the Shankar's cash memo had the address as Madras Bank Road. Upon researching, I found out that the SBI Road was called Madras Bank Road earlier.



It was the first rains of the year. The city recorded 92mm of rain. We were stranded at SLV Ragigudda for more than hour and a half, waiting for the rains to recede. On our way back at half past eight, we got drenched but it was fun.

My FreeAgent Go

Last Friday, I indulged by finally buying the Seagate "FreeAgent Go" Portable Hard Drive for my laptop. Cost me 5300 Rupees

Movie wishlist

It's been ages since we saw a movie at the multiplex. Gotta watch this movie 300 which Rajiv recommended.