Trip de Switzerland !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am on marathon call for next 5 days and I think this would a good time to do some updates to my out dated blog :)
Mind you, I am updating this when the call get stalled due to ‘Technical issue’ :)

Now, one lady is looking for the latest version of docs she has to walk through in the meeting – I think folks are well prepared for this discussion – ok no something I will be interested to update in my blog.
So were was I ? I was here last time when I set my foot back to my home land and I was saying I like – Life @ TVM.

I had been busy with so many thing happening around me – work wise and personal wise. Three of my good friends got hitched in one or other way in last three months – one still left for the hunt for the better half just like me. Got into a umpteen project which had been written un doable and I took it up as it had the silver line of working from my home town written all over it. I took up the challenge and had been in office 9 to 9 every day including Saturdays …all I got was kind of 12 Sundays in 3 months but I think it was worth the effort. Finally signed off the stuff and got a – more than average sign off for the assignment. Enjoyed a lot with a very fresh and committed team. One thing I learned here was the folks in my team – most of them in the age group 23 to 25 was much more matured than what I was doing at the same age. I think the generation gap is now shrinking to a gap of 4 years. These folks are already having plans of when to quit, when to get hitched and what they want to go after – after being in hardly one or two years in the industry these folks are pretty good at what they are doing and what they want to do! I hardly knew where I was headed when I had two years of experience under my belt. Leaving the work part, I was lucky enough to travel to one of the most expensive and most beautiful places on the world – Switzerland!!! More of a business trip but had fun @ Switzerland

Travel de Switzerland :

Stayed for 14 days, had only three days to spare as the business meeting were tightly scheduled. I had my flight Via Dubai to Switzerland. I had a three hour stop over in Dubai which I happily slept , the flight was good other than the vegetarian meals I got. I never ordered this and later I got to know that the meals was misplaced for me and the one who ordered was my friend who was two rows ahead of me, and this left him to be happy with some fruits for an 8 hour flight. The Zurich airport was smaller than I had in my mind for being such a tourist location and same with the Zurich city. We had been put up in a business suite in a hotel in Zurich city.

About the city Zurich: it is not as neat as I expected, there was lot of construction going on which might be one reason for the dust. The streets were mostly empty on week days by 7 or 8 pm and night life also was dull. One more thing I learned was Swedish German is a different language from German and some one who speaks German cannot talk Swedish German. Also every one doesn’t understand English :) . So if you are headed to Switzerland, get used with words like ‘ Danke’, Mercy and Good Morningk – with the German accent. The total population of the country is well under the total population of my state ‘ Kerala’. People are good but not ‘ smiley’ people like folks from US. They are more of folks from France / UK where they don’t smile until there is a reason. Public smoking is not an issue here and every other guy / women smoke here- may be the climate is the excuse these smokers cling on to! Cycle is one of the most common transportation used here and we have folks cycling to our customer location on suits. The trams here are too good and it looks to be the affordable transportation to everywhere. We had our chuck cut out for cabs but even with a fat allowance, money was not enough to pay cab charges . For any one who is still tied to Indian food, there are lot of Indian and Srilankan restaurants in Zurich. I was amazed to find out that there was a restaurant named – Kerala restaurant and one conversation when we were about to leave convinced me that it’s a restaurant owned by a malayale

Owner : (phone) : Hello
From the other : ….
Owner : Elaam kazhinju, njan iceum vellavum ready aaki vachelkam, inghu ethiyal mathi ( everything is over, I will be ready with Ice and water)
From the other end : ….
Owner : urappalle

I guess this was conversation regarding a drinking get together the same evening. Malayale never changes – even in Switzerland and falls back to the tag line ‘ inetha parypady’ ( Whats today program?)

I heard that when a new building has to be build, there has to be a approval plan from the locals on the building appearance which will fall in place to the neighboring buildings and that’s why the streets look so much similar. Also they have some amazing building all over. The spider sculpture is really big when you go near to it. The climate ( it was summer) was around 25 to 30 degree Celsius. It was raining almost once in three days but it was never so cold not much hot. I think it justifies why we didn’t find a bigger went in our room for our air conditioner. Out of 26 channels we had in our hotel only one was English and rest was German / Swedish. Also it was a little surprise to find out that our hotel and another one near by doesn’t have a complimentary breakfast even after charging quiet expensively for a two bed suite. This was more of a normal thing in any inns in US! We were lucky to find that lady Gaga performed on the ground right in front of our hotel. We were roaming around and the song sounded familiar. A peak over the fence, we were surprised to see lady Gaga right across the fence performing for a group of half drunk crowd! As I didn’t had any pop song fans with me, we didn’t bother to venture in!- Lady gag looked very small when compared to the pictures I saw from her albums. We experimented with our dinner and played safe with our lunch as there was a online order delivery available with Best curry – 10 franks lunch – Indian vegetarian lunch :)

We had couple of Mexican diner, one Italian, three Sri Lankan and rest was either Pizzas at hotel or Indian restaurants around. I gained almost 4 KGs in two weeks – blame it on eating out completely for two weeks.

Ok, Left it about our weekend on my last update
The weekend, we had it planned quiet good and thankfully it was a long weekend. For Saturday we roamed around Zurich city, Zurich lake and some local mall. One thing I found every where was Swiss army knife and lots of cheap – really good wine. We took a local Zurich lake – boat trip for around one hour and had a good site of many buildings. It was curios that the boat restricts, food, smoke and ice cream. I didn’t understand the difference between food and ice cream :)
On second day we headed to the Alps – Junfrau ‘Top of Europe’. It was more of a 6 hour journey one way and spend almost 2 and half hour on the top. The journey had two hour of bus ride, a on hour stop over at Interlaken and another 3 hours on a Cog wheel train to the top of Europe. More updates and pics on next update :)................

Behind the Dance “Brazil”

Mr. Rahul KV and the glamorous Rajesh (both r my seniors in SUN College) came to our class for collecting names for the cultural activities for this years college day. I was excited about doing a group dance. I had already pulled in Ribin and Leno into this. Both guys are stiff like me and can’t even jump up and down properly. They were filled with energy for a good show on stage or I’ll put it this way, they were the only folks ready to dance with me. So all where set up and we decided on the upbeat song ‘Brazil’ from Venga boys. My cousin (Ranjit) had already danced for this song and it was well received. So I thought I can learn steps from him and teach all these guys. We planed to have a practice on Sunday after our math class.

Usually I go by Auto rickshaw to tution class, but that day I took my cousin’s (Arun) Passion. He was not at home and I found out that he will be way for another week. After the boring class about equations, I and Ribin started to my home. I had to go to my music teacher and tell him some lie so that I can make time for our practice. I had that in mind and was little over the usual speed. Ribin was struggling at times to catch up with me on his scooter.

Then I took the disastrous curve in front of the SP fort hospital in Trivandrum. I saw one auto rickshaw ready to take the straight road in the ‘T’ junction. I was about to pass him and auto took a sharp right turn to bump into me. All I heard was loud thud and I was on four legs in the canal on the corner of the road. Auto rickshaw was sidewise one man standing inside the vehicle. I saw one wheel (must be the spare one) rolling down the road and Ribin stopping next to me. I started to scold him for his signal less relentless turn.
The crowd gathered around, my bike (my cousin’s bike) was not n good shape. The crash guard saved my right leg; also the first impact was on my shoulder and the rest on the vehicle. So the vehicle took most of the damage from the thud. My legs where trembling and Ribin took care of the situation, noting down the auto rickshaw number. I learned that the driver was drunk and he didn’t see me.

One man in crowd asked whether I need to go to a hospital. I was totally out of my mind thinking what I’m goanna say to my pop. I took my bike and started it, its in working condition, Checked my legs and no problem with those. My right hand had a pain which hit the ground while I fell into the dry canal and some bruises all over, but altogether it was ok. I said “no” for hospital. Then the auto guy was about to leave and I started asking for compensation and all. The folks around me asked how much I need and the worst answer ever made by me came out saying 50 bugs.

I still don’t understand why I told 50 RS. The guy was happy to give it at once. One guy confronted Ribin, who was keen in taking down the number. They had a fist fight becoz I already settled everything and that Ribin was still noting down the number. Every one left except a few asking question like, ‘y did I left him’ when everything was in favor for me. Many had a say that I should have made it a police case. All I could manage to think was to get all this done with out the knowledge of my dad.

Ribin was with me until the next junction and then he left to his home. He repeatedly asked me whether he should accompany me. I was thinking that if ribin Accompanies to my home and I face my dad with usual escaping lies, Ribin can be a weak point where my dad will nail me out. So I convinced him about leaving me all alone after having an accident. When I reached home, my mom and sis was waiting for me at the door. One more fellow dance member was there at home waiting in my room for Dance Practice. Seeing my face mom figured out something went wrong. I showed the bruises on my hand and the ill shaped petrol tank and crash guard of my cousin’s bike.

My younger cousin (Ranjit) was also there who was supposed to teach me steps for “Brazil” He took me to the hospital (SP hospital) straight opposite to the accident spot and the bill came around 750. I had a thin hairline crack on my right hand, got a TT injection and a lot of tablets for the bruises. As I’m an expert in hiding wounds and bruises from my father since child hood, it didn’t give much of a problem.
Leno who was waiting for the dance step came along me to the hospital and went home.
I made out some lie to stay in my room for next two day listening to the song
Braziiiiil ….

I had to be one among the audience that year as my accident prevented me from entering the stage. But next year we went up with the same team and danced for the same song 
I made sure that I drive bike very safely or always travel by “Natraj transport”. Song Brazil gives me nostalgic moments about the college days and a much feared memory about a freaky accident.

Poly Times

On the way to Kottayam with my dad, I saw the Nattakom polytechnic for the first time. It was a great campus with road climbing up the hill towards the principal’s room. The building was painted with usual yellow and brick color as all the government buildings. I was too scared in the first day. A pool of strangers all elder to me. I never made out who is senior and who my classmate is? From the first day onwards going for lunch and the morning and evening walk thru the corridor to the bus stop was a horror. Any time u might end up in front of the bunch of seniors.
I was caught up by the seniors on the third day. They made me sing national anthem in front of my class under an open umbrella. But the scene was very funny and they didn’t scare me. I was staying with my father for the first six months and then alone in the same quarter room as he got transferred back home.
Then loneliness had an effect on me. For the first time in life I had to walk through a cemetery in night to reach my quarter. I stayed in the third floor of the civil station directly under the water tank. Some times u can see water drops dripping from the ceiling at night. The scariest part was a peculiar sound which was repeated every night around 2 O’clock. Many days it left me parying at midnight hearing the noice.One day I had the courage to get out of my room in the deserted civil station and look for the source of sound. It left me laughing hard to find out an overflow tap and its lid causing the noise. The tank overflowed in the same fashion at the same time everyday making the noise :)
There was a time in my life when I was afraid of drunken people and now I'm living as one among them. I didn't feel much difference other than these guys when boozed talks a lot and they hardly think when they got the 'Kick'. Every weekend I travelled back home and the four hour train journey from kottayam to Trivandrum was another experience. I had friends from different railway stations as we see each other every week. I was taken aback from one incident in Trivandrum railways station when I was waiting for my Train 'Venad' on one cold monday early morning around 4:30. One guy approached me and he requested me some thing unnatural. I realised that the folks called' Homosexual" existed in Kerala also. I was horrified and I ran from that place without thinking again or looking back.

I shifted to the famous ‘Geethayalam’ after first year at polytechnic ( Poly)."Geethalayam" is my house name. There I had my distance cousin and six other room mates. The days at “geethalayam” are really memorable. From there onwards I started to see a new world. The class ended up more boring as they were deep inside chemistry searching for new names for carbon structures. One of the funniest moments was when my class mate suggested the name ‘SABU’ when our teacher was struggling to find the name of a big stereo specific olygomer.
From geethalayam, my first visit to bar, to adult movie, to toddy shop, to the famous Karibinakala( A famous toddy shop were the food is so tasty even family used to visit this place, on the MC road bank between Kottayam and Changnashery) shaap all happened. I have never tasted hot drinks but I tried “madhura kallu” from one of the toddy shop. It was really good. But things were going worst. I had my first supplementary ( Back paper)when my first year results came. It was mathematics. My tution teacher who taught me until 10th would never believe as her best student some how managed to get 32 out of hundred in mathematics.
I have hardly seen movies at theatre when I was at home in Trivandrum. There will be one or two in a year when my mom or dad finds some movie very interesting. But once I got into geethalayam, it was all a different world. Ended up in at least two movies every week. There the language and the cast didn’t matter. Also I started to learn cooking. Managed to end up on curry which was supposed to be a solid dish :). Thanks for the guidance from my roommates.
It was a horrible experience when one of my roomie vomited after having a mix of vine+ Hard drinks+ toddy. But my room mates were all cool saying “it’s a part of the game’.
But the trips from the toddy shop to home after the usual meals were not funny for me. All the other guys are boozed up and I’m the only one left out. So these guys never feel ashamed to do anything they wish and I end up in getting bashed up. Some of the things happened r way beyond writing it here.
There were peculiar characters and names in our college as it would be in everyone’s college. One was Augestus alias Jiju. He is 5’9”, strong built and a pair of sharp eyes. He was of 23 but he looked atleast 26. He always smokes and the big drinker( Pambu according our dictionary) in our room. He can drink six bottle of toddy and still go with a steady head and drive his bike home. Then next one was Shankaran who will skip his dinner through out a week to see the Friday release film .
There were some other fellows from which I learned money doesn’t come that easily to everyone. There were people who have to go for rubber taping to get his bus fare everyday. They were always very serious with their studies but the whole geethalayam gang never took anything serious.
We were always late to the classes, always bunked Friday afternoon lab hours. Some how or the other manged to bribe the attendance clerk to keep minimum attendance . Our house owner had a good looking grant daughter who was centre of attraction at Geethalayam.
Every alternate day ended in booz parties, learning and assingments happened only on year ends.It was heaven. We were never tensed about where we are headed or what will happen to our career. But in exams some how all managed to get a pass mark. In practicals it will be the backbenchers who always scored. There were only six girls in the class of total strengh of 44. So a friendship with them seemed too far away. Second year went with out much events. Third year started of with our ragging episode where we manged to rag even the passout guys :(

Our weekends where filled with trips to different toddy shops, beaches, wild life sanctories and all. The aim was only one things, to get boozed and enjoy. We tried things like gymkhana which ended after two weeks, dance preparation which lasted for two weeks before arts day. Our roommate 'Kalyan Kumar' was humiliated in the arts day as our vice principal pulled the curtain the momentum Kalyan started singing. I never had the courage to be on stage. My Kttappan ( original name cannot be disclosed) manged to begin and countinue 6 lovers from different year across the branches. He is talented guy to have six lovers and to tackle everyone in the same campus without any intervention with each other. The best part waht he maintained the same tempo until the final day in three years.
There was lines building up as our superjunior batch had a lot of good looking gals. But luck never struck me or I was rather not on the look out. Our class mate Sunitha got engaged and the reason for booz uprty that day was heart break of my friend and room mate Pamman ( original name cannot be dislosed).
In the third year we had our arts day and our class rep was suspened on that day for getting into "uncultural activites" on stage. He was half drunk and he showed too much on the stage. The same guy was again suspened as he wrote a story for our story writing competetion where our organic xhemistry miss was the heroine and Augestus the hero.

After the third year results I havn't met anyone other than my cosuin. Those were the golden days where no limits for fun ....

A job an Interview away !!!!

courtesy : Title of this blog, i have taken from a malayalam movie named 'Bhagyavaan' , *ing Sreenivasan, Jagathy and more.( Written by Vyshag)

'Alabhya Labhya Shree'


Most of you might have got some difficulty in reading and understanding the title, feel sorry for that. This is juz like a diary notes of around 1.5 years of a mighty jobhunter . Vyshagh. C, passed out in the year 2004, ECE batch from SCET with 78% aggregate(have to admit that its of no use). Thinking about the life ahead, found that i need a job very badly. Started applying for jobs even before getting expelled from the college. Started my RUN of recruitment tests with IT giant INFOSYS. Just 15 days after finishing my final exam, i wrote for Infosys at Christ College, Bangalore.,'ahaa' , no chance of clearing the test. So the very 1st first one itself was an utter failure. It was followed by a crap organisation in Chennai named DSRC. As before, came back happily. Again it was CTS(in shreds), but no way.....

By june mid of 2004, i thought of moving to Bangalore. Nandu also was ready to shift. That time, we were very busy in droping the resumes, contacting some friends and relatives, to get the news regarding openings. Also thinking about some courses to be done along with. And finally decided to join for a course on 'software testing' and STAG s\w, seeing some of our seniours doing the course and geting placed. Mean time we attended MindTree, GoRemote and also TCS walkin which was cancelled later. One and half month course was over by september and we were eagerly waiting to see what will happen next. In between Nandu got an offer from NEST in cochin. So he went back to homeland. He was pretty happy with that job, riding own pulsar and weekend visits to home. As a result i was alone in bangalore in the later part of my job hunt.

With the experience of 4 or 5 uncleared test, i have started recognising the blunders i was doing in the tests. As i made some genuine attempts, i cleared the tests of Surya soft and Tata Infotech. There was only 1 round of intrview for both, but i couldnt make it, even though one of the top directors of Suryasoft was my relative. Ramesh, through with Infosys and also Thomas got some BPO job, both landed at bangalore. STAG s\w, where we did the course, called me for an intrview as i had a good marks in the final test they made. I could make through with thier intrview, and they told i will be called in 1 month to join. Happy to hear that and thought of visiting home and come back for joining when they give me the date. I went home and told all my relatives and friends about this. 1 month was over, 2 months, 6 months...now its almost 1 year , no calls yet(Note No:1).

Throwing STAG to waste bin, again started writing tests. Tata Elxsi, SAP Labs, Huawie, LnT Infotech, Accenture, Satyam and it goes on. A few, out in 1st round, few 2nd round and few final round. SHARP s\w in ITPL called me for a test, i cleared the test and 1 round of technical intrview and they told of calling me later. Later Nandu also did the same. When contacted later, they told that we both are ready to be acquired, no more interviews and will call us later. Again much happy to hear that....but till date no calls yet....(Note No:2).

Subex sytems was the next, called me for the opening in testing field. 2 hectic days inside their office resulted in 4 rounds of interview-3 tech rounds and 1 HR. I dont know how i cleared 3 tech rounds. For the HR interview there was only 2 of us and some 1 told that they have opening of 6. So we both have pretty confidence of clearing HR, also the interview was pretty good and cool. After all the HR guy was TVM vala mallu, so confidence raised. 2 days later they called me, told we both have cleared the interview and get ready to join. They gave us the joining date, training and salary details. I called my home and told the matter. It was the day of father's retirement. So when he addresed in function, told them 'On the day i am steping down, my son is going to join'. But later, the next day, the Subex people called me again and told that they have to rethink about the decision and so please hang on. Still hanging for thier call....!!!What to do..u tell..(Note No:3).

Now it was almost the 2005 batch people are ready to come out from campus. I fled to Chennai, inorder to write GE. That time i got a call from Syntel also. With bear hand, i gave a blind attempt on Syntel and cleared the test. The interview was on the same day and it was april 2nd - Kochi 1day international b\w India and Pakistan. So even just before getting into the interview cabin, i was asking Krishnakumar(my friend) about the score. He just gave me hardcore glare and after that told me score checking in his mob. When got into the room, the 1st question from him was 'Whats the score ?'. ohh god.. so i am pretty happy to deliver him the latest scoreboard. The interview was very cool, and at the end he showed me the marks he hav put for me in each category of knowledge, english, academic performance and presentation and altogether he put some 17 out of 20. He asked 'vot do u think, vil u make thru with this'. I said i am not sure. he showed some other paper where there he have to tick his openion on me..rejected, recomend for another round of interview, selected, with held. He ticked 'selected' infront of me and asked me not to tell any1 about the result. The HR people will be telling you in proper way. And on april 13(day b4 VISHU), syntel HR called me and told me that my offerletter will be send to home within 2days. I felt that i got the most valuable 'vishu kaineettam'.. after a week mom called me and told the offer letter is there. The date of joining was May 29. But just 5 days before my joining date they called me again and told me that my joining date have been postponed and later they vil inform me...now its almost september..so almost 3 months..till now no news from them.....(Note No:4)....

And the final name that have to be added to this list is VERIZON. One of the most highly paid company for a fresher. Cleared the test, cleared the technical interview, they told no more interview. Filled their employment form and all. I heard they shortlisted around 300 including me, and have taken about 100 in june last. Unfortunately i was not able to be a part of that gang. After that i happened to hear that, they took another set of people yesterday. Vyshagh's name not included in that also. (Note No:5)

Stag, Sharp, Subex, Syntel, Verizon - all clearing the rounds of interview, iam not able to join anywhere. Almost 32 tests and 18 intreview in 14 months. I wish no1 should tire this much insearch of a job. Now i give u a chance, u can predict in which of the given company vil i join, or should i continue my run for the next name to be added to this list...?

Comapany Name - Location - Salary / month
STAG - Bangalore - Rs.7,500
SHARP - Bangalore - Rs.12,500
SUBEX - Bangalore - Rs.16,667
SYNTEL - Chennai or Pune or Bombay - Rs. 16,667
VERIZON - Chennai or Hyderabad - Rs.25,000
'Name that u can add'
Poll Back
Vyshagh Alabhya~labhya~shree

Sun Times .......

Fun with Police

The road was quiet dark. When I said it out Ribin started to make fun of my comment asking. “How the road should be at night 2 O clock?” But it can have street lights. That’s what I’m meant. All these guys want to pull my legs. The next contender was still immersed in the movie. It was really a violent movie. He’s still clinging on to the last scene were the hero pierces his index finger to the villain’s throat. ‘Oh man the scene was cool ...’ and added to the already existing list of special effects. The movie was kind of bizzard. The language was too tough even for me (I’m the one who is more exposed to Tamil in the trio). We went out of main road were there was very little light. From there we had to take a right turn to head towards the YMCA hostel. As we reached the junction, the small crowd which came out of the theater thinned away.

We reached the junction and took the right turn. Now the road is barely visible but we kept on moving. All we can see is the junction ahead, some 500 feet away. The next street light!
As we reached some quarter of the distance two head lights were visible at the junction. The vehicle was moving slowly. It passed the junction and went to the left. Then I had a doubt whether it was a night patrol vehicle. I shoot a question in air about it. The vehicle is not gone yet. It came back towards the junction . Then it took a turn towards our road. Suddenly it stopped. Then the dim light was switched to bright. We three were walking towards the vehicle. Ribin started to ask me about our college ID cards. Those two guys had it and I didn’t. Leno searched pocket of his ill colored track suit for the counter foil of the Movie ticket. We could see he was visibly shaken by the presence of the police jeep. We didn’t change our speed. Slowly steadily we reached near the jeep.
On first look I realized it’s the circle inspector on the friend seat. I have seen him many times near our college and in the town. He’s a well built, heavy man with piercing eyes and a round face. Ribin was ok with his composure and I could barely see Leno. I had turbulence inside me as I donn’t have Icard. I thought in mind !!! Man this is goanna be a long night for us. We kept on moving as if we are not concerned about the police.
The CI asked us which a grunt voice “Where are u guys going?” I stooped beside the front window of the jeep “sir went for a second show”. CI “which Movie”
Me:“Sir Virumaandi”
CI: “Howz the movie”
Ribin” Its Ok sir, but too much of violence”
CI: “where u guys are staying”
Me: “In the YMCA hostel”
CI: “Which college “
Me “Our College name” (I don’t want to announce my college name here! It will a publicityfor our college ;) )
CI: “ U ppl come here to study or to see movies ? Ur parents sent u to get here , do ur course perfectly and get some job. Look at ur self! Right out in the night going for crap movies “

Me; “Sir it was one of my friends birthday, we don’t usually go for movies and all , just a celebration”
CI: “Ok ok go home …. Don’t get into my hands any more ok?”
Me: “ok sir”

We three started to walk towards the rear end of the jeep; suddenly one constable came out of the jeep and told us to get in. We were terrified for a moment! Then regaining my composure I asked him “ but CI said to go home”
Constable:” Is it so sir”
CI: “Leave them na …kids…just a celebration “
Leno was the guy nearest to him
Constable:” hey u there, come here”
Leno went near him
“Now blow out”
Leno tried doing it but...no air to come out …he tried hard but still the same.
He was gasping for air to blow out! But nothing came out

Ribin and I was struggling to keep our mouth from a bursting laugh. The police jeep went and we started towards the room. It took hardly two minutes to reach Leno's room.
On the way no one talked. Once we reached the room, three of us started to laugh. We laughed until we had stomach ache.