It was time well spent with Bro-in-Law at Vegas!!! Thanks a lot Siva for travelling all the way!!! Let’s plan some more fun in India!!!
Category: Personal
My Home Garden!!! Ready for Harvest!!!!
My home garden is getting close to harvest. Thought I’d not be in town during harvest and opportunity to taste the harvest.
It is a feel good moment to see this happen. Thanks to Yamuna for sending across the pics. You have made my day.
Too much caution!! Leads to disaster!!!!
Finished my first hop of my itinerary at SFO and next hop is to Vegas!!! There are no compliant as it has a business meeting with some fun..
My flight to Vegas was by 10.40 AM and should have been fine if I was at the airport by 8 AM. NOT to take any chance, I wrapped up my day early yesterday and crashed early!!
In the morning I got up by 3.15 AM and was ready by 4 AM. I CHECKED OUT and reached Bart Station by 4.30 AM only to find it to be closed.
First train from Daly City Bart Station to airport was by 6.53 AM and I had good two and half hours for the train.
Situation 1: There we’re bunch of homeless sleeping and one guy was shouting on me.
Not, knowing what to do was thinking crazy things if I’ve to walk or take an Uber!! I signed up for Uber, but it couldn’t go thru with my Indian Credit Card!!
Next, thought of walking!! But it was a three hour walk early in the morning!!! I decided to drop this option too!!
Situation 2: It was 4.30AM and it was too cold for me to be on the road!! Look at the weather at 6AM!! 
Coming from India, this is something untolorable!!
Finally, without much options I crossed the road and got settled in a neighborhood which was silent and without any risk!!!
Whiled away on the streets for two hours until the station was opened!! Until entering the the airport it was freezing to core.
But I love this experience as breaking the barriers makes us strong. Overall it has become one of the days to remember in my life!!
Had Lunch at YouTube Cafeteria!! Thank You Arvind!!!
Must thank, Arvind for taking me for lunch at YouTube!!! Yes today, had been to YouTube on a guest visit!!!
It has been time well spent!!! We have to spend more time next month!!! Alsl, would love to take a tour of Google, your rally and continuation of the topics we discussed!!
Also!! I really loved your toy!!!
Starting the day at Starbucks
Starting he day at Starbucks!!! This will be my virtual office for the day!!
First Pongal Celebration at New Home!!
This is the first Pongal in our new Home!! I’m out of country and it’s all single handily done by Yamuna!!!
Missing the sweetness of Pongal and Home!!
Bites of Pre 1990’s Kids
These are bits of pre 1990’s school kids!! These items are mostly sold by granny’s on a plate or on a handcart near the school entrance!!
Also, available with small petty shops!! There native bits lost patronage during the late 90’s as kids & parents considered them unhygienic and not so fashionable to eat them!!
Yesterday I was thrilled to see this in a Start Hotel’s buffet menu!! These were the first items I picked as it gets me lots of nostalgic memories!!
Items on the plate are;
- Honey Candy(தேன் மிட்டாய்)
- Sesame Burfi(எள்ளு மிட்டாய்)
- Peanut Burfi(கடல மிட்டாய்)
- Athirasam(அதிரசம்)
Pathetic state of Indian Customer Support Executives
Went to a nearby Vodafone store at Madurai to Enquire about roaming tariff and plans for a month.
Pathetic thing is the Customer Support Executive was not aware of the plans and packages. With the help of the store manager he got be a leaflet which had the plans.
The manager was very pessimistic to enable the plan and he advised the executive to take a written declaration for enabling the plan.
I agreed and started writing the declaration and by the time there was to & foe discussion between the executives. An executive sitting on the next counter confused with a plan which was not existing.
Finally the guy assisting me got scared and asked me to do it in Chennai.
I was worried about the pathetic state of support and knowledge of support executives even with private institutions.
They lack information, intention to assist and they are indecisive. Thought I lost time, I was at least happy that he didn’t screw up.
The the same day I checked at Vodafone website and within a minute I enabled the plan. It was self explanatory and DIY method. Enabled my plan in 3 easy steps.
I see really a sad future for these (un)professionals as they are becoming redundant as machines and technologies are going to take their positions.
Looking for canvas painters!!
Planning to do a canvas painting of this picture!!! Planning to hang it in my bedroom!!
Any reference would be appreciated!!!
Week Markers around Tier 2 & 3 Cities!!!
Since, Yamuna joined me in Madurai we started buying Vegetables from weekly street market.
For a house of 3, it costs us less than ₹200 a week. We tried buying the same quantity of vegetables in a supermarket and it cost us ₹600.
Normally we shop at Bypass Road market and we have shops put in the entrance of supermarket. Once we got 3 lemons for ₹5 from a lady who was selling in the entrance of Nilgiris Supermarket. Out of curiosity I checked for the price of lemon at Nilgiris and the cost was ₹5 per lemon.
Usually these markets are set by nearby villagers who come to Madurai to sell their produce. Mostly they were organic, but over the time people have started buying from wholesale market and sell in these markets.
This is one sad aspect, but otherwise I prefer these markets because;
- They are economical.
- They provide livelihood for underprivileged.
- Though it is less organic these days, they are fresh.
- Also it gives me an opportunity to stay connected with all stature of the society.
AnandNataraj 