Recently I had a chance to see Cruise day in Hamburg port with my colleague....it was a lovely evening with lot of fireworks across the elbe river and huge picturesque ships cruising along the banks of Landungsbrucken....was definitely a lovely sight....Normally three important fireworks take place in Hamburg 1. Hafensgeburtstag (Harbour Birthday) 2. Cruise Day 3. New year eve. Hamburg is definitely a great city in Germany and has lot of things to offer for its inhabitants...I am quite lucky to live in Hamburg and definitely its my second home town.... :)
Recently I had a chance to see super star's recent kollywood film "Kuselan" in Hamburg. The movie was a total time pass with Rajini's heroics, Vadivel's comedy, Pasupathi's sentiment and Nayanthara's sexy hips :D The movie clearly had a message of valuing friendship at all times...nice picturesque shots in the western ghats...Now comes my real review...Rajini fans please avert from reading further on ;) Super star made everybody cry in the theatre except for non-Rajini fans....:D too much boasting about our super star which can happen only in tamil movies....but on the other hand ...kudos to our super star even at this age he looks so young and can dance with a heroine who is of her daughter's age...heheheee I somehow feel our super star has the magic of winning the heart of so many people with all his armery....for sure he is gifted in that aspect....only RAJINI MAGIC NO LOGIC :)
"You never know whats in store in life..." Yes, I never thought when I was in school that after ten years, two of my school friends would come for my M.S graduation ceremony in Germany....and they did...celebrated our joy and happiness in the North Eastern Baltic coastline, Rügen islands...In my opinion must see place in Germany...
Königstuhl:
First we went to Königstuhl, the word König means King and Stuhl is Chair...so in ancient times the one who climbed the cliff first gets the status of King...amazing top cliff which gives panaromic view of the baltic sea...lush green flora...and near to that Baltic sea..feast to the eyes...the weather wasn't good but still the place was amazing...could imagine how it would have been when sun was shining...Unfortunately we had to miss the colorful bikis ;) There is one national park named Jasmund....one of the naturally preserved areas...
Ostseebad, Binz:
Then we went to Ostseebad, Binz...great baltic coastline with small cliffs along the shore...reminds me of Goa beaches...thank god sun was shining here...had a relaxed time in the beach...All in all it was a great weekend with my school friends...laughed a lot after a very long time...cherished each and every moments...Thanks Naresh and Parthi for turning up for the occasion and making this trip memorable...
Master of Science in a foreign University was always my life-time dream and thanks to God for fulfilling this dream. It all started with the GRE, TOEFL, Statement of Purpose, Visa Interviews, Bank balance to reach Technical University Hamburg Harburg (TUHH), Germany to satiate my dream…to be honest and frank…I wasn’t satisfied with my technical learning which I obtained during my Master of Science due to many reasons but I am quite happy with the other important things which I have acquired during this span of two and half years and I thought I can list them down here…
1. Relationship, Love & Affection:
I realized the importance of relationship, love and affection with parents, friends and well-wishers which can never be compared with anything…by staying away from home 10,000 miles away it made me to recollect what these people back home have offered me in my life for 23 years…I really miss you amma…
2. Loneliness:
If at all one greatest challenge which I tackled in Germany, it is none other than loneliness…loneliness brings self-realization but it sucks big time…there were times when I got up in the morning no body to see…went and work…came back …no body to see...cooked something ate something…went to bed…was frustrated to the core but taught me many valuable things…
3. Attitude towards life, Globe trotting:
Thanks to my experiences here in Germany which has changed my overall attitude towards life…not getting bogged down with too many stupid superstitious, religious beliefs…I totally learned from westerners how to approach and lead a life especially with globe trotting and live for the present…. I am not a person who gets happiness by looking at my bank account and savings but gets happiness by exploring some different parts of the globe…Thanks to my fellow classmates who taught me this Vedanta…
4. Independence:
Right from the time you get up in the morning till you go to bed…it’s all your decision…nobody can have any influence apart from few non-senses ;)…I always felt one has to be independent in his/her decision making and my stay here has offered me the world of Independence to do what I love to do..
5. Face the challenges:
Right from the day I arrived here its all about dealing with many situations…different people, different language, different culture, different food habits, different climate, study cum work, home sick, there were times when all my friends were earning huge dollars and I was sitting in the research institute doing some scientific experiments facing the cranky Professor and I wasn’t sure what I was about to do next in my life...job hunting with so many rejections not because of nullification but because of language issues and strict visa regulations.. Life out here has taught me to deal with uncertainties, disappointments and face the worst..
6. International Exposure:
Had I continued working in Indian Software Industry, I should have traveled abroad, earned money everything fine…but I am sure I wouldn’t have got any international friends…my studies here gave a great chance to rub shoulders with different countrymen…. got to know the different cultures, their way of living, their attitude…gave me a great insight that world is not just our culture and there are different ways of leading a life…definitely made the frog to come out of the well…
7. Patriotism:
I hardly had any patriotism when I was in India except on Independence day when I used to carry the tricolor flag during the march past in schools…once I missed my home soil to the core ( the movies, the friends, the entertainment, the cricket, the Indian girls ;) then I became more patriotic…in fact this patriotism helped me to do well in my studies and other things…
8. Cooking:
Whether I become Master of Science or not, I have become Master of Cook…tried all possible dishes ultimately ended in me eating that and not others…;) Cooking is an art, a great hobby and I am sure I am gonna cook along with my wife…if she isn’t lazy…;)
9. Drinking Beer:
One great art which I learned from Germans, its none other than handling alcohol and beer…I truly cherished all my moments with them…it’s a special feeling to be in a state of half-drunk and I hardly go to a full state…Thanks to my 90 Kg fat body…;)
10. Importance of Vitamin “M”oney:
I hardly knew the value of Money when I was in India…I realized the significance of each and every penny which I spent here…. Thank God…I managed my entire stay and all my European Voyage by the part time programming and accommodation scholarship…
All in all, Germany gave me more than what I expected…I totally had a different opinion about Germans when I was in India but what I experienced with them here is simply amazing…What the world thinks about Germany is different and what I experienced here is different… I love Germans, I love Germany…Germany is neither hell nor heaven… J
The much awaited block buster kollywood movie from "ula nayagan" Kamal Haasan was released atlast...thanks to Ayangaran distributors who relased the movie in Hamburg, Germany...to say in one word the movie definitely didn't meet the great expectations which was portrayed before...but credit should go to the genius who acted in ten different roles...the screenplay was awesome, amazing graphic work..songs didn't turn out really great...but I always liked Kamal Haasan's movies who tries to give some message in each film....I get a feeling since he had to concentrate on ten different characters there wasn't a real punch in the story....
The story definitely touched different aspects of caste division in Indian society....first between Iyers and Iyengars...then between higher and lower caste....finally questions us....is god existing...I loved Kamal's last remark..."I never say god is not there....but I say it will be nice if he is there"... :) No doubt Kamal Haasan is a great revolutionary in the present times....no revolutionaries got recognition when they were living but the world recognized their thoughts when they weren't there...classical examples Subash Chandra Bose, Bharathiyar, Periyar and the list goes on....I really dream when a situation will come in India when we don't have a separate column for the caste in educational forms...well I don't see atleast for the next 100 years.... :(
Recently we had a class trip to Cuxhaven situated in the North Western coastline of Germany...the place Cuxhaven is unique for one thing, the North Sea recedes away completely around 20 kms..no water spread at a circumeference of 20 km for six hours and then completely filled with water for the next phase of the day....nature's wonder....it was nice walking with my classmates in the swampy ocean land with out any water...the weather stayed amazing...had a great barbeque..played beach volleyball, cricket, football along the shore...wonderful moments...A trip to remember!!
The sun was shining hard, the beaches were waiting for us and we didn’t go to Ibiza but to the Danish Coastline ;) Yes recently I included Denmark, the great Scandinavian country in my European Voyage, drove around 1100 kms in three days by car, explored the islands, country side of the great Scandinavian country Denmark with really great group who made the trip memorable and wonderful, Bernd Schmidt the German and my fellow countrymen Hemant, Vijay and Rushi.
We cruised along the west coast first with islands such as Roma, Esbjerg, played cricket for a while and taught Bernd some stuffs about Cricket he did certainly well and outplayed us ;) I must say the beaches in Denmark were very shallow, low tides, in my opinion they can’t be called as North sea instead they can be called as North Lake ;) The most important thing in our whole trip was the Barbeque. Thanks to Hemant and Bernd for the amazing preparations they made for the Barbeque. With sun shining really hard, amazing coastline, the sexy bikinis ;) to cook amidst all these things is a great experience. The wursts, the salads, the maizes, the sandwiches, the meat really great food…Bernd was very happy with the meat…Oh ya give to any German a beer, wurst, pommes and a piece of meat…then see their reaction….crazy meat-eaters ;) :D
Then came the important problem the place to sleep….we were searching along the coastline ultimately ended up in a farmland…thank god the owner wasn’t there ;) made our readymade tents and managed with our quilt and pillows…we didn’t have sufficient place inside the tent…but managed to squeeze inside it…pity that no girl was in our trip ;) Once we were bored with the beaches, then we drove to the country side Silkeborg and ultimately explored a great lake Ry on the way, the lake was electrifying with red, rose, green, black biki…when nature speaks one has to sit and listen…oh no I am talking about the picturesque lake ;)
Then we went to reach the highest point of Denmark Hillemsberg which was 175 m high above the sea level, good competition to Mt.Everest ;)…nevertheless this point provided a great panoramic view of the great landscape of Denmark….Once again a great barbeque next to the scenic lake with the sunset….amazing…thanks to the weather god once again…amazing weather all the three days…Then we went to east coast to explore the Baltic sea…but Baltic sea also disappointed with the tides, also have to renamed as Baltic lake I guess but didn’t disappoint us with the biki ;) me and Bernd bought the sun-glasses to be in the safer position ;) for cheap prices but the cover for those glasses must be really high..;) Denmark is really expensive when compared to other European countries...such a small country but their economy is damn good...
This trip was certainly different from rest of my European Voyage…traveling by car along with friends, making barbeque on the seashore, playing cricket on the beach sand, camping in an unknown place with the ready-made tents, I simply loved it…totally different from traveling by plane, train or bus and staying in hotel…Thanks to Bernd, Vijay, Hemant and Rushi for making this trip memorable one in my life….hey guys I didn’t disappoint you people as well I guess…definitely not…Jägermeister worked really well…;)
I loved the great Scandinavian country Denmark Tak (Thanks)!!
Recently I had a chance to do cycling in Hamburg for 20 KMs with my mentor and his friends (oldies ;) ...I have stayed in Hamburg for two years but didn't get a chance to explore the country side of Hamburg...the weather stayed fine and it was a great experience to do cycling in lush green meadows in the country side...after cycling followed by a great dinner at my mentor's place....with Bavarian wurst and the beer...lecker...;) I thoroughly enjoyed the day..Thanks once again to Merkel who had made my stay in Hamburg memorable!
Recently I had a chance to give a presentation "Rise of Indian Economy" - Die Indische Wirtschaft im Aufbruch at Rotary Club, Hamburg. The presentation was in German ;) Thanks to my mentor Mr. Merkel who gave me this opportunity to highlight the progress of Indian Economy. I always enjoyed giving a talk about India to the westerners simply because of the fact its a great challenge...I highlighted some statistical economic facts from various sources and ofcourse a movie to end with...Thanks to my friends Richa, Bernd Schmidt and also my mentor who helped me to translate the text from English to German, certainly not an easy task to do....My mentor gave me a gift "Die Schönsten Reiseziele Europas" --- "The great travelling guide for Europe"...A book which I will definitely use to the core ;) All in all I was satisfied with the talk and it was a great privilege for me to give a talk to the higher sections of the German society...Vielen Dank Herr Merkel!!
It was before 16 years when I was in 4th standard, when I got up at early morning to see the olympic inauguration ceremony in Barcelona, Spain where a person shooted an arrow from a long distance to the olympic torch at the top of the stadium to ignite the olympic torch...it was a dream come true to explore this place and include in my European Voyage...Barcelona one of the top class city I have visited in Europe...amazing architectural buildings, awesome beaches, small little mountains and importantly sexy spanish babes ;)
It was a great group who can make any trip enjoyable, Andreas the American, Juan the mexican and my good friend Veera....we took the bus top tour which covered the important places...the whole city is built by Gaudi...the name which I heard everywhere in Barcelona ;) Museo Picasso, Olympic stadium, FC Barcelona football stadium, Parc Guell, Passeig de gracia are some of the important places worth visiting...The beaches in Barcelona were awesome...with amazing tall sky scrappers, palm trees near the shore...the city looked grand and one of the most expensive cities in Europe...Parc Guell is about 500 m high gives a lovely panaromic view of the city and there is cable car which takes to the top of other mountain where one can get lovely view of the whole city of Barcelona....any cable car ride in Europe is awesome...If anybody wants to know the night and western life, Barcelona is the right place...tonnes of dance floors...the youth hostel which we stayed was amazing...one of the best youth hostel I have ever stayed...the weather stayed really fine...Barcelona has got amazing climate stays warm throughtout the year not as cold as northern Europe....it was warm and sunny all along...
Barcelona Beach:
The beach which we went was really nice, the sun was shining, we started to drink Jägermeister as soon as we entered the beach and it really worked ;)..there were two spanish girls who were playing beach volleyball invited us to play beach volley ball ;) we managed to hang around with them by speaking few spanish words Por favor, Gracias ;) long stretching coastline, amazing weather, Jägermeister, Spanish girls, beach volley ball...couldnt have asked for more... ;) All in all it was a great wonderful trip which will reside in my memory forever...Thanks to Andreas Jägermeister master ;) who made the trip lively and awesome...While returning back we travelled by car from Lübeck airport to Hamburg...was skeptical about Andreas's ability to drive the car after Jägermeister..but he did exceedingly well by driving at 200 Kmph ;) Barcelona definitely the city to be visited in Europe
Recently I included East European countries in my European Voyage...Hungary, Slovakia and Austria. Thanks once again to Ryan air which provided cheap tickets to Bratislava, Slovakia. The weather stayed great and more importantly all the members of the group were in sync, in the end turned out really well and we thoroughly enjoyed every moments!
Bratislava, Slovakia:
If Ryanair didn't operate service to this place, nobody would care to see this place...;) But thanks to geographical location of Bratislava...Vienna is one hour and Budapest is three hours from it...Bratislava, the capital of newly formed Slovakia situated on the banks of Danube river is the only national capital that borders two other countries (Austria and Hungary)...They use Slovakian Croners...initially thought we would be rich guys with our euros...but not much of a difference in the expenses...nothing much to see in Bratislava except for the Bratislava Castle which is worth seeing..gives panaromic view of the whole city...had a great time walking across the town and ofcourse night life !!
Budapest, Hungary:
Budapest is three hours travel by train from Bratislava and one of the scenic cities in eastern Europe....the frustrating part in Budapest was the currency..they use Hungarian Forint..the denomination starts with 100 and one burger would costs 1000...heheheee I guess everybody would earn millions of Forint every month to lead a life there...I dont see the point of having larger denomination may be just to give a feeling to their people they earn really high amount..but the actual value isnt to be....;) the most striking feature in the city is the Parliament house situated across the river Danube...Buda castle, Szechenyi chain bridge, Fisherman's bastion, the great synagogue are worth visiting...Thanks to weather....it was sunny all along the day...people hardly speak English...Budapest didn't fascinate me much, but worth visiting once on a sunny day!!
Vienna, Austria: Vienna (Wien), the capital of Austria is a city of architectural buildings, culture, music, theater and opera...quite similar to Munich but supercedes Munich with gigantic buildings...they speak a dilect of German...which is quite different from Germans and Switzerlanders...Schönbrunn Palace, Kunsthistoricsches Museum, Naturhistorisches Museum, Karlsplatz, Austrian Parliament, Stephans dom, Rathaus are worth visiting....we didn't have enough time to explore Vienna to the core but covered the most important places...
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this trip, three countries in three days with cheap prices, three different currencies and more importantly we had a group of 8 people who can make any trip interesting ;) Thanks to weather god..she stayed fine all three days...in any European voyage if weather stays fine...50% of the trip is successful....A trip to remember!
At the stroke of midnight, when I was gazing at the stars from my window, I just looked at my life path right from my childhood till this 25 years...then my heart said....Life is definitely a roller coaster....some really great moments...some really bad disappointments and depression....Its quite obvious that even Bill Gates and Steve Jobs had ups and downs in their lives...No individual can say they just had great moments and no disappointments...if anybody says so...I would like to meet them....:D Just thought I can narrate some of my ups and downs which I experienced in this 25 years span of time....
It all started when I wrote my 12th standard board exam with the ambition of being an engineer or doctor...fortunately ended up with both the seats...certainly a moment which I cherished for some days...but unfortunately created all sort of confusion in my fickle mind and ultimately ended up in fiasco in choosing one...nevertheless I will never regret my decision now....certainly a good start to my rollercoaster ride at the age of 17....
Nothing great happened in College in the first three years to experience the ups and downs....then came the greatest disappointment in the final year...when I couldnt apply to the US universities with my stupid GRE scores...but soon complemented by one of the finest memories....my first job in HCL Technologies through campus interview....just enjoyed to the core in the final year of my college by basking on the future job....just thought....life is settled...
But soon I realized actual life started once I started to work in the amidst of the great bug fixers of HCL CISCO....then I could experience downward slope of my roller coaster ride....simply because nothing turned out well in my first job....but let me accept the fact that my attitude wasn't right at that moment to cope up with the pace of sprinters... after some time, the roller coaster ride took me to the upward slope.....job in Cognizant...to be honest...the upward slope of this ride was amazing....good friends....cute-looking girls ;)...decent work....but when I was travelling at the top of this upward slope...I saw another big slope which was far away from this ride....Masters in Germany...I was always skeptical about that ride because it appeared to me really costly and also risky....but then I realized to experience some pleasures....there should always be an element of risk....no pain no gain...so went for the costly and risky ride....Masters in Germany...
To be honest, the starting of this risky ride was awesome...my first great experience in abroad...everything appeared amazing...then slowly the ride went to the downward slope....with hunger, loneliness, homesick, cultural differences, language problem, financials, study cum work...but after sometime...the ride went on at even level for considerable amount of time...and suddenly it started to climb a bit...MBA admission with scholarship and my attitude of globetrotting exploring wonderful places on earth...definitely cherished the upward slope....this upward slope really showed the other side of life with western thinking and great scholars to rub shoulders with...I truely enjoyed this ride....
Definitely a ride with great upward slope should have an equivalent downward slope...and this slope came in the form of my Master Thesis at Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Berlin supposed to be Europe's greatest research institute...if at all I want to forget some moments of my life...it should be none other than my time in Berlin...the topic, the supervisors, the Professor, the job hunting, the loneliness and the depression....searched for some rescuers to help me during that fall of this ride....ultimately ended with only my two souls mom and dad....who helped me to survive that dangerous ride...
Thank god, that ride didn't pull me out, fortunately I reached safely on the ground with some minor injuries....and when I overlook the future rides, it gives me a glance of upward slope, my next job in Germany and I am pretty sure that upward slope will definitely have a downward slope after sometime...and life goes on like this....I should say I thoroughly enjoyed all of my rollercoaster rides....Life has to be that way....otherwise life becomes monotonous....life becomes boring...the taste of success depends on the extent of the defeat....Its very difficult to have a flat ride...because human mind is always demanding...but when one acheives the flat ride thats a clear indication of attaining peace. I am sure everyone reading this article had their rollercoaster rides....ofcourse Life is indeed a rollercoaster, isn't it....:)
Recently I had a chance to go to Berlin with my classmates just for partying. It was a nice group and a great combination: Andreas the American, Jan Oliver the German, Juan the Mexican, Christoph the Polish. Andreas drove the car, thank god he didnt get drunk while he was driving ;) It was a crazy night, we drank like anything, Jägermeister worked a lot :D and roaming in the streets of Berlin. By the time we went to disco we were all drunk. They didnt allow us to enter in to disco and asked to say the tongue twisters " She sells seashells on the sea shore" hehehee....Thank god we managed to say and entered the dance floor...All in all a great trip....I loved it after the stressful exams :)
Recently I had one of the best course of my MBA studies, Business Planning. The idea of this course is to develop a new product idea, project the budget, profit, cashflows for the overall Business, decide the various marketing strategies and the overall organisation of the Business. Our group introduced the idea of starting the heating system well in advance by sending a simple SMS. It takes considerable amount of time for the heating to take in to effect without automatic heating system. Our product gives the flexibility to start the heating system well in advance so that when the user enters the car its warm and comfortable. We have a microcontroller which gets interfaced with the heating system in the car and GSM receiver is placed inside the mircocontroller to receive the SMS. Of course this product can be replicated to start the ACs in the car in hot countries. I simply loved the task of writing a Business Plan for this product with all the financial calculations. After this course I realized and smelled the idea of starting a Business at some point of time. Great course!!
Recently I had one of the best classes in my MBA...Strategy.....conducted by Prof. Carl Joachim Kock from IE Business School, Madrid, Spain...ranked number 8 throught out the world in Business schools...Prof. Kock, M.S and Ph.d from Wharton Business School, Univerisity of Pennsylvania, USA was undoubtedly one of the greatest speakers I have come acros...there were very few Professors who were gifted to make the class lively through out the session....Kock is a gifted speaker....explaining, dwelling, thrashing, dashing the Harvard case studies literally in to pieces....;) I really admire his way of explaning the things....making the concepts of Strategy crystal clear...Its a privilege to attend his class...Thanks to NIT who invited Prof. Kock to give the classes for Strategy...Hats off to Kock!
My Master Thesis at Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications gave me a great insight about what research is....at the end of the day I can conclude that I am not good enough for research hehheeeee....Research has its own merits and demerits...
1. Research needs lot of patience...patience to the core.....i am a guy who wants a child after six months of marriage ;) so the word patience is too far for me...
2. Research needs lots and lots of passion, vigor, love for the topic, self-motivation, dedication and most important thing is one shouldn't look for money in research....
3. Research needs very good supervisors...very good motivators...because nobody knows the path its all about trying all possible combinations and finally concluding the result....
But on the otherhand, Research is the place where one has absolute amount of freedom in the work....which one cannot expect in the company....all our thoughts and ideas can be putforth, tested, implemented....the amount of joy one gets when it has been recognized at the highest level with the publications....I definitely would love to do more research in the later part of my career but now I feel i am too far for research....:)
There are some moments which one cherishes in their life....and definitely for me defending a Master Thesis under a German Physicist in the field of Switching technology was definitely cherishing moments...started off nervously for the first few slides then I took the control of the presentation by looking at my friend's face who came for the presentation....I was really surprised with the way Professor questioned me.....he was very polite....professional....calm...composed....when compared to the mid term presentation where he bullied me to the core...just gave a feeling he touched my personal space beyond Science and Technology in the mid term reviews....
Its a great sense of relief now because it was really hard for the past six months with nothing going on my way...with the simulations, with the supervisors, with the Professors, with the job hunting along with the lonely life in Berlin....Oh god, no body should face such a situation....its hard to put in to words with the kind of depression and mental torture I faced in the last six months....two souls who supported me during this tough time my mom and dad....its their blessings and wishes which made me to survive in the last six months...I just pray to get back my peace which I lost in the last year....Life is a rollercoaster....:)
"Action speak better than words"....thats what Indian cricketers have done in the Perth test against the Aussies...what a way to reply to Aussies after the Sydney test where the spirit of their game was questioned and the victory which has stopped them from creating a world record of 17th consecutive test victories...no one gave India a chance....Perth was Australia's backyard....to pull out a victory against the world champions in their soil that too in Perth is simply special....there were many overseas test victory offlate for Indian team but this victory will be written in record books in the history of Indian cricket and will reside in my memory for many more years to come.....
Recently Czech Republic was included in the Schengen states...so I included Prague, the capital city of Czech Republic in my European Voyage for my christmas holidays with my good friend Sohel...I liked Prague for mainly two reasons....first it was totally different from Germany ;).. secondly for the architectural buildings...it was freezing with temperature hovering around -5 °c through out the trip...Prague situated on the river Vltava surrounded by small mountains has beautiful castles and bridges...the most striking feature in the city are the architectural scenic buildings....the small Eiffel tower in Prague gives the panaromic view of the city...St.Nicolas Church, Old Town Square, St. Vitus Cathedral were worth visiting...they dont use Euros and they have their own currency Czech Kroners...with lot of Exchanges situated in the whole city offering poor rates and the brokers coming in to picture offering some good rates ;)...but the expenses were similar to Germany not a big difference...On the whole an interesting trip with many funny incidents...;)
If at all one year which I want to forget in my life, it will be none other than 2007, had disappointments and failures through out the year and the amount of happiness which I got in this year was very minimal.....Anyway it was a year which taught me many things and I hope I come out of this rough patch soon!
January: Just finished my Project work for my MS and spent most of the time for the report writing, some classes in MBA and the part time job.
February: Took part in the Case Challenge in Leipzig Graduate School of Management, it was a lovely experience to get to know the real insight of management case challenges. Went to south Germany for skiing...really tough sport for a fat guy...with some interesting stories happened during that trip...it was a lovely experience...
March: March was fully occupied with the spring school for my MBA....had interesting lectures from Profs around the world...in the topics of Product Development, Supply Chain Management etc...had a chance to go to CEBIT, Hannover...it was a huge industrial exhibition which I have ever seen...
April: Went to Stockholm, a nice European city....with the date comedy...went to catch the bus before one day....:)))).... Went to India with out informing my parents to give them a big shock....lovely moments...still resides in my eyes when I met my mom after a gap of 19 months....Chennai heat was scorching me....ate nice indian food...met all the well wishers....and increased my weight by 10 kgs ;)
May: Returned from India with lots of energy but to hear the sad news of my application not selected in the H1b lottery....it very badly hurted me.....since I was banking on that for long time... Continued with my European Voyage to Netherlands....lovely small country....visited Amsterdam...the sex capital of Europe....the country side of Netherlands were awesome...especially the tulip gardens.....
June: Was about to start my thesis in Lufthansa Systems....another sad news....my supervisor changed to another department so my thesis got cancelled in Lufthansa Systems....another disappointment adding to my H1b news.... went to Puttgarden...island in North Germany....had a wonderful time with my MBA classmates....with some interesting incidents.... ;)
July: Had a wonderful send off party in my part time programming job....felt really sad when I left the job just because that job provided me everything....great boss and colleagues to work with...interesting work....good decent salary for a part time student....Finished with my MBA exams and headed to Berlin for my Master Thesis....
Aug: Totally new life....new work...new city...new people.....I felt really lonely in Berlin after a wonderful time in Hamburg....made some nice friends afterwards....a holland girl named Coreline gave me a good company in the beginning of my stay in Berlin....she definitely helped me to forget all the stress I had in my intial part of my thesis....
Sep: Was approaching quarter century of my life.....was thinking to do something memorable....went to Switzerland to celebrate my 25th anniversary....the trip which would stay in my memory through out my life....simply no words to explain.....thanks to my MBA classmate Andreas who provided me the accomodation and motivation to visit Switzerland....
Oct: Went to Brussels, Belgium and also to the coastal side of Belgium....it was a nice trip with my senior Sanket....a happy news to cherish in october... I was ranked 3rd in my MBA and received the study award 2007...it was a award which I cherished just because the class is international.... Went to Dresden with Coreline.... a nice city to explore for one day....
Nov: One of the horrible experience with my Professor during my mid-term presentation....I will never forget this in my life....the embarassment which I got during this presentation.....nothing seems to be going well for my Thesis....with the topic...with the supervisors...with the Professors...with the simulation....just counting the days to finish it off...
Dec: With lot of rejections for my job search in Germany....attending interviews through out Germany....with horrible time with thesis and report writing....I am praying to finish this year soon!
If I look at 2007....many things happened....lots of trips....lots of fun....lots of disappointments...lots of failures....all in all a mixed experience....I hope 2008 gives me some sense of relief and peace which I am looking for....want to defend my thesis with the great Prof. Killat...want to finish off my MBA....get a job in Germany.....and more importantly....I am seriously looking to search my girl.....;)
Recently I included Munich (München auf Deutsch) in my European voyage. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, Berlin being the first, Hamburg the second and Munich comes third. Its the captical city for the state of Bavaria. Munich has architectural buildings, amazing transportation and I could see the Bavarian culture in Munich...the moment I say Bavarian culture what comes to my mind is Wurst, Pommes, Beer, Skiing and the big stomached old people...heheheee. Marian Platz, Deutsches Museum, Nymphenburg Castle, Olympia park are some of the places worth visiting...The city has to be visited during octoberfest....unfortunately I visited in a wrong time where the weather stayed really bad....it was freezing....covered by mist and I couldnt see the streets properly...if weather stays good in any European voyage...ordinary girl will become gorgeous...if the weather is bad, even the beautiful girl will look pretty ordinary....heheheeeee. Munich definitely not comparable to Zurich! ;)
The festival which brings smile, joy, happiness for every Indian is none other than Diwali.....the festival which can never be matched with any other Indian festivals...I still remember my childhood days when I start counting the days in my calendar before one month for the grand day...getting up early morning, taking oil bath, wearing new clothes, bursting crackers in competition with neighbours ;) grand sweets prepared by mom and not to forget the special programmes where the heroines come with traditional sarees for their interviews...(god knows where those tradition goes when they dance in romantic song with heroes...heheheeee), get together with friends, going to cinema theatres, standing in a big queue to get the ticket for the newly released Deepavali movie...Oh Boy, I miss those moments....its third successive Diwali which I am missing and makes me feel really sad...I sometimes ask myself what life I am leading here....and my heart replied, "well, thats abroad life Sathish :( "
Whenever I travel in Metro trains, I find the Germans playing this 9*9 matrix number game. I asked them what it is they said to me its called "Sudoku". Unfortunately I didnt bother to learn or play this game. The reason why I say its unfortunate is, I was not asked in an interview to solve this puzzle but instead propose an algorithm for solving Sudoku and implement in JAVA hehehe....Boom....I was given the laptop and Eclipse IDE. It took me one hour to solve the puzzle manually since I was playing for the first time. Then I started to code and try to implement some logics but unfortunately couldnt end up implementing 100%. My dear fellow computer science engineers and programmers, give a food for your brain! One thing which I missed during coding is to remember two important concepts for implementing this, Recursion and Backtracking!
Recently I read a beautiful philosophy from one of my friend's orkut profile...thought I can publish it here ...Here it goes....
Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind…the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself. Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how. Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements. Stretch; Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life…the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t. Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone. Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children,maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary…what ever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s. Do not read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly. Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future. Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young
Recently I was invited by my best German friend Micheal Kitzelmann for a dinner when I went to Hamburg. Its always nice to hang around with this guy just because of the fact he is a lovely person. When we were having our dinner and drinking, other Germans asked me how do you say cheers in your language…I just thought for a moment and said…we say cheers….they replied…no that's English…and asked again whats cheers in Indian languages…then I convinced myself there exists no word equivalent to cheers…definitely drinking is considered as a taboo in Indian society and admitted to them there is no equivalent word to cheers in Indian languages. Then they decided to coin a new word equivalent to cheers in English, Prost in German. The new word is "Abruncha"…..so my dear fellow Indians, if any westerner asks you the equivalent word of cheers…please remember "Abruncha" heheheeeee J
In the midst of all depressions, disappointments and tough times, one happy news came for me, I was ranked 3rd in my MBA class and I received the Top Study Award for the year 2007. It's a good feeling just because of the fact that the class is international where the students come from US, Germany, China, Russia, India and other European countries and everybody trying to prove their supremacy.. I didn't receive much success in my Master of Science as MBA but I always knew that I can do the blah blah things better than the technical things…nevertheless, my heart still stays for technical things…;) I should be honest to say that MBA exams were far below in standards than the examinations we have in India….who cares…at the end of the day a cash prize of 200 euros…you could have guessed what I am gonna do with that prize money...another city in my European Voyage….;)
Recently I included eastern city of Germany, Dresden in my European Voyage...In my opinion, Dresden is definitely different from rest of the German cities...most of the German cities more or less looks similar....Rathaus, Bahnhof, TV tower, Tram running across the city....but Dresden was totally different from other German cities....thrashed in the second world war...Dresden was built completely new and named Neustadt....but the altstadt(old city) was simply amazing...old picturesque architectural buildings with elbe river flowing across those maginificient old buildings...Dresden, the capital of saxony...I could see east European culture in Dresden...quite different from west Germany.....the weather stayed absolutely fine....and it was sunny all along...A day to remember!
World is a global village....World has shrinked a lot...World has become small.... all these statements are true because of one great internet application ORKUT ;). Million dollar thanks to the Standford University Phd guy Orkut Buyukkokten from Turkey who has done a remarkable job in this century...He has united people from different corners of the world...brought people under one umbrella...I got all my school, college and corporate friends from wherever I left...Could you believe...I talked with my 10th standard crush girl yesterday;) ...its all because of this great internet application....I am so addicted to this site where I couldnt resist myself of not logging everyday...Yes ofcourse for a person living in Devil's workshop, Ghost native (Germany), Orkut is definitely the best place for keeping in touch with all the friends in different corners of the world....Hats off to great Orkut Buyukkokten!!
Mitfahr is an excellant concept and cheapest means of transportation between the cities in Germany...The person who owns the car when he is travelling from one city to another city advertises in the website mitfahrgelegenheit.de, the other travellers who wish to travel in the same day just contacts the person who is willing to accompany and travels with him/her...Its a dual benefit concept where the owner of the car gets his share of fuel cost from other travellers and for the mitfahrers(travellers), its definitely the cheapest means of transport when compared to air, buses and trains...I loved travelling in mitfahr a number of times between Berlin and Hamburg and had a chance to meet really nice people...I am not sure whether this concept can be implemented in India...If you ask me...I wouldnt do it in India...because I am not sure whether I will safely reach the destination....;)
Recently I had a chance to see Cruise day in Hamburg port with my colleague....it was a lovely evening with lot of fireworks across the elbe river and huge picturesque ships cruising along the banks of Landungsbrucken....was definitely a lovely sight....Normally three important fireworks take place in Hamburg 1. Hafensgeburtstag (Harbour Birthday) 2. Cruise Day 3. New year eve. Hamburg is definitely a great city in Germany and has lot of things to offer for its inhabitants...I am quite lucky to live in Hamburg and definitely its my second home town.... :)
Recently Czech Republic was included in the Schengen states...so I included Prague, the capital city of Czech Republic in my European Voyage for my christmas holidays with my good friend Sohel...I liked Prague for mainly two reasons....first it was totally different from Germany ;).. secondly for the architectural buildings...it was freezing with temperature hovering around -5 °c through out the trip...Prague situated on the river Vltava surrounded by small mountains has beautiful castles and bridges...the most striking feature in the city are the architectural scenic buildings....the small Eiffel tower in Prague gives the panaromic view of the city...St.Nicolas Church, Old Town Square, St. Vitus Cathedral were worth visiting...they dont use Euros and they have their own currency Czech Kroners...with lot of Exchanges situated in the whole city offering poor rates and the brokers coming in to picture offering some good rates ;)...but the expenses were similar to Germany not a big difference...On the whole an interesting trip with many funny incidents...;)
