Carassauga

The festival of culture celebrated in Canada. All over mississauga, various countries setup their pavilion and display their culture thru songs/dance/food/jewelery/fashion shows, etc. We were lucky to see so many cultures in 3 days. Ranging from the Calypso, Reggae of Carribean to the Belly Dances of Egypt and Cyprus, from Magic shows of Italy to Kung-Fu of China, Wild dances of Hawaii to Sweet dances of Poland, Indian Bharatnatyam to Pakistani Fashion show...watching all this was an unforgettable experience.

TDC Goes Traditional

An excellent writeup by Surma on the Ethnic Day celebrated at TDC:

TDC goes Traditional !!

Toronto Development Center (aka TDC) has always been a fun place to work in, a cordial happy atmosphere that inspires professionalism and innovation. So when an e-mail titled “Ethnic Wear Day at TDC” floated into our mailboxes, it resulted in the normal buzz of excitement and speculation.

With a multicultural population ranging from Indians to Japanese to Russians and of course Canadians, this was destined to be a colorful event! For days discussions centered around clothes – a rare occurrence in the male-dominated TDC atmosphere! The air was charged with plans and guesses and finally…… who would win the Mr./ Ms Picture Perfect(to be awarded to the best dressed associate)!

30^th April 2008 – officially Ethnic Wear Day at TDC – dawned bright and shining. The cheerful sky was a sure sign of fun things to come! As the minutes ticked by, the cubicles gradually filled up with color and innovation. Every person was at his ethnic best – each individual mirroring his culture and tradition! Yours truly decided to step into the sidelines and play a true reporter! So here goes the report on Who walked the Red Carpet! And How!

Sailendra Kagolanu : In his starched white Vesti and dazzling Angavastram he was the perfect picture of South Indian superstar RajaniKanth! All that was missing was the superhero’s trademark dark glasses. Even that was taken care of by his style and presence!

Keren Bandner : Our favorite HR Keren was at her stylish best! In her inimitable fashion she was garbed in the Montreal Canadian jersey. That’s what we call a true Canadian to the core!!

Premjith PuthenVeetil : Trust this ever smiling person to pull that magic rabbit out of thin air! In his cream silk shirt and white Mundu he was Picture Perfect. And that is what the votes said as our TDC unanimously handed him the Best Dressed award! And true to his fun loving nature he graced the occasion with a fine catwalk!

Alex Korobchevsky/ Timothy Sung-To Li/ Allen Ko : Gave us wonderful glimpses of Russian and Chinese traditional wear.

Ankush Agarwal/ Grover Ankur / Sachin Gupte : This enthusiastic trio in starched white Kurtas sure stole the show! Ankur especially was seen strutting about in true Politician style.

Tejas Badani : In a blue kurta Tejas could be seen (and heard) campaigning really hard for the Picture Perfect award! With his every ready smile and fun loving nature he sure added a spark to the day!

James Cruz/ Muthukumar Muthukaruppan/ Sateesh Nandula/ Siva Pondugula : They are what we call in TDC as Brand South India! This group of young men came perfectly clad in stached white Dhotis and kurtas. They were fun and excitement personified!

Tyash Ghosh/ Amit Jagdish/ Khalil Khokhar : If you thought they were more Canadian than Indian… rethink! Tyash was the perfect Bengali Babu and Amit grabbed the limelight with his elegant white attire! Khalil was awesome in traditional Black!

Vernon Pereira /Surya Vivek Prakash : With their Canadianzed Indian attires these boys just managed to tread the Thin Red Line, but the precious gifts of smile and fun they brought to the party was much appreciated! Vernon is of course our eternal Cool Dude and Vivek manages to dazzle all with his Harsha Bhogle style commentaries!

And, not to forget the ladies, that is yours truly and Revathy Venugopal : We played safe with the evergreen traditional sari and salwar suit !

The day brought moments of good fun and entertainment! The photo sessions were great and the cake cutting that followed was awesome! All associates in ethnic wear were give chocolates! And a round of applause is certainly due to our photographers Nipun and Muthu!

In a world of fast food and faster lives, the Ethnic wear day was like a breath of Fresh air. It gave us a rare opportunity to take a step back and delve into our roots. That is how I shall always remember Ethnic wear Day at TDC – a day where I found a piece of Motherland in a wonderful land thousands of miles away from Home! A true Homecoming in every sense!

न्यू यॉर्क की यात्रा

न जाने कितने दिन/महीनों से इंतज़ार था उस जगह को देखने का, जहाँ जाने के लिए दुनिया बेताब रहती है। लेकिन शुरुआत से ही, नक्षत्र ख़राब चल रहे थे। सोचा था कि ६ april को ही पहुँच कर एक दिन घूम कर और थोड़ा आराम-वाराम करके फिर अगले दिन से ऑफिस पहुंचेंगे, लेकिन कुछ confusion के कारण टिकेट ही ७ april का मिला।

उसके बाद चक्कर शुरू हुआ, immigration/custom/border-security का। एहसास हुआ, कि जितने किस्से सुने थे, इनके खडूस होने का, और रंगभेद का, वो काफ़ी सच थे। पहली बार किसी देश के officers को इतना rude और mannerless पाया। शायद चेहरे पर मुस्कान आने पर उनके ज्यादा tax कटते होंगे। एक officer के साथ हुई मेरी बातचीत का एक अंश प्रस्तुत है:
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officer: you are going on B1/B2 visa. Do you know, what this is meant for?
बेचारा: yes..this is for pleasure/business trip.
officer: No..this just entitles you to talk to me. You are not allowed to go there for consultation. You are taking the job away from an american citizen.
बेचारा (सोच में): ओह! तो वो web-site में सारी info हमें April-fool बनाने के लिए लिखी थी बुश भइया ने। ये १० साल का "multiple-entry" business visa, तो सिर्फ़ इससे बात करने का लगता है।
बेचारा (कुछ मुखर हुआ): so?
officer: so..you tell me!
बेचारा (फिर से विचारों की दुनिया में): वाह! अगर मैंने इसको बोला कि चलो रहने दो छोड़ो जाने दो यार, तो ये यूं ही मान जाएगा।
officer: where are you going to?
बेचारा (अब तो ये सिर्फ़ सोच ही सकता है..बोलने का हक तो सिर्फ़ सामने वाले के पास है): लगता है, इस US-visa से होनोलूलू और timbuctoo भी जा सकते हैं।
बेचारा (आखिरकार कुछ बोला): New York
officer: who do you work for?
बेचारा: i am an employee of Tata Consultancy Services, currently working for Morgan-Stanley.
officer: give me straight answers. who do you work for?
बेचारा (अब फिर खामोश रहकर विचार-मंथन की घड़ी है): hmmm. who do i work for? i provide consultancy to Morgan-Stanley (MS),..hence I work for them...but wait...i get paid by TCS, so why do i work for MS? that doesn't sounds correct..means, I DO work for TCS...
बेचारा: TCS
officer: then why are you going to MS?
बेचारा(सोच कुछ): good question. ये तो मैंने सोचा ही नहीं। अबकी बार..कुछ भी नहीं बोलूँगा..कुछ नहीं बोलने पर ये अपने आप timeout होकर next question पर खिसक जाता है।
officer: where is the actual work done?
बेचारा (खुश हो जा बच्चे ..वो वाकई timeout हो गया): Our team is at India, Canada and US.
officer (थोड़ा गुस्से में): Where .Is. the ACTUAL. Work. Done?
बेचारा(खुशी वापस। जुबान खोलने को किसने कहा था? ३-३ countries में टीम। उसकी क्या गलती confuse हो गया तो?): Canada and US।
officer: look don't mess with me. if you mess with me, i will throw you out. Now I am asking you the last time. WHERE.IS.THE.ACTUAL.WORK.DONE?
बेचारा(अबे तुझे क्या पड़ी है उसे IT industry समझाने की? तू ये सोच): अब समझ में आया कि IT कि सारी jobs US/UK से india क्यों भेजी जाती हैं।
बेचारा (वो बोल जो उसकी समझ में आए..एक जगह ): New York
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और इस प्रकार मिली उस बेचारे को border cross करने की अनुमति.

फिर भी काफ़ी उम्मीदें लिए पहुँच गए उस देश में जहाँ मियां कोलंबस, गलती से पहुँच गए थे, ये सोच कर कि ये भारत देश है।
विश्व की सबसे बड़ी अर्थव्यवस्था और उस देश का सबसे बड़ा शहर - न्यू यॉर्क ! वहाँ पहुंचे सबसे बड़ी air-line - American से। लेकिन उसमें बैठ कर लगा कि लोग बेवजह ही air-india ko gaaliyan देते हैं । इस डब्बे जैसी एअरलाइन से तो अपनी आंटियों वाली एअरलाइन कहीं बेहतर है। तनु कि तबियत प्लेन से ही काफ़ी ख़राब हो गई थी..La Guardia से Jersey तक का सफर बहुत ही मुश्किल से कटा। और हाँ! टैक्सी वाले वहाँ के भी ठगते हैं।

Ramada Inn पहुँचने पर शुरू हुआ मुसीबतों का second round.

good news

I have won Orkut's competition for its new name. Though it sounds strange, but they liked my new name - Yogurt.

I have won 500 USD, which came at the right time, as I am going to NY this sunday. They will use this new name in stages spanning 3 months.

currently, you can see this name, only after logging in orkut:

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OK...now that the auspicious day is over, I would like to thank everyone who congratulated me and hence participated in being a APRIL FOOL. Thanks guys n gals.

बुरा न मानो होली है

हर साल सोचने के बाद भी आज तक ये नहीं समझ में आया, कि हमारे यहाँ होली पर "नाकाबन्दी" और "अपनी तो जैसे तैसे" इतना क्यों बजता है !!

इस साल भी इसी गूढ़ प्रश्न पर विचार करने हेतु, सुबह सुबह youtube पर नाकाबंदी लगा दिया , पर सवाल वहीं का वहीं है। खैर , फिर होली के ढेर सारे गाने सुने और india कि होली को miss किया । शाम को दोस्तों को invite किया था, इसलिए पकवान बनाने में तनु कि थोड़ी help kee.
रंग खेलने की बेकरारी को कुछ control करके Canada में गुझिया, समोसे, कचोरी और मालपुआ हजम किया, और मौका मिलते ही टूट पड़े अबीर-गुलाल पर। एक बार फिज़ा mein rang बिखरे नहीं कि बस, चढ़ गई फागुन की मस्ती, और भूल गए कि हम सात समुन्दर पार हैं। जी भर कर होली खेली। पहले आपस में, और फिर लोगों के घर जा जा कर उन्हें रंगा, नींद से जगा कर लोगों के साथ होली खेली, होली खेल कर नहा धो कर वापस आए लोगों के साथ फिर होली खेली :)

उसके बाद ताश और अन्ताक्षरी, प्रेमजीत के हाथों की बनी coffee और सतीश के हाथों की बनी दाल ने मज़ा दुगुना कर दिया।

लौट कर जब रात के एक बजे स्नान किया, to laga ki apnee to HO LI

Canada की सर्दी में, minus 13 temperature में गरमा गरम पानी से रंग छुडाने का भी ultimate मज़ा है। बस अपने दिल को समझाना पड़ता है कि, "भाई , बुरा न मानो -

होली है !! "

(check the pics at my album at www.freewebs.com/ankushag or at my orkut profile.)

India - A third world country?

Stats revealed in Rajya Sabha:

12% scientists and 38% doctors in the US are Indians, and in NASA, 36% or almost 4 out of 10 scientists are Indians.

If that's not proof enough of Indian scientific and corporate prowess, digest this: 34% employees at Microsoft, 28% at IBM, 17% at Intel and 13% at Xerox are Indians.

some startling facts about a country that's still stuck with a Third World tag — 20% of gold in the world is used by Indians and nine out of 10 diamonds used in the world are made in India .

But the sad news: Indian hockey team has failed to QUALIFY for Olympics…first time in eight decades.

Cows don't fly??

Whoever said that cows don't fly, must be having their toes in their mouth today.











An Air-India plane has hit a Nilgai (A cow). Yes yes, I am talking about an AEROplane, वोई जो आसमान में उड़ता है ।

Read the detailed story here