10 things that happen when the managers from US visit the Indian teams

1. More than half your day goes in meetings
2. In all the meetings, the US folks who are by birth/brought up Indians puts a lot of US accent while they try to explain all the statistics and timelines that they have for the next 5 years in those useless power point presentations.
3. You get to hear all those list of verbs/adjectives related to team work/hardwork a million times a day.
4. For once in a lifetime, you will get to hear thanks, thank-you, without-you-it-wouldn't-have-been-possible that you will be overwhelmed with your own performance
5. You will be given all the courage and strength to talk out on the thing that you've been thinking that gates the productivity of the team or yourself after the presentations in the so-called "Questions?" slide.
6. You will be beaten up almost to death if you had the guts to talk of the issue that you have actually been thinking through your work!
7. A few senior members in the team, only in terms of the number of years completed in the company/team, will get "rewards" that they were waiting for, all these years.
8. You see your managers/a few over enthusiastic peers' energy levels multiplied by God-knows-how-many-calories!
9. And then if there is a lady in the visiting team, the female counterparts get added attention. All of a sudden the woman in you is appreciated for just that reason, that you are a woman.
10. And beyond all this, if you're a service provider aka consultant aka contractor the dog's treatment still continues!!

Indian Breakfast Blog.

Cooking was one hell of a thing that I can ever be put into. At home, I grew up in a very strict environment. Mom is the most strict lady in the world, as a consequence I was always looking for a chance to get out of home, only to know what it is being away from home!! It gave me all kinds of experiences - whacky, funny, zombie, moody, angry and not miss anxiety! And at the end I just did not want to experience any of them. However, beyond all the restrictions I was put under and over, mom had never let me get into the kitchen. Be it anything, anytime, when guests are around or nobody at home, she never wanted me to get into the kitchen, well never for cooking. I did not like it. Mom did not enforce it.
So someday, when something called marriage happens and when you were always under this nice impression about a guy who has been a boyfriend for 4.5yrs, that he'll be the most helping lad turns out to be a cooking-hater only to your surprise, thence does not want to share the pain called cooking, that you have to go through everyday, this is what happens -You hit the google search for 'Indian breakfast blog' and there turns up nothing that exactly matches your phrase and I end up in this whole blogging story with this title!

I'm gonna quickly make a jist of all the simple breakfast items, with ingredients, that can save some precious time of your lazy mornings.
1. Idli/Dosa with some simple chutneys.
2. Upma
Rava/wheat rava/aval - fr respective upmas, Onions, Tomatoes, Carrots, Groundnuts, tadka.
I mess up Semia upma and rice sevige big time.
3. Pongal
Rice, moong dhal, pepper, cashew, ghee.
4. Ragi Rice porridge.
Cooked rice, Ragi, (Onions/Chillies - not a must)
5. Bread toast.
With(out) omlette. Jam, Butter, Chocolate
6. Variety rice.
(Tamarind puree/Tomato Onion/Lemon)- with tadkas/simple tadka.
7. Soya Dosa.
I get the mix from the nearby supermarket. Add onion/tomatoes whenever time permits.
8. Rava Idli
Again, buy the mix. Curd.
(Ragi balls -Haven't tried so far. But one of the easiest menu as my friend suggests.)
9. Pancakes
Maida, Rice flour, any fruit(s)/sprouts, Nutella, Lime,
10. And someday when you are bored enough to do any of this, just shoo your husband off and let them enjoy their freedom for a day with their most loved breakfast menu at the office canteen :P

*This post will have updates as and when I come across/remember/think of some menu*

Horsley Hills - A drive in tranquility

Wikipedia says ‘Horsley Hills, elevation 1,265 m, is a famous summer hill resort in Andhra Pradesh, about 160 km from Bangalore, India’. History goes back to 1840-43 during which a British officer W.D.Horsley chose this place to be his summer holiday destination and the place supposedly was named after him.
The drive to Horsley hills offered quite a different reality. Our trip was made in a Ford Figo Exi fully crammed with food, clothing and an Ego laptop that had the directions for us. Thanks to Tata photon that picked up network even in some of the remote villages of AP. A little bit of reviews from team-BHP helped truly.
At 6AM, on a Saturday we were ready with our bags with the notion of blindly following the route that Google maps had in store for us, that took us via Hoskote (after KR puram) to NH 4, then the entire length of Kolar on NH 4 till Nangali after crossing KA border. Then a left to hit NH 219, follow the road to Madanapalle and thence a diversion on the left to reach Horsley hills.
We managed to do 80-100kmph constantly on the NH and the best part of the connecting roads was that there was hardly any civilization found except for a very remote village or two in say, 25kms.
The estimated driving distance was 160km, while we ended up doing 190. Blame it on politics, as the ex-CM of AP was visiting Madanapalle at around the same time. We missed noticing a sign board, which was royally hidden behind the billboard (his portrait), that indicated the diversion to Horsley hills, that which charged us an additional 30+km. We discovered this whole obscurity while driving back only when we got to notice the rear side of this sign board.

Nevertheless, the additional drive gave us another stretch of beautiful scenery with a lot of fields and some forests and mountains on both the sides and a million other stunning things of nature which I really needn’t strike down, most importantly no human lives. The roads throughout the drive were smooth and neatly tarred. The drive from the mountain base till the hilltop is 9km with 6 hairpin bends, that are not so dangerous, covered on both the sides by dense forests at some segments and a lot of Eucalyptus trees grown on the slopes. We reached at 11AM with a couple of stopovers.

Once you reach the hilltop, AP tourism’s picturesque resort awaits you with variety of cottages, lawns and parks surrounded by giant mountains, foggy valleys, plains, forests with a lot of peace and solitude. Into the resort, there is a big banyan tree that marks a history. The whole land area of the hill station would be covered within approximately 1km radius. There is only one restaurant that serves quality food, and beverages. There are a few chai-walahs and shops that sell the most basic stuff required.

We enjoyed the striking sunset, sitting on the plains that slopes down to the charming valleys. The plan was to stay put that day and start driving back the next noon. We picked the cottage that had the best view out to the heaps and the one enclosed by good number of trees. They had some basic adventure activities that come for nominal rates. With a complimentary breakfast and a long chit chat under the banyan tree, we packed up our baggage at 11.30AM and started to leave.

The drive back was through the SH99, a left from Madanapalle and 100km straight down the single lane highway towards NH9, with a couple of villages alongside and villagers selling lot of fruits and veggies here and there. We stopped several times and piled up a lot of them into the already loaded car. Back in Bengaluru at 4.30PM and this time only 160km.

Pros:
- Best for a weekend drive, actual driving time - ~3hrs.
- Leisure holiday - Lot of nature, peace and solitude.
- Good weather. Ideal time to visit: Nov-Jan
Cons:
- Expect nothing beyond nature and yourself.
- Not ideal for family outings.

Beyond the land of Hattamala!

Got to watch this at the Jagriti theatre in Whitefield last night and I must say it was worth a watch. It's one of my friend's debut Play and I just couldn't miss being there. Its was very hectic ride at the peak evening hours of B'lore traffic through the outer ring road, total distance of about 35kms, as it was a sudden plan. The show was at 8PM and I had called a friend of mine to check out for the route in Google maps and as per what I heard from him, it sounded the theatre was not on the main road, and then a big sigh of relief to just bump on it on the Whitefield road itself came up totally to our surprise.

Coming to the actual play, it was quite an experience.

The initial 15 minutes, before the actual start of the show, they did some formations which was a slow motion thingie. Good try and should have been a good warm up to the casts. Once the play started, it was a mix of Kannada, Hindi and English. Kenappa, the main male cast's whole script was in Kannada, and a ton round of applauds to him to deliver it just real. A lot of times the audience caught up with giggles for all the funny dialogues he had. The experience showed up. I have got to see a small piece of his monoacting once before in my company, and if I remember correctly, it was in English. A very good one. Becha was no less, I still remember the way she was throwing up some stares. So funny. Hers was complete English script. She did greater than what's justice to the role. Both the main cast were great actors, and all their efforts seemed to have paid. The other characters that come as a part of the play too did the best of theirs. Each of them had to play multiple roles for different scenes. I just keep wondering how could they manage remembering the sequence and all the dialogues in addition. A job too greatly done. And then there was this guitarist, an old man. He had the excellent skills of singing and that promptly made up for what a lil that was missing here and there.

So now coming to what dragged me to the show. This guy, I almost went on the verge of calling him a pester for all the marketing he was doing all over. He was living with the play, I guess for more than 2 months, whenever we got to speak wherever it is, all I could hear from his was Beyond, BTLH etc etc. He was on this instrument side. Playing some 3 different kinds of instruments namely Bongo, Rainstick and Agogo. A great opportunity to show up his skills and according to me he had used it really well. His debut show and it just did not look like that at all! Kudos.

On the whole the play had quite a good impact on the audience. We went on to remember the dialogues and started relating to them at certain instances. There were no real flaws found except for one or two here and there, which might definitely not a big deal when you come out with this whole sense of gratification for a time well spent.

And beyond that hattamala, moneyless world is quite a fantasy. How I wish we all get to experience that in the real world.

I would upload the poster that I made for this soon, as I dont have the originals with me right now. After all, even I had put in some of my 2 cents for this, you see ;)

- *Poster uploaded on Mar 08*

Godspeed to you good people!