First trip via Goa from Bangalore

I set my foot in Goa for the first time at the Vasco-da-gama international airport on 12th May 2012. I say 'via Goa' because I had nothing to do in Goa but had to proceed to Sawantwadi in Maharashtra (close to 100 kms) and then return to Bangalore the next day. The only way this was achievable was to take a flight.

As soon as we landed, we the passengers of JetConnect airlines were ushered into a Jet transit bus. The bus took a turn and hardly drove for 10 seconds, stopped. The welcome entrance was  right there. That was the funniest moment. People could have just walked 20 steps and gone inside. These guys are pampering too much adding to ill health.

Anyway, since I was carrying no check-in baggage, I just walked straight out. I was mobbed by 10s of taxi drivers with "cheap fares". I had to go to Vasco main bus stand and had no idea how far it was. I asked one of the taxi booking counters if there is a local bus available to go there. "No, only taxis" came the reply. I almost bought into it, if not for 6-7 other taxi drivers mobbing around me for a ride. "Only Rs.120 sir, sasta hai" (This is the cheapest fare he said).

However, my sixth sense refused and I made my way outside the airport to see if I could talk to a local. There I saw couple of mini private "Birla" buses waiting on the road in front of the newly under construction terminal. I checked with the first bus. He said hop on, we are going to Vasco. Fare: Rs.5, journey time, hold your breath: 15 minutes, distance: 4 kms!!!!!!!!

The taxis were demanding Rs.120 for a 4km ride. Ridiculous. I decided then and there, I would rely only on the public transport.

I got down at Vasco market and got into a Kadamba bus to go to Panaji. Fare: Rs.28. The route from Vasco to Panaji is fantastic with the backwaters giving you company for most of the route. You would also find some shipping companies on the sides with a few ships anchored there. Journey time: approx 45 minutes to1 hour.

Got down at Panaji. I was not only hungry but thirsty as well. Took a KOKAM sherbat soda which refreshed me. From here I took a private bus to Mhapsa / Mapusa as some people call. The bus was full of girls returning home to Mapusa from college.

After alighting at Mapusa, my relative came by on his Bajaj Discover. I requested him to allow me to drive. Totally enjoyed the awesome landscape littered with coconut / arecanut farm lands and passing by a few back water channels. It was breath taking.

On the way, added some punch to my hungry stomach with some road side onion bajji. This small shop is a couple of kms on the Mapusa->Sawantwadi road after you take a turn from Mapusa towards Sawantwadi. Amazing is one word I can use to describe the taste of the onion bajji.

Then at dusk, we reached our destination - Ajgaon, near Sawantwadi in Sindhudurg district. What a journey it was. A truly memorable one.

Walk away to great health and happiness

Walking is the simplest way to maintain a healthy lifestyle. I'm saying this not by looking at or hearing to other people or reading about it in the magazines. It's my personal experience. Financial difficulties during my childhood and teens acted as a boon in disguise. Most of the places I had to travel like school (5 kms away), shopping for 2nd hand books (avenue road, bangalore - 7kms) were all covered by walk and sometimes using a friend's bicycle.

Very recently I picked up a conversation with a middle aged person at a road side tea shop who had his views about software engineers being very weak and looking like 40 years at 25, etc, etc. And then he commented "you should be aged around 27 years if I'm right". That set of a proud smile on my face and replied to him. Thanks, but I'm 39.

That set me thinking about the lifestyle that I had led and the lifestyle led by this generation's youth. Ofcourse, the environment and absence of junk food also mattered then.

Even today, the day when I have my morning walk is the best feeling I keep throughout the day. I feel charged, feel hungry on time and very vibrant.

I'm all for walking as an all round exercise. Especially people who are working in the IT/BPO sectors, it's the easiest way to keep yourself fit. 20 minutes of a brisk walk and whiff of fresh air in the morning makes a hell a lot of difference. Trust me.

It keeps me stress free and lets me to squeeze in a plate of yummy paani puri on the road side without upsetting my health.

Happy walking.

Ubuntu 11.10 desktop issues

I have been a dedicated user of Ubuntu 10.10 for over a year and half. Since I got a new laptop, my system admin recommended to use the latest version Ubuntu 11.10 as it would be more secure.

Unfortunately, the desktop seems to have changed. They have replaced the GNOME interface with UNITY.

Believe me, it's such a pain to use this interface and they have ensured that you won't download and install the GNOME desktop so easily.

Then someone told me that I need to download and install the gnome desktop from the Ubuntu software center. When I tried that it complained saying that the dependency gnome-core needed to be installed. When I tried to do that, it threw up an error:

gnome: Depends: gnome-core (= 1:3.0+1ubuntu1) but 1:3.0+1ubuntu1 is to be installed

That's when I completely lost it. I could not afford to spend my time on doing something which was totally useless. I gave up after reading more reviews on the web about this problem.

And I have to thank my stars, I noticed KDE was available during my login. I switched to try it out. Wow. I have not looked back today. It's just got everything I need and extremely user friendly.

The only other problem I faced was to configure a printer. I could not find the printer configuration utility from the menus. Googled a bit and did:

sudo system-config-printer

to configure my office network printer and voila I was done.

Thanks to KDE. I stayed back with Ubuntu. I almost went back to Windows 7.

Sunrise, sunset at Kanyakumari

Kanyakumari, the southern most tip of India our beloved motherland. Had been there during December 2009 as part of our trip to Tamil Nadu with family. It had been a pretty good trip starting from Bangalore -> Trichy -> Tanjore -> Piliyarpatti -> Rameshwaram -> Tiruchendur -> Kanyakumari -> Madurai -> Bangalore.

We reached Kanyakumari just post lunch and spent time hanging around the rocks waiting for beautiful sunset it's famous for.

When the time came, we were pretty disappointed as there was a mist over the sea waters and the sun god disappeared in a cloud of mist way above the sea waters.

And then we spent the evening without much ado and went to bed in the hope that the morning would give us a delightful sight of a big red sun coming out of the sea like an orange. But, no, that was not to happen. Again the mist played a spoil sport and watching a good sunrise at Kanyakumari remained only a dream.

On the way back to Bangalore from Madurai, once we reached Hosur, after a little nap during the ride in the afternoon, I opened my eyes to look out of the window of the car to see a big red sun setting in the horizon. Wow, I said and showed it off to the rest of the folks. The sunset was beautiful, but still disappointed that it was not in Kanyakumari. Will try again another time hopefully.

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Accommodation in Triplicane, Chennai

Triplicane (original name: Tiruvallikeni) is one of the busiest areas in Chennai. It's a hub for student and working bachelors as there is affordable accommodation, variety of food options available and relatively safe. It also has the famous Parthasarathy Temple which is huge and has various dieties in the same temple compound.

Anyway, the purpose of writing this post is to share information on some of the guest houses (also called Mansions for reasons best known to Chennai folks as they are no where near what is actually known as a Mansion in English. You have to see to believe :) chuckle).

Here are some Guest House addresses and contact details for those coming new into Chennai. It makes sense to stay in Triplicane as it is close to the railway station and is well connected to other parts of Chennai by public transport (buses and trains).

Please note most guest houses (mansions) charge only a 2 month advance unlike if you rent a house in Chennai where 10 months advance is demanded. They also generally do not charge for electricity and water unless specified. You get a TV and regular cleaning and maintenance.

Though I have personally lived in some of these guest houses, I would recommend you to visit these places and personally have a look at the rooms before agreeing to stay. They are all close to each other, so check them out and then decide which one to stay.

Sri Krishna Guest House:
a/c, non a/c luxury rooms with bathroom attached
Available on Monthly rent
New No.27 (Old No.11), Theetharappan Street, Triplicane, Chennai - 600 005
Ph: (044) 28483319 / 28486333

Bismi Stay Home:
a/c, non a/c rooms with attached bathroom
Available on Daily and Monthly rent
Old No.52, Big Street, Triplicane, Chennai - 600 005
Ph: (044) 28544388 / 28544422 / 28548900

Thayifa Guest House:
Non a/c rooms with bathroom attached
Available only on daily rent
No.73, Big street, Nr. Hindu Hr. Sec, School, Triplicane, Chennai - 600 005
Ph: (044) 28594043 / 28510648 / 28512525

King Palace Mansion:
Rooms available on daily and monthly rent
Old No.51, New No.103, Big Street, Nr. Hindu Hr. Sec. School, Triplicane, Chennai - 600 005
Ph: (044) 28520178 / 28512725

King's International:
a/c and non a/c rooms with attached bathrooms available. Clean and well maintained. Slightly expensive compared to other guest houses.
Old No.153, New No.86, Big Street, Nr. Hindu Hr. Sec. School, Triplicane, Chennai - 600 005
Ph: (044) 28584467 / 68 / 69

Malar Mansion:
Attached bathrooms. Daily and monthly lodging.
New No.6, Parthasarathi Naidu Lane (Off Bells Road)
(near Chepauk Cricket Stadium), Chepauk
Chennai - 600 005
Ph: (044) 28587674 / 28515028

Openoffice hangs after Redhat installation

Here I am again. Back to work after a long break of 3 months. I've just joined an open source integration company last week. But for the chaotic traffic I have to put up with in Bangalore, so called silicon valley of India, it feels good to back at work. Especially when you like the job you do. Open source has always been of interest to me for the last 5 years and this is definitely a good break. I hope to learn a lot of things which will add value to my entreprenuaral ambitions.

Well, to start with, I was given a HP laptop with a popular linux installation called UBUNTU. Trust me it's a fantastic operating system as an alternative to Microsoft's XP/Vista. It's very user friendly.

However, my manager insisted I get a Redhat Linux installation to help with some product testing (can't understand why I should test on my desktop when test servers are available). So, had to get Redhat Linux installed over UBUNTU. The engineer who did it, I believe did not restart the machine after the installation was done.

I brought the laptop back to my desk and was trying to configure a printer. Nope. It wouldn't allow. The application just hangs. Then I tried to open a couple of spreadsheets. Openoffice just hung there on the initial screen.

Then, one of my colleague recommended a reboot. Lo. The Microsoft magic works here as well. No wonder Microsoft is complaining about patent issues to the Linux community.

Well, that's it. If you are stuck starting Open office or any application for that matter, try this out. Reboot the machine and try starting again. In all probability it would work.

Have a good day.