Arun Annamalai

I have never dreamt that this will happen. I hate to realize that DEATH is part of this human life. I hate to hear about it. Nothing in this world convinces me that death should be there. Atleast I am not convinced about death at the early ages. I have been a witness of quiet a number of these pre-aged death. I get more perplexed and disturbed everytime it happens. I pray to almighty that this should not happen one more time (or atleast should not happen for people whom I know)... But, it happens... I do not question about the almighty because I am brought up like that.

Arun was a good friend of mine. In the last one year, I spent most of my time with this gang (Bala, Radhika, Arun and Myself). We are peers and we worked very closely to each other. Knowing Arun was great because of his distinct characteristics. He is loveable, quiet, non-aggressive, dedicated and careless (as it applies to the situation on hand), knowledgable, forgiving, easy-going and a lot more that we can share. In all, I loved him for what he is - simplicity.

Being such an experienced person, he never had trouble considering me (or for that matter anyone with lesser experience) as his peer. He used to complete it work and move on. He was not at all egoistic and so never had any problem with anyone in the team. He had some responsibilities (like taking defaulters list, etc) where he had to tell our manager that these are the list of people who had not done their regular work. He never like it and as far as I know, when my name was there in the list on couple of occasions, he called me and asks me to do it. He made sure that not many got this trap and hence we started doing it just for him. For something that was mandatory and could have been enforced with an authority, he just made sure that it was done, by being polite and affectionate. There are lots and lots to say about his professional life. He was very much valued for whatever he was.

As a friend, I liked him a lot. I always approached him to get suggestions. It could be for getting a car or car accessories or for buying a lock for my home or for the bed room set or whatever... I has accompanied me to many places like Car Jewel shop, Nitraa, Lock shop, etc... I always seeked his help in almost all my purchase-related decision making processes. Not because he knew a lot (which ofcourse he knew) but because he was readily available for providing his valuable suggesttions. I am not sure if Arun knew this fact or not. But, now its too late to let him know about it. :(

I can say Arun was one of my "friend, philosopher, guide" type of a person. I still remember the day when I first took my new car out for a long drive (to Tambharam) and wanted Arun to accompany me. It gave me confidence. He did not disturb me but made sure that I was not tensed. He cautiously maintained such a balance in his conversation with me. I again failed to thank and appreciate him for giving me that comfort.

There are so many situations and instances to talk about Arun. But the one thing that our gang will immediately remember about Arun is our coffee breaks. In the past 1 year of so, after we met Arun, we hardly paid for the coffee that we had during our breaks. We had to pay only when Arun was on leave. He walks all the way with us till the coffee shop with the same pace as we are, and all of a sudden takes a quick walk when we come closer to the coffee shop. He will pull-out money from his wallet and pays for our coffee. He never entertains us pay for the coffee. The one of two occassion we start fighting, we will endup hurting his feelings and we could see a wholely disappointed Arun. He feels as if the sky has fallen down... Initially we tried defending and tried to pay once or twice, but later we stopped fighting. Much worse, we even stopped going nearer to the shop. He will buy us coffee, add the required sugar and serve it wherever we are. I am sure it is going to be a hard time for us during our coffee breaks. We will surely miss this person...

There are lots that I can say about him... But, in a crisp, I loved this person a lot and now he is not with us.

Miss you a lot Arun.

Car - My answer to your WHY?

Its time to get a car in India... I have always been looking out for driving... I love driving, be it a two wheeler or a four and for that matter, the one with the wings... My dream was to spend atleast an year with a good car, before getting trapped in the maze called marriage. It happened (not the marriage, but the car thing) when I went to onsite, where I got a car and managed to have fun for almost 24months. The dream became true... I came back to India and now, its time to get married.

Before that, a car, i think is a very important. I can go out with my family (us and our parents) in one vehicle. Otherwise, with a two wheeler, I can only take one person and that sounded little odd. So, I wanted to get a car. After somehow convincing my mom (my father is more eager than me to get a car) I went ahead for a search or should I say research.

There are too many options available in the market right now. Alto, WagonR, Zen Estilo, Swift, Santro and Getz. Later joined Hyundai's i10 and Skoda's Fabia. On top these, there were other cars from Fiat and other companies. I did not want to go for them, for the very reason, they were not so appealing in their looks.

Why an hatchback? Simple reason... Easy to handle, especially in the heavy chennai city traffic. On top of it, if my father wants to drive, Hatchback is the right option than a sedan (Sedan is little big as it has a boot space. E.g. Esteem, SX4, Accent, etc.). Also, I wanted to buy some car that is features packed. A Sedan with lots of features will cost more than my budget. Thats yet another reason that I decided to go for an hatchback.

Why features are more important? You think of various things. Let me explain why features are very important in this blog.

You are driving alone to say Mahabalipuram taking up ECR road, obviously. You have your music switched on in good volume. You just got a coffee to sip and you are driving, with coffee in one hand. Ofcourse, something that can be easily done in ECR as it requires very few gear changes (atleast during non-peak, non-traffic hours). You get nearer to the toll plaza. We all know, we need to pay the toll. What will you do now?

1. You need to keep your coffee cup somewhere. A cup holder would come in handy. Wherelse will you keep your cup!!!
2. Once cup issue is settled, you need to reduce the volume. Integrated audio with controls on the steering wheel will help. Otherwise, you need to reach the audio system control and there is a possibility of loosing control of the car. You can reduce the volume more easily using the controls in the steering wheel itself.
3. Then comes the job of lowering the windows. You would hate to rotate the lever to get the window down. How about a push of a small button to lower the windows for you? This is what power windows is all about.
4. Take out money from the pocket. Simple, pull your wallet out in one hand. Ooops, sometimes you might not know that the car is taking a direction and going towards the wall. If you have a power steering, you can easily turn it and get it to position, without applying sharp brake.
5. Now that you got the ticket, you need to keep it somewhere. The ticket holder is meant exactly for this purpose.
   
6. You start driving again. There is a little bend and it looks like there is some water/oil on the road. You need to slow down the vehicle and you tried applying the brake. Obviously, when the brake was applied on a wet surface, the vehicle would skid. To avoid this, technology in the form of ABS (Anti-lock Braking System) is available now.
   
7. Lets say it is early in the morning and there is a lots of fog. This means you might not be able to see the road as clearly as you should be seeing. Fog lamps in place will solve this problem.
   
8. What will you do with your Air Conditioner switched on. It will get cold and you would have to reduce it, increase it based on how cold it is inside the cabin. Would it help, if you can set a temparature and make sure that the cabin is maintained at that level. Automatic Climate Control will exactly provide that setup for you.
   
9. Enough of continuous driving. You want a short break. Probably for a cup of coffee in a restaurant. You with your family, can just stop your car and go in, have your coffee and come back. But before going in, you need to make sure that all the doors are locked. You done need press the knob for all the doors or much simply, you, from the driver seat can do it with a click of a button, if you have central locking.
   
10. What if you forget to remove the keys but locked the door. No, you don't want to do that. You can ask your friend (obviously the most responsible person) to remind you. But, he might forget as well. So, why take chances??? There is a warning alarm for this which will surely don't forget this ever.
    
11. When you comeback after coffee, you need to open the doors. You can use the key or much easily, you can use the keyless entry mechanism to open the doors with just a click of the button.
    
12. Your friend who is little taller than you wants to drive the car and you give the keys to him. He sits inside and might find the seats little higher. It would be great to have height adjustible seats... On top of it, a tiltable steering wheel...
    
13. Your friend did not close the door properly. A warning light glows and you can ask your friend to close the doors properly.
    
14. You can comfort your friend saying, "Man, this is one of those safest cars because this has Dual Airbags". I think your friend will drive the car even more comfortably now.
    
15. Your friend wants to charge his mobile phone. You sure need a provision in the cabin somewhere.
    
16. Your friend had driven you till Pondy. Won't you feel happy if he praises you, for purchasing a car that has less vibration, less engine sound, good drivability and good mileage... Won't to like to add to his comments, saying this car will comfortably seat 5 and works out cheaper in maintenance cost as well.
    

Being an employee of TATA Groups, I should not say that everyone should go in for a car that is rich is feature and there by little costly. I should say, pay 1 Lakh and get a Nano. But thats not what I am going to say, up untill, Nano is out in the market. As of today, I think features are important.

I have seen all the above said features in few premium hatchbacks in India and my choice is Maruti Suzuki Swift Zxi.

In my next post, I will explain in detail how I arrived at this...

Back... :)

It's been a while since I wrote something here. But, from this point, I hope to take some time and start scribbling something (as usual).

All these days, I was busy with all the other activities. I am back in Chennai (for over 4 months now). I am enjoying chennai, every bit of it, but didn't spend much time with my friends who were eagerly awaiting my return. There are thousands of reason for not spending time with them. The topmost being, I have become even more lazier now. I am busy with work and also personal things. Taken up new project, new role, etc. etc... All said, there is nothing much happening except that I am spending most of my time in office. I guess, i am not managing my time properly. Yet, i love doing what i am doing. Most of you may not be able to understand that...

Ok, next step, I am going to post something interesting (to me and some of my collegues). Others may not understand the meaning of the story line. Its an analogy.... :)

How to improve Indian Cricket

This was written way back, when India exitted the 2007 World Cup tournament in the first round itself. Now that India performed so well in Twenty-20 World Cup, this may not be relavant.

Disclaimer: If you are looking for some serious stuff here, please stop reading immediately. As always, I am going to be sarcastic. All the instances mentioned below are pure imaginations of myself based on my experience. One can easily draw parallels between this and what my team in my office was going through few months back. If someone find it hurting, please let me know, i will erase it. I don't intend to hurt anyone.

I was holding up posting this, because of various reasons. But now that a huge hurddle is gone, I can post this I guess. I am sure most of you will not understand what I mean. This is a pure analogy and only few can understand this. If you are unable to understand, then pardon me, this one is not for you.

Lets get to the actual stuff:

I was watching this 2007 World Cup India-Srilanka match. India played horribly and lost the match and intern lost the chance of getting into the Second round. I think this the first time since 1983, that India ever failed so miserably in a World Cup. I started thinking what can be done to improve Indian team. It occurred to me that if we can do a little revamping, it might produce great results.

The first thing that I am planning to do is to establish different hierarchy as shown in the following diagram.

The team is split into various Pools and each of them were given a unique responsibility. Let me first explain each same that i have given.

Team Owner: I am the Team Owner. If I am going to do this stuff to provide great results, why should I think of another person to be team owner. I am the boss regardless of whether you want it or not. You make sure that you give me the due respect. I always think about operational efficiency and how can I perform better than yesterday, etc. etc. Some of the best things that I think explains about operational efficiency and performing better are

• If it takes 6 balls to complete one over yesterday, it should only take 5 balls to complete one over today
• If you have bowled so many matches, then if a ball misses the stumps by an inch, then I will call it a wide
• If you have hit many 6 is the last series, then you need to hit the ball even further to score a 8 in this series and even further to score 10 in the next series.

Do you know that this is my fifth game. I have played Hide and Seek, Tic-tac-toe, Sudoku, etc. This means I have seen more games than you. Even though I have never played Cricket before, I know everything.

Management Pool: Members in this Pool are responsible for management activities. They will do nothing but managing. They will shout at the members if the members don't play properly regardless of whether they are playing cricket or cards or chess. They will take care of creating thousands of spreadsheets and others will have to fill it with details whether they like or not, whether it is useful or not.

Captain Pool: Members in this Pool are responsible for doing the Captaincy. They are captains. Based on match, one person (a captain) will be picked up from this pool and will be asked to perform the role. This means there is no one fixed captain available. Its going to be totally adhoc although we call it a highly professional environment.

Expert Pool: Members in this Pool will have specialized skills like Batting, Bowling, etc. This Pool is further subdivided into sub Pools which i have explained later in this document. Experts from this Pool is picked as required and will be requested to perform the respective activities. They are responsible for performing only that activity.

Match Team: Members in this Pool are allocated for each Match. They will be responsible for performing on the given match and winning it. They will take the help from other Pools as required and play the match. If the match is lost due to horrible performance by mebers of other pools (like expert pool or management pool), the members from the Match Team will be blamed for not coordinating properly and winning the match.

'Selection Committee Owner' owns the selection committee. He performs the role of providing the selectors for each match team. He has a backup person in the team called 'Selection Committee Backup'. There is also a team under the owner and the backup called 'Selection Committee Members'. They will coordinate for the meetings amongst the selectors and the Captains and perform other selection related management. Don't ask me what else. They are basically responsible for making sure that Match Teams doesn't get what they want. Still the Match Team is expected to win. If the team loses, it is the Match Teams responsibility and if it wins, it has to be attributed to me (Team Owner). Selection Committee will say that they will not blame anyone but in all the meeting they will not forget to mention it is actually People issue from our side.

'Media Communications Owner' owns the entire Media Communication activities. Basically contacting Media Personals and talking to them. 'Media Communication Backup' is the backup for Media Communication Owner and there is also a team under them called 'Media Communication Members'. This team is responsible for any communications to the external world. They will go and promise that a particular Captain will be playing in one matches as well as in the Practice Sessions simultaneously. They take no responsibility to communicate it to the concerned Captain. Anyways the Captain will come to know by reading the next day news paper. These people will promise the media that, while chasing, the individual Match Teams will be able to score 100 runs more than the target runs and they will also be able to score at the rate of 50runs per over. They will devise certain strategies like playing from both the ends of the pitch simultaneously. They suggest that bowlers can bowl from both the ends simultaneously and individual batsman will face the bowlers. This way the time for each match can be reduced to half.
The other mentionable strategies are

• Use the same ball for all the matches so that we can save money
• Since we have played so many matches, we will be able to use just one bowler to bowl all 50 overs

There are many other spectacular strategies that these people will come up with

'Captain' is actually the Captain for the team, but there is a 'Vice Captain' also, who is basically the backup for the Captain. There will be a team of Captains called 'Captain Pool Members' which will have set of all Captains for this team. They are responsible for performing the duty of Captaining the Matches. For any given Match, the Match Team will be allocated a Captain from the Captain Pool. If the Match is lost, the respective Match Team will be blamed and not the Captain as the Captain doesn't belong to the Match Team. Even though the Captain doesn't know about cricket, everyone in the Match Team has to abide by what he says, even if that is highly illogical. This is same funda like me being the Team Owner without knowing what cricket is and you all have to abide by what i say.

Under the Expert Pool, we have 'Batting Owner' who is responsible for owning the batting of all the Matches. As always he has a backup 'Batting Backup' who will assist him in time of need and who will also act as a replacement in case the Batting Owner runs away. There is a team of Batsmen called 'Batting Pool Members' who will be responsible for scoring the runs for each Match. Similarly, there are 'Fielding Owner', 'Fielding Backup' and 'Fielding Pool Members' who collectively are responsible for Fielding in each of the matches. Similarly we have 'Bowling Owner', 'Bowling Backup' and 'Bowling Pool Members' responsible for Bowling and 'Keeping Owner', 'Keeping Backup' and 'Keeping Pool Members' responsible for Keeping.

The Strategy here is that, there will be a minimal set of people in Match Team. People from different Pools will perform the respective responsibility to win the match. People from Batting Pool will do the batting and people from Fielding Pool will do the fielding, Bowling Pool for Bowling and Keeping Pool for Keeping. That said, it also inherently means that since all these Pool people will be particularly well trained in their expert area, they cannot be expected to perform well in other areas.

Do you think it will work? I don't know. But I think it might work. It better work, otherwise, I will blame you all for making it fail.

All your suggestions are welcome. But don't tell me any problem, give me solution. If you don't know the solution to any problem, don't tell me the problem itself. Because, I don't know anything. All I know is, if we want to win and move to the next level, then we cannot follow the traditional approach. This new approach will work without any tweeking.

Eventually, I will blame one person for spreading 'NEGATIVE ENERGY'. Guess who is that? :)

Baggage mishandling in Air India

Probably I am not the first person who suffer these scandals. It might be happening for years and so many people might have been affected. Was there any action taken against this. I dont think so. Last year when i travelled back from USA, I had to take Air India from Newark. I kept a pair of watch (which I bought as a gift for my Cousin's wedding) in one of my baggages. When i reached Chennai, I saw that the pair of watches were missing. I also realized that there were other items like a Pen (with a USB jump drive), etc were missing from that baggage. It was evident that someone openened the baggage and took these items out. I complained to Air India through phone and also complained via the 'Contact Us' facility in http://www.airindia.com/. Nothing happened after that. I thought that it was purely a bad luck for me.

Couple of days back, one of my friends travelled in Air India via Chicago to Chennai. In Chicago Airport, she was asked to check in her cabin baggage as there was no space inside the aeroplane. She was one of the first few passangers and she was not sure why she was asked to checkin the baggage. At the end, there were lots of room in the cabin, enough to hold atleast 20-30 baggages. When she reached chennai, she figured that two used cellphones were missing from her cabin baggage. One was her old phone and other was her friend's phone which he wanted to give it to his father. There were also some stationary items like Parker Pens, etc that were missing from the same baggage.

I spoke to some of my friend's here who have taken Air India for their travel purposes. Almost all of them were mentioning similar instances where some of their items were taken from the baggage. Since all these people travel from USA, one or two items missing from the baggage is not a big deal and none of them took it seriously. But think of how much amount that would be taken on a daily basis. Say for example, if they take items worth $50 from each baggage and in all they take from 100 baggages (In Air India almost 400+ people will travel in a Boeing 747 and each will be carrying two checkin baggages and one cabin baggage). The amount approximately will come to $5,000. If not to this magnitude, the amount should be about couple of thousands or could be less. But what matters is the fact that they were involved in this for a longer period of time now and things were perfectly planned.

We were wondering why some one would specifically ask to checkin my friend's baggage when there were so much space inside the Aeroplane. Why specifically her baggage was choosen?!!! When I digged much into it, I came to know shocking things. Ofcourse it might be not fully correct, but let me tell you what I heard. When Air India does its security check for the baggages under the X-Ray machine, it will know who is carrying lots of expensive items. So at the end of the checking, they put some kind of a mark in your boarding pass. Then those people's baggages were asked to be checked in and boom, few items will be gone. The same applies for Checkin baggages. My baggage had a big (X) Cross mark in the top of the baggage. Similarly, those people who mentioned that items were missing from their baggage also noticed that some items were lost in their baggages too.

For a well reputed, established airline like Air India, this is highly unappreciated act. It is highly discouraging. One of my clients (who is an American) when travelled in Air India also lost some of his items in the Checkin baggage. He said, "Not just the Fares are cheap in Air India, but the airline itself is cheap". Is this how we want an Indian organization to be perceived by the entire world. Something to think about. I again raised a complaint with Air India via http://www.airindia.com/. Let me see what action they are going to take now. The worst thing is that, I am also travelling in Air India this weekend. I dont know what will happen to my baggage. Let me hope that I am one of those few lucky persons whose baggage is not looted. Spare my items this time Air India.

Sleets in South Texas

Sleeting in San Antonio, Texas is not something really usual. After almost 8-10years (nobody knows when it happened before) it happened this year and i was happy to be able to witness and enjoy this rare climatic condition in San Antonio.

People used to say "If you dont like the climate in Texas, wait for sometime." Meaning within a short period of time the climate will change drastically in Texas. I sometime tend to think that it is very true. Especially, there have been days when I went to office in the morning seeing sunny sky and when I come back for my lunch (yes, we have the liberty to come home for lunch because our office is right across the street) it would be raining heavily and when I return back home in the evening, the roads will be all dried out. So it is no changing and I won't say it is unpredictable as it is predicted properly here. The Meteorology department in US is so good.

This time it is so different because it was sleeting in South Texas. You can see the picture which I took when it was sleeting. This was early in the morning on Tuesday (01-16-2007) around 10:00am (okay 10:00am is not early in the morning. But what to do? Unfortunately I slept off that day and woke up only at that time.) I enjoyed the sleeting a lot as it was so different and I always wanted to see these kind of different climatic conditions. I really wanted to be in Snow. But unfortunately I have never been in a Snowly condition. Hopefully sometime I will get a chance to be in Snow.


This sleeting continued for more than a day and half and halted everything in South Texas. The best part for me was to work from home. In most of the states where there is snow, people have the liberty to work from home during extreme climates. But since San Antonio is by far a normal place, there were hardly any extreme climates. So we do not have the concept of working from home. But not on this particular day. Actually, I was working from home for two days and it was so different to work from home. I could listen to my music loud and clear and was lying on my bed whenever I felt like and what not. It was so different. I am sure it would become boring if I had to do it many days. But just two days in a year wouldn't hurt.

The staircases were covered with ice. Not just that, the pavements, curbs, cars, apartment roofs, trees, leaves and what not. Virtually everything under the sky was covered with ice.
Especially the car was totally covered with sleet and it was a awesome scene to look at. The water droplets that were frozen as they were dropping from the edges of the car was a beauti. Having seen all these from the window, I thought I should go down the stairs and take some pictures. So, when Jinu went to office (poor thing), I went down stairs with him and took some pictures. The one he took me along with my car and Jinu's car is what you are seeing. I took almost hundred snaps and my camera was doing great. Although I have no idea what will happen to my camera lenses. But I thought it is worth taking these snaps as it is a very rare thing not just in South Texas, but I guess it is not so common in any part of United States.

The next picture that you are seeing is a closeup shot of a bunch of leaves covered with ice. I was wondering what would have happened to us if there is no electricity. It would have been worse isn't it? There were few places in South Texas which were not very much developed and those were the places where there was power shutdown and things like that. It would have been really tough for the people in those areas.

After a lot of photographing (without wearing gloves) I went back to my apartment for a little coffee and some snacks. I even made some Bajji that evening to spice up things. It was a great experience for us all who were here to see all these happening right infront of our eyes. I felt sorry for guys who were here few weeks back and left to India. Guys you sure missed a lot.

It was a great deal clearing the ice off of the car and the stair case. We had to spend considerable amount of time. I made a smart decision to leave the car as such till the sun comes out and as I said earlier, I did not have to wait for a long time. The sun was out the very next day and it warmed up the ground a bit. Comeon, afterall this is Texas anyway.

Two days of great climate, two days of work-from-home, lots of photography, lots and lots of sleet and ice filled the mid January 2007 for me. I was so thankful to all these. Being a software professional, anything different from the normal routine is warmly welcomed and always enjoyed by me.

It's been a while since I blogged although now I can spend sometime towards all these as I am not totally occupied with work. Let me see.... :)

Beach - Redefined....

To begin with a disclaimer: The following content is only for people who is more than 18years...

What is this all about? You know, it is all about one of my most recent trips.

After almost 47days of continuous hectic work, I finally got a chance to take off on a 4 day long trip to few places in Florida. We took a flight to Tampa and from there drove to Orlando. We spent a day there and I will talk about it in another blog. The next day we went to Miami and the third day we went to Key West.

Miami is one of the famous beaches in US and for that matter it is very famous in the entire world. What is so famous about it? Ooops a lot. But before looking at that, let me tell you something. The flag of City of Miami is a tri color flag and the colors are not very similar to that of the Indian flag. I dont really know if the first one is safron, but it looks like that. The middle one is white and the last one is Green. In the white area, you can also see a circle seal of Miami. If you see it from a distance, it will look like an Indian flag only.

Okay let me get back to my topic. We drove from Orlando to Miami at night and we reached the hotel in Miami at around 2am. So we decided to take some rest and slept off. The next day we got ready by around 12 noon and drove to the most famous South Beach in Miami. After a aweful traffic, we reached the beach and found a parking lot and parked the car, which costed us $30 (dont say anything. There wasnt any other choice). We finally entered 'South Beach'. Its been more than a month since I have been to a beach. For some people who joined us, it was close to a year since they visited a beach.

As far as beaches in India or rather I would say beaches in Chennai are considered, it is a place where many couple gather and have some fun. These couples are either married, not married, to-be married, married to different people or sometimes just some two people. It is a place for some college gangs to gather and have a looooong chat, fun, et cetra. It is a place where we get Jalapeno Bajji (Ooops molaga bajji paa. atha thaan konjam scena sonean), sundal, murukku, etc. A place for people to hang out after late evening, but you can see couples resting there (or doing something without taking any kind of rest) even in noon, when the Sun is at its best emitting high heat focusing that part of the world.

If you take Miami beach, the one most important thing that I missed there was the Milagai Bajji. Even if I dont take that much of it, I like the way the Chillis were tied at the shops. The second thing that I couldnt see there were the boats behind which few couples used to hide and the small kids who go to disturb them to sell some sundal/murukku and above all i missed the Sundal they used to sell. The humming, roaring sound of the waves in the beach was also missing. Beach???!!! Can I call this a Beach? I dont think I can call it a beach, given all my definition about a beach. The things that were the most obvious in chennai beaches were not at all to be found in Miami. So is it very disappointing? Actually it is not at all disappointing to me because it is obvious that we cannot expect these thing to be in Miami.

So finally what is there? Ooops a lot of people. Lots and lots of them. The best part is their dressings or I would say the worst part is their dressing. Most of the girls were wearing clothes that covered just 10% of the body and the rest 90% were exposed fully. Guys are not that bad as most of them were wearing shorts and they did not expose much. Some girls went a little ahead and just covered some 3% and exposed the rest. Don't ask me if I saw someone like that because I do not want to lie.

The beach is not very deep. It is less than 4 feets for almost 100-150 feets distance from the place the water starts. So we walked all the way till the place we felt that we can manage the height. There wasn't many waves and the ones that came were not at all high. They just raised to less than half a feet. So it is pretty calm water, but definitely not a very calm place. Things were happening all around us, but not even for one of us. There were couples having fun in the water. Dont ask me the meaning of fun in this context, because I cannot say it that loud.

There was so many people all over and they were just lying on the shores. People were having fun and the gals looked so beautiful, sexy and stuffy. Oh, i want to say a lot about the beach and the way the girls were looking there. But due to being so considerate about the ettiquettes, I am not telling anything about it. All in all, i can say one thing, the definition that I had for beach has got totally redefined after i visited Miami.

Miami beach is a place where people have no limits to the way they can be there. It is a place water acts has virtual walls of a bed room. It is way too crowdy and way too sexy. It is a place for all the bachelors to have something scenic for eyes. A place for all the married americans to have lots of fun away from home. In all, i can define it as 'No Limit unless and until one sets something for oneself'.

Hailstorm in San Antonio....

A couple of days back, my uncle got a chance to watch some of the videos which i recorded in my New Mexico trip. When I spoke to him, he seem to have got surprised by seeing the way I walked over a frozen lake. I think he got a little scared too and was worried a lot about my safety. He was advising me to take care of myself and not to take a lot of risks to have some fun. But he also reiterated that it should not stop me from visiting places. From what I understood, he wanted me to have a lot of fun, but taking calculated risk.

Yesterday, I came back from my work at around 9pm and took a little nap in my couch. Then I woke up at around 10:25pm for a telecon with my offshore counterparts. After the telecon, I went to office to send some files to offshore. On my way back home, I felt a little bored and as I sometimes do, I went for a short drive. When I was about to turn back, I had to stop my car to attend an offshore call, in a parking lot some 1mile from my apartment.

While I was talking to my offshore counterparts, there was a little storm and it started raining. It was raining heavily and that made me decide to go back to my apartment and then call offshore. So I asked my offshore to continue the discussion after i go home. I started driving back, when all these nature's scary beauty happened.

It hardly would have took 2-3mins for me to reach my apartment, but just with in 30 secs, the rainfall was so heavy, with the wind exceeding beyond a limit. I turned on the wiper, but could hardly see the road, the lanes or even the cars that was going infront of me. After hearing the sounds of the series of thunder, I realised that this is not going to be a normal rain. Since i couldnt see the road i was driving very slowly (probably less than 5mph).

All of a sudden I could see some small hail stones that were falling and then it got wilder. It was exciting to see the hail storm for the first time in my life. I was admiring nature's beauty, without knowing what is there in store for me. Within a short while the size of the hailstones were becoming bigger and bigger. I had to stop the car because I couldnt see anything. I switched on my parking lights so that vehicles coming behind me can see my car and stop before hitting. But stopping the car right in the middle of the road (or so i thought, because i am not sure in which lane the car was) seemed to be not a good idea. And more over it is just a minute away from my apartment. I made a worst decision. I decided to go to my apartment rather than stopping there.

Gopi, my roomie, called me in my mobile to enquire where I was. He also informed me that there is a power shutdown. I then realized that there is no street lights either. I told him where i was and all those i was seeing. He adviced me to stop right somewhere safe and wait till the storms get over. But I couldn't pull over to some place where I can wait for sometime. So I decided to proceed towards my apartment and thought I can pull over in some apartment entrance on the way.

I was driving slowly without knowing in which lane I was driving. Since the hail stones were falling mostly on the windshield, I thought if i take the right turn into the road that leads to my apartment, then I might get a good vision of the road and so I can drive home quickly. I proceeded further with hardly any idea where I was and luckily there were some sign boards that showed me some way. There I saw a board showing "USAA Blvd" where I had to take right. I took right and was close to hitting the median, but somehow managed to miss it by few inches.

The moment I turned into USAA Blvd, the hailstorm slowed down a bit and so I decided to drive all the way to my apartment. The other alternative that i was thinking was to pull over in Hubner Oaks' entrance (Hubner Oaks is an apartment where Dharma, my ex-PL is living). After i gone past Hubner Oaks entrance and then Dove Valley's (next apartment) entrance, the storm become wild again. The next apartment is ours and so I decided to go further.

Between Dove Valley and my apartment, there are few curls and ups and downs in the road. So I need to see the road to drive to my apartment, but i could hardly see anything. I was having my wipers on, but i could see only the wipers after my windsheild and nothing else. The water splashes were so heavy that I couldnt see anything through the windsheild.

A couple of seconds later, I saw a huge silver gray street light post, right in front of my left headlight. I was shocked, scared and so I stopped the car. If the post was between the two headlights, it might not have been visible. I was thinking why the hell on earth there is a street light right in my way. I looked around on the sides of my car and then realized that i was actually driving on the median that splits the left and right side of the road. Yes, i was not driving on the road. Since there was a severe thunder and hail stone fall, I decided to take reverse and pull over in the entrance of Dove valley.

I took a reverse without know which direction i am driving and got off the median and went into the road. The road was a little deep in that place and water was rushing from my left to right, pushing my car a little towards right. I got so scared thinking that I will be thrown away into the bushes and might get lost. So I wanted to take a turn around or a reverse. Turnaround seemed easy. So i moved the car towards right side and then went close to the walkway. Since I was close to walkway, the car stopped moving sideways as the water wasnt rushing heavily there.

I was hoping that the car engine doesnt stop there. But I did not want to take a chance. I dont even know how much water will rush in and how much higher the water level can get to. I wanted to go back to Dove Valley's entrance as that is a lot steeper than where I was.

Meanwhile, the stones kept on falling and the lightning was also continuous and bright. The sound of the stone hitting the car was so high that i heard it like a the thunder sound. Remember, i am the only person inside that car. It was scary and exciting to experience all these. Iwas thinking that if the hail stones get even bigger, it might break the windsheild or the windows and i might get drenched in the water. Ooops, if windsheild or windows broke then the hailsotnes will fall directly on me and.... I stopped thinking about it as it was more scary. I wanted to do something rather than waiting there and letting things happen.

I turned towards my left and went over the median and went to the other side of the road. There was a sign board that said School Zone Limit 20mph. What the hell!!! I couldnt drive anything more than 5-10mph. I made a wild guess and took left and wanted to enter the Dove Valley. I could see the entrance only when the lightning flashes. I took the left and headed towards the steep road and I finally climbed up and parked the car right in front of the apartment.

Now I know i am in a safe place, apart from the fact that it is not really safe because the lightning can hit directly there. I called up Gopi and informed him that I am in a safe place. Now I switched off the music (yes, i was listening to songs from Gilli when I was going through all these) and switched on the A/C's. Why because i want to see and admire nature's work.

Wow... The hailstones were making a lot of noise that they produced more sound while hitting the car than the actual thunder themselves. I could see lightning in three different colors, green, blue and white. That was the first time that i had ever seen such kind of lightning in my entire life. Believe me, all the adventure was worth it. What if there was a gal right next to me at that time. She would have been more scared and would have ended up hugging me tightly. (karpanaikku onnum alavey illa. hmmm.) Okay guys, for those of you who know me, believe me, there was no one else in that car.

When everything got to a moderate level, i decided to head towards my apartment. I started driving and again switched on my audios to play 'Arjunaru villu' song. When i reached the entrance of my apartment, the flagpost had fallen down blocking my way in. When such a song is playing, you cannot stop the car for this silly blocking. I ran over the flag post and headed in and parked the car right in the middle of the road (which i parked in the parking space after the rain) and went in.

Today afternoon when i was coming home for my lunch, i drove till Dove Valley to see where exactly i was stopping the last night and to see the street light post which i had almost hit and the walkway which stopped me from getting carried away in flood. They were all silent as if nothing happened there.

It was very scary, adventurous and beautiful night that i have ever faced. This would be one of the most unforgettable days in my entire life. A golf ball sized hail stone and their thundering sound, tricolor (not the indian flag tricolor. this is just some 3 colors) lightning and heavy rain and storm were the highlights of natures beauty.

Now that I have faced all these all alone, i am all the more ready to face more of these. But remembering my uncle's advise, i will not take such risks again. Neither should any of you. If you happen to be in a hail storm, just stay where you are, unless and untill you really have to move off from that place.