Sixth continuous day at work with a formal dress. At least with formal shirts, not one of those T-shirts.  And someone asked me today: “Are you being interviewed some where else?”
At least for the entire last week, I am in formal shirts and jeans. Today, I am with a formal shirt and a business casual trouser. For someone who wears shorts to work, this is too much of an irregularity.

Well, the scoop is, that the home is being repainted. The maid is busy with other things, so no washing of clothes for the last week or so. This made most of my regular dress ware exhaust from the wardrobe.

Now I need to yank out that last piece of clothing from my wardrobe and start using it. Otherwise, too much of a formal dress sequence…

Today, we participants of a technology conference at work went to Cottage Industries Emporium on Cunningham Road in Bangalore. This is a nice cozy place, with very good food. Also, there is a classic Indian dance program that featured Bharata Natyam and Kathak is presented. The artists danced very well.

Completed paper work for tax filing, which is due by 31st July. So far, I have been filing Saral form (form 2D.) Starting next year, the Income Tax Department is introducing Form 2F, which needs lot more details. So I may have to keep more paperwork ready. Just now downloaded the form 2F. Need to take a look at it and start preparing for next year.

For the first time, used VPN for an uninterrupted duration of 14+ hours yesterday. Connection is over BSNL’s DataOne, from a Solaris x86 client. Bandwidth choked a couple of times for about 5 minutes each, but overall a very good response.

Yesterday’s blasts in Mumbai and Srinagar are cowardly acts of disoriented minds. My sympathies are with people who are impacted and their relatives. Hope there will be appropriate measures to avoid repeat of such situations in future.

Ronald is here in Hyderabad. My kids are a big fan of him about half-a-decade ago, before we relocated to India. They used to visit McD when we make a trip to Bangalore, but they still love the symbol and the toys that come with kids meal.

Today (July 07th) they opened a McDonalds in Prasad’s (IMAX) Multiplex. I knew about this for the last couple of days because I went to that place to book tix for today’s movie outing. Wanted to surprise my daughter, but she got the news from her schoolbusmates.

Being an weekend eve, most of the kids who knew about this appeared to be in line to get their tastebuds cranking. We had to wait for about 10 minutes in a line just to get in. Once we are in, the service was faster though. Needless to say, kids enjoyed the meal and then we proceeded to watch the latest Indain Superhero in the block, Krrish.

Came to know a few hours ago thru emails and blogs that Alec Muffett of Sun Microsystems, a very popular person in computer security land, met with a motorcycle accident in France. His condition is said to be critical. We hope he recovers fast and gets out of critical situation soon.

His latest blog entry at dropsafe is being updated with his latest condition.

Was away for a few days from my home and work, visiting parents. The travel from Bangalore to West Godavari district of AP by train, during monsoon season, is very pleasant. Spent Saturday and Sunday with parents, with a few hours of teaching Solaris 10 and DTrace at S.R.K.R. engineering college, is a good break from daily routine. While doing so, missed most of the football matches, but its okay.

The local body elections in Andhra Pradesh exposed me to a scene I haven’t been part of in the last couple of decades. Every vote counts, hence there is lot of election campaign activity in the area. The election at my village started on Sunday with lot of excitement in the air, only to be drenched by the rain from that afternoon.

Over to Cricket. One very interesting outcome during the last couple of days is the record win of India in WIndies in a test series. The team that bats first and gets only 200 on board hardly wins, but you never know. I think Dravid’s score in both the innings made a huge difference.

Gearing up for watching Semifinals of football.

Went to Confident Cascade resort with team today. Played football/soccer? for the first couple of hours that exhausted most of us. Also played cricket and spent some time in swimming pool. That completely drained me physically, but have a fresh mind to take forward the work! Thanks team, for joining today. Its a very good day!

Verbatim pasting an email forwarded to me in an alias. Haven’t verified the truthfullness, but thought worth sharing…

Okhil Babu’s letter to the Railway Department:

“I am arrive by passenger train Ahmedpur station and my belly is too
much swelling with jackfruit. I am therefore went to privy. Just I doing
the nuisance that guard making whistle blow for train to go off and I am
running with ‘lotah’ in one hand and ‘dhoti’ in the next when I am fall
over and expose all my shocking to man and female women on plateform. I
am got leaved at Ahmedpur station.

This too much bad, if passenger go to make dung that dam guard not wait
train five minutes for him. I am therefore pray your honour to make big
fine on that guard for public sake. Otherwise I am making big report! to
papers.”

Okhil Chandra Sen wrote this letter to the Sahibganj divisional railway
office in 1909. It is on display at the Railway Museum in New Delhi.
It was also reproduced under the caption “Travelers’ Tales” in the Far
Eastern Economic Review. Any guesses why this letter was of historic value?
It apparently led to the introduction of toilets on trains

This is what I call the power of feedback!