barCamp Bangalore 3 – Photo Essay – Part 1

With lot of security check in place I managed to walk into the IIM, Bangalore campus even though my name was not to be found in the list of registered participants for BCB3. It was of course quite a surprise that my name was not to figure in the list even though a search in wiki page would show my name!!!
After sometime there was a big queue like the one you find in temples especially when they offer free sundal and pongal (God’s prasadam).

As always Kribs walked upto the stage to talk about the concept of BarCamp while Sagaro talked about law of two feet. For all you perverts two bullets down your…..
(During introduction session & end of it. Lot of people are here for first time!!)

(Check out second photo, jaragandi jaragandi)

Its a real funny thing to watch participants take down the session timings like their school board exam results.

If Y! has few big thinkers or they think so, well so am I!!

We had our local thamizh actor Ramarajan making an appearance in the form of MuthuOnline. Later in the day we had “Un smile thaan nooru mile ku irruke”, Mr.Kribs. There was this sanyasi who was trying to attain salvation in a BARcamp!!

There was a big debate that Proto.in should happen in Bangalore and not in Chennai. Firstly I did not like this argument. If guys in Bangalore wanted the event to happen here first then they should have thought about it. Guys in Chennai organise it then they would of course do it in Chennai only. There is no point in fighting between Bangalore or Chennai. Guys grow up.

While all this was happening, Arpit another main organiser was caught napping!!

Rajan did a good job of summarising in the end.

Forming queues is quite disciplinary thing but not sure about it in un-conference. Like in the morning, queue was formed on either side of the counter to collect t-shirts.

All along we thought this guy Sagaro was straight till he told his frequent visits to NASA when in Bangalore.

Finally, this guy Keshav took the initiative and with help of others managed to pull of the show.

Tags: BCB3, BarCamp Bangalore 3, BarCamp, Bangalore, India

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Helsinki Trip

By couchsurfing site I had made friends and confirmed my accomodation with them. There is of course not much for sight seeing in Helsinki. Its definitely a place to relax during vacation. There are lot of shops near the main Railway station. Its a major shopping area and one can also walk to see around rather than taking a bus/tram/train.
But climate changes are not uncommon during the month I believe. When I landed the weather was sunny but next day morning it was raining thereby had to change my plans of sight seeing and just laze around in the rain.
Quite crazy characters I found like this guy who was skating in frozen river.

There were quite lot of sculptures around.

I still don’t understand why they have such a huge ball outside a supermarkt!!

It was raining and mist covered, the cathedral photo explains it.
The old kind of building’s, architecture looks completely different.

There is also this skating ring in public, its open and right opposite the railway station.

Next day I took the ferry to Suomenlina. Firstly it was stupid that they did not have any person behind the counter to issue tickets. There was of course a vending machin to take tickets, but the minimum number is more than 1!! If you are a solo backpacker then you cant take a ticket. I got into a group of an American couple and a German to get myself a ticket. The cost for one ticket is 3Euro 80Cents.
Its an island fortress and long back during war times it was used both by the Russian and Swedish armies. Currently, it still has Naval Academy on side of the island and on the other side museums & beach. Check out the beach below.

It takes about 2hrs to take a look around the island. If one sees all the museums then it would take still longer time. The sign boards are quite an advantage here to prevent one from getting lost even if one wants to cant happen unless you jump into the river.
I managed to capture this sparrow and duck. Check out the green color on the duck. These kind of duck’s are quite common around here and they are migrants!!

The House of Ministry, the Parliment looked quite majestic from the ferry. Not to leave the ship which was to take in the later in the evening to Stockholm.

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BarCamp Bangalore – 3rd edition

This weekend, March 31st & April 1st BarCamp Bangalore’s 3rd edition is scheduled to be held in IIM, Bangalore campus.
Hoping to meet all old friends and meet some new people.
Organising activities seems to be going at good pace and lot of things are falling into place.

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Photos

Some photos I liked which I clicked during my trip to Europe.

(Taken from top of Cathedral in Ulm, Germany)

(Taken in the ship from Helsinki to Stockholm)

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Your opinion matters a lot

Request all visitors to take a moment to answer the poll.

Tags: Tezaa, Poll

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Life is tough – 35

How different is life and the way people behave in different parts of the world. Many times people are reluctant or scared to do certain stuff. Is this what is termed as “Fear of the dark”??

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India’s exit – Cricket World Cup

There cannot be any worse humiliation in the exit from the World Cup tournament. The team which was being prepared for past more than a year by coach Greg Chappell and Rahul Dravid could do nothing right in the end.

What all went into the preparation for this moment of glory well actually not!!
1. Constant shuffling of players during batting to give exposure to all players and find the right combination. Did they finally manage to get the combination??
2. The training at Pegasus Institute to build the team as a cohesive unit with good amount of bonding. Though they went for the training without proper results the investment looks to have just gone down the drain.
3. The frequent games between India Seniors, India A and India B to find the right set of players. Where did the set of players who performed then go?? The performance when it matters and is required is never found with the team.
4. So many controversies created all over with Ganguly’s exit & entry, Sehwag’s poor form all through except once a year, Harbhajan Singh’s bad mouth.
5. The numerous advertisements featuring Yuvraj, Dhoni, Dravid, Sachin, Sehwag, Agarkar. I strongly feel the Indian Cricket Board should take a tough stand here. These guys make money in all possible ways but its fine as long as they can perform.

What should have been the right combination in yesterday’s game…
1. It was a crucial game and the memories of 1996 World Cup were forgotten or thought could be buried, but the ghosts do return!!
2. Indian team has never been good chasing a total and past record does prove it. Going by current record the team has also not done good batting first. So having won the toss India should have batted first, but memory of earlier game against Bangladesh is still fresh in mind.
3. Dinesh Kaarthick should have played instead of Utthappa, Utthappa has not got any good score in last two games and tried to play poor of poor shots yesterday. DK is a better bet that too with batting second and where balance was required.
4. Harbhajan Singh should have not been there but Kumble would have been the best bet. One can’t afford to see a strike wicket taker go without any wickets. Even if you give 10 more runs but take 3 wickets things do change. If one cant do that there’s no point in he being in the team.

What happens now….
1. ICC looses lot of money because viewers in India and Pakistan might not be keen on the remaining games.
2. Lot of Indian team players can very well settle into their homes for rest of life.
3. I pity all those companies who pumped in money in getting cricketers to endorse their products. Now you see those products and want to buy them, just think how it has affected the Indian team performance!!!!

Tags: Cricket, World Cup, India

Read Full Post »

India’s exit – Cricket World Cup

There cannot be any worse humiliation in the exit from the World Cup tournament. The team which was being prepared for past more than a year by coach Greg Chappell and Rahul Dravid could do nothing right in the end.

What all went into the preparation for this moment of glory well actually not!!
1. Constant shuffling of players during batting to give exposure to all players and find the right combination. Did they finally manage to get the combination??
2. The training at Pegasus Institute to build the team as a cohesive unit with good amount of bonding. Though they went for the training without proper results the investment looks to have just gone down the drain.
3. The frequent games between India Seniors, India A and India B to find the right set of players. Where did the set of players who performed then go?? The performance when it matters and is required is never found with the team.
4. So many controversies created all over with Ganguly’s exit & entry, Sehwag’s poor form all through except once a year, Harbhajan Singh’s bad mouth.
5. The numerous advertisements featuring Yuvraj, Dhoni, Dravid, Sachin, Sehwag, Agarkar. I strongly feel the Indian Cricket Board should take a tough stand here. These guys make money in all possible ways but its fine as long as they can perform.

What should have been the right combination in yesterday’s game…
1. It was a crucial game and the memories of 1996 World Cup were forgotten or thought could be buried, but the ghosts do return!!
2. Indian team has never been good chasing a total and past record does prove it. Going by current record the team has also not done good batting first. So having won the toss India should have batted first, but memory of earlier game against Bangladesh is still fresh in mind.
3. Dinesh Kaarthick should have played instead of Utthappa, Utthappa has not got any good score in last two games and tried to play poor of poor shots yesterday. DK is a better bet that too with batting second and where balance was required.
4. Harbhajan Singh should have not been there but Kumble would have been the best bet. One can’t afford to see a strike wicket taker go without any wickets. Even if you give 10 more runs but take 3 wickets things do change. If one cant do that there’s no point in he being in the team.

What happens now….
1. ICC looses lot of money because viewers in India and Pakistan might not be keen on the remaining games.
2. Lot of Indian team players can very well settle into their homes for rest of life.
3. I pity all those companies who pumped in money in getting cricketers to endorse their products. Now you see those products and want to buy them, just think how it has affected the Indian team performance!!!!

Tags: Cricket, World Cup, India

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It has to happen to me

I am not sure why such incidents always happen to me. Is it to make my trip’s adventurous or are there any mistakes from my side??
But there is always a bright side at the end of each incident!!

1. Before leaving India for Germany I gave my jacket for dry cleaning. Even after 7 days I did not get it. Finally I had to borrow one from my friend.
Well, the jacket was Liverpool and lot of people enquired whether am fan of theirs. Couple of girls also who showed interest and we had short conversation on Liverpool team and their victory over Barcelona!!
2. When I started my travel from Heidelberg to Hamburg, the train ran into problems. Had to change over to a bus and from next station catch a train to Frankfurt. In Frankfurt I missed my original train so was put into ICE train till Cologne to catch the earlier train.
Well, I would not have travelled in ICE if not for this problem.
3. I was planning for vacation to Helsinki & Stockholm. The weather was so bad at one point of time that I was contemplating to cancel my trip and head somewhere else. But some time I decided am travelling and booked my tickets.
As luck would have it, the weather changed and the temperature was around 5deg which was ideal for travel.
4. In Stockholm, the hostel where I made reservation initially turned out to be a bad experience. While they told me in the mail to reach before 11:00am even at 10:30 am there was no response on the door. When called I got a message that their office was closed till 2:00pm!!
I went to the Hote/Hostel reservation center at the Railway station and as luck would have it, met a Bengali from India who took me to his hostel where there was space available and I made couple of friends over there!!
5. In Stockholm I was out of money and almost all automatic machines did not accept my card. I was thinking of options on how to get some money and finally in the evening I found one which did accept the card. I was able to head to club after that and dance the night before boarding the bus to airport for my return to Frankfurt.
6. In my return journey to Bangalore, from Paris after flying for 1hr the Captain of Air France informed there was technical issue with regard the air-conditioning system. So he cant fly above 1800mts. Nor can he land since the plane was loaded with fuel and they have to burn it completely. This took about 6hrs and we were just rotating about 87kms radius of Paris airport.
We landed at 5:00pm local time in Paris again and after 45minutes changed to a new plane. So instead of landing at mid-night here in Bangalore we reached in the morning about 7:00am and it was perfectly fine!!

Whenever I go on any trip such kind of incidents do happen. Probably if they don’t then something is terribly wrong somewhere. Looking forward to more of such in my future trips!!

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Stockholm by boat

This trip is pretty nice as you get a guided tour of Stockholm on the waters. The guide tells you the landmark and some about history of place. Its worth it.
Now when am walking through the city I would know some amount of history. Of course one can read it on books, but its a different experience and you can also talk to others!!

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