A year ago in Tokyo - Incredible experience

This weekend the weather in Aalborg was very unusual (atleast for me). The sky was completely cloudy and dark. We saw some light around 8:30 AM and sun set was around 4 PM. My Danish colleagues told me that winter days are going to be even worse. This saturday, Europe switched to winter time - so we gained one more hour during weekend for our misery. Due to bad weather, we didn't plan to go anywhere. I was tired because of last week's Hamburg trip, so didn't step out of the house for two days.

During whole weekend I was either sleeping, watching downloaded movies, browsing and uploading previous trip photoes to web. While uploading pictures, I found few photoes which I clicked in Japan a year ago. I became nostalgic for a while. Last year October I was in Tokyo -Japan for one month duration on my office work. Though Japan is one of the very costliest place for living, its a must see place. The people, concrete jungles, beautiful Japanese gardens, shrines and most efficient sub-way system impressed me a lot. I am sure anyone will get impressed with Japanese people's hard work and quick recovery from world war mishaps. Since my stay in Tokyo was short, I was decided to get best out of my stay in Tokyo. I stayed in one of the best hotel - Westin Tokyo. The price per one night stay was around Rs 15,000/-. My room was in 16th floor and the windows of my room showed me the best possible view of Tokyo city.





View from my hotel room window in Tokyo

I was in Tokyo office to co-ordinate the work between local engineering teams and teams spread rest of the world. Apart from co-ordinating, I am suppose to analyse critical problems and dispatch it to corresponding teams which are distributed across the globe. I was doing same task back in Bengaluru for previous 4 months. So it became routine job to me and I was quite comfortable with the task. Everyday I was reaching office around 9AM and leave the office around 5 PM. After office hours I use to catch subway trains and reach the most happening places in Tokyo !! There were few other colleagues from Bengaluru, Hyderbad, Malaysia and Chicago were also stationed in Tokyo. Though most of us from same company, we didn't know each other because either we were in different team or different location. Most of them already spent their one month time in Tokyo and they are all quite familiar with the city. It didn't took much time for me to get comfortable with them. I knew only one guy out of them, Simon Matthew - a Malaysian national and working in malaysian office. He is born in malaysia to Indian immigrats and his roots are from Kerala. Simon was in Bengaluru few months ago for training. I had showed him places in Bengaluru while he was in town. He reached 3 weeks before I reach Tokyo and he guided me to book hotel etc.. Simon is gizmo freek. He had owned all the latest electronic gizmos at that time. Most of the evenings myself and simon were visiting happening places in Tokyo like Akihabara, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Giza and Roppangi. Akihabara is name of place in Tokyo where you will find latest electronic items like laptops, cameras, media players, memory, gaming consoles...and the list goes on... Akihabara is believed to be mother of all electronic markets in the world !!! It's a very crowded place with lots of high rise buildings occupied with electronic super markets. On the streets, sales boys will be selling Hard disks, cameras etc for cheaper prices. Again as I mentioned earlier nothing is cheap in Tokyo. I was under the assumption that electronics stuff would be cheaper here, but it was more costlier when compared to USA eventhough it is designed in Japan. But you will get very good quality products. Infact I noticed that many shop keepers placed big "Made in Japan" boards in their shops to attract the tourist crowd. I fell in love with Cowon PMP (Portable Media Player) and didn't think twice to buy it in Akihabara. I paid around Rs 15,000/- for PMP. It was so attractive that, Simon also bought the same with in few minutes of my purchase !! Later when I was in Chicago I showed my PMP device to my friends and six of them purchased the same brand in USA !!






A small radio shop in Akihabara.

Roppangi is famous for it's night life. It attracts most of the tourists, especially tourists from westren world. It has high rise buildings with bars, pubs and good restaurants. Myself and Simon visited few pubs followed by famous "Hardrock" restaurant. Simon didn't forget to get "Hardrock - Tokyo" T-shirt.

I was regular user of hotel's top class gymnasium. Believe me, it was one of the best gym I have seen before. It had highly sophisticated equipments. I remember that, trademills had TV embedded in it !! Hotel guests were working out while watching BBC news on their trademills. Since Westin hotel had most english speaking staff, most of the hotel guests are from Europe and USA. Many beautiful girls (probably air hostess) were regular visitors of gym and they were working out in gym to enhance their curves ;)

Since I had 4 or 5 weekends in Tokyo, I had make sure that every weekend is properly utilized. I visited all major tourist attractions in and around Tokyo. I visited world heritage centres, shrines, tokyo old town streets, educational museums etc. Poornima (from Hyderbad office) was also staying in the same hotel as mine. She suggested me the best places to visit.

"Yokoso! Japan. Traditional Japanese Market near Asakusa shrine - Tokyo"



Centuries old Buddha's Statue on nearby coastal town near to Tokyo.

Apart from seeing places, I secured three good friends in Tokyo. Simon, Poornima and Venkat (Indian settled in Chicago). We four of us regularly meet during our dinner's and having debates on various issues related to India. Venkat is IISc alumini, worked in India for few years both in public and private sector companies. Later he moved to USA. He has extreme views on latest political developments and was capable of suggesting his own solution to problems !! During our dinner in restaurants, Venkat was one side of the debate and we three of us on the other side :) Before Venkat return to Chicago, he also purchased Cowon media player after seeing mine. Later when I visited Venkat's house in Chicago sub-urban area for christmas dinner, he told me that Cowon media player is the one of the best item purchased for himself in recent years. He was using media player during his work out hours in Chicago office.

After spending one month in Tokyo, I returned to Bengaluru on the eve of Diwali festival. One month stay in Tokyo was Incredible and I had best time. Someday I just want to go Japan and see the places like Kyoto, Hiroshima, and Osaka. I will be waiting for that day !!

Break between academic levels

Travelling in a train is always fun for me. Train journey takes you to meet new people, get to know about their opinion, experience etc.. Now a days invasion of personal MP3 players, FM and mobile phones avoids intereaction with people. Today's generation just plugs the ear phones and they avoid chances of conversation with fellow passengers.

Well, let me come to the point. Last week I was travelling to Århus (in Denmark) by train. The journey time between Aalborg and Århus is 1:30 minutes. Since it was Autumn holiday week in Denmark, there were more passengers on the train than expected. Most of the seats in the train was reserved, so I couldn't get hold of a seat. After few minutes, I started conversation with a Danish girl who was standing next to me. She was studying in Århus university and travelling back to Århus. After we got introduced each other, I asked about her studies, university and about student life in Denmark. While she was answering my questions, I felt that she is more matured for her age. She was looking around 18 to 20 years old and she had good knowledgeble about her country, other major countries, social issues.... Out of my curiosity I asked her educational qualification. She said that she is just started her 1st semester of her graduation and she is 19 year old. After few more minutes of conversation, she told me that she took one year break after high school (equivalent to 12th Standard) and working in Estonia for YMCA. YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association) is a world-wide Christian, ecumenical, voluntary movement which seeks to share the Christian ideal of building a human community of justice with love and peace. If young people approaches to work volunterily, YMCA trains them and send it to countries where their service is required. The YMCA takes care of their food, shelter and little amount of pocket money!! So this girl went to european country-Estonia which is russian border to teach underprevilaged kids. She learned the language of Estonia and intereacted with local people for a year. During that year she got the time for herself to decide on next level of education that suits her. I learnt that it's quite common for students to take a year break from studies after 12th standard. It seems very few people directly go to University, after their 12th standard. Most of them choose to work with voluntary organizations and few others chooses to work and make money for their next level of education.

I really like the idea of taking a break from our academic years. Although I agree that situation in India is completely different from westren countries. But a year break can make you think about yourself, travel to different places, meet different people, learn some new culture and more importantly time to decide what do you really want to be. I said myself, look at the amount of knowledge and confidence this girl has !! When I compare myself at that age, I was nothing !! At that age, my world was my small town and I didn't knew much anything beyond. In India, most of us always aim for basics..bread and butter. We hardly think about doing something un-conventional. Although now a days things are changing slowly... but only in higher middle class and rich families.

The student life in Denmark is quite different compared to us. The education is free in Denmark (ofcource they pay hefty tax, ranging from 50% to 70%) and hold on, it's not just that. Government pays students 4000 DKK for every month. That was incredible !! It is free education and students gets decent amount of money which is sufficient for comfortable living.
I told her how lucky they are and she quitely acknowledged my comment.

I did not realize my journey while talking to girl. We reached Århus, almost the whole journey standing in train. I thanked her for nice conversation and we departed in our way.

A bribeless day in RTO office !!

I had only two days before I leave to Denmark on my work assignment. As usual I was in a hurry in buying and packing stuff. Since this was my first visit to european country, I was enquiring about lifestyle and transportation in Denmark. I got to know that in Aalborg (the place in Denmark where I suppose to work for couple of months) have very good transportation system and there is no necessary to have personal transportation. Since I had lot of fun while driving car in US, I wanted to drive in Denmark too :). Apart from fun I felt that exploring any new place using car is much easier than public transport especially in westren countries. So I started collecting information from people and from the Internet. When I googled about driving in denmark and denmark's driving license, I got shock !! Inorder to get Danish driving license a person needs to spend more than 10,000 DKK !!. I said forget it... I can't spend Rs 75,000/- just to get driving licence. Later for my relief I came to know that I can drive in Denmark for a year, if I have International driving permit :)

The immediate question which came in my mind was how do I get International driving Permit(IDP) just in two days? Should I visit Indiranagar RTO office premises and pay some astronomical amount of money to agent for getting IDP? Hmmm........No...I am sick of paying bribes to those useless people for no reason. Believe me in Bangalore I even paid bribe when I went to pay my housing tax !! I decided to get my IDP without paying bribe/commission to any body. I discussed with Kedar (who was visiting denmark along with me) and he also liked the idea of getting license without paying THE BRIBE.

Since I just had two days, I did not want any delay in getting driving license. I knew that If I don't want to pay bribe, I had struggle for providing lot of documents and more trips to RTO office. I visited Karnataka's RTO web-site ( http://rto.kar.nic.in/IDP-PROCEDURE.htm )to know about the documents that are required for IDP. Luckily I had all those documents that were mentioned on the web site. I just had fill couple of forms and get the Doctor's certificate saying I am fit for driving (Ofcource not to forget about Rs 500/- fee). I informed Kedar about the documents which he needs to bring and we decided to meet in Indiranagar RTO office @ 10 AM of next day. So far so good.

Location : Indiaranagar RTO office.
Day and Time: Thursday, 10 AM.

Myself and Kedar filled up the necessary forms. We had everything except Doctor's certificate. I thought of visiting any of the hospital in CMH road, but I was not sure if those doctor's will write such certificates. Even if they give such one, is that valid? or Do I need get the only from Govt. employed Doctor ? While I was trying to find answers for above questions, Kedar found a Red Cross symbol on a Room which is just under the RTO office !! we both got into the clinic. We both looked all corners of the clinic, no patients and no typical smell of hospital. It didn't take much of time for us to understand about that clinic. It is specifically established for giving medical certificates, which is required for applying driving license !! In a corner of the "clinic" a person signing the medical certificates and collecting money. He is charging different amount for different kind of application, even though number of signatures were same across the applications. For new driving license it was Rs 30/- and for International driving license it was Rs 50/-. My eyes were searching for a board that holds the qualification of the person....I found it on his table. He did his B.Sc followed by M.B.B.S !! I guessed that he must be earning more than regular doctor who works in clinic all the day by treating patients....smart guy isn't it ?
We came out of the clinic after getting out fitness certificates and started walking towards a section in RTO office to submit our applications.

On our way to submit the applications there were many agents asking us if we need IDP, they guessed it by seeing the applications in our hand. Just for our curiosity we asked how much do we need to pay if we want to get IDP without any hassles and their answer was Rs 2000/- !! We waited about 10 mins near the submission counter and a person turned up to accept our applications. He cross checked our documents and said that we were missing Rs 1000/- valued National Savings Certificate (NSC). What the heck? I argued with him and told that it is neither mentioned on the web-site nor in the application form. He impatiently told that it is new rule and the web site is not updated. We didn't had any other choice but to get the NSC from post office. After spending 1 hour in small post office which is ground floor same complex we got NSC bonds. In that 1 hour I saw people were paying monthly Recurring deposits and getting updating their account books, that made me nostalgic. By the time we had NSC bonds in our hand, it was 12 PM and we had hardly a hour and half to submit the applications. We both rushed to counter to submit the application. The person who drove us to post office has once again started cross checking our documents and once again he made effort to find anomalies in our application. This time he gave us a big shock saying we can't apply for IDP in Indiranagar RTO office !! The reason was our addresses belongs different zone. I did not expected it, because I got my driving license from Indiranagar. But there was new RTO office opened in KR Puram and my home address belongs to KR Puram administrative premises. So he asked me to go to KR Puram for applying the IDP and Kedar to apply in Jayanagar RTO office. The agent outside the RTO office promised us to get IDP without NSC bond and in same Indiranagar RTO office. What a irony? Since we decided not spend extra money over government fees, we didn't opt for it. We had less than hour and half to apply the IDP, we immediately left Indiranagar and start riding our bikes towards our respective RTO offices.

Time : 12:30 PM
Location: KR Puram RTO office

I paid Rs 500/- as IDP fees and I was ready to submit the application. The clerk verified the documents and saw my face. He realized that I came with full preparation and not ready to pay any bribe. He asked me to get couple of signatures from higher authorities in the same office. I spent 30 minutes in Q to get those signatures and submitted the application finally around 1 PM. Clerk asked me to come next day to collect IDP. He also instructed me to collect IDP with his junior clerk as he was on leave on next day. Although in web site it is clearly mentioned that IDP will be issued on the same day of application, I didn't argue about it as it was already 1 PM.
As soon as I came out I called Kedar to know about his status. He was not as lucky as me, he is asked to submit affidavit about his identity !! He couldn't able to submit on the same day as it took time to get the affidavit. He applied it on next day morning.

Day and Time : Friday, 4PM
Location : KR Puram RTO office.

I stood in front of a clerk who is supposed to give me IDP. He gave me IDP after taking signature on a book and he starting looking at my face. From his gestures I understood that he was expecting something from my side. I acted as if I wasn't aware of such thing and came out of office. Haaa finally I had IDP in my hand and that too not paying any bribe !! I was satisfied
and the license was just in time for me. Kedar also went to collect his IDP. Although the clerk bugged him to buy military stamp (not sure if that was authentic stamp), he didn't entertain it.

Well... that was my day in government office without any bribe :)

My Thoughts

My Thoughts

An Old Railway station

An Old Railway station, originally uploaded by rameshbabukv.

This picture is shot in Karnataka and Andhra border, India. It is an 30 year railway station cum railway gate. This is no longer in use. This picture is edited using Picasa

Never Give up !!!

Never Give up !!!, originally uploaded by rameshbabukv.

Shooted in Bangalore Kanteerava Stadium. These kids are practising for near by local sports events

Hobby

One of the FAQ when filling up some kind of forms is about Hobbies.
Many times I really confused what to write in this specific field.
Yes, I used to have few hobbies in my childhood like Stamp collection, Coin collection, painting etc.., But as I grew up I lost hold on my hobbies. This may because I start concentrating on my studies and after wards starts earning for my butter and bread. I could not able to re-look into my hobbies now a days. Recently I was talking to a friend about hobbies and I thought about my "lost" hobbies. While discussing with a friend, I thought I should start looking into my hobbies again on my free time.

I have seen many saying (rather I would say complaining) they will not get free time for their hobbies (Ofcource I am one among them). One should not blame on thier office work/time for losing their hobbies. We have to adjust or make the time for our hobbies. Nothing comes easy without dedication and time. All we have to do is start with your favorite hobby and spend some time (atleast once in a week) for it. Next time when you filling Hobby section of any form you don't have to think as I did.