Bye to Ottawa..

This post is just to say bye to Ottawa...This time i stayed here exactly 4 and half months. The first 2 months summer and 2 months winter..Not bad. Enjoyed the stay and work in Flextronics. It was a nice experience.

And this time we experienced a Bus strike here...in the last few days. It was quite unexpected one.
Enjoyed the night parties in weekends and busy week days..:) Had a time to catch up old friends in Ottawa, got some new friends. So, tomorrow we are flying back to India..it is a mixed feeling now...like the thrill of reaching back India and the sadness of leaving this nice city. Yeah..I liked this place very much. Really nice people, good eat outs...( I agree some time people are crazy though) and this time winter was not too bad.

So, thanks to all friends in Ottawa who made this four and half months a real fun and memorable..So, i am pretty sure we will meet up somewhere in life...this world is really small right..?

After a long time, i am back in to blogging

It is a long time back i stopped blogging here..I used to update new entries in my technical blog. Now again, i am having a lot of free time - thats the reason i started blogging...:)

Life is going fine. As most of you know, i am in Ottawa, Canada now. Here winter is about to start. So, going out is not a good option. So, roaming in the city is limited to weekends. I will be here in Ottawa for one more month(It can be less also..not sure about that).

Now i am spending most of the time in reading blogs, learning programming in python, updating Linkedin contacts. Just add me, if you are there.

My Linkedin profile is here: http://www.linkedin.com/in/rakeshradhakrishnan

Today i read one blog entry of Marcelo Toledo - about google workplace. Very interesting...Hopefully all the companies will follow this model. soon...:) So, it is time for dinner..bye now.

Keep your Face book profile Clean.

http://www.hothardware.com/News/Your%2DFacebook%2DProfile%2DMight%2DKeep%2DYou%2DUnemployed/

Post from Kerala

I am writing this post from Kerala. I reached Kerala today morning to attend one of my friend's marriage. Friends from bangalore are coming to Thrissur for attending the marriage. Planning to visit Athirappally waterfalls today afternoon. Will return back to chennai tomorrow afternoon.

The life in chennai is very busy. We are planning to shift to a new house in chennai, mainly we are looking for a very good residential location. All brokers are asking for rent above 12,000/ only. Still, difficult to get house in a good locaton. Search is going on. Because of this, not getting much time to spent in Office.Luckily, not much work in office.But planning to start work from next monday. I bought a second hand splendor bike and a new mobile, Nokia N73.Traffic in Chennai is not bad compared to bangalore. Otherwise half of my salary i have to spend for auto itself. One thing i dont like in chennai is uncontrolled auto charges. New mobile is having a lot of good features i was looking for. 3.2 Megapixel camera,GPRS, MP3 player..and i got 2 GB memory card with mobile. Now i can save as many contacts i want in my new mobile. That was the biggest problem i was facing with my Nokia 1112.

Planning to start house construction in Kerala next month, hopefully. Plan is ready. Some formalities are needed for applying loan. The process is going on. A very good financial planning is required in the near future.

Blogging after a long time

I am blogging after a long time..Blogging sites are not allowed in Office. So getting very less time for blogging. Life is going fine in Chennai. Started work in Office. But not much work. 2 Weeks vacation was good...3 days I was in Bangalore. Rajesh too returned back from onsite, Nepal.

It is raining in Chennai. So, not much hot here. But planning to buy one AC. Else, next two months will be difficult. Started playing football again. Will post new blog entries in other two blogs also...

Planning for some trips in the coming months. Will update latter.

Reached India..

Going to sleep..Will update about the journey later.

Last weekend in Ottawa

So, last weekend in Ottawa started..!! It was a very fast 5 months here. Now 5 more working days here. After that bye to Ottawa.

It was happy days in Mckellars 605. Except weather i liked everything else in Ottawa : friendly people, good food, a lot of free time ..Weather also was good in the first two months. September and October. And by mid November snowfalling started. Still continuing...But it was a different experience. I still remember my North Indian Trip in the last january..i was feeling very cold in the 15 degree celcius of Agra. But now even zero degree is good and if it is positive it is a very good day. In the next saturday i am returning back from Ottawa winter to Chennai Summer. ..:) First few days in Chennai it will be difficult. It is a change from -30 to +30..You can imagine that. Correct?

I reached Ottawa on Sept 23rd evening. Balram and KV was there in the airport to welcome me to Mckellars. I visited Niagara falls in the first weekend in Ottawa itself . Eventhough i went alone, that was an awesome trip..Niagara is really a must see beauty in the world. Before visiting downtown, Ottawa i visited Niagara..:) First few days work was difficult, due to the Night shifts. In Chennai i used to enjoy working in Night time. But here the daily Night shift was not easy in the starting days. Then i started enjoying it by watching films, chatting, reading..really i was lucky. I didnt have much work to do in the Night time. Thanks to all Chennai colleagues for that..:)

Then in September end (? ), Balram returned back to India. But before going he introduced two good friends to me - Riyas and Hisham. In the coming weekends they gave me good company to different restaurants in Ottawa. Special thanks to Riyas for introducing me to the great food of Nandos and Mangolian Village...:). Karthick returned back in November mid. After that two weeks only me and KV was there in Mckellars. December first Ravi and Keshav joined us. Then the next trip was to Montreal. Four of us cannot forget that day. If you check my Picasa album ,you can understand how much difficult it was - worst storm. But really the Biodom and Olympic village was memorable visits. December mid Manju also reached Ottawa. He was staying in Mckellars only..in different appartment. Then what else in December? December 26th, Boxing day..me and KV reached Futureshop at 5:00am. But still we had to wait about 1 hour in the queue to enter Futureshop. Then New year Eve in addiction.. Gaurav(Gauji) reached Ottawa on Dec 31st, 2007.

Then January ..it was one of the best time here. Because we five guys were there in the appartment and thanks to remix guru Ravi's great effort..!! Our cooking experiments went to a different level in January and the food was good. January mid KV and Keshav and in the end Manju returned to Chennai.

February first week Renga joined us. But unluckily Renga and Ravi had to return back within one week due to some issues in the project. Then for the last two weeks only me and Gaurav in Mckellars..Days of experimental cooking..:) But we are successfull. Now i know how to prepare very good Chicken fry(really..). Thanks to Gaurav for recipes..

Anyway it was a good time here.. with some new friendships, good experiences and ofcourse with some savings in account. I will return back to India on March first. Planning to take two weeks vacation after reaching there. I need some rest..to enjoy homely food and the good weather of Kerala...with parents and relatives. Uncommon luxuries of a software engineer..!!