The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is doing awesome!.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 2,000 times in 2010. That’s about 5 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 3 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 22 posts. There were 3 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 147kb.

The busiest day of the year was November 26th with 44 views. The most popular post that day was A month after 26/11 Mumbai Attacks!.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were en.wordpress.com, en.search.wordpress.com, soumyaism.wordpress.com, google.co.in, and sunnysideofliving.wordpress.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for 26 11 photos, rewind, 26 11 mumbai terror attack, 26 11, and mba scanner.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

A month after 26/11 Mumbai Attacks! December 2008
2 comments

My One Year Old Dead Laptop! December 2008
3 comments

Done being a student! December 2008
9 comments

Terror Attacks on January 13th? January 2009

Two weeks later in Saudi Arabia – First Impression May 2009
2 comments

I wasn’t in the best of moods to talk and the guy spoke for nearly 15 mins which felt like an hour asking questions over questions about things that they provide that I don’t know and care about! I gave either ‘Yeah whatever!’ or ‘Oh you fellas do that also eh?’ kinda answers. He continued asking questions as if he meant, ‘Yeah, thats all you can answer, dimwit!’

Seriously, who calls at 2pm in the afternoon when even if one was in the best of health, could be taking my afternoon siesta or could be a lady rolling on the floor crying about the plight of Sita or Gita on famed Indian afternoon soaps on television? The next time I get such calls, I am going to talk like I know no english, I brush my teeth once a month, I care more about my cows than my wife and I have no time since I have to take my cows to graze and give them a wash at Madivala Kere!

Love
Sen

The only thing I want to do today is to make you – SMILE!

Wish me luck! Big day tomorrow! :*

Love
Sen

Love

Sen

We took a Saudi Arabian Airlines’ flight on May 18, 2009 that would take us from Bangalore directly to Riyadh. I was travelling along with my HR Manager Mr. Raja. The flight was scheduled to leave at 1.30pm, but took 30 minutes more for reasons that weren’t explained to us. We took our allotted seats and waited patiently for the flight to take off. We landed in Riyadh 4 hours and a few minutes later. The very first process at the airport, that of getting ourselves immigrated, pissed me to the core. We had to wait for 4 long hours, standing in a line predominantly populated by other Pakistanis, Indians and Bangladeshis. The staff at the airport would treat you terribly if you are brown. It doesn’t matter if you have come for business, leisure or for toiling in scorching sun to lay roads and build building for them. Finally, when our turn came to face the immigration officer, we had to show our passport, get all our ten fingers scanned and get our photograph taken.

When we were finally done and came out, you cannot but feel the hot Arabian weather. It is hot as crazy! Yet, since there is absolutely no humidity here, you won’t sweat a bit. Luckily, my company had sent a driver who was standing for us outside the airport with our names printed with bold letters on an A4 sheet. He took us to our office-cum-residence close to Thabab Street near Olaya. I currently stay on the road exactly opposed to King Fahad Medical City. As you drive back from the airport towards the city, the tall buildings, fast cars and wide roads would never stop amazing you. Since Olaya is like the Central Business District here in Riyadh, you can find all major food and clothing brands here. The city is peppered with shopping malls, fast food joints and apparel stores (many of whom offer great discounts!). I knew my next few weeks here wouldn’t be as bad as many of the people had warned me about back at home.

My first few days passed by meeting clients and working on few marketing material for our new office. I also had a chance to go meet my sister and brother-in-law who also stay in Riyadh. At least, there is someone to make me feel at home. Each evening we take a walk on Thabab Street and go eat Shawarma Rolls and drink a tin of Coke. Taxis are available in plenty and don’t charge you a lot due to cheap oil. You can normally go to any corner of the city for less than SAR 20-30 (Around $8), if you negotiate well. Most of the taxi drivers here are either Pakistanis or Bangladeshis. They normally try to chat with you asking where you are from, how long you would be staying in Saudi and other questions that would let them compare their own lives against yours.

I had a chance to go to a lot of hypermarkets, apparel stores, shopping area including Hyper Panda, Tamimi, Geant, Centerpoint, Carrefour, Euro Marche etc., and there are tones of other places that we have planned to go visit sometime soon. I also had a chance to go visit ‘Kingdom Tower’. It’s the tallest building here in Saudi Arabia and is 300-ish meters tall. They have constructed a skywalk right at the top from where you can see the entire city. At night, the city is fully lit up and looks lovely. The food here is also great. You get to eat a lot of things here. I just loved Cinnabons and Dunkin Donuts. Coke and Pepsi is also cheaper here compared to India with a tin selling at Rs. 13!

I guess my first impression of Riyadh has been pleasant and I have started to like this place a bit. But staying away from my dumbo, family and friends is the toughest thing to do. I really miss home and at times feel so lonely out here. But since I would be back home in another two weeks time, I try to not think too much about home and depress myself. I intend to write a lot more about specific incidents that took place here since I came over. Hope you find them interesting.

Love
Sen

Of all the nominations, the three bagged by A R Rehman was the best of all. I always used to wonder, as to why there are so few Indians who are top notch in their chosen field. Yeah, we do have formula one drivers, movie stars, olympic athletes, hockey players, politicians and all the others. But how many of them are so accomplished like A R Rehman? Very few.

Now with Rehman’s nominations, we have new hope. We can now believe that India does have the potential to produce world class talent. I just hope Rehman inspires a million others to do what they are doing best and keep working harder. For if we do that, awards are just around the corner.

At least something to cheer about!

One of my classmate Sandhya, sent me a text message a couple of days ago. This is how it goes-

13 May – Jaipur
      June – X
26 July – Ahmedabad
     August – X
13 September – Delhi
     Oct – X
26 November – Mumbai
     December – X
13 January – ??
Where  Next?

Please be careful in the week of January 13. This is the observation of the sequence of bomb blasts. There is no harm in keeping ourselves alert.

Take care and spread the news. We want everyone safe.

While the intention of the message is great, I was just curious if there really was a sequence? And if there really is, why wasn’t the news more prevalent. So let’s do a google search to check if the sms is really credible.

Except for the fact that the Nov 26 attacks were carried out by LeT and SIMI, the more I google about these issues, the more evident it becomes that it does look like a sequence. So could January 13 be the next chosen date? With only 2 days to go, god and terrorists (and hopefully our intelligence bureaus) alone know if another attack is under way.

God forbid another attack on India. We cannot take it any more. My prayers for India and her people. Hope this is just a co-incidence and not really a sequence. Please do pray!

Love
Sen

A month has gone by since Mumbai had yet another terror attacks. The incident shook me as it did the entire nation and individuals across the globe. My immediate reactions were that of anger – against the government, against the terrorist groups who caused this gory incident, against the security forces and officials with whom India’s safety was trusted with and against us Indians for suffering from short term memory loss!

In a way we all are like Aamir in Ghajini. We tend to forget after a couple of days. We tend to forget that India is a victim of terrorism and politics. Even as the terror attacks were being aired on national news channels, me and my close friend Dumbo were discussing how we will soon forget the incident as time goes by. But I guess I was wrong in a way. Indians woke up like never before! People criticized politicians and their inability to run this country well.

A month has gone by. The case is far from being solved. Accusations and denials are still being made. India and I are confident that Pakistan is in someway involved. But in the grand scheme of things, my opinion doesn’t factor in. Each time I see Pakistan denying that it is involved, I feel we should give Pakistan the benefit of doubt. If not, India should provide hardcore evidence and have other countries to vouch for India’s evidence. While the governments in these two countries fight out the truth, my concern is with civilians of India and Pakistan.

My cousin Vicky is eleven years old and I asked him, ‘Is Pakistan good or bad?’. He replied saying, ‘ Pakistan is definitely bad. They are trying to attack India and killing Indians’. I am sure if I were to ask a Mohammad or Saeed in Pakistan, he’d say the same about India. Somehow in all these governmental issues, we civilians get caught in a web of hate and curses. I think an average Pakistani is as innocent as an average Indian. Sure, there could be thousands of terrorists across the border fighting in the name of religion. But how different are they from Raj Thackeray or Bajrang Dal? How different is what they are trying to defend different from what the terrorists are trying to defend? And in between all these hooligans, why should normal Indian and Pakistani Citizens suffer?

At times like these, we need to think harder and try to see the truth in all the accusations that is being heaped against each other and do our level best not to stereotype! I am sure all these fights have caused more trouble for people on behalf of whom these terrorists claim to be fighting.

If at all anyone deserves our anger, it is our lazy and corrupt government servants. In the days to come, we should do our best not to forget the Mumbai tragedy and keep the pressure on our government to keep working towards finding answers and eliminate individuals and groups involved in this heinous crime. Also, lets pray for the families that have lost their loved ones and for all those risking their lives to safeguard our country and her citizens.

Let tomorrow be a more safer day for India!

Love
Sen