I just read that airlines are now levying charges to book the tickets via internet. This is being followed by low cost airlines like SpiceJet and Indigo. According to the news report, some of these low cost airlines are already charging for booking tickets via phone and now this. Already with increasing fuel prices, air travel is getting more and more expensive and these guys are making travel even more expensive by adding all these weird surcharges. I feel, people should just stop traveling for a day on such flights, may be then they will realize that the consumer cannot and should not be taken for such rides.
Author: Akshay
I am Akshay Varma, a Project Manager who likes writing, taking pictures, and listening to music. I am mainly work with projects in transition and onboarding of new client projects and business transformation. I like writing about current affairs and how they effect me, my personal life and anything and everything which comes to my mind. I like landscape and bird photography. Humans as photographic subject don't attract me :). This is a personal blog and thoughts written here are my own and do not reflect/ represent those of the organization(s) that I am with in professional or personal capacity.
Enter if you believe in reincarnation
I found this on the web.. Needless to say, I was ROFL after I saw this.
Up and running
So after suffering for 5 days from acute viral conjunctivitis, I am, finally, up and running. I have still been advised to keep taking drops but instead of 4 times a day, just 2 times a day. Hopefully, I wont have any eye problems going in the future.
Interesting news
Just saw this in the The Times of India. I don’t know what to comment on this one.
Trip to Nathdwara
So I am back from my trip to Nathdwara. This time we decided to take a different way altogether to get there. Usually we take a train to Falna and then get take an hour and a half cab ride to get to Nathdwara. This time, since we could not reserve the tickets on time, we decided to bus-it all the way to Nathdwara. To be honest, the bus journey was not all that bad. The route from Surat to Vadodara (Baroda) on NH-8 is where we experienced the worst roads on the entire journey. I should definitely say that an awesome job has been done along NH-8, the roads are in prime condition and it feels wonderful to sit in the bus and enjoy the (almost) bump free ride.
The thing about Nathdwara is no matter what time of the year you visit, you will always find people. No such thing as an off season here. This time I have been very fortunate to witness such beautiful darshans. Since the festival of colors, Holi, is around the corner, the mood was pretty colorful with plenty of colors thrown in the air, lots of singing and dancing. They have also increased the praying time for certain darshans from 20 mins to 45 mins, which sort of helps. But then if you are late, be prepared to miss the aarti, which is the best part of the darshan.
A few more irritating things have popped up lately. Mobiles are no longer allowed in the temple complex. I have no issues with that, but just the whole thing of handing your expensive phones over to the security guy outside who barely makes enough is a pretty discomforting thought to me. I am not saying that they are cheats, but just that I preferred to leave mine in the hotel room, rather than hand it over to the security guide. Another irritating thing that I have found is this whole thing about the VIP darshans. This is basically paying some amount and get to view the darshans, before rest of the common junta joins in. I dont think God told these temple authorities, I am willing to give a more better darshan if you charge 100 bucks from this guy. Just more way of making money for the temple people. Another thing I observed that while doing the service (seva), doodh seva (milk service), phool and shaak sevaf (ruits and vegetable service), the people who collected these things from us started asking for more money. I personally got very much annoyed with all these constant demands of money everyone around.
The food as usual was great, nothing beats Kathiawadi food other than mother’s cooking. We also shopped a lot, dresses, food, salts, herbal products, photo frames, etc. It was all very tiring. But overall the trip was excellent. Mom enjoyed a lot, she had been saving quite a bit for this trip and it felt good that she enjoyed it thoroughly.
Now my next trip is going to be somewhere in North East or Vaishnodevi. It is about time I explore India fully before heading out anywhere.
We won We won
Yes, we beat the best team in the world cricket, twice in a row now and in their own den. After getting abused by the Aussie players, their media and their public, to defeat them in their own tournament, it does not get any better than this. Go Team India.
Black hooded Oriole
Posting this after quite a long time. I am trying this posting by email thingy. It may or may not work. The reason for it being I don’t have internet at home and I can’t access blogger etc from office. So this is probably one of the only few ways, I can blog. Well the bird below is, Black hooded Oriole, (thanks Kits). I took this picture last week when I saw this colorful bird outside my balcony and I was like hang on a minute, I have not seen a bird like this before. I wish I had a better camera with a more powerful zoom, than I could have taken a more close-up shot.
Lately..
I have been very much depressed with the way things are turning up around me. It is more or less got to do with the current work environment that is around me. A lot of people are feeling that they have not been treated properly by their employers and thus do not seem to have that motivation to work. This is sort of created a very negative atmosphere in the team, which makes my life more difficult than before. Secondly, what has been bothering me is an office romance between two of my colleagues. I am a firm believer of the saying “one should not dip his pen in the company ink”. I just feel that if you are going to have an affair with a colleague, you might as well keep it under wraps. But here I have people busy chatting on their office IM’s or dialing each others extension numbers and chatting during office hours. This is what I hate about an office romance. It just becomes a distraction for everyone else. 
I hope that the involved couple realizes this and takes this affair outside the office. Other than that, I have been suffering from a minor chest infection because of the cold. Been taking medication for that and feeling better than last week. Other than this.. I think I dont have anything much to share.
January
This month has been very interesting for me so far. The first two weeks were sort of entirely spent in the office. Starting January 2nd, until Jan 10th, I can probably say that I spent around 75% of my time in the office. It is good that we dont have such deadlines very often.. just once a quarter, better than many jobs though. The difference between working during deadlines in the US and here, is that people over here tend to get kind of bitchy and pissed off because they want to go back to their families. While working in the US, I did work with people who stayed with their families.. but they never got bitchy. These guys would be in the office until 4am in the morning and still show up at 10-11am the same day. Overall, I am pretty satisfied with the level of effort with the way the team functioned during the deadline. No major hiccups, no issues, everything went pretty much smoothly. The best thing usually happens after the deadline, when we get to party and get a couple of days off. We had the same deal this time also and it was well utilized.
The weekend after the deadline was pretty much relaxing. I got a chance to catch up with a few friends. Last weekend my grandfather, from my mom’s side, passed away. He was quite old and was suffering from throat cancer since last 6 months. It was quite tragic when it happened. But in hindsight, we kinda knew it was for the best. He had suffered quite a bit during those 6 months. He went from someone who could walk, speak, eat on his own, to someone who was bedridden, had to be tube fed and could not even write. In the end he passed away peacefully, looking at my grandmom. It was so hard to believe he was gone. It really hit me when I was at the funeral, that I would no longer be seeing him. He would no longer be coming to our house and sit in his favorite chair and read the newspaper. I just hope he is happy where he is now and watching me, guiding me and helping me make the right decisions.
The month is almost over.. it has been an eventful year so far.. lets see how the rest of year goes.
New Year Hoopla
I really fail to understand all this hoopla about the New Year. I mean what is so special about this day. It is not like, the beginning of New Year washes all your sins, frustrations, etc away. It is not like on the 1st Jan every year, the slate is clean and we have to begin fresh. I mean if that was the case, then I would understand all the revelry associated with the New Year. But thats not the case. It is not like, I woke up today morning with super powers in me and now I am a Superman. I still have the same life, same job, same tensions. Nothing is new. According to some people it is just one night to enjoy, well if thats the case, then I enjoy almost every other Friday/ Saturday. So I simply fail to understand what is the hoopla about New Year’s about. It is very surprising to see almost 6 billion people on the planet be so happy about being served with old wine in a new bottle.
Anyways for those who believe in New Year’s.. Happy New Year to all of you. And for those who dont, Happy Tuesday :).
My thoughts...My story 