Traveling near restrooms in the train isn't fun

I had an interesting (rather horrendous) experience during my return trip from Tiruppur, last week. I had booked two tickets (for me & my wife) from Tiruppur to Chennai. Both the tickets were in the Waiting List (single digit waiting list number) until the last day. Most of the times, the wait listed tickets get confirmed just before the charts were prepared. Unfortunately, only one of the two tickets got confirmed during the day of the journey. I went to the station and checked at the "Inquiry" department. The person at the counter recommended me to board the train & check with the TTE if there are any vacant berths. It was too late for me to cancel the train tickets & to take a bus to Chennai. Also, it won't be comfortable to travel in a bus, with a kid (There is only one stop in-between the whole journey & kids cannot control peeing in-between). I decided to take a chance - hoping that I would definitely get a berth since I'm traveling with a female & kid.

The train (Allepey Express) came to Tiruppur at around 10.45 pm and we boarded the train. To our surprise, there were already 3 folks sitting near the restrooms because their tickets are wait listed. All the lights inside the coach were switched off and the coach was completely dark. All the other passengers were in deep sleep. I asked my wife and kid to get into the confirmed birth. I waited for the TTE to show up. The train started to move and pick up speed. I waited with the other 3 passengers near the restrooms. The TTE showed up in about 15 minutes. He said all the berths are booked and there are no vacant seats. At about 11 pm, the train stopped at Erode and all my 3 companions got down/vanished.

I was the lonely person sitting near the door/restrooms. It was not a pleasant experience, though. I was very tired and fell asleep in about 30 minutes. However, I couldn't continue to sleep for more than an hour. The smell emanating from the restrooms was constantly increasing as more and more passengers start to use them. To add to this, there was a trash bin close to the restrooms. It was filled with cockroaches and mosquitoes, that were busily scavenging the left overs of food parcels. I couldn't imagine how I was able to sit there for such a long time. But, I didn't have any other option. My eyes started to burn and I went back to sleep again. Around 4 am, the TTE stopped by and asked me to take a vacant berth. I had a sound sleep for 2 hours.

The few hours that I spent near the restrooms made me to think about several issues in the system - the 'automated' ticketing system that confirmed just 1 out of 2 tickets, the unhygienic condition of the restrooms, the fate of poor passengers who travel in cramped 'unreserved' compartments etc., At least, I was better-off traveling in an A/C coach :) I'm thankful to the TTE who let me stay in the A/C coach. The state of unreserved coaches is pathetic. They are packed with people and there is hardly any space to walk or even to comfortably sit. We keep talking about human values and human rights. But, people are packed like cattle in these unreserved coaches. When would the system change? I'm very confident that the system wouldn't change, unless we do something about it.

Also read:

I love IRCTC.CO.IN
Skywalks in Train Stations - What are they for?
If I don't care, who'll care?

Kovai Trip - Maruthamalai/GCT visit

We went on a short trip to Coimbatore, last
weekend to attend a couple of weddings. I visited Maruthamalai temple & Government College of Technology (GCT) after nearly 7 years.

The thought of Coimbatore brings deep memories of the past - a colorful college life ... filled with lots of dreams & ambitions, 5 or 6 of us eating from the same plate at hostel, exciting college tours, sleepless combined studies, vibrant college symposiums, campus interview preparations, watching movies from the front rows, chit chats in-front of tea shop ... the list goes on and on.

We took Nilgiri express from Chennai which promptly reached CBE Junction at 5 am. We got down the train and came out of the station. It was still very dark. However, the place was very busy. It was filled with people everywhere. Tea stalls were busy catching up the morning crowd. The weather was slightly cold. We tried to rent a hotel room near the station, for a short stay. We couldn't succeed in getting a reasonable accommodation at an affordable cost. We decided to go to Maruthamalai and rent a hotel room there. We went to the bus stop and waited for Maruthamalai bus. In the mean time, an auto driver was eagerly trying to persuade us to board his auto rickshaw. He closed the deal at Rs.120 for taking us to Maruthamalai. I was pleasantly surprised. An auto driver in Chennai charges the same amount to take us from just Choolaimedu to T.Nagar !! He took us through the streets of Coimbatore and I was reminded of the days when we used to walk back to the college after watching night show movies. He dropped us at a hotel near the foot steps of Maruthamalai.

Also read:

Rameswaram Trip Experiences
Tirupati Tirumala Temple Visit - May be the last?
Tiruchendur Temple Visit - Poojari's demanding money

We rented a room in Hotel Podhigai Regency. It appeared to be recently built and they gave us a single bed room for Rs.600 (one day stay). We got ready, had breakfast at a road side restaurant and visited the temple. There aren't any decent restaurants in that area (Well, the same restaurants looked decent to my eyes 12 years ago). We took the mini bus from the bottom of the hill to the top. There are some infrastructure changes going on at the temple. Other than that, there are not many changes. We spent a couple of hours there and came back. We then took a bus to GCT Coimbatore.

We reached GCT, at around 10 am. The famous 'Mahalakshmi bakery' where we had our late night tea was missing. Vasanthi bakery was still there. The 'Kayyeandi Bhavan' where we used to have our dinner most of the times was also missing. We entered the college through the 2nd gate (boys hostel gate). The college looked very colorful. The college playground, and the surrounding trees/bushes looked fresh, as if they were just painted in green. In general, the college campus looked very clean. I went to the CSE department and met Prof. Lakshmi Prabha (HOD) & Prof. Annadurai (Ex. HOD, some regional head now). We had an hour long conversation. Except for the seminar hall (which was upgraded with teleconferencing facilities), the remaining infrastructure looked pretty much the same. Lots of multi-national companies such as Oracle, AIG are visiting the campus these days for recruitment. CS department had 100% placement last year. The folks in the college are very upbeat. I heard that hostels have Internet facilities and most of the students have laptops/computers. We spent another 1 hour going around the campus and taking pictures of Auditorium, Canteen, Class rooms, Stationery store, Hostels, etc., When I left the campus, I was very emotionally moved. (Also read: Infoquest 2010 in GCT, Coimbatore  World Classical Tamil Meet 2010 - Coimbatore)

Life is so wonderful. You never know what is in store for you. Dreams change. Ambitions change. But, you keep moving on. The world is full of unopened doors.  Every time you open a door, you are exposed to new things in life. I'm quite excited about the beauty of this life and its mysteries. We don't have to worry what will happen to us in future. If we can make sure that we do our best in the present, our future will definitely be bright and beautiful. OK! Let me stop right here.

Also read:

Rameswaram Trip Experiences
Tirupati Tirumala Temple Visit - May be the last?
Tiruchendur Temple Visit - Poojari's demanding money
Infoquest 2010 in GCT, Coimbatore 

R2I - List of MNCs in Chennai

Are you planning to R2I and looking for a job in Chennai?  Wondering what are some MNCs/Product companies in Chennai? I've made an attempt to compile the list of MNCs/Product companies in Chennai (includes hardware as well as software companies). Hopefully this will help folks who are planning their R2I to Chennai and looking for a job.

Also read: 10 tips for R2I salary negotiation 

1. Alcatel (AlcaLu)
2. Amazon
3. Adobe (formerly Efficient Frontier - careers section will list Chennai Jobs)
4. Aruba (now, acquired by HP) 
5. Ballys Technologies 
6. Bank of America / BA Continuum (Ascendas Tech Park, Taramani)
7. Cisco/Scientific Atlanta 
8. Cavium Networks 
   
9. eBay/PayPal (No 334 Futura IT Park Block A, Old Mahabalipuram Road, Sholinganallur, Chennai - 600119) +(91)-(44)-66348001 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              +(91)-(44)-66348001      end_of_the_skype_highlighting, 66348000)
10. Force10 Networks  (now Dell)
    
11. GigaMon
12. Ericsson
13. Extreme Networks
14. IBM  
15. KLA Tencor
16. Oracle
17. Qualcomm (formerly Atheros)
18. The Fabric Startups (for ex., Velocloud & Pensa Networks)
19. Solar Winds 
20. Symantec 
21. Verizon (Olympia Tech Park, Citius, Block B, 3rd Floor, 1, Sidco Industrial Estate Guindy, Chennai, Ph: 044 43945142) - doing OSS/BSS work
22. ZOHO (formerly AdventNet)
    

The following are some MNCs in the Engineering / Construction domain:

1. Caterpillar
2. DOW Chemicals
3. Petrofac
4. Foster Wheeler (acquired by AMEC)
5. Saipem

Naukri maintains a list of 150 software/IT companies in Chennai. However, most of them are Mom 'n Pop type companies.

(Note: This list is not complete. If you happen to know about other product companies/MNCs, please drop me a note)

Related Posts:

• Work environment in India - Then & Now
  
• How to search for an R2I job?
• Cost to Company (CTC) - Peeling the Onion

Tips to get a good deal on flight, hotel and car

Once you have decided your destination & your trip duration, you are ready to make the travel arrangements. How do you get the best deal when making the travel arrangements for your trip? This blog post summarizes the strategies that I follow to get good deals when booking flights, hotel and car.

Booking flight tickets / car

Most of the times, airfare is your single biggest expense during your trip planning. Search on multiple websites like Hotwire.com, Expedia.com, and Orbitz.com. They would list a number of deals to select from. For example, if the listing shows deals from American Airlines, then go to American Airline's website and check the price. Most of the times, you'll get a better price if you directly book through the airline website. You can also adopt the same strategy for booking a car for your trip. Most of the times, I get good deals when I book directly from Alamo Car Rental.

Booking Hotel

The strategy that I adopt for booking flight tickets/car doesn't work for me when trying to book a hotel. Many times, websites such as Hotwire.com, and Hotels.com, provide good deals for stay. I've had lots of good experiences and pleasant surprises with my Hotwire.com booking. You'll get a 5 star hotel room, for a 3-star price. The only limitation with Hotwire.com is that they have hotels listed only from prominent places & cities. For example, you may not be able to find a good deal for a hotel room near National Parks, through Hotwire. You may have to try Hotels.com, in such situations.

If you want to find a really cheap accommodation, try Motel6.com. The Motel6 hotel rooms are in decent condition and at the same time, their price is also reasonable. Motel6 is for people who just want a place  to sleep for a night. You may have to read reviews carefully before you book a "Motel" for your trip. Most of the times, Motels are occupied by lorry drivers & low income people.

General Tips

• Even if the price given in websites such as Hotwire, matches the one given in airlines/car-rental web site, I would recommend booking through the airline/car-rental website. Booking done through airlines website are cancel-able & hence, you'll get credit, if you happen to cancel your trip in the last minute. Websites such as Hotwire, do not allow you to cancel the booking.

• When booking a rental car or hotel or airline, do not say that you are a corporate customer. The pricing for corporate customers is typically high. There are handful of chains that provide discounted fare for corporate customers. You have to be cautious about that. (To validate this, try selecting the "Corporate Customer" option and you'll notice that the prices are bumped by 10 - 20%)

• When you try searching for deals through web portals, the web portals will remember your session information through cookies. If you are wandering in the same portal for a long time, they'll increase the fare after some time. You'll be tempted to book right away (before the fare goes further up). Don't get caught in the trap. Try using the same web portal through a different browser instance (For example, if you have been using Firefox for the search, use IE for booking). You'll notice that the fare is different/lesser, now. This gimmick is not done by popular websites such as Hotwire. However, I've seen this happening in a few websites.
  

• Some of the airline websites allow you to book flight tickets + car + hotel (as a single package). In most of the cases, the combined fare would exceed the cost of booking them independently through different websites.
  

• Do not try to book tickets from websites whose primary business is not selling travel packages. For example, if you start your booking of tickets from websites like Tripadvisor.com, you'll be charged a premium for their service.

• Try to book cars from rental facilities in airport. You'll have the flexibility of 'renting' & 'returning' your car any time. Car rental facilities outside the airport are open only during the regular business hours. So, you may not be able to return the car at your convenience. You'll have to hold on to the car until the shop opens, the next day. You'll be unnecessarily paying extra charges for the additional time.
  

• Car rental facilities outside airport typically give good deals for weekend rentals (i.e., Fri evening to Monday morning).
  

• Some websites offer discounts when you pre-pay for the rental. If you know for sure that you are going to travel on a given day, pre-pay the costs. At times, you would get up to 10% discount on the fare (Alamo.com, offers pre-pay discounts for car rentals).

[* I have not used priceline.com, that much. So, my findings do not include the experiences from priceline.com]

Also read:

Places to see in USA

How to plan a sightseeing trip in US?

How do you plan a sight seeing trip in US? What is the process involved? What are some useful websites to gather information regarding your travel, places to see, hotels to stay, etc., How to get the best deals when booking car, hotel, flights etc.,? Where can you get some useful feedback from 'real people' (as opposed to just marketing blurb)? You'll find answers to all such  questions in this post.

What qualifies me to write this post?! Well, I've visited 32 different states in US and have made at least 15 sight seeing trips in a row with my family (which includes a toddler). I'm more than excited to share the art of planning for a trip, with all of you. (Disclaimer: The more trips you've made in US, the less useful this post will be to you.)
 
In the best interest of my readers' time & to improve the readability of the post, I've decided to make it as a multi-part writeup. The first part will talk about 'Selecting the Destination and Places to See'.

The first thing you should decide when planning a trip, is your travel destination - "Where do you want to go? Do you want your vacation to be relaxing or tightly packed? Are you interested in doing a lot of activities or do you just want to do sight seeing? Do you want to drive to a destination or do you want to fly? Lots of these factors go in, during the decision making process. Also, it depends on your family members, their health/fitness conditions, your interests, etc.,

Once you have identified a set of destinations for your trip, the next thing you have to find out is "Is this a right time to go there?" For example, you should visit places like New Hampshire in Fall, Portland during Spring, & Glen Canyon or Crater Lake during summer. Your timing of the trip is very important and it influences your travel destination.

The third big question is "Will the trip or destination fit my budget?". If you have budgeted just $200, all you can do is a simple road trip to a nearby place. At the same time, if you have $2000 or more, you can do a fun-filled trip to Hawaii or you can take a cruise. So, your budget for the trip is very important in deciding the "destination".

The fourth question that you should ask is "How many days do I want the trip to be?". The number of days of your trip is dependant on your work schedule, the destination, your family members, your budget etc., Most of my trips were about 3 - 5 days long and it worked out well for me.

After finalizing your destination, you have to identify the list of places to see in/around that destination. You need to do a lot of research for this. Here are some tips:

1. Look at Trip Advisor. This website gives lot of useful tips regarding 'places to see' with real user reviews.  
2. Visit About.com. They have lots of interesting articles about special destinations (such as New York, Hawaii, etc.,) 
3. Visit US National Park Service website. This website provides useful information regarding all National Parks in US, monuments & historical sites 
4. Search Wikipedia. Wikipedia gives information regarding the destination, culture, people, important land marks, etc.,
5. Look at State/City web sites (or Chamber of Commerce websites). Each state/city in US maintains a web site and those websites have tourist/visitors section listing the 'sight seeing places'. For example, this is the website for the City of Idaho Falls and there is a link for visitors.     
6. Search through Yahoo Answers. Yahoo Answers has a travel section and there are so many active participants there. You can get lots of useful tips, suggestions and help from the folks, there
7. Look at the List of Places to See in USA article 
8. Do Google Search. A simple "places to see in " would show thousands of entries. Of course, you need to read 100s of articles to gather information
9. Search Google Maps. Google Maps also provide some information regarding the attractions near to a place/locality. Just type "attractions near " in the search box. You'll see lots of results. 
10. All modern day GPS devices provide travel details regarding nearby attractions, museums, historical sites, etc.,. They make your trip planning very easy. If you have postponed the job of 'selecting the places to see' till the day of your trip, just buy or rent a GPS. You are all set for the trip. In fact, GPS helped me very much during our road trip. Otherwise, we would've got stranded.

Hopefully, this post gives you enough tips to select your travel destination and the list of places to see in each of those destinations. The next post in this series will give you tips regarding How to get the best deals for airline, car, and hotel booking?.

Heavy Rain turned Chennai to Venice

"Rain rain go away... come again another day!". My daughter sang this rhyme passionately for the last several days, standing at our door steps and staring at the rain. The continuous rains, in the last 1 week, turned the whole city upside down.

In the past, I have seen/experienced several such rains in Chennai, as a pedestrian. Several years ago, I was once hit by a motorist & I fell into a pool of stagnating water along the road side.

This is my first rain experience as a motorist, in Chennai. So, the experiences are much more interesting. The following are some after effects of the heavy rains in Chennai:

1) There is water everywhere - along the sides of the road, in subways, inside houses, and at times, filling an entire street. This causes hardships to motorists and pedestrians.

2) The flow of water & the moving vehicular traffic has created pot holes in almost all the roads. For the past few days, my two wheeler drive is really hurting my back, because of the bumpy roads.

3) Rain water gets splashed at you, by vehicles that move along your sides and on to your front. You should definitely wear a rain coat or a jacket, not just to escape from the rains but also to escape from the water splashed by these vehicles. Yesterday morning I saw a shocking incident on the road. A moving car splashed a pool of water on a bicyclist. The bicyclist had a folded umbrella in his hand. He banged the umbrella heavily on the car and created a huge dent. The car didn't stop. First of all, the car driver should've slowed down on seeing a pool of stagnating water. Second of all, the bicyclist shouldn't have got so much anger. I'm sure the bicyclist caused atleast a few thousand rupees damage to the car.

4) Government did a good job of cleaning up the 'coovum' river, a couple of weeks before the rain. However, the tons of garbage taken out of 'coovum' river still lies on the road, in some areas. They haven't disposed/cleaned them up. So, due to the heavy rains, the garbage is again going back to the 'coovum' river.

5) Storm water drains are constructed in several parts of the city. I live in Choolaimedu and the rain water quickly drains in a few minutes. I don't see water stagnated in any of the nearby areas. However, I heard that some places in Velachery are terribly hit by the stagnant water.

Some folks are concerned because the growing real estate industry has converted several small lakes & pools into residential communities. Hence the rain water is entering the city's streets, instead of getting stored in designated locations.

I'm not sure how long it would take for India to build an infrastructure that is comparable to the developed nations. Definitely, miles to go... Until then, Chennai's residents can enjoy their free Venice trip experience.

Also read:

Driving on Indian roads - Pleasure or Pain?    

Two Wheeler Service Experience

Power of Attorney for NRIs - FAQ

Are you in US? Are you thinking of buying properties in India, on your name? Do you want to authorize someone to buy/maintain your property? You can give Power of Attorney to a person you trust (your parents/relatives) and they can do the property related transactions on your behalf.

1) What is Power of Attorney (PoA)?

A Power of Attorney is a legal document in which you give another person legal authority to act for you.

You can find more details from http://www.nrilegalservices.com/

2) Can I give Power of Attorney to anyone?

Yes. But, it is highly recommended to give Power of Attorney only to folks whom you trust.

3) What should be the text in the Power of Attorney?
   Are there any sample Power of Attorney documents?

Please find here the link to a sample PoA document

4) Should I type the Power of Attorney text in a stamp paper?

No. It is not required to print the text in a stamp paper.

Look at the consular website. It gives more details regarding how you should use the stamp paper, if at all you've to use a stamp paper.

5) Can I take a printout of Power of Attorney text in a plain sheet of paper?

Yes. You should take printout of PoA in a plain sheet of paper (A4 is fine)

6) Should I get the Power of Attorney attested by Indian Consulate?

It is not a must that PoA be attested by the Indian consulate. For example, I was able to buy a property/land by just getting the PoA notarized from a local notary.

However, it is recommended that you get the PoA attested by Indian consulate if your transaction is complex (for example, if you are getting loan from a bank, you may be asked to get the PoA attested by Indian consulate)

7) What is the process involved to get the PoA attested by the Indian consulate?

The consular website gives detailed information regarding the process involved to get the PoA attested

8) Can I get the Power of Attorney notarized by a notary?

Yes. In fact, I prepared the PoA on a plain sheet of paper and got it notarized in US and sent it to my dad. My dad registered that PoA in India and he was able to buy property on my name & maintain it on my behalf.

9) Where can I find additional information regarding PoA?

R2I Club Forums has a separate thread talking about PoA. You can find some information there.