It's been quite a long time...

It all started back in 2005 when I was exposed to this new trend called "Weblog" aka "Blog". Found it interesting and made it as "log" of my little experiments. It has been quite a wonderful journey over the past 13 years.

2018 is very very special for me as there were quite many challenges and was able to crack through them with help of well wishers and support from my family. And almighty who guided me through the hardships for whom I am ever in debt!

2015 moved to USA as part of the company transfer and 3 years just flew of just like that. I find myself lost in this rat race trying to meet the ever changing expectations at work place, family life and importantly on personal front. In an effort to trace back my steps and finding solace trying to look back and pen down more often in this log...

Hoping to write more often and keep writing... 

Recruitment pains -1

Note: Expressed here are my personal views and experience.

All these five years I never felt that recruitment was such a pain. I am not referring to freshers but to the so called experience guys 2+. Was trying to help my friend in getting a good Ruby on Rails resource. Though this was not the first time, and I have done even at all my previous companies but I should say it's a totally, shockingly new experience.

• I heard that in telephonic interviews people try to fool the interviewers under the wrong names or even speaking on behalf of someone else. Observed the same with one of the candidates from Karnataka, India.

• Another great gem who claims to be working for a budding company from past 2.5 years, but the truth is he started working only couple of months back and he was trying to fool us.

• Another beautiful one I can't even think of something like this. A guy claimed to be 1.9 yrs experience in Ruby on Rails went through the couple of rounds of interview and was not bad. So we offered him the position so irresponsible was he, didn't even respond back. So withdrew the offer.

• One of the coolest one, which you got to hear... Another aspirant(friend of above mentioned guy) sent us the same application and claimed it to be done by him entirely.
  

In the whole process what I failed to understand was, why can't people be genuine to themselves. What were such candidates trying to prove?
Can they perform same way, even they were offered the job?
Why do they create wrong impressions and ultimately they will be in trouble by not performing?
...
...
...
I can list many more... but what's the use.

But I would like to stretch out and help other Ruby on Rails recruiters by sharing away their names. Hoping to save others time and money.

Become someone that you are not...

After a great kickoff @ office, we started to the Survo Mansion (Kuokkala).  Well the theme was "Become Someone that you are not..."

It was really fun & frolic... with the dear colllegues donning different roles/characters.  The best part was the Asterix attire of the team.  

  And with some food & drinks, we sta

rted participating, singing, dancing, enjoying the Karaoke.

Well I did chorous for "We will we will rock you..." song & also in our team song... (Ricky Martin's Livin La Vida Loca...)

That was pretty coooooooooooooooooool...

Christmas Party kicked off @ Office

It's just a month before the Christmas, and it's my first Christmas in Europe. Well it's good oppurtunity to get to know lot more. Trip to Lappland is still in the planning stage, but @ office we started the Christmas party and it was kicked off with Glogg, the traditonal way. And all the folks would be enjoying in nearby mansion. Whole night food, drink, sing, dance...
Recipe for Glogg, in case if you want to try out ;)

My First Snowfall in Life @ Jyvaskyla

I was excited to see the little snow fall on the way to my office and whole the roads are painted/covered entirely with snow.  As I said, we captured few more photos over this weekend.

colors @ Jyvaskyla - 3

It's just 2-3 weeks back when I wrote about a new set of colors that are fast approaching in Jyvaskyla. It's brown, brown....everywhere. Most of the trees lost the leaves, stood out with branches, lifeless... But soon, a new color started taking over the role of brown to fill up the tiny Jyvaskyla. Yup as you can guess, it's white in the form of "snow".
Though it started snowing bit early, somewhere 10 days ago. The rains made it tough for snow to occupy pretty faster. But as I got up in the morning I was surprise and was a feast to the eyes.

Could not believe my eyes, though it was sunny still snow took over and took the lead.




So me and Malyadri, decided to go around and capture beauty more over the weekend.
Watch out for more photos ...

colors @ Jyvaskyla - 2

It's already November and I find very little green and more and more brown. Well I mean, trees are losing all it's leaves and now they are left out with branches, stems... the snowfall just started thought I should capture before the trees are painted white.

I am back 2 Jyvaskyla :)

It's been a long gap. Well I can justify by saying that I was at home. Actually I started this blog and filled this blog with many posts only when I was at Finland. Now that I spent a nice time at home with parents and busy with brothers marriage, I did not get much chance to write here.
And the loads of project work kept me busy. Moreover, I also started a blog entirely dedicated to my brother's marriage, highlighting, explaining the traditions behind the (Indian/Telugu) marriages.
The blog is sudheer weds sujani :)

Reached home safely...

The flight journey was good and hassle free trip. I thank one and all who made my journey so eventful
Bijesh
Ganesh
Vamshi
Madhusudhan
Rasheed & his friends
...
...
...

:)

Happy Navaratri...

Navratri (नवरात्रि) is a Hindu Festival worship and dance. The word Navaratri literally means nine nights in Sanskrit; Nava meaning Nine and Ratri meaning nights. During these nine nights and ten days, nine forms of Shakti. female divinity are worshipped.
more...


Wish one and all HAPPY NAVARATRI

Chocolates, Candies...

As the traveling date to India approaching, started going across to take few unique and finnish specials along with me. In the process lot many advised me to carry chocolates that are really finnish. Hmm... I took it up , it did sound good to me as I have few nephews and niece back at home who would love them.
Sonja, my colleague helped me to visit nearest Panda chocolate factory. Sonja and me left to Vaajakoski, Finland which is quite near and just hardly 10 - 15 minutes drive. So many varieties, with her help I did take many of them.







And here is my whole selection of different varities :)


yummy....

colors @ Jyvaskyla

It's been 4 months here at Jyvaskyla. I landed here in June which was mid-summer. Enjoyed the glorious, bright sun through out the day and night. And now started getting the feel of Winter already. Getting used to the foggy days, lazy and not so bright mornings. The best part is the colors I find around. The deep and lavish green trees are slowly losing it's greenish. There is entirely different feeling when I see this transition of the colors.
Today on the way back to home, I was really excited about these colors and took few snaps. It was really good that I captured them...










Hope I capture more of them...

Saunaa and Candle light dinner

Well after tired with shopping I went to Bijesh's apartment which is quite far and made bit more tired. Anyways, it was worth and enjoyed the Sauna at his apartment. During sauna, was talking to Estonian guy, Russian guy and a Finnish for over one hour length sauna.
Now that body got enough rest now rushed backed to apartment to fill my hunger. We cooked Sambar, Majjiga pulusu (masala curd), Rice and had enjoyed the candle light dinner :)




Hmm.... how does this look :)

Shopping, Lunch @ Afghan Restaurant

Very busy and tiring saturday...

Bijesh's call woke me up and I soon joined him at the City center to do shopping. I picked few blazers (Batistini) and suits (Signor) from Dressman. Lots of choice and it was very difficult to pick few and luckily Bijesh helped me with few good deals.
Then we moved to nearby Afghan Resataurant, where we enjoyed the Pizza Buffet.

Team Lunch & Horse riding @ Laukaa

hmmm... a nice break from routine coding, development ...work. It was guaranteed a nice team outing and it is :)
The day of beautifully planned and implemented and every moment was used amazingly.

11.00 Long lunch in Figaro
13.00 Leaving from Jyväskylä to Laukaa
13.30 At the stable (changing clothes, saddling...)
14.00 First groups riding lesson
15.00 Second groups riding lesson
about 16.15 Leaving from Laukaa to Jyväskylä
about 16.45 Back in Jyväskylä
Being vegetarian I have only one choice... vegetable mossaic dressed with few sausages, beans, fried eggplant, carrot...
I know you people would surely like to have a look at it, well here it is:

Well, though it looks simple it was stomach filling
Then we started to stable @ Lauka, it was 30 mins drive by car. As soon as we reached the stable, we were shown the horses and started with few basic tips like how to brush/clean the horse, how to ride!
The whole album here...


More about the stable... http://www.haapasalontila.net/
Map : http://picasaweb.google.com/tosumanthkrishna/HorseRidingLaukaa/photo#map

Ganesh Chaturthi @ Jyvaskyla, Collage

Thought I would explore the picasa3 and started creating movies and collages with the existing photos.  Started with "Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations" - Lord of Obstacles.

From GaneshChaturthi celebrated @ Jyvaskyla

Desi's Celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi @ Jyvaskyla

Ganesha, the elephant-headed son of Shiva and Parvati, is widely worshipped as the supreme god of wisdom, prosperity and good fortune. Read more from here...
Back in India it used to be great gala time. I used to roam around streets to visit Ganesha Idols installed in every street. It is celebrated as 10 day festival with songs/dances/stage dramas/shows, sweets. And the festival mark its end by immersion of Ganesha Idols in nearby lakes/water tanks.
Well there are lot many bests associated in celebrating Ganesh puja. All Hindu festivals start with Ganesh Chatruthi, Lord Ganesha is the bes tower of Wisdom, Lord who clears obstacles, Satsang (spiritual gathering), Singing bhajans, devotional songs and various food items.
I felt I am going to miss all those bests, as I am here at Jyvaskyla, Finland. But believe we desi's made it possible. All the Indians gathered and did the puja in the traditional way.

• Roshan sang bhajans, devotional songs
• Jitender sang few oriya and hindi devotional songs
• I recited Ganesh Atharva Sheershana stotram, Mantra Pushpam
• I narrated the stories relevant to the puja
  

And we had lots of prasadam and sumptuous dinner. Thanks to the hosts :)

@ night Jyvaskyla

Just came back from "night" - is the new night club at Jyvaskyla. Well after last week's disco at Giglin & Marlin, I am kind of becoming a party animal. 'night' is quite a large one compared to Giglin & marlin. The best part was 'karoake', where lots of people gathered around. After 12 the people started gathering at dance floor.
The item numbers started bit slow and very less beat but the 'maha' song pulled me to the floor. Well this was the song that I heard through "Mantra" a telugu movie, where beauty 'charmee' danced to the number. Below is the video from you tube, look into it even you start to dancing to this number.



Well another night at a different disco. It was spent very good till 2AM and worth it :)

Week of Food Experiments. Experiment 1: Riisi

After Sampath moved to Helsinki for a Java project, I was all alone in the house. So I declared it as week of Food Experiments. We have been using Basmati rice during my stay at Jyvaskyla, I started my experiments by evaluating different kinds of rice varieties. By the way "Riisi" means Rice in finnish.

Materials Used: different varieties of rice.
Cooking method: Rinse the rice properly and soaked/boiled in appropriate amount of water as mentioned.
Heating Method: Gas stove.
Temperature: 200 degree C
Cooking time: 20 - 25 mins


Day 1.
I tried with Jasmine risi, thai fragrant rice. I don't know what went wrong but it was burnt at bottom but the top layer was little watery.

Day 2.
I tried with another variety of local brand "Pirkka", par boiled rice. The good thing is the bottom most layer was not burnt but the top layer was left un-cooked.

Day 3.
I tried this time with some fat rice variety and as u guess, even this was flop :(

Day 4.
Back to square, went to nearby shop got my Rainbow brand Basmati Rice!

Conclusion:
Rainbow basmati rice is the best one for my style of cooking :)

Have a nice weekend...
For me it is going to be experimental weekend :)

Disco @ Giglin & Marlin...

Another weekend celebrated with most enthusiasm. My friends Aditya and Ganesh were here at Jyvaskyla on a official trip and had a fun time at our house. Cooking, discussing, joking pulling each other legs and many more...
As usual it's another rainy day at Jyvaskyla, but decided to start to pub once I am done with my phone calls. Grabbed few burgers and coke at Hesburger and then entered Giglin & Marlin disco pub. We realized it was to early and had initial round of drinks and slowly as more and more people are pitching in DJ started playing the nice tunes and the soothing to nice beat songs.
Well it was all dance and dance, with lots of bubbly girls around.






I can only say, another weekend spent nicely... :)