The little House on M.G. Road

When I read the news about The India Coffee House closing operations on M.G.Road, my first thoughts were of a close friend to whom visiting this unprepossessing cafe is almost a ritual.

I remember my irritation at his all too frequent phone calls apologizing for being late at our meetings almost every Friday; that is until one day he revealed that sometimes his weekly Friday breakfast with friends at India Coffee House extended and he had to call in late. The avid romantic in me instantly forgave and forgot :-)
He also went on to tell how every Sunday, after the morning service at his church he spent hours at the Coffee House over a lovely breakfast of scrambled eggs and tea (oh yes, they had fabulous tea too!)

It became almost a habit with me too, though I preferred their soft and spicy masala dosas and soggy vegetable cutlets. Pub-savvy friends never understood our adoration with this almost shanty place, but anyone who likes history will definitely get attached!

The looks, ambiance, history and culture of the place have all been very well discussed and described in several articles available online; this post of Wikipedia, this one in Times of India and this in The Deccan Herald.

As some of these articles say, irrespective of whether you idled over a single cup of coffee, or have a continual stream of dishes arriving at your table, it was immaterial as to how many hours you sat there. Even when it was crowded (unbelievable as it may sound, certain hours of the day had long waiting queues, despite it being 2 floored!) there was no sense of hurrying the patrons, although the waiters waiting tables perceptibly increased their gait.

All you needed was an interesting book, the crisp early morning and a window seat on the upper floor of the Coffee House. The rare sight of an empty M.G Road, devoid of honking vehicles, parked bumper-to-bumper with bustling people sauntering amid always brought a sense of wonderment at how the road would fill up during rush hours. On winter mornings, the east end of the M.G.Road shone with the rising sun while the dome of the Vidhan Soudha glittered in the refracted light at the west.

As if all this wasn't enough to seduce a romantic heart, one day I suddenly noticed a glass of rose milk on the next table; it was light baby pink with with little pink hearts! That did it.. and the place became a must-visit for every adventerous relative/friend who visited me! On par with Koshy's and Firangi Paani!

My parents, sister, her family, my brother, my husband; all of them have been cajoled into that place by me at some time or another, and after the first experience have never needed any more coercion to return.

When the news appeared that the Coffee House would shut shop on M.G Road and hopefully resume sometime soon on Avenue road there was a flurry of phone calls from USA to India with the news, and for the duration of that call we fleetingly smelled the strong aroma of coffee and once again tasted the insipid vegetable sandwiches :-)

Essential process skills for IT

New technology skills are important, but having just technology skills will get you only so far. As IT gets more involved with massive projects such as corporate telephony systems, and with integrating new technologies that affect directly how business processes operate, project management and process skills are increasingly taking center stage.

"In IT today, just about everything is project work," says Kirsten Lora, a business training director at Global Knowledge. The exceptions are mundane, operational jobs such as backup." Concurs her colleague Walsh, "It's like a military campaign and requires tremendous project management skills."

Trainers recommended five key process-oriented certifications that career-minded IT staff should consider getting: PMP or CAPM, ITIL, CBAP, ISO 20000, and COBIT.

The Project Management Institute's Project Management Professional (PMP) credential requires three to five years of direct project management experience just to get in the door. For those who don't have the requisite experience, the Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) is a good start, indicating that you have a fundamental knowledge of project management principals as defined by the PMI and can be a valuable contributor to a project team as a subject matter expert, liaison, or coordinator.

With companies struggling to run IT more like a service organization aligned to company business objectives, ITIL is the third key process-oriented certification to get. "For people looking at career paths, ITIL is where many IT organizations are headed," says Global Knowledge's Lora. She suggests starting with the foundation-level training to become familiar with ITIL principles and the organizational attitude involved. "If you're going to join a business that is using ITIL, you really have to understand the culture." Even if your business isn't doing ITIL, Lora says the training adds to your marketability if you're considering a career change. "We're seeing ITIL pop up in state government, hospitals, finance, systems integrators, the federal government, utilities, and so on."

The ability to effectively collect, define, and manage customer requirements are especially valuable skills in project management. "I've seen more deployments fail because people didn't know how to gather customer requirements," Walsh says. "You might roll out a new IP PBX with all kinds of cool new features, and then the customer says, 'Didn't you know we needed such and such features to handle customer transfers, etc.? They were on the old PBX. Bring it back.'"

A certification that is especially useful for gaining skills in gathering customer requirements is the International Institute of Business Analysts' Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP), Lora says. The CBAP requires five years of business analysis experience, but you can often get credit for many aspects of your IT project management.

Knowing how to measure risk and success effectively is also a process skill in demand. "For that, you're looking at ISO 20000 or COBIT training," Lora says. ISO 20000 is an international standard for delivery of IT services based on customer requirements, and COBIT is a set of best practices for IT management.

http://www.globalknowledge.com/training/generic.asp?pageid=2275&country=United+States&translation=English

Once upon a time, 200 years ago

This February 12th is a day for celebration. Why? Because, on this day in 1809, Charles Darwin was born. Darwin made a huge difference to our understanding of who we are and where we come from by establishing that there’s no external design to the evolution of life, just infinite possibilites.

The Hindu published a tribute on the bicentenary of his birth. Read it here.

Partial Solar Eclipse 2006 ... and Shariah in Swat

A partial solar eclipse is seen through a crescent of a Mosque in Islamabad March 29, 2006.

Go to Article

Trull Brook Tennis Center

Well, they don't have a website, so here is a consolidation of some information relevant to playing tennis at Trull Brook.

Location:

Trull Brook Tennis Center,
170 River Road, Tewksbury, MA 01876
Ph: 978-851-3133

Trull Brook conducts a program called The Next Champions which trains players of all ages and capabilities. Check their website for more information.

It also houses a Tennis Equipment Clothing Store, which has a considerable collection, with affordable prices. Information about ongoing sales and discounts can easily be obtained over phone.
There are 4 indoor courts at the facility, well maintained and during winter the temperature inside is quite equable. I haven't used the courts in non-snow seasons.

Courts can be reserved on hourly need basis or for long term contracts panning the entire season of several months. For regular players, contracts rates afford decent savings. Non-contract rates are based on hourly costs and vary based on time and day of week.

2008/2009 Non-Contract Rates:

Weekdays (Monday - Friday)
7:00 am - 9:00am - $18.00/hour
9:00 am - 5:00 pm - $29.00/hour
5:00 pm - 10:00 pm - $33.00/hour
10:00 pm - 11:00 pm - $24.00/hours

Weekends (Saturday & Sunday)
7:00 am - 9:00 am - $20.00/hours
9:00 am - 9:00 pm - $33.00/hour
9:00 pm - 11:00 pm - $25.00/hours

Courts can be reserved up to two weeks in advance.

There is usually at least one person manning the front desk and the rest is self-service. An ante-room also has a tiny kiddies corner with some colorful desks, toys and books. There is a vending machine, a refrigerator, a microwave oven and a coffee maker.
There is also sit in area with 5 tables seating at least 20, where players gather to spend time socializing. Over weekends, I've noticed usually all 5 tables are occupied with hot sweaty players sipping beer and munching on party eats :)

The courts can also be reserved for Saturday night tennis parties!

So, if you are looking for a different way to spend the weekend and don't mind hitting some tennis balls, reserving a court for 2 hours at Trull Brook is worth it. Did I mention there is also a golf course next door... and you can always request the front desk for some old balls if you forget to bring your own!

An unusual Valentine's Day eve

Caution: Irrespective of what you read here the only lesson to learn is that it 's futile argue with your better half, precisely because that person is indeed the "better" half

It started when I decided to book the tennis courts at the tennis centre for 9:00 to 11:00 PM. Of course, my partner was to be hubby darling, so I checked his availability, which I got in ambiguous terms, but knowing his indecision I nonetheless confirmed my booking, and of course communicated the same to him. He ACKed (as a telecom person, I should've recognized the significance of an ACK v/s a CONFIRM or ACCEPT !)

On his way back from office, he realised his car-pool pal had forgotten his cellphone in office so they turned around. Point being, it was almost time to leave for the tennis court when time hubby touched home base. Any rational person can imagine my exasperation when he met me with the news that he had arranged to meet his cronies between 8:00 to 10:PM. I was prepared to tear out his hair and skin, but sufficed with some old fashioned slamming in the kitchen. Finally, like any married couple we "compromised"; he'd get out of his game early so we get sufficient time to hit some balls.

Thus placated I stormed out of the house to the car, and thence started the ordeal. Usually irrespective of who locks the house, I handle the keys. But remember, I was bugged, I was storming out, so hubby took on a new responsibility. At the tennis centre I sat reading Management Principles (by Dogbert) and counted each second of the 90 minutes, while hubby tried in vain to get his returns to cross the net. Oh, the sadistic pleasure :-)

Soon the half-hourly bell tolled and it was 9:30 PM. After practising some serves we were in business. Oh, I forgot to mention that sometime earlier I had gone to the car to get my wristband, and in the process removed the keys to the car from hubby's racket bag. Anyway, several straight hitting, cross courts, down the line, forehands, backhands, overheads, volleys and approach shots later the bell rang for 11:00 PM and it was time to go home.

Hubby looked through his bag and not finding the car keys turned to me; I assured him I had them in my bag, dug about in the Sports Authority bag I carry, and excavated it from all the other meaningful items therein.

After 3 hours of play hubby was tired, but it is a matter of principle that I don't drive at night unless an emergency, so he drove the 25 minutes it takes us to reach home. On the way I persuaded him to detour and he grumpily drove extra 4 miles in the opposite direction to the 7-11 store. I wisely picked some Butterfinger ice-cream; the wise say way to a man's heart is through his stomach. His smile was evidence enough. In the apartment parking lot he put out his hand for the house keys and there unfolded the truth.

"I don't have them", I said.
"You said, you did", he said.
"I thought you meant the car keys, which indeed I did have", said he.
"I was asking about _all_ the keys", he said.

That went on for some time, but basically the plot was the same. Finally we realised, it was 11:30 PM, the parking lot was windy, getting colder and we were locked out of the house! Principles of problem solving tell us, problem definition is 50% problem solution. But here we were no closer to entering our home. Remember, I had stormed out of the house? So I wisely considered the fact that hubby had forgotten to lock up and we wishfully plodded to our unit and rattled the door knob sufficiently to be convinced it was indeed locked. What next?

Hubby called the tennis center to check for a set of lonely keys, but the center was already closed; it was after all past 11:30 PM on a Friday night.

"Lets book into Marriot", said hubby.
"What?! Are you nuts? Walk into Marriot in these sweaty clothes? No way!", said I, dredging up every shred of fashion consciousness I had.

Hubby suggested 911 but I refused; my principles did not allow me to waste tax payers' money on a non-emergency.

We decided to call the cops; but not having been in any cop-sy situation we didn't know the number. In fact we were unaware of where the town police station was! I suggested walking into the Fire Department office and SOS-ing them, but hubby vetoed saying "have you seen any movies where people simply walk into the fire department?". I wanted to refer to Mr.Monk but, well, that was beside the point.

A brainwave later we called 411, got the local police station phone number and hubby had a friendly chat with person in charge. The result was an overawed hubby and still no entry into our home; the cops were friendly and even suggested they'd send out a trooper, but sorry, they couldn't break down the door or pick the lock. And no, they didn't have any ladder or rope that would let hubby climb into our 1st floor balcony. It was after all a non-emergency. Ah-haah!

For one insane moment, hubby contemplated attempting to scale up the icy banister, but gave up the thought when I tentatively suggested it might be tad slippery and falling down was certain to wake the neighbours. Forever considerate, my hubby ;-)

Last resort, friends; after all a friend in need is a friend indeed (sic!). A process of elimination based on early sleepers left us with only one name; my friend who had just moved into a shared accommodation. I knew she kept late hours, as did her landlady. After a sheepish and hesitant conversation I was reassured it would be perfectly fine to show up at this late hour.

And so, we GPS-ed our way to her apartment. She was waiting at the door wrapped in a shawl. Laughing at our plight we all turned to enter the house and ... oh horror.. we were locked out again. When she stepped out to greet us the door had snapped shut behind her !

Luckily her landlady was home and another quick sheepish call later we were warmly ensconced in makeshift beds of sleeping bags, quickly thrown together assortment of comforters and cushions, and an oversized T-shirt that my relatively petite friend could find for me.

We woke up to a bright morning, and a bracing cup of coffee later were back to operation key-hunt. The tennis centre had nothing; we even drove there to see for ourselves. Being a weekend, the site office at our plaza was closed and would open only on Tuesday; sometimes long weekends can be rather tedious. Finally, hubby called our house owner, who was fortunately free to drive 10 minutes to let us into our home.

Home, sweet home !! Oh the pleasure of the couch, TV remote and rice with fried fish ;-)

But guess what?! The keys were finally located at the tennis center. So much for all the puzzling about the mystery of the lost bunch of keys.

..Oh, and... Happy Valentine's Day! :-)

Nothing healthy here !!

Racing pulse... erratic heartbeat... Soaring blood pressure... Gnawed nails... glazed eyes... abnormally high levels of stress and tension !!

1 set each, 5 games all! Each matching his shots to the other's... stunning precision.. and .. oh, did I mention the overwhelming stress of watching this high level Australian Open men's final ?

There's nothing healthy about the King Fed - Rafa legendary rivalry !!