Perfume Factory

It has been 9 months now since I moved to Bay Area.   Life is moving so good so far. Having been lived in Kansas City for an year before, I find a huge difference if I compare both. Though bay area is more ideal place to live , I still somewhat miss Kansas City may be because of the people I met there or the slow paced life compared fast moving life in bay area.

Some of the things I like here is .. it is lively place. The place is more vibrant compared to the central US.  Unlike Kansas, I get to see more people everywhere. The environment is more casual. It reflects in workplace as well. People prefer not to wear formal dresses. Work timings  are flexible.  Even meetings, most of the times, are  informal.  Since Bay area has silicon valley, it has more IT companies  than any other place in the US.

Bikers in SFO

Weather is ideal. It neither gets too hot during summer nor too cold during winter. It doesn’t snow at all. Though it is good to snow once in a while, but people who lived in the snow areas know the significance of it and how much trouble it carries along with it.  You wont face those blizzards or shutdowns like in east coast or in chicago.

The weather in bay area is more or less like Bangalore weather. I haven’t felt much variation though Bangalore sometimes gets really hot during summer.

As a tourist destination, it has beaches, coastline, woods, bay, hills, museums, recreation parks and many such attractions. Bikers are in more number in bay area. You will see bikers everywhere riding mountains, woods, on shores. Infact many people commute to office using bike. Public transits including local trains, buses provide provision to carry bikes. Talking about public transportation, it is very good here. There are trains and buses connecting every location of bay area. One can manage without car in bay area.

SFO Panorama View From Twin Peaks

Things I dont like.. bay area is super expensive. Taxes are high. It is not just affordable to live here if one is getting low wages.  The city fast faced. More pollution, more noise and traffic.  Stress level is more compared to the central US.  But that is obvious I guess.

I am liking it so far. I hope I would continue here for some more period of time.  Oh yes.. there are lot of places to see around bay area. Expect more blog posts on it

One fine day during Summer, I was waiting for caltrain at South Sanfrancisco station. There was a girl near to the ticket machine who was waiting too. She was so cute that I couldn’t wait to tell this to my roommate who was standing beside me. He looked and found her as average looking girl. I became bit upset with his not so affirmative reply

I told, my computer, look how cute and pretty she is. My computer, when fetched her details from its master database, got confused about my reaction as most people in its database had rated her as average looking. It even tried to ask me reevaluate my rating stating the girl’s average ratings. Furious me, announced a penalty to my computer for doubting my judging abilities.

Later I realized that the reason for finding her cute was due to the resemblance of her face to that of my first year college crush.  This was one of few secrets which I didn’t tell to my computer and it couldn’t find anywhere else.

The other day I found another girl who looked cute to me and who was looking similar to my one more crush in the final year of college.  My computer, as usual, found this girl as average looking again. But previously punished and based on its learning’s from its previous mistakes, it didn’t suggest me to reconsider my rating this time.

In the span of next two months, I found few more girls who were looking similar to my two college crushes in one or other features. One had similar eyes while the other had similar hair. I had told everything about these girls to my computer and what I had liked most in them be it a eyes or hair or smile.

Initially confused computer now had a more clear idea on my taste which is drastically different from the rest of world’s taste. Though the computer didn’t have details about my crushes, it did have details of few girls who I found similar to those crushes. Based on those details, computer analyzed its database and recommended few unseen girls whose details were similar to those of girls that I had found cute.

In fact, the computer went a step further and recommended few more who had combination of multiple features that I had liked most and are individual feature in earlier cases.

My computer, though never aware of my crushes, gave  recommendations who look similar to my crushes and sometimes even better a hybrid of both.

PS1: This is how the recommendation of Amazon, Netflix, Linkedin and other sites works.

PS2: The process explained in the above post is called as Collaborative filtering and recommender engines used in the sites mentioned in PS1 is one of examples of collaborative filtering.

PS3: The process of learning itself based on its previous mistakes is called machine learning and plays very important role in A.I. and related research areas.

You know very well how long it takes to reach to office in Bangalore if you are staying in residential areas ( I don’t consider Electronic city / Madivala / BTM as residential areas ).

These long commutes make commuting people bored. To beat boredom, people keep themselves engaged in several activities like listening to music, reading books, sleeping, thinking and also some stupid things like observing bus in which they are sitting, seats & its nuts and bolts, scribblings written on back of seats..etc.

Many do one more activity.. observing other commuters; watching them when they board or alight. Several people call it with several names.. starring, ogling, watching, observing.. etc. Whatever you call it, it is one of the most common things people do during commute. I also used to do that.

Watching / observing people, as I call it, helps you to identify a pattern in them. It helps you to identify people’s likes, preferences, style statement,  dressing sense, habits and even their relationship status. Yes.. even relationship status can be identified. It is very easy to identify whether a person is single or committed or married or has bf in bus or at some other place over the phone. Guesses might go wrong but most of times it would be accurate prediction if you have acquired the skill of observation.

There was this girl who used to commute from my area to office in the same bus at same timings.

She never used to talk to anyone either with fellow bus-mates or over the phone. She was not hot or sexy. She was an average good looking girl. She was just another commuter in the bus. Yet I used to observe her a lot.

I prefer a two seater window seat of last but one row. Her preference was also a two seater window seat but of mid row. I never felt of sitting next to her or talk to her. I had always chosen last but one row in spite of several opportunities when a seat next to her was not taken.

Eventually I had to come to US for an onsite opportunity. A year stay away from homeland had totally removed her out of my mind.

Last month when I had gone to India, bus journey to office again reminded me of this girl. But I could not find her in bus during my whole stay of  month. Some of obvious thoughts that came across.. she must have gone to onsite or married and moved to some other area or city. But that was not the case.

The day before my departure to US, I saw her. I was in bus. She was in opposite bus stop standing waiting for some other bus. She was wearing a different company ID tag. She had quit the company.

This post is dedicated to her.. who I never knew.. who was a stranger yet so familiar.. to an infoscion .. now an ex-infoscion

Here you go.. with yet another year end .. here is yet another year end blog..

Change is inevitable… change creates space for improvisation.  Here are few changes that happened in my life in 2009

• Came to US in June on a client assignment. This onsite thingy is a win-win-win model. Employer, employee and client.. everyone wins here. Green Grass Fence formula applies here too. You have to come here to realize what it is.
• Visited New york,  Niagara, Thousand Islands and St. Louis as a part of US Travel. Blogposts on them yet to come.
• Bought Sager Laptop, Cannon Digital Rebel XSi, Sansa Clip+ and N900. Blogposts on each of these yet to come.
• Learned life skills after staying alone for 6 months in a flat.
• Experienced American Culture & Lifestyle. I can write as many blog as I want on this topic. This would be the greatest takeaway for me from US.
• Developed photography as hobby.  I have started photoblog too.
• Experienced snowfall and severe cold weather. Minus 20 deg C was the lowest that I ever experienced here in US.
• Tried foods of various cuisines.
• Missed family, friends, blore and Infy. Made new friends.
• Improved a lot as a person. Less selfish, more expressive, better PR, better communication and better skills.

I wish you all a very happy new year. Welcome 2010

Today ( 9th Nov ) is Shankar Nag‘s Birthday. It has been more than 19 years since he left this world.

All though he started his career in Marathi theatres but later moved to Kannada theatres and devoted himself to Kannada film industry.  His unconventional way of direction changed the way the people look at Kannada film industry.  Some of his best directions include ‘Accident’, ‘Minchina Ota’, ‘Ondhu Mutthina Kathe’ ..etc. Malgudi Days, a serial directed by Shankar Nag, reached everyone’s heart with its simplicity and is considered to be one of the best serials that Indian film industry ever seen.

Shankar Nag died in a car accident on 30th Sept, 1990. Rangashankara, a theatre at Bangalore,  was named in the memory of Shankar Nag.

Below is the radio chit-chat of Shankar Nag that was aired in 1988.

Shankar Nag Program on Aakashavani July 1988

If  some one asks me to choose best five films of Shankar Nag, then those would be ‘Accident’, ‘Minchina Ota’, ‘Ondanondu kaaladalli’, ‘Nodi Swami Navirodhe Heege’  and ‘Geetha’.

We miss you.. Happy Birthday Shankar Nag.