Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Santhosh Jayakumar's LiveJournal:

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Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
5:48 pm	Airlines I have flown I had used this utility that Dhempe had created for identifying states as well as countries visited... While I should confess that I didnt do enough research on this, would have loved to see some thing for airlines flown in... Here is my list, To start with, Indian carriers... Jet Airways Indian Airlines Air India Spice Jet Air Sahara Air Deccan Indigo Air And among international carriers... Malaysian Airlines Sri Lankan Airlines Northwest Airlines American Airlines Ameriwest US Airways United Airtran Suncountry KLM And which is my favorite... I guess Jet Airways any day... probably bcos I haven't flown in Kingfisher yet but I would prefer Jet among all airlines that I have flown in... Among international carriers, I think Sun Country probably is the best...   Current Mood: calm (Comment on this)
Monday, September 14th, 2009
11:25 pm	If you try hard, you may lose potential customers also I am in serious doubt whether I should switch over to AT & T and invest in iphone. I tried to find prices on AT & T's site and there came the proactive chat window of a sales associate who could help me with decision making. What ensued didn't leave me excited, you decide... Thank you for your patience! An AT&T sales representative will be with you shortly. You are now chatting with Andrea, an AT&T sales representative. Santhosh: I had a question regarding the contract clause. With my current service provider, I have the option to rescind if employment reasons take me out of the country Andrea: Welcome to AT&T online Sales support.  How may I assist you with placing your order today? Santhosh: Do you have a similar arrangement? What would be the process if there is a provision? Santhosh: Is there a minimum tenure period for this? Andrea: Great!  I'd be happy to help you with that. Andrea: One moment please while I check for you. Santhosh: ok Andrea: Please contact our Customer Service Center at 1-800-331-0500 or 611 from your cell phone for assistance with this. Andrea: Is there anything else I can help you with? Santhosh: I will call the toll free number Andrea: Thank you for choosing AT&T.  Have a great day. Santhosh: Pls note that dialing 611 from my cell wouldnt work since i am not on At & T Santhosh: I had specifically mentioned - my current service provider implying it is not AT & T Santhosh: I am in doubt abt getting standard copy/paste answers Santhosh: anyway... I will try with the toll free number Andrea: I am sorry yes please dail 1-800-331-0500. Thanks1 (Comment on this)
Sunday, September 6th, 2009
1:49 pm	Aging on the cricket field... Summer this year has also opened my mind on 2 aspects... Me and my cricket and probably a little related to that is the frame of mind in which you find yourselves when you are past 35... First about cricket... Cricket for whatever reason has been a passion for me... There is never a day when I wouldn't spend at least 5-10 mts on Cricinfo.com - there are thousands like me for sure which is why the site still survives and even had a facelift recently... When I played those tennis balls games this season I played as if there was hardly any time left... I also went through phases where I didnt feel like going for practice or play games... Probably, it is time to stop playing.. Interesting part is that Taruna started going for my games with both the kids... Probably, we all end my days on the cricket field together... For all you know, I might have played my last game in the Quarter Finals which we lost... Neverthless, the amusing part is the number of alercations that I had this season... I have always played the game with aggression, this has happened whenever I have played in the US... It is probably due to the fact that the talent is not as good as India but often you find people acting like Gods... My patience gets tested - poor umpires, players without calibre acting funny etc are the biggest irritant... It went to the extent this season that I pushed one guy during an argument - in this country one could be in jail for that :) I dont feel like going for leather ball cricket - went for nets one day, the line and length was spot on but there was no moment nor did I push myself for pace... It sure is an indication that I dont enjoy it as much as I did couple of years back... Second is the change in approach to anything adventurous or physical.. I remember this conversation with my brother wherein he had mentioned that your risk taking capability reduces when you cross 35... And here I am, past 36 and going through that phase... I picked up a hair line fracture in my toe and played the QF game with that... The pain wouldn't subside even after 3 weeks and this got me worrying... I have stopped running to allow time for the injury to heal... It is nothing but my own decision and strictly self imposed so that I can recover completely rather than have a debilitating injury to deal with... In general, I see a trend in what I do which is tending towards lower risk to health!! All in all, are these symptoms of mid age crisis!! Maybe, men too have it but the manifestation is in a different mode :) My brother has bought a 500 cc bike in India... I am trying to save my health to ensure that it doesn't come in the way of a normal life... Will be looking around for cues around with my friends on this one... Before I sign off... I am taking part in the Vibha Twin Cities 5K walk... Feeling good about doing some thing for a good cause... I hope to generate some funds in addition to the participation as well... Let us see, how much I can rake up... Current Mood: contemplative (Comment on this)
Friday, September 4th, 2009
8:43 pm	Everything in life provides a different perspective!! It often is a question of how you look at things I feel. One can draw parallels of each and everything in your life to some thing else - philosophical often... Maybe, I am being too philosophical of late... Summer in Minneapolis this year has been very short... We hardly had any "real" summer this year. It was cold even in June and by August it was cold again... Cold even for Minnesotans... That is yucky for a place that gets extremely cold during winters and is blessed with a ton of natural beauty... Much better than Kerala since the greenery here is structured - you have a lot of lakes and parks where you can just sack out... (I will miss MN summer when we move back later this year) The realization that we are nearing summer also dawns upon you when the nightfall becomes earlier in the day... This year, I was desperate to enjoy the sun with Taruna and kids... Probably because we are moving back to India soon.. It is also because I am an outdoor person and till the cricket season was there, I had played quite a few matches... I would really get worked up if Taruna and kids were not in a mood to go out... I would think what the heck... Now, one day I extended this thought... Here, I am sitting and cribbing about summer... How about people who are terminally ill... People who have days in life numbered... And carrying an illness, waning health and desperation to savor every moment in their life with near and dear ones, eat the food they would love to... Really, there is no place for whining in life... One should move on with everything in life and make the best of it... Blessed are each one of us if we have good health and enough money to have a decent life... I feel extremely lucky to have got what I have - good family, values, friends, a nice job which allows me to live a decent life and of course, belief in God... Move on people, look around and feel happy... Current Mood: thoughtful (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009
10:28 pm	Necessity is the mother of all.... I will let others fill up the rest. I have been having this laptop for 2 years or so. Till date, I never used the light on top of the screen and figured how to use it for the first time. It doesnt consume lot of power which is sensible. I thought the world should know about my stupid finding!! Hooray!! Current Mood: silly (Comment on this)
9:29 pm	Riding infrastructure!! I am in this bus from Minneapolis to Chicago - on my way to pick up Taruna and kids. And what did I pay - a dollar and fifty cents. For the comfort of an ac bus to ride from Minneapolis to Chicago, when you have wireless internet connection all along the route, it is definitely a big, big value for money. Most people are sleeping, I am right next to the driver who has been talking to this kallu lady ever since we started!! Should I say my knowledge on the bus industry has improved. Well, I received mails from several people congratulating me on the Best People Manager award. Haven't even met several of them but I did make it a point to reply to each and every one. I felt a bit like a celebrity replying to fan mail!! One of them even asked me to share best practices - well, I was trying to hard to list them down. Maybe, the team has liked those small things I do with them. I couldnt really come up with anything big except for these.... Recognize people Try to set an example yourself Be open about communication Support/fight for your team where required Spent time in mentoring talent No leader can win without a good team. And my current team is clearly one of the best talent pool with which I have worked. That is more than half the recipe out there. I guess the challenge would be to make it work in a new client environment, probably with a younger crowd which would be typical of an offshore scenario. It will definitely be a different sort of challenge and winning in that environment would be cherishable. Taruna and kids are in the flight right now. Anisya and Ashima not feeling too well is definitely a concern. Hopefully, they are not giving a tough time to her right now. Sooner or later, I will need to switch off the light since people may want to sleep. I am off from LJ, donno for how long - as always, the intent is there to return faster than usual :) Current Mood: amused (Comment on this)
Monday, May 4th, 2009
8:18 pm	Returning to the blog after an year or so!! What are the big updates from my end since the last update - self and Taruna completed 10 years in matrimony, Ashima turned 1, Anisya turned 5, finding yourself in the thick of a recession which has far reaching impact across almost everything I can imagine, getting nominated for the flagship leadership program in Wipro, a vacation to India and most recently, a recognition for People Management from Wipro. Quite an year indeed. The recession is the big thing. To keep people's minds off it, we now have the swine flu. I have deliberately avoided reading much on the flu. The fact that it has become Level 5 has forced me to take note - the customer has started asking about Business Continuity Plan which would mean that I have to be aware of this :( I was avoiding too much info since it tends to psyche you up. I turn 36 in less than a month. Much as you would have liked to stay young, fit and healthy, there are visible signs of aging - the asthmatic conditions that I develop when I do any exercise is scary. Hoping that it has to do with the weather change. Else, it would be a difficult thing to adjust to. Cricket season is just round the corner - I definitely want to play some tennis ball cricket. Let us see whether I will need medication to do this - hopefully, this is not Exercise Induced Asthma. India trip was very good - got to do all the things that I wanted to do in India. Trivandrum was extremely hot. Apart from that, everything else was just great. Thattu Dosa was the highlight and of course, Amma's dishes are always the best. The Prawn theeyal that she made was way too spicy for me to handle but then getting fish fry, beef, jack fruit curry, host of vegetarian dishes... overall, a great trip. And then the time that we had with Chettan and family at Thekkady was great, the Karimeen fry that we both had when we stepped out of Trivandrum is something that we would go back to any day as well. Delhi was great too, Mussoorie trip was great except the hotel. All in all, a very enjoyable trip to India - India beckons, that is my mind saying loud and clear... Work, on the other hand, is hectic as ever. Things have gone well so far. The program is likely to get delayed which means that I may be required to stay longer. If we stay or not, that is a different story altogether. I completed 5 years in Wipro in March. Time flies but it has been a very good experience - have been fortunate working with some great people. The company has also recognized me for whatever I have done - granted, I didnt become a General Manager at 36. But for a late entrant into IT and Wipro, I am doing fairly well I guess - Standford, Wipro Leadership Program and now the Best People Manager - I have got enough returns in the last 3 years from Wipro. I just logged in to make my presence felt!! People and relations continue to be a mystery and provides lot of learning every day for me. More on that some day. Taruna and kids are back day after, time to head out and stock up grocery. Current Mood: accomplished (Comment on this)
Thursday, June 12th, 2008
2:32 am	Visit USA  Not quite one but managed to take the longest vacation after our wedding - 8 1/2 days in all. Quite adventurous when you travel that long with a 5 month old but it turned out to be a nice vacation. My tenure break is almost over, 4 weeks flew by :( Minneapolis is not allowing us to have a good summer yet, it is either raining or staying fairly cold even now. Hardly have played any cricket this year - hope to get some time to play over the next 2 months. Will be back with some more updates soon, maybe a travelogue. (Comment on this)
Thursday, May 8th, 2008
9:17 pm	Odi thalli!! For the benefit of those who dont follow my native language, it translates into some thing like "ran for my life"... Well, the 1 Mile that I ran was a good reminder of aging :( The dry cough that I am having didnt help but that is not a big excuse for the poor timing that I clocked. Anyway, I finished in 8 some thing minutes - waiting for official results to get posted. My personal goal was to do it below 8 minutes...  Anyway, that is the big update for today... Work, added responsibility due to Ashima's arrival and life in the US in general is taking its toll!! I should confess though that I havent done enough for Ashima yet - she is 4 months old tomorrow.. Ciao all, will return some day...  Current Mood: tired (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 30th, 2007
12:35 am	Orkatte, alla itharaa... I have been active in Orkut of late. Not that I have been actively searching for people. I just log in every other day and see whether some one has found me accidentally. I have also done my share of searching and have crossed the 100 mark. I traced a few old friends, seniors, colleagues etc. I like the community for this, lack of privacy is some thing that I dont like. Ok, time is 35 past the hour. Time to return to work. It will be 2 more hours before I hit the bed. The solace is that I will work from home tomorrow. Amein. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
12:26 am	Bunty without bubli!! And we finally went to India after about 18 months. We had been planning this vacation ever since we booked our tickets in Jan, a good 3 months of planning. And when your wife is detail oriented, you have a mess. Weekends after weekends went by in shopping for people and self (forget the greenback that was spent, it was for people whom you cared, most often). And our bags were all packed at least a good 3 days before the trip which was even better. This ensured that I had the first ever flight home out of United States without any luggage related issue at the airport. We chose to fly by American Airlines, direct to Delhi from Chicago. Several reasons - frequent flyer, good fare and a calculated risk with Anisya to avoid a hop and take one flight across to India. It worked, the service was also pretty decent to my surprise. Expectedly, Delhi airport was chaotic but who cares, you were breathing in India which was above them all. (Forgive me if I am sounding too patriotic, I found everything in India just about great) The country and its people are very predictable which I feel is great. And one such thing about Delhi is the Sumo/Qualis that comes to pick you up at the airport. And the Surd driver who is invariably called Bunty!! It seemed as if there was only one Surd in this world - Bunty Singh. Well. our man was typical. He was blasting away Banghra music which none of us enjoyed. Our man was more keen on showing off his collection of songs than allow us to catch up with family. My fil was rude enuf to interrupt the music half way through. :) The drive through Cantt was nostalgic, again for several reasons. ;) Well, anyway Anisya got a taste of the attention that she was in for with her grandparents on day 1 itself. Her Nani had started to bribe her at the airport - a toy mobile and a Barbie was waiting and when she reached home, more gifts were waiting. A late night marked the beginning of our India trip, some thing that characterized the entire journey. No complaints whatsoever, no vacation is long enuf. More on our stay in Trivandrum, Bangalore and Delhi some time soon. (Comment on this)
Monday, January 8th, 2007
3:37 pm	Dedicated to my daughter This one will be short and sweet.. HNY to all my friends and well wishers... Our daughter, Anisya, is turning 3 this month... She has changed our lives ever since her birth and is great fun to be with... We might celebrate her birthday and she may well announce to the world, "Anisya Nair has arrived" :) (Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 20th, 2006
12:57 am	Raghu says Hi Raghu is here with me and conveys Hi to folks who read this page - Ravi Soman, Mujib, Madhu Soman and Vijayaraghavan... (Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 15th, 2006
12:13 am	Driven by Orkut... I revisited my page on Orkut thanks to an online community that is being created at Orkut for the team that is working onsite at my client from Wipro... I was asked by a few people about my disappearance from the blog... Time is a premium, even tonight it is... I am feeling a bit under the weather and it is 10 past the hour here in Minneapolis... Given that I need to be up by 7 tomorrow, I better go... It is good to find that there are people still reading my blog... I promise to return with an update of the last year or so that we spent in Minneapolis... A place that I considered as Bihar of India, wish Bihar would be a similar surprise!!! Cricket, in real as well as on the web, remains my primary hobby... Anisya is like a parrot these days which is fun as well as scary... More l8er, Taruna has already yelled at me once for keeping awake in spite of the cold and sore throat... Adios netizens, till I return to bore u...Cheers... (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006
11:48 am	Kewl thing... I found this on dhempe's site and decided to try for myself... create your own personalized map of the USA Now that we are in the States, there is room for improvement on the above I guess... This one is not impressive though... create your own visited countries map or vertaling Duits Nederlands Current Mood: lethargic (Why do long weekends end?) Current Music: Apne Haton ki (Jagjit Singh classic, what a coincidence!!) (Comment on this)
Sunday, January 1st, 2006
2:33 pm	Worst ever New Year eve in years We had the dullest New Year eve in years... The old adage, "Health is wealth" rings in my mind this New Year... Anisya is down with a "Stomach Flu"... American doctors have a fetish for Flu I guess... Determine the body part that is affected and attach a Flu to it for defining the disease!!! Anyway, my daughter is suffering from diaorrhea, slight fever and vomitting for the last 2 days... Doctors here dont give any medicine which is kind of good... And thus we had a quiet evening at home, with food from Burger King and McDonald's (yuck) and a Hindi movie called Dus... Hopefully the year will be better.. Happy New Year to all my friends and family, prayers to God for a very good year for everyone out there... Current Music: Smashhits.com radio (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, December 23rd, 2005
2:41 pm	Sayoojyam!!! This is what came to my mind when Taruna cooked Dosa at home... (I remember oolan using this when he had sardines and chicken curry from a Filipino restaurant once..) It was also an eye opener for me as well as Taruna.... To me, my attachment to roots to this extent was a revelation... I have always smarted under the belief that this was not the case... Taruna exclaimed,"I am really enjoying the grub, I have also become a South Indian!!!"... Anisya also seemed to enjoy Dosa, Sambar and Chutney... And now, I am listening to some MGR Golden Hits and looking forward to the 3 day weekend, thanks to Xmas... Do I have a good excuse for being away from LJ for about 5 months.. I have developed this knack of coming up with an excuse of late, so says Taruna... Well, here we go... Since my last update, my brother-in-law got married, we got an L1 visa after being on tenter hooks and have moved to the US for about 2 years... Till this moment, we have been clear on returning to India at the earliest opportunity and we are hoping that circumstances wont make a change... We were busy settling down all these days, things never settle when u r here for a short term... Every big ticket purchase is analysed and requires extensive work using spread sheets!!! We have also got used to the MN winter!!! It does get really cold here but if u have good winter protection, it is no big deal... It is warm today, it is 5 degree celsius outside... The weather robs you of the pleasure of playing cricket though... One big reason why I wud want to get done with winter is probably the opportunity to play cricket... I am trying to stay in shape by occasional work outs in the gym... A personal update was the only intent of this post... Lot of learning about people has happened over the last few months... You never stop learning I guess... Human beings, they are so dynamic in nature and are easily moulded by their surroundings... You call it adaptability to make it sound sophisticated... The fact is that it poses considerable challenges on people around u... And of course, the fact that people tend to view with a different eye over time... I would like to keep moving... Hey, Swamy Saranam... I am on a self imposed vegetarian diet during the Mandalam.. Following a vegetarian diet is a bit difficult in this country especially during the holidays... Adios for now with an intent to be more regular with updates... Current Mood: cheerful Current Music: Naan Aanai Ettaal (Comment on this)
Friday, July 15th, 2005
4:36 am	Mallus - a critique Ever since I read Mandan Vinod's article on Kerala Kaumadi I have been doing this soul searching about Mallus.. Some kind of silent observation about my own people... The more I look back, clearer is my view point about the distinction that I attach to my people - haves and have nots... Now, who are they... It is plain and simple... The first category is those who are working outside of Kerala... I have been fortunate (or should I say unfortunate) to have traveled to desolate places in UP and Bihar... Really absurd places where even good grasp of Hindi will not help, you need to know the local version of Hindi to survive.. And I have found Mallus holding key positions (figuratively even, holding the key as the Stores guy) in sugar factories... They survive some how and make their ends meet rather than go back to Kerala and do nothing... Then there is have nots who just stay in a cocoon... Like Vivek Paul, the outgoing Vice Chairman of Wipro said, in the real world there is no cocoon... If u think there is, u r mistaken... I know several people who think that having a 9-5 job (they maybe right about the working hours) with a 7K salary is the ultimate thing in this world... Red rice, beef, arrack over weekends and burden to immediate family... I am very happy that this didnt happen to me... Owe my father for this I guess.. Even Amma, she never allowed us to lean on her beyond a point... Good values indeed... I know a lot of guys struggling (they made the choice really) back in Trivandrum... There was this recent case of a guy from Jawahar Nagar... Let me not take names, u never know who all are reading my blog (brand me an eternal optimist, if u will).. Ravi Soman, my good friend was in Trivandrum recently... He was trying to find how people were doing and found that 2 of our old buddies were "struggling"... Well, in terms of calibre, these guys are good... Jawahar Nagar guys are above average in every sphere (Non-Jawahar Nagar guys reading this may argue - well, we are like Bengalis who think they are above the rest, live with it), they decide to go down in life or go beyond the ordinary... It is just that... This guy is getting 6K apparently as an accountant in Trivandrum... And bugger is still not married at the age of 34... Ravi sent me his resume and I like a fool sit and do up his resume spending 45 mts on it (like the way i am updating my LJ at 0430 AM on a working day) and he didnt even respond to my mail!!! Well, it mite be bcos of my heart to heart talk on what he needs to do... Maybe, he didnt appreciate it... Ravi said later that he is only keen on going to the Middle East... Hmmm, the wrong notion of quick money in the Middle East is still there I think... You can make good money in India, move out of your comfort zones... Many more such chaps... Nandagopal, I tried to tell him over chat to move out of Trivandrum... What is he doing in Trivandrum after his MS from Virginia Tech... Bright guy, wasted talent... Santhosh Karunakaran, love for cricket made him drop out of his Masters program in the US... Weird, at least that is what I wud like to believe... And now that his cricket career is almost over, what will he do? God alone knows... I should probably sleep now... Next time, I will probably write about growing up in Jawahar Nagar... about the silence that used to grip the ground when "damsels" used to walk by... antics of the guys which included my own brother... And of course the rise and fall of Jawahar Nagar!!!! Current Mood: stressed (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, July 10th, 2005
6:41 pm	Back in the States And guess what I am doing, playing cricket over weekends!!! I am in Minneapolis for the last 40 days or so and has played 3 matches in the league here during this time... The performance has been pretty good so far, bowling 20 overs for 89 runs and picking 5 wickets... The league here is much more competitive than the one in Raleigh... Each team seems to be having at least 2-3 good batsmen but I wonder why these guys play 45 overs since it takes one full day... Things are going pretty well at work front... Have been traveling a bit to help the sales team open new business... Hopefully we will have some success in the coming days... My apartment is in downtown Minneapolis and the view from my living room is quite intimidating with those big buildings right across... Being summer, the view of the swimming pool is also enjoyable... :) Boyz in the US are keeping busy I suppose... Had met Darsan after a long time while in CA on Friday... The weekend is almost over... Need to get moving, have some work to finish, iron clothes, cook some food and go to the Gym... And that will make it midnight... Was surprised to find that Anil Nandakumar, an old colleague knows about this page and reads it whenever I update it... Well, this update is dedicated to him though it was a dull and drab update on my life in Minnesota... More later, maybe I will write about the guy who was trying his level best to engage a conversation with a girl today at the temple here... And his parents were watching him all this while... Well, watching people can be quite interesting at times... :) (Comment on this)
Monday, September 20th, 2004
1:34 pm	Quick update Saurav Ganguly lashes out at non-performing batsmen... Good, what triggered the fall of wickets... U didnt want to lose an early wicket chasing a ball that was wide outside the off stump... Led by example, dont try to distract attention... When Sachin is not there, u wud have expected Ganguly, VVS and Dravid to put their heads down... See how Inzy and Youhana played under pressure... Hats off to Pathan and Dravid.... Pakistan may win the Trophy... I wud love Aussies getting beaten... :) Wipro beat CDOT by 35 runs... Afan scored 87 and took 2... I wud have been happy if he had scored a century... My team won the match yesterday... Comfortable win, 5 wickets and 2 plus overs left... I picked one wicket and was not getting enuf speed... Still managed!!! And we went to an Indian restaurant and hogged like anything after the game.. Work is worship... Current Mood: busy Current Music: Ek Baar Tujko Dhekha (1 Comment |Comment on this)