Germany Visit

I seem to have got some liking to Germany. Because I have travelled to Europe only twice and both times the only country I visited was Germany. Anyways this visit was a slightly longer one.

I would say I am an naive traveller and at times don't do too much research before visiting a place. Hence I thought of creating this blog post which would shed some light on some things about the place I lived in Munich and Stuttgart. may be it could be of some help for Indians visiting these cities.

Unfortunately I don't get too enticed with sightseeing ( that too alone) so I might not be the person to tell you which are the best places to visit in Munich & Stuttgart.

As far as food is concerned if you are looking for a some Indian restaurant then Rosenheimer Platza is a good place. When you get down at this S Bahn station walk towards Hilton hotel in Munchen (Munich). Then walk further on the road along side Hilton towards Rosenheimer Straße. On this road you would come across three Indian restaurants: Bombay Tandoori, Punjabi .... and Ganesh. I had tried the food at Bombay Tandoori and Punjabi.... I found it to be quite good ( you will have to ask them to make it a bit spicy). But obviously considering it's Indian food in Germany it comes with a price factor.

On the travel front you are somebody travelling from India to Stuttgart then you would have a change over at Frankfurt. In my opinion catching a flight from Frankfurt to Stuttgart won't be a good option. Predominantly because this would be a small flight (domestic), so one might have weight issues. Considering he or she would have carried around 30 kgs owing to the ealrier flight in which they arrived to Frankfurt. So the best option would be take a DB Bahn train. You could book your DB Bahn right from India itself before you start your trip. This could be done using this website http://www.bahn.com/i/view/GBR/en/index.shtml.

Further details to follow, untill then tschüss ....

Touching Video.. Meals Ready

For the ones who have been on the highways in Kerala and some of the highways in Tamil Nadu would have seen this scene in real life as well. Hopefully after seeing this video we would think twice when we come across such a person again..

Organic Veggies @Trivandrum

The other day while we were on our hunting spree (looking or flats), we went to Pothencode, preetty off track from Trivandrum town. Infact the place we went was another 4 kms from Pothencode town.
This place was right close to Shanthigiri Ashramam,.

This is when we accidentally stumbled to an organic vegetable & Fruit outlet. The outlet was run by Shanthgiri Ashramam (AFAIK) and the vegetables were grown in their own farms. To my suprise these organic vegetables were actually much cheaper than the usual ones. Not only that but they extremely jiucy and tasty, be it carrot, pineapple or anything else.

By far the best organic vegetables I have had till date, must place visit to buy vegetables/fruits, though can't be visited regularly owing to the distance from Trivandrum town.

Interesting Facts

Stressed when spelt in reverse is desserts :-)

IT Companies and the Bench

These are overall very testing times which the IT industry albeit the entire industry is facing. I could actually feel this since I am myself working in the industry. Now-a days if you are on bench then that definitely means that you are looked down by the management and the HR personnel. Even for the guys who are on bench it’s a really anxious time. Every atleast 2 to 3 people come to me stating that they are desperately looking for projects and have been in bench for last 2 to 3 months etc. This is in sharp contrast to things as they were about 9 months back wherein we had people who were on bench  for more than a year and yet where not so desperate to get into a project.

Clearly an indication how the industry pendulum has swung in the last half a year or so. Each time something of this kind happens I believe to some extent this is for the benefit of the industry and would help them become more lean and competitive and at times revisit their business model as well. Atleast that was a clear affect of 2008 recession, where in IT companies for the first time were forced to come out of their complacency, it was the first time where in IT companies where forced to look into their bench and see how better the bench could be used.

As it’s known fact India is fast loosing it’s cost advantage thanks to our increasing salary costs and because of other developing economies which have ventured into the market. Hence it’s extremely important that management of these companies start looking at a different business model rather than relying just on outsourcing work, because we are losing ground real fast over there. I always though that a recession or a slow down definitely is an opportunity for lots of companies to rethink their strategy and invest some in unexplored areas, kind of a blue ocean (strategy). But from talking to people in the industry and friends the reaction from the IT companies have been mostly knee jerk. Where in instead of checking out where to invest the bench resources and utilize them best, the attitude mostly has been to do everything possible to reduce the bench strength. The point that we are missing here is that if somebody is on bench that doesn’t mean he is not skilled enough or non-employable. There are bench managers in all of these IT companies, who I think have a very important role in this. Because they have knowledge of the whole spectrum of people available on the bench hence probably they help form a bigger picture. Especially for bigger companies there are so many tools that we use or processes that could be automated that could be done using these bench resources, but then that needs some investment, which in this case could be seen as a sunk cost, since it doesn’t generate a revenue upfront. But in the longer run has the effect of bringing in implicit cost benefits.

These will ideally be a win-win situation for the employee and the employer. Otherwise what’s happening today is that the employees are forced to cross skill or get into projects where in they don’t exactly like or don’t fit in. This might work in the short run, but once the market scenario improves these people would be the first one to look out for opportunities and ofcourse our standing in the market as an employer also takes a beating.

Quick Chocolate Cake Recipe

Well while I was reading a blog last week, it mentioned about a chocolate cake. That led to a temptation in my mind for the same. I ended up Googling a quick microwave chocolate cake (Eggless) recipe.

Came across multiple ones but then decided to stick to one, instead of taking bits and pieces from different recipes. Believe me it was a real quick one, the entire stuff was done and ready in about 15-20 mins.

The ingredients were:

Maida 1 1/2 cup
Sugar powder about 1 cup

Baking powder 1.5 tbsp
Baking soda 1tsp
Milk 1 Cup
Butter
Salt
Dry fruits

In a bowl mix milk and sugar well, add melted butter to that. in a separate bowl mix maida, baking powder, baking soda and salt ( to taste). Mix the earlier milk sugar solution to this. Beat really well, make sure there aren't any lumps. Get a microwave vessel coated with butter and pour the batter into it and add the dry fruits as per liking. Keep this vessel with the batter in the microwave for about five minutes initially. Then pierce a knife and see if nothing sticks to the knife your cake is baked and ready.