Parenthood!

“Congratulations Mr Joshy, It’s a girl” – Dr (who shall not be named … just because I don’t remember her name)

There are certain phases in life, which will blow the wind out your sails just when you are thinking that you have seen it all. Not that I hold anything against any of these phases but it is an eye opener(in this context) for new fathers especially who have little idea on parenthood and when you are taught as a kid that storks brought in the babies J . But I was prepared and having being certified as a good babysitter in the resume, I was backing myself to walk through the park on this one. But like they say there is nothing like a first hand experience. And no I don’t mean the usual poops, diapers changing and shopping for stuff kind off headache. Those are the easier parts of this experience.

Let me begin by stating that there is no sight better than in world than the smile of a newborn. However you will soon realize your ignorance that a newborn can hardly recognize you and that smile was in lieu of the pee that just watered down your freshly pressed shirt. Its particularly hard on us who are engineers bred with algorithms and reasoning to fathom the reason for waking up and crying at unearthly hours. Pragmatism my dear reader is something you leave at the doorstep while raising kids nowadays. Its far easier to appreciate others kids than to raise one of your own .My parents had four! I only have to look at my persona to comprehend the horrors that my mom would had undergone while raising us up. A mom is a cook, a gardener, a babysitter, a counselor, a friend, a nutritionist ,a teacher and much more . You value your elders a lot more in these circumstances than perhaps when you were a bachelor or a newly married couple!

Some one once said “It now takes more to entertain a child than it once did to educate his father” .I can vouch for it, as I am pretty certain that the toys and other accessories that I bought till date for my daughter (who is only 3 months old at the time of writing this blog) has exceeded my expenses that in incurred during the course of my engineering degree. It remains to be seen however if can ever educate her to be one! There are more fringe expenses now that ever and these are not necessary evils , but more of a temptation. How often have we fallen for the discounts tricks on the retail website or a end of season sale? After all for whom are we saving? – I hate that obnoxious argument. And mind you its not just the local retailer, the hospitals and doctors are also well aware of our insecurities and make us shell out more than its required. But in spite of knowing all this, we are happy to tread the same line time and over again. Human behavior of software engineers are so predictable you can as well write a algo for it .

My dad not pretty long ago remarked that “Son you have no dearth of intelligence ,but I am not sure about common sense”. And I know for certain in this silicon valley, I am not the only one. We are constantly trying to figure out what the kid’s next course of action might be. We are busy creating funds for our kids than creating time for them. We are busy on our smartphones than helping our partner out. We are busy searching the internet than ask our elders for opinions who have raised us. I am not saying technology had not enabled us, its more prudent to take a step back and unwind back to our own childhood. Were it any less exciting ,just because we were lacked gadgets and kinderjoy(this part of the  blog is sponsored by them!)? I now whatsapp my doctor with reports and he verifies and replies promptly! I remember taking the long journey to hospitals and then taking an appointment and then waiting in the serpentine queue for my turn to face the doctor.

Finally coming back to my kid , there have been days where I have lost sleep and days when I am not my 100%, but when those big eyes look up to you, I realize this is a wonderful space to be in. Its always a mystery as you see your child coping this whole new world. Will she do it right? Will she fail? Should I help her out ? Will she listen to me? You can almost measure her progress as you can see her discovering and learning on the fly .It is these moments which I will treasure and try to capture than the moments which I try to spend to help create a better future for my kid. And I know these moments are not too many!

How to file taxes online in India?

I was thinking to write about this a long time back but have been hesitant given that we all know how taxes work in India.But of late there has been significant changes that we can see and we can easily file taxes online .And given that anyone earning more than 10 lakh per annual year as package ,its mandatory to file taxes online ,we are all subjected to go the dreaded site incometaxindia.gov.in and go through their myriad forms and pages.Hence this post on how to file ITR-1 a simple one,which might disappoint you advanced folks,but nevertheless a starting point for the basic tax payer who wants to avoid the hassle of giving a few hundred bucks to your local accountant.

So this is what you need.First of all you need to get an account in incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in .

You need to register with your PAN card no and Please remember your password (easier said than done)!
Remember if you lose yours creds there is no way you can get another account because every indian has only one PAN and this site allows registration only through a PAN.So once again PLEASE REMEMBER YOUR PASSWORD.

Once you have logged in you will find and easy menu and a column in right which gives you the option to select your action.

you can either select quick e-file ITR or download the ITR from the options .One will give you a online form and the other will help you download a excel which you will have to fill with the help of your form 16.So far so good?

Now there are some simple doubts like, which is my assessment year and is it the same as financial year?No - the assessment year is a year in advance eg: if the current year is 2014 ,most likely you are filing taxes for the financial year from April 2013 - March 2014 ,but your assessment year is going to be 2014-2015.Also another doubt most likely that you will face is what is my Income Tax Ward/Circle.To help you find this out there is an url/page https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/e-Filing/UserLogin/LoginHome.html which is basically the login url of income tax efiling and you will have select the Services drop down menu in the page.

You will get the "Know your Jurisdictional AO" item which you can click, and which in turn leads to a page ,asking for your PAN . Once you pass on your PAN and enter the omnipresent captcha ,the following page will give you your Income Tax Ward/Circle.

Ok so you go ahead and fill the rest of the information as they are pretty easy as most of it is present in the Form - 16. Primarily it will have 4 major tabs. 1- Income Details 2 - TDS 3 - Taxes paid and verification 4 - 80G.Only thing you need to be careful about is when you have multiple form - 16's .Hence you will be required to sum up the total in your income details and mention all the employers who paid you salary or from whom you got, form 16 in the TDS tab!

Once you have mentioned all the required employers,you can also mention the TDS of other sources of income below it.Sometimes it also happens that you need to pay taxes back to the govt because you would have switched companies and the individually each salary was not taxable but when summed up they were!Or you have other sources of income for which you need to pay taxes.For that you will have to complete the entire ITR - 1 and click on the Calculate taxes button available on sheet 1 which is named "Income Details".Once every other info is entered and validated and you click "Calculate taxes" button ,the excel will generate the taxes that you need to pay in the tax computation part in "Income details" sheet.
You will now have to pay a Challan and pass on that information which you paid as self assessment tax as a part of your Challan ,back into your ITR -1.So let see how you can pay Challan online.

You will have to go the url https://onlineservices.tin.egov-nsdl.com/etaxnew/tdsnontds.jsp and select your option.Because i am just helping out a basic salaried employee here you will have to select the CHALLAN NO./ITNS 280

Once you select the challan no 280 you will be lead to the following page where you have to select the options- Tax applicable - 0021Income Tax Other than Companies and Type of Payment (300) Self Assessment Tax.

Once you have filled the required details ,it will lead you to your netbanking site where you can finish paying the challan .At the end your bank will give you a PDF or a document which will atleast give your the BSR Code ,the Challan no and the datetime of payment .You will need to pass this information within your TDS tab as shown below.

Thats it you are close to filing your taxes.All you now need to do is validate all the sheets and and click on Generate XML button on sheet on of your ITR -1.Once done a new worksheet will be present which you can confirm and hit the Save Xml button to help you generate a xml file,which you will now need to upload it back into the incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in.So login in again if your session is logged out and this time select the upload return option.Fill the necessary details and hit upload.Please note that if your ITR - 1 excel is not filled properly, you will get errors at this point.So kindly ensure that there are no mistakes in the excel.The income tax site will mail you a pdf which you need to take a printout of and mail it to the address mentioned in the mail/pdf. So there you have filed your taxes online ... enjoy.. :)

Bachelor’s Wife.. oops life!

There is never as exciting a time in life as bachelorhood because he has all the time in the world to pursue whatever he wishes and do whatever he wants at his own leisure.Well this statement is coming from a married guy(me) so I might be a bit biased.ITS OK.Because post the marital-phase your wifey’s wish is your command.So before you skips the next sections thinking I am the typical bloated mid-aged guy,let me move you to a different  location.
10-15 am IST.On a cloudy Saturday, I had to come down to diary circle as my wife had some work in her office.So to kill time I did what I knew best.Go to Forum Mall ,the happening mall in Koramangala.I thought it would be a good idea to go ahead, spend my morning at Landmark and read all the mags available there!I promptly entered Landmark at 10.30 –quite an early time to come to a Mall ,but nevertheless it was starting to wake up to activity and the college kids were slowly making their way into the mall.I walk pretty briskly than the usual mango ppl(or so I am told) ,I thought to myself –‘dude ,chill you are here to kill time’ and I consciously slowed down my pace.Got into the books section.That is when I noted two things.1)People still love books and 2)Computers books are not available! I realize there are lots of people who still love reading on floors sitting cross-legged as much as college kids skimming through the international mags that they can ill-afford.There are loads of sales and discounts going on each section.But even I picked one ,my thought process went like …”let me see ,how much will this cost on flipkart?”.This is what we do now isn't it? We are all looking for deals and comparing coupons and checking on the cheapest deals.So there goes my book buying options .I even saw the pick any for 99 offer also,which were available earlier only at select discount book houses stacked with non-sense novels or the once in a blue moon book festival.I still remember those days,how exciting it was to see so many story books in a book–fest at school ,all printed and packed and fresh with some bookish odor!
10.30 am IST.I looked around and saw kids making mayhem,  couples being lovey-dove,teens chatting away and middle-aged folks being busy on the smart-phones.Typical scenes everywhere.Never-the-less ,I have always wondered how is it that the worst guy in town gets the good-looking girl?(now where did this thought come from?)Well mind works in amazing ways when you don’t have anything in particular to do!So I thought lets do sociology and anthropology(though I never consciously thought abt these subjects).And as more “mouth-looking” I went, my beliefs were confirmed.The skinny – scrawny kid hanging on to his low waist jeans was ignorant of his bombshell of a gf!WTF! I mean, you should have been drooling all over her.Again all of ‘em had a common factor .THEY HAD MONEY TO THROW IT ON THE BITCH!(just adding a few swear words so that someone censors me and I get critically acclaimed)
11.00 am IST.Hovered to the CD section which also had loads of deals .There were deals on Blue ray also as well as DVD and CD’s.Well then how many times have geeks bought DVD’s and blue rays from these stores.Of late never would be the answer .In this age of Torrents and YouTube, you can pretty much watch anything at your own leisure and for free!Times are tough for these retailers in believe .Anyways I just lingered along in this section just to see how much cheap(discount), it will get ?There were DVD’s for just 49/- but still my developer mind said –“Never mind,chalo” I moved over to the toys section and kids were having a great time.Toys with remotes ,scrabble ,puzzles,action heroes,angry birds …the list goes endless.Kids are always on the lookout for new toys no matter how much they have.I wish I were a kid again !Finally I decided to check out of the store with some books (which is more of a impulsive buy ),but as I paid the bill with my CC, the system hanged and they had to write the customers,the old fashioned receipts.
11.30 am IST.I went back to doing what I did best in college days or rather teens,”staring”.I was starting to get frustrated with my waiting .Why do guys have to wait and girls get away with it with a smile(never happens vice-versa)??And then I thought let me get a breath of fresh air .So I went outside and sat just outside the Mall under some small tree.As I looked around, I could see that all my neighbours were couples and they were all staring at me, with a look that screamed “PERVERT”.Impervious ,I started to fiddle around with my smartphone and then I realised that its been a long time, that I had a chat with my friends.Hence I started to call the numbers.It was a good exercise and I had a nice time talking to college friends and fellow mates.All this while, I failed to notice that a couple of girls from the nearby beauty shop had come along and sat nearby.And there I was chatting and laughing away in the typical mallu style,and I think there were more mallus nearby than I had presumed,as they smiled along to my boisterous demeanor.Its later that I realised that among this whole crowd of couples and teens, I was the only odd man out.And it was not in the sense, that I didn’t have a girl beside me .I had two sales girls next to me!And they were giggling and laughing away to something as well.OMG !Even as I felt the ever rising urge to escape from the place, a couple of girls came along and passed that look which literally said “cheapo –is this all you could manage?!”
1.30 pm IST. I hurried to the food-court on the top floor in the mall as I realised my hunger pangs had got the better of me and I also need to use the bathroom.Thankfully as fate would have decided the bathroom was under repairs and I couldn’t use it.Anyways I grabbed some food from one of the non-veg counters and sat down trying to figure out, where my wife was.It would take another half an hour before she could come down.I thought let me wait for the next half an hour.I could see from inside that the clouds had ascended and it would sooner or later bestow its tears over namma urru.I slowly came down the top floor and quickly went to the opposite side of Forum Mall.I didn’t want a repeat of the pre-lunch event.I started my calls to friends again.And it felt good to catch up on old times,old events and talking of our new experiences.Friends were all doing good in their own lives and half a dozen of ‘em(I am not exaggerating on this one!) had managed to knock up their respective wifes.Phew time sure flies by,but the talk that we boys did mostly didn’t change much from out college days.Old jokes,whisky,cricket,football,tech,comments on babes….etc –though not necessarily in that order!
3.30 pm IST.Finally my wifey managed to get out of work and come down,though it took another half an hour to reach Forum Mall.It was a good wait and I could enjoy the Bangalore Fashionistas on display and ah that cool breeze when BLR is gonna rain!I wanted to check out the Manchester Club United Pub but it seems it is no longer in business.There will always be a next time, when I am left alone a bachelor!!

Appangal embadum otteku chuttammayi…

It so happened as with hundreds of other Malayalees,  I too didn’t get a train ticket to Kerala.And then we land into the Mecca of bus transports to Kerala in Bangalore-Madivala.You can talk and walk and breathe Malayalam here and you can find many a man with lungi here .As fate would have it ,I needed one more ticket and I had to roam around for that all elusive ticket.So to people not familiar with the demographics of Madivala ,you can safely assume there are no less than 50 travels and concerns there in that 1 km stretch.So my hunt began in familiar territory of Kallada and KPN and others major travels .But many stared me down with the “how dare you ask” look.Funny man ,all I am asking you is a ticket! And then you should see these all ego non educated people who are there to handle customers .Most often they talk to you as if they are doing you a  favor instead of the other way around.If you come with the “customer is king” background –back off, this is not where you should show that kind of negotiation skills. There has long been this hedge attitude very akin to Kerala bound bus travels ,because of the apathy shown by the railway to Kerala.This is one route(BLR –Kerala) which has long been neglected primarily because  of the paybacks from bus lobby and cold shoulder given to  Kerala in rail budgets for decades.So the winner has always been buses who mint money and give shit treatment along with pathetic services.But the techie in Namma Bengaluru does hardly have a choice as he has to go home!

So there I land in front of some obscure travels with two people looking busy with their mobiles.And they have one of those stupid old CRT monitor in front and a dirty keyboard.I land in asking for my ticket.And the guy goes meditating with eyes closed and after 10 seconds tells , (you guessed it) “illa”(no in Malayalam).As I walked back I turned to see the board of his office.It mentioned getting pan card,driving license,visa attestation,legal writing were some other stuff that they do!I was thinking if they could get me a Padma Shri as getting govt recognition was very in!(as in prachiettan ).As I moved along I went to my bus stop where the melee was all the more.There were this buses lined up against each other and there was a tea shop next to it with a plastic sheet to cover the extra crowd.Did I mention that it was raining ? Well if not it was and there was a huge crowd in front of the shop.Just then another Volvo landed in and even as I stood watching ,a couple of guys suddenly took out the plastic cover leaving the people in front of the tea shop exposed to rain .And there I stood laughing as the people started to run and get drenched.No sooner had the smile gone from my face, when a dumb guy right in front of me opened his already drenched umbrella and lo, the water splashed on my face.I gave him the shit face and he nonchalantly turned around and went on his way.

I got into the last seat of the bus and since it was Volvo I was least bothered as they have pretty good shock absorbers for the bumps on the road.I had my snacks inside my bag as my eyes were treated to this pananoma of the various strata and conditions of humans.It was nearing 10 pm .A couple of beggars sleeping on the pavement with their rags of cloth as shield against the cold night,a pack of dogs chasing an old man with a sack,the odd IT guy walking back to the apartment,the police jeep doing its patrol,drunken laughter in front of various wine shops,people lazing around in dabbas and women with jasmine flowers looking for their hunter!.And amidst all this I saw  this one cool guy on a truck oblivious to all the worries around him .He was looking at some masala video on his Chinese made mob , while his friend was drove the truck He had his legs outside the side window and the cool wind was blowing his hair.And then I wondered at how simple life could be.

“Appangal embadum ....”(some crazy song in mal) blared suddenly and caught my attention to the video being shown in the bus.It was Ustad Hotel, a recent film featuring Mamooty’s son.And it grabbed my attention for the next half an hour ,there was this scene shown wherein the hero is introduced to a guy who turns philanthropist and guardian of the poor after he has this “turning point”.(Once when he was on his way back from office he saw a poor old man near the signal ,beside the sewage pipes eating his own shit out of hunger!) Well I glanced away momentarily to relate those scenes on the road .Undoubtedly there will be many homes where bread will not be broken and many, who don’t have a home to call as their own !Sad ,but the fact is if you see, the pleasures/desires  of all these men - they are very simple.Get some food,some water and a place to stay for the night .Done,was this life was all about?HELL NO, I had to build the next gen app ,someone had to build bridges,a dude had to get his next Merc and someone else wanted to rob millions ! But not this.Interesting to see how strange how circumstances define what you want out of life.While this myriad of thoughts were floating and finding their own places to map in my head….. scrrrrrrech!(the bus came to a halt).

As I got down at our customary break in TN for dinner,I went to the loo and horror of horrors on the urinals are huge red ants and dozens of em(someone is diabetic ).This was a first to me ..you know I have even managed to let go with a live wire hanging around the urinal…(well that’s another story!)

Sent Packing !

I don't know if its my never ending quest to end the pain of every lazy or loser like me,but i always want to cut corners as far as time,effort and money are concerned and not necessary in that order ! Ha ha I know we all wanna do that, but its easier said than done.After all no pain no gain and there are no shortcuts to success, are all idioms we grew up with.So the point is, whenever we are faced with the inevitable task of having to challenge ourselves and cut corners, instead of going through the tried and tested methods,we should perhaps give it a try :). OK allow me to give you guys a little illustration, though i take no responsibility of you trying and then falling flat with dire consequences.

Early this year as I had to travel to US I had to do with the usual stuff of packing myself with Indian food ,clothes warm wear and not to mention the myriad documents .Having this mammoth task in itself not a turnoff but having to prepare the list of items and then measure the weight and then repeat this ordeal is a little bit too much for most lazy bachelor bums like me! OK then so what do i do?I had as usual, bought most of the Indian stuff for survival on a masala free land like US and some snacks to boot(rice is no longer allowed in US customs, so beware) and loads of aata!And they all lay dumped somewhere as i eased into my bed and swearing to God I will definitely pack the next day morning.Well to inform you the flight is at around 7 pm and i leave at around 2.30 so that I can checking in at least 3 hours as is the norm for international flights.And I had booked the Meeru cab to pick me at 2pm, so that i can take some rest at the airport, instead of the last minute rush .So ,next morning i wake up at 10.30 am and still have loads of work to do including getting a haircut! As i finally finished my lunch at 1.30 and turn to my room ,I have before me 2 big baggage and nothing packed.And remember, all i have at hand is just 30 -45 min at hand.This is no exaggeration, just so that you have more fun while reading this blog ,but an eyeopener to the level of laziness that i am used to.After scratching my head and then my butt for a couple of minutes, i decided to use my learning for my previous travel to the States to better use.Most of us Indians love to have Indian stuff in US, which is very expensive and hence to cook would be a cheaper option.So food is what you have to stock ,in case you are going for a short visit and need to survive for a few weeks .So this is my proposal and will be the same for most other guys who usually travel this route.Pack one luggage with clothes and necessary accessories and the other luggage with food.So as you finish up the food, you will realize that you have one free luggage empty to load up on your return journey.

Well its easier said than done, because for gals or guys who are at least a little fashionable, its almost impossible to pick out a few pairs of clothes and leave the rest! But trust me,there is no need to pile up on that front, as most of us will anyways land up buying loads of clothes on arrival.(unless u r a baniya with that extra need for US dollars!)Well then pick at least 5 pairs of formals and a few T'shirts and jeans.Thats all i picked!Well the jacket and stuff i got em in my hand, to reduce the weight.And the rest of the food stuff, since it goes into the other luggage, there I go,I made the target of packing flat out in 45 min.And please please don't carry all your mom's achars and homemade stuff only to realize that its leaking or gone stale .Because you don't want to face those barrage of question on the port of entry.Well nostalgia and homesickness comes with a price!Even as the Meeru cab guy gave me a missed call, I dumped all the docs into the cabin trolley and turned mains off my room .So there you go,ready to fly a few thousand miles :).But for those who are meticulous enough to do the packing early, kindly ignore the advice and enjoy your journey .Bon voyage!

Opportunity amidst opportunity

My first post in a Magazine in my previous company Caritor.Thought let me put it here, lest i lose it!

"When written in Chinese, the word "crisis" is composed of two characters - one represents danger and one represents opportunity."

- John F. Kennedy

The world has seen the scripts change in the annals of history too many times to stumped by even the worst trials and tribulations.God forbid we need not have a 9/11 or a tsunami or a IT crash or for that sake the Great Depression of America.But we have all emerged out of it;some more successful with just guts and grit by their side ,men who sensed something that the others missed -opportunity even when adversity towered against them.You don't need the sixth sense to grab a opportunity .Its right there up for grabs but you need to take it with a pinch of risk and let your skills handle the rest.

A retrospection into the past year and you will find all sorts of disasters ,the aftermath of the tsunami ,a series of storms in coastal America,the great deluge in Mumbai,earthquakes in Kashmir,in addition to all this the industry had its own sets of worries oil touching the $70 barrel mark,more taxes and the list goes on.But still the India grows at 6 to 8% with the sensex fast closing onto the historic 10K mark,the FDI's are steadily flowing in and the FAB's are all decided on choosing India as a desired location.Seldom has the country looked any brighter.So where does all the growth come from amidst all the calamities of life and our own speculations and worries?

We had NGO's ,organizations ,individuals(silent heroes) who woke up to task whenever a disaster occurred ,men who could absorb the shock and the awe of the challenges posed.We had businessmen,venture capitalists stockbrokers even students cashing in the moolah this year on the unprecedented run of the bull in the stock market.Billions of dollars that were washed away in the blink of an eye were being compensated for .Better villages and hospitals are coming in place of the older dilapidated ones both in quake hit as well as disaster hot zones.The opportunity of building a better tomorrow was being visualized and built .Even in Iraq and Afghanistan that lay devastated by the war,companies were competing with each other for contracts and they sensed the golden chance that lay hidden in the barren lands.Companies are moving away fro the traditional markets of America and Europe and going east as well as Africa when they understood that their their products no longer thrived the markets.

Each of us are facing a problem and await the all important solution,the challenges may be in various circumstances,scale,forms,regions or situations.At the end of the day we all hate risks,adversities,changes not necessarily in that order but we hate them all the same .But studies suggest that these factors play a major role in deciding the success rates.With the changing dynamics of economy ,the stature of men seldom matter it is the genuine opportunity seeking skills that each one sees and sees first,when the chips are down that we make the quantum leap from men to demi-god status.

A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner, neither do uninterrupted prosperity and success qualify for usefulness and happiness.History always reminds us that civilizations were lost once it started to saturate or stagnate in its riches.Learn to make lemonade out of life's lemons by taking a step back to consider the bigger picture.You have two choices shape up or ship out. It builds those who are strong enough to withstand its fury and shrewd enough to learn from its repercussions - the Darwin Theory .The weak become diffident and lose focus which takes away his natural propensity to identify the big opportunity that lies hidden within the perils of the disaster.In short when such a person sees adversity, he loses many opportunities to redeem himself from the adverse situation, where as leaders of men would remain calm and composed and seizes the opportunities. They view every problem in life as a challenge or opportunity that one can benefit from.

So let us take refuge in a qoute from Disraeli -"What appear to be calamities are often the sources of fortune."

Black Friday

I am always non-superstitious.But sometimes you just feel its not your day! One such day was my last day of my stay in Minneapolis.As I woke up ,as usual late ,I checked the baggage,it was strewn all around.By then it was already 9 am,and i had not even booked the taxi to the airport.Brushed my teeth in a jiffy and took a double quick bath and decided to keep my fast without breaking in the morn.After messing up twice with the taxi guys with respect to the pickup address,i decided to go to the office to drop off my stuff .I needed to say bye to a few folks there and then drop off my laptop and phone.And then i rushed back to my room to clear off all the remaining stuff from the room as was the norm .I was too preoccupied to note that i hadn't weighed my baggage yet.So i rushed down to the front desk of the service apartment to check for a weighing machine.Again none at the office even though it was a week day.As i decided to hang around and then i realized that i came down without the room keys.So i took the lift back and dragged both my bags down after locking my room and then finally found a chick in the front office.I checked the weight and was pleased with to know that i had lots of space for xtra stuff to dump.

After lots of more mishaps i finally found myself in the airport cab at 1.30 pm thought the flight was at 5 pm i thought i might as well as play safe.I reached well ahead in time all along having a healthy conversation with the taxi driver who happened to be from El Salvador.I checked myself in and then after that thought that i might as well take a look around.As i just put my hands into my pocket ,I realized i had the room keys with me.I had two options either to catch the Haiwatha rail back which comes every 20 minutes or so or take a usual taxi.But the problem  was I didn't know either of them where to catch! But i found the nearest taxi as i was fast running out of time .I reached LaSalle,and threw the keys at the front desk and hurried back,pretty sure that this would be last time at least that day that i would need to return back!But since i had already checked in and had the boarding passes till Bangaluru already in hand i was pretty confident.

At around 4 i went through the security check and patiently waited for an hour before the flight took off.Once i landed in Chicago,i waited only to see that an hour later the flight was cancelled.So there goes my itinerary for a  toss.I got the new tickets ,but then i lost 1 whole day,thanks to the cancellation.The cancellation had more to with less travelers than with the official reason of mechanical failure.So there i stay overnight at Chicago(atleast they gave me a hotel room),and next day i catch a flight to London,where i had to sleep overnight there too,this time at the airport.By the time i landed at London the only ones left at the busy Heathrow airport was  a Pakistani housekeeping guy and a Chinese sweeper.When i took the last connecting flight from London next day afternoon,i was pretty tired and then i didn't really care what time/day i reached as long i was i would be there.And did i tell you ,i hardly caught a nap in the London flight thanks to the kicks and screams of the kiddo behind.Well don't blame me for that header now,hmm..waise i am not superstitious u know…