Record, Rewind & Play

Looking for a house – A useful checklist for self

Venkat — Mon, 17 May 2010 15:14:33 +0000

Currently house hunting in Chennai. Looking for a rented house and it doesn’t seem to be an easy task. Felt it was easier in Bangalore ..

Prepared the following checklist for self and my friends/relatives who are helping me with the search. It is helping us filter houses easily. May be useful for you too in future (with your own alterations).

Also, Please inform me if you get to know of vacant houses available for rent in the areas below.

Checklist:

Preferred area: Thiruvanmiyur, Velachery, Adyar (Chennai). Any residential area near (<5kms) Tidel park.
House type: 2BHK (Individual house or Apts)
Budget: 12K max
Car parking: Mandatory
Borewell and Metro water availability: Mandatory
Furnishing required: Water heaters – nice to have. Basic electrical fittings – Mandatory.
Balcony: Nice to have
Ventilation: Mandatory
Floor preference: First floor, if above should have lift
Shops close proximity: Nice to have
Nearby (<5km) hospital: Mandatory
Wardrobes: Mandatory
Neighbours preference: Family
Safety (House locks etc, Security arrangements): Mandatory

Moving on – June 4th – BY!(e)

Venkat — Fri, 14 May 2010 06:24:28 +0000

It was a tough decision, but had to be taken at some point. I’ve been thinking about moving on from Yahoo! for a while. But the last 4.5 yrs @ Yahoo! have been amazing and has made me continuously put down the thought to move on every time. But, this time the decision is finally made and I believe this is the right time for the decision – for multiple reasons:

I am going back to my native, Chennai, for a regular life after 10 long years.
I feel I’ve gotten into a comfort zone @ Yahoo!. Need to shake off and challenge myself.
And the most important one, a little angel is on his/her way and Chennai is where I feel he/she + my wife would find the much needed warmth and care.

June 4th is when I become yet another user of Yahoo! and no more a prestigious employee. Yahoo! is a great place with wonderful people, loads of things to learn, an opportunity to impact millions outside.. It was a great place for me to start the career and thanks to everyone who made this journey of 4.5 years great.. A special thanks to my manager Pankaj who did more than just manage me – he mentored me I should say.. I would definitely miss this cool environment, hacking, great colleagues..

Nevertheless, the company I am moving onto is equally good. When I told people I am relocating to Chennai, they guessed it right instantly – Amazon. I’m joining Amazon on the second week of June and will be part of the Kindle team. Looking forward to it.

And now, the complete focus is on shifting from Bangalore to Chennai…. Uffff, Too many things to worry about: Gas connection, Tatasky, broadband, surrender phones, looking for a house @ Chennai, selling car and the list goes on.. 3 weeks to go and all these needs to be sorted out (and I’m blogging, hmmm).. With relatives and friends helping me out, i hope it should be doable.. All for the little one expected in Nov!!! Exciting months ahead.. “Cha, how responsbile I’ve become?? “..

ஒரு நொடி பிரிவு

Venkat — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 14:21:55 +0000

நொடிகளுக்குள் ஏன் இவ்வளவு தாமதம்,
கண் சிமிட்டலில் நீ மறைந்து போவதாலா??

சுவாசம்

Venkat — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 14:20:26 +0000

நித்தமும் சுவாசிக்கிறேன்,
உன்னை கடந்து வந்த
காற்று என்ற நம்பிக்கையில்!!

My technical blog

Venkat — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 13:51:19 +0000

I’m moving my technical blogs to http://venkatlooksback.wordpress.com/ and I wish I continue tech blogging (dude, I seriously wish I do ). I am planning to spend sometime evangelizing Y! offerings to developers and hence this split.

I am planning to use this blog for non technical blogging.

தூரம்

Venkat — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 10:07:38 +0000

நீ ரசித்த நிலவை
நானும் ரசித்த அந்நொடியில்
உணர்ந்தேன்,
தூரம் கண்களில் மட்டுமே
நினைவுகளில் இல்லையென!

Interesting/important updates

Venkat — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 04:29:27 +0000

I almost failed this attempt to blog, as well.. I’ve had a few busy months in the recent past – personally and professionally.. The needle moving well on both ends for now.. Touch wood and thank god.

Wondering whats kept me busy these days? Foremost, my laziness .. Busy is always an excuse (I know ).. Okay, time for the updates:

Update 1:
The most interesting things in life are those that happen only once in a lifetime. What does that mean???? I am getting married (blushing blushing).. Divya, the girl my parents thought is an ideal match for me (and I signed it off later), has decided to risk her life with me .. With hopes of a promising future, we will be joining hands on june 14th 09 and assuring the same on feb 8th ’09 (yes yaar, engagement..

Update 2:
I got a promotion recently and moved to take a new role “tech lead” from “senior software engineer”, on oct 1st 08..

Update 3:
I had to travel to Bellevue WA for 5 weeks for a product transition. This included a week of fun filled thanks giving vacation, I spent with my sister and family. I reached Bellevue on the 2nd of Nov, stayed there for 3 weeks before heading to my sister’s place. I spent one week there, came back to Bellevue, spent a week in Bellevue and now heading back to Bangalore. I will reach Bangalore in another 02 hrs 23 minutes . (I wanted to blog about my previous trip to Sunnyvale in Sep 07, I am gonna ditch it and just say: I had more fun in the first trip and I did more work in the second). Oh yeah, pictures are worth 1000 words and u can find them at http://flickr.com/rvenkat.

There have been a lot of technical happenings in the time I haven’t blogged. I will try to ink (what do u call when u blog??) my thoughts about them and continue blogging from now (yet again try?????)

Log on to NASA website if you want your name to float around in space!

Venkat — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 17:11:24 +0000

The Web site, where participants can submit their information, is located at: http://polls.nasa.gov/utilities/sendtospace/jsp/sendName.jsp

Experience wii

Venkat — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 08:02:22 +0000

Beware: this video damages ur screen – http://in.youtube.com/experiencewii. Awesome!!

kutti padam – vijay tv

Venkat — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:38:28 +0000

I saw an ad in vijay tv today.. “You’ll have 1008 tasks, we won’t take up too much time. Do you have time to watch a 3 hour movie?”

Well, giving it a thought, its been years since i watched 3 hour movie completely in television channels.. Too many ads, news in between, hindrances.. Ooooh!! tough one to accept.. but, I realise its difficult to watch a 3 hr movie..

Vijay TV has started a programme named “Kutti padam”. The unnecessary/boring parts of a movie are cut and the movie is shortened to a one hr movie. Hmmm, nice idea. But I doubt how the continuity would be. Are there 2 hrs of crap in a movie?? I haven’t had a chance to see a kutti padam yet, will write my comments after I see one.

3 hrs movies transformed into kutti padam. One day cricket transformed to 20-20. Are we getting really busy or aren’t we managing time well??