OPT could increase to 29 months

Nineteen U.S. senators have written to Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff earlier this week asking to extend the Optional Practical Training (OPT) visa for international students from the current 12 months to 29 months, according to the World Journal.

The OPT visas allow international students to legally work in the United States for up to 12 months after they graduate.

During that time, they can apply for their H1B work visas.But this spring, the 2008 quota of H1B visas was used up on the first day.

To retain the American university-educated high tech graduates in the workforce for a longer period so as to maintain the United States’s competitive edge over other countries, the 19 senators, including Patrick Leahy (D-VT.), John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), asked for the extension.

Indian and Chinese students are the two largest groups among international students and this news could motivate many more to apply for their Higher Education in USA.

Source: NCMonline News

Hogenakal Falls

It has been over a year I left BITS campus and when I recollect the memories of the places like Rishikesh, Haridwar, Agra, Jaipur, Jaisalmer etc around Rajasthan, they often make me nostalgic.

Corporate work always clouds you from the phun you used to have during your college days. We, few employees of Qualcomm were lucky to find some time to breathe on Nov 1st, Karnataka Formation Day, a declared HR holiday. Good were we, to snatch on this teeny tiny opportunity to pull out one of our most memorable trip to Hogenakal Falls near to Bangalore.

Hogenakal Falls is in Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu state along the border with Karnataka, is one of the beautiful waterfalls in southern India on the Kaveri alias Cauvery River. “Hoge” in Kannada means smoke and “Kal” means rock – with the essence that when water falls on the rocks it would appear as smoke is emanating out of the them.

The destination is around 170kms from Bangalore, so you would spend nearly 3-4 hrs in travel on either side. Hence starting early in the day is ideal to make the best use of your time near the falls and in the water.

Homework:
We booked a Tempo Traveler (TT) since we were 10 in number. I sincerely advise a TT over Qualis/Sumo, coz you carry a lot of stuff apart from yourself. We discussed a check list and ensured we had all of them on the following day.

Few include Frisbee, lot of water, first-aid kit, playing cards, Good Music (which I ensured was Met !!), snacks to munch, couple of digital cameras, plastic ball to play in the water etc.
From individual point of view, we carried some dosh, jackets, extra clothes to change from your wet ones, towels, caps, goggles etc. Shucks, Im going too much into the Details :(

Start of Travel:
It was around 8AM by the time we picked up the last person and everything was set for our journey. We went via the Silk Board, onto the road which goes to Electronic City towards Hosur. Since the destination is in TN, we had a Border Check kinda stuff, where the documents of the vehicle were verified. The process took nearly 45 minutes. We were still very drowsy.

Breaking our fast and drowsiness:
Next stop was Sarvana Bhavan for breakfast, where we literally hogged. We savoured the quality of Dosa, Upma and Vada. I suggest anyone who is planning to Hogenakal should stop by this place. After all, Good Food is what we are living for…Donno about others, atleast I am !!
It was around 10AM by the time we were done here.

Towards Destination:
One significant difference which I found with Karnataka and TN were the Roads. With good drive songs such as Mumbai Salsa, Mauja Hi Mauja and green fields around the drive was pretty smooth and exciting.
Snaps in Sugarcane fields and Anthyaakshari were the exciting segments before we reached the destination.

Start with Bargaining:
The only way you go near the falls and the small islands around is with a Coracle. The first step we did after reaching the place was to get the best bargain for the Coracle ride to span for the entire day. Each coracle can accommodate 5. I have seen coracles in movies, but boarding it for the first time was very different. You are damn close to the water and feel like somebody is holding u and sailing you over the small ripples of the river.

All the Phun:
After the initial ride in the coracle, we trekked for a while to reach onto the other side of a mountain. This was to ensure that our coracle was in the direction of the water current. We found that well cooked fish was being sold, and did not think to go back without relishing it. We ordered some rice along with the fish for our lunch to be delivered on the island which was our next destination.

Our second coracle ride was towards the Hogenakal Falls. It was just getting better. We were nourishing the scenic beauty as we approached close to it. We climbed onto the small rocks and reached the place where we got the full view of the waterfall. It was like a white blanket fluttering over the mountain and finally settling itself with the water beneath. Click Click Few Canon Powershot Moments !!!

Island:
The third coracle ride to reach the Island. This time it was drizzling with tiny drops of water falling from above and below. You are sailing in the water, munching some Lays, and with small droplets touching your cheeks …Boy it was one lovely experience.

We spend real good time in the water after reaching the Island, played with Frisbee, took support of others to float, tried all junk stuff..and as usual…Click Click Few Kodak Moments!!

The guys who were sailing our coracles asked if we wanted some Body Massage. One of my buddies and me partially undressed to have this royal experience with mustard oil. You never realize there are so many muscles in your body which could twist and turn without pain. I was a kid when my Mom used to give me a bath. This time I was sitting thousands of Kms away from my native place, half naked, with oil all over my body, getting bathed with a stranger in middle of a River. Can it get any Royal than this??
Click Click…few snaps taken, but censured….for good of public.

Last Coracle Ride:
The last coracle ride before we paid them and got into our TTs. The time was around 5.30PM and the sun is no more scorching. It was a pleasant evening and you get this feeling that there is no one else in the river apart from your coracle. We could hear the chirping of birds, sounds of water splashing, brushing of leaves and stems. The tranquility of the place puts you in a pseudo paradise, and your soul craves for the same to continue. The cool breeze and clear sky made us so attached to the nature that, we wished to stick our butts and sleep in the coracle for the whole night.

Towards the Silicon Plateau of India, Bangalore:
We boarded the TT after having some hot coffee and reached our homes at 11:00 PM with hell lot of memories in mind. Rain God was damn good and did not disturb any of our plans.

Expenses:
Each coracle – 5 seater – Rs 600/-
Entrance Fee – 150/- (including two places)
Rice and Fish – pretty cheap
Royal Massage and Bath – Rs 150/-
Tempo Traveller – Rs 8/- per Km

Road Tax at the Border - Rs 1000/-

Driver Charges - Rs 300/-

Though this was our first trip together, the total experience pumped us with energy good enough, that we are all set to visit many more places around Bangalore.

Job Portal Commercials - R they Raising Qualms ?

“If you don’t have a Job, Chill!! Get others some jobs”. With the economy booming and the variety of jobs ranging from HR, IT, Engineering, Marketing, Graduate Trainees, Internships available in India with national and MNCs, starting a Consultancy could fetch good money.


Advertising has taken giant leaps in India. Commercials of Mentos, “Dimag ki batti jala de”, Hutch 2 Vodafone, Time of India are true examples of innovative, creative thinking and making.

The famous job portals in India- Naukri.com, Monster.com, TimesJobs.com, ClickJobs.com have taken another approach in advertising. Let us see each of them –

a) Naukri.com – Mock your Boss
You might have seen this famous commercial of HARI SADU, the employee spells the name of his boss as, H-Hitler, A-Arrogant, R-Rascal, I-Idiot. The essence being, the employee is secured with hell lot of jobs from Naukari.com and makes fun of his boss. Motivated by him, joins another employee who hints for S-Shameless.
Moral of the Commercial: Scold, Rebuke and Yell at your bosses at no risk.

b) Monster.com – Landing into the Right Job
Another well articulated Ad, where you find a Bharatanatyam dancer managing aerodrome traffic and a cricketer washing clothes. Monster sees the talent within them and identifies the ideal position they would be suited for. Dancer gets her stage performance chance and the cricketer joins ICL :)
Moral of the Commercial: You current job is the not the right fit for you.



c) TimesJobs.com – Your are Worth More
A confident and content employee enters his office. He is praised for his work by department heads and girls always render romantic smirks towards him. He feels big inside and elated deep within. You also find the guy is pictured almost 10 times that of his colleagues in size. Finally the pay slips are handed over when he finds his salary to be much lower compared to others. The Ad ends with the same employee shown as a microscopic human sitting in his huge chair, to showcase his lower pay scale.
Moral of Commercial: You Earn just Peanuts in your current job

d) ClickJobs.com – Get a HAPPY Job
Kumar, is associated with “Happy” in every walk of his life. He wakes up happy, house is names Happy Kumar, he drives happy, neglects high paying jobs, ignores luring perks, doesn’t care about International opportunities, because of the simple reason that he is HAPPY and CONTENT with his job. In short, ClickJobs.com can’t offer you great salaries, good perks and overseas placements but can make sure you have a HAPPY job.
Moral of Commercial: You are not Happy with your Job?

All these portals are helping many to start-find-change-switch-move to new jobs - KUDOS, but I'm worried if the same commercials are making few sensitive minds dubious about their existing jobs? Might be :( or Might be NOT :)

Bracing Start to Blogging

I badly wanted to come out of this well of sluggish frogs when I started reading blogs of my seniors and friends.

Its been over an year I was out of university and “Procrastination” – the first big English vocab term I learnt in school days is still shadowing me from blogging.

Not that it is boring, just that my lazy bump doesn't take the effort to draft and post my experiences. I have hell lot of topics in mind to blog, which themselves do not have any connection and drive to a particular idea.

I ought to name these loose threads, and hence chose to name my blog as “Dangling Strands”.

After you choose a name, your mind really ponders on what topic to start with. You have this real passion to become a great blogger when u start. U wish to sound funky in the titles u choose. U wish to receive feedback, comments for every crap u scribble. But only few succeed. All this said, Im no exception. Lez see how things shape from now on.

At this juncture, I need to thank Google for acquiring Blogger.com and making it easy to connect your Gmail account to this. I am obliged to dictionary.com, a reliable source to check spellings and flick few words.

Shucks, I already started sounding dreary !!!

Cheers