Motorola lays off employees

It’s rather a very sad news. I was shocked when I received Amit’s email today sharing this breaking news. My heart started pounding hoping that Amit’s job was intact. And God willingly, yes his job was secure. I called him soon after reading his email. Motorola cut down its strength by 10% here in the Orlando premises. I am not sure who all would have been in the list and I am hoping none of the sole bread earners are there in that list (Fingers crossed).

I looked up on the web and found these two articles which were posted in may, declaring Motorola’s plan of laying of 4000 people just to make a profit margin by June 2007. This computer industry is insane when it comes down to cost cutting or profit making. I have been in the shoes once when I had to call my team members and ask them to leave. It was rather hard for me to utter those harsh words to the team who works day and night and sweat out to roll out the good products in the market. There is this bond that comes and asking them to leave just for the mere financial reasons is so crazy. I felt what they were going through however I couldn’t help switch the decision coz it was coming from higher ups. Isn’t it so sad that the decision makers never face the ugly facet but bring there managers in front to face the brunt. I wish these companies realize what the people go through when they are called out like that and laid off! I am sure they are not inhuman however they are not on this side of the boat either. My heart cries out to those people who actually go through the misery of such lavish companies and are target of lay offs.

God bless these big manufacturing companies!

STS-117 Atlantis Takes off

Sorry for the late post! We couldn’t capture the video of the take of the shuttle, however here is the link of video taken from Nasa...which is rather close to the spot where we witnessed the Shuttle Take off. Watch out for the rumbling noise that comes towards the end.

Click here to view the video

Enjoy!

Countdown Underway

Launch Target: June 8
Launch Time: 7:38 p.m. EST

A seven crew member team is planning to fly once again from the Kennedy Space Center Nasa, Florida. The plan is to go to the International Space Station, and the news says that our Indian crew Flight Engineer Sunita L. Williams will return to Earth from the space station aboard shuttle mission STS-117.

I am sure the news channel in India would be flashing this specific news every now and then, however it doesn’t make much difference here as they are all a part of the NASA team. The other day I was reading her ISS journal, it is pretty interesting to see how they lead life there. They eat, have fun, exercise, look at the outside world thru a distance and do whatever they can to make it their home. I was also intrigued by their meals, as in one of the journals, SUnita wrote, that they had : “Indian feast,” saag paneer, palak paneer, pakora in sauce, as well as candy, shortbread cookies, Swedish fish, hummus, nuts and COFFEE WITH CREAM. I was really surprised to see the CREAMY coffee in there.

Though it will be cutting too short after work (June 8 is a Friday), but we will still try to go and view the launch at Cape Canaveral. I hope the weather is works for all of us.

Will keep you posted..

Greencard

Yeah!!!!

Amit got an email this morning about his Greencard approval. Time to celebrate! yeah. I was so happy and glad to hear this awesome news. We have been waiting for this for years!

Thats one reason, our marriage happened in such a fast manner. And today, I am so happy coz Amit is happy :). We got excited and called up both Amit's and my folks back at home to share this awesome news. Later did we realize to check with the attorney and got to know that Amit's GC is approved however mine is still in pending status.

Never mind... i am still happy and my level of excitement is still the same as before...coz as I said earlier..I am happy coz Amit is happy :)

Yeah!!!!

Rain rain go away…

Well, that’s how this weekend was. Gloomy, rainy and my working Saturday stretched it so much that I didn’t want to wake up early this morning. Oh, perhaps today morning was not overcastted but the story of early morning is consistent throughout I guess. I don’t understand why early morning’s are my favorite and at the same time worse. Favorite, coz I get the best sleep around dawn time, and bad, perhaps coz of that alarm clock. Why are mornings so tough on us? And the alarm’s….urgh! Why do they have to go up right on time? Can’t they give us 5 ….just 5 more minutes so that we can catch up on our beauty sleep. I wish those alarm clocks could understand our plea and help the time stop for sometime.

Ahh- another 5 days to go, and then those gorgeous weekends we would have… The sat/ Sunday seem so far as of today. Long wait… but I am sure they will arrive soon.

Have a good week everybody!

Trip up North

May 25, 2007

This was the day when we flew of to Atlantic City, called mini Las Vegas. It was a hectic yet admirable trip overall, since we tried to cover a lot of land in minimal timeframe.

Day 1- we started as usual in the morning, as it was our half working day. Amit picked me up from work and we headed straight to the airport from there. At the airport, I was too hungry and as soon as I went to grab a pizza slice, I stumbled upon an Indian (not so famous) bollywood actress, Amit Nangia. She was flying off to Newyork and was on a vaccation to see Disney with her kids and hubby. I didn't get time to capture her or talk to her at a stretch, as our boarding time was cutting too close. I had to scratch my head several times to remember her name, and explain it to Amit as to who I met :). Anyways, we boarded our flight and we reached Atlantic City airport 10 mins late.

The car rental peeps were waiting for us and without wasting much time, boarded the shuttle and reached the rental place. The rental place was secluded and did not have much options to choose from. However, we got Toyota Corolla (red) car. We drove from their to New Jersey area to meet Sweeny, Manish and Tulika. As soon as we arrived at their house, we saw a man working in their front yard. It was hard to recognize, but very soon we realize, that yard man is none other than, Manish, Sweeny's hubby. Sweeny greeted us, and gave us the tour of their house. They have recently bought the house and it is beautiful :). Must be around 3400sq ft.
Hats off to them, they have furnished their house so soon! After grabbing home made food (which was incredibly yummy), we drove down to Philly (short form of Philadelphia). Tulika was still in her beauty sleep while we were taking the downtown trip. It was impressive to see such a nice architecture and nice master piece buildings. We stopped for quick photo shoot and headed back to NJ.

We might have reached back home around 2 am. And man! Manish was looking so tired but still was up for gupshup :). It was sincerely a nice stop over at Sweeny's and Manish's place.

DAY 2

mmmm our day started around 8:30 am and soon after finishing a very healthy breakfast (Aalo ke paranthe cooked by Sweeny)...we headed for New York, Battery park. Nice city, new roads, and new traffic pattern, was all new to us.
I have yet to post more, but will do so later...