Trip to Rajasthan & Agra

Finally the time had come to plan for a small vacation as I had got a 4 days off on the occasion on Dusshera.
New job preparation, shifting and later finding the right school for my kiddo had taken it's toll. I wanted a break and this holiday season gave me just that. Of the available options Jaipur-Delhi-Agra, Delhi-Agra-Gwalior and Jaipur-Agra-Ajmer, I decided to visit Jaipur-Agra-Ajmer covering Pushkar and FatehpurSikri as well and here is my summary of my trip.

First day: Agra -

Immediately after landing at Jaipur, we headed towards Agra without stopping anywhere in Jaipur or Fatehpur Sikri as it was a Thursday and Taj Mahal is  closed on Fridays. Visit to Taj Mahal was something I had in my mind since a very long time. The history behind it and the sheer crowd it pulls from different parts of the world always amazed me.
So here was I in front of Taj Mahal on an October afternoon. The first impression when I was right there in front of The Taj was 'Wow'. The beautiful marble monument against the blue backdrop was a great sight. The first thing that normally comes to mind when we visit such a place is the amount of resource, effort, time, and planning that went in to build something this spectacular. Red sandstone walls stand in front and to its two sides, and Yamuna river flows behind it. The tomb, pillars, walkways beside the pool at the front, the inlay art on the walls, the carvings, everything is treat to our eyes. It takes at least 2-3 hours to go around the place. And it will be better to visit early morning during sunrise time to maximize the experience, as the color of Taj Mahal changes during the course of the day.

Few tips to consider:
1. The guide did not provide any details apart from what we have in Wiki, so you can plan without him if you can take time to read.
   Audio guides (downloaded or rentals) can come handy as well.
2. Don't be fooled by guide or anyone w.r.t entry fees or shoe-cover rates. It costs just Rs. 20 & Rs. 10 respectively for Indians.
3. The battery powered vehicles run from parking lot to the actual Taj Mahal entrances to reduce pollution in the area.
   They charge Rs. 10 or 5 (based on the size of vehicle) only. If you have time and patience, you can have a stroll of 1 km instead to avoid the crowd who run towards the vehicles.
4. Do not visit any place/workshops which claim to give your inlay marble work souvenirs or items unless accompanied by trustworthy contacts.

Second day: Fatehpur Sikri -  

We arrived at the Agra fort the next morning. This is a big fort surrounded by tall and think walls, of course. The fort consists of multiple gates and was planned to avoid and slow down the intrusion attempts. Inside the fort we have quite a few places built and upgraded by multiple Mughal emperors. Taj Mahal is seen across the fort a little away next to Yamuna River. Audio guide tapes helped us to know few aspects about each blocks in the fort. I liked especially the palaces at the terrace where Shah Jahan spent time with his family and the Diwan-E-Aam i.e. the Hall of public audience.
Soon after fort visit we reached Fatehpur Sikri after a drive of around an hour. This city was the capital of Mughal empire for sometime and the city, palaces were build under the supervision of Akbar. The fort, palaces, courts show a great deal of planning and mix of cultures.
There are many buildings and structures in the area surrounding which includes the 55 meters Buland Darwaza, Jama masjid, Tomb of Sufi saint Salim Chisti and Panch Mahal.
Buses run from the parking area to the main fort. Rs. 10 is the general fare for each passenger. Many guides mislead in buying the holy blanket or flowers while entering the masjid which needs to be presented inside in order to get our wishes fulfilled. Well, if you are not there for actual prayers or anything then you are ignore all and just visit the main masjid and back. There is nothing wrong in going empty handed. Make sure to have something like a cloth or a cap to cover your head.
 
Third day: Jaipur -
 

 
Once from Fatehpur Sikri, we decided to go for shopping in Jaipur. Sarees, embroidery etc are Jaipur specialty.
The next morning we visited Jantar Mantar. This is a place of architectural astronomical instruments built by Rajpur King Sawai Jai Singh. Even with the audio guide few of the instruments were difficult to be understood :)
We quickly moved to Jaipur City Palace, the main attraction in Jaipur. This palace mainly consists of Mubarak mahal (see pic above) and Chandra Mahal. Currently Mubarak mahal is converted into a museum which features royal costumes used, shawks, sarees etc. Chandra mahal is the residence of the descendants of former rulers.
Other attractions include the Diwan-I-Aam and Diwan-I-Khas which showcase different aspect of royal armoury and art gallery.
This palace surely takes up considerable time to cover completely.
 
Forth day: Pushkar & Ajmer -
 

Once done with City palace we headed towards Pushkar city which is around 4-5 hours drive. Early next morning, we had a nice 2 hours camel ride to witness the sun rise. This was our first camel ride and had nice time along with few other foreigners. Brahma temple and the Ghat are the attractions here. This is the one and only God Brahma temple in the world and the Ghat is the place to pay homage to our ancestors.
Ajmer was the next city where we visited the Jain temple and golden model depicting the city Ayodhya and Mt. Sumera (see pic above). Later we visited the famous pilgrimage center of Sufi Saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti. Make sure to have something like a cloth or a cap to cover your head. And if not planned for any prayers or offers of holy blanket, then you can ignore the requests by many.
 
We headed back to Jaipur to board our flight back to Bengaluru.
This was once of the fast paced trips I had so far. Taj Mahal, the forts and the places are something which will remain in my mind for long.

Job hunt

Beginning this year 2015, I somewhat lost interest in my job because of many reasons. No challenging activities, flat learning curve, no work road map being the important ones. That's when I decided to search for an opportunity outside my company.
I started with the resume update. Believe me, this is an equally important task not just because a recruiter takes only few seconds to scan the resume and move on with the next one but also for one has to consolidate all the work or project handled during last many years. Update and review cycle went through few iterations and thanks to my friends who took time to provide valuable suggestions in the process. Here are few pointers one can take while coming up with resume:

• IMHO, 'Career objective', 'Personal Information' sections are unnecessary. Of course the contact details needs to be mentioned but information like marital status, languages known etc can be avoided, unless it's really required for the profile you are looking for.
• The first page of the resume should provide the important aspects which includes the contact information, your skill sets and your current role and responsibilities.
• Once the resume seems to be complete, verify the overall construct of it using the 'tag cloud' mechanism. This helps to verify which words are being emphasized and whether any repetitive words needs to reduced. Online tools such as tagcrowd.com can come handy. 

 Once the resume was uploaded to job portals and in LinkedIn, I could get the sense of the market and the demands. With that I started my preparation which covered the basics, previous projects, coding and other aspects. I took calls only when I was 75% confident of my preparation. After my first unsuccessful telephonic interview followed by face-to-face discussion, I filled in the gaps in my prep. It took couple of months for this cycle and in couple of trials I got an offer from a company which provided opportunity which I was looking out for. I gleefully accepted.
Few things to take away from this phase:

• Be ready to provide actual reasons for the shift. Try to be completely honest with it even if the reason is your not-so-good manager.
• There are many sites which provide you huge list of questions one can expect during the interview. Go through few and be mentally prepared. These are equally important to your technical preparation.
• Ask questions during the process so that you can get enough information about the job profile, company and team. 
• At the final stages, if you feel you deserve more than they have offered you then do not hesitate to negotiate. Remember negotiation is also a skill!

I've joined my new company now and looking forward for the new learning and new challenges.