Comments on: The night I got rained out!

By: Thank you Bangalore: Oddhead Blog: Prediction Markets, Gambling, Electronic Commerce, Artificial Intelligence: David Pennock: Yahoo! Research

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:06:26 +0000

[...] Hard to wake up at 9am = midnight. Shower. Feel 1000% better. Driver takes me to the Yahoo! office. It’s in a complex with Microsoft, Google, Target, Dell, and many other US brands. Once you’re inside it’s like every other Yahoo! office except the food — built essentially to corporate spec. Meet with Anita, Raghu, and Rajeev: go over PR angles and they brief me on the media interviews. These guys and gal are on top of things. Meet with Mani and her team: great group. Skip intern pizza talks because I can’t eat cheese, going for the cafeteria instead. Mistake. Order a veggie grill thinking that since it’s grilled, it’s cooked enough. I only take a few bites of this before thinking it’s too risky. I eat some bread and Indian mixtures. Not sure what the culprit is but something doesn’t sit well in my stomach. Give prediction markets portion of my talk to a few interested people in labs. Very sharp group. Meet with Dinesh and Sachin, their intern, and one other. Interesting work. Meet with Chid and Preeti on Webscope. Back to hotel. Call Lauren. Good to hear her voice. Ashley wants to say hi. She’s so adorable. She finds it hilarious that I am about to have dinner while she is eating breakfast. I can hear her laughing uncontrollably at the thought. Sarah says hi too and even ends our conversation without prompting with a “bye, love you”. I go down to the restaurant for dinner. Have a chicken Indian dish with paratha (is it lachha paratha?) bread. Spicy (sweat inducing) yet so delicious. The bread is fantastic — round white with flaky layers. Back to room. TV. CNN. CNBC. ESPN. Hard to sleep. There is an incredible thunderstorm with torrents of rain. I open my balcony door briefly to catch its power. I find out later that monsoon season is just beginning. I also find out that it rained so hard and so long that the roads flooded to the point of becoming impassible. In fact, Anita, the Bangalore PR lead, who had gone out to dinner, could not get home and instead checked into a hotel before going home briefly in the morning and then back to Yahoo! for our 11am meeting. Finally get to sleep. [...]

By: Ms.N

Ms.N — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 05:27:43 +0000

haha — yes, the travails of the monsoon in this country. sometimes even when people relate stories of the day bombay was flooded — it sounds adventorous. but i guess being caught must be miserable! over here its still the light drizzle before the storm and is still enjoyable!

By: anita

anita — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:47:09 +0000

@ Vijay: it never rains in chennai? gosh!

@ Grasshopper: you too? but at least you got home!

@ Yuva: yeah, it looks like it will survive the bangalore rains :-)

@ Nidarshana: when it rains, it pours! and with the city’s drainage system, it takes about 20 minutes exactly (sometimes lesser) for all the low lying areas to get flooded!

@ Roshan: i know! that lane was swarming with inns :-)

@ Lubna: ah yes, I’ve seen similar days in Mumbai but stayed back in the office. played dumb charades in the office the whole night!!

@ Nandish: yeah, hope it doesn’t rain like this in mumbai. the floods last time around were pretty bad.

By: Nandish

Nandish — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:23:59 +0000

This sounds like — Mumbai Rains.… though it hasn’t started raining here still this time around.

By: Lubna

Lubna — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 08:15:50 +0000

This reminds me of Mumbai. We tend to stay overnight at our offices — having learnt this is the best option — the hard way. Glad you found a decent hotel to check into and that all is well.
Best
Lubna

By: Roshan

Roshan — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 05:14:58 +0000

It was lucky that you were in a part of town where there was a hotel/inn nearby.

By: Nidarshana

Nidarshana — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 04:34:47 +0000

Awww it is news. Somehow thought it rains as sparsely in Bangalore, as it does in Hyd. Chalo you gave me one more point to fend back when my B’lorean friends give me that Hyd-sux thing next. :)

By: Yuva

Yuva — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:42:23 +0000

I lived in bangalore and thought worst of bangalore rain but this is beyond my experience & imagine. lucky me.;)

if & when i relocate i should consider buying that vehicle..

By: Grasshopper

Grasshopper — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 05:26:38 +0000

Amazing video, that fellow almost drowned and got trapped inside the vehicle, or so I thought.
I was in a car too that night, and got home by twelve thirty, through the swimming pools.

By: Vijay Ganesh

Vijay Ganesh — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:00:58 +0000

Oh No. Sounds bad., good to be in chennai as it never rains here :(