KBeanie

Conversations and her

2012-01-14T21:46:00.001+05:30

She is either very intelligent, or just loves to show off her arguing powers. One day, out of nowhere, she wanted to test me. Usually, I lose the argument, irrespective of the topic of the discussion. Here we go.

A chat transcript.

She: Did you see a soul-mate (past, present and future) when you first looked into my eyes?

I instantly knew that I cannot afford to be outright truthful here. Didn't reply for a long time, pondering over my course of action, and also anticipating the possible repercussions.

She: (Impatient) You didn't answer my question.
He: (Oh no.. Not again!!) Ummm, No.
She: No? You did not see a soul-mate in me? You are lying.
Me: (Trying to be funny, to divert her) Living life with you is enough. I don't want to linger around with you after we become ghosts.

She: You are saying that we were not together in our previous births?
Me: I don't remember. (Trying to remember harder as ever)
She: And you don't want to be with me in your next birth?
Me: Global warming, everything will be over soon. So, I am not thinking about my next birth. :)

She: Oh...
She: Okay ("Ok" would have been fine, but "Okay" is a sign of the approaching storm)
She: (She was reading a book just before we started this conversation) Then, I guess, I will read my book.
Me: Hahahahaha
She: Huh!!!

And after that, we had to continue this discussion over the phone and finally reach a conclusion, well, not exactly, but to a point where she can go back to reading her book normally, and me, well, telling myself, "A job well done" and gave myself a pat on my back. :D I won this time. Yay!!!

Ortel Communications: A review

2012-01-09T08:45:00.000+05:30

You have probably not heard about this company if you are not from Bhubaneswar. I never wanted to write reviews for anything, other than, may be gadgets. But then, I had to mention about this company here. You will soon know why.

It's been more than a month that I have been using this broadband connection at home. When we got an internet connection (a broadband wired connection) at home, there were no other private providers here. Well, the BSNL guys told that a connection to our house wasn't possible at that point in time. Frankly speaking, we didn't have any choice whatsoever. Ortel Communication, had a monopoly everywhere in Orissa. Although, I was very reluctant to give my approval, we hooked onto their network.

Ok. To be frank, this is not a review, rather an outburst after all the torture and frustration I have gone through. So, I would only talk about their negatives here.

At-least once a day, their modem goes offline. ("loses power"). <<----- That's what they say. And we have to call them every-time to let them know that the poor modem has lost power.
I had plans of staying at home for sometime, and I would be also working from home for some time. So, I upgraded our connection to a 700kbps plan. I thought it would be enough for my needs. But then I realized that, although the download speed was almost close to 700kbps, the upload speed was pathetic at best (@100kbps). WHAT!!!!
The day we upgraded our plan, I saw a weird problem. Almost all the pages I opened up, it had an annoying advertisement. I was frustrated, and tried to hunt down the problem. I re-installed my browsers, un-installed all my browser add-ons, but still the problem persisted. After a few more investigations, to my horror, I found that Ortel Communications was injecting this piece of advertisement on each and every page, by intercepting my requests.
I started writing mails to them on the e-mail addresses provided on their website. Hahaha, I knew what would happen next. 2 out of the 3 recipients mail bounced back. And for the one recipient, I haven't heard back yet. I kept on doing this for 5 days, yet I haven't received even an acknowledgement.
I did a Google search to find out if anyone else has this problem. Of course, Ortel has it's monopoly in Bhubaneswar. I found almost everyone was having the same problem.

There is a thread here where you can find more people complaining. You would find a few interesting stories as well. I had never thought that an ISP would do something like this. When I asked one of the customer care guys about this, they said that they do this because Ortel is providing internet connection in rural areas at a lower cost, and so they had to compensate for it by adopting this. WHAT!!!!! You are awesome Ortel communications. Great going.

By the way, here's the code that they injecting into every website that you visit. They get their ads onto our webpages by using this script.

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ui.streamride.net/ui.js"></script>

This is almost equal to cheating the customers. I don't really care if they are getting some extra revenue. It's just so annoying to see those ads all the time. Here is a sample of how those ads look like on your browsers. This is, in my view, breach of privacy and security and cheating.

The New Year Post

2012-01-05T23:59:00.001+05:30

Ah!! this time I am late. Damn!! There were quite a few reasons. But, finally, this had to come.

Image source: Wikimedia commons

HAPPY NEW YEAR to you. :)

Not much happened when the year changed for me. I was at home, sitting idle, watching the TV. Everyone else at home was asleep. I was the only one at home, waiting for the new year. The date changed with no big bang. After that, I switched of the rooms lights, and got busy with the movie. At about half-past midnight, my phone rang.

"An unknown number". Must be someone from college, I thought. Without concentrating much on the caller, my eyes still focused on the TV, I answered the call while I lowered down the volume.

A girl answered.

She: "Hi, Happy New Year".... Come down, I am waiting for you.

She sounded very very familiar, and I almost instantaneously recognized her. She was Radhika, a friend from school. We weren't really great friends, and we probably hadn't talked for more than 10 years now. I wished her back, still trying to confirm if it was her.

Me: Hey, A very very Happy New Year to you. But, why are you here at this time?
She: Come down. I am shivering outside. We are going somewhere.

This was a mistake, I thought. It can never be her. Even if it were her, she wouldn't be here waiting for me in-front of my house. I got up from the chair, walked towards the window and looked down. I could see the shadow of a car below in the dark. I could also see a girl inside the car, although it was just her silhouette.

Me: Ummm. Wait. It's a mistake. Who is this by the way?
She: Come on. Be a sport. Let's go now. I am shivering.

Still confused, I thought of going down and getting a better view of the woman waiting inside the car. And then I heard a big loud horn. Startled, I almost trembled and closed my eyes.

The TV was still playing that movie, and I was on my chair. I had dozed off.

I never knew anyone called Radhika. Huh.... Just to be sure, I looked down from the window. The roads were empty, and even the car. This time, the street lights helped me look inside the car.

I wished if she were a bit more patient and not honked so loud.

Dreams. Our minds can be so imaginative. I am sure, if she wouldn't have honked, I would have celebrated the next year in my dreams as well. A whole year of thoughts, within a span of a few hours. That would have been fun.

Flower chor!! Flower chor!!

2011-11-22T22:28:00.001+05:30

Ah!!! I thought things would have changed. It's been a long long time that I heard such tales from my Mom. Let's ponder over the background of the story.

Every Indian house does some form of Pooja, every morning, for which one of the most important ingredient is "Flowers". The flowers have to be fresh, i.e, freshly plucked. And the most important part is, the collected lot should at-least have 2 varieties of flowers (varying by color or species). The fun starts every morning. If you could fix a big camera over my colony, one could see people getting out of their houses just before the sunrise, with small bags, determined...

Their mission: Collect flowers for Pooja.

Target: Everyone else's garden.

We also have a few flowering plants inside our compound, and Mom recently noticed that everyday the number of flowers on our plants kept diminishing. And, on other days, she failed to find a single flower for our Pooja on our plants. It was obvious that someone was stealing our flowers. Although we somehow managed to get our share of flowers from other sources, Mom took up the responsibility to catch the erring neighbor and confront them, or may be teach them a lesson.

She needed a partner. And who else would be a better accomplish other than Auntie who was a close friend of Mom. She was on the ground floor, and Mom on the second floor. The plan was chalked out. Everyday, Auntie would try to wake up early in the morning, hoping that she would wake up before the THIEF reached our compound, watch the plants for a few minutes and alert Mom if she saw anything suspicious.

Everyday, Auntie and Mom used to wake up early in the morning, and kept an eye on our plants. Mom, from the terrace, and Auntie through the windows. For the first few days, the thief was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps, he made his errands too early in the morning. After a few watchful days, the thief was finally caught. They were actually two (From the same house, Husband and Wife). To be sure enough before deciding on their punishments, Mom and Auntie wanted to be check that the culprits came and assaulted our plants daily. So, they continued for a few more days, and it was established that the THIEVES actually came everyday and robbed us of our flowers.

The plan: The next time when Mom would see them getting their hands dirty, they would be washed off by a bucket of cold water from the terrace.

But, the idea was finally dropped, considering...

The culprits were from our own colony, and we knew them.
It was winter time and Mom felt that the punishment would be a bit harsh.
We also used to collect our flower lot for the Pooja from our neighbors few years back when we were not the proud owners of a few flowering plants.

What? What the heck!!!

2011-11-04T00:26:00.000+05:30

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

People can be so stupid at times. Sometimes, we say or do stupid things, which would make even a donkey laugh out loud. However, there are certain situations where you tend to ignore them. For example, you would just ignore a stupid question from someone when you know that the person is perhaps sad about something, and not in the right state of mind.

But it's really irritating sometimes, when people ask stupid questions, whose answer they already know. The best example for this is when your phone rings, and the other person confirms first that it's actually you who answered. Of course, there are exceptions, but then, at times it's just so obvious that nobody else other than you could possibly answer the phone.

There was a guy, whose name I prefer not to mention. I had this habit of reading newspapers few years back. Whenever he walked into my room, and saw me reading the newspaper, we would go like this:

He: Hey, What are you doing?

Me: Reading newspaper (Obviously)

He: I can see that. Reading what in the newspaper.

Me: So and so article. (Guiding his vision towards that portion of the newspaper)

He: Hmm. What are you reading in that article?

Me: Well, you know, so and so happened. I was just reading that. (Should I read out loud)

What the heck!!! I don't have the habit anymore.

And it happened almost every time he saw me reading either the newspaper, a book or even listening to the radio. I mean, isn't this stupid? I could understand that he wanted to break the ice someway or the other, but didn't he have any another ice-breakers?

Perhaps this: "Oh, you are reading the newspaper! Did you see this article today?"

I would at-least not wonder if he was "BLIND".

There are other stupid questions as well. And the more frequently used one is:

Why do you like Ice cream so much? (Or anything else which I like/love)
It's not that I haven't tried explaining them. For example, a typical response to such a question would probably be something like: "Well, it's cold, it's sweet, and it comes in a variety of flavors".

But then, how do I respond to questions like:
1. Why do you like cricket?
2. Why do you not like tennis?
3. Why do you have a Citibank credit card?
4. Why are you wearing a black shirt on such a warm day?
5. Wassup?

Ah!!! The last one is one of those, which I answer with a "NOTHING - Nothing at ALL".

Extracts from my Old Diary

2011-10-26T23:33:00.000+05:30

The extracts are unedited/uncensored. Really.

31/01/2004

The month of January seems to have stagnated. The biting cold and intermittent rains have lowered down the temperatures. There's no better place than my warm bed and the common room. Right now, I am in a dilemma. I don't know what to do after my B.Tech degree. Of course, the first preference will be the campus selection. But I have a very strong desire to crack the CAT or the XAT.

01/02/2004

A great day as far as the quality of food. The day started off with "Chole Bhature" which was the best of all the breakfast items in the mess. The lunch was also pretty good. And for the dinner, dosa and a treat in GE were on the cards. Ritesh Parida and Rakesh Mallick were present to finance for the dinner. But, I couldn't digest all these things. You know what I am talking about. Pretty uncomfortable.

03/02/2005

The results of Computer branch is out. Soon, our results will also be out. Sidharth's got quite a good percentage of 71.2%, the highest being that of Rachit Aggarwal's with 85.8%. These marks are elusive for our branch. The papers this time were very tough. So, I would be happy if I score some 70% or above. Most probably the results would be out tomorrow. A very long wait. I am waiting...

14/02/2004

The results are out. And I have got a mere 61%. That was well below my expectations. I was expecting around 65%. Terribly frustrated, I don't know what to do now. I have to get at-least 75% in this semester.

The next semester I got 63%.

Will anything change!!!!

2011-09-30T01:19:00.000+05:30

It's been a few weeks now, and everything seems to have fallen in place, for the Government, the Parliament, for the people of India, for the news channels and the internet. "India Against Corruption", seems to have shaken up a few people, actually, a whole lot of Indian population, and everyone seems to be talking about it everywhere.

I wonder if anything is going to change. Mind you, I am a very optimistic guy, so, don't think that I don't have any hopes. But, when you get to see, or hear about bizzare incidents happening almost every day, all around me, all this boils down to a very basic question.

Are we really ready for this change?

I seriously doubt. There was a case of a truck driver being beaten to death by some policemen because he refused to pay them a bribe. There was another incident, where a toll-gate attendant was shot by a person in a car, just because he didn't want to pay the toll-tax. I know a friend, who had to pay Rs 2,00,000 to a doctor for getting a certificate(his was a genuine case).

The policemen who brutally killed the truck driver are perhaps sitting in the comfort of their homes. The other person who shot the toll attendant, has probably applied for bail, and his application would be soon accepted. The doctor would have bought a load of gold and stashed it somehwere in his house.

I really wish that one day, India would be on the list of the least corrupt nations of the world. But, I doubt that this will happen in a course of the next few years. It would take generations and decades all-together to bring about this change. It's not only about the laws, or the judiciary or the punitive actions by the authorities. There should be a change in peoples' mindset and their thinking.We should change the way we live each day. We should change the way we act each day.

Everyone from the Government that speaks against corruption, doesn't really understand how to tackle it. Or rather, they don't really have the will to eradicate corruption. I would agree that, 50% of the governement officials are corrupt, but the honest ones, who are still the half of the system, get branded as corrupt officials. Why is that so?

1. Until and unless I pay a bribe at the passport office, my application would continue gathering dust.
2. Until and unless I pay donation to some MP, I won't get admission to a private school/college.
3. Until and unless I pay a bribe, my tender would be rejected.
4. Until and unless I pay bribe, I would be the last one to be promoted.

I am not yet talking about the big corporate bribes that large businesses NEED to pay the big ministers to get approvals or licenses to carry on their business. That's another part of the story. A common man, would probably come across a government official, almost each and everyday, who would shamelessly demand a bribe to do what he is being paid for.

All of us must have seen the movie "Nayak", where Anil Kapoor was asked to be the Chief Minister of a state for one day. It inspires me a lot. I also feel that whatever has been portrayed in that movie, is very practical. Given a chance, a common man can do a lot better than most of the Chief Ministers of India. But, in real life, nobody would ever get that chance, and so, our Shivaji Rao Gaekwad will always be remembered as a character of fiction and fantasy of the bollywood.

Let's flip the story. If it were possible, just for a day, to ask Mr. Prime Minister, take leave from his office, to spend a life of a common man, what would he do? I am sure he will be begging for the day to end.

It doesn't matter if he rides in a BMW. Take away his Z+ security, and let him drive on the pot-holed roads, and get stuck in traffic. Let him try to renew his vehicle insurance. Let him try to get a gas connection for his house. Let him try to get his PF amount withdrawn from the PF office. Let him try to successfully win a contract without bribing a penny. Let him try to dare and complain against a lazy government officer or a dishonest minister. Let him try to register a complaint in the police station about his stolen TV.

I am sure he will have a hard time. Just like each one of us go through all these troubles, every single day of our lives. I understand that a Prime Minister is not a super-man and he can't really solve each and every problem of our nation. But then, whatever I can see around myself, or read about in the news papers, I don't really feel that the Government is really trying hard. But again, that's not the point. Even after we would have all the strict laws and the Jan Lokpal setup, do I really feel that, magically, one fine morning, corruption in India would end?

My obvious response is a big "NO".

Until and unless we change, nothing's really going to change. Things like these have to change.

1. People let their children stay in prison for a day or two instead of bribing the police, even if their children are innocent.
2. People don't produce fake caste certificates to get their children admitted into good schools.
3. People themselves stop taking bribes or offering bribes.
4. People should encourage their children to be honest, not only to them, but to everyone else as well.
5. People stop asking for dowry. That's also a kind of bribe.
6. People stop giving dowry.
7. Teach humanity. Be more humane. Killing someone for Rs. 5000/-!!!!! That's not humane.
8. People should pay their taxes honestly, even if they feel that the Government is just eating up their hard-earned money.

So, what am I trying to suggest? As much as we ourselves need a radical change in our way of thinking and acting, our next generation should also be shown the way forward. Only then, the nation as a whole can change. Only then, would we be able to get this contagious corruption thrown out of our culture, our hearts, our minds and our nation.

I have tried very hard to refrain myself for quite a long time writing on this topic. I am in a frustrated state of mind.

Let bygones be bygones

2011-09-27T01:12:00.003+05:30

I stay in Bangalore, a thousand miles away from my home, where I spent my childhood. When my mind is blank, and I am not thinking about work or anything else, I ponder over the past. I know those days will never come back, but to even re-live those moments with memories is truly nostalgic.

Recently, there have been a series of power failures in my area. "Damn it!!! @$#%3 @##@$ @#@$". No other thoughts come to my mind when the lights go off. When it starts raining, I curse the rain gods for the untimely downpours. Everything seems to have changed now.

We used to wait for the power cuts everyday when I was a child. Just before the scheduled power cuts, everyone could be seen getting ready with their snacks, water-bottles and other paraphernalia and walk up to the terrace. Those were the days when I learnt and actually saw the Pole star, the other constellations that we read in our Geography books. We talked about a lot of other things. About animals, birds, the moon and the sky. We talked about school. I miss those conversations. And I am sure that my parents miss that too.

When I was a child, I used to love the rains. I loved getting wet. Everytime it started raining, I made it a point that I had a good excuse before walking upto my Mom, for not using my raincoat. I enjoyed those summer days when it was a routine exercise for everyone to get rid of the mosquitoes every evening by burning mosquito repellants.

We also used to go for a walk after dinner, or played badminton right after our dinner during the winters. The Saturdays and the Sundays had a host of TV programs lined up for us, and everyone had a reserved place for him/her and nobody was late. We had only 1 television set and only 1 channel.

Sundays were really fun, when each vehicle in the house, including my bicycle had their weekly bath.

And now, I let my bike collect all the dust and mud until I give it away for servicing. I curse the mud and the overflowing drains when it rains. I use All-Out/Good Night to drive away those irritating mosquitoes. Even if it's not raining, I put on my jacket, just in case. I don't even remember when was the last time I looked up into the sky. I don't play badminton anymore. I keep on switching from channel to channel and end up watching nothing at all.

Sometimes, I feel sad about all these changes. But, you know what? There's an saying for everything.

"Let bygones be bygones"

New ways of cheating

2011-09-26T02:17:00.001+05:30

Recently, there has been a truck loads of new ways of cheating people. I have, once fallen into their trap but I realized very quickly. You should have heard about SpeakAsia scam which was recently in news. Hahaha, that's not the one I fell for. There has been a whole lot of similar scams in the past. People, smart people, sometimes fall into their trap and end up losing their hard earned money.

One of the terribly pathetic and ugly trap is a program which is being aired on NDTV Imagine channel. The program is "Gold Safe". This program, shows some images of well-known personalities and ask people to call in and recognize them. When I was in college, some 5 years back, I was lured into calling in. I must have spent at least 100 bucks that day. And, quite obviously, I didn't win a dime. Someone who has the ability of adding up 2 2-digit numbers without a calculator would never fall into their trap. But, that day, I just thought of giving it a try. I mean, who would not be able to recognize "Priety Zinta"!!!!! People were continuously calling in and blurting out seemingly absurd answers. The images have been always too obvious for someone to give a wrong answer.

The next one is in the form of an E-mail. There's a website which promises you really great discounts on some of their products. The website is "Bag it today". It seems to be affiliated to "The Indian Today Group". Atleast, the website shows it's logo.

Almost everyday, I receive a mail from this website. Here is a sample e-mail that I received today.

Welcome Kumar,

Congratulations! You have just received 5 products including Reebok Tracksuit,
Numero Uno Watch, Satyapaul Leather Wallet, Lotto Duffle Bag and
Converse T-shirt worth Rs 10442 at Re 5.

The catch here seemed to be this: You could get all these things at a final price of Rs.2999/- only. Seems to be a really cool deal. But, be warned, this is too good to be true. Please don't fall for it. People have, and have repented. If at all, you want to see if it's a real deal, opt for "Cash on Delivery".

I am certainly not saying that all these websites/services that promise you discounts are fake and scams. There are really great services, such as SnapDeal .com where you would get real discounts and deals. But please don't fall into obvious looking traps.

One more scam worth mentioning is the "Free T-shirt scam" that made rounds on Facebook recently. I mean, it was quite obvious to me that it was a scam, but many people still went ahead and gave them their phone numbers, email addresses and postal addresses. None of them have received their free t-shirts yet.

The other category of scams, which I think nobody will ever fall for are those e-mails that you receive from complete strangers who have found a fortune somehow(people make up real good stories, I read it for fun), and want to transfer it to your country to avoid getting caught, and promise you a large stock of bills for your assistance. Don't ever fall for it.

I don't expect the Government to do anything about these guys. They are probably busy handling their own scams. The best part is, unlike the government ones, you could choose not to be looted by these private scamsters and swindlers.

An unsuccessful love story

2011-08-30T09:51:00.002+05:30

There are quite a few love stories I have been a part of. All of them have been unsuccessful, due to various reasons. Not that I am sad about it. But, when I think about them, my mind goes back into the past and refuses to come back to the present. This story is about a girl who I had met just once, and had talked to her for more than 6 months over the phone.

It all started off with a wrong number. I tried dialing one of my friends, trying to remember his number that I hadn't noted down. I was very proud of my sharp memory those days. Well, I do have a decent memory now as well. Anyway, let's get back to the story. I dialed a number, and when I heard the voice at the other end, I didn't know how to respond.

She shouted: Hello, Where are you? I have been waiting here for more than an hour now. And it's going to rain.

My heart started pounding. I was young then, and the her voice was sweet enough to not make me hang up. I wished I could listen to her voice once more without her realizing that she was talking to the wrong guy. Rahul was probably her boyfriend. And perhaps they were madly, deeply in love with each other. "Which girl would wait for a man for more than 1 hour?", I wondered. And then, I heard her sweet voice again.

This time, her voice was softer.

She said: Rahul? Hello.

I didn't know what to say. I was too nervous. Too scared to even announce that I had dialed the wrong number. I didn't want to speak, for the fear of being exposed. I didn't want to speak for the fear of losing this one chance of speaking to this girl. I knew she would go away from my life anytime, very soon. With a heavy heart, I was waiting for that moment to come.

She said: Hello. Can you hear me?

Ah, her voice was so dreamy and musical, I just couldn't let it go. This time, she asked a question which I could answer.

I said: Yes, I can hear you.

That was the moment when everything stopped. She paused for a moment, perhaps trying to match my discordant words with Rahul's. It seemed like eternity.

She said: Who is this?

That ended our conversation. I hung up. Damn!! I tried to keep her thoughts out of my mind all that day. I tried very hard, but failed miserably. Later that day, I got a call from her. I introduced myself and explained her that I had called her by mistake. She didn't seem to mind. She also introduced her. She also told that Rahul was her brother (Phew!!!). We talked for sometime and then she proposed that we could be phone friends. How could I have said "No".

We called each other frequently, very frequently, almost everyday. We talked and talked, but we never talked about "Love". But, I had already fell in love with her voice. We talked for around 6 months, came to know more about each other.

One day, she called me to tell that she was going to the US. I was sad. She said that we could keep in touch through e-mails. I agreed. We had also met once before she flew out of my reach. We exchanged a few mails after that. But gradually, the emails stopped. I wouldn't blame her. I guess, we both got busy with our lives.

Last week, I was so happy and excited to see an email from her. She wrote to inform me that she was getting married soon. Now I hear that she is happily married. She also sent me a picture of herself and her husband.

I am now left wondering as to why she sent me that picture. Have I missed something?

Samsung Galaxy Tab 750 - The Game Changes

2011-08-12T01:59:00.003+05:30

I have been waiting for a long time to get my hands on a Samsung Galaxy Tab 750. I have only been reading about it and looking at the numerous images on various blogs and tech sites. It looked amazing from a distance. Android has been the talk of the town since the day Google released the first ever phone, The G1, running on Android. The rest is history. Android threatens iOS (Apple), and quite understandably, Apple has been suing almost every manufacturer who comes out with a device running Android. Ah!!! Apple, I don't want to own and iPhone/iPad.

This tab has a great first impression, and is sure to lure you to see more and more of it. It's very sleek (at 8.6 cm), and light as well (565 gms). It's a powerhouse of performance, with a 1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 processor and 1GB of RAM. Android Honeycomb compliments the superb hardware that it comes with, and promises to give you the best tablet experience you could wish for. Check out the technical specifications here.

Moreover, this is only the initial tablet version of Android OS. Wait a few upgrades more, and I am sure, there would be a bagful of new features coming your way, which would make your experience with this "Game Changer" tablet more fun and enjoyable with style.

The exciting things/features that really makes this tablet the best among the lot are:

Browser: With full flash support, and a huge 10.1" screen, browsing would never be the same again. You will never see those dreaded "?"s again in any of your webpages. Tablets have changed the way we browse the internet: with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 750, it's better.
Video Playback: Full HD video playback with support for almost all types of video formats, you will not be left with any unplayable videos from your personal collection. 1080p video playback @30fps and the surround sound speakers, the device would definitely change how you watch your movies.
Office Apps: The Galaxy Tab 750 isn't only a fun device. It means serious business as well. It also suits someone who is always on the move. Creating, editing or viewing your powerpoint presentations or checking your excels, or formatting your documents has just become easier. You can now leave your laptop at home and show off your tablet to everyone at office.
Google Mobile Apps: Need an app for anything at all? Well, fire up the Android Market and you will be able to find just any kind of app you want. The tablet comes preloaded with a host of Google apps like GMail, Gtalk (with video chat), Google Maps, Youtube etc. These apps have been optimized for your large screen to take advantage of the larger real estate. Be it reading your mails, navigating through a city or video chatting with your dear ones, you would be amazed at the ease at which the tablet handles everything. With multi-tasking and Split-View support, the Honeycomb OS delivers all that is required of a tablet.
Gaming: Tablets are relatively a new form-factor of portable devices. I believe that the games of today haven't really have adapted well for a tablet, except for a few(mostly racing games). I am not sure what kind of games would be a hit on such devices. Games like Angry Birds have been a tremendous hit on mobile devices. I am expecting a rush of similar games, which are engaging and more fun to play on a tablet. With all the sensors that the Galaxy Tab has: Gyroscope, Accelerometer, Ambient Light Sensor and Compass, I would look forward for games which take advantage of this form-factor and the sensors, to perhaps invent a new category of games that make your experience more full-filling when it comes to raw entertainment. I am all excited about how this would change the future of entertainment.
Books, Movies and Songs: Well, this tablet seems to touch each and every part of your life. Read your rented/bought books, buy/rent videos and songs, and carry everything with you. The built-in 7000 mAh battery promises you a video playback upto 9 hours and Audio playback upto 72 hours. So, if you are on a long journey, your collection of books, videos and songs would always keep you busy. Say Bye Bye to those boring rides.

For a full list of features, visit the official Samsung Galaxy 750 page here.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 750, promises to be everything that you wished for. Never before you would have thought about having a video conference with your family members while you were on a bus. Never again you will be lost in a city. You will never miss your mails and news while you are away from your desktop/laptop. You can carry your entertainment wherever you go. This device does it all. Now you can be more productive, effective and all the more connected to your smart life with style.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 750 dares to enter your life and take control. Are you ready yet?

I am. It's time to TAB!

The possibilities are endless.

Friends... Forever

2011-08-08T00:39:00.003+05:30

What's a Friendship without fights? What's a Friendship without arguments? What's a Friendship without compromises?

Friends are supposed to understand what you don't say. Friends are supposed to advise when you are off the track. Friends are supposed to keep quite when you are mad. Friends are supposed to be there for you, all the time, no matter how busy they are.

But things change with time. You might not be in contact with your best pal from your childhood. You might have forgotten the name of your best friend in school. And the best friend from college, well, you might just call him up a few times in a year, perhaps on his birthday, or the new year.

Nobody has a single best friend. At-least, I don't have one. They kept changing, all the time, from the childhood days, to school, then college, and now at workplace. The concept of a "Best Friend" is a little flawed for me, at-least I feel so. I believe that, at a given moment, a person can have a pool of good friends, and it becomes almost impossible for one, to chose the best among them.

It might sound as if, today, on the occasion of "Friendship Day", I am trying to make all my friends happy. Well, in a way, Yes. I thank all of them who have considered me as a "Friend", but, also, those who have considered me as their "Best Friend" at some point of time.

I think I can list down a few friends who have been in my pool of good friends.

My Sisters (Mausumi, Sushmita): Well, obviously, they have to be among them. Had the best of times when we were children at home.
Hara Prasad Sahoo: He was one of the first who I met in Stewart School, and we were perhaps best friends till Class 4
Santrupta Mishra: We quickly became best friends in Class 4 and stayed Best Friends till 10th.
Shyam Bedback: In college, most of the times, we were seen with each other. Does that mean we were best friends? Perhaps.
Samiran Rautray, Ritesh Parida, Ashutosh Bag, Sidharth Gourav Nayak, Kapidhwaja Pratap Narayan Singh (Hope I spelled is correctly): Bet friends in the first year of engineering. Ragging was so fun in the first year. The whole year, we all sort of stayed together all the time.
Rishabh Kalra, Saurabh Shukla, Vivek Bhagbole: In addition to the first year friends, the pool kept getting bigger and bigger, and by the time it was my last year in engineering, the boundaries "Circles" of good friends started melting away.
Kunal Kishore Malviya, Vijay Kumar, Vivek Dwivedi, Rwitam Mitra, Sagar Mohane, Vinay Suri, Vishal Jain: All of them started to break the boundaries.
Nitin Chhabra, Gaurav Paul, Shakul Jugran, Sandesh Kothare, Rahul Jain: Well, those were the close group of friends with whom I spent most of my time in the initial days in Bangalore.
A few more which don't really fall into that chronological order: Amit Chahar, Vidushi Goyal, Rwitam Mitra, Debasis Biswal, Rajesh Jena, Santhosh Joshua, Padmaja Dash, Shantanu Singh, Vandana Toshniwal

And the list goes on and on and on. I just can't really put every friends' names down here. Actually, it's a little unfair on my part, if I have left out anyone. But, I could, very clearly see the pattern emerging. The pool of good friends becomes bigger and bigger with your age. And, thus, the concept of having a "Best Friend" is diluted once you are exposed to such a large number of good friends. Sometimes, you can't make up your mind and pick a better friend among a two. At times, you will have to make a few compromises. It has frequently happened to me, that 2 from those friends would call you up and ask you to catch up for a movie. And now, you have to make a choice. When you make a choice, it's definitely hard for you, and it is perhaps hurts the other guy who you ignored. I also, feel the same, when such things happen to me. But then, everything is forgiven and forgotten soon, and then, the next weekend, you get to go with the other friend. And everyone seems to be happy now.

Ah!!! Ok, fine, Let's end this day here. By the way, A very Happy Friendship Day to all my friends, and I hope that I am always there in your "Circles" as a good friend. Don't ever think that I have stopped being a Friend of yours. Even if I don't call you often, even if I don't wish you on your birthdays, even if I have forgotten your last names. I still think about you all when I rest my mind. I still have dreamed about a few. It's just that Life has taken a toll on me, and that I have many many more friends to talk to, and keep my circle growing.

Thanks all, again, for being a FRIEND. Happy Friendship Day.

By the way: Did you notice? That list contains only 3 girl friends, apart from my sisters. I want to make as many girl friends as the boy friends I have. So, anyone interested on growing their pool of friends, please contact me.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 750 Launch - Live Telecast

2011-08-08T00:05:00.003+05:30

Samsung launches the Galaxy Tab 750 on 10th August in India, and the launch will be telecast live! Come back on 10th August to view the Live Telecast here.

If you are not able to view the telecast here, click on this image to see the telecast live on the Samsung Webcast Page.

Ooops!!! Sorry...

2011-07-31T01:24:00.001+05:30

People lose their cool all the time. So do I. I am generally believed to be a powerhouse of patience. People believe that I have loads of it. But the fact is, I don't have that much. :(

Well, yes, I do have a considerable amount it, but at some point I, too, run out of patience. I am only a human. And I am not perfect.

Anyway, Today, I want to say sorry to everyone at whom I was mad in the past. There are quite a handful of people. Friends, at home and at office. I honestly do feel that I should have exercised more caution then, and perhaps I could have handled those situations differently. At-least, I shouldn't have really shouted at them.

It's a little difficult, however, to keep your cool when people all around you behave crazy. When someone is pestering you, it really takes a lot of patience not to turn around and gag them or shout at them. Most of the time I am cautious. But at times, it gets out of control and hell breaks loose on them. Although I am not violent at all, but people seem to get scared or may be very very angry at me when I shout. It's probably because they don't expect me to retaliate ever. They probably feel like I am not the same person they knew, when I am mad at them.

There have been some instances in the past when I was mad and didn't react at all. Well, most of the times I am like that. Nobody wants to be angry. But sometimes, you have to react, voluntarily or in the spur of the moment. I do, however, at times, regret for my inaction when I should have just blasted off the other person, may be even killed them once and for all.

It isn't a big deal, though, if you can easily shrug off that feeling, and get back into a peaceful state of mind soon, when you could go over it again and decide for yourself if it was right on your part to behave the way you just did. It's perfectly normal to get mad at someone as long as you can ponder over it again and if required apologize for your behavior if you think you were wrong.

Well, I guess, this is not new. Everyone knows what anger can do to a relationship. Everyone also knows that ego is not really a good thing to have. That doesn't help in keeping your relationships if you have a short-temper. We tend to get angry on people frequently who are close to us. It doesn't really matter if you shout or not at a stranger or a person who you don't consider to be close to you. They are not an important part of your life. You are probably never going to meet that stranger again or won't have a life-time relationship with that acquaintance. But that doesn't mean that you could go on swearing and shouting at people on the roads. Your conscience will get to you for that sometime for sure.

Ah!!! I am just talking gibberish. Let's come straight to the point. People, again, I apologize to all of you on being rude or for getting mad at you. To make all those people feel a little better,

"I shout at those people who I consider close to me, hoping that they would understand why I did that"

By the way, Friendship day is round the corner. Those of you who are willing to revive the jagged threads of our friendsip, get ready. :) Happy Friendship Day in advance.

Random post at midnight

2011-06-22T00:46:00.000+05:30

Image courtesy: Wikimedia

I was talking to a friend today. He said, "People update their blogs only when they are sad and gloomy. When they are happy, why the heck would they want to sit in-front of their computers typing out their thoughts? Rather they would hang out with friends, have a beer, watch a movie and enjoy their nice time."

Well, I do agree.

I recently started a chain mail and added everyone on my contact list (at-least those I remembered). This time around, the response was pathetic. The last time we did a similar thing, Google had blocked my gmail account for a day stating that the limit of the number of mails that could be sent in a day was crossed. They said that I had sent more than 500 emails for that particular day.

Dumb!!!!!

This time, the chain hasn't even been able to collate even 15 links. That's understandable I guess. People have settled now. Some married, some too busy with work and some have perhaps forgotten their old friends. I am not complaining though. That day, I was a little low on work, so didn't know what to do. I was bored of Facebook and Twitter and then I remembered all my friends. :D

Hi All, I am back

2011-05-31T23:30:00.000+05:30

It's been quite a long time since I blogged. Quite a few things have been happening around me. Now things have settled a little, and finally, I got some time to take a deep breath. Had been real busy for the past few months. And as everything has an end, I am hoping that this (not being so busy) doesn't end so soon.

A few days back, I was a little sad and taken aback when someone told me that I was ignoring everything else for work. But the good part is I realized that it was actually true. I also realized that I was not getting enough sleep and rest and that, in a way was really getting back to me. Thanks, "whoever" it was. Actually, 2 of them.

Ok, enough said.

Amit Chahar got maried. Congrats Amit and Asha. Lets meet soon. Sorry I couldn't attend your marriage.
It was Amit Kunjal's birthday yesterday. I actually wished him a day in advance.
Happy Birthday Shakul Jugran. Calls for a treat.
Happy Birthday Debasis Biswal. Come to bangalore once and we will have a blast, all expenses to be borne by you of course.

I recently went to a remote rural school on an official visit. It was a joy ride. The weather was perfect. But the best part of it was interacting with students and teachers. I didn't know the local language (Kannada), but that didn't matter. I was surprised to see almost all of them conversing well with us in English. I am not sure if I was that good back then. Students even in the 7th grade looked so very young. They made me look really old. Brought back old memories. Came back and added a few friends from school and college on facebook.

One day, away from office, city traffic and among the children was worth spent. Looking forward to more such trips in the future, now that I am trying to reduce my working hours :) (Seriously.....@"whoever(2)" Believe me... I am not a workaholic, it's just that someone needed to pinch me to wake me up).

Sleepless nights

2011-05-16T04:26:00.001+05:30

Is it work?

Is it the heat?

Or is it my new phone?

Or something else?

My eyes are burning, yet I am not able to sleep. Damn!!!! I also need to wake up early today. Seems to have been ages since I have got a nice long peaceful sleep. Need a break soon from the super busy days. Need to keep my laptop powered down for a whole week, I think. That should reset my body clock back to where it was 1 year back.

Seems like I have moved away from a few things. Need to get those back. I don't even remember when was the last time I dug into my music collection. It's perhaps been an year since I sketched anything.

Location : 2nd Cross, BDA Colony, Bengaluru, Karnataka,
Posted via Blogaway

No words for this

2011-04-04T03:35:00.000+05:30

Courtesy: http://icc-cricket.yahoo.net/photogallery.php?gallId=901

A trip to Kolkata - Part I

2011-03-18T01:15:00.000+05:30

This was on the cards for a very long time. I flew to Kolkata on 28th of February. It was an early morning flight, 6 in the morning. And for that, I had to take a cab at 4:30 in the morning. I never like to carry lots of stuff with me, so I managed to get my things packed in 15 minutes, on that very day, somewhere around 3:30 in the morning and stepped into the waiting cab.

The driver was probably busy watching India vs England world cup match earlier that day. We had a small conversation about that, and then, the cool morning breeze started lulling him to sleep. I could see his eyelids fluttering in the rear view mirror. I was a little scared, but some kind of an alarm seemed to wake him up every now and then. I tried to find out the source, and realized that the cabs were fitted with speed governors which would not allow them to go over 80 kmph. Wow!!! I am saved.

I was relieved, the moment the driver dropped me off at the airport. Come on, I still had hopes that India would qualify for the next round, and I was not going to miss that. This time around, with Sachin perhaps playing his last world cup is the best chance.

Kolkata, after so many years!!!! Yellow Ambassador Taxis!!!! breathing out thick black smoke!!! Perfect. A sign board said, "Welcome to Kolkata".

Since it was a Monday, I had to walk into the office the same day. I wasn't tired though. I dumped my luggage in my guest house and hired a "Yellow Taxi" for office which was about 5 kms away. In that part of Kolkata, traffic seemed to be much better than what I am used to in Bangalore. But, within a few minutes, I also realized that there were literally no rules for vehicles. Cars, bikes criss-crossing all over, screeching and honking all around, finally I reached office. It was a big big building, Technopolis in Salt Lake. I had heard a lot of about Salt Lake. I should say that Salt Lake was well planned, with more trees than I expected. Fortunately, the weather wasn't that bad for the whole 2 weeks of my stay in Kolkata.

Meetings!!!!! Ummm, of late, I have been attending so many of them. A short introduction with everyone, and it was lunch time. Yippee....Pizza Hut with Suman and Cameron.

To be continued...

Valentine's Day checklist

2011-02-13T23:56:00.001+05:30

Image Link (Wikipedia)

Ahem...14th Feb 2011, It's s big day. But unfortunately, it's a Monday. Damn it!!!!! 2 hours of traffic and 8 hours at work doesn't help. There are so many things to be done. I have a checklist of the things. Here they are...

Take bath in the morning: This is the most important thing to be done tomorrow. To keep myself fresh throughout the day. I have got a new bottle of perfume, half of which will be emptied tomorrow morning.
Get dressed: No one likes his/her partner to be dressed the usual way. It has to be different. Still thinking about what to wear tomorrow. I will use my wrist-watch tomorrow after a long long time.
Message and Call her: Well, to start off, since it's a Monday tomorrow, you have to do this to make her feel special. Never forget this.
Buy a rose and a card: Another day of the year (besides her birthday) when you should not even think of not getting her these. I am not a flower guy, but I think, for me, a card(big big) one will do the trick.
Buy a gift: This is a must. It doesn't have to be pricey or big, but you have to get her a gift when you meet her for the first time on this day. If she is nice, she will understand your situation on a Monday, but not getting her a gift is a risk which you should avoid under any circumstances. You can live without a job, you will always find another one, but loosing a girl on the V-Day, it's terrible, considering the fact that nobody else would be free tomorrow.
Book a table at a costly restaurant: If your girl-friend is a vegan, you will have a difficult time to find a nice decent place. You should have planned for this well before the V-Day. All the restaurants will be reserved for the day. So, plan accordingly. Another cheaper offer, which might just pamper your girl-friend even more, is to cook for her. She will definitely like it, for sure.
Coffee at a costly coffee bar: Home made food for dinner is so so romantic for girls. But, your best efforts at making the best coffee yourself, is so so unromantic. Take her to CCD or Barista or any of those coffee bars, just don't care if the coffee costs you more than Rs. 200. You have been doing so well till now, and you don't want to spoil the treat.
A sweet good night SMS: Send a sweet and romantic SMS after the coffee, and bid her good night.
A romantic song to end the day: That's the cherry on the cake. But, be well prepared. If you choose the wrong song, you will have to answer millions of questions on your choice of song. :D
The LAST and the most IMPORTANT THING on my list: To find a Valentine. I know it's already late, but then, there's always a hope. This is my checklist for tomorrow.

Happy Valentine's Day to all. Enjoy the day. If anyone is free for tomorrow, let me know, and I will follow and tick off my checklist for you. :D

To the Airport again

2011-01-15T14:43:00.003+05:30

These days, the number of trips to the Airport has sky-rocketed, thanks to vacations and office work. Although I don't hate flying, reaching the airport is quite a long journey. It takes almost the same time traveling to or back from the airport as compared with the air-travel itself. I could well coin a new term "sit-travel" for this journey to and from the airport. Right now, well, I am sitting and typing this out, on my way to the airport, on a bus.

In a few days, I will be visiting the airport again. That will be an official trip to Kolkata. But the BIA buses are great. They don't tire you, and protects you from the sun, heat and the rain. Yeah, the other buses expose you to all the elements of nature. You would be better off standing under a tree instead.

I am not going anywhere though. I will be back online in a few hours. So, who's coming? Naah!!! Nobody, I busted wanted a long ride and a Subway meal. That's it. :D

Time machine. Umm, no, a teleporter please

2011-01-11T02:10:00.000+05:30

Image Source : Wikipedia Commons

At times, I have been fascinated by the idea of Time Travel. Those movies on Time Travel were so enjoyable to watch. There have been numerous adaptations of this concept in movies, serials (Captain Vyom) and novels. No one knows yet, if it will be possible ever. But, I get a feeling that people have stopped working on it. Perhaps, they have given up, since it's been quite some time I have heard people talk or discuss about this, or new movies based on Time Machines. Perhaps, the interest, or rather the need of this generation has shifted to something else. Teleportation. :)

For some of you, it might be a new word. So, by definition on Wikipedia, Teleporation is "the transfer of matter from one point to another, more or less instantaneously."

Time Travel still brings in a sense of excitement and adventure in me, but I would prefer to get teleported to somewhere, or wherever and whenever I like. Why? Here you go:

I want to get to office and back home without getting stuck in traffic.
Airfares have skyrocketed beyond the volume of my pockets.
I want to visit my parents more often, and my girl friend too (Please don't ask who)
I want to have a fag at midnight when I am with my parents, without they knowing.
I want to meet Sachin Tendulkar personally when he is relaxing in his balcony.
I want to be around Mrs. Sonali Bendre for some time.
I want to keep a chocolate for a child on the streets without he knowing it.
I want to retrieve all the documents from their hideouts which could land all the corrupt people in jail.
I want to spend some time alone on Mt. Everest.
I want to wish all of my family, friends and relatives personally on various ocassions.

Well, there are more, but I guess you can figure out why a Teleporter can be more helpful than a Time Machine. And by the way, if you change something, by going into the past or present, there's gonna be a hell lot of confusion.

And now, the secret: I am trying to build one. Please contact me if you are also interested in contributing towards this.

Need for a change?

2011-01-08T00:41:00.000+05:30

Today, while I was passing by the Legislative Assembly building of Orissa on my way to some place, the sight triggered a chain of thoughts into my mind which was happily thinking about the sky, birds and the beaches before this. When I was a child, before I opened my Social Studies book, I wondered what would people do inside such buildings. I haven't yet seen the interiors of this building but then it wouldn't be much different than the Parliament houses we see on TV, the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, apart from being proportionately smaller than the those.

I started thinking about how and whose idea it would have been to create a parliamentary system where countless number of people would be present, half of them sleeping, some of them day-dreaming, and a few ones shouting their hearts out. And then the Speaker siting there, as a king, on a raised chair, throughout the day, enjoying the drama going on the floor. Well, I am sure it wouldn't be anything less than a drama. As for me, I would rate Mr. Laloo Prasad Yadav's talks very entertaining. He wakes up the house (read: sleeping members), lightens up The Speaker, and irks the opposition (who try their best to control their laughter).

I even remember, when cable televisions were not around, my father used to specifically wait for the show every day during the winter and the summer sessions of the houses. I could see him wearing a smile throughout the duration of the show, and there were occasional outbursts of laughter, from my father and from inside the television set. As a child, even I found it funny sometimes, the fights, arguments and the sleeping ministers. Ah, it was quite an entertaining program on National TV those days. But, now, I don't see my father even stop on this program while he is browsing through all the movie and news channels. I guess, his favorite stars have all retired, and he doesn't find it entertaining anymore. Me too.

Well, this wasn't the subject matter of this post. I will come to the point now. The moment I passed by that building, a picture of the large hall of the Lok Sabha/Rajya Sabha flashed through my mind. I thought, "Is this all necessary"? Agreed, that all the countries do this, and it has been standard procedure for the governments to meet and discuss issues and probably solve them. I wonder if this is the best way to do it, or a change is needed so that we could adapt the systems to match the 21st centuries demands and needs (faster actions and please please please no corruptions and scandals).

Well I know that the ministers actually do work when they are not in the parliament. And most of the work is done outside of the parliament houses and not in presence of virtually every minister in the country. So, why do we still continue to follow this practice of having parliamentary sessions? Can't we just chuck it? If there is indeed something to be discussed and voted for among all the Ministers, can't we have a better system? Instead of flying all the ministers from different parts of the country, the majority of which would have nothing to say, but a "yes" or a "no"?

We have progressed so much in technology, we produce or develop software for the rest of the world, but we haven't been able to use it ourselves. Our governments still use a lot of work and most of them refuse to accept the new hi-tech changes entering their offices. Most of the government offices don't have a website, and the ones which have one, haven't been updated since they were first launched. Well, the list can go on and on, but I don't want to make this post bigger than this. :)

Just one last thing!!! Don't laugh at me please. I am a software engineer, and so, my thoughts would be obviously be related to where and how I work. So, my question is:

"Does our Government follow Waterfall model or Scrum methodology to execute projects?"

I don't think they use any of the methodologies at all. In case they don't, has the time come to change the way our Government works? I would not mind to see an amendment in the Constitution of India, which would require every incumbent to be trained in Project Management, at the very least. I don't mind if they are just graduates, MBAs from Harvard or just plain illiterates. If at all they are required to work, they should be at-least have proven experience or should be trained before they take their oaths. Like the IT companies hire their employees. :D What say!!!!

We, the software engineers, do not take oath, but still fulfill our responsibilities and in most cases over-perform each day. Isn't that amazing? Are we corrupt? I guess, not.

Twenty 10 >>>>>> Twenty 11

2011-01-01T01:23:00.001+05:30

YEAR

A few minutes... All those tweets and facebook status updates will become a thing of the past. 2011 is already knocking. I can hear people bursting crackers outside. My phone is already busy beeping. And there's a lot of noise outside. There's one guy, who pinged me exactly at 12:00, to wish me. His message read: "HNY". And somebody is sending me an e-greeting and forcing me view it right away. Mom and Dad called us on my sister's phone from upstairs to wish us both a Happy New Year. I can see so many people online on Gtalk and Facebook, just like I me, everyone changing their status messages to wish the world. Wow, That's a great beginning, I guess.

Had I been in Bangalore when the calendars changed, the atmosphere would have been completely different. At-least, it would have been far more noisier than here in Bhubaneswar, though I can hear a few people outside, wishing the world, at their loudest. I would have been among friends. We would also have celebrated yesterday in office. But, being at home, on such occasions is quite a different experience, among the people you have know since you were born.

Remembering the past 2010, it wasn't actually long for me. Oh, And if I remember correctly, I was in Bhubaneswar 3 years back, celebrating my new year in a similar fashion. I guess, that was in, 2008, Jan 1st. For the 2009, 1st Jan, I was in Chennai. For 2010, I was in Bangalore. Hmmm, That's strange, seems, like my next new year is designed to be celebrated in Chennai again. :(

Well, let's not think anything about the future yet. It's party time, enjoy, have fun, get ready to start afresh and be happy. Wish you all, a very very Happy New Year, and may all your wishes be fulfilled.

Talking about resolutions, Ummm..... I don't have one. If anyone of you already has one, believe me, it never works!!!! So, go ahead, and have a blast. And since it's a holiday(for most of us), I will enjoy even more. By the way, I am on leave till 12th of January, 2011. YIPEEEE!!!!!

Finally, Vacations!!!

2010-12-24T12:12:00.000+05:30

I wish it were college days again, where after every 6 months, we were allowed to go on vacations for a whole month. I wish it were college days again, where I could bunk some days. I have been pretty busy with office work, all this time. I am tired now. And finally the holidays have come. I will not be going to office from today till next year, a 18 day-long vacation.

A few days away from work, not even a month, and everything will be back to normal. Its been a very very long time that I have blogged about anything. Well, yet another year has gone by, and it didn't really seem like a year. For this New Year, I will be at home, away from office. But, the very beginning of the next year would be very very hectic.

I am 27 years old now. That means, that I have only around 50 more years to go(best estimate). All these 27 years had been fun. Well, it was a mixed bag actually, but most of it was fun and enjoyable.

I won this time Kunal, by a big big margin. :) Ok, you might be churning out better quality content, but that doesn't matter. :D

Right now, I have 3 laptops in-front of me. One is switched-off, one is sleeping, and the other is getting ready to be packed up and fly with me. YAY!!! Holidays.......

Wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Properous New Year.
(Just in case I don't find time to post while I am enjoying at the beach)

God or Choas

2010-12-16T01:25:00.000+05:30

I do not deny God's presence, but I still think about the possibility sometimes. Whenever I have an argument on this topic with anyone, I would almost all the time fight like a 100% non-believer and attribute all the events taking place to sheer randomness and chaos.

I guess, this world, is the best example chaos and randomness. If there were God, he must be doing real good to manage everything though. So, wouldn't it make God's life easier if we prayed only for those things which we really really wanted?

Weird Comment : Times of India

2010-11-23T14:15:00.001+05:30

Here is an picture of a comment posted on an article on Times of India. Well, even after repeated mails to monitor and moderate such types of comments, they seem to be enjoying all these. For me, it's actually a bit surprising as to how can such a well known newspaper don't care about such things.

Very disappointing.

Right to education - Awaaz Do

2010-11-08T01:03:00.000+05:30

"All children 6 to 14 years old have the right to free and quality education under the recently passed Right to Education Act"

Doesn't it sound nice? The RTE Act requires that all the private schools to reserve 25% of the seats for poor and the under-privileged. It also specifies similar norms for the government schools.

This is a big and commendable step the government has taken towards empowering the children of India. Few countries in the world have such a provision to ensure both free and children-centered, child-friendly education.

Start speaking NOW to make a difference. It's not the job of the government only, but it needs the helping hand of everyone of us. Come and join the UNICEF's AWAZ DO Movement. We have a long way to go. 8 million children are not in school.

Go! get a 3G life!!

2010-10-30T00:20:00.006+05:30

The very first mobile phone that I held in my hands was when my father got a Nokia handset way back in 1999. It was as heavy as a brick. And incoming calls were charged at Rs. 5/minute. But, the best thing I liked then on the mobile was the "Snake game". When my father slept off, keeping his phone aside, I used to put the phone in silent mode and tried hard to better my highest record. Back then, it had cost us around Rs 18,000.

Things have changed, and have changed fast. During those days, even Internet(64K dial-up) was a rich man's card. Well, soon enough, broadband internet connections became ubiquitous, along with GPRS services on mobile phones.

As for me, I am always connected. Be it at home, office or even while I am out, my phone beeps virtually every minute. Before, it used to be SMS or WAP messages, but these days, my phone notifies me whenever someone comments on a photo on Facebook, or mentions me on Twitter, not to mention the tens of emails that I receive (I have configured my phone with 4 email accounts, I am not joking).

One of the things that I miss by not having a 3G connection is voice/video chat. I would love to use Skype to call up family and friends, see them live. While on a trip, I could easily watch videos on Youtube. GPRS/Edge aren't fast enough for this. Since I knew the 3G services would be coming soon to India, when I got a chance to replace my phone(lost) with a new one, I bought a 3G phone, even before there was any official announcements about the services. It was stolen within a month. My next buy was also a 3G phone, but I don't have a 3G SIM yet.

Having a 3G would be nice, especially, when my broadband would stop working without any warning, and I have an important mail to send. I can plug-in my phone to my laptop and enjoy uninterrupted access. I can use my laptop while I am traveling. I can update photos as and when I click them without waiting to get back to my wired broadband connection.

While on the move, my phone is my navigator. I don't have to stop and ask for directions now. In the era of smart-phones, we also need a smart network, which is reliable, easily accessible and affordable as well. With BSNL opening up the service first in India, other operators are also gearing up to provide the next generation mobile network, making our lives much more fun and enjoyable.

Movie tickets, Flight tickets, a gift for your girl friend and updating your facebook status will be a breeze. Morning news and your important emails will always reach you on time. You can finally forget your laptop at home while you are out on a date.

3G = I am enjoying it already. Always connected, till my battery lasts :) I am all excited to get a 3G SIM from Tata Docomo for myself.

This post has been submitted for the Indiblogger 3G Life blogger contest. Go get a 3G life.

Teaching kids is tough

2010-10-29T02:33:00.001+05:30

I bet you would agree. Well, sometimes, they can be smarter than you at alphabets, arithmetic or whatever you are trying to teach them.

She was a 3 year old girl just beginning to learn alphabets. Kids can get difficult at times, and might also be uninterested, particularly when their favorite cartoon characters are starting out on yet another adventure on TV. Her mother found it too difficult to draw her attention away from the television and make her concentrate on her books. Her uncle offered to help. Her mother was more than happy to hand over the responsibility and go back to the kitchen.

Mr. Uncle seemed confident and determined at the job at hand. "She is just a 3 year old, and I have my ways of teaching", he must have thought. Today's target was to teach her at-least 2 alphabets, A and B.

She was more fond of her uncle. He used to bring her chocolates, take her out on his bike and was never angry at her. She had her reasons. Perhaps, she was bored of the cartoons and thought this was going to be interesting.

Mr. Uncle pulled out a blank sheet of paper. She sat down beside her, with a pencil in her hand, with all the focus and concentration required of her. Mr. Uncle started with 5 DOTS on the paper. She seemed confused. Mr. Uncle explained her, "Look here, the first DOT is your house, the second one is my house, the third DOT is your school, the fourth one is Papa's office and the fifth one is your friend's house. Now, to learn how to write an "A", you start from your house, go to my house, then go to your school, and then Papa's office and finally to your friend's house." He didn't connect the dots, rather he explained it to her(sequence) 2-3 times.

After Mr. Uncle was satisfied that his point was put across, he asked her, "Understood?". With a little smile on her face, she nodded her head. And then Mr. Uncle said, "Now write A with the help of dots".

Without a live demonstration, she looked confused and perplexed. Mr. Uncle tried to help her out. He said, "Ok no problem, I will help you out. How would you go from your house to mine?"

She was now smiling again. That's the hint she was looking for. With the pencil in her hand, she stoop up, and put her foot on the sheet of paper. :D

Filmy Dialogues

2010-10-29T01:52:00.003+05:30

We all love Bollywood. I still remember those Saturday and Sunday movies on the National Television for which the whole household would eagerly wait. Everything stopped. Mom would stop cooking, my sister and me would close our books and everyone else would be rushing home to be in front of the TV. No matter what movie would be playing, those 3 hours seemed like a small theatre minus the pop-corn and the Coco Colas.

And those movies also influenced us in everyday life. Especially the dialogues. Some of them are still being played around. And I still remember and sometimes use them as well.

For example, Mr. Dharmedar's all time fav:

"Kutte, Kamine, Me tera khoon pi jaunga".

Well, that was considered as a harsh one those days. We children, for example, were never allowed to call a person or a human as a dog.

Another classy dialogue which was repeated over and over again in almost each and every movie:

Doctor: "I am sorry, Hum kuch nahi kar sakte hain" / "24 ghante tak hosh nahi aaya to hum kuch nahi kar sakte hain"

These days, nobody in the movies consult Indian doctors anymore. Perhaps, they are frustrated of hearing the same dialogs again and again.

And the policemen also had one:

"Kanoon ke haath bahut lambe hote hain".

Mr Suresh Kalmadi knows exactly the length, and thus has been able to keep himself out of reach.

Farmer: "Me iss jameen ko apne khoon se seenchta hoon".

There are no more fields or farms. Instead, there are 5 star hotels and IT companies.

Judge: "Saare saboot aur bayanat ko najar me rakhte hue, ye court is nateeze pe pahunchti hai ki muljim ko dafa 301 ke tehet faasi ki saja sunai jaye"

Nobody takes there cases to the court fearing execution.

Gabbar Singh had a few super duper hit dialogues:

"Kitne aadmi the"

"Holi kab hai, kab hai holi"

Kalia and Samba have retired now and Gabbar's question go unheard and unanswered.

Satrughan Sinha's all time favorite: "KHAAAAMOSHHHHHHHHHHHH".

I guess he was paid per character he spoke.

Rich villain Dad to Son: "Me tujhe is jayedaad se bedakhal karta hun"

Hero to villain: "Agar maa ka doodh piya hai to saamne aaa"

Weren't they funny? I miss them. :(

Friday night friend

2010-10-23T03:44:00.005+05:30

Who doesn't want a few extra bucks for a few clicks! Even I, at some point of time was lured by those paid survey sites that make grand promises of paying you dollars in return of a few clicks. My initial clicks fetched me quite a few dollars, but very soon I realized that this is just a scam. They never actually pay you. Well, that's not really what I have in mind right now.

I was just killing my time browsing, and watching TV happily. I noticed my gmail window blink with a new chat message. It was 3:00 am in the morning, and I was quite surprised to see someone ping me at this hour. It was from an old friend. It must have been almost about half a year when I had last talked, chatted or seen him. Here's our conversation.

He: Hi
Me: Hey, long time, wassup?
He: Are you free?

Me: Yup, sort of, just enjoying the Friday night.
He: Can you do me a favor?

(Ah, there he goes, I started thinking about what would he ask for. In a split second I knew exactly what he would be asking for)

Me: Hold on, Are you going to ask me to complete one of those damn MBA surveys?
He: Hehehe, LOL, How did you know?
Me: Dude, you MBA guys only contact non-MBA people only when you need these surveys done.
He: Hehehe, please, yaar, I have to submit this tomorrow, and you are the first one who would be helping me out. It's an interesting one and you will actually like it. I have personally prepared it, keeping today's generation in mind. It's about alcohol consumption, and....
Me: Ok Stop, I don't want to know the details. I will do it.
(@#$!$%&@ a good 10 minutes of my already ending Friday up for those MBAs)

I got the questionnaire within a second of typing out that line. He must have already prepared the mail even before he started chatting with me, all prepared to hit the "Send button". Well, the questionnaire was all but interesting. I really don't understand what are they going to make out of it. Anyway, I just skimmed across the questions, and marked my random answers, and sent it back.

He: Thanks dude, I will mention your name in my assignment. Can you do me one more favor?
(Well, I couldn't think of anything else this time. I brain had gone completely dead)
Me: WHAT? I just did it.
He: Can you send out this questionnaire to your friends and ask them to fill it up?

:@ :@ :@ I clicked on the "SIGN OUT" button right after that.

PS: "He" was actually a "She". :D I have just decided that I wouldn't be doing any more such surveys, and I would refuse any such requests right-away. So, the MBAs, beware. I will not do anymore surveys for free. You have to pay up now.

Today's generation - Kewl

2010-10-17T23:40:00.000+05:30

Times have been changing. This change has been so drastic and fast that the older generation find it hard to adapt and accept. I am considering myself the older generation here since I, myself seem to find it difficult at times not too raise my eyebrows.

You can get everything on the internet. Anything indeed.
Dude or Dood!!! It's the new avataar of "Hi".
Guys with long hair are "COOL".
Bikes with "loud" silencers are the latest craze. We could call them "Amplifiers instead"
You are an outcast if you don't have a profile on Facebook.
Your popularity is determined by the number of results on Google.
You got to tweet before you sleep, and also tweet about your dreams as you see them.
The fashion quotient of your clothes is directly proportional to the number of holes in your pants.
You have your father and mother as friends on Facebook.
Popcorns are costlier than the movie tickets.
Your pets are jealous of your smart-phones these days. They just don't get any kind of attention. You can get your customized e-pets on your phones who seem to be more real.
Smileys put through your emotions better.

Ummm, Things change, they will keep on changing. We don't want to be left behind, do we?

My smart phone - Really?

2010-10-04T02:38:00.001+05:30

With the influx of numerous smart phones, the average user is all but confused when it comes to choosing a phone for himself. The world has moved ahead, pretty fast. And so has the technology. Today is the time where information travels faster than anything else, perhaps even thoughts. With the Blackberrys, iPhones, Androids and the Nokias all over the place, it's virtually a battleground, and everyone wants a share of the pie. I guess, this sense of competition brings about the best in technology to the consumers. I am quite happy with my so-called "Smart Phone", but I would like to see a few more things that could really make my phone smart. Here are some of them.

I talk on the phone alright. But it would be really cool if I could "TALK TO MY PHONE". I mean, I should be able to control my phone completely by talking to it. No more clicking, no more touching. That would be cool.
Video calling. Yeah yeah, it's available on a few phones, but still, a majority of the phones out there don't yet support video calling.
A better anti-theft solution from what are available right now. When we lose a phone, it's virtually impossible to get it back. May be something like, I would get the details of the person holding my phone delivered to my email. I mean all the details, his photo, his name and address, his location and anything else that is available, and then directions to the nearest police station too :) . That would be really nice. Smartphones are costly, and nobody likes to lose them.
More battery power. How about a solar powered battery, or at-least an in-built charger for the battery that charges your batteries when you are out in the sun. I don't like phones that go dead when I am on an important call.
A really smart keyboard. BlindType is very impressive. Cool.
I would like to remote control my appliances at home. I know it's not too far though. Google's Powermeter and similar technologies would make it a reality someday, for everyone. Even my car, that would be just perfect.
Somehow, allowed me to communicate with my friends and family when I am out of my provider's coverage area. For example, Mt. Everest. It might use satelite communication to push my message through. Well, I expect this service to be costly. and won't mind paying.
Phones that can interact with people with disabilities.

Smart phones have really gone smart today. They helps us navigate, it's a personal diary for some, they tell us time, weather, give us the latest news updates, keep us connected to the whole world. But still, these pretty little devices haven't been able to reach the most needed ones. It would be great if the price of a smartphone comes down to levels that makes them affordable for all. That would make it really really SMART.

Checkout the new phone from Tata Docomo called the OneTouch Net

Fright of a child - Almost lost

2010-10-02T00:07:00.001+05:30

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 15; the fifteenth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

There will always be some stories in your life which you will never forget. And those stories or incidents can also have a deep impact on our personality. I have always believed that events in our early stages of life (childhood) determine who and what we will finally turn out to be. One of such things that still lingers in my mind is from my childhood days. I don't really remember how old I was, but I guess I was in the 5th standard.

This was our first trip outside Orissa. We were going to New Delhi. Since I was a child, I was not really a travel freak. My father loves traveling, and he still does. Perhaps, because that was our first such trip, I was excited and thrilled. My little sister was still being carried around in somebody's arms, always, and I considered myself a grown-up, ready to take care of myself, and "walked" along with them. Ah!! What a trip that was. We covered almost the whole of North India, except Jammu and Kashmir.

Well, the story is about our journey to New Delhi. It was my first journey by train, and my sister's as well. I guess, she was still too young to know what was going around. And I was very very excited. That was the trip which ingrained in my mind, the fact that "New Delhi" was the capital of India. Being an inquisitive mind, as I have always been, I was expecting this trip to be the most memorable one, and it finally turned out to be one of them. After 2 days of traveling by train, we reached the New Delhi railway station. I was told that my uncle who worked in the Army would come to pick us up.

As soon as the train halted, the whole compartment went berserk. I thought the train would be leaving soon after stopping for a few minutes, as I had been noticing for the countless stations that went past. At every station, people were always in a hurry to either get down or board the train. I sensed emergency. My father started collecting our luggage, my mom picked up my sister. I thought they needed my help. I scanned my eyes over all the boxes, and tried picking up one. It was heavy, but I managed to load it on my arms. My father started moving towards the exit. I followed him. The bag was heavy, but I still carried it with all my strength. My mom was walking besides me. My sister had just woke up amidst all the noise.

I kept following my father, never looking back to check my mother and sister. He was walking, rather pacing away. I didn't have the time to look back else I would lose him, I thought. Suddenly, I heard someone shout out my name from behind. "Bini, Bini". It sounded familiar, I turned back to see my uncle running towards me. He came running to me, and asked, "Where are you going?". I said, "Papa is looking for you", pointing in the other direction. He smiled and took my hand. We started walking the other way, away from my father. I was wondering if I should remind him again that we should be walking the other way. But I was confused. "Where's Mom, and my sister?" I thought. After sometime, I could see them, all of them together. My mother was crying, father looked really worried and my sister trying to assess and understand the situation, still in Mom's arms.

Father bent down and put his hand on my head, and asked, "Where were you going?" I said,"I was following you". Only then I realized that I was following the brown jacket that my father had put on. I might have been half asleep, and sleep walking then. I don't really remember.

Being a child, I didn't know how to react then. But whenever I remember that day, I always feel lucky. I would have been lost that day. At the railway station. The vivid memories of the brown jacket, my mom's tears and my uncle running towards me still come to my mind whenever I am at the railway station. I feel lonely and sad, whenever I am at the railway station. Whenever I visit the railway station, either to see off someone, or to go on yet another journey myself, a feeling of sadness and loneliness gets over me. The fright of a child of getting lost, the fear of going away from dear ones and the feeling of being among the unknowns still haunts me, and perhaps always will, till my last journey.

The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton and links to their respective posts can be checked here. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

Credits
Image - Alston Station by Wandering Soul
Courtesy - www.deviantart.com via www.blogaton.in

What a shame!!! CWG

2010-09-24T01:54:00.001+05:30

Corruption? Is it new? It happens all the time. Why are we crying out loud this time? Why the hell? Nothing is going to change anyway. Nothing at all. Is only Mr. Suresh Kalmadi responsible? Why only HE?

This is really sad. But, I don't think all these things even matter to us. I am sure, once the games are over, everyone will forget all this hue and cry and get back to there so-called normal life.

The news channels have got their share of news. The politicians have stuffed their banks with money. And who pays for all this? Ah, how I wish I had not paid last years taxes. They are not being used anyway. Half of all the taxes are either wasted, or they go into bank accounts in Switzerland.

I guess, someday, we ordinary people might wake and act against the whole system by not paying our taxes. Let the IT department drag the whole nation to court. And then, probably only then, we will get a chance to ask the Government, the most important question, the question which every Indian wants to ask, the question that has remained unanswered for a long long time....

"Why is our hard-earned money being wasted? Who is responsible for this?"

How many more such instances will we have to witness before our Government and our politicians open their eyes. We probably need to make some noise and shout out loud, and be heard. It's high time. But how?

Kudos Times of India

2010-09-17T11:18:00.002+05:30

A few years back, I liked the online version of The Times of India and it was perhaps the only place where I read the newspaper for sometime. As an effort towards saving paper, I had also stopped getting the paper Newspapers. I liked the site, and it was almost updated instantly whenever there was a new story for which you would have to wait for the next day's newspaper.

But, now, the Times Of India site sucks. I have written 2 mails to the editor, regarding my concerns, but nothing has happened yet, and probably nothing will change. These guys still want to sell news on the paper, whereas I thought that they would one day, try and reduce the amount of paper that they use up everyday.

Somethings that I don't like:

Ads everywhere: It takes almost a minute for the front page to open, and display some content.
The front page of the online version is just sexed up. It looks attractive, thats all, but it doesn't show quality content.
They have completely changed the meaning of Headlines. Any new news is a headline for them, and it appears right at the top.
When I open the website, I would expect to see the articles that would probably be seen on the paper newspaper. But, the online version, I guess, doesn't have a competent editor. Some guy who maintains the website, seems to be a self-proclaimed editor for the website, who actually doesn't know what should go where.
Videos. Aaahhh....I don't like the videos. Most of them are related to things which I would never like to see. And moreover, the videos start with 30 sec ads, yes each one of them.

I was pissed off when this article managed to get into the headlines of The Times of India, today morning.

Woman delivers a 'tweet' child

It might be interesting for some, and I congratulate the mother and the child, but this is definitely not an article for the Headlines of a so-called well known, a leading national newspaper.

I now wonder, if this kind of content that fetches them more money. Is this a well-researched method to generate readership for newspapers/magazines, in general? Do people actually enjoy reading such stories? I reckon, YES. So, then, it's not the newspapers to be blamed. I guess, the "golden" days were better, where every morning, we would eagerly wait for the morning newspaper and then fight over it with other family members, each trying to snatch away their favorite page of the newspaper, and then enjoy the morning tea. Now, It's all about money.

The Last SMS - contd.

2010-09-05T07:18:00.000+05:30

That wasn't actually the Last SMS. After that day, when we met for the first time, I explained her the whole story, ummm...., not the whole, only a part of it. I didn't tell her that I had any feelings for her. I said that it was just my friend's mischief, and there was nothing more to it. And she believed, at-least, I believed she did. And then, we started talking again.

After our final exams, we(I and my friends) packed our bags to leave hostel and college forever. It was our last day. We hadn't quite planned out our journey back, so, were short of time. I couldn't meet her before leaving, though I was dying to meet her the last time, perhaps, the last time ever. We had a train to catch. I was somewhat saddened by the fact that probably we would never talk again either. She was still in college. I was cursing my friends for not being able to arrange tickets for the next day.

After a few good byes, and hugs, and a few tears, we left the college premises. Somewhere within my heart, I still had the hope of seeing her the last time. Perhaps, she was waiting for me at the railway station. I was nervous. We reached the station. My eyes rolled in all directions. I couldn't see her. I looked at my watch again and again. There were still a few minutes left. All the time, I was expecting a call. I had told her that I would be leaving today. "How could she forget?", I thought.

Our train had already arrived. I wanted to give her a call. But, somehow, I couldn't. I didn't know what to tell her. But I wanted to say, "Why didn't you come? Why didn't you call?". 5 minutes before the train left, I gave her a call in the hope of listening to her voice for one last time. The phone rang, I was still thinking what to say. It kept on ringing. "She must be on her way", I thought.

And then, a voice answered, "The number you have dialed is not ......". @##$#%

I tried once more, still no answer. I was still on the platform, my eyes fixed on the entrance. The train started moving. My friends called out. I felt like crying, felt like running back to the hostel. But I knew I have been expecting for something that would never happen. She would never come, I knew that. Dejected, I boarded the moving train.

I got on the train, settled myself. My friends thought I was sad for my other friends and college. They thought I was already missing the hostel life, and made fun of my. I was in my own world. I was looking at my phone all the time.

After sometime, I typed in the words, "I Love You, I always did, from the very first day we met. Sorry and Goodbye", and sent it to Ms. 291. THAT!!!! was the last SMS.

The last SMS

2010-08-07T02:29:00.002+05:30

There was a girl in my college. She was in my class. And her Roll No. was 291. Mine was 294. The guy with Roll no. 292 left college after some days. And Roll No 293 was a great friend of mine. After the first year of college, Ms. 291 and I were enrolled into a new class. Mr. 293 was now out of the story. Well, Mr. 293 actually had a greater part in this story, but I chose to cut short his involvement in this affair, in our affair. In the new class, there was no one between 291 and 294. I thought, someday, I will let her know my feelings when we were alone. I was sort of sure that there was destiny's play in all this, and the whole world was working towards getting the two of us closer to each other. See, we both got into the same class after the first year, and Mr. 293 was left behind. :D

Being in the same class meant always being in the same group of friends, lots of chats, exchanging notes, coffee breaks and snacks, phone calls, sms, emails and a few lunches and dinners. When we used to go out for project work together out of our campus, I always insisted on having dinner at some good place. I had already prepared a list of nice food joints near our campus. She never gave in and said her friends would be waiting at the hostel. Though I always had my proposal ready, I was actually waiting for the appropriate time and opportunity, which never came. But I never gave up hope.

I never got a chance to know how she felt about me. I never asked her. I was afraid. I made my best efforts of hiding my feelings for her. Actually, I was, and I still am, quite good at it. We were almost at the end of the semesters of the 3rd year of class, when something changed in our relationship. Ahh, I can't forget that day. And I can't forget the culprit as well. Mr. 013. All my friends knew about this girl. Mr. 013 also knew about our affair. He is still a good friend, but I was very angry at him that day. 4 of my friends, including Mr. 013 were celebrating someone's birthday. No points for guessing that the main attraction of the party was, THE WHISKY (some brand, that's not important though, but I remember), and not the birthday boy. He was forgotten after we each landed a few kicks on his back. And there was an oversupply of it (whisky), enough to make us lose our minds. I had already lost my sanity. I could only hear the music playing on the computer with half closed eyes and an empty glass in my hand. Well, I was also thinking about Ms. 291, but I still wasn't insane enough. I thought, alcohol gives you that rush of extra courage, but I needed a few more pegs to get to that stage where I could even think of surviving a fall from the 11th floor. Just then, my phone beeped. It was an SMS. As soon as I took it out of my pocket, Mr. 013 snatched it from my hands. He read out the contents of the SMS aloud. It was from Ms. 291.

"Hey, wassup? I am bored with these stupid girls, care to talk?"

I had to reply back. So, I asked Mr. 013, to return my phone. He said that he will reply that we were drinking and I would call her once we finished the alcohol. All my efforts of getting my phone back went in vain. So, I just let him do whatever he wanted and said, "Go ahead". We had a little conversation.

Mr. 013 : Why haven't you proposed her yet? Are you afraid?

Me : I am not afraid. I think she already knows how I feel about her, but I am just looking for the right time.

Mr. 013 : What the hell? It's been 3 years, and you are still waiting for the right time? Anytime is the right time for this stuff. So do it today, right now. Else I will.

Me : No, please. I will take my time, I am not in a condition to talk, else I would have called her up right now. You always get me pumped up. Thanks.

The very next moment, I was back to my senses, when Mr. 013 thrust my phone into my face, which said, "Message Sent". After a few clicks, I realized that the damage had been done. Mr. 013, sent "I Love You" to Ms. 291, from my phone. Damn!!!! Doomed forever!!! That night, the whole night, I was awake, waiting for my phone to beep again. But it never did. That was the last SMS.........

Why Do I BLOG !!!

2010-08-03T00:45:00.000+05:30

Everyday I wake up, thinking "What should I blog about today"? In the search for a topic, I try to go back into my past, into my childhood or college days. I am in constant lookout for a topic, almost everywhere. While driving, at office, at home, while eating and before sleeping. I think I am addicted to blogging. But is this just an addiction? Really? Well, I have been addicted to Cigarettes once. But this addiction is certainly of a different kind. Sometimes, when my search for topics do not take me anywhere, I hijack other peoples' blogs to find one. I know it's not nice. But, seriously, I am addicted.

I try to keep my blog updated. If I am not blogging about anything, I try to search for some old pics from the lot I have on my hard drive, which I could upload and write a short description, just for the sake of keeping my blog updated. I jump in joy whenever I receive a comment on one of my posts and make it a point to reply to it almost immediately. When there's no one commenting on my blog, I visit a lot of blogs and comment on their posts in the hope of getting a comment or two in return. I tweet about my new posts. I buzz them too.

So here comes the big question. Why do I blog?

To beat Kunal at his blogging frequency. I think I will beat him this year. At this point in time, I have a considerable lead. :)
Want to be a pro-blogger. Well, every blogger wants to be one. Just write some crap(pun intended) and earn $$$$.
A hobby perhaps. My other hobbies like music, sketching, painting and gaming have been overshadowed by the tech-driven hobbies.
It's nice to blog. Of late, I have seen many people mentioning their blog address in their resumes. A lot of companies have their own blogs and encourage people to write some articles. It's all about bringing traffic to their websites. I also have a tech blog on Android which I would like to promote here.:) Android Tips for Developers.
It feels good when people appreciate your thoughts and comment on your posts. You always want to have more of them.
I guess everyone wants to be heard. Blogging is a great platform to achieve that.

I am feeling sleepy now. So, people, I am eagerly waiting for your comments. Ah, don't worry, I will approve your comments as you post. I carry my phone all the time. I am an "ADDICT".

Emotional Atyachaar - Beware

2010-08-02T23:24:00.000+05:30

Hey couples! Beware!! Next time when a hot chick or a handsome dude approaches you to ask for directions. If you know the directions, give them just that. Turn down all their requests of going for a dinner, even a coffee. This just might be your partner spying on you. :@

I guess, everybody would have heard about this reality show where people spy on their partners. It's a nice concept actually, but I guess, it doesn't fit in rightly into the Indian scenario. I mean, it's my guess of course, that, given a chance of a free meal, at-least 95% of us would go for it. Though, the stats from the show suggest that almost 99% of the partners are not loyal. But, is it a big deal? To some, may be. Obviously everybody wants his/her partner to be loyal. But, as far as I can think, or analyze, it's not a big deal for the couples of today to err or have an affair(short-term) out of their commitments. I have seen many people break-up on petty issues than this. Seems that "Loyalty Test" is the ultimate test for couples before they actually carry on with the relationship or tie the knot.

Spying on your partners is fine. And perhaps, the show has helped a few couples to know about their partners dark side. But is it right to make this a public affair? And that too on the National TV? True, for some, this might well be a fitting revenge for their cheating partners, but what about the poor guys who just thought of having a good time??

As somebody rightly said on the show, "I am not somebody's paycheck". The TV channel has no doubt generated a large viewer-ship for it's season II which will be starting soon. I love the show anyway, but I think there should be a bit more censorship. Don't disclose the names and faces of people. And may be they shouldn't air couples who are not yet serious about their relationship.

A piece of work

2010-07-26T23:31:00.002+05:30

When my MAC crashed!!! 6 times in 10 minutes. Had nothing else to do. Aaargh!! Monday mornings are hell. Last night I hardly slept for 3 hours.

MAC frightens me again

2010-07-19T00:39:00.005+05:30

I was in the middle of some important work, and was also completing the last edits to my blog when this screen freezed my huge monitor. It asked me to restart my system. And all the attempts of saving my work before hitting the power button failed. Frustrated, I went for the power button, with no hopes of getting my work back. But to my surprise, after the restart, everything was saved for me. :)

Thanks Mr. Jobs, but I thought it would be a good idea to let the user know why exactly the computer wants to shut down. Weird though, I never found out why did it want to restart.

Update: This has been happening very frequently of late. I noticed that whenever my phone (HTC Hero) is kept connected to my Mac, it either refuses to start or I get this "Restart" screen. Seems the rivalry between Apple and Google have just taken it to new levels. Bad for me :( .

The apple site says this : http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.4/en/mh2238.html

Technology Overdose - Overdoes

2010-07-14T03:03:00.001+05:30

It's just 21st century and we are being surrounded by more and more gadgets. Makes life easy for sure. But, seems that, we have lost the knack of talking to real people and somehow have started believing on these gadgets/technologies more than on People.

Lost in the streets? Open the Google Navigation and ask for directions.
No more Newspaper bills. I read it online.
Send/Receive mails from the postman? Nah, Email is fast and FREE!!!
Cricket match anyone? Big LCD screens at home with 3D analysis of each ball bowled and hit.
Meetups/Get-togethers? Video and voice conferences are cheaper than traveling even a mile.
Read books? Of course, I buy e-books and read them on my laptop to save paper.
Get tickets for a move? Do it online or by phone.
Cassettes/CD-Players still alive? Everyone has a portable music player these days.
3+4 = ?? Google tells you now. I don't need a calculator.
Buying a car? Dig the forums for reviews/comments.

Orkut, Facebook, Twitter etc are the fastest ways to communicate with people. No doubt about that. But, this really suits our generation where our friends from school stay far away from us now. And it seems that all these things are actually making our lives easier. True to a certain extent. But, for I guess, the story and the experience will not be the same for the next generation.

A decade later, more and more children will be either on Orkut or Facebook. By children, I mean, 6 year olds and up. Most of their time will be spent on updating their status messages or profile, or uploading photos, sharing videos, making new friends, etc. People will have more virtual friends or contacts than the real ones. All this, no doubt, in a way makes you more social, or do they really? Instead of discussing problems/issues with parents/friends, people now-a-days tend to be more open and comfortable in discussing their problems amongst their virtual counterparts. A sense of anonymity gives you the power as well as the freedom of expressing your views, which is good, but it becomes dangerous when people take advantage of this freedom. For example, a Google account of a user, in essence, is his biography. Everything he has done in the past is begin recorded. All his mails, contacts, appointments, location information, searches, videos he has watched is recorded. If it falls into the wrong hands, doomed is perhaps the only word I can think of. I mean, grown-ups would probably learn and manage all this, but isn't it a overdose for the children?

A few days back, I met someone, who I know, is a child, and I was shocked to see his fake Facebook account with hundreds of friends. This guy used a fake name and photo for this account. He has, in short, created a fake person who is completely different from himself. He has a different age, has a job and has also listed his likes and dislikes which is again so different from him. Is this Anonymity? And he is just 13 years old. I tried convincing him to create a real profile, but he didn't budge and said, nobody would want to become a friend that way!!!

Anonymity == FAKE ??

From Wikipedia: A social network is a social structure made up of individuals (or organizations) called "nodes," which are tied (connected) by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.

A social network is made up of "nodes" and not "people".

NICE DEFINITION

My 100th post

2010-07-07T01:10:00.001+05:30

Ok, so a milestone reached. Feels good. This was a picture clicked in Puri. I kind of like water, typical of a cancerian. I just can't resist the temptation, its too much for me. I like getting wet in the rains, love to play in water and that day also I couldn't stop myself from getting wet. What a pity, I don't know swimming and on top of that, we were in a hurry, Ashish's flight :(

Could have played a little more and may be watch the sun set. It was after a long time that I was at the beach, looking at the open seas. Away from the hustle and bustle of the city traffic, away from my laptop and work. I love the sound of the waves hitting against each other, love to watch the lone boats travelling the high seas, and the occasional noises of the vendors. It was a very pleasing experience. Wish I had a house besides the beach.

Posted via Blogaway

Just in time - Again

2010-07-07T00:04:00.000+05:30

Continuing from the previous post, the journey back to Bhubaneswar on the Scooty was very very thrilling. Every 2 minutes, I used to ask Ashish to look at his watch while I was on full throttle. The Scooty was running a race of it's lifetime. I had never been in such a hurry before, well, may be I was, 2-3 times, :).

Finally, we did manage to reach the airport on time, just before the checking counter shut down. And Mr. Ashish could fly back to Hyderabad that day. What a relief!!!

People had always doubted my Scooty riding skills, but yet again, I have proved them wrong, and yet again, I won the race against time. I was in a similar situation when a friend of mine asked me to drop him at the railway station. It was in Bangalore and I had a Pulsar 180cc with me then. I made it on time then as well. A few days back I was mocking at Vishal and Gaurav for missing their flight, by 10 odd minutes. Now, I realize the importance of each minute, especially when you are running to catch a flight or a train. Hahaha, but in the end, it's the result that matters. They missed it !!! Kudos.

A Scooty’s trip to Puri

2010-07-04T00:07:00.004+05:30

For the people who are ignorant of this word “Scooty”, let me first introduce this to you.

Scooty is an Indian brand of scooters manufactured by TVS Motors. Basically, it was designed for women, and at one time, was the largest selling scooter brand in it’s segment. Equipped with a 60cc engine, it can hit a top speed of about 60 kmph with a single person. However, the max speed dropped to a surprisingly lower value, somewhere around 45 kmph when you add on a pillion. If you want to know more about this scooter, visit the website.

Well, mine, not exactly mine, but my sister’s scooty is 6 years old now. And whoever rides it now, vows never to ride it again. But during it’s initial days, I used to love scooty rides a lot. :) And, so, there is some kind of attachment between the two of us.

Ok, the story continues. Ashish, who was in Bhubaneswar, for attending Sidharth’s marriage, wanted to go to Puri. I told him that we can take a car/taxi. Not willing to contribute to the already increasing Carbon levels in the atmosphere, he recommended to avail the public transport. Hmm, Bad Idea, I thought. But, I knew that I will not be able to convince him to take a taxi, he would have never agreed. So, I gave him another better (looking atleast) option. My Scooty. And he somehow agreed.

Well, there was one little constraint. He had a flight to catch, the same day, at 6:45 pm, that very evening. And so, I worked out all the calculations (taking into consideration all the factors, including the max possible speed of my scooty) and arrived at our scheduled departure time, 9:00 am in the morning. Well, true to their reputations, NITKians, never made anything on time. Or they always did something wrong. Ya Ya, I am one of them. But, I can give you some more examples. Mr. Vishal and Mr. Gaurav missed their flights by just 10 minutes who wanted to attend Sidharth’s marriage. Mr. Srinath, who is currently a student at IIM, Kolkatta, by mistake booked a train ticket for the day after when he was supposed to travel. He managed his time well, but had all the wrong data and inputs. :) And I wasn’t even expecting Mr. Ashish to make it to my house before at-least 11:00 am. And I still over-estimated. He reached my house at 11:30 and then we started.

Puri is around 60 kms from my house. And, I just did a test ride on my Scooty. A max speed of 43 kmph. Hmm, Well, at that speed, I thought it will take at-least 2 hours to reach Puri. And we did it. YAY!!!

But the return journey was more fun, exciting and tensed. For some reason, my Scooty refused to buzz beyond the 40 kmph. At the place where we stopped for food, we got a bit late and lost a few minutes there (may be 10 minutes). And, it was already 5:00 pm and there was still some 30 odd kms to cover. If at all, Rajhans misses his flight, he and only he would be the sole person responsible. He did all this, wasted time, which could have saved us a few minutes.

Did Rajhans miss his flight? Did Scooty survive the torture? Did we manage to break the NITKians record of never being on time?
To be continued…

Indian Supermaaaaaann!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-06-25T20:42:00.000+05:30

Even the original superman cannot dance in the air like this. Note that, all the time Mr. Govinda is in the air, he keeps his left hand raised. I wonder why!!!!

And, well, indian movie makers are creative at times too. Kimi Katkar is portrayed as the Spidergirl in this song. The lyrics goes :

"Tu Mera Superman" Hilarious.

Awesome Violin Player - Mario Bros Soundtrack

2010-06-23T15:23:00.000+05:30

Brought back old memories. There was a time when me and my sister used to play Mario throughout the day. And get scolded by everyone. :) I was so addicted to it that I used to hear Mario collect coins by bumping his head while I was asleep. "Tring" "Tring" "Tring" over and over again.

Kitchen Champion - What the heck!!!!

2010-06-21T11:46:00.001+05:30

It's really a pathetic these days on TV. I had been out of this connection for nearly 2 years. Now, I got a cable connection working with my laptop. And I have a remote. Within a few days, the remote's keys are dangling out. But they still work.

The DIDs, CDDs, Boogie Woogies, Emotional Atyachaars, Love Net, MTV Roadies, aaah, the list goes on and on and on. Do I like these? Well, honestly, I want to slap those fellows. I mean, it's been an overdoes of the so-called "Reality Shows". And these shows don't seem to end. They go on forever.

Roadies 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, I mean, come on, this is definitely not software. And now, there's a new show on the TV. Kitchen Champion.

I guess, the actors weren't getting paid enough. They were interested in such a novel reality show. And the most amazing thing is, People do like to watch such things. Weird. Well, I also spend some time on these channels when something's cooking. But, I guess, these shows are just like the "Facebooks" and "Orkuts" for the not-so tech-savy people. Once a particular episode ends, I can see many people get on the phone and discuss about how Tulsi is going to escape from the traps of her Sasural wale, or if Parvati would leave her husband. It sometimes is very very funny.

I guess, the hardest job in all these shows is the work of the cameraman. At crucial junctures, they have to move those heavy cameras back and forth, uinfinite number of times. "Sweeeeiiissshh" "Sweeaaasshhh" and with sound effects as well. Out of the 30 minutes or so, 15 minutes goes into ads, 5 minutes in these "Swwweeeshing and Swwwaashing" and the remaing 10 minutes is full of "tears, cunning looks, abuses". It's just masala. I sometimes love masala, but an overdoes of it upsets my stomach.

One more thing, I hate those women cry out so loud with trillion drops of tears. I was once sleeping, really hard, and suddenly I heard someone crying loud. I rushed out to see what happened, just to realize that my friend was watching "Baalika Vadhu". Crap.

And by the way, all these Reality Shows are copied from some similar shows running in US/UK/Canada/Australia. Come on guys, be creative. Don't just copy and paste like me.

Sleepless in S....

2010-06-21T02:31:00.000+05:30

Seatle!!!! Nooooooooo, I am here in Bangalore right now. It's a Sunday. In a few hours I have to get up and run to office. But, still no sleep. Aaaahhh!!!! Remember those college days. Especially during the semesters. Full night outs, and we still used to carry on the next day. Of late, I have become a kind of work-a-holic. Really. I can't seem to get work away from my mind. I don't know if it's good or bad. Everybody I tell this, they seem to advise me that it's harmful in the long run. When you get old, you will repent. :(

One day just has 24 hours. And they seem very less. I wish days were longer and humans were designed to have less sleep. I am sure, that for the last 2 years at-least, I have been sleeping no more than 5.5 hours on an average per day. Even in the weekends, I keep on going without long hours of sleep. There was a time, when weekends were the favorite days to get a good long sleep. Really long. But, those days are gone. :( I have to force myself to sleep now. I don't want to be dull on a Monday morning. Good night.

A 4 star Movie - Rajneeti

2010-06-06T10:01:00.001+05:30

Rajneeti. From it's reviews it looked liked a good movie, and a bunch of friends decided to book tickets. This time, we got the tickets cheap. 100 bucks each. But the theatre which we walked into was one of the those in Bangalore which I had never went in before. A/C and dts. Though the sound was good, the combined effort of the ACs and fans inside couldn't dry our sweat. 5 minutes at our seats and we were sweating. :(

Itne paise me itna hi milega!!!!! Ok, 3 hours, and a good movie would shift my concentration from the heat to the movie,I thought. The first half was enjoyable, though the others were already bored. One of them even proposed that we should run away during the interval. But we didn't. There were a few who were still expecting a sweet turn-around to the already complex plot, including myself. Killing, death, politics, bombs going off, corruption and love. It was a mixture of all. But, none of them really made sense to me. It's not so easy to kill a big political figure in the real life as portrayed in the movie. And there were so many people getting killed. Arrrggghhh!!

Prakash Jha deleted steamy scenes of Katrina and Arjun Rampal from the movie to get a U/A certificate. Well, I wish someone had deleted the whole movie. It was pathetic. Even Nana Patekar's acting seemed out of sync. Some dialogues seemed to be directly copied verbatim from Mahabharata, the epic.

Katrina doesn't know how to carry herself in a sari. But she has definitely learnt some Hindi. Ummmm, Atleast Prakash Jha could have kept that steamy scene, and released it with an A certificate. There's anyway nothing in this movie for the younger people. My rating is just 2 stars.

Atop Nandi Hills

2010-05-31T20:31:00.003+05:30

Well, we could not see the sunset, but the bike trip was awesome. Throughout the day, it was raining intermittently. And our clothes never dried. Though the roads were all wet, that didn't stop us from speeding our bikes. The ride down the hill was just great. With our engines shut off, we were still doing 60 kmph. We could have done better, but it was too risky.And before this, in the morning we also went for go-carting. It was the first time for me. After the first lap, I was riding along quite comfortably. Next time I will take along a few friends and race against them. I stand a good chance of getting the checkered flags.

Posted by Blogaway

A pro smoker

2010-05-30T10:34:00.002+05:30

Here's a cool YouTube video

A 2 year child smokes 40 cigs a day. The style of his will bring shame to even the biggest chain smokers of modern times. Check it out.

Location : Karnataka,

Posted via Blogaway

To Nandi hills

2010-05-29T16:51:00.002+05:30

On the way to Nandi hills. Raining heavily. Got stuck here. Loving it. Sam, Sinha, Lodhi n me on 2 bikes. Wanted to se the sunset on the hill top, but I guess, the clouds are gonna spoil our plans.

Location : NH 207, Devanahalli, Karnataka,

Posted via Blogaway

My bike

2010-05-24T23:17:00.002+05:30

It's almost 3 months now, and it was high time that I had uploaded a pic of my new bike. Here it is. 2500 kms up, with a few glitches with the battery during the initial days, my first bike has survived the torture. Max speed reached : 110 kmph.

Platinum

2010-05-23T13:23:00.002+05:30

Platinum looks classy. It's the new craze.

Working on Ubuntu

2010-05-20T17:43:00.001+05:30

After my Mac crashed at office, I lost hope. Damn, isn't there a single OS which will never crash!!!! I know, I know, they are machines. Morever OSes are just lines of code and even the best programmers commit mistakes. But, I cannot live with those if my systems keep crashing like this. My data is precious and I would do anything to keep it safe.

Well, I got Linux (Ubuntu) installed on my laptop. Getting all the necessary softwares for Ubuntu is a bit of work, and would require you to look here and there. Now, after around 2 weeks of working on it, I have almost set up everything required. A blogger client called (Blogilo) was the last one and I am writing this blog from that software.

It feels nice to work on this. Shifting from Windows to a Mac and then to a Linux has been painful at times, but hey, ain't I flexible? Just to add another OS to the list, I know DOS also. :)

Blogilo is nice by the way.

@Update : The post couldn't be updated by Blogilo. It crashed. So, I am on the web now. Damn OSses.

Appjam '10 - A platform for the mobile community

2010-05-19T00:48:00.001+05:30

Last Saturday, my dream came true. I had always dreamed to be at an IIM. This came true when I went to AppJam to demonstrate my Android application called "Blogaway" at the event which showcased the best 30 mobile apps. It was a 3 minute presentation and I couldn't really talk much, and didn't win any prizes but it was fun. Especially the iJam session and the ball throwing concept. One of my friends got a chance to present her idea in this session. Hahaha, she was hurled soft balls from all around the auditorium. But I guess, at the end they liked the idea. She is a lazy fellow and wanted everything to be done by her phone, without even her waking up from sleep. :P

The weather was just perfect for the day. There was another app from our company which was also demoed. Solaro for the iPad which is a client for the Solaro website. Tushar from Kolkatta had come down for the demo. The funny thing was, the duration of the demo was a mere 3 minutes. He also was sort of time, but we somehow managed.

It had rained while we were inside the auditorium of IIM Bangalore. And it seemed that everyone in Bangalore was happy that it had rained and the temperature had come down quite a bit. So, I guess all of them walked out of their home and clogged the roads. It took us 1 hour to reach home that evening. IIMB is around 15kms from my house. :(

We got free T-shirts. And the lunch was also free. I gobbled up 4 gulab jamuns. :)

Screens of Death

2010-05-13T17:12:00.001+05:30

Everybody knows what the "Screen of Death" is on a Windows machine. To be specific, it's called the "Blue Screen of Death". And we have learnt to live with it. I see it quite frequently on my laptop and I don't freak out any more.

I was pretty happy that I got a Mac for work at my office. I had heard that it's stable, it never crashed and stuff like that, and I had started believing that as well, until the day one of my colleague got the "Screen of Death" on his Mac. Well, the color was different and there wasn't even any text. Nothing was written. Here comes the "Pink Screen of Death" for Mac.

Well, whenever my Windows laptop crashed, I never cared to read what was written. Without any delay, I used to re-start my machine, and it would be back in action. On the pink screen, there wasn't anything written, so we decided that we would wait for some time. 10 minutes of waiting and nothing happened. So, finally, we decided to hit the power button, and within seconds it was fine.

I wonder whats the color for Linux machines, guessing that it should be black. :)

India goes down

2010-05-10T11:54:00.001+05:30

I had hopes for the Indian team to do well this time round. And I was pretty excited about a cricket match after such a long time which was not an IPL match. But, India has been thrown out of the competition. :(

Sob Sob... I didn't quite liked watching the IPL. So much of cricket was kind of boring to me. And when the T20 World Cup started, I was starting to feel "Indian". But, after West Indies ousted India from the Super 8 last night, I turned off my TV and went back to my laptop.

Without the likes of Sehwag and Sachin, I wasn't hoping that India would bring back the trophy, but I had definitely not hoped of an early exit for us either. It was heart breaking. But, I guess, I can't blame anybody. It's cricket, and it is just like that. West Indies was a better team yesterday and they won. However, I am not sure as to why Dhoni chose to bowl first after winning the toss.

I think I am losing interest in Cricket. :)

I love Fridays

2010-05-08T03:40:00.002+05:30

Who doesn't ? I guess, this is the most eagerly awaited day of the week for most of the humans on earth. Well, there are a few unfortunate lot, who have a 6 day week, but I think majority of the people on earth have a 5 day week.

My Friday morning's are really really different from the others. You won't believe that I wake up early on Fridays. So that, I can reach office early, finish work early, leave office early, and reach home early. Friday's schedule is completely different for me. The way we used to celebrate Fridays has changed now. Before all of my college friends dispersed from Bangalore, Friday was celebrated every week. A new hangout, a new reason to celebrate, some new friends and the same old beer. It used to be a lot more fun. There was no right time for anything on a Friday. We had dinner at 2am (Saturday, extended Friday), get some more beer at 4am (Saturday), sleep at 8am (Saturday) and wake up at 4pm (Saturday). That was pretty much the schedule for us. And midnight bike trips, walks, heated discussions, funny fights, we had it all.

But now things have changed. People have gone. Some people have quit drinking and smoking. Some people are married, some have girl friends and the rest have gone to foreign lands. Oh, and a few have joined some MBA colleges to study ( I think beer makes people think beyond their capabilities). There are still a few who are continuing with the traditional Friday celebrations, but only a very few and you never get hold of them. They have their Friday's planned out well before it arrives. When you call them up, you get a wry response, "Dude, I am booked!!!, You quit or what?? Bye, see ya next month ".

Aah, I just woke up from sleep, don't know why, and have nothing to do, than write this. I need a beer very badly. :( But, it's 3:30am (Saturday, Extended Friday) and still I love Fridays.

Chennai Super Kings

2010-04-26T01:00:00.002+05:30

Well, finally, the big long IPL is over. I never saw any of the league matches, not even the semi-finals, but I decided to watch the finals today. At the end of all, it was the Chennai Super Kings who were destined to take home the IPL – III trophy. Which team I was supporting? Mumbai Indians, but the men in yellow shone away under the Mumbai skies.

Sachin, it was tough luck, but it was such a pleasure to watch him with stitches in his hand. A few catches for Mumbai, which were missed might have turned around the result in Mumbai’s favour, but hey, it’s cricket, remember?

IPL III has been a huge success. Bigger and better than the previous editions, it has seen disruptions from different sections of media, government and the IT department. I hope everything gets sorted out very soon.

- Orange Cap – Sachin Tendulkar

- Purple Cap – Pragyan Ojha

- DLF Golden Player Award – Sachin Tendulkar

Had I been in Chennai at this time of the year, I have no idea where would have been partying now. Well done Chennai Super Kings, CONGRATS. ENJOY CHENNAI !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Google should buy Facebook

2010-04-24T18:25:00.002+05:30

Last year, there was a rumor that Google has eventually bought Facebook. This was definitely a big news for the Silicon valley. I don’t know if this deal made people happy or sad, but at first, I was very reluctant to accept the truthfulness of this piece of news. Later, it turned out that it was just an April fool’s joke. :)

But I think Google should now buy out Facebook. Though Google already owns Orkut, the popularity of Facebook is way higher that Orkut’s. Orkut was a different company, which Google had bought some years back. I used to love Orkut and hated people who used facebook. Orkut had it’s own fan following, and almost 90% of them were not very keen to switch to Facebook. But, this was 2 years ago. Now, I don’t use Orkut. I AM ON FACEBOOK, and I open it 3-4 time a day. A lot of people who I know, were not ready to shift to Facebook, now are avid lovers of the social networking site.

Let’s discuss about the factors that made people shift from Orkut to Facebook. By the way, as far as I can see, Orkut will be going down the memory lane in less than 3 years. That’s my estimation. :)

1. The first thing I can think of is “Facebook’s UI”. It’s the basic thing which really affects how the website is being used. Facebook gives a better user-experience. Facebook is completely Ajax-ified. Orkut uses Ajax in bit’s and pieces.

2. The colors and layout of Orkut hurts the eyes. Whereas, Facebook’ backgroun (white) is very easy on the eyes.

3. The games on Facebook like “Mafia wars”, “Farmville” and “Knighthood” were instant success. Orkut missed out on these features.

4. Orkut introduced games and contests, very late. And they were not as good as Facebook’s.

5. Communities or groups on Orkut, well, it wasn’t properly used by the people, whereas on Facebook, these actually help out a lot of people.

6. Orkut has Ads everywhere, which makes some pages look odd. Ads on Facebook were small and were placed at the right places. They actually look good sometimes and some of them are indeed clickable. :) I never click on something that has “Google Adsense” written on it.

These are some of the things that I think might be reasons for the downfall of Orkut. Orkut was of-course quite popular. But now, It’s Facebook who is taking away users from Google. Google should buy Facebook now to stay in the Social Networking business. I don’t want Microsoft to buy Facebook. But I don’t think Facebook will ever agree to Google’s offer just in case there’s one. It’s doing good.

Minto fresh - jalaye dimaag ki batti

2010-04-22T13:59:00.002+05:30

It works. I would advise you all to try this. Yesterday I saw the worst traffic of Bangalore. I stood for about an hour at a single place. I think vehicles should be stripped off their horns/buzzers. Atleast it will help them to be a more patient lot.

There was a guy, Shakul, who was with me yesterday. The only thing he didn't do yesterday, which I wished he had done was to go and beat up everyone.

Location : Domlur, Bengaluru, Karnataka,

iMac, iPhone, iPod, iPad and now the brand new iSleep

2010-04-15T02:19:00.002+05:30

Apple, well, everyone is going ga-ga about Apple products. In my office, I have an iMac. It's huge and it's nice and sexy. A friend got an iPhone the other day, and we almost ended up fighting on over it's competitor, Android. I don't know iPhone, and I have never used one. iPad is a Kindle killer. Never used a Kindle. :)

iPhone does everything. iPhone supports orientation change. iPhone does this, does that. It's cool to have an iPhone. You should have an iPhone. And then it's big brother promises even more. And of course, there's iPod, which is a must have for all music lovers.

Wasn't that enough? Now, the iPad is the talk of the tech world.Type iPad on Google and you will see never ending updates from people who are tweeting about iPad round the clock. It just goes on and on.

I am tired now of all the 'i's. I need some sleep now. Google, please wake up. Else, one fine day in future, the iNews device from Apple will have the headline.

"Apple launches iWorld and iEarth."

By the way, Google has iGoogle. Was it developed by Apple? Hey, Apple, one more chance to sue Google. Go ahead. Good night. iSleep.

Friday again - Brain Drained Already!!!

2010-04-09T16:10:00.003+05:30

Till lunch, I had not realized that it was Friday already. Wow, this week flew away really fast. By the way, I was on leave yesterday. Had a bad stomach upset. As much as I enjoy Fridays, I hate Mondays even more. The concept of weekdays should change now. It's been there since the invention of Calendar, I guess. All the laws in the world keep changing, why can't this change?

So here is what I propose. The new Calendar system should be called "Corporate Calendar". Here are some of the features that I would like to see.

1. 6 days in a week (Delete Monday)

2. 61 weeks in an year

3. Remove the concept of the Leap year, to make the life of coders a bit more easy

4. Have a 365 days a year, simple.

5. Keep 12 months (else think of more names for the months)

6. First 5 months have 31 days and the next 7 have 30 days

So, how does this work? Since, we have removed the Monday, a lot of people will love this calendar, and would be more willing to adopt this.

6 days in a week. Chuck the concept of Weekdays and Weekends. What we will have is Workdays and Playdays. Tuesday, Thurday and Saturday will be workdays, while the rest should be playdays. That's the main reason why the number of days in a week should be reduced to 6.

Children of the world will find it easier to remember this calendar, after they learn it once. 31 days for the first 5 months, and the rest are 30 days. No leap year (Good news for coders as well). One less day (Monday) to remember. Friday is a Playday, Enjoy without getting bored in office and writing meaningless blogs.

On second thoughts, there shouldn't be any damn calendar here. Why is everything organized in this world? Don't we know that the world, rather the whole universe was created out of random events? Who the hell had the idea to make everything so planned? I love chaos and hate routine stuff.

Hate that calendar and the alarms on my phone. :@

Tea, Coffee and an Apple

2010-04-01T16:36:00.002+05:30

It's Thursday. Friday is good friday, so a day off for us tomorrow. Planning to leave office early, and get a good long sleep. After yesterday's showers, Bangalore is still hot. In office, it's been a long day. Coffee, tea and an Apple have kept me busy. The coming days are gonnna be too hectic for me. That's not noce. :-(

Please rain come today,

Johnny is sick and doesn't wanna play,

Location : Kasturba Rd, Shivaji Nagar, Bengaluru, Karnataka,

Blogger vs Wordpress

2010-03-31T01:34:00.001+05:30

Ok, Surprised? Yes, I have changed the theme. Did you notice? I was quite happy with the old one, and I am expecting a lot of people to come and say, "the previous one was better". But, somebody who I asked to read my blog said, "The black background puts too much strain on my eyes, I am not gonna read this!!!"

Wow, I was trying to save energy by keeping the black background, and reduce my carbon footprint. But then, I myself had a look at it sometime later, I felt the same. And recently, Blogger just added this new "Theming Feature". I wanted to try it out. Well, as of now, there aren't many themes to choose from. It took me almost 2 hours to decide on one. :(

Google doesn't want to be the No. 2 in anything. It is fighting everywhere, and seems to be winning as well, except for China, where the Government, in a way is trying to throw them out. This would be a huge gain for the local search engine Baidu. Oh, I am deviating. Ok. So, Wordpress is threatening to take over Blogger's title as the best blogging service. Wordpress is great. It has a lot more features. It has hundreds and thousands of themes. So, I guess, Google has taken the first steps to improve Blogger now. I haven't used Wordpress ever, but I have heard that it is just great. But, with the user base that Google has, Wordpress doesn't seem to come anywhere close to Blogger.

I love Blogger and I would not shift to Wordpress for the simple reason that I am not willing to migrate all my blogs to Wordpress even though there are tools which take care of this. I am being faithful to Google, and not lazy as a lot of people might think.

Interviews on the other side

2010-03-22T17:47:00.002+05:30

At work, these days, taking interviews are a part of my daily activities. On an average I take 3 interviews a day. And that is hectic and boring. To top it, the technology I am into, there aren't many female professionals out there. What a boring job !!

My first question:

Tell me about yourself. Crap, if someone asks that question in an interview, I will break his head.

My last line:

I am done with your interview. I will send my feedback to the HR and he will get back to you. I always used to get similar responses.

At first I thought it would be fun, but now I think it is the most boring job, well, a female candidate might just help now and then. :-)

I have rejected over 2 dozens of resumes till now. Bye , I have another one lined up right now.

Graduated !!! After College

2010-03-21T03:31:00.002+05:30

4 years of engineering was fun. Each and every day was as enjoyable as the first or the last day of college and hostel. But now, things have changed, for good and bad. Hostel life, I guess, was a great experience for me. When I look back, through the hazy memories, I can still clearly re-collect some moments which can never be forgotten. These incidents will one day become stories for our children which we would narrate again and again. Those four years were like a vacation for me, of course, I got a B.Tech Degree. :)

1. At college, ANYTIME is PLAYTIME. There was no fixed playtimes for us. Be it a weekday, exam day or a weekend, in a minutes notice we could make two teams for any game. Cricket, Football, Volleyball, Carrom, Chess, Age of Empires, Counter strike, Water Games, Discussions, Debates, and a lot more. We played it all.

* But now in the corporate world, we only get weekends. :(

2. Dinner, Lunch and Breakfast were just words for us. There was no fixed time for all these. We stretched and skewed the timings so much that these words lost their meaning. We just ate, anytime we liked, and anything we got.

* Out here, we have fixed timings for everything, even for a smoke and tea.

3. Drinking and smoking made people happy and gay. If you didn’t have a hangover next day, you weren’t drunk. Throwing up and to be drunk again was a sign of strength. It was admired.

* You puke once in your office party, and your organization bans alcohol in office parties forever. After the smoking ban, people have to walk out of the campus/building to get some air. :(

4. Six weeks of attendance. That means, in the whole year, you work for 12 weeks. There was a relaxation of 2 weeks as well, if you could think of a nice excuse. The rest of the time, you could be sleeping, watching movies, playing Far Cry, or just gossiping, you had so much time to waste.

* 35 holidays a year!!! That’s ridiculous, when the hell shall I find time to chill out? Office life doesn’t give you time to breathe, let alone a chance to get drunk.

5. Worn out jeans, torn Tees, and Bathroom chappals took us everywhere. Party, lectures, Exams and Interviews. Washing clothes was something which had the least priority for us.

* Formals, Shoes, Ties and a Laptop in all seasons have to be carried 5 days a week. And the weekend’s most important agenda is “Washing clothes”. I hate it.

I can go on writing about things, how they were and how they have changed. Well, I am not complaining about the present. I just want to say, “Wow, how great were those 4 years of hostel”. Now after college, I have responsibilities, towards everything. I have grown up finally. “I have GRADUATED”.

Kunal, you can't beat my phone

2010-03-19T13:31:00.002+05:30

Hahaha, let's see how will you beat this. Now I can blog any time I like. This time I will definitely win the competition. Its a bit difficult to type out a blog from a phone but I will do it.

My bike's not well and it could be days before it gets on the road, so till then I would be blogging a lot. A sentence or two each hour. Ahahahaa.

Best of luck.

Location : Domlur, Bengaluru, Karnataka,

Video test

2010-03-19T13:03:00.002+05:30

A small video from my office.

Location : Domlur, Bengaluru, Karnataka,

First pic from HTC Hero

2010-03-19T12:54:00.002+05:30

Got an Android phone at work. Posted from Blogaway.

Location : Domlur, Bengaluru, Karnataka,

Bike Update - Down and Dead

2010-03-19T11:06:00.003+05:30

It has been hardly 10 days and my machine has started showing signs of being just a machine. I have learnt one lesson though. Never rely on a damn machine. Mechanical devices are still trustworthy, but when it comes to Electrical and Electronics, no matter how high the reliability of a sytem is, the probability of it failing is quite high at any given time.

So, my battery is dead now. And to add to the problem, there is no kick lever in my bike. They are saying that it would take atleast 2-3 days to fix the battery. WTF. Till then, I have to push and start. Wow, I was looking to join a gym very soon, but now I don't need to. I burn some calories and flex some muscles whenever I want to ride my bike.

I called up the Exide guys, and they said that they will first check and replace if necessary. My advice to people who are planning to buy a bike,

"Do not get a bike without the kick lever"

Lost in Chandigarh

2010-03-15T00:46:00.001+05:30

Well, I don't remember exactly the sequence of events, but I don't know how I missed to write about this one. We almost made headlines some years back when I was in college, NIT Kurukshetra. It was a college tour to Chandigarh, a part of our Environmental Studies curriculum. The whole of electrical batch packed in 2 buses.

I don't even remember the names of people who were involved. As far as I can remember there were 6 of us. Rishabh, Kapi, Vivek, Amit, Rahul Singh and Me. We had already decided that we would somehow escape from the group and have beer even before we started. It was a hot afternoon. A bottle of beer was the need of the hour. For lunch, we were given an hours time. As soon as we heard that, we rushed towards a place where we could get all we wanted. It wasn't long enough before we had the bottles in our hands. Some "aloo parathas" and "samosas" was all that we could manage in an hour, we thought. After 4-5 gulps of the liquid, all of us went into a mild state of trance, out in the air, on the streets of Chandigarh.

The next thing I remember was a policeman standing besides me and staring at me. We never knew that it was illegal to drink in the open in Chandigarh. We never bothered to inquire. Then we could also see a bigger crowd surrounding us. I could also see some people with cameras pointed at us, perhaps the press. And suddenly the bottles were snatched from our hands and we were asked to follow a policeman who escorted us to the control room, saving us from the press and the people. Phew, I could see all of us sweating profusely now. The lunch break was almost over and we were quite far from the group and our professors. We knew we would never be able to make it on time. Thoughts about getting thrown out of college, parents wrath and making the headlines made us nervous. And finally, we managed to call some more people from the group who came in time to deal with the police. Sagar and Dheeraj rushed to the spot in 15 minutes.

By that time, the police were completing the paper works, inquiring about us, taking down our addresses. When it was Kapi's turn, I couldn't control my laughter. He started mentioning some imaginary address, a strange address, of-course non-existent. They had also confiscated out ID cards, which was returned to us after-wards. After all this, we were taken to a hospital where a doctor asked us some questions and we answered (don't remember what). He then announced that we were not drunk. This was all a part of the process just to make sure that we don't land up in tomorrow's newspapers. The policemen were very co-operative and Sagar and Dheeraj also helped a lot in finally taking us back to the group. And the excuse was, "Lost in Chandigarh". No one was cross-questioned.

When we returned to our hostels, there was a sense of pride for all that we went through. We were the talk of the hostel for that day. That day, it was fun.I think we had some more beer when we were back.

But, when I think of it now, I feel sad. I am sure that it could have been worse. That was 4 years ago, and we were just engineering students. But for our luck, this incident was not somehow publicized enough to be known to our profs, parents and others, and we were saved.

Time killing

2010-03-12T13:36:00.003+05:30

It's Friday. And I am in party mood. But the sad thing is, there's no party!!!!

I will be very busy this weekend, that's for sure. Have to roam around a lot, have to brave the sun. Next Tuesday is a holiday for us. That's a relief.

Time doesn't fly, it crawls when you want it to fly. I have 3 gmail accounts, which I need to check very frequently. Even that doesn't help me kill my time at office. By the way, from next week, it seems that I will be given lots and lots of work. But before that, I am chilling, and trying to kill the 8 hours at office.

I don't know what will happen when that transition comes. From complete idle to loads of stuff, I think I might not be able to handle all this. In a way, I am sure. Let's see.

I get at-least 50 mails a day, to which I have to reply (un-official). Now, it's boring. But have to do it. I try to keep my nails in shape by biting them off.

I don't like IPL and so I am not very excited about it. :)

Finally, Ready to race

2010-03-09T08:32:00.001+05:30

Yesterday, I got my Pulsar 180 finally, after such a long wait. I am so so excited. Let's see how long will this excitement last before the Bangalore traffic frustrations get into me. 43kms done. I want to complete 500kms within 15 days so that I can safely break the speed barrier.

In the pic, that's obviously not me. :) I haven't yet got it's photos. And also haven't had any big stories. When I do, I will put them up here.

No more walking in the heat. It's getting real hot in Bangalore these days. No buses and autos. And late night movies!!! No problems sir.

Crippled without Internet

2010-03-08T15:28:00.003+05:30

Aahhh, No internet connection in office. It's been like this for almost 30 minutes. Everyone is going mad. Everything has stopped. No one's working. :)

There were days when even a pathetically slow computer system brought joy and excitement to people's houses. It was a grand celebration. And before turning it on, the age old custom of breaking a coconut and putting a tilak was never forgotten. I remember, when I turned my PC for the first time at home, everyone was standing right behind me. I was in 10th standard then. Well, a dangerous time though. My parents thought that it would help me in studies. Computer Science was introduced in our curriculum in 8th standard. But they were in for a bigger surprise.

The very next day, a friend of mine, who had never come to my house before, dropped in with 2 game CDs. And he kept on visiting my house very frequently. I am not complaining, I enjoyed it too. We used to sit in-front of the computer for hours, door locked from inside. Our parents had the impression that we were studying hard. This went on for quite some time. And finally we were caught. I don't remember what happened next. But, for the first 2 years, my PC was only used for gaming. It was a 233MHz machine, with 32MB RAM and 40GB hard disk. After 2 years also, we didn't have an internet connection. And we never got bored.

Now I have a laptop with 1.6GHz processor, 1.5GB RAM and a 120GB hard disk. But now, I use it for one more thing. To get connected to the internet. Now I cannot imagine how would I keep myself busy if there was no internet. But I also miss some of my other hobbies. I don't play tabla anymore. Nor do I do any sketches or paintings. The time spend in-front of the TV has also reduced drastically. I don't work out. I eat fast so that I can get back to my laptop as soon as possible. I don't talk on the phone for hours together, well, not as much as I used to. I don't play outdoor games.

Internet has crippled me!!!!! But I love it.

Laptop Worries

2010-03-08T01:19:00.002+05:30

Recently, my laptop has been pathetically slow. And it's responsiveness is deteriorating day by day. It has developed a load of issues. With a 1.5GB RAM, it's still not as fast as I would like it to be. I wonder if it has lived it's life. It's been more than 3 years and sometimes it seems to be dead.

So, today, I sat down to do some maintenance. I don't understand whats with Microsoft. To speed up my laptop, I uninstalled Internet Explorer. The moment I restarted it, it prompted me to re-install IE 8. What the heck. I don't want that anyway.

After a few tweaks here and there, I was able pace it up a bit. But with the stuff I want to do with my laptop, I wonder how long will this one last. But my laptop has always been faithful and reliable. Though it has crashed a few times and I had to re-install the OS and everything, but hey, it's Windows, and it crashes. :) Sometimes, I have kept it running for days together and it didn't give up. But now it is showing signs of aging. :(

Can't tolerate this heat

2010-03-03T16:10:00.003+05:30

These days, Bangalore has gone hotter than ever. And the worst is yet to come.

I can feel my skin burn when I go out in the sun. And there is no escape from this. I thought Bangalore has the best climate in the summers. Now everything has changed. The garden city doesn't have enough trees.

I hate going out in the sun now. But, have to.

These summers are going to get worse. Need to find a way to cope with it. Else, I will be fried someday. :(

Don't walk into Khivraj Bajaj

2010-03-02T13:14:00.001+05:30

I haven't yet got my Pulsar. And today, frustrated and fed up with their nonsense replies, I cancelled my booking. I even wrote a review on Google, of course, the worst one that I would ever write about anything.

I hope people don't rely on Khivraj Bajaj showrooms now. My experience with them was the worst that I ever had.

1st day: Sir, the bike will be delievered in 10 days. We are getting the new stock, 2010 models. We will call and let you know when the bike arrives.

10 days gone, no call, I called up.

10th day: Sir, We don't know the status. And the Bajaj people also have no updates as to when you can get your bike.

After 5 more days, still no call, I called up.

15th day: Sir the bikes are on the way from Pune, and they will arrive in 2 days. We will call you.

17th Day: Sir, the whole stock was Pulsar 150. You will have to wait for a week more to get your 180.

23rd day: Still no call, I called up.
Sir, You make the full payment on 2nd march and it will be delivered to you on 3rd. :)

Today: Still no call, WTF. I called up the last time.
Sir, the stock has come. But the stock was damaged and it will take some more days for the new stock.

F**k you. I walked down 4 kms, in the scorching heat to cancel the booking. The executive there had the same monotonous smile on her face as the first day. She said politely, sir, please write an application for cancellation, and we will prepare a cheque in 2-3 days. Once it is ready, WE WILL GIVE YOU A CALL. I know that call will never come.

Only I know how controlled my temper, and didn't shout on her face. And then, finally, when I was about to leave, she says "Thank you", and smiles. Aaargghh, I hate that smile.

Please don't ever go there. Here's the address.

Khivraj Bajaj,
2 & 10, 2nd Stage HAL,
100 Feet Road,
Indiranagar, Bangalore, 560038

Damn Software Engineers

2010-02-12T13:29:00.001+05:30

My bike's delivery date got postponed to next week. I am sure, somewhere, somehow, I can blame a Software Engineer for this. He didn't deliver his code in time, and so everything's got late just because of him. :(

I have to wait and walk for 2 more weeks. I had made all preparations yesterday. But all in vain. It's a holiday for us today. And I don't have a bike to roam around. :(

Creation in the Kitchen

2010-02-08T13:18:00.002+05:30

Sorry folks, the Veg Pulav looked so tasty, and it was smelling so good, that we couldn't even pause for a second to click a photo of my first "Creation in the Kitchen". My first dab at cooking wasn't bad.

A friend and I decided to cook something. We were bored of the eating outside everyday. When I called up my sister at home, to ask for the recipe, she started shouting out so loud as if the sky had fallen. :) Cooking and Me!!!! Well, Everybody, I am sure will raise their eyebrows if the word "cooking" is somehow, even remotely, associated WITH ME, ever. Even if people always doubted my culinary skills, in the inside, I have always had this belief that I would "COOK OKAY......."

So, Mom described me all that had to be done, and finally, within 30 minutes (I know I know, that's quite long for Pulav), our Pulav was ready to eat. Well, It couldn't have been perfect. The peas were not fully cooked. I kept them aside, and my friend ate them all.

I guess, I have made my Mother proud today. :)

PS: I googled for the picture.

At my desk

2010-02-01T14:31:00.003+05:30

Hi yet again,

I have got so much of time these days in office that I decided to write some blogs from here. This is one of them. :)

Oh yes, did I forget to mention? I have booked a Pulsar 180, which will be delivered sometime next week. I didn't have much choice with the kind of budget I had, and this was the best I could get. I had liked the Yamaha FZ-16, but then it had a terrible dashboard. So, finally after a lot of thinking, I went for the Pulsar. I know Pulsars are everywhere, and I would look common, but, now I have made up my mind, and stopped listening to anybody about other bikes. :)

What more? Last week was very hectic. I don't know why I am not able to sleep for more than 5-6 hrs. It's not that I don't want to, but there are so many things to do, I don't want to miss them.

Somedays back, I thought I waste a lot of time thinking about where to eat, and what to order, and then there was cleaning dishes. :) For me, I guess, eating is not at all an important part of the day. I just push in anything I can get hold of. It's unhealthy though. People who stay, live or eat with me often have very special expectations about the kind of lunch/dinner they want to have. And they would travel great distances to have the special taste. I can't do this. Any kind of food is good for me, as long as it isn't among the few things I don't like. Capsicum, Pumpkin, Saaroo(don't know what is it called in English). Anything else is just fine for me.

Need a bike, urgently

2010-01-25T18:06:00.005+05:30

To avoid the traffic, I took a house on rent as near as possible to my office. And not barely 1 month, we are hearing rumors that our office would be shifting to some other place. :(

Had it not been shifting also, I needed a bike anyway. For the past one month, I have been walking almost about 4-5 kms daily. One day, I had to walk 10 kms, thanks to Bangalore's autowalas.

Now I have decided finally. I have had enough of the buses and autos. I need to have a bike now. I thought I would walk into a showroom, and book it. It's not that simple, is it? Huh, I am still undecided which one to buy.

When I get it finally, I will be writing a review of the bike, and might describe how the first ride was. But hey, those review websites suck, they don't really help you, their sole aim is to confuse people.

I will be going for test rides tomorrow. :)

Beaches and Trees

2010-01-18T01:56:00.002+05:30

I had mentioned about my trip to Kerala some posts ago. A lot happened actually, and I don't find enough time to write about everything. Well, that's really an excuse, but when I sit down to write a blog, I run out of thoughts very quickly. Errr...what was I going to write?? Oh yeah...Let's see.

We did a lot of biking, 4 guys and 2 bikes. We had big hopes from Lt. Parida (not late, lieutenant, :) ) that he would be arranging at-least some 150cc bikes. But, we had to manage with one Discover, and one errr... ____________, Please someone fill it up (Samiran, Parida, Kunal). We didn't have problems with any of the bikes, fortunately, though we (Me and Parida) who were on one bike, survived a small accident, or rather a fall. The only thing hurt in all this was Lt. Parida's bike. See the photo. Can you see the scratches? Sorry Lt. Parida.

The same day, when we were wandering inside the campus, we saw a big Anaconda (not as big as the one on TV) crossing the road. It had probably just had it's dinner. Inside the campus, there were signs at places saying, "Go slow, animals cross roads here". At first I had laughed. When we had crossed the crawling thing, a truck came from the other side. We returned back to see if it was still there, but couldn't find any signs of it. It was already dark, we wanted to take a picture of it, but decided not to search for it now.

Then there were beaches, and coconut tress (reminder, we were in Kerala). We smoked on the beaches, threw some stones into the waters, (Kunal got a record number of 7 jumps), we drank at night, and played cards. :) :)

All these days, approx 4 days, I hadn't checked my mail once. I had my laptop, and I was also carrying my Reliance data card, all prepared to upload photos as and when they were being taken, but to my horror, there were no mobile network signals other than BSNL. We couldn't even use our cell phones (sometimes took photos with it). :(

We took a lot of photos, lots and lots....

We went up a light house, "No Problem". Wasn't a big one, but I had never been up a lighthouse ever. And as soon as we entered the building, Mr. Samiran had a question ready for us, for which, even he didn't have an answer? "Why aren't there any lifts in Lighthouses?" As if, he had been to all the light-houses of the world, and had made his amazing and non-existent discovery/theory.

While we were walking on the beaches (don't remember the name), something bit me on my foot. I though I would have stepped on some stone. But the pain didn't go away after I moved. When I looked down, I almost fainted. A strange creature was holding onto my left toe. "Illlo Bopalo", I shouted, and hit that thing with Lt. Parida's helmet. After 2 blows and lot's of shouting, it let go of my toe. The other's were enjoying this scene, quitely from a distance. Only Kunal came running towards me, I was bleeding. This is what he did after that.

Damn it, he came running with his camera, to take a picture. Huh, Can you see the blood on it's teeth?

They didn't even care to take me to a hospital. Not even a tetanus, what I had in mind was an anti-venom. Though, none of us knew what creature it was (poisonous/not).

While returning, Parida said, since you were bitten, let me drive. I said I was okay and I was in a condition to drive. But how could I ignore Lieutenant Parida's orders!!!! I finally gave in.

Second post of 2010

2010-01-15T19:19:00.001+05:30

Hello All,
This is my second post of 2010. I don't have a topic for today's blog. I am writing this because Kunal, who is in Gurgaon, has recently shifted to a new place. So, he hasn't got a network connection yet. And that Reliance guy, who had promised him of giving him a Hi-Speed data card has eloped with Kunal's 500 INR. Hahahaha, that means, I have got some more time to write a few more blogs, and start this new year a few posts ahead.

Pole Position Kunal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010 : Happy New Year

2010-01-06T23:38:00.001+05:30

New Year was good. Celebrations went on as planned. But I missed "3 Idiots" show, thanks to Bangalore's unpredictable weather. As soon as I stepped out in the open, it started pouring heavily. The roads were flooded with water. And the auto-walas, as usual, turned down all my requests to take me to the theatre where my friends were waiting.

And in office, I had to make a call. An interview, can you believe it? On 31st Dec, at 5:00 pm. Crap...

At night, Sinha, Vishal, Kunal and me assembled at my room, and we had a small party. That was all. :) :)

Old Year Celebrations - Contd....

2009-12-31T02:13:00.001+05:30

So, we reached Lt. Ritesh's room at around 12:00 noon. The first thing I had in mind was to take a bath. Payyanur was hot, at-least by my standards. Samiran dubbed it as pleasant and comfortable while I was sweating away.

Now we were hungry. So , we proceeded towards the mess, the Navy Mess. Lt. Ritesh, as usual, had to wear formals. Hahah, and I was forced to wear shoes. :( On the way, we noticed the bar. The mere sight of it drove away all the hunger. It was ROYALE. Really, it was a great experience. We didn't spend much time in the bar, since the mess would be closing soon, Ritesh had warned us. After we finished our drinks, we headed towards the mess for our lunch, finally. Oh, I didn't mention that we didn't have the time to get something to eat before that, since last night's dinner.

Nothing much to say about the food. It was okay. After that, Ritesh wanted to take us around the campus. Though I was feeling tired and sleepy, I thought we should have a look around INS Zamorin. May be this would be a chance of a lifetime. We clicked some photos. Near the flags, in-front of a helicopter. We had saved the MIG for Kunal. :)

Well, we couldn't manage to get a Digicam. So, till Kunal arrived, we had to use our cell phones.

During all this, we were getting constant updates from Kunal. "I am here", "I reached this place", "How far is it from here", "It's very hot". :)

To be continued.... Kunal's arrival....

Old year celebrations

2009-12-30T11:34:00.001+05:30

Don't worry, I will also celebrate the new year. But for the year that was ending, we had lot's of things to celebrate about. Samiran and 1 packed our bags to started off for Payyanur, Kerala.

Our destination: INS Zamorin
Our contact : Lt. Ritesh Kumar Parida

Well, as every Bangalorean knows well, friday evening is the worst time to travel to Majestic(Bangalore's Bus Terminus) or the Airport. It always seems like Bangalore is being evacuated. What I had heard from Samiran, was today, there were around 1200 buses scheduled to take people out of Bangalore.

We had a bus ticket, and it was a private one. We had made sure that we didn't get the back seat, since we knew that the road to Payyanur was full of pot-holes, so big, that they could have been called wells. But, when we entered the bus, and started searching for our seat number, we realized that it was going to be the worst bus journey ever. Backseat, and 6 people jammed up. There was a couple among the six. To make matters worse, the girl was fat, and so was Samiran. The girl took up more than 1/6th of the space, but since she was with her boyfriend, we couldn't have done anything. We were heading towards Kerala, and had no plans of being admitted into a government hospital, and miss the Christmas and the New Year celebrations.

We managed to sleep in a posture that was not even close to sitting. But it was fun, and we laughed all the way. Samiran's head hit the roof twice, and mine, once. We had a train to catch next morning from Mangalore at 9:00 am. And this bus was supposed to reach there at 6:00 am. But, due to the mass movement of the public, it was late by 3 hours. We thought we missed the train. But thanks to Indian Railways, the train was late by an hour and we reached Payyanur in another 1:30 hours.

To reach Payyanur, it took us almost 12 hours, which was way beyond our calculations. Well, here comes the best part. Kunal, who made up his last minute plans, decided to celebrate with us and Lt. Ritesh. I guess, I wouldn't do justice to him, if I were to describe anything about his trip. I would be stealing away his content for one more blog, now that the competition is neck to neck. And of-course, we will get to hear "Right from the Horse's Mouth" :).... To make it short, he reached Payyanur after a 48 hour journey from Gurgaon, via Mumbai, Goa, Mangalore etc.

When we finally reached Payyanur, we were welcomed by Lt. Ritesh Kumar Parida, in a black sorts, shoes, and a t-shirt. At the sight of him, Samiran and I couldn't control our laughter. He hadn't changed a bit.

There is more to mention about this trip. To be continued....

Post from Android Phone

2009-11-28T01:42:00.002+05:30

Well, Blogaway seems to be working fine. This is an app for the android phones which is basically a blogger client. I don't know when I will get an Android phone and start using my own application. :)

I wish all my friends out there, who blog quite a bit, get Android phones for themselves and then they can use my application, free of-course to blog and blog and blog.

It's quite a full fledged application, so you can do almost everything. :)

Enough boasting. Gud nite. CAT tomorrow. :(

Google - Conquer the World????

2009-11-23T13:13:00.001+05:30

I shiver at the very thought. When I imagine this, although, it might not happen in the foreseeable future, still, it seems that it's not that far, and I can see it happening very soon. Soon enough, that frightens me.

We all know Google, since it's beginning, has been growing by leaps and bounds, (we should find a new word that describes such a kind of growth). Google is slowly penetrating every part of our lives. It's everywhere. And I guess, almost 80% of what we do on the Internet, is being recorded by the Google Servers. It's scary. It's like a big big directory of information on each and every person on the planet, dead or alive, why only people, they have records of each and every kind of organism that ever existed. Well, in a nutshell, all our data is distributed, and exists in the cloud.

All our mails, contacts, and more recently, Google has started saving our documents and pictures (with Docs, and Picassa), then they have our calendar, our notes, then our music playlists, our credit card numbers(Google Checkout), our addresses (needed when you sign in for Google Adsense or Checkout), all of our blogs, and what not. Now they have the Android phones with their OS running on it. So, all our phone calls and messages, can, practically be recorded by Google.

Google's motivation and ambition is to provide free and opens source technology to everyone. Well, for all these service Google earns a whooping sum, which I can't even imagine, through Ads. Well, if you think all this as a favorable ecosystem in which, with Google's technologies, our lives are getting better and better, it's a fairy tale, and we will only hope for the future to pass by us and present us the new world with Google's services.

I am sure, Google, has so much power now with it, that it could change the whole world. In George Orwell's, 1984, we see a world where the Big Brother has the only authority, and he changes the history, the past, the present and the future at will. Just because, he has all the resources of the planet, that he can manipulate. Imagine, if some day, Google really has this kind of power, I am sure, Google will really take over "Planet Earth". Afterall, power is what everyone wants.

I don't say that Google is aiming for it, but somewhere right in the Google's campus, there might be a psychopath, who dreams of conquering the whole world.

Last days in Chennai

2009-11-21T22:45:00.001+05:30

:) So, finally, I would be leaving Chennai soon. After almost about 6 months, I have decided to move back to Bangalore. The last 6 months had been quite difficult for me. Apart from the heat, there were a hell lot of other reasons that made me feel all alone in this whole world. No direct flights to Bhubaneswar, my hostel was in the outskirts of the city, had to go at-least 1 km to get anything. Recently, my Manager told me that I was living in a place which doesn't come under Chennai. So, theoretically, for the past 6 months I have been staying in some small town adjacent to the metropolitan city, though, the local business thought otherwise, and have been overcharging me for everything. :@

Well, in just about 20 days, I will be leaving. My room mate is searching for a new partner. He was a good fellow. So were my colleague and my manager at office.

And it stopped raining...

2009-11-09T19:24:00.002+05:30

Just a few days ago, I was complaining about Chennai's weather. It was getting unbearable for me to survive here. The moment I reached home from office, the first thing I would do was to switch on the AC. Not to mention, the electricity bill for each month would be always directly proportional to the temperature, raised to the power of temperature itself.

On friday evening, I had plans of going to Bangalore to escape from the heat. But I guess, the rain gods had other plans. After I reached office, it started raining heavily. I was not aware of how Chennai's weather will be at this time of the year. I had a train to catch at 11:30pm (note: station was around 35kms from my place). I thought, by that time the clouds would have poured down all their drops. So, I got busy with my work. Ironically, I am currently working on a weather forecasting application. :) When I configured this application to show Chennai's weather forecast, something seemed to be out of place. It said, "Thunderstorms" for the next 5 days. Well, last week, it said the same thing, and that week was quite hot.

It was 5 in the evening, and I prepared to pack my things. Then my colleague stopped me and asked me to look outside. It was still raining heavily. Damn. I hadn't done my packing yet for Bangalore. I would get late if the rain didn't stop, I thought. After 30 minutes, I decided to leave. By the time I entered the open skies, it was only drops here and there. I reached my room without getting wet. :) Lucky me....

Switched on the AC, oh, that had become a habit, it wasn't needed. After 5 minutes or so, switched it off. Started packing. Got ready, to travel 35kms.

At about 7 in the evening, the rains came back. It must have been the heaviest rainfall that I would ever experience in Chennai. And it didn't stop until Monday morning. I had called up around 4-5 taxi services, but they were over-booked. The bus stop is 1km away from my house and there was no way that I could have walked that distance in this downpour. I had never thought that I would not be able to step out of my room because of rains. Lost hopes at around 9:30pm.

And now, on Monday morning, finally "It stopped raining". 2 and a half day, locked up inside my room, and above all, India loosing the series, it was certainly a test of my patience. My room mate was lucky to leave for Hyderabad at the right time. I slept a lot though. And for food, I used to call up a restaurant. The delivery boy would be cursing me. Ahh... Need to re-plan for the Bangalore trip again, next week.

Please don't rain next week. Please please please

2nd November - One more birthday

2009-11-01T23:09:00.001+05:30

It's Happy Birthday for someone.

Happy Birthday.

As far as I can remember, birthday bashes used to be very violent for me while I was in college. It always used to be fun, with so many people running in at the last second before the clock struck 12:00.

I was not exposed to such kind of violence before I stepped into the holy land of Kurukshetra. I didn't even know that there was such a custom on earth. Well, the first year, I escaped somehow. But, the next 3 years, apart from the kicking and beating, people pouncing on my debit card, I, kind of got used to this. Now, for me and most of my friends, it is a feeling of pride to be kicked on the back, without crying out loud. Well, after the beating, many people just walk away, boasting, "Dude, You could have done better. Wait for your b'day and I will show you how is it done".

To name a few, well, Sidharth, the greatest boaster in such a situation. And then, there were people who eagerly wait for the guy's b'day who had landed the most dreadful kick on his, and then there were people who just did some foot exercise to get some midnight snacks, and for some it was a party where one could get some free smokes. College life can never be forgotten, I miss those birthdays. :)

2nd October Day

2009-10-02T20:59:00.002+05:30

Well, 2nd October, a national holiday, but dry day !!!!!

Many people look forward for this day, so that they can sit at home, enjoy TV, sleep, and chill out. Well, liquor shops would have seen increase in their daily sales if this day had not been a dry day. Perhaps, this holiday would have been better for some people, had it been a NORMAL HOLIDAY, instead of a DRY DAY (HOLIDAY).

So what about Mahatma Gandhi? Well, I remember a friend of mine who just can’t stand the utterance of his name. I have also met people who admire him and follow him. There is so much fuss about this day on the news channels, about why he is not remembered by the youth of today, why people don’t follow wh at he said. Mr. Tharoor has tweets saying that “We should work on this day.”

It’s not only this day, our Independence day, Republic day, and so on are not being celebrated as some people would like us to, these days.

Why am I writing about this today? Well, I had to write something today, and so I picked up this topic. I was happy that Google had put a picture of The Father of our Nation on it’s homepage. I am also happy that it’s a holiday.

I am sad that India is out of the Champions Trophy. I am sad because I am still living in the Furnace city of India, “Chennai”, :-)

Chennai-Hyderabad-Bhubaneswar

2009-09-19T14:47:00.001+05:30

Airports are a fun place. Before taking off from Chennai, I was wondering how would I wait for my connecting flight from Hyderabad for 5 hours. I always wondered how people managed to wait for so long at the airports. The most painful thing being at an airport is that "No smoking". What a relief when a friend told me that there was a smoking room in Hyderabad airport, I was delighted. But then, I didn't have any cigarettes with me. I had around 5 hours to waste before my next flight was scheduled. I could have easily gone out of the airport, roamed the city, smoked a few and drunk some beer.

Well, those things are history, so I saved up so many calories, the local temperature was 30 degrees. So, I bought myself a McDonald's Happy Meal, which cooled me down (the Coke). There was a guy, who bought a Coke, and after one sip, realized that it was Sprite. I thought I would be witnessing a murder today. But the McD people replaced his Cold drink with his favorite brand without any fuss, probably sensing some danger, and that was enough to settle him down. I think, this can be a good advertising idea. :)

There was a kid, who wasn't too happy to see his food at the McD, but was just overwhelmed to see the toy that came with that meal.

I finished mine, and walked out. Now what???

Well, I walked towards the Departures, and tried to enter. The guard said that I was too early. He said that, he would allow me in, but later I will not be allowed to come out. I thought, for a moment, and inside the glass doors, I saw an advert saying, 45 minutes of free wi-fi. That was like, the TOY with the Value Meal. I said, I just had my lunch and I wouldn't need to come out.

Opened my laptop, and tried connecting to the wireless. Wasn't easy, but I always figure out these things. So, in 10 minutes I was logged into GTalk. I started conversation with a few, and after sometime, none of them were replying. Well, I have internet, but now, I can't chat, a dearth of online friend, where have they gone??? May be a bar, today's saturday, one of them has gone for a walk to the beach. :)

So, I thought, why not write a blog. It's been quite some time that I had written. So, I guess, I have used up the whole 45minutes of free braodband, and now I have to take out my Reliance NetConnect Broadband+.

Hold on guys, brb.

Global Warming and Local Warming

2009-08-07T20:21:00.002+05:30

Everybody is gearing up to face “Global Warming”. And right now, I am sitting in this part of the world, where I guess I am not equipped to face the “Local warming”. What it takes to start this “Local Warming”, well, just switch off the fan/ac, and all the liquid inside my body starts oozing out from every pore of my skin. But, the others, I have noticed, seem to manage to withstand the heat, and keep the sweat inside their bodies. And when someone sees me all wet, I am sure they must be wondering if it had rained from where I was coming.

Weekends…

2009-07-26T23:37:00.002+05:30

It’s been quite long since I had my last post published. And it seems that this year also, I will lose to my dear friend. Though there is not enough time remaining for the year to come to an end, I haven’t given up yet. So, here’s another one.

These weekends in Chennai are probably not those kind that anybody would want to experience ever. I am all alone, in a room, with the AC turned on, a TV switched to some unknown channel (tamil), and my laptop. Since this morning, I haven’t stepped out of my room for even a second. I got my breakfast, lunch and dinner ordered and delivered over the phone. A few phone calls, actually, quite a few, some sleep, Bachna Ae Haseeno (recap), some coding, some chatting and of course, some washing.

That was hw my weekend went. And I believe, as long as I am in Chennai, I will spend the weekends just like this one. I guess, this is the worst way to spend your weekends. I don’t want to go on like this for long. I want a change, ALREADY!!!!!

I want to visit the lovely beaches of Chennai, but haven’t chalked out my plans yet. Don’t know if I will ever strike it off from my things-to-do list. :)