Impressions . . . . Of A Confused Mind

2009-09-16T01:12:00.000-07:00

2009-07-12T13:00:00.000-07:00

"Recession started in US, and it ended in Pimple Saudagar".

Saw this sign at a builders office today. I thought the builders are trying to mock the Software engineers. Reading this was like getting screwed, Royally!

There are no signs of recovery as such, except for some news about a few companies giving increments and no news about more layoffs. So no bad news is actually a good news.

There are many news about people canceling their flat bookings, but the builders are still adamant on the exorbitant rates. Today had been to a site office in Pimple Saudagar. The quote that I received for a 3-bhk was about 50+ Lakh Rupees. Common give me a break.. half a crore for a flat in pimple saudagar.. three years back no one could have thought this in their wildest dreams. This is what the IT has done to the real estate market.
The most amazing thing about this is that except two all other flats have already been booked. Yeah.. it did make me think that the statement might really be true "Recession started in US, and it ended in Pimple Saudagar".

Ironic ?

2009-07-09T09:46:00.001-07:00

Brilliant !!

2009-07-07T21:57:00.000-07:00

Brilliant!!
It is the month of August, on the shores of the Black Sea . It is raining, and the little town looks totally deserted. It is tough times, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.
Suddenly, a rich tourist comes to town.
He enters the only hotel, lays a 100 Euro note on the reception counter, and goes to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to choose one.
The hotel proprietor takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the butcher.
The butcher takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the pig grower.
The pig grower takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the supplier of his feed and fuel.
The supplier of feed and fuel takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the town's prostitute that in these hard times, gave her "services" on credit.
The hooker runs to the hotel, and pays off her debt with the 100 Euro note to the hotel proprietor to pay for the rooms that she rented when she brought her clients there.
The hotel proprietor then lays the 100 Euro note back on the counter so that the rich tourist will not suspect anything.
At that moment, the tourist comes down after inspecting the rooms, and takes his 100 Euro note, after saying that he did not like any of the rooms, and leaves town.
No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now without debt, and looks to the future with a lot of optimism.... .
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the United States Government is doing business today.

Gmail shortcuts

2009-06-28T04:19:00.001-07:00

I tend to use the gmail shortcuts a lot. here is a list of all the gmail shortcuts link

Golden oldies

2009-06-28T04:08:00.001-07:00

check out this video and all the related videos that show up on you tube.. quite nostalgic ;)

2009-06-26T13:12:00.000-07:00

2009-06-26T12:34:00.000-07:00

Was channel surfing today and saw kishor Biyani talking about the budget 09 expectations, he said every 200 sq ft of retail business creates two jobs on the front end and one job on the backend. Add to that jobs created in the manufacturing / production and transportation industry. Isn't it amazing that 34 percent of the Indian GDP is generated by the retail industry.
In recent five to six years the super markets have seen a growth in leaps and bounds. People are just buying clothes, apparels and what not. All the shopping malls are flooded any day of the year. I just wonder what made it happen? Is it just the presentation offered by the malls? Or people were already buying stuff but now all the shopping is centralized and all the crowd is directed to the malls and we see the rush in the malls.
There must be many small shop owners who must be facing the heat, many have already adopted to the change India is observing but it the potential of the Indian buyer just amazes me and I wonder how come no one tried to tap it before?

R.I.P. MJ

2009-06-26T11:52:00.000-07:00

Ping!

2009-04-09T04:00:00.000-07:00

Its been a long long time since my last post and last promise to keep this space updated.
So here goes one more futile try.
This haven't changed much in life which are worth a mention here.
Its a pity that this year I was not able to follow a single F1 race till now. Hope the Ferrari's start scoring good soon.

Why is India still a developing country

2008-06-29T23:42:00.000-07:00

Amongst all the useless mails that get forwarded everyday there are a few which strike a difference and deserve attention. This is one of them.
Read the story below:

Ant & Grasshopper
========================================================
The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The Grasshopper thinks the Ant is a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away.

Come winter ,the Ant is warm and well fed. The Grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

====================================================

Indian Version

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The Grasshopper thinks the Ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering Grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the Ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering Grasshopper next to a video of the Ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor Grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the Ant's house.
Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other Grasshoppers demanding that Grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter.
Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticizes the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the Grasshopper.

The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the Grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance) .

Opposition MPs stage a walkout. Left parties call for 'Bharat Bandh' in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry.

CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among Ants and Grasshoppers.

BJP wants Sonia Gandhi's apology.

Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath '.

Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the ' Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act' [POTAGA], with effect from the beginning of the winter.

Arjun Singh makes 'Special Reservation ' for Grasshoppers in Educational Institutions & in Government Services.

The Ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes,it's home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the Grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.

Arundhati Roy calls it ' A Triumph of Justice'.
Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice '.
CPM calls it the ' Revolutionary Resurgence of the Downtrodden '
Koffi Annan invites the Grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.

.
.

.

.

.

..

Many years later...

The Ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi-billion dollar company in Silicon Valley .

100s of Grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India ...

As a result of loosing lot of hard working Ants and feeding the Grasshoppers, India is still a developing country!!!

India's Most Impotent Government Ever!!

2008-05-28T22:53:00.000-07:00

I haven't seen a more impotent government in this country ever. There are crisis after crisis in this country and our Prime Minister is not even "allowed" or capable of issuing statements to console the people of the country.
There were blasts in Jaipur, the Gujjar agitation and now the petrol crisis.

More important issue which country is facing today is petroleum crisis , which no media or news paper is covering . They are more busy in increasing their TRP by showing some MMS or taking interviews of neighbour servants of Arushi. Today I found two petrol pumps near my house were closed. In pune my friend told me no petrol pump is giving more than 100/- petrol. Govt who was quick in taking loan waiver decision is not able to take decision regarding petrol , because there vote bank calculation will go down. We don't require govt who is more party centric rather than nation centric. All this act is nothing but treason against Nation.

Everyone knows that the crude rates in the international arena are sky rocketing, so why wait? Raise the prices to a affordable rate for the common man and cut the import duties and stop the mayhem.

Think of an elderly person in need of emergency medical care, but no Diesel in the ambulance, so he can't reach the hospital.
A common man will be affected in the all the worst possible ways.
One more thing I don't understand is that, why doesn't the media emphasize on this matter? This is more important than what happened with Arushi in Noida and it is more important than Abhi - Ash walking bare foot to sidhivinayak.

Taking whole nation on Ransom for own personal interest is nothing less than treason. Its like saying we are impotent to participate in the growth of Indian economy , but we want best pie of growth. Prosperous India doesn't require impotent people
If the impotent government continue the way they are that day is not far when we all will have to go to work on Foot.

Fractured ?

2008-05-27T04:39:00.000-07:00

The plight of Gowda and son explained at its best by Sudhir Tailang of ‘The Asian Age’
Pic courtesy: The Asian Age

Dilbert Fast

2008-05-27T02:45:00.000-07:00

If your day starts with a daily dose of comic strip, like me, you might not be so happy with the redesign of the new dilbert site. Lots of flash and lots of images. But I loved what Scott Adams has done, just for the people like me, he has come up with a fast site, no non sense just dilbert :)

check here Dilbert-Fast

2008-05-27T01:48:00.001-07:00

"You have heard of planes going missing in flight, but have you heard of a jet going missing at the airport? That's exactly what happened at the new Bangalore International Airport on Monday."
Read more on this here.
This is mind boggling. Reminds me of the motorcycle stands at the movie theater's. They should have something like alarms which we have in the cars, flick a button on the remote key and the alarm goes off. Just a thought ;)

Where does the hard earned money go??

2008-05-23T00:07:00.000-07:00

check this out: CNN- IBN reports:

"The Government on Friday hiked the provisions for debt waiver for farmers by a hefty 20
per cent.The debt waiver amount has been raised from Rs 60,000 crore to Rs 71,680 crore
in a move that would enlarge the scope for relief for peasants.
The decision to increase the debt waiver amount, announced in the union budge for
2008-09, was taken at the meeting of the cabinet presided over by Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh.

Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi has been suggesting enlargement of the scheme to
include more farmers.Congress President Sonia Gandhi also had earlier hinted at more
concession for farmers, post the Union Budget."

Now you know where the hard earned money that we pay in taxes is going.

City above all?

2008-05-22T02:15:00.000-07:00

Was this not the theme of the play right from the beginning?
so why complain?

CNN IBN- Reports:

"It seems that the IPL has succeeded in developing city loyalties. After a thriller of a game

between Mohali Kings XI and Mumbai Indians on Wednesday — which Kings XI won by just one run — Mohali captain, Yuvraj Singh took a pot-shot at the Mumbai crowd for being openly hostile towards his team. But is this a phenomena restricted to Mumbai?"

Back Again

2008-05-22T01:59:00.000-07:00

Its been ages since I have last blogged. I had made an at coming back to blogging few months back but unfortunately that failed royally.
I am back now ;)
Will try to keep this space updated with atleast one blog entry per day. Lets see how far this attempt goes.

2007-09-14T11:25:00.000-07:00

Read this... I bet you can't stop Laughing... :)

"Bomber" Wells, a spin bowler and great character, played for
Gloucestershire and Nottinghamshire.

He used to bat at No.11 since one couldn't bat any lower. Of him, they
used
to paraphrase Compton's famous words describing and equally inept
runner.

When he shouts 'YES' for a run, it is merely the basis for further
negotiations!"

Incidentally, Compton was no better. John Warr said, of Compton "He was
the
only person who would call you for a run and wish you luck at the same
time."

Anyway, when Wells played for Gloucestershire, he had an equally
horrendous
runner as the No.10.

During a county match, horror of horrors.......both got injured.

Both opted for runners when it was their turn to bat.

Bomber played a ball on the off, called for a run, forgot he had a
runner
and ran himself. Ditto at the other end.

In the melee, someone decided that a second run was on.

Now we had all four running.

Due to the confusion and constant shouts of "YES" "NO", eventually, all
of

them ran to the same end.

Note - at this point in time, the entire ground is rolling on the
floor
laughing their behinds out. One of the fielders - brave lad - stops
laughing
for a minute, picks the ball and throws down the wicket at the other
end.

Umpire Alec Skelding looks very seriously at the four and calmly
informs
them "One of you buggers is out. I don't know which. You decide and
inform

the bloody scorers!"

Orkut Virus

2007-07-09T00:29:00.001-07:00

A new virus not so new infact called W32.USBWorm is preventing users from accessing sites like Mozilla Firefox, Orkut and YouTube.
I read about it today. May be this is the reason why you are not being able to access orkut and your boss is ;)
People, who use Orkut are worst affected. They get a link saying something about Orkut. Once they click on that link, the virus affects the system immediately. When the user tries to get into Orkut, a pop-up message is flashed, "Orkut has banned you fool. The administrators didn't write this program guess who did?" That followed by a devil's laugh, which closes the web page window.
Unfortunately, the powerful anti-virus software like Norton, Avast and McAfee failed to detect the virus.
Most users had to format their hard disk to get rid of the virus. Some people used Windows XP's System Restore facility to terminate the virus. You can follow the given solutions to remove the Virus from your system:
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to open Task Manager.
Then click on the Process tab.
Delete the SVChost.exe file that comes with system's user name.
Ignore the warning messages while doing that.
Go to C:/Heap41a using RUN option and delete the contents of the folder.
- Now you will be able to use Orkut without any hassles.

woh dekho software engg ja raha hai.

2007-06-19T23:32:00.000-07:00

Got this poem in the mail today. Its realistic and most of the software engineers will agree to whatever the poet is saying :)

Apne Project ke bojh tale daba jaa raha hai,
Wo dekho ek Software engineer ja raha hai,

zindagi se hara hua hai,
par "Bugs" se haar nahi manata,

Apne application ki ek ek line ise rati hui hai,
par aaj kaun se rang ke moje pehne hain ,
ye nahi janata,

din par din ek excel file banata ja raha hai
Wo dekho ek Software engineer ja raha hai,

das hazaar line ke code main error dhoond lete hain lekin,

majboor dost ki ankhon ki nami dikhayi nahi deti,
pc pe hazaar windows khuli hain,

par dil ki khidki pe koi dastak sunayi nahi deti,
satuday-sunday nahata nahi, week days ko naha raha hai,

Wo dekho ek Software engineer ja raha hai,
Coding karte karte pata hi nahi chala,

bugs ki priority kab maa-baap se high ho gayi,
kitabon main gulab rakhne wala , cigerette ke dhuyen main kho gaya,

dil ki zameen se armaanon ki vidayi ho gayi,
weekends pe daroo peke jo jashna mana raha hai,

Wo dekho ek Software engineer ja raha hai,

maze lena ho iske to pooch lo,
"Salary Increment" ki party kab dila rahe ho,

hansi udana ho to pooch lo,
"Onsite" kab ja rahe ho?

wo dekho onsite se laute team-mate ki chocolates kha raha hai,
Wo dekho ek Software engineer ja raha hai,

kharche badh rahe hain,
baal kam ho rahe hain,
KRA ki date ati nahi,
Income Tax ke sitam ho rahe hain,

lo phir se bus choot gayi, Auto se aa raha hai,
Wo dekho ek Software engineer ja raha hai,

Pizza gale se nahi utarta,
to "Coke" ke sahare nigal liya jata hai,
office ki "Thali" dekh munh hai bigadta,
maa ke hath ka wo khana baar roz yaad ata hai,

"Sprout bhel" bani hai phir bhi, free "Evening Snacks" kha raha hai,
Wo dekho ek Software engineer ja raha hai,

aapne ab tak li hongi bahut si chutikiya,
Software engg. ke jivan ka sach batati ye akhri kuch panktiyan,

hazaron ki tankhwah wala, company ki karodon ki jeb bharta hai,
software engg. wahi ban sakta hai, jo lohe ka jigar rakhta hai,

hum log jee jee ke marte hain , zindagi hai kuch aisi,
ek fauj ki naukri, doosri software engg. ki , dono ek jaisi,

is kavita ka har shabd mere dil ki gehrayi se aa raha hai,
Wo dekho ek Software engineer ja raha hai...

Update

2007-06-16T23:39:00.000-07:00

Wow this seems to be my longes break from blogging world.
The excuses are the same. Lack of time, loads of neck deep work and blah blah blah...

Lots of stuff happening in life.
on carrier front - Got promoted. So much more responsibilites and much more work :)
on personal front - Getting more lazy day by day.

Hope to keep this space updated more often. Do keep watchin.

Till then check out this cool kid Yuvi from Bangalore. He's done some interesting work just at the age of 16. Analysing Matt Cutts

BCCI jokes....too good!

2007-03-07T23:08:00.000-08:00

As we know….. Now BCCI is giving the salary to players according to the players ' performance.

Drat... These people show this all the time and keep insulting us..

Sir, they are fans, they want their ticket amount refunded if the team doesn't perform well..

Brother, anyways you gonna get out after making 10-15 runs and get only a % of your salary. Why don't you get out now at 0. I will make sure you get your full amount...

Hey buddy, try and take this catch or else your salary 15k is gone...

Friends, I am gonna resign from this captaincy post. Even if I lose the toss they are frightening me that they won't give me my salary...

Sir, I think I am gonna take VRS and become an umpire like you. Even without making runs or taking wickets I will get my salary right...

Message of the Millennium

2007-02-13T01:28:00.000-08:00

With a pile of 300 résumés on his desk and a need to pick someone quickly,
my boss told me to make calls on the bottom 50 and toss the rest.

"Throw away 250 résumés?" I asked, shocked.
"What if the best candidates are in there?"
"You have a point," he said.

"But then again, I don't need people with bad luck here."

- Becky Horowitz(Reader's digest)

2007-02-12T22:52:00.000-08:00

A post after a really long time.
The project that I was working on for last seven months is about to go live next month and there is nothing more left to do in it. so lots of free time at hand. So planning to utilize this time reading stuff and trying to get back to blogging circles. Lets see how it goes from here.

The month of March is going to be as action packed as ever..
First Grand Prix of the season with no Micheal Schumacher. All new cars and new teams and lots of new faces to watch for.
on the same day we have India playing their first ODI for the world cup 07.

Indian Cricket

2006-12-07T04:01:00.000-08:00

I don't have a good feeling posting this joke.. but its quite relevent:

Vikram was at school this morning in the outskirts and the teacher asked

all the children what their fathers did for a living.

All the typical answers came out, Fireman, Policeman, Salesman,

Businessman, Captain of Industry etc, but

Vikram was being uncharacteristicall y quiet and so the teacher asked

him about his father.

"My father is an exotic dancer in a gay club and takes off all his

clothes in front of other men. Sometimes if the offer is really good,

he'll go out with a man, rent a cheap hotel room and let them sleep with

him."

The teacher quickly set the other children some work and took little

Vikram aside to ask him if that was really true.

"No" said Vikram , "He plays cricket for India but I was just too

embarrassed to say."

Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind

2006-11-26T04:13:00.000-08:00

How happy is the blameless vestals's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each prayer accepted, and each wish resigned. !

I had this movie with me since a long time but had never watched it.
Today got a chance to watch it.
Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind!!

Its a bizzarre, complicated and wonderful movie which makes you think. Think deep.

The story line goes like this Joel Barrish (Jim carey) decides to erase the memories of this girlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet) after he discovers that she herself has done the same a week back. While the operation is going on Joel's subconscious realizes that it doesn't want to let go of its memories of Clementine, and so begins a strange labyrinth of fragmented memories, constantly changing surroundings, and mental materializations of Clementine. The movie is like a very bizarre dream, when you're trying to interact with people, but they're not responding, and you shout and try to get their attention but they don't seem to notice.
From deep within the recesses of his brain, Joel attempts to escape the procedure.
However, along his erasing process, Joel becomes astonished when he finds that he still loves Clementine and he does not want to lose her, fighting for keeping the memories of their moments together instead.

Its complicated.

The question is would u want to erase all ur past romances.. bitter memoirs apart but what about the good ones? Are they not supposed to stay with u? Always...!?

Driving Test

2006-11-20T02:56:00.000-08:00

No wonder if this becomes a criteria to get a driving lisence...

Google Earth aid for Maharashtra farmers

2006-10-10T21:46:00.000-07:00

Google earth has empowered the common farmers in Maharashtra in their fight against the governement. Link.

2006-10-08T06:49:00.000-07:00

when the frequency of posting is reduced to this extent it becomes really difficult to write anything. Just like in the old hindi movies where in the hero tries to write a love letter to his lover and while doing so he fills up the whole room with scrap paper with just one line written on it.
Similarly I tried to blog about things but since last week atleast four times I wrote something and deleted it.. kept the blogger window open so that I wud write something latter, but in vain.
whatever...

Today, After planning/trying/thinking for last six months, after making many resolutions year after year, at last I managed to enter the sacred room in our society call the "Gym" :)

Yeah today was the first day at the gym. In the morning somehow the thought came to my mind, how ever late it becomes, however crowded the place is I will go to the gym.. and to my surprise I did ...

In the past I have given hell lot of excuses to myself for not going there.. some of them were
- I will have to buy special clothes for it...
- The place is might be so crowdy...
- in the morning I used to say I'll go in the evening and when the evening came I found my self so bored after travelling 15 kms from office that... abbe yaar chod na ... kaun jaega ab..
the list continues..

so the first day was quite good.. I had my own personal trainner with me ;)
My brother in law. He was quite into body building an stuff till last year..

The place was not at all crowded except for two people... one of them was quite a person. probably a regular. He gave me quite a look.. I think he must have though.. Ye zingur bhi abhi gymn karega..
yeah this is what I always think that people must be thinking... looking at my slim n slender posture... whatever....

so the most important thing is how long does it go from here.. lets see..

Updates Updates Updates

2006-09-25T21:41:00.000-07:00

Its been like ages since I have blogged.
The reason being horrible workload. Since last one month there were a hell lots of things to deal with in the office. And the hard work has paid at the end. The project is on time and we are about to release the beta. Also I have been awarded the "Star employee For the month" ;)

Now I plan to join the blogging world again after this un-called-for, "Break".

Lots of terrible news for indian cricket fans and F1 fans.

Micheal Schumacher has announced his retirement. I really want him to win his last season.. and his chances are very bright because of the unfortunate failure of Alonso's car in the last race.

In the deciding match between India and Austrailia it was "Fightback or Flightback" situation for India and the Indians chose to take the Flightback. It was a pathetic performance.
The only best part in the whole series was the comeback of the little master.
I really hope that he continue his form and the others join his club.

Lots of things to write but I need to hold my horses back and get back to work.

Have a great Day !!

Why Testing Is Important

2006-08-27T23:04:00.000-07:00

In March 1992, a man living in Newtown near Boston, Massachusetts,
received a bill for his as yet unused credit card stating that he owed
$0.00. He ignored it and threw it away.

In April, he received another and threw that one away too.

The following month, the credit card company sent him a very nasty note
stating they were going to cancel his card if he didn't send them $0.00
by return of post. He called them and talked to them; they said it was a
computer error and told him they'd take care of it.

The following month, our hero decided that it was about time that he
tried out the troublesome credit card figuring that if there were
purchases on his account it would put an end to his ridiculous
predicament. However, in the first store that he produced his credit
card in payment for his purchases, he found that his card had been
cancelled.

He called the credit card company who apologized for the computer error
once again and said that they would take care of it. The next day he got
a bill for $0.00 stating that payment was now overdue. Assuming that,
having spoken to the credit card company only the previous day, the
latest bill was yet another mistake, he ignored it, trusting that the
company would be as good as their word and sort the problem out.

The next month, he got a bill for $0.00 stating that he had 10 days to
pay his account or the company would have to take steps to recover the
debt.

Finally giving in, he thought he would play the company at their own
game and mailed them a cheque for $0.00. The computer duly processed his
account and returned a statement to the effect that he now owed the
credit card company nothing at all.

A week later, the man's bank called him asking him what he was doing
writing a cheque for $0.00. After a lengthy explanation, the bank
replied that the $0.00 cheque had caused their cheque processing
software to fail.

The bank could now not process ANY cheques from ANY of their customers
that day because the cheque for $0.00 was causing the bank's computer to
crash.

The following month, the man received a letter from the credit card
company claiming that his cheque had bounced and that he now owed them
$0.00 and unless he sent a cheque by return of post them would be taking
steps to recover the debt.

The man, who had been considering buying his wife a computer for her
birthday, bought her a typewriter instead .............. :)

Source: Email Forward

2006-08-27T07:59:00.000-07:00

This is my second attempt with this template thing. Let me know how you find it..

2006-08-10T01:40:00.000-07:00

Got this in mail...

Thought of sharing with u all............

In the whole of India we drive on the left of the road,

BUT IN PUNE WE DRIVE ON "WHAT " IS LEFT ON THE ROAD !!!!

HOWZZAT !!!.

Rain Rants again..

2006-08-09T21:56:00.000-07:00

Since last two years(1, 2) I am ranting about the rains and the worse conditions of the roads. Things haven't changed much this season. Still I haven't bought a rain coat that I had talked about last year .;)
The roads have gone from bad to worse... but that is altogether another story.
Since last month I have to commute to FC Road to reach my new office. Its a new story everyday. For last six months it was so much convinient to reach office in ten minutes when I was working at Pune IT park in khadki. But I chose to try new things over to convinience..

We take decisions based on the current situations. we think what is the best possible solution to a problem in the current scenario, and at times, latter we boast the decisions taken before. At that time we should not forget the situations in which the decision was made.

Coming back to the rains in the city, yeah now it seems its become a routine.. rains hammering Pune and Mumbai.. but this time, the rain Gods are a bit more enthusiastic than before.

Two weeks back we had been to Panshet. It was great to feel the rains.

I am a avid fan of National Geographic and Discovery Channel. There are many serials like megacities and all where in they show the construction of big structures in the world.

I really feel that the PMC people, the Contractors and all the decision makers should be made to see all these shows. May be there will be some change in their attitudes.
The university bridge is under construction for last many years.. now i have lost the count of years.. its still under construction.
The least .. very least that they could have done was to "Repair " the alternate roads so that the traffic would be somewhat smooth. The condition of the roads is so pathetic that every day while going home I feel that I really hate this country.
Why have we grown so ignorant?
Few months back there was a signature campaign, then there was some website with signature campaign.. lakhs of people signed there.. what was the use? except for increasing the traffic on that site nothing else happend. It was just a means for people to express their anger and frustration and nothing else.
We the people of Pune have come up with one solution, that I see so far.
This is the solution for which we dont have to go to the authorities or to anyone else for help its all upto us to implement it.
The solution to all the problems in pune is to be IGNORANT!!!
Yes right. We have made up our minds that this is the way things are going to be and they are not going to improve any better.. the good days are over.
So now whenever you come across a road between the pot holes, you just remember the good old days when there were some pot holes between good roads.

Great Going Pune!!

2006-08-08T22:59:00.000-07:00

I am experimenting with this template thing.
Thanks to sudeep for suggesting this site for creating templates its quite easy to design the new templates, only requirement is that you need have ample amount of time and good creativity, and from this initial design you can easily guess that I lack both ;)
anyways, if you have any suggestions for me feel free to comment it out.

Blog template blunder

2006-07-26T01:23:00.000-07:00

What a blunder!!
I by mistake deleted my blog template. So had to rever to the orignal one. All my customisation is gone. I'll have to rework on it again.. its very sad.. :(
Could anyone please suggest any good sites to get customised free blog templates to try out?

Blogs Blocked In India

2006-07-18T22:20:00.000-07:00

The Govt of India has decided to block many blog sites as all of the blogspot users might be aware of.
Initially, the block was limited to a few Indian ISPs, but it spread.
I feel its really pathetic.
It makes no sense. Blogs on the equally popular Rediff and Wordpress are accessible; the block can be bypassed; and we still didn’t know the reason behind the ban.
If one had to convey his message he cud do it easily there are many mediums.
Anyways there are many workarounds to this.
Blogspot was blocked in pakistan and china a few months back. So they had come up with the site www.pkblogs.com.
To access my blog u can use this www.pkblogs.com/harshals
just replace "harshals" with the blog name which u want to visit.
The other option is to use firefox extension hhtproxy. This extension overrides the ISP proxy and gets u the pages, but the problem with this is that the images are not visible with this extension.
you can download it from here
http://httproxy.mozdev.org/installation.html
The other option is to use a online RSS Reader like bloglines.

Hope this helps.

Technorati Tags: India, Blogs blocked, pkblogs, proxy, workaround,

What did Materazzi really say?

2006-07-12T05:48:00.000-07:00

What was it that got Zizou so upset?

He called him bald?

Much worse!

He called him a terrorist?

Much worse!

He called his sister a prostitute?

Much worse!

So what did he say?

Well, Materazzi asked Zizou "Bhaiyya hum chlormint kyun khaatey hain?"

So Zizou was compelled to butt him and say "Dobara mat poochna!"

(Via email)

2006-06-30T07:47:00.000-07:00

What a day today is!!
I got relieved of my services today. So I am jobless for next two days, till I join the new company on Monday. So its gonna be a transition weekend.
And what a start!!
We have first quarter Finals today Germany Vs Argentina.
Then there is the last test match between India and westIndies.
We have almost forgetten about the wimbeldon. Yes the wimbeldon is ON too. Mahui is facing Fedrer today and currently fedrer is leading as expected. How amazing it is to see FIFA taking over all the hoopla out of wimbeldon.

Also this weekend we have the Indainopolis Formul1. Last year Indianopolis was in news for all the wrong reasons. Micheal Schumacher had won the race last year.. with only the teams with Bridgestone tyres competing.

Hope we have a great race on sunday.
So all in all Great Action packed weekend.!!

Technorati tags: FIFA, Formula1, Wimbeldon, Cricket

Apart from all the existing clubs, probably most of us belong to the 99 Club

2006-06-30T00:18:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, there lived a King who, despite his luxurious lifestyle,
was neither happy nor content.

One day, the King came upon a servant who was singing happily while he
worked. This fascinated the King; why was he, the Supreme Ruler of the Land,
unhappy and gloomy, while

A lowly servant had so much joy. The King asked the servant, " Why are you
so happy?"

The man replied, " Your Majesty, I am nothing but a servant, but my family
and I don't need too much - just a roof over our heads and warm food to fill
our tummies ."

The king was not satisfied with that reply. Later in the day, he sought the
advice of his most trusted advisor. After hearing the King's woes and the
servant's story, the advisor said, " Your Majesty, I believe that the
servant has not been made part of The 99 Club."

" The 99 Club? And what exactly is that?" the King inquired.

The advisor replied, Your Majesty, to truly know what The 99 Club is,
place 99 Gold coins in a bag and leave it at this servant's doorstep."

When the servant saw the bag, he took it into his house. When he opened the
bag, he let out a great shout of joy... So many gold coins!

He began to count them. After several counts, he was at last convinced that
there were 99 coins. He wondered, " What could've happened to that last gold
coin? Surely, no one would leave 99 coins! "

He looked everywhere he could, but that final coin was elusive. Finally,
exhausted, he decided that he was going to have to work harder than ever to
earn that gold coin and complete his collection.

From that day, the servant's life was changed. He was overworked, horribly
grumpy, and castigated his family for not helping him make that 100th gold
coin. He stopped singing while he worked.

Witnessing this drastic transformation, the King was puzzled. When he sought
his advisor's help, the advisor said, "Your Majesty, the servant has now
officially joined The 99 Club. "

He continued, " The 99 Club is a name given to those people who have
enough to be happy but are never contented, because they're always yearning
and striving for that extra 1 telling themselves: "Let me get that one
final thing and then I will be happy for life ."

We can be happy, even with very little in our lives, but the minute we're
given something bigger and better, we want even more! We lose our sleep, our
happiness, we hurt the people around us; all these as a price for our
growing needs and desires. That's what joining The 99 Club is all about."

Story via Jay

Technorati tags: story, club, philosophy, happyness

Self Appraisal

2006-06-28T05:19:00.000-07:00

Self-Appraisal:

A little boy went into a drug store, reached for a soda carton and pulled it over to the telephone. He climbed onto the carton so that he could reach the buttons on the phone and proceeded to punch in seven digits.

The store-owner observed and listened to the conversation:

The boy asked, "Lady, Can you give me the job of cutting your lawn? The woman replied, "I already have someone to cut my lawn. Lady, I will cut your lawn for half the price of the person who cuts your lawn now." replied boy.

The woman responded that she was very satisfied with the person who was presently cutting her lawn.

The little boy found more perseverance and offered, "Lady, I'll even clean your fence and your sidewalk, so on Sunday you will have the prettiest lawn in all of Palm beach, Florida. Again the woman answered in the negative.

With a smile on his face, the little boy replaced the receiver. The store-owner, who was listening to all, walked over to the boy and said,

"Son... I like your attitude; I like that positive spirit and would like to offer you a job".

The little boy replied, "No thanks, I was just checking my performance with the job I already have. I am the one who is working for that

lady, I was talking to!"

Tehcnorati tags: Humor , Appraisal , performance

2006-06-26T05:50:00.000-07:00

Its not just mumbai or pune where this happens.
check this news here.
The condition of the roads remain more or less similar to what we had a year back. But for sure there are great efforts taken by the authorities to improve the conditions. Still the university road is the most pathetic. The traffic is horrible. I read somewhere the flyovers on the university road are to be completed by october this year except for the univ circle one. From next week on, I'll be using this road to commute to work. The hope that things will be better within a coupla months bring a reliever.

Technorati Tags: Pune roads , Mumbai Rains, Traffic, Roads

The days are already here..

2006-06-23T04:54:00.000-07:00

2006-06-18T11:01:00.000-07:00

The lights were gone today because of the rains so Was watching the movie office space for the nth time today. It was only half way when the lights came back. So now started watching football, brazil vs austrailia.

Office space is one amazing movie. I love to watch it. I feel the closeness to the lead character to a very large extent.

The lead actress is jennifer anniston.(Rachel in friends) I just love her.

There is this scene in the movie, when his neighbour asks him what he would do if he had a million dollars, then he says apart from having 2 chicks at a time, he would do nothing. "Do nothing." how amazing!

I have this idea of doing nothing since a long time in my mind. … how much fun it would be to be doing nothing.

Just imagine that you are doing the coolest thing of all… doing nothing… just sitting on the couch, whatching cricket, football, tennis or forumula one with a beer in one hand and remote in other …

No worries whatsoever. Just sitting there and doing your stuff… doing nothing ….

WOW what a thought. Will it ever become a reality....?

2006-06-12T03:40:00.000-07:00

Now this is scarry link

Change is life !!

2006-06-12T00:30:00.000-07:00

It was on cards since a long time. Since the very first day I felt that i wont be carrying on for a long time.. but I thought things are not the way they appear many times.They deceive. so I thought to spend some more time here and see how things work out. Initially the work was okey types. then there was no work at all... then there came promises.. more promises about good work.. but nothing worked out. It made me very miserable. then there were changes. lots of changes. the team was resized (read layoffs). I was fortunate enough not to be kicked out.I was shifted to a new team.To work as a Oracle DBA. Wow that was a hell of an opportuinity I thought.. But, I was wrong. same mundane work. But lots of it. But no administration stuff. Then my collegue left. That was a shock. so I thought is it worth? The feeling of insecurity kills you. when u see new faces every month and the old faces are drifted back in the memory only the names in old checked in files remain.

So when things became bad to worst, I decided this is it. I can't take it anymore.
and I quit.(Inspired by the Dicor advt."I always wanted to quit on a monday morning!!")

so will be here till the monthend.. when I will be relieved of my services. And there will be a new start again. With a new hope.

one more on reservations

2006-06-10T02:40:00.000-07:00

2006-06-09T13:03:00.000-07:00

But then who cares...

2006-05-29T11:23:00.000-07:00

Its been a long time since I have written something.. actually since a long time I just post the stuff that i find interesting which comes in mails. The thing is I am getting lazy day by day... or may be as I keep on saying to someof my friends that we are getting overloaded with the information. This is actually a information overdose.. I mean I am subscribed to hell lot of geeky blogs, gadget websites and all which every minute update you with new stuff. Then there are people like scooble who make so many posts per day (many of them are informative). I mean at times I just think is this all information of any use to me? Not more than 30 percent of it is usefull. I know that I wont be trying my hands on the latest playstation or wont think of spending thousands on the cool xbox or the new origami (even though I wud love to do so ;) ) still I read about the stuff. The list of blogs in my aggregator was increasing day by day and I had to prioritise stuff that I wud read.
When in college we used to have a novel fever... like there was a time when we had a john grisham fever we wud get a coupla novels and used to read them back to back. in the similar lines were fredrick forsith then it was Robert Ludlum. It was a sheer facination.

we used to finish books in a coupla days flat..

But now things have changed... it takes about a month at times even more to finish a book .. no matter how good it is.
But then its still okey. I am very happy that I have not left this habbit of reading.
currently reading malgudi days by rk lakshman, Blink by malcom galdwin and sql server 2005 administrators guide.

2006-05-23T21:20:00.000-07:00

Man Mohan Singh (MMS) to Bush (Bu): - We are sending Indians to the moon next year.

Bu: - Wow! How Many?

MMS: - there are total 100 people.

25 - OBC

25 - SC

20 - ST

5 - Handicapped

5 - Sports Persons

5 - Terrorist Affected

5 - Kashmiri Migrants

9 - Politicians

And if possible

1 - Astronaut

To Read

2006-05-16T04:40:00.000-07:00

Good read: Stanford Magazine carries Azim Premji's growth story in this article

The opportunity came in the late 1970s, when New Delhi told IBM to shape up or ship out. The memory of it still seems to burn for Azim Premji. IBM was “selling machines that had been obsolete in Western countries 10 years back,” he asserts. “They’d pick them up from obsolete sites, refurbish them and bring them in.”

New Delhi told the world’s biggest computer company that India would settle for only the latest kit—and furthermore, if IBM wanted to keep its subsidiary in the country, it had to dilute its ownership and let Indians buy shares in the company—fighting words, to say the least. “IBM believed that no country could survive without IBM . . .” Premji says, pausing to find the words, “. . . because they were so full of themselves in those days.”

Big Blue pulled out, leaving a gap Indian companies could fill: making minicomputers. Even though it was the size of a large freezer, Premji saw the mini as the precursor to the personal computer. And more to the point, the mini looked doable: “We were a very small organization in the late ’70s, [but] it was not capital intensive so we could afford it.”

Google Notebook

2006-05-16T03:55:00.000-07:00

Google has launched its new service called Google Notebook.

You can add clippings of text, images and links from web pages to your Google Notebook without ever leaving your browser window.

Organize your notes.

You can create multiple notebooks, divide them into sections, and drag-and-drop your notes to stay organized.

Get access from anywhere.

You can access your Google Notebooks from any computer by using your Google Accounts login.

Publish your notebook.

You can share your Google Notebook with the world by making it public.

The downside is that I dont use Internet explorer anymore... Hope google comes up with a Firefox version soon. :)
looks like a good app.

2006-05-15T11:29:00.000-07:00

Himesh Reshmaiya is performing sometime this weekend or next weekend in pune. Not that I like him or hate him either... Its sort of weird.. we see the channels making fun of this guy.. and at the same time its the same cap clad guy around trying to get the nasal air out on most of the music channels most of the time.
Its his thing.. i mean the cap, the guitar , the beard and the nasal thing... its "his thing" just like imaran hashmi has his kiss, malika has her flesh, Aishwarya has her affairs.. its the same..

Here is a cartoon of him created by mtv... got it in mail.

update: Sudeep has brought it to my notice that this cartoon is created by vaibhav.
Thanks sudeep.

Indian Media

2006-05-14T22:22:00.000-07:00

In this article on the telegraph, Ramchandra Guha talks about how the indian press and electronic media are seducted and influenced by the rich powerful and the glamourous sighting the recent coverage of death of Late Mr. Pramod Mahajan. Read the article here.

2006-05-13T07:06:00.000-07:00

Its been a long while since I have blogged. Actually nothing great happenning in life worth mentioning.. life is just as usual.. sometimes i feel that its good that way..Just Routine and predictable. You know whats going to happen next.. u plan for things and things happen according to your plans. But its not the way it is always... so I said sometimes it is good that way.
My pathetic cable is down since the morning so wasnt' able to watch the qualifyings today but according to the results it seems that Renaults are going to give a tough time to the Ferrari in red.
The top poles have occupied by the two Renaults Alonso leading the way along with Fisichella and the next two by the Ferrari's with Schumi and Mass at third and fourth respectively.

Its such a fun to watch the sun go down sitting on your terrace sipping coffee and the sametime checking out the Qualifying scores and blogging.... its just so cool... oh i shud post a photo of this kind of sunset sometime.. but now the sun has already hidden behind the horizon. May be some other time...

Hope the cable returns today and i be able to see the race tomorrow...
amen!!!

Why the name : Rang De Basanti

2006-05-05T04:13:00.000-07:00

Why the name : Rang De Basanti

Actually, reporters asked this question to Aamir in a press conference. What he told was pretty interesting...

In the crew of the film unit, there was a person called GNAR (Russian Artist). He was a giant of 8'2" in height and 130 kilos of weight. He was the person, who lifted and threw Aamir, in the title song.

The producer of the movie asked by some pundit to name his film after 11 days of shooting is completed. On 11th day of shoot, all crew had a heated discussion and argument on what should be the name of the movie. They decide to put chits and all stuff, but nobody agreed to one name. At that time Gnar was not feeling well and he was sleeping in his camp tomb (It was an outdoor shoot on the mountains). The pundit was on sets and they suggested that the crew will visit Gnar and whatever will be first word(s) every person will speak after entering his camp - will be the name of movie. If more than one choice then the word(s) mostly spoken will be selected. And that will be the last chance of titling the movie.

Scene-2: All of the crew people walking towards GNAR's tent and opens the veil and ... All of them were surprised... Gnar twirling and trying to sleep on a 4 feet long bed. Everyone was shocked and in unison they shouted "ITNA SA BED GNAR"..... silence...long silence.... It was said... and by all... They had to keep this name of the movie.

But the producer and Director were very upset over the kind of name finalized. They lost all enthusiasm and even thought of dumping the project...Then came the advice from the great GNAR... The advice which was accepted by the producer with most happiness... He Said, "Why don't you reverse the title text....

I agree it is the most pathetic one ever... but had to post it.. hehehe.

FIFA World Cup 2006 Schedule

2006-05-04T00:50:00.000-07:00

World cup 2006 schedule here

2006-05-03T10:48:00.000-07:00

If there are two people in a house/family husband and wife and they have one family pet a dog whom they consider a family member. Now if something happens to them i mean if they die then does the jayadad / property go to the dog?
Quite confusing ... ;)

Tony Grieg asks Inzy a question

2006-05-02T02:25:00.000-07:00

Tony Grieg: "So Inzy, fantastic, you're wife is pregnant for the second time?"

Inzamam: " Bismillah-e-rehman-e-rahim. All credit goes to the boys. Everyone worked hard for it, especially Afridi. It was a tight situation when he went in. Without him and Youhana, who stroked very well, it was not possible. Our coach Bob Woolmer also kept a close watch and pushed hard…."

Lets Have Reservations!!

2006-05-01T21:27:00.000-07:00

I think we should have job reservations in all the fields. I completely support the PM and
all the politicians for promoting this. Let's start the reservation with our cricket team. We should have 10 percent reservation for Muslims. 30 percent for OBC, SC/ST like that. Cricket rules should be modified accordingly. The boundary circle should be reduced for an SC/ST player.

The four hit by an OBC player should be considered as a six and a six hit by a OBC player should be counted as 8 runs. An OBC player scoring 60 runs should be declared as a century.
We should influence ICC and make rules so that the pace bowlers like Shoaib akhtar should not
bowl fast balls to our OBC player. Bowlers should bowl maximum speed of 80 kilometer per hour to an OBC player. Any delivery above this speed should be made illegal.

Also we should have reservation in Olympics. In the 100 meters race, an OBC player should be
given a gold medal if he runs 80 meters.

There can be reservation in Government jobs also. Let's recruit SC/ST and OBC pilots for aircrafts which are carrying the ministers and politicians (that can really help the country.. )

Ensure that only SC/ST and OBC doctors do the operations for the ministers and other
politicians. (Another way of saving the country..)

Let's be creative and think of ways and means to guide INDIA forward...
Let's show the world that INDIA is a GREAT country. Let's be proud of being an INDIAN..

May the good breed of politicans like ARJUN SINGH
long live...

(Recieved via mail)

sachin felicitated

2006-05-01T03:11:00.000-07:00

I am watching the recorded programme wherein sachin tendulkar was been felicitated by lata mangeshkar. I had blogged about it some time back here. It is just an awesome program to watch.
vikram sathe mimicked most of the commentraters in a awesome way. Then Sachin's mom was called upon the stage to be honoured in a pure marathi way. she was asked some personal questions about sachin. She talked about the way the whole family gets nervious when he comes in his ninetees.
The way sachin has touched millions of marathi hearts just can't be explained in words. People just dont consider him a human. They have just refer him as God. The who's who of the marathi world were present and they shared their intimate moments about sachin.It was definately a proud moment.

2006-04-28T04:38:00.000-07:00

Yehi hai right choice..... to avoid a baby!!

Cool tips and tricks for using Google's new calendar.

2006-04-24T01:47:00.000-07:00

The Legend turns 33

2006-04-23T23:47:00.000-07:00

Today Sachin Tendulkar turns 33. A man who has spent more than half of his life years on the cricket field serving the nation. Seen his highs and lows. steered the country thru the thick and thin. still the nightmare of the equally great bowlers. There are no words to describe this great living legend. I would like to take this opportunity to wish him a very Happy Birthday and pray for his good health and wish him many more years of cricket battlefield.
Wasim Akram has summed everything up here in this article on CNN IBN where he quotes:

Most cricketers can have nine lives and still wouldn't go beyond the foothills of his achievements. Yet, there is a call for his head. The Gulliver of our times is being held down by the Lilliputs.

Read the whole article here.

Update

2006-04-23T10:35:00.000-07:00

Previously I had mentioned about the premature death of my laptop's display. here.
So I had sent it back to get it repaired. The good news is I got it back yesterday. A good friend of mine brought it for me.
Since yesterday I am experimenting with the BSNL wireless modem thing. Got the wireless broadband working but I am still not able to connect to the desktop machine to the laptop. I mean I am not yet able to setup a local network at home and get both the machines talk to each other.. hope will be able to do it soon. In the mean while I wud like to mention about the amazing connectivity that I am getting using the BSNL type 2 modem. Its just amazing. Throught out my house, on the terrace... any where I carry my laptop the network follows me ;) (just like the hutch dog).

Ferrari shines bright on the home soil

2006-04-23T08:54:00.001-07:00

I have very mixed feelings today. I missed the coolest race of the season. Very happy to micheal schumacher back on the podium. He continued the winning streak after he secured the record 66th pole position yesterday at the imola circuit. I am ver;y sad that I missed the yesterdays qualifying and todays race altogether.. it seems like the race was too good to miss. Alonso was following the race leader thru out the race and micheal was fighting defensivly to safegaurd his position throughtout the race. must have been a great race to watch.

The Hindustan Times quotes:

Michael Schumacher showed Ferrari's rivals that the Italian team are back on the pace on Sunday by winning a thrilling San Marino Grand Prix.
German Schumacher, 37, resisted intense pressure from drivers' world champion Fernando Alonso to take his seventh win at the Imola circuit and 85th career victory with a two second advantage.
Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya, 30, completed the podium after clever pit-strategy from his McLaren crew allowed him to pass Schumacher's Brazilian team-mate Felipe Massa, 24, at the final round of pit-stops.
Schumacher, a seven-time world champion, led from the start from front-row qualifier Jenson Button, Massa and Renault driver Alonso as Brazilian Rubens Barrichello dropped two places to fifth in his Honda.
But the safety car was deployed at the end of lap one after Midland's Christijan Albers destroyed his car in a huge accident.
Dutchman Albers rolled his car five times through the gravel after Japan's Yuji Ide tried an optimistic move in the second part of the corner. Albers walked away unscathed, and Ide was able to continue after pitting for repairs.
Schumacher built up a 13-second lead before the first round of pit-stops. Button made the first move on lap 15, pitting for the first of three planned stops in 9.4 seconds.
Massa and Schumacher both stopped soon after, but Spaniard Alonso, who was carrying more fuel, continued until lap 25 and lapped over half a second faster than his rivals before pitting.
Alonso's blistering pace in the five laps before the pit-stop saw him emerge in second place — ahead of Button and Massa, and with an 11.2 second deficit to Schumacher.
But the German was suffering from a lack of grip as Ferrari had put a set of used Bridgestone tyres on his car for the middle stint of the race.
That allowed Alonso to cut the g ap to the leader down to 0.4 seconds within 10 laps as his Michelin rubber provided no such problem.
Alonso pitted for the final time on lap 41, but Schumacher's in-lap was so fast that he emerged ahead of last year's race winner when he emerged from the pit lane one lap later.
Alonso continued to pressure the leader, but it was he who made a crucial error with three laps to go when he ran wide onto the kerbs exiting the Villeneuve chicane.
That gave Schumacher a 2.2 second lead, which he held onto to take his 85 Grand Prix win, and his first in 13 races.
Behind Montoya and Massa, McLaren's Finn Kimi Raikkonen, ended a quiet race in fifth ahead of Williams' Mark Webber from Australia and Button.
Button could have finished higher but for a problem at his second pit-stop.
His lollipop man gave him the order to go before the fuel rig had been detached and the Briton knocked over his team's entire rig.
After stopping in the pit lane, the team removed the part and he was able to continue. Alonso's Italian team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella completed the points-scoring positions in eighth.
Schumacher's win puts him second in this year's drivers' world championship standings, 15 points behind Alonso.

Indeed the Reds are back ...

Want to taste sugar??

2006-04-20T05:04:00.000-07:00

NOT FOR DIABETICS ;)

Lamentations of a father

2006-04-19T00:31:00.000-07:00

Smoking kills

2006-04-18T22:52:00.000-07:00

A civilian in kashmir was seriously injured when he lit a ciggrette found lying on the road. They say that militants in Jammu and Kashmir are trying these novel ways to harm people instead of their convential ways of planting bombs in crowded areas.
seems like they have recruited some brainy people to come up with such novel ideas of killing people.

Thakkar landed in hospital after he lit one of the two cigarettes he found lying in a field in Mislai village of Doda district…

… terrorists are probably experimenting with the low-cost idea of filling cigarettes with explosives, leaving them in public places to tempt smokers to pick these and light up.

[Link]

2006-04-18T03:17:00.000-07:00

"The Indo-Pak Friendship Cricket Cup, designed by Amit Pabuwal of Jaipur, will enter record books for being the biggest trophy made for any cricket tournament. The sparkling 45 kg trophy is made of gold, silver and diamonds with Jaipur's famous meenakari work around. The trophy has five players engraved at its base wearing India and Pakistan colours. The bottom has flags of both countries along with logos of the respective boards. The centre has ten golden stumps with a red ball striking them."

They say that this is a series being played for the benefit of the earthquake victims and the proceedings of the which will be donated to the millions of survivers of 7.6-magnitute earthquake which rocked the Kashmir Valley on October 8 last year, killing more than 73,000 people in Pakistan and 1,300 in India. Now if it is a charity match why the hell do u need such a gittery cup for it? why not donate the lakhs of rupees spent on the cup to the victims too??

short stories by Guy Kawasaki

2006-04-18T02:45:00.000-07:00

Guy Kawasaki has posted a collection of short stories sighting how the companies have driven theri competition crazy by doing something unsual.
I liked this one:

2. In 1986 British Airways ran a promotion to give away 5,200 seats for travel on June 10th. Virgin Atlantic Airways ran ads that said, “ It has always been Virgin's policy to encourage you to fly to London for as little as possible. So on June 10 we encourage you to fly British Airways.” The British Airways promotion generated a lot of news coverage, but most of the news coverage also included a mention Virgin's funny ad. It cost British Airways a lot more than Virgin to get this coverage.

Cow stuns experts by delivering egg

2006-04-17T22:39:00.000-07:00

Even I didn't believe it.... read it here

2006-04-17T05:55:00.000-07:00

2006-04-14T00:58:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn't drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, "It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver -- Jack Handy

Google Calender

2006-04-12T23:09:00.000-07:00

Google has started yet another service. The google calendar. Checkout over here.
Read more about it here. I havent' yet tried it much. currently I am trying out the calendar service by airset. It looks good. Have a check here .

2006-04-10T23:34:00.000-07:00

This is to welcome two of my friends and ex collegues who has recently started blogging
Suraj Somwanshi

Amey Bhide

Welcome people to the blog world!!

Science confirms the obvious!!

2006-04-10T23:29:00.000-07:00

I always used to wonder why would one go and do a research to prove that smoking not only kills but also costs you money or "Time flies when your are busy" or "women love funny men" or "memory and concentration fades with age"... are these things not pretty obvious..
According to the popular science magazine the scientists do what they do becuase "Two main themes emerged. First, scientists don’t assume how the world works; they test it. Common knowledge once held that meat spontaneously generated maggots. Then, in 1668, Italian physician Francesco Redi devised a set of investigative steps—what we now call an experiment—to prove wrong what everybody thought they knew."

here is the complete story

Antonio banderas a woman ?? !!

2006-04-10T21:43:00.000-07:00

Now I just don't understand what compels people to do such things on live television.. link

2006-04-06T06:48:00.000-07:00

One day, there was a blind man sitting on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet and a sign that read: "I am blind, please help." A creative publicist was walking by and stopped to observe. He saw that the blind man had only a few coins in his hat. He dropped in more coins and, without asking for permission, took the sign and rewrote it. He returned the sign to the blind man and left. That afternoon the publicist returned to the blind man and noticed that his hat was full of bills and coins. The blind man recognized his footsteps and asked if it was he who had rewritten his sign and wanted to know what he had written on it. The publicist responded: "Nothing that was not true. I just wrote the message a little differently." He smiled and went on his way. The new sign read: "Today is Spring and I cannot see it."

Sometimes we need to change our strategy. If we always do what we've always done, we'll always get what we've always gotten. And remember too, sometimes it's not WHAT we say, it's HOW we say it!!

Google video now available in INDIA !!

2006-04-05T12:01:00.000-07:00

Whaw!! .. was waiting for it since a long time.. at last its available here in India. The quality of the videos is just awesome.
link

Thanks chirayu for updating me about it.
kunal asked me to check out videos on Russell Peters. there are quite a few available on google video. I bet you just can't stop laughing when u start listening to him.

Russell Peters is a Indian - Canadian Standup commedian who is a crude brand of comedy which is straight, rude and laddish. With his Asian roots, he explores attitudes towards race which are hard hitting and might prove very controversial.
link

Some places in pune to get typical food

2006-04-05T05:21:00.000-07:00

Got this list in mail of places where u get things at their best. The guy has taken lots of efforts to get it all down in the list.. I am sure all the people who have stayed in pune for more than one year must have visited almost all the following places, if not then now is the time and this list could provide u the required pointers. Feel free to add more.

1) Anda Burjee

· Karve road var Kothrud kade jatana SNDT college chya adhi davya bajula ek haath gaadi aste (sandhykali).

· Durga - near Anand Nagar, Kothrud MIT javal.

· Ande ka Funda - Vijay Talkies chya bolat. laxmi road varna narayan pethe kade jatana ujvya bajula. andyache barech prakar miltat.

2) Baked Veg

· Subhadra - J M Rd

continental dish ahe , mast taste aste. Kahi ukadlelya bhajya (jya ervi apan khanar nahi), cream ani cheese oven madhe bake kelyavar je kahi hoeel tyalach baked veg mhantat. Baryach hotel madhe try kele pan Subhadra chi dish best ahe.

3) Barfa cha gola

· Tapri - Z bridge chya survatila J M Rd var

· Karishma chya Pizza Hut shejari; something similar to barfa cha gola pan ithe frozen doodhacha gola milto. Gola tayar karnyachi process baghnyasarkhi ahe. Jaroor bhet dyavee.

4) Batata Vada

· Hotel Rupa shejari - Sahakar Nagar

5) Bhel

· Kalyan Bhel - 7 Loves chowk Shankar Seth Rd ani Bibavewadi Kondhwa Rd

· Kalpana Bhel - Sambhaji Baug

· Chaturshringi Fountain - Karanje todaichya adhi tithe bhel changli milaichi.

· Kalpana Bhel - Tilak Rd Kaka Halwai jawal

(Klapana ani Kalyan madhe thoda gondhal zhala ahe mazha pan bahutek barobar ahe; jaga ani naav)

6) Biryani

· Blue Nile - Camp; BJ medical ground chya javal........ biryani cha mast sugandh aapoaapach tumhala ishth sthali gheun jaeel...haravnyachi bhiti nahi.

· Durga - Tilak Rd

· SPs Biryani House - S P College main gate samor

· Tiranga - pasodya vithobha mandir shejari nr ABC chowk; City Pride chya shejaril bolat; Kothrud uddan pulavarna utarlyvar davya hatala. ( Tiranga vale aamchya shejaril flat madhe rahayche tyamule adhna madhna parcel asaiche)

7) Bread Pattice

· Tilak - Behere Classes javal, Tilak Rd

· Dnyan Prabhodhini chya baher table takun vikaila astat kahi udyojak

8) Burger

· Burger King - Camp kadun Panatloon kade jatana davikade. (American chain restaurant nhave). Swastat mast burger milto.

9) Chah ani cream roll / khari

· Kutlyahi amrut-tulya madhe ekdam zhakas chah milto

· Chintu ki Chai - JM Rd chya parisatlya office madhe free home delivery concept var chah milto. Marthi udyojakani kahitari shikle pahije. Rupaicha chah var barich risk ghetli ahe malka-na. chah tasa thik ahe.

10) Chinese

Saglyach tapryanvar sarkech milte. Taste madhe kahi vishesh farak nahi. Bahutek fakt punyamadhech ekach dish for eg 'american chopsuey' vaigvaiglya hotel madhe vaigvaiglya ranga madhe, vaigvaiglya prakarat kadhi liquid tar kadhi vaigle kahi ase milte. Tyamuley eka thikani avadleli dish doosrya thikani tasich milel yachi guarantee nahi...doosrya ekhadya naavani asel. Belgaon madhe tar eka haatgadi var "raja rani" ani ti hee chinese dish milat hoti.

Pan mazhi Chinese khaichi all time favorite jaga mhanje 'Chin Kai' Bibavewadi madhe; kahihi 1 by 2 magavle tari soup kiva dish hee bharleleez asaichee. Tyamuley amhi mitra mandali half price madhe full plate var tao maraicho. Bahuda tyachya opening la fakt amchich toli hoti tyamuley life time 50 % off det asava. Aso..

Camp madhe Kam Lin naavache ek original Chinese restaurant hotey. Chinese mhatare jodpe chalvaiche te. Pan utar vayat chalvaila jamat naslyamuley ani muley( bacche kampani) Canada madhe sthaeek aslyamuley restaurant bandh zhaley. Pan tithe hee localized chinese milaiche. Tyanche duparche jevan ekda baghitle hotey mee....hotel madhe je milaiche tya peksha bhaltech vegle hote....nahi nahi beduk ani pal nhavte.

Madhe ek vrutpatrat ajeenomto cha lekh vachala ani Chinese khane kami kele..ata fakt soup peeto.

11) Chola Bhatura

· Mona's Food - MG Rd

12) Coffee

a) Cold coffee

· Durga - near Anand Nagar, Kothrud MIT javal.

· Zest - near Anand Nagar, Kothrud MIT javal.

b) Espresso coffe

· Relax Corner - Bibavewadi nr Bharat Jyoti bus stop

· Relax Corner - Sahakar Nagar

· Kirti Juice Centre - Vaishali samor

c) Phoren chya kapee

· Barista ani CCD.time pass jhakas hoto. Unhalyat A/c madhe basun gappa marnyasathi uttam jaga nahitar aaplee chah chi tapri ahech....

13) Dabeli

· Tapri - near J M Rd Deccan javal

14) Fruit Dish

· Tilak Rd S P chya bus stop shejari; ratri 8.30 - 9 nantar; unhalyat

· KNP..naav mahit nahi (KNP mhanje Kamala Nehru park)

15) Kanda Bhajee

· Sinhagad matha

16) Kati-Kabab

· Hotel Kapila chya baherchi tapri. Dhole Patil Rd Ruby Hospital chya bolat TDS kade jatana. ( paneer kati kabab pan miltat shakahari lokansathi)

· Olympia - East street var Victory Talkies chya javal.

· Kabab - Kutle tari chicken centre karve putlya javal dhanukar colony kade jatana ujvikade. Vajwee darat bharpur milte pan swata thambun laksh dyayla lagte. Nahitar tyancha 'cook' neet bhajat nahi, ghai karto tandoor madhna kadaila.

17) Khichdi

· Sweet Home - Kelkar Rd nr Shanipar

· Tilak - Behere Classes javal, Tilak Rd

18) Kulfi

· Tapri - Z bridge chya survatila J M Rd var

19) Masala Jodi

· Kirti Juice Centre - Vaishali samor

· Relax Corner - Bibavewadi nr Bharat Jyoti bus stop

· Relax Corner - Sahakar Nagar

20) Mastani

· Kawre cold drinks - Tulshi baug

· Gujar mastani - Tulshi baug

Donhi juuni dukaney

Karve Rd chya kawre madhe ekda 'Titanic' khaal-la. Nantar Leonardo sarkhe panyat samadhi ghyavashi watli.

21) Misal

· Bedekar - Shanivar peth; Shagun chowka kadun Raman baughe kade jatana davikade eka bolat

· Lajjat - Sadashiv Peth; SP kadun Alka talkies kade jatana tilak smarak chowkat ujvi kade valaiche; teesrya chowkat ujvikade

· Shanipar bus stop javal pan ek ahe.

22) Paratha

· Nandus - DP Rd. Kapila ani TDS javal

· FC Rd var Manmeet Chat chya maghe. Mess ahe pan swastat mast parathe miltat.

23) Pastries

· Bakers Basket - Bhandarkar Rd. PYC javal (Monginis pekshya changlya ani tazhya astat pastries)

· Copper Chocs - Wanorie Sacred Heart Township madhe.

24) Pav Bhaji

· Shiv Sagar - J M rd.

· Relax - both bibavewadi ani sahakar nagar

25) Pitla Bhakri

· Balucha dhaba - Sinhagad matha

· Shabree - Ghole Rd.FC Rd chya side la; jas t paise deun tablavar basun khaiche asel tar hee jaga perfect.

26) Samosa

· Indori Samosa - Ranade Institute samor, FC Rd

· Naaz Café - poorvi tithe khoop 'variety' milat hoti. Ata tithe Barisat chalu kele ahe. (mazhya pahilya veli khoop fajita zhali, shalet astana '92-'93 gelo hoto; samose order kele ani 15 samosyanchi plate waiter ne anun thevli; itke samose sampyache kase ani khisat 5 chach rupai....zhali ka panchayeet.mazha ani mitracha chehra pahun waiter bolla...jitna samosa khayega utne ka hee paisa lagega.tevha kuthe jeev bhandyat padla..samosa tevha sava ka deed rupaila hota. Ek ek khaoon kalti marli. Pan hyatna ankhi ek dhada milala...hotel madhe shiraichya adhi khisa tapasaicha nahitar nantar fajita nako...credit card pan nako tya veli daga deto.)

· SS - mhanje 'self service' SP College che unofficial canteen. Samosa pav ani chinche chi chatni mast milat ase. Mee 99 cha passout SP madhun. (SP College chya chotyashya canteen madhe Bun Vada kiva Bun Anda mast milaicha)

· Dnyan Prabhodhini chya baher table takun vikaila astat kahi udyojak. Gharguti aslya muley chav changli aste. something different from mamta sweet mart typechya samosya peksha.

27) Sandwich

· A1-Sandwich - SP college chya baher ek gaadi aste

· Zest - near kothrud MIT; grilled s/w mast aste; variety pan ahe.

· Marzorin - MG Rd. chutney sandwich mast milte

· Kayani - East street chutney sandwich mast milte

28) SPDP shev potato dahi puri kiva ankhi kahi

· Ankhin kuthe.VAISHALI

Vaishali jeva renovate karun re-opeing zhale tya divshi sagle chakt fu hotey.....kiti khara mahit nahi pan vishwas thevto mee. Reputationach ase ahe Vaishali che.

Manmeet Chat madhe try kele ekda nantar parat nahi gelo tikde.

29) Thali

Punyat itki hotels chalu zhale ahet tyat hya thali chya concept ni ata zham basavla ahe. Ghari jevaicha kantala ala kiva suttichya divshi baher jevaila jaiche asel tar hee hotels uttam.

· Durvankoor - Tilak Rd hatti ganapati javal. Kami velat khoop naav kamavle ahe.

· Rasoi - Shaniwar Peth Devi heights chya magchya bajula.(balgandharva pul)

· Darpan - gujrati jevan. market yard shivaji putlya maghe.

· Kokan Express - mase ani samudra jeev khanaryansathi; Nr Dhanukar colony

· Rutugandh - Deccan , Z bridge javal

30) Thalpeet

· Badshahi - Tilak Rd

31) Usacha Ras

· Shailesh Rasvanti Gruh - S P College chya samorchya bolat.

· Camp madhe Blue Nile kadun West End kade jatana ek ahe; bharpoor gardi aste pan kadhi try kela nahi.

· Magchya kahi varsha pasun phirta gurhala bagaila miltat; 2 maanse odat astat; tya gaadivar pan mast ras milto

32) Vada Pav

Vadav Pav ne maharashtrat nahi tar poorna bhartat punyache naav pasravle ahe. Tase baryach ghostit punyache naav roashan karat ahe pan Vada Pavche mahatva te kahi aurach.

Pan vada pav cha janma zhala to dadar chya railway stationchya baher. Ashok Vaidya hyani American burger la marathi banedar uttar mhanun tayar kelela ek prayog. 2 rupaila milnara haa vada pav ata koti chi bhasha karaila lagla ahe. Mumabi chya Jumbo King restaurants ni vikrit Ek koticha (Rs 1 crore) cha tappa par kela ahe. Tyanchi swatchi website pan ahe

· Joshi vadewale - Balgandharva bridge, Wakdewadi ani punyachya pratyek post code madhe ek sapdel.

· Punyachya kutlyahi main Rd var hamkas sapadnar

More feeds for speed

2006-04-03T22:28:00.000-07:00

The personalized homepage has a new directory with more content and more ways to browse, search and add it to your Google homepage.
Via Google blog

gmail error

2006-04-03T21:46:00.000-07:00

getting this error quite frequently on gmail these days...

The old new tag!

2006-04-03T11:10:00.000-07:00

Yeah its been a while since sudeep had tagged me, I know the previous one is also pending.. but i think i'll do this one first.
1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn on page 18 and find line 4
Now that is funny whats so special about page 18 and line 4 ... u r confusing a already confused mind...
anyways here it goes: book: The catcher in the rye by j.d. salinger
P18 L4: "reading and sat down in my chair. There were two chairs in the room."

2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can.
oouch.... hit the window glass...

3. What is the last thing you watched on tv?
Rashichakra

4. Without looking, guess what time it is?
10:30PM

5. Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?
11:17PM

6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
chirping sound of some night insects and occasional vehicles passing on the road far away.

7. When did you last step outside? What were you doing?
In the morning to go to the office ;)

8. Before you started this survey, what did you look at?
The beauty of setting sun...

9. What are you wearing?
hellooo....??? clothes i guess ...

10. Did you dream last night?
Yeah.. had a quite wierd dream which i dont remember fortunately...

11. When did you last laugh?
2 hrs back while having a beer with an old friend.

12. What is on the walls of the room you are in?.
nothing.. blank walls..

13. Seen anything weird lately?
hmmm

14. What do you think of this quiz?
rubbish.... no.. seriously rubbish..

15. What is the last film you saw?
mmmm what was that film... "welcome to mooseworld" or something..

16. If you became a multimillionaire overnight, what would you buy?
hmmmm

17. Tell me something about you that i dunno.
u know nothing...

18. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
may be myself... to adapt more with the world..

19. Do you like to dance?
I wish i could, still i was made to dance in my marriage...

20. George bush.
WHAT?

21. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?
Rhea

22. Imagine yout first child is a boy, what do you call him?
rushi/aryan

23. Would you ever consider living abroad?

Sure..

24.What do you want GOD to say to you when you reach the pearly gates?

Dude what took u so long.. come on in.. lets have a beer :))

25. 4 people who must also do this meme in their journal.

its open to all of them especailly ajay who hasnt updated his blog since quite awhile now..

Smoking kills..... literally...

2006-04-03T10:41:00.000-07:00

too good (video).. link

Blood Filter

2006-04-01T23:52:00.000-08:00

Blood filter called as haemopurifier which filters smallpox, Ebola and other viruses from the blood. Cool huh! Link
The Hemopurifier is a “rolling-pin-size” unit designed initially to be used as a dialysis unit. After shunting the unit into your veins, the force of your circulation will push your blood through the device which filters it and passes back to the body.

2006-03-30T09:24:00.000-08:00

2006-03-30T02:13:00.000-08:00

Could not resist from posting this story:

Vivek Pradhan wasn't a happy man. Even the plush comfort of the First Class air-conditioned compartment of the Shatabdi Express couldn't cool his frayed nerves. He was the Project Manager and entitled to air travel. It was not the prestige he sought, he had tried to reason with the admin guy, it was the savings in time. A Project Manager had so many things to do!

He opened his case and took out the laptop, determined to put the time to some good use.

"Are you from the software industry sir," the man beside him was staring appreciatively at the laptop.

Vivek glanced briefly and mumbled in affirmation, handling the laptop now with exaggerated care and importance as if it were an expensive car. "You people have brought so much advancement to the country sir. Today everything is getting computerized."

'Thanks," smiled Vivek, turning around to give the man a detailed look. He always found it difficult to resist appreciation. The man adjacent to him was young and stocky like a sportsman. He looked simple and strangely out of place in that little lap of luxury like a small town boy in a prep school.

He probably was a Railway sportsman making the most of his free traveling pass.

"You people always amaze me," the man continued, "You sit in an office and write something on a computer and it does so many big things outside." Vivek smiled deprecatingly. Naivety demanded reasoning not anger. "It is not as simple as that my friend. It is not just a question of writing a few lines.

There is a lot of process that goes behind it." For a moment he was tempted to explain the entire Software Development Lifecycle but restrained himself to a single statement. "It is complex, very complex." "It has to be. No wonder you people are so highly paid," came the reply. This was not turning out as Vivek had thought. A hint of belligerence came into his so far affable, persuasive tone.

"Everyone just sees the money. No one sees the amount of hard work we have to put in." "Hard work!" "Indians have such a narrow concept of hard work.

Just because we sit in an air-conditioned office doesn't mean our brows don't sweat. You exercise the muscle; we exercise the mind and believe me that is no less taxing."

He had the man where he wanted him and it was time to drive home the point.

"Let me give you an example. Take this train. The entire railway reservation system is computerized. You can book a train ticket between any two stations from any of the hundreds of computerized booking centers across the country.

Thousands of transactions accessing a single database at a given time; concurrency, data integrity, locking, data security. Do you understand the complexity in designing and coding such a system?"

The man was stuck with amazement, like a child at a planetarium. This was something big and beyond his imagination.

"You design and code such things."

"I used to," Vivek paused for effect, "But now I am the project manager,"

"Oh!" sighed the man, as if the storm had passed over, "so your life is easy now."

It was like being told the fire was better than the frying pan. The man had to be given a feel of the heat.

"Oh come on, does life ever get easy as you go up the ladder.

Responsibility only brings more work. Design and coding! That is the easier part. Now I don't do it, but I am responsible for it and believe me, that is far more stressful. My job is to get the work done in time and with the highest quality. And to tell you about the pressures! There is the customer at one end always changing his requirements, the user wanting something else and your boss always expecting you to have finished it yesterday."

Vivek paused in his diatribe, his belligerence fading with self-realisation.

What he had said was not merely the outburst of a wronged man, it was the truth. And one need not get angry while defending the truth.

"My friend," he concluded triumphantly, "you don't know what it is to be in the line of fire."

The man sat back in his chair, his eyes closed as if in realization. When he spoke after sometime, it was with a calm certainty that surprised Vivek. "I know sir, I know what it is to be in the line of fire," He was staring blankly as if no passenger, no train existed, just a vast expanse of time.

"There were 30 of us when we were ordered to capture Point 4875 in the cover of the night. The enemy was firing from the top. There was no knowing where the next bullet was going to come from and for whom. In the morning when we finally hoisted the tricolor at the top only 4 of us were alive." "You are a..."

"I am Subedar Sushant Singh from the 13 J&K Rifles on duty at Peak 4875 in Kargil. They tell me I have completed my term and can opt for a land assignment. But tell me sir, can one give up duty just because it makes life easier.

On the dawn of that capture one of my colleagues lay injured in the snow, open to enemy fire while we were hiding behind a bunker. It was my job to go and fetch that soldier to safety. But my captain refused me permission and went ahead himself.

He said that the first pledge he had taken as a Gentleman Cadet was to put the safety and welfare of the nation foremost followed by the safety and welfare of the men he commanded. His own personal safety came last, always and every time.

He was killed as he shielded that soldier into the bunker. Every morning now as I stand guard I can see him taking all those bullets, which were actually meant for me. I know sir, I know what it is to be in the line of fire."

Vivek looked at him in disbelief not sure of his reply. Abruptly he switched off the laptop. It seemed trivial, even insulting to edit a word document in the presence of a man for whom valor and duty was a daily part of life; a valor and sense of duty which he had so far attributed only to epical heroes.

The train slowed down as it pulled into the station and Subedar Sushant Singh picked up his bags to alight.

"It was nice meeting you sir."

Vivek fumbled with the handshake.

This was the hand that had climbed mountains, pressed the trigger and hoisted the tricolor. Suddenly as if by impulse he stood at attention, and his right hand went up in an impromptu salute. It was the least he felt he could do for the country.

PS: The incident he narrates during the capture of Peak 4875 is a true

life incident during the Kargil war. Major Vikram Batra sacrificed his life while trying to save one of the men he commanded, as victory was within sight.

For this and his various other acts of bravery he was posthumously awarded the Param Vir Chakra - the nation's highest military award.

2006-03-28T04:22:00.000-08:00

Stuff happens ... link

2006-03-27T01:57:00.000-08:00

How wierd can it get... check this

Some Interesting n Cool Facts

2006-03-26T06:40:00.000-08:00

1. Whenever I find the key to success, someone changes the lock.
2. To Err is human, to forgive is not a COMPANY policy.
3. The road to success........ is always under construction.
4. No matter in which direction you ride, its always uphill and against the wind.
5. Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.
6. Alcohol doesn't solve any problems, but if you think again, neither does Milk.
7. In order to get a Loan, you first need to prove that you don't need it.
8. All the desirable things in life are either illegal, expensive or fattening.
9. Since Light travels faster than Sound, people appear brighter before you hear them speak.
10. Everyone has a scheme of getting rich..... which never works.
11. If at first you don't succeed.... Destroy all evidence that you ever tried.
12. You can never determine which side of the bread to butter. If it falls down, it will always
land on the buttered side.
13. Anything dropped on the floor will roll over to the most inaccessible corner.
14. As soon as you mention something...... if it is good, it is taken....If it is bad, it happens.
15. He who has the gold, makes the rules ---- Murphy's golden rule.
16. If you come early, the bus is late. If you come late...... the bus is still late.
17. Once you have bought something, you will find the same item being sold somewhere else at a cheaper rate.
18. When in a queue, the other line always moves faster and the person in front of you will
always have the most complex of transactions.
19. If you install a 50p fuse to protect a 5000rs equipment, the 5000rs equipment will blow in
order to save the 50p fuse.
20. If you have paper, you don't have a pen....... If you have a pen, you don't have paper...... if
you have both, no one calls.
21. Especially for engg. Students----If you have bunked the class, the professor has taken
attendance.
22. You will pick up maximum wrong numbers when on roaming.
23. The door bell or your mobile will always ring when you are in the bathroom.
24. In a job interview, you need to be well spoken, clear, pleasantly dressed, confident and
polite. Even if you are, you won't get the job.
25. After a long wait for bus no.20, two 20 number buses will always pull in together and the bus which you get in will be crowded than the other.
26. If your exam is tomorrow, there will be a power cut tonight.
27. The last person to be fired or quit is responsible for all the errors until another person is
fired or quits.
28. Irrespective of the direction of the wind, the smoke from the cigarette will always tend to go to the non-smoker.

Lata Mangeshkar presented " Golden Bat to Sachin Tendulkar "

2006-03-23T20:43:00.000-08:00

Mumbai: From despair to glory - it has been a mixed week for master blaster Sachin Tendulkar.
Battered with loss of form, public criticism and an injured shoulder, master blaster Sachin Tendulkar got a huge boost on Thursday when melody queen Lata Mangeshkar strongly backed him saying the highest Test centurion would be back with a bang. Lata felicitated the batting legend by presenting him a golden bat.
It could be termed as returning to his roots, as the son of the soil Sachin Tendulkar was felicitated for his success by the Marathi sports journalists with a traditional fervour. It was an evening when everyone from friends to family turned up to show their support for the little master.
Former India captain Ajit Wadekar presented a maan patra (scroll of honour), to the 33-year-old batsman who is playing a record 132nd Test, surpassing Kapil Dev's 131 matches. "Everyone appreciates his batting world over. He's a very modest guy and a prefect human being," Wadekar said.
It was a moment of pride of some mebres of Team India as well, who didn’t fall short of words to praise the master blaster. "It's always been a great honour to share the dressing room with him. It's a matter of great pride and I wish him all the best," Cricketer, Ajit Agarkar, said. And it was not just Sachin’s moment of glory. The entire Tendulkar clan including Sachin’s mother were also felicitated. It was proud moment for any mother, and Rajini Tendulkar was no different. "Whenever he is in his 90s, I close my eyes in nervousness. And when I hear people applauding, I know he has completed his century," Rajini said.
Sachin termed the evening as one of the special ones in his life. And the usually private master blaster spoke of things most close to his heart. "It's a very special moment for me and is to express in words. This moment will remain etched in my memory when I will sit back and recall my career," Sachin said.
He also took this moment to assure everyone that his shoulder injury was not very serious and he would be back very soon

(Via mail from Prashant vanarase.)

Beer flows from Tap

2006-03-15T00:46:00.000-08:00

And this I call a Dream come true ;)

Ferrari is Back ! !

2006-03-12T07:15:00.000-08:00

Whaow !! what a day it was. After a breathtaking poleposition yesterday, Micheal scored a well deserved second position on the podium. Alonso leading the flock ahead of him and Rakkionen claiming the third position.
The action started yesterday itself. With the new rules for qualifying it was hair raising phenomenon to watch all of them in the cat race to get to the pole position. At one time the Renaults and the hondas were quite confident of their meat, but at the end the third round of the qualifying left everyone awestruck.. Phillepe Massa proved his metal he was the fastest on the poles but only second to his team mate Micheal shcumacher. it was the this third round in which Micheal just swooped in and ruled the masses. It was that final lap when i was hoping he would do some magic but was not sure as nothing much had been said about the new ferrari..
this lap made me spill my beer all over my living room with the shear happiness to see the RED back on the lead with Schumacher on P1 and Massa on P2 , on P3 there was none other than defending champion Alonso.

Today the race started with very high expectations and lots of sand getting sprayed around due to strong winds.
Rakkionen had a suspension failure yesterday due to which his rear tyre was ripped off he somehow managed to take the care back to the pits. So he had to start the race from the tails.
The race started with Micheal leading followed by Massa then there was button followed by Alonso.
but this lasted just for a few laps, as Massa pushing very hard to stay ahead of Alonso had a skid dont remember exactly what went wrong but i saw him skidding quite fast ahead of alonso, alonso missed dashing Massa just by a few inches. After this incident Massa had to get to the pits to get the car inspected. this pit stop cost him dearly he was in the pits for nearly 25 seconds and lost about 10 places.

All that mattered in todays race was the strategy. And the Team work.
The People who impressed me the most were Rakkionen and the rookie Rosberg.
Rakkionen started the race at position 22 and ended up third. now you do the math :)
Rosberg was the person to watch., pushing that engine to its last bit. it was fun watching the drama between him and the hondas and the red bulls.
Rosberg finished 7th with 2 points.. not bad at all for a first international grand prix.
There was lots of drama going on all the time. During the second pitstop of Alonso he came out just a car length ahead of Schumacher and there the damage was done. Micheal tried to overtake him a couple of times but the spaniard was just not going to give it at all.

All in all a superb start of the season.
I am very happy that Ferrari is Back With a Bang !!!
Though I would have been happier if they would have had both of their drivers on the podium leading the way... yes i know its not a far fetched thing but having rivals with the likes of Alonso, Rakkionen and button it will surely not be an easy task..

2006-03-09T23:17:00.000-08:00

Its just two days remaining before the great new Formula1 season 2006 starts. This year Baharin gets the honor of inagurating the season because melbourne is busy hosting the commonwealth games

This year there are many changes done in the FIA rules and the F1 teams too. Bar has changed to Honda. Jordan is MidlandF1, Minardi is Torro Rosso and Sauber is the new BMW Sauber.

Cars now run 2.4 litre V8 engines (although one team, Scuderia Toro Rosso is taking up the approved option of running a restricted-power version of the previous 3 litre V10.). Engines must still last two entire race weekends so the biggest changes to the sporting regulations concern the way qualifying is run and the fact that tyres can now, once again, be changed during the race.
This is the part I enjoy the most... the higly efficient pit stops.

The Scuderia's Sporting Director, Stefano Domenicali explains the effect of these new rules and how they impact on the team's approach to qualifying and the race: "With the tyre situation, we will have seven sets of dry tyres of two different specifications that we are allowed to use over a race weekend. There is no longer a requirement to formally nominate one specification of tyre after a certain point in the weekend as was the case up until now. However, we must use the same specification of tyre for all of qualifying and the race". If the rules of parc ferme remain essentially the same, with work on the cars restricted, for 2006 these rules are different when it comes to fuel and tyres."The rules concerning fuel are different because they are now linked to the qualifying procedure," says Domenicali, "and tyres, because you can use as many tyres as you want now for the race."
Qualifying will be divided into 3 parts:
The first part of 15 minutes followed by a 5 minute break,
A second part of 15 minutes followed by a 5 minute break and
The third and final part of 20 minutes.
The race weekend also runs to a slightly different timetable this year: the Friday programme remains the same, but on Saturday, there are no longer the two 45 minute free practice session, but just one hour from 11 to 12, with qualifying from 2 to 3. At two o'clock, the first part of qualifying begins and that signals the start of parc ferme conditions, with the exception of fuel and tyres, In the first 15 minutes all 22 cars will run on track. Then the slowest 6 cars take no further part in the session. The same procedure will apply in the second part. At the end of these two periods, these 12 cars now have their places confirmed on the last 12 places on the grid. In these two parts you can run whatever fuel load you like, normally a light load to set the quickest time possible of course and with the tyres that you want.

Because time between the three parts of the session is so tight, cars be allowed to refuel using the normal race refuelling rig. There is now a system in place to give back the fuel used in this last part of the session, so that the teams start the race on Sunday with the same fuel load with which they began the final part of qualifying on Saturday. It is calculated by a formula published by the FIA prior to the start of the event. The FIA will make an estimation of kilos per lap they will give back to the teams.
It is a complicated system, rendered more so by the fact that not all the drivers will be running the same number of laps in this final session, therefore the amount of fuel to be added can be different for various cars.

The new team line up is as following:

Renault

Fernando Alonso
Giancarlo Fisichella

McLaren

Kimi Raikkonen
Juan Pablo Montoya

Ferrari

Michael Schumacher
Felipe Massa

Toyota

Ralf Schumacher
Jarno Trulli

Williams

Mark Webber
Nico Rosberg

Honda

Jenson Button
Rubens Barrichello

Red Bull

David Coulthard
Christian Klien

BMW-Sauber

Nick Heidfeld
Jacques Villeneuve

Christijan Albers
Tiago Monteiro

Toro Rosso

Scott Speed
Vitantanio Liuzzi

Super Aguri

Takuma Sato
Yuji Ide

Ferrari is said to have some engine reliablity problems. With honda and renault going great guns. Basically A car must be well balanced to minimise oversteer on the exit of slow corners, not just to maximize acceleration but also to avoid excessive rear tyre wear. The sandiness of the region can also be a problem; everyone will have extra filters to protect pistons, rings and valves against the ingress of sand. Cooling is also critical, even though the new V8 engines do not have such a high cooling demand as the V8s.

The race is 57 laps of the 5.412 km (3.363 mile) track, and starts at 14.30 hours Bahrain time, which is three hours ahead of GMT.
Need to stack some beer for the xciting first race... :)

Down with bruises!!

2006-02-27T11:38:00.000-08:00

It was quite early today that i got out of the office... was rushing home fast as i was expecting a call. while driving i remembered someone mentioning yesterday that it was amavasya and we need to take care while driving today ..
i just smiled and passed the thought.
when i crossed rakshak nagar, one road goes to mumbai expressway and the other to chinchwad, which is my way to home. there was this maruti ahead of me, typical driver the one who drives at a speed ot 30 kms right in the middle of the road when the whole road is empty, he wont go ahead nor let anyone else go ahead.
I was fedup following him, I saw that there was a road divider coming in next few meters,
so i shifted gears and thought of overtaking this guy... i had taken a fairly good speed, might be 45 to 50 kms/hr, as soon as i came to the right of the car to my amazement i saw a big stone right in the middle of the road!!
i said ok dude today is ur day!!
before reacting to it i found myself skidding on the road... I was sliding with the bike for a coupla feets then i stopped and the bike continued to skid
it went further many feets..
I could hear the sound of my helmet rubbing against the road. after a few seconds the helmet came off and it went tumbling down the road ... quite far...
i lay there on the road for a coupla seconds when some people came rushing, and took me to the road side... the pain was excruciating. I was in deep agony trembling like anything...
after some time i came back to my senses and checked all my body parts... everything was moving fine...
some blood on the shirt, trouser torn off at many places...
I said... it could have been worst...
some one dropped me home, after coming home i checked the wounds nothing much.
just that i'll walk like a crippled for a few days and will have to type with only my left hand :) I have to check the damage to the bike yet...

I called a friend over and got all the parts bandaged..
DETOL sucks big time :((

haven't told about this small incident to anyone yet..
since i m not able to catch sleep thought of passing some time by blogging about it.... its fun typing with just two fingers :))

and I remember someone debating about the helmet rule not a long time back..

Happy Valentines!!

2006-02-14T02:34:00.000-08:00

I just had to post this...

Love Is all Around

I feel it in my fingers
I feel it in my toes
Love is all around me
And so the feeling grows
It’s written on the wind
It’s everywhere I go, oh yes it is
So if you really love me
Come on and let it show
You know I love you, I always will
My mind’s made up by the
Way that I feel
There’s no beginning,
There’ll be no end
’cause on my love you can depend
I see your face before me
As I lay on my bed
I kinda get to thinking
Of all the things you said, oh yes I did
You gave your promise to me and i
Gave mine to you
I need someone beside me
In everything I do, oh yes I do
You know I love you, I always will,
My mind’s made up by the
Way that I feel
There’s no beginning,
There’ll be no end
’cause on my love you can depend
Got to keep it moving
Oh it’s written in the wind
Oh everywhere I go, yeah, oh well
So if you really love me, love me, love me
Come on and let it show
Come on and let it show
Come on and let it
Come on and let it (come and let it show, baby)
Come on, come on, come on let it show baby
Come on and let it show
Come on and let it show, baby
Come on and let it show

HAPPY VALENTINE'S TO ALL :) !!

Rss Readers

2006-02-11T09:05:00.000-08:00

I have Sharpreader installed on my office machine. It is one no nonsense rss reader. I really like it.

So today I tried to install it at my home, it asked for .net framework 1.1 which i downloaded and installed, but after installing Sharpreader, it crashed with some big error which i didn’t bother to read.

Then i downloaded Blognavigator. Which frankly I didn't like. One of the reasons being that it has a inbuilt browser and when ever u have to read a blog it fetches the whole page for u along with the graphics and stuff. Secondly there is no way that I found to export/create a OPML file for my blog list. Then I again searched on download.com for a better reader and it showed Snarfer as the one with highest number of downloads and most popular tools.. Its my general thinking that if there is a crowd to buy something it has to be good.. For example when I was a kid, mom used to send me to buy vegetables in the market. I used to get things where there was a crowd of many ladies. I used to wait for a lady to buy her stuff and see how much she is paying for it. that way, u already know that that women has already bargained for the stuff and obviously since a women is buying it, it must be good. so get the stuff at whatever rate she has bought it. Smart isnt it. But that’s me... ;)

Similarly I downloaded Snarfer.

And after installing it asked me for what default rss would i like to configure. I selected a coupla them and wow.. it does has a good collection of rss. The interface looks good and its pretty faster. Gets just the blog not the graphics and the ads and other crap.

All in all a good download.

Guys let me know what Rss Readers do u use...?

Google Chat in GMAIL

2006-02-08T03:19:00.000-08:00

Today in the morning got this "friendly" error while trying to check mail on gmail.

I was wondering if its downtime or google is getting us some more cool features....
yeah right one more new feature is added and a real cool one. No need to install gtalk on the machine anymore. Gmail has just got better with chat facility right in the mail itself.
on the left panel it shows Quick contacts and u can invite that contact for chat and start chatting.
the best part is that after u click on chat, a small popup opens on the left side which can remain in the parent mail window or there is a link saying popout on clicking it, the chat window just pops out of the mail page. Very well thought.

Noticed one more thing: when u put a smile say :) after a few seconds it animates and turns it self to real smily .. looks good.

This is just Awesome!!