Numb3rs

The other day Shankar was telling me about a show called Numb3rs on AXN. I happened to stumble on it today and it exceeded exectations.

Anyways this is not about Shankar or Numb3rs or AXN. This is about numbers. Today I plan to list a few numbers that are important to my life and risk my privacy ;)

04p050 - My roll no at MDI
1982 - Year I was born in
22 - My Date of Birth
23 26 - My age
23:21 - Time on the clock at the bottom right of my screen
229 - My hostel room at MDI in first year
309 - Mu hostel room at MDI in second year
364 - My house number in Delhi
879 - My house number in Gurgaon
7J602483SZB - My iPod number
9810840224 (dont use this number anymore) - My cell phone number (and if you want to call me ..;))
P0505* - My driving license number

And I plan to add more numbers. Just give me some more time ;)

Last Updated: 7 Apr 2009

Freak Accident

Think ...

You are driving down a dark road on your bike. Enjoying the ride, feeling the wind in your (balding fast) hair, you are rushing down the road with absolutely no regards for anyone. Thinking about events in your life from recent past. Absolute bliss to be alive and on the bike and most importantly to be in control. Suddenly there is a loud noise up ahead the road. You see a couple of globes of light hanging in the air and your head becomes blank. All your thoughts vanish as if they were not there at all. After about a couple of minutes you realize it’s a car coming your way faster than you are going towards it. The road is narrow, there is no way to go, crash is inevitable and all of a sudden something happens and you swerve to your left and find some turf to drive on. You are saved. Saved from an almost crash. Safe from any dangers to your dear life. You take a deep breadth. And as everything, you move on. Move on towards your destination.

Saturday Night Fever

World over, everywhere people do the same thing on a Saturday Night - Party. Some people are different though. They write blogs about ipod batteries, freak accidents and about what people world over do on saturday nights.

W5H - Why, Who, Where, When, What and How

When - Saturday Night
Where - Worldwide
Who - Everyone
What - Party
Why - This needs to be explored further, everyone has a differnet reason. Some think after some work for five days, they deserve a break, for some its a way of life and for some they dont need a reason...
How - Do I need to talk about it?

iGot iPod

I finally joined the revolution about three years too late. Ever since I heard about it, I wanted to get on. I could not because of obvious economic reasons. I finally got it from my August salary (June, July). I am talking about iPod.

I bought an iPod Nano 2 GB today. I could have got a 1GB, 4GB, iPod video also but I ended up buying this one. I was told to buy a Creative Zen Nano, an iRiver a Mobiblu and a host of other things. No one realized I did not want to buy an mp3 player. I wanted to buy an iPod. Period. Dot. Full stop.

Ok here is something interesting that happened. I plugged in my iPod to my ThinkPad R51 and woot ... the laptop turned off. And it won't start again. I had to physically reset the battery to get the laptop on. I realized that there was a problem with the USB port I was connecting my iPod to. When I tried connecting the mouse to that port, even the mouse wasn't working. I don't really know if this is a problem with all the laptops or the USB version is old or what. I need to find out. I am handicapped without a mouse and with only two ports on my laptop, it would be hard to charge the iPod and use the computer without a mouse.

Coming back to the iPod, the sound quality rocks. Whoever said the sound quality is not good, they can go and jump off the face of a cliff or something. The sound of an iPod is the next best thing to real sound. I am not saying iPod is the ultimate sound machine. There would be better gizmos and devices but there it no denying the fact that iPod rocks.

And yet another cake smearing on my "techie" face. I bought the iPod, charged it, loaded music on it, had all the fun in the world but when I wanted to finally shut it down, I could not find a turn off button. I got real anxious when I realized there has to be a thing called the help file or the manual. And yes now I know how to turn it off. :)

Tryst with Destiny - India's 59th Independence Day

15th August 1947, Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru made the famous Tryst with Destiny. Its about time we re-read it and gave it a serious thought to it.

Text: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Tryst_with_Destiny
Video: http://www.harappa.com/wall/nehru.html

Happy Independence Day :)

Of Shooting Stars and New Blogs

Yesterday I saw a shooting star. There is a old saying that says if you see a shooting star and make a wish, it is granted. I remembered that and I instantly made a wish. Lets see if it comes true or not. And to see if it is coming true, I will have to wait a few years.

By the way it's Saturday and I was in the office today. My first working Saturday. I am sure there would be more if I want that wish to come true. There is a quote in Sanskrit that says wishes come true if you work for them. And I have all the intention in the world to make sure that the wish comes true.

Anyways after I bought a few books with my first salary and a Kaleidoscope with my second salary, something interesting came to my mind. Each month I shall buy something extravagant. Extravagant not just in terms of money that I spend on it but in terms of its profile and hype around it. And since I am one of those people who are not connected to the world, I want someone from the World Wide Web to help me decide what should I buy for the next month. Sounds like a crazy idea but lets see if there are any takers for the same.

Since I have nothing else left to talk about, I shall talk about Stock Market. As an amateur investor, I have a small portfolio of my own. As every other investor in the world, I assume that I am a good money manager and can spot the winners in time. However as there is a saying that goes like 'You can prove anything with data/numbers ... even the truth" ... I have managed returns of just about 5% in last six months. And this is less than what I would have made in government bonds.

And as soon as I get that new blog on, it shall be posted here.

Jaane Kya Dhoondta Hai Yeh Mera Dil

Jaane Kya Dhoondta Hai Yeh Mera Dil ...

When Lucky Ali (Wikipedia, ClickLucky) came up with this song, he probably could not guess he was talking about me, my life and my aspirations.

This post is about a couple of years late. I should have been writing this when I the song first came out. But no, I couldn't have possibly written this then. I did not even know myself then. I don't know myself even today but I have made a start and lets see how the search goes and where does it takes me. All I can say right now is STAY TUNED :D.

Title: Jaane Kya Dhoondta Hai
Singer: Lucky Ali
Lyrics: Nida Fazli
Music: M M Kreem
Movie: Sur
Listen Online: Raaga.com

Jaane kya dhoondta hai, yeh mera dil,
Tujhko kya chaahiye zindagi,
Raaste hi raaste hain, kaisa hai yeh safar,
Dhoondti hain jisko nazrein, jaane hai voh kidhar,
Jaane kya dhoondta hai, ae mera dil,
Tujhko kya chaahiye zindagi,

Bechehra sa koi sapna hai voh,
Kahin nahin hai phir bhi apna hai voh,
Aise mere andar shaamil hai voh,
Main hoon behta dariya, saahil ai voh,
Hai kahan voh, voh kidhar hai, raaste kuch to bata,
Kaun sa uska nagar hai, rehguzar kuch to bata,
Dhoondti hain jisko nazrein, jaane hai voh kidhar,
Jaane kya dhoondta hai, ae mera dil,
Tujhko kya chaahiye zindagi...

Soona sa hai mandir, moorat nahin,
Khaali hai aaina, soorat nahin,
Jeene ka jeevan mein kaaran to ho,
Maheke kaise kaliyaan, gulshan to ho,
Shamma hai jo mujh mein roshan, voh viraasat kisko doon,
Door tak koi nahin hai, apni chaahat kisko doon,
Dhoondti hain jisko nazrein, jaane hai voh kidhar,
Jaane kya dhoondta hai, ae mera dil,
Tujhko kya chaahiye zindagi...

Kaleidoscope - The challenge everyone can solve but no one can conquer

Kaleidoscope - The challenge everyone can solve but no one can conquer. I just bought one for, whom else - myself. I had been thinking for quite some time now. Finally bought it from my second salary (The first salary was spent on books - my first love).

The concept of a kaleidoscope is simple. You have eighteen pieces of different shapes and sizes. These pieces are painted in random colors. You are supposed to assemble them into an eight by eight square with the colors on top making a pattern. Like a real like kaleidoscope, the number of combinations and possibilities are endless. For example you could make a chess board in more than a million ways using these eighteen pieces. Then there is a pattern that can only be made in just two ways. This would mean you have to be REAL lucky to crack that one.

If you love symmetry, design, mathematics, logic, intuition, this one is for you. You could get lost in the world of kaleidoscope for not minutes, not hours but years.

I have always been a huge fan of Jigsaw Puzzles and I guess Kaleidoscope is a simple extension of the same. Jigsaw puzzles, you fit the pieces to make one picture, one pattern, one design. Here you have same pieces and you can make innumerable designs.

Years ago there used to be a computer game called Tetris on the old Nintendo systems. Kaleidoscope resembles a game of Tetris in many ways. You have simliar basic building blocks. You can fit them in interesting manner and you end up making a block of lines (and a pattern in this case). It was addictive, this is also addictive. But yeah, this is also a tad frustrating apart from being addictive. You spend two hours on this and you still haven't cracked the puzzle that the people have given two on a difficulty scale of five. You start doubting your own abilities. And yeah when you actually make it, it shall do amazing things to your ego. You know that you have done something no one else was able to.

And after all that rambling, I have a confession to make. For everything I consider myself (intelligent, high IQ, intuitive etc.), except for the basic checkerboard, I haven't been able to crack another challenge.

Details available at funkc.com.