Vanakkam - Hello Chennai !

Every new computer program starts with a Hello World program and here I am starting a new stint with unexplored India ...

Vanakkam Chennai !

I am being sent off to Chennai for about four months to try and sell some stuff. I know apart from all the selling that I would manage, I would also travel extesively in south India. Kanyakumari, Pondicherry, Bangalore aka Bengaluru are on my shortlist.

Travel is one thing, I shall also try to setup a business venture there. I have no clue what would it do but I know I want something of my own. If someone would ask me what exactly would I want and why do I want to have my own setup, I would have no answers. It is like destiny calling. People breathe even though they do not know that they have to, I want to open something without knowing why. Kinda stupid analogy but still its me :D

Lyrics - Tere Bin - Rabbi Shergil

I was listening to FM and there was this track by Rabbi Shergil. I know little punjabi and it was awesome. Googled for the lyrics and found it on Shubhi Gupta. Dedicated to someone very special.

Here is a quick copy-paste job. All credits to Shubhi Gupta. Thanks is all I can say.
tere bin / besides you
sanu sohnia / my love
koi hor nahio labhna / i shan't find another
jo dave / who'll give
ruh nu sakun / peace to my soul
chukke jo nakhra mera / and indulge me
ve main sare ghumm ke vekhia / i have gone and seen it all
amrika , roos, malaysia / america, russia, malaysiana
kittey vi koi fark si / there wasn't any difference
har kise di koi shart si / they all had some condition
koi mangda mera si sama / some asked for my time
koi hunda surat te fida / some were fascinated with my face
koi mangda meri si vafa / some demanded my fidelity
na koi mangda merian bala / none wanted my demons
tere bin / besides you
hor na kise / no one else
mangni merian bala / wanted my demons
tere bin / besides you
hor na kise / no one else
karni dhup vich chhan / shall shade me in the sun
jiven rukia / (the) way you paused
si tun zara / slightly
nahion bhulna / i shan't forget
main sari umar / all my life
jiven akhia si akhan chura / you said, looking away
"rovenga sanu yad kar" / "you shall weep in my memory"
hasia si main hasa ajeeb / i laughed a strange laugh
(par) tu nahi si hasia / but you didn't
dil vich tera jo raaz si / you had a secret in your heart
mainu tu kyon ni dasia / why didn't you tell me
tere bin / besides you
sanu eh raz / none shall tell this
kise hor nahion dasna / secret to me
tere bin / besides you
peerh da ilaaj / what druid
kis vaid kolon labhna / has the cure to my ills
milia si ajj mainu / i found today
tera ik patra / a note of yours
likhia si jis 'te / on which you had scribbeled
tun shayr varey shah da / a varis shah couplet
park ke si osnu / upon reading which
hanjnu ik duliya / a teardrop fell
akhan 'ch band si / what was locked in the eye
seh raaz ajj khulia / was revealed today
ki tere bin / that other than you
eh mere hanjnu / these tears of mine
kise hor / won't be kissed by
nahio chumna / none else
ki tere bin / that other than you
eh mere hanjhu / these tears of mine
mitti vich rulnha / will wither in the dust
Awesome track and very very meaningful lyrics. Reminds me of someone very special. (Yes, this is for you, you were right - I didnt get that iPod) and I cant even apologize... :(

After Anubhav commented, I am hereby changing the source of the lyrics to http://rabbism.blogspot.com/2005/07/tere-bin-rabbi-shergill-lyrics.html.

Thanks To Anubhav !

Rajnikant - Stuntman - Cartoon


I got this today and I think it was worthy enough to be posted here ... !

Rajnikanth (with an extra h) here shooting a bad guy in an almost impossible stunt !

septemberthe22nd - Updated !

After I was Tired and almost met a freak accident, I have updated my photolog with pics from my Chandratal trip last september.

Please see and as always put some comments :) Here is a sample ... to show off the hidden photographer in me !

Chandratal - Revisited - The Lake - Upside Down?



In September last year, I went trekking to Chandratal and it was one helluva trip. Here are some more pics from the forgotten land.

The Chandratal Lake - Upside Down
2005 September: Chandratal Trip

Chandratal - Revisited - The Serpentine Roads !


In September last year, I went trekking to Chandratal and it was one helluva trip. Here are some more pics from the forgotten land.

The Serpentine Roads
2005 September: Chandratal Trip

Chandratal - Revisited - Dusk? Dawn?


In September last year, I went trekking to Chandratal and it was one helluva trip. Here are some more pics from the forgotten land.

Dusk? Dawn?
2005 September: Chandratal Trip

Chandratal - Revisited - Living on the Edge


In September last year, I went trekking to Chandratal and it was one helluva trip. Here are some more pics from the forgotten land.

Living on the Edge !
2005 September: Chandratal Trip

Price Arbitrage at Delhi Metro

Delhi Metro is one of the coolest things to have happened to the Delhi Infrastructure. Traveling is not a hassle anymore. You are saved from the Delhi weather, you save on a lot of time and people don’t spit anywhere and if you can believe, people actually take a bath before boarding Delhi Metro.

I love Delhi and like Delhi Metro not only for the convenience it offers. It also offers a price arbitrage opportunity. Delhi Metro uses an automated magnetic token system for ticketing. You can buy tokens for a single journey or you can buy a travel card valid for longer durations or more number of journeys. These travel cards are available in multiples of 50 bucks and a refundable security deposit of 100 bucks. You can thus pay 150 bucks and get a card that would have a travel allowance of 50 bucks. And yes, Delhi Metro gives a 10% added bonus on the amount you put in. In effect I get 55 bucks worth of travel money if I give them 50 bucks.

And this is where things get interesting. Now if I return this card, I get 100 as the refund and I get whatever amount is left on the card, I get that back too. Basically if I return the card without using at all, I can get 210 for putting 200 upfront. We are talking about a ROI of 5% without doing anything at all.

And if someone has the intent and patience, he can stand there all day long and buy and return and buy and return and so on and so forth. I am not even counting the annualized rate of return that one can make on Delhi Metro.

More details about Delhi Metro are available here.

Happy birthday Shahrukh Khan

SRK is one person I have started to idolize recently. If I was asked a reason for this sudden spring in admiration, I would not have any answers. Its just that he is one of those people who have achieved whatever they set out to do.

A friend told me about his life and times right from the time he was a schoolboy in Delhi. He has excelled at anything and everything he has put his hands into. Then in one of the interviews he has said he always wanted to conquer the world one day and hasn’t he realized it already (he has turned 42).

There are more things that I would like to write but as always I aint got no time to spare.

And yeah if anyone is actually reading this, please understand that my preferences in life have not changed. Men can also like (read admire) other men.

The problems of being jack of all trades

I have always considered myself a jack of all trades. I have been and still am a writer, reader, philosopher, cricketer, politician, strategist, painter, photoshop artist, collector of things, singer, dancer, stock trader, blogger, biker, and a lot many things that I cant recall at this moment.

As I always say there are two sides of a coin - a good one and a not so good one. Good one is easy to see and interesting to know about. To start with I know and get to know a lot of things about lot of subjects (had I been a management consultant, I could have called myself a 360 degrees consultant). Secondly I can stand in a mob and talk about things (and I would be a wrong a lot of times). Thirdly I can move from one thing to other and then another and never get bored of things. Fourth and most importantly I would have good memories of doing these things.

And since there are proverbial two sides, I should also talk about things I think are not good about being a jack of all trades. First and foremost you are not considered an expert or an authority on a subject until or unless you show the world that you have spent all your life in pursuing higher truths in a particular subject. For example I can be a remarkable photographer (which I am not), I would not be considered even an average photographer till I have a huge website with million links to other photography websites and extensive articles talking about merits and demerits of different cameras and tripods and technical details of shutter speeds etc.

Ok so you are not an authority, what next? I think second people (read crowd) would fail to give you credit for some masterpieces that you might have produced. Again the basic assumption is I want credit and second (actually second should be first) I might actually produce some masterpiece. For simplicity (I love it), lets assume that both of the assumptions are true. What happens if you are not given due credit for your masterpiece? Me, I am just a mortal human being with all the feelings that intellectuals talk about, I would get hurt (to put it simply). And second I would not be given more work which I am sure I can do as good as anyone else (or may be better too).

Authority - no, credit - no, whats next? I think third worst thing about being a jack of all trades lies in the later part of maxim … jack of all trades but master of none. This one is more personal than the first two. I would not be very comfortable with a lot of things if I see gray matter. There should be two end to a point. You know it or you don't know it. If you are jack of all trades, there is a higher probability that you won't know it. There is still a chance that you might know it all and this is the place where I am trying to reach ... !

Lukka Chuppi - Rang De Basanti

Ths is one of those songs that are too beautiful to be a MOM-SON song ...

Title: Lukka Chippi
Movie: Rang De Basanti
Singer: Lata Mangeshkar, AR Rahman

Luka Chuppi bahut huyi saamne aa ja naa
Kahan kahan dhoondha tujhe
thak gayi hai ab teri maa

Aaja saanjh hui mujhe teri fikar
Dhundhla gayi dekh meri nazar aa ja na (2)

Kya bataoon maa kahan hoon main
Yahan udney ko mere khula aasmaan hai
Tere kisson jaisa bhola salona
jahan hain yahan sapno vala
Meri patang ho befikar udd rahi hai maa
Dor koi loote nahin beech se kaate na

Aaja saanjh hui mujhe teri fikar
Dhundhla gayi dekh meri nazar aa ja na

Teri raah takey aankhiyaan
jaane kaisa kaisa hoye jiyaa (2)

Dhire dhire aangan utre andhera, mera deep kahan
Dhalke suraj kare ishara chanda tu hai kahan
Mere chanda tu hai kahan
Luka Chuppi bahut huyi saamne aa ja naa
Kahan kahan dhoondha tujhe thak gayi hai ab teri maa

Aaja saanjh hui mujhe teri fikar
Dhundhla gayi dekh meri nazar aa ja na (2)

kaise tujhko dikhaun yahaan hai kya
Maine jharne se paani maa tod ke piya hai
Guchcha guchcha kai khwabon ka uchal ke chuwa hai
Chaaya liya bhali dhoop yahaan hai
Naya naya sa hai roop yahan
Yahaan sab kuch hai maa phir bhi
lage bin tere mujhko akela

Aaja saanjh hui mujhe teri fikar
Dhundhla gayi dekh meri nazar aa ja na (3)

Numb3rs - Reloaded

I posted Numb3rs on August 26, 2006 and since then (about 51 days) few of them have changed. Here is an updated list...

04p050 - My roll no at MDI (this can't change)
1982 - Year I was born in (neither can this)
22 - My Date of Birth (no luck here too)
24 (26) - My age (ah change !!!!)
22:10 - Time on the clock at the bottom right of my screen (yipeeee)
229 - My hostel room at MDI in first year (nopes)
309 - Mu hostel room at MDI in second year (nah)
364 - My house number in Delhi (still the same home sweet home)
879 - My house number in Gurgaon (no more a gurgaava resident)
5K6231GTSZB - My iPod number (got my ipod replaced and hence the change)
9810840224 (dont use this number anymore) - My cell phone number (and if you want to call me ..;))
P0505***** - My driving license number (nopes, its the same)

And to add things .. I just bought a jeans and my waist size now is 36 inches .... !!!!

Last Updated: 7 Apr 2009

Aaj Tak - Looking into the future !

I always thought headline was something of a paramount importance to the world. It could change the way we live and affect everyone's life. However, Aaj Tak has a different idea or I am too dumb to understand what they are talking about.

Just a few minutes ago, Aaj Tak flashed the following headline. "Poonam Sethi ki bhavishyavani ... kal jeet sakta hai England toss". If I could take liberties in translating it, it means tomorrow in the cricket match England can win the toss. From what ever uncommon common sense I have, I can easily deduce that both England and India have 50 percent chances each of winning the toss. In effect England can actually win the toss. And Poonam Sethi and Aaj Tak may prove to be correct.

I thought everyone found it as idiotic as me but again I realized I was wrong. As I was typing this, someone just called up Aaj Tak and asked them what the probability of someone getting hurt is. And bang came the reply ... no need to worry ... there would not be any major injuries. Wow. People actually think a lady can predict things.

If someone can read what hasn't been written yet, can she please tell me when would I become a millionaire.. :D ?

Mumbhai - Bombay Boys - Javed Jaffery

Title: Mumbhai
Singer: Javed Jaffery
Movie: Bombay Boys

My name is Bhai... Mumbhai.

Mumbhai ekdum danger place
where u survive.. if u got the pace
u gotta be fast.. u gotta be tez
u gotta be Shaana.. to win the race
Chota chota matter bane police case
bada bada lafda gul without trace.
but ghabrane ka nahi..give it in the face
woh kya bolta hai? haan. Jaisa Des waisa bhes.

Dekhe behti Ganga, pocket se nikle Kanga
dekhte rehna panga.. nahi to ho jaayega danga
some people are bhala changa..
some are bheek manga
Cannot judge anybody... sharif or lafanga.

Bhaigiri ko chod sab.. BAKWAAS
Bhai ka under jo rehta.. BINDAAS
Bhai ko denga tras, hoenga woh khallas
bahenga uska blood just like tomato sauce.

(Are baap re...)

Khaane ka peene ka marne ka jeene ka
chalne ka phirne ka uthne ka girne ka
tension nahi lene ka bhai se poochne ka
Kasakai bhara hai I am Mumbhai.

Aane ka Jaane ka naachne ka gaane ka
nahane ka dhone ka hasne ka rone ka
boom nahi maarne ka bhai se poochne ka
Kasakai bhara hai I am Mumbhai.

Hey. Beer bar dance bar... (baar baar lagataar)
ha. note chaapne ke liye... (solid hai karobar)
Bhai ke adda par dikhtha hai jo ek baar
udharich reh jaata hai chodke apna ghar baar.

Petition, election, Telephone connection
construction permission, illegal erection
paisa nu collection, paper nu correction...
everything perfection jabhi le le bhai action.

Court mein agar jaayenga tho bees saal ka thamba
law and order se tho Pandu bhai ka haath hai lamba
Neta, abhineta.. ya ho koi builder
Bhai ko dekar supari karwata hai murder.
Haath mein uska power hai, sab uska aage jhukta
uska khopdi sanak gaya tho pura mumbai rukta.

(Ae... Khatam nahi hua Chootiye...)

Ae Bass Guitar....
Piplee..
Ae Banjo...Chal...
Orchestra.
Comeon baby...ha
Comeon baby...ha
Chorus...

Khaane ka peene ka marne ka jeene ka
chalne ka phirne ka uthne ka girne ka
tension nahi lene ka bhai se poochne ka
Kasakai bhara hai I am Mumbhai.

Aane ka Jaane ka naachne ka gaane ka
nahane ka dhone ka hasne ka rone ka
boom nahi maarne ka bhai se poochne ka
Kasakai bhara hai I am Mumbhai.

Ae.. maarega sar pe haagega ghar pe kya?
zyada shaaning nahi karne ka..
Kasakai bara hai I am Mumbhai.

Are aasmani kabootar...
balcony se nikal kar ishtol mein aa ishtol mein.
Khopche mein leke diyun kya kharcha pani.. huh?

Ae kai re..Shaanpana karta kai jaayela.
ae... e Gheun tak..Gheun tak.
Kasakai bara hai I am Mumbhai.

Kya raapcha hai boss..
Ye raapcha nahi rapchandus hai chote...
rapchandus Kasakai bhara hai I am Mumbhai.

Ae.. yap bugger. dont yap ok?
One bloody kaanpat you'll get
you see you'll stand a day man
ha bloody Granfatherdi aulad.
Chal chal...

hey hey...
andar dekhoo, hagne chala
dekhto re. ye dekh eh.. Ghanta.

Ae.. kya re? Area mein aake jhol nahi karne ka
bola na tere ko?
Bhai hai main bhai idhar ka..
samjha na bhai hai.

Ae kya re? Bhai bhai.. huh?
tu bhai hai to hum bhi behin hai. samjha?
Abhi dhande ka time hai... mere ko jaane ka.
aata kya?.... kahandala.
nahi to jake thanda la . Ja.

Bhai chai mangaun kya?

Advertisements on Orkut

Once upon a time I read somewhere that Orkut would never had any advertisements. Today I just saw "sponsored links" on Orkut...

Paranthe Wali Gali

It was about 9:30 in the evening when all of a sudden me and my friends decided lets eat out. We were in the car and couldn't decide where to go and then I spring up with this idea of going to paranthe wali gali in Chandani Chowk in Old Delhi. Me and both my friends are big big foodies and can eat any amount of food. And on top of everything else, all of us are typical north Indians with a special sweet tooth towards paranthe and lassi and aachar ... mmm (mouth-watering starting already ..:0)

So we were off to Old Delhi, met atleast 4 ramlilas (there could be more smaller but there were 4 major ones), one circus, millions of people jostling about in the city, 3 unmanned police barricades (at Preet Vihar, ITO and Lal Quila), 12 green traffic lights, 2 red traffic lights (we jumped those) on the way. When we finally reached there we for our lives could not locate paranthe wali gali. Everyone kept telling us that it is between Gurudwara Seesganj Sahib and Nai Sarak but we must have circled that road atleast 5 times and we still could not find it. Oh yeah in all this hoopla we could easily locate a McDonalds, a Haldirams and a Sony showroom in the oldest part of Delhi. We are truly globalized ... !

Anyways we asked lot of people and finally reached there to find out that the gali is not a gali ... There are three shops in all and that is all there is to paranthe wali gali. Before I actually went there, I thought it would be a long road with eateries on both sides of the road with chairs and tables scattered along the road. Probably you wouldn't be allowed to take your car in on that road and you could only walk. But as they reality is different from dreams, it was a small alley with only three parantha shops.

Coming to the real issue - the paranthes ... They were GODlike. You could have aalo, paneer, gobhi, cheeni, matar, rabri, plain, zera. lachha, any parantha you want. The choices in paranthas were maddening. Sadly they did not have a pyaz parantha - my personal favorite. And before I forget, three of us ate 16 paranthes and 2 glass (if you can a 2 feet long cylindrical thing a glass) full of lassis. And all for mere 250 odd bucks.

And by the way they stop taking orders after 11 PM... If anyone is plannig to go there, reach there well in time.

Aashaayen - Iqbal

Nagesh Kukunoor is one of the few people I like in Bollywood. Rockford still remains my favorite movie, I can watch it umpteen number of times. One of his other movies is Iqbal and there is a track by KK called Aashaayen ...

Singer: KK + others
Lyrics:
aashaayen ...
aashaayen ...
kutch paane ki ho aas aas
kutch armaan ho jo khaas khaas
aashaayen ...
har koshish mein ho waar waar
kare dariyao ko aar paar
aashaayen ...
toofano ko chir ke
manzilo ko chin le
(aashaayen khile dil ki
ummeedein hase dil ki
ab mushkil nahi kutch bhi
nahi kutch bhi) - 2

o ho o...

udd jaaye leke khushi
apne sang tujhko waha
jannat se mulakat ho
puri ho teri har dua
(aashaayen khile dil ki
ummeedein hase dil ki
ab mushkil nahi kutch bhi
nahi kutch bhi) - 2

aashaayen ...
gujre aaisi har raat raat
ho khwaahisho se baat baat
aashaayen ...
lekar suraj se aag aag
gaaye ja apne raag raag
aashaayen ...
kutch aaisa karke dikha
khud khush ho jaaye khuda

(aashaayen khile dil ki
ummeedein hase dil ki
ab mushkil nahi kutch bhi
nahi kutch bhi) - 2

o ho o...


teri woh raftaar ho
roke se bhi tu na ruke
haasil kar aaisa shikhar
parbat ki bhi nazrein uthe

(aashaayen khile dil ki
ummeedein hase dil ki
ab mushkil nahi kutch bhi
nahi kutch bhi) - 2
aashaayen - 3



And text in bold hold a special significance for me .. !

iWant iPod iAgain

I just bought an iPod Nano. Its not even a couple of month, an all new iPod nano is in the market. Needless to say, I want it. I think I would sell the one I have and get the new one.

Happens quite often with me. The moment I buy something, there is an announcement about a better deal. If only I would have delayed the purchase by a couple of months, I would have been able to lay my hands onto a new one. Anyways I have been taught by one of my professors that a decision made under available information should not be criticized in view of new information.

Colour Blind

Once upon a time, I went to get my driver's license made. There were a few tests to be taken - including a colour blindness test. I flunked that test. I thought the inspector there was trying to fleece me and get bribe out of me. Anyways I got the license made and thats an old story.

Yesterday I was trying to download some files off rapidshare. Rapidshare uses CAPTCHA to fend off automated downloads. To download the file, I had to look at the following image and key it in. And I wasn't able to read it. I still can't.

I could get the file after refreshing the page and "decoding" another picture but thats not the point. The point remains I am now proven colour blind.. .!

Amazon Mechanical Turk

Amazon Mechanical Turk is the answer to people who thought human intelligence is out and artificial intelligence is here to stay (that reminds me, I used to call myself Artificially Intelligent at one point in time).

The concept is simple. Amazon is trying to create artificial intelligence artificially. Most of the tasks can be performed by machines better than humans and then there are tasks that a machine can't even think of doing and humans are completely at ease with them. mturk uses image recognition as an example. CAPTCHA is designed around the premise that humans can read the images and machines can not. mturk calls these tasks HITs.
A Human Intelligence Task, or HIT, is a question that needs an answer. A HIT represents a single, self-contained task that you can perform to completion and collect a reward. You may do as many HITs as you like, whenever you like, in any order.

mturk helps everyone. People can get their work done at low costs from many people (use crowd-sourcing), people can make money and in turn Amazon can make money from exchange and then they must be hoping that some people end up spending money they earn on Amazon itself ... !!!!

Oh yes, the project is still in BETA and yet to catch up. When it is up and running, may be I can put my blog as a HIT ... ?

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. :)

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.

First post MBA salary

My first ever job was when I was in 5th or 6th standard or maybe even younger. Me and a few friends brought together our comic books and started a rent shop. You as a customer could come in and rent our comic books and magazines for 50 paisa a day. I of course don’t remember now how much we made and how we spent that money. But today, I made the first purchases from my first post MBA salary.

Over the years I have worked and made quite a few things include the time I was working for HCL, Babel. I started my full time post MBA work here at my new company and today I spent my first salary. Of course I did not spend the entire amount but I did spend substantial amount. I bought R K Laxman's autobiography - The Tunnel of Time and That Man On The Road. Next on the list is Kaleidoscope.

And of course there would be more things ... This page shall be updated as and when I acquire them or think about acquiring them... !

Removing hpmsnt32.exe

After removing se.dll, today I had to remove Srchui.dll and hpmsnt32.exe. This file is also known as HP Compaq Presario driver file or HP Compaq driver or some variant.

I was back on my desktop after a few days and found something malicious has taken over it. A Virus? Trojan? Spyware? Something was bothering my poor desktop because all my anti-virus software were not working, Microsoft AntiSpyware was not working, taskmgr aka Task Manager was not working, regedit aka Registry Editor was not working and the computer was acting funny. Something was wrong.

I copied the file regedit.exe from the windows directory and pasted it on the desktop. Renamed it regedit1.exe. Opened it and realized that this file (hpmsnt32.exe) was there in CurrentVersion > Run. And here is the root of the problem. I thought I would have to wipe the hard disk clean and then install everything but again I thought lets try summoning the lady luck. And for a change, I indeed got lucky.

I copy pasted taskmgr.exe also and renamed it taskmgr1.exe. I executed it and killed the process in the memory. Opened registry using the regedit1.exe and deleted all the instances of the dreaded word. Turned the computer off (did not use the classical Shut Down method, just unplugged it). Restarted to find everything in working condition and it made my day :)

If there are any people reading this and are facing the same issue, please follow the steps of removal I mentioned above. Of course if someone wants a clearer picture and a DIY tutorial, please email me. I work for ipods ;)

Black

No, this is not about the excellent movie by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, but this is about troubles faced by black (or as they have started referring to us as - colored) people. I am one of those who are blessed with black color and there are times when things get interesting.

Every time I go to a barber to get a shave done (which is at least once in a week affair since I don't know how to shave and I just came back after getting a shave), people there assume that I want to look fairer and I am offered free samples of facial bleech, face massages, fairness creams and new hair color that would make me look fair. One question. Why do they think I want to look fairer? Can't I be happy the way I am? I do not want to look fairer. Fullstop. Period. I wonder how many fair people are offered darkness creams, sun lamp treatments etc.

Anyways, the problem is not only limited to a barber, there are other places where we could do with some freedom. If you ever had a dark cousin, you would know that one of the qualities of the suitable match for him/her is fair skin color. The match could be illiterate, dumb as a dodo, but should not be dark. (This could be biased; my family at least, wants to have fair colored members). This is again stupid. The most important decision of your life can not be just based on the color of the skin.

Goto a designer clothes showroom. They would recommend specific type of cloth material, specific colors, different styles all together just to make sure that you look fairer.

Barber - its ok, he is not bothered about you or your well being. He wants to sell more products and services and make money. Same is true for boutiques. Your family wants the best for you. They want you to get good looking (fairness is equal to good looking in India) partner. Did anyone ask me (us) my (our) preferences?

Just wondering if Mr. Charles Darwin was correct about his theory of natural selection and survival of the fittest, a day should come when all the dark colored members of the Homosapient species are ...

Xtra special song ... Phoolon Ka Taaron Ka

Here is yet another song ...

Title: Phoolon Ka Taaron Ka
Movie: Hare Rama Hare Krishna
Singer: Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar
Music: Rahul Dev Burman
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi

Lyrics
Phoolon Ka Taaron Ka Sabka Kehna Hai
Ek Hazaron Mein Meri Behna Hai
Sari Umar Hame Sang Rehna Hai

Ye Na Jaana Duniya Ne Tu Hai Kyon Udaas
Teri Pyaari Aankhon Mein Pyar Ki Hai Pyaas
Aa Mere Paas Aa Keh Jo Kehna Hai
Ek Hazaron Mein Meri Behna Hai

Jabse Meri Aankhon Se Ho Gayi Tu Door
Tabse Sare Jeevan Ke Sapne Hain Choor
Aankhon Mein Neend Na Dil Mein Chaina Hai
Ek Hazaron Mein Meri Behna Hai

Dekho Hum Tum Dono Hain Ek Dali Ke Phool
Maein Na Bhoola Tu Kaise Mujhko Gai Bhool
Aa Mere Paas Aa Keh Jo Kehna Hai
Ek Hazaron Mein Meri Behna Hai

Jeevan Kay Dukhon Sey Youn Darte Nahin Hain
Aise Bach Kay Sach Sey Gujarte Nahin Hain
Sukh Ki Hai Chah To Dukh Bhi Sehna Hai
Ek Hazaron Mein Meri Behna Hai

Haloscan discontinued

For a long time, comments were powered by Comments and TrackBack powered by HaloScan.

Starting today, I would use the comment feature on blogger.com only. I would loose some precious comments but as they say "You win some, you loose some"...

Indian - Unity in diversity?

We have always been taught all our lives - India represents Unity in Diversity. Spread over more than 26 states and union territories, we stand united whenever we are in dire straits. Indian Army, Indian Bureaucracy, Indian Sports teams etc. are made up of people from all the places in the country we can think of. We said moving from Kashmir to KanyaKumari we would change language every 500 kilometers and change lifestyle every 1000 kilometers. But in effect everyone "different" was bound by identical spirit of Indianism.

However behind this rosy picture, there is something glaring that probably we all have continued to miss and we maintain a blind eye towards it.

Anywhere in the country, schools, colleges, workplaces, research institutions, even defense forces, it is very easy to spot groups of people moving together. Groups not made out of interest, but groups made on regional basis. All north Indian stick together, all Maharastriyans move as a group, all Tamilians prefer to speak in Tamil even when in company of other people, all Bengalis would prefer to find other Bengalis. Army has a separate Jaat Regiment, Gurkha Rifles, so forth and so on (I don't know much about army though). And with this kind of segregation, where is the "unity in diversity" we always preached?

There was a time when people of the entire nation would stand together and fight for the common cause. Remember the fight for independence? Now people from a particular region would come together and demand their own state because they think that they are a distinct group and their unique problems can only be sorted out by a separate state.

It's a shame but I admit I don't know the exact number of states that we have now, when I was in school there were 25 states and 7 UTs but there have been splits ever since, difficult to keep track. I don't even remember how many splits have we had in last 15 years. There was one in Bihar, one in Madhya Pradesh, one in Uttar Pradesh. That's all I remember as of now. Are we soon approaching time when we have more than 1000 regions because we have that many number of major dialects?

People often ask me "where are you from?" question. If I say I am an Indian, they need further explanations. They just can not digest the fact that a person could just be an Indian. He has to be Marwari, Baniya, Punjabi, Sindhi etc. Can we come out of this silo mentality? What would it take to come out of the silo mentality?

As an Indian - only Indian, not as a Baniya, Marwari, Haryanvi I sincerely feels something ought to be done about this. Of course I don't have a "sensational" issue. There would be no support from Indian media until I throw some allegations of caste discrimination on a prominent leader.

Of chain letters, bad luck and misfortunes

Since I spend a bit too much time on internet, my email address is common knowledge and thus I get a huge number of chain letters. A typical letter asks me to forward the same to 7 guys on average (some even want me to send it to 10,000 people). They further proclaim that if I indeed send it to all those people, I shall be rewarded and if I don't, I shall rot in hell and face the wrath of misfortunes and bad lucks for my next seven lives.

Needless to say, I haven't forwarded a single chain letter ever and may be this is the sole reason for all my miseries? May be it's about time I started forwarding those letters, add my name to I-am-stupid list and wait for the luck gods to shower the blessings ????

119 and counting ... !!!!

There is a phenomenon called Orkut. Phenomenon because every internet user I know in India is hooked onto it.

Today I logged in Orkut.com after about 15 days and this is the message I got ...
you have more friends to consider, please accept or decline the ones shown
WOW... I dint know that apart from 119 friends I have on Orkut, there could be more people interested in knowing me. There are 11 people waiting to add me and as the message says... "there are more people waiting to add me".

I dont have 'female' as my gender, nor I have some hot pic and I havent said that I own a ferrai ... Somethings wrong ... :D

On Public Demand

Today I realized that there indeed are a few people in the world who do read my BLOG. I was asked questions why I wasnt posting things on my BLOG. In my two years of blogging (career?), I have never come across a fan. But I guess things are about to change.

So I have been busy working. Working on what ..? Please do not ask me. I am not at liberties to discuss things. But rest assured I am very very happy working where I am working and I hope everyone enjoys their work as I am.

Apart from work, I realized that there are things that a business school can never never teach. In due course of time, I would like to talk about them (and they are not related to my work in any way).

Next on the agenda is my move to Gurgaon. I would be shifting base to gurgaon sometime this week. Sooner the better. Yet again I am looking forward to the change.

And to everyone who thought Delhi would not see any monsoons, the rains are here. It rained like crazy here and its been two days.

And I guess this should be enough to keep public happy :) (P.S.: I hope I get my ipod soon ;))

Something even Google can't find !!!!

For the last 20 years of my life, I have been looking for a girl who would be rich, has just the right looks, got a bit of brain and is the sole heiress of the entire fortune of her dad. Needless to say I have been unsuccessful.

So I though why not try Googling for her? I conjoured up all my techie skills and wrote a query. I wanted a "female" who was still "single" and had a "rich dad". She should be the "sole heiress" of the entire estate. Further I want her to have some kinda "brain". And finally ... this is not that important ... some "good looks".

The query goes like "single" "female" "rich dad" "sole heiress" "brain" "good looks".

I ran a google search hoping to get some help and realizing my life long dream of getting instant money and not having to work a single day again in my entire life ... :)


BUT


Google dissapointed me and I could not find a single result :( Guess there are things that even Google can't find ! May be it's time Larry and Serg got back to their research days and authored yet another "back"rub algorithm .. but may be with a human touch this time .. :)

Wish - List !

Tomorrow I am moving to Gurgaon for a week. I thought I would go to the local market and buy some essential things. I tried to be organized and I actually made a list of things to buy. The list looked like this ...
  1. A packet of Post-Its
  2. A box of pencils with eraser on one tip
  3. A couple of sharpners
  4. A couple of pens (one blue and one black)
  5. Lakme Sunscreen lotion
  6. Brand new shiny toothbursh
  7. A soap case
  8. Nivea talcum powder (yes, the list is getting personal)
  9. A pack of mentos (If you like mentos, watch this video - experiment with mentos and cola)

So I load up my wallet with some cash and a credit card and set off for the market. This ws about a quarter of an hour ago. I am back with nothing from the list, did'nt even take the wallet outta my pocket. I guess I was outta luck. I guess these people do not want me to leave this place and go Gurgaon. May be they have hidden their inventories :)

I wish I could order this list on Amazon or some other site and get them delivered at my doorstop. May be the next business idea... ?

Open Pit Mines and Google Earth

Google Earth is yet another free software that has helped me catch my fancies on the world wide web. I wanted to be a traveller - I have no resaon for it.

You dont live twice and you got to learn as much as possible for everyone.

Coming back to Google Earth, ever since I laid my hands on it, I have been visiting a lot of places, I might have been real close to your home at some point in time. Keep looking out for those peering eyes ;)

Anyways, one of the revelations was the Open Pit Mines. Looks awesome. I plan to go to one of the mines somoneday - physically ... !

Football World Cup in India !

If asked who are Gourmangi Singh, Samir Naik and Habibour Rahman, I am sure 90% people would not know. However if asked who are Van Rooney, Ronaldo and Kahn, people would blurt out names of these players, their clubs, their families and a host of things about these people. By the way the three people talked about earlier are few of the names from the Indian football Team.

Football World Cup is around the corner. In fact it started yesterday. Everyone from Sports Television to Business Channels to Hotels, Clubs and may be the ever essential Kirana Store people are on to cash the worldcup fever. And all that in India. India is ranked 118 in FIFA rankings and have had no chance of reaching the World Cup, however there are people who would love to be seen associated with Football.

Ask them about Hockey, they wont even know that Hockey is the national game of India. Ask them about kabbaddi, they wont know what exactly is the world. And after a few months, ask them about football, they wont know that either. Once every four years, entire nation is engulfed in the football fever. They might not know the history of the game, the rules and other important things but they are watching every game as if it was a matter of life and death for them.

I agree Kolkata crowd is most knowledgeable, educated and sophisticated in India. But having a MahaMritunjaya for Brazil is just out of my comprehension. If things could go right by just a maha mritunjaya, I would have mastered the art long time back. And I want to ask them when was the last time they even thought about problems in India, leave alone having a mahamritunjaya.

Finally I would want to analyze the reasons for the method behind the madness. Why everyone goes crazy about the world cup when it aint affecting their lives in any damn way possible !!!!

Guess What ... !!!!



Guess What ... !!!!
2006 June: Home

This is what my camera would click if you focus it somewhere and click ! I have plans of getting it fixed ...

Guess What ... !!!!



Guess What ... !!!!
2006 June: Home

This is what my camera would click if you focus it somewhere and click ! I have plans of getting it fixed ...

Haasil - The Movie

A long time back, a friend wanted a movie called Haasil. I got the disc for him and when I saw it, I found it WONDERFUL.

Few dialouges worth mentioning ...

    1. aur moaro saale aur jaan se maar dena..(haan maar denge saale)..kyoki agar hum reh gaye na to hum maarte der na lagayange ..bhagwan kasam
    2. kya pandit...bol rae the hume zinda naa chodana....hum maaarne mein der naa lagayenge
    3. Sex-Wex ho gaya..?
    4. Gaon chale jaayiye....gaon chale jaayein matlab bhaag jaayein.....arey maarein thappad tumhaari khopdi khul jaaye.....kaahe bhaag jaayein be......
    5. abey wo sarkaari gunde hai.....hum kraantikaari hain....tum sab girilla ho....gorilla vorilla padhe ho ki na padhe ho....
    6. itnee ghantiyan lagane kee kya jaroorat thee?? lagta hai kee dashare kee jhankee ja rahee hai..
    7. uncle main ranvijay .... laa phaayinal year
    8. suno ranvijay singh election tak unibirasty ke aas paas bhi nazar nahi aane chayie warna kam kar diye jayoge!!!
    9. yahi to dil to hamara bhi accha hai...ye sali ankhe...ankhe hi buri hai
    10. .....sivji ke bhakt hain... sara jahar to hamein hi pina hai.....

Funny Incident !

Its been long time since I posted a Yahoo conversation ...

aligaliali (6/7/2006 12:56:42 AM): hi
Self_1 (6/7/2006 12:56:49 AM): hello
aligaliali (6/7/2006 12:56:57 AM): hi
Self_1 (6/7/2006 12:57:02 AM): hello
aligaliali (6/7/2006 12:57:12 AM): r u male ?
Self_1 (6/7/2006 12:57:17 AM): yes
aligaliali (6/7/2006 12:57:24 AM): oki sory bay
Self_1 (6/7/2006 12:57:28 AM): bye

And that was what I heard last from him !!!!

I wonder what he/she/it was upto :D and needless to say ... I found this funny !!!!

Jhalak Dikhlaja - Bajaj Platnia

Jhalak Dikhlaja, a song from Himmesh Reshammaiya - I admit his music is good, but he can certainly stop singing - has been used in product launch for a new bike by Bajaj Auto.

Bajaj Platina launch has used Jhalak Dikhlaja for the campaign. Created by LOWE, this campaign can be viewed online here. MagIndia has a couple of print ads and the TVC.

Coming on to the much awaited review (my review :)), I think the product (Bajaj Platina) sucks. The "jhalak" part would fade away in a couple of months and the selling point of the bike - the shiny new looks would be gone. Further, there are lots of options for people when it comes to buying bikes. Coming on to the song, I think the song sucks big time (more than the BIKE). The lyrics are bad. The word aaja repeats throughout the song for eternity. Coming on to the Singer, the singer sings through the nose and all his songs sound the same. I am sure if you heard a piece of song, you wont be able to tell which song is that.

But ... yes BUT when the two (and product and worse song) are combined together in that ad by a genuis (the copyrighter, creative director and other people for the Bajaj Platina project at LOWE), the ad becomes a piece of art. Amazing picturization and direction. I think I have some kind of liking for the Black n White species.

Bachchans are worth Rs 227 cr

This appeared in Times of India
Lucknow: Her rivals may dismiss her as a political lightweight but her assets would be the envy of most. Jaya Bachchan, who filed nomination papers for Rajya Sabha on Thursday, is from a family worth Rs 227 crore on paper.

According to information in the nomination papers, Amitabh Bachchan's assets are Rs 190 crore while she herself has Rs 37 crore in property and jewels. Jaya claimed that she has Rs 11.41 lakh in bank deposits, while her husband has another Rs 3.27 crore in his name. Bachchans also have an investment of over Rs 137 crore in shares. Of this, Jaya's share is Rs 3.09 crore, the rest is Amitabh's.

Jaya claimed she owns jewellery worth Rs 3.67 crore and her husband's jewellery is worth Rs 2.91 crore. Apart from gold ornaments worth Rs 27.18 lakh and 364 kg silver, Jaya also owns Rs 3.22 crore worth of diamonds.

On the other hand, her papers said Amitabh owns 394.55 kg silver worth Rs 15.78 lakh, Rs 1.88 crore worth of pearls and diamonds and Rs 36.20 lakh worth of other ornaments. He also owns watches worth Rs 7.5 lakh.

The couple also owns more than a dozen cars, including a Land Cruiser and a BMW. Jaya and Amitabh also own other movable properties worth Rs 16.41 crore and Rs 29.56 crore respectively.

Jaya's immovable properties, according to the nomination papers, comprise a plot worth Rs 35 lakh in Noida and a flat worth Rs 25 lakh in Bhopal. She also has a bungalow worth Rs 13.5 crore in Juhu, Mumbai.


A Real Life Crime Thriller ... ?

It looks like a plot right out of a Jeffery Archer or a John Grisham novel.

A very fast emerging country. A very enigmatic and popular leader. An important man in the opposition party of the democracy. Equal number of followers and mudslingers. Some people claim that the leader was corrupt and took bribes in tunes of millions of rupees.

One fine day his own brother shoots him thrice from point blank in broad day light. The leader, fighter he is, grapples with life and death for 12 days in hospital before succumbing to bullet wounds. The brother says he was used as a discarded toilet paper by the leader.

A month later, the only son of the slain leader is brought into the hospital. The servants claim that the son complained of breathing problems after a late night party at his house. Preliminary investigations reveal the case of food poisoning, alcohol consumption and drug (cocaine) abuse. Along with the son, the secretary of the slain leader is also reported DOA (Dead on Arrival).

Servants report three unidentified youths in the home, brought in by the recently killed secretary without any authorization and security checks. The autopsy of the secretary reveals poison in the gut. Police recover white powder on dead secretary, ill son and the house. The staff cleared the crime scene by "cleaning" the bottles, glasses and vomit.

The son, like the father is in the hospital, on life support system, fighting away the ultimate truth. The cops are waiting to question the son.

(to be contd ...)

The leader in here is late Mr. Pramod Mahajan. The son is Rahul Mahajan. The dead secretary is Vivek Moitra. It is reported that he was supposed to visit Assam to complete the last rites of his late father.

Google ... TM !!!!

Today I noticed a little TM next to all the Google Logos. Insignificant little addition to the Google Logo. Wonder what they are upto ... !

Wikipedia talks about Trademark here.

Medico Strike - My Point of View ...

I can't seem to find a single thing that the students have achieved by protesting and fasting. However there is a huge list of things that they have lost.

To start things of, reservation is incorrect. Politically, ethically, morally it is incorrect. Coming on to strikes, agitations, mass movements and the fallout, I think they are all uncalled for. The govt. has to do what it has to do and it would not stir from all these agitations.

Few things of note would be ...
1. After the lathicharge on "students" at mumbai, a couple of professional event managers were caught. One of them actually went on air a television channel and talked about problems that they were facing and his personal distress. I wonder what kind of distress was he under. May be not getting his payments?

2. Then there were campaigns on sms nationwide. People said students sitting on hunger strike have died and media is barred from going there and talking to them. Wow. The next moment there is HoD of AIIMS on media and declined the allegations made. Are we trying to win our "fight" against reservation by false campaigns and rumors?

3. Further it was said people from all over the country are coming for a rally in Delhi. A "leader" of the movement told media that he had been requested by these 2000 students from other states to make arrangements for boarding and lodging. I don't know if people have an idea of the kind of logistics required to manage 2000 people but it was impossible in every sense of the world for just students to manage it. And what about the money? Assuming that you spend mere 100 rupees for every student that comes down to the capital, we are talking about 2,00,000 rupees. This is no small sum for 500 odd medical students in Delhi.

4. Then there was a website and they were openly asking for contributions (in kind) from people. Agreed that no money is changing hands but why ask them ... ? Wasnt it a student run initiative? Didnt they say they would not involve anyone who is not a student?

5. The day Supreme Court said it will hold people in contempt .. the strike was over. I wonder if honorable Supreme Court would have stepped in on Day 1.. could we have seen all those people on streets thoughtout India?

6. One of the main organizers were quoted in media as saying that they did all that to get attention from media. Now the strike is over, I hardly see any mention of medicos and reservations in Media. May be they were correct. May be Indian media is about sensational journalism ...?

Confessions of a Value Investor !

For a long time, Mr. Warren Buffett held the post of the best long time investor. His investing philosphy is simple. He would identify a company that he thinks would do well in future, make sure that the managers running the company are good and invest heavily in them. Finally he would wait and wait and wait ... Over a period of time (he is still waiting) his investment would sit there, multiply under the ever increasing compound interest.

But I guess very soon there would be a new long term investor .. ME (Mr. Buffett is still waiting with his stocks). I wanted to be someone who would invest for a short period, turn inventory and make quick buck. I wanted to buy stocks, make intra-day trades mostly or hold on for atmost a week and cash in. But looking at the current movements in the Indian stock market, I am bound to become a long term investor. I simply can not sell they reach the levels I bought them at. This is indeed a bad investing philosphy considering that I might end up with a lot more loss than if I had had a stop-loss figure and exited in time.

Discliamer:
I hold Mr. Buffett in vey high regard and I wish someday I could get even 1% of what he is today. This post is just to indicate that Indian Stock Markets are very very volatile at this moment.

P.S.: I want to go and work for him some day ... :)

If someone is interested in reading about Charlie Munger (he is the low-profile partner of Mr. Buffett) ... here are a few interesting links ...
Link 1 | Link 2 | Link 3

CAPTCHA aka Word Verification

CAPTCHA aka "completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart" is awesome. It helps people (rather website owners) filter out real, lame and unsuspicious users from automated bots. The concept is very simple. They display a word, obscure it with putting some graphic effects, adding lines, dots etc. and then display it at the authentication point on a website. They assume that machines a.k.a. bots won't be able to read it and a human would be able to. To authnticate yourself, you need to read and decipher whats on it and enter your credentials.

I would agree to disagree here. Its ok that you skem the thing so bad that a machine can not read it but sometimes (more often than not), its obscured so bad that I have hard times reading it. I have to refresh the page 5-6 times to get a comprehensible image and proceed. May be I am a machine, may be I am a bot and may be its about time I got my eyesight checked?

There are arguments both in the favour and against the technology and since I hate CAPTCHA, I would tend to favour the ones against it ;)

A detailed discription can be found on Captcha and Wikipedia.

Mario and Nintendo Amusement Park

Ever since I bought a controller for my laptop, I have been hooked onto old NES games ... Mario and Contra to name a few.

Further I think I am a Google stud and can search for anything ... I was searching for Mario vids and came across this page on Wikipedia. Needless to say vids were forgotten and werent thought about again for some time.

I also came across Nintendo Amusement Park. This is a place where students from ITP created "a real life obstacle course which a player jumps through using a power assist harness" based on the popular Mario series. They call this "Physically Augmented Reality". I wish I was in NY :( I want to try this so dearly ...

I posted about Ben Mario Piano long time back and it has helped me get a few hits... Here is a reference to it yet again.

:(

This article makes me sick ! There are people in dire need of help and few "doctors" are striking against something that is not relevant.

I hope some of them are reading this .. !

Things I Live By !

These are the things I plan to live by ...

1. If we have agreed on a time and you fail to turn up, I will leave.
2. When I call you, if you do not pick up in four rings, I will drop the call.
3. I will wear what I feel like. Do not push me for wearning anything other than shorts if I am not in office.

200*

Thursday, May 25, 2006
200 Not Out !


Sunday, January 18, 2004
Ok, Finally a BLOG.

I have been thinking about it since quite some time now when one fine day Aakash's BLOG became popular.

Will try to post stuff and see what else can you use the BLOGs for except for getting famous ;)

Aye Saala ... !!!

Movie: Rang De Basanti
Lyrics: Prasoon Joshi
Singer: Naresh Iyer and AR Rehman

Aye Saala...
Abhi Abhi, Huaa Yaqeen,
Ki Aag Hai, Mujh Mein Kahi
Hui Subaah, Main Chal Gaya
Suraj Ko Main, Nigal Gaya
Ruu-Ba-Ruu Roshni
Heyy - 2

Jo Gumshuda, Sa Khwaab Tha
Voh Mil Gaya, Voh Khil Gaya
Woh Loha Tha, Pighal Gaya
Kichhaa Kichhaa, Machal Gaya
Sitaar Mein, Badal Gaya
Ruu-Ba-Ruu Roshni Heyy - 2

(Dhuaan Chhataa Khula Gagan Mera
Nayi Dagar Naya Safar Mera
Jo Ban Sake Tu Hamsafar Mera
Nazar Mila Zara) - 2

Aandhiyon Se Jaghad Rahi Hai Lau Meri
Ab Mashaalon Si Bhad Rahi Hai Lau Meri
Naamo Nishaan, Rahe Na Rahe
Ye Kaaravaan, Rahe Na Rahe
Ujaale Mein, Pee Gaya
Roshan Huaa, Jee Gaya
Kyon Sehte Rahe
Ruu-Ba-Ruu Roshni
Heyy - 2

Dhuaan Chhataa Khula Gagan Mera
Nayi Dagar Naya Safar Mera
Jo Ban Sake Tu Hamsafar Mera
Nazar Mila Zara
Ruu-Ba-Ruu Roshni - 2
Heyy

Aye Saala - 4

Bridging the Gaps !


Bridging the Gaps !
2006 May: En Route to Yanker Pass, Himachal Pradesh

There were umpteen number of similar bridges connecting places, people and lives. A lesson to be learnt? May be !

More interesting and random clicks can be found at 04p050. (Advertising ;0)

Bridging the Gaps !


Bridging the Gaps !
2006 May: En Route to Yanker Pass, Himachal Pradesh

There were umpteen number of similar bridges connecting places, people and lives. A lesson to be learnt? May be !

The Sunlight !


The Sun trying to peep through the Clouds
2006 May: Yanker Pass, Himachal Pradesh

Reservation and Strikes

Yes you want to protest, you want to make yourself heard, there are million other ways to do it. A bandh is certainly not the way to go. If everyone who thought that he is being exploited came on the roads and summoned a bandh, there would be bandhs 24 x 7, 12 months a year.

I know doctors study real hard and have a lot of brains but apart from making themselves heard and getting the media attention what are the things that we stand to loose?

1. Disruption of normal life. It might just be another day for striking medicos but for some it might be a matter of life and death. Someone could be on the way to his interview and he can not reach there. Why? Because some doctors are protesting.

2. Loss of Public Money. There are some people who would pay taxes. The money that comes from taxes is used for making doctors, paying policemen, erecting infrastructure. When a certain group of people decides to strike, they are wasting important resources.

3. Students themselves. I know they are the best brains in the country and can do no wrong but what about the time that they have wasted on all this hoopla? I think it would be the 13th day tomorrow. We are talking about 13 days of missing classes, 13 days of utter disrespect, 13 days of neglect towards the patients and 13 days of shame.

Ofcourse there are more things to say but maybe later...
P.S.: Before some doctor decides to burn my effigy and gimme some kinda erratic medicine, here is the disclaimer in bold. I am against resevation based on social grounds.

From Tables to CSS

A complete redesign of the Blog and the Website is keeping me busy now a days. I hope to complete eveything before I start working.

I am trying to eliminate (or minimize) the use of tables in my pages and port everything to CSS. And in process, I might come up with a new design.

Need loads of luck :D (As if people actually read the blog :D)

Sensex down more than 800 points !

When people throughout India were talking about Da Vinci Code, Reservations and Elections, something significant happened. The sensex tumbled by more than 800 points in a single day. Going by the records, this is the single largest intra day fall ever recorded in history (in terms of absolute numbers though)

I am not a finance person, I would not have detailed account and analysis on the situation but since I proclaim all the time that I have huge amount of common sense, I can talk about something that appealed to me. To start with it was a very good time to invest. Since most of the stocks were down by 4-5% than their regular values, an excellent oppurtunity exists. Further since markets are going down by this huge amount, they are bound to bouce back (Newton's law). And finally with all the other investment oppurtunities being unattractive, equity markets is the in thing.

So why did the sensex tumble like it has never done before? It was attributed intially to global dip in stock prices. Then somehow there was a report that FIIs would be charged 40% interest and then to top everything else, the metals were doing badly. As they say a cascading effect setup in the market and the results are for everyone to see.

I would again say that I am not a finance guy but I think the entire stock market depending on just FII is bad for health. Is there a mechanism by which we limit the participation of FII in the bourses?

Open Letter to the People of the World

I do not have a Million Dollar Homepage where I could sell pixels, I don't have One Red Paper Clip which I could trade, I don't have a soul that I could auction on the web, I don't have any pets called Toby that I could threaten to kill, I don't know how to run an adsense fraud and make millions sitting at home ... but I do know one thing. I want an iPod !

This is an open appeal to the people of the world (going by the stats, world consists of two visitors I have on this blog) - Please donate me an ipod. All I am asking for is just one ipod 1 GB shuffle - nothing more and nothing less. And if you can not donate, get me one if you are coming from US. I checked on amazon, one iPod Shuffle 1GB is only $99 in US. I could have bought it here but It is not available here. They say its out of stock. And according to ebay, if it was available, it would be atleast Rs. 7000.

If there is humanity, if there is god in the world and angels in the heaven and satan in hell, if there are enough millionaires left around, if there are flights connecting India and US, please please get me an ipod. I have a friend who is supposed to give me a gift upto the value of Rs. 3333. And thats my budget :D

And now ... Google NoteBook


Welcome to yet another service from Google. Google Notebook. Google Notebook is a nifty little tool that can be used to keep notes !

I don't know about other people but I have a habit of saving my thoughts all the time. I have an assorted collection of text files, doc files, html files, chits, post-its and what not with all my notes and random thoughts on em. I was wondering how to organize them. Yesterday only I saved a few as drafts on this very blog. Google Notebook might be the answer ...

The installation is easy. You download a 140 odd Kb file from their server, install it and you are done. It also informs that you can uninstall it from Add/Remove Programs any time you want and on top of everything else, it's very small and fast.

One of the best things about Google Notebook is universal accessibility. You could save your notes and view them anywhere in the world. All you need is Microsoft Internet Explorer and a Google Account. Once a notebook is created, it’s kept as private and no one has an access to the. Of course these notebooks can be made public also. You can just send an url to a public notebook to other people and let them view your notebook. My public notebook is located here.

However, Notebook is still in the Beta stage and they are working on it. Few features are still under development. Search - the backbone, is not functional as yet. They say "Search will be available in a few days".

Yet another handy tool from Google and yet another reason I want to work with them someday :)

"The" Da Vinci Code

Ever since Dan Brown published this piece of fiction/non-fiction/truth/fact etc. the world has split into two parts. First we have the people who think Dan Brown rocks for having written such a great book. And the second group is of the opinion that Dan Brown should rot in hell for even thinking about the Christ and Christians like that.

And just to get it on record, I am not against Christ, Christians or Christianity.

After the standard disclaimer about my religious intentions, I think that all the gung-ho about the book and now the movie is uncalled for. I mean the guy wrote what he thought could mint him fast cash. He did a good work at it and in my humble opinion he should be left alone.

I think there are far greater and graver problems in the world than thinking about the negative impact of the book/movie on the "people of the god". Why can't the protestors spend some time in helping people who can do away with some help rather than burning all those candles in the Vatican?

Further did these protestors ever think about the results of these protests? At least people like me would be even more curious to go and watch the movie, think about it, talk about it to everyone I know. They are giving huge huge publicity to the movie even before it hits the cinemas here in India.

And finally my last two cents is about the protest itself. I know a person living next door to me who would openly criticize Hindu god. Do we expect Iskon guys, Hindu priests, politicians, religious preachers to assemble in his yard and light candles and tie black bands across the arms, legs, faces and everywhere? Can we really do something about everyone who has a different opinion from masses? Why cant we leave the author, producer, director, everyone alone and let people decide for themselves if its worth watching or not? I think its time to grow up!!!!

Lost - at Yahoo Poker

One of the good things about Yahoo is the Yahoo Games service. You can login there and play a large number of games online with real people for free. Ever since I learnt Poker, I have been playing it online at Yahoo.

The results have been dissappointing. I have played about 50 rounds there and have won just one. May be I am a bad player, may be its difficult, my be I dont understand the game and the dynamics, may be I have an IQ of 33, may be I should go back to good old Teen Pattee...

Anyways the problem with playing online remains the fact that you can not see other people and guess what they are trying to do. A lot of people would have bluff written all over their faces when they would lie (something like the Top Secret files marked as CONFIDENTIAL in bold and capitals). This should be a good practise in knowing when to fold, when to bet and stuff. I would also know about the odds and ends of the game and hope to learn the game some day ... !

Me @ Yanker Pass (12500 feet) ...


Me, Myself and the Mountains
2006 May: Yanker Pass, Himachal Pradesh

This place is 12,500 feet above the sea level. Clicked by Mohit Jain.

The day for Junk Food

During my trek, we were given "simple, nutritious and vegetarion meal" only. It lasted around 9 days and we fled the trek after that. Coming back to Delhi, I was longing for some treatment to my tummy.

So I went and had the following within a span of 15 minutes ...
1. Half Plate Chowmein
2. Double Egg Roll
3. 20 odd GolGappe aka Pani Puri aka Puchka
4. 200 ml. fresly squezeed Orange Juice
5. Pakodes

And right now I feel good about life and food. :)

Poker .. :)

Ever since I heard that Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are poker players, I wanted to learn this game. I downloaded a few eBooks, went to a few online tutorials but it didn't help.

Finally on my trek to Yanker Pass, I finally learnt the Art of Poker. Yes the "Art of Poker". According to a friend, the best thing about the game is the mathematical completeness. Further the returns can not exceed the amount you are ready to risk makes the game perfect.

I have heard a few stories about poker being the game for the salesmen, here I am, entering the game ... :D

Canon PowerShot A75 - Not Working Anymore !!!!

I happily owned a Canon PowerShot A75. I further owned SanDisk 1 GB CompactFlash Card. Like everyone guy who owns a Digicam, I always dreamt of clicking random pics of people, things and life. Life was cool, I was clicking things when I wanted to until ...

... until I filled up the memory card and I realized that I can not transfer images because my licensed Windows XP Home Edition would not recognize the camera as a device. I was in Catch 22 situation. I could not delete the images and I could not copy them anywhere.

Why did this happen to me? I am just an ordinary guy .. I ain't no macho man, I ain't no hi-fi. Ok I ripped this off Bombay Vikings song but this is the truth. I never meant to harm anyone. I am a simple guy with a white, clean heart with a sense of responsibility. I expect sun to rise in the esat every morning, like everyone else. I expect things to be right, like everyone. After all is said and done, I am left with myself and things not turning out the way they should.

Stu Nicholls| CSS PlaY

While trying to redesign my website, I stumbled upon Stu Nicholls @ CSS PlaY and needless to mention, I was impressed.

Hats Off !!!!

F.r.i.e.n.d.s.

Nah, not the classic telvision reel F.r.i.e.n.d.s but my real life friends. For the past two days, I have caught up with a lot of friends my schools and colleges.

And now I know what they mean when they talk about the past and reliving history. Do I yearn to go back in those days ...

The Google AdSense website is temporarily unavailable

I thought I would check my account on adsense and here is what I found ...

The Google AdSense website is temporarily unavailable. Please try back later. We apologize for any inconvenience.

...
...
...




...

The same text was written in 20 odd languages ... !!!

On further investigation, I found this page located online here.

EDITED LATER:
This post was wrecking havoc with the formatting of the blog. The text has been removed and can be found at the link.

Why do people watch movies?

Almost everyone I meet is very keen on watching movies. They don't need a reason for the movie. Exams got over? Someone has a birthday? Want to just chill out? Nothing else to do? Let's go watch a movie.

For someone like me, watching movie is a very difficult task. Apart from everything pleasant, few things make it absolutely terrible task. To start with I can not sit at one place for more than an hour. A movie would typically end in about a couple of hours. Another reason - the moollah factor. For me a movie is never worth 100 bucks even if it is about computer gaming, hackers, Pamela Anderson striping, money or anyone else. You could get atleast a couple of good books for the same price.

So if you are planning to meet and have good time, going to a place like Barista and Café Coffee day is a VERY good choice. You get to sit on good, comfortable chairs, bean bags, have some great coffee and sit in conditioned air. Why go to a movie where you can't even talk? If you want to go to a movie, you can go all alone as once in the hall, you are all by yourself.

So you want to celebrate? But why with a movie? Someone got something desired. The celebration could be spending time by cutting a cake. You could celebrate by doing some group activity, something that brings everyone closer.

And the biggest reason of all is the quality. There simply aren't any good movies left. A producer thinks about getting maximum people out to the theatres, people go to movies just because they have to (even if they suck big time) and people “act” because they ain't got anything better to do. It’s like someone has programmed it in the minds. George Orwell was correct about the world he thought would come in future. You do things you never knew you were doing. It's like someone has programmed you to do it.

In the end, movies are a waste of time, effort, money and resources. Hope people enjoy their show :)

The Nidhi Kapoor Story

Did you like this post? May be you want to read my first book - The Nidhi Kapoor Story.

Check it out on Amazon or Flipkart?