Finally, Vacations!!!

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

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

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

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

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


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

God or Choas

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

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

Weird Comment : Times of India

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

Very disappointing.

Right to education - Awaaz Do

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

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

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

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

Go! get a 3G life!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Teaching kids is tough

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Filmy Dialogues

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And the policemen also had one:

"Kanoon ke haath bahut lambe hote hain".

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

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

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

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

Nobody takes there cases to the court fearing execution. 

Gabbar Singh had a few super duper hit dialogues:

"Kitne aadmi the"

"Holi kab hai, kab hai holi"

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

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

I guess he was paid per character he spoke.

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

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

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

Friday night friend

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

Today's generation - Kewl

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

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

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

My smart phone - Really?

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

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

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

Checkout the new phone from Tata Docomo called the OneTouch Net

Fright of a child - Almost lost

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What a shame!!! CWG

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kudos Times of India

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

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

Somethings that I don't like:

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

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

Woman delivers a 'tweet' child

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

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

The Last SMS - contd.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The last SMS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why Do I BLOG !!!

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

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

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

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

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

Emotional Atyachaar - Beware

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

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

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

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

A piece of work

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

MAC frightens me again

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

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

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

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

Technology Overdose - Overdoes

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

1. Lost in the streets? Open the Google Navigation and ask for directions.
2. No more Newspaper bills. I read it online.
3. Send/Receive mails from the postman? Nah, Email is fast and FREE!!!
4. Cricket match anyone? Big LCD screens at home with 3D analysis of each ball bowled and hit.
5. Meetups/Get-togethers? Video and voice conferences are cheaper than traveling even a mile.
6. Read books? Of course, I buy e-books and read them on my laptop to save paper.
7. Get tickets for a move? Do it online or by phone.
8. Cassettes/CD-Players still alive? Everyone has a portable music player these days.
9. 3+4 = ?? Google tells you now. I don't need a calculator.
10. Buying a car? Dig the forums for reviews/comments.

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

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

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

Anonymity == FAKE ??

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

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

NICE DEFINITION

My 100th post

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

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

Posted via Blogaway

Just in time - Again

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

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

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

A Scooty’s trip to Puri

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    "Tu Mera Superman" Hilarious.

Awesome Violin Player - Mario Bros Soundtrack

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

Kitchen Champion - What the heck!!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sleepless in S....

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

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

A 4 star Movie - Rajneeti

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

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

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

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

Atop Nandi Hills

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

Posted by Blogaway

A pro smoker

 Here's a cool YouTube video 

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

Location : Karnataka,

Posted via Blogaway

To Nandi hills

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

Location : NH 207, Devanahalli, Karnataka,

Posted via Blogaway

My bike

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

Platinum

Platinum looks classy. It's the new craze.

Working on Ubuntu

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

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

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

Blogilo is nice by the way. 

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

Appjam '10 - A platform for the mobile community

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

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

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

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

Screens of Death

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

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

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

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

India goes down

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

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

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

I think I am losing interest in Cricket. :)

I love Fridays

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

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

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

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

Chennai Super Kings

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

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

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

- Orange Cap – Sachin Tendulkar

- Purple Cap – Pragyan Ojha

- DLF Golden Player Award – Sachin Tendulkar

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

Google should buy Facebook

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Minto fresh - jalaye dimaag ki batti

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

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

Location : Domlur, Bengaluru, Karnataka,

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

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

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

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

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

"Apple launches iWorld and iEarth."

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