An unsuccessful love story

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

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

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

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

This time, her voice was softer.

She said: Rahul? Hello.

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

She said: Hello. Can you hear me?

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

I said: Yes, I can hear you.

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

She said: Who is this?

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

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

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

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

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

Samsung Galaxy Tab 750 - The Game Changes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I am. It's time to TAB!

The possibilities are endless.

Friends... Forever

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Samsung Galaxy Tab 750 Launch - Live Telecast

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

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