Angad's Arena

White List II

2011-07-02T23:36:00.011+05:30

Life is getting a little monotonous! And sometimes I need directions and deadlines to keep me going. So its time I created my next white list. Like the previous one, this too should push me into doing something...

So here is is; the list of my targets for the next 50 days:

1. Run for a marathon! I have always wanted to do this, but never did!The 'Running and Living Pune' group is organizing a marathon on the 3rd of July, Sunday. I have decided to run for the quarter marathon which would cover 10.5 kms. I know I can keep walking for a long time, but I am not sure how far I can run. Lets see how it goes.

2. Workshop! Learning never stops! I had been quite busy with the theatre acting classes and then with practices for the play 'Tale Danda' during the last couple of months. Now its time to learn something new, different and interesting during the weekends. Let me see what I can find on the net or in the papers!

3. Leh-Ladakh! A plan that was made a year back and got washed away in the cloudburst! We are planning to go for in a month.
Fingers crossed.

4. I haven't trekked for a long long time now! Many people often ask me about my treks as I used to frequently go on treks the last year. I just realized that my last trek was over 6 months back during last Christmas, when I had gone on a 4 day trek to the Alang-Madan forts. I did go to Mt. Takao during my Tokyo trip, but I would not call it a trek. It was more of a hike. I therefore have to end this dormant period. Fourth in the list: a trek!

5. Donate blood! Another item that has always been on my will-do-tomorrow-list. High time I put it on the White List.

So those are the 5 things I need do! Today is the 2nd of July. So the deadline to finish off the tasks would be August 21st (50 days later; like White List I).

I will keep you updated as I finish each item on the list.

PS:

July 3rd: Woke up at 4:15am after a 3.5 hour nap and reached Pune University at 6am. The marathon started on time. There were around 25 people running. The pleasant climate, more than 20 people running along and half a bottle of gatorade helped me complete the marathon in around 70 minutes.

Certificate of 'completion'(Click to enlarge).

It was my first time, but I can tell you there are many more to follow!

#1 on the list, completed!

July 9th: Today, I went for a workshop on... making cookies and cakes! :-)
I had found Rajul's Cookery Classes on the net; and I thought this would be an interesting workshop. So I registered immediately. The workshop was conducted by Rajul Sanghvi at her residence, near Shivaji Nagar. She conducts a cookery workshop every Saturday from 1 to 4PM. Today she taught us to make chocolate muffins, shrewsbury biscuits, coconut cookies, banana cookies, pinwheel cookies, chocolate chip cookies, egg-less sponge cake with pineapple icing and chocolate sponge cake with cherry icing. Yeah, lot of good stuff; not all of it is in my head right now; but its there in the handout given to us there along with some 'tips from the expert'.
At the end of the workshop, we had the cakes and cookies that were made. The sponge cake was nice, soft and quite juicy, and I loved the shrewsbury cookies and the banana cookies! They were awesome! I hope when I try my hand, they turn out to be atleast half as good!

#2 completed! Three to go...

July 17th: At Sadhu Vaswani Mission in Pune, a blood donation camp was organized on the 17th of July. Being a Sunday, it was convenient for me to go there. After a quick blood test, I found myself on a cot with a needle sucking blood out of my vein. I was given a stress ball, squeezing which helps hasten the process.

July last week: Bharath, Vipin, Murali, Arjun and I set out to Leh for a trip of a lifetime! One of the most beautiful places I have seen. A must visit for all travel enthusiasts!

Aug 6: During the trip to Leh, we had gone rafting on river Zanskar. If that doesn't count as a trek, I had gone on a trek to the Panvel waterfall along with a trekking club here, Offbeat Sahyadri, followed by rappelling down the waterfall.

And this completes my second White List! Many more to follow!

The Sendai Earthquake, and later - as I felt it...

2011-03-15T14:02:00.007+05:30

Taka san and I were getting set for our daily call with the Pune team at 14.55 JST. Chris was just outside talking to Ron. That was when I had the same strange feeling as 2 days back on March 9th. Then I had initially thought that I was feeling dizzy until Chris told me what it was; but this time I knew that it was an earthquake!

Within seconds, it started getting worse. The chairs started moving, then the doors, then the whole office was shaking! All of us were on the floor for some time. An automated message kept saying that it was just 3 on the scale and that the building was safe. We didn't trust the old building a lot; so we climbed down 22 floors by stairs and got out of the building.

The first earthquake - from the 22nd floor of the office.

There were obviously a lot of people on the roads then.

Some interesting conversations when we just got out:

Taka san: Lets check out how the Starbucks is looking now!

Ron: I am worried about my wife and daughter.

Chris: I hope my TV is fine!

Me: That was interesting!

Chris: Dude! I am really worried about my TV!

We didn't want to keep standing under the 28 storey building. So we moved to the adjacent Hibya park. The park was filled with people. Within 5 minutes of getting to the park, we felt another earthquake. This was a pretty big one as we felt it even on the ground! You can see/hear the manhole rattling in the video below.

The second earthquake, after we reached Hibya Park

You can also see the office building moving a little in the video below.

The office building, seen from Hibya park

Some of the people were trying to contact their beloved ones. The others were gathered around cell phones with television checking the news; there was news about a fire near the Rainbow bridge, another about a Tsunami! There were tense faces all around.

People gathered at Hibya park

Soon it was getting cold out there. Not many of us thought of the temperature outside when running down. We then went up to the building to pack our stuff. We got whatever we needed and climbed down the stairs again. As nobody really wanted to work at the 22nd floor of an old building, we went back home.

On the way back, I thought of getting into the convenient store to get something to eat, but there was a really long queue.So I decided to get something from the convenient store opposite my apartment. But when I reached there, this is what I found.

Convenient stores in Tokyo

There was also a lot of traffic on the roads; the main reason being the subways not functioning because of the earthquakes. I had not seen traffic jams here prior to the earthquake. When I reached my apartment, which is on the 9th floor, I could feel the aftershocks; the lamp-stand and the chair were moving quite a bit. So I packed some important things into my backpack and got out of there. There was no network on my cell phone, so I couldn't contact anyone immediately and there were long queues outside the coin phones. I walked around in the streets of Tokyo for sometime, and then got into a phone booth and contacted Taka san and Chris. They advised me to go back to the apartment after some time.

Stagnant traffic in Tokyo

And so I did. The apartment would shake once in every 20 minutes or so. I was getting used to it and stopped worrying about the small aftershocks. I kept my backpack, jacket and shoes by the door just incase I had to rush out. This time the backpack was packed more carefully; with my laptop and its charger, charger for the cell phone, camera, cash, some food, 10 and 100 yen coins for the phone booth and my passport. And then, trusting the Japanese civil engineers, I went to bed.

Ready...steady...go!

Earthquakes, tsunamis, over 500 aftershocks, nuclear radiation leaks, volcanic eruption, cold wind blowing from the north, stocks dropping low! I really hope this country recovers and gets back to normal as soon as possible! I had great respect for Japan and its people before coming here and it has only increased seeing the way they have reacted to and handled the situation so far. I think I would have been much more worried if I was in the same situation in any other country!

Hoping for the best!

PS: Back in India now. There was another thing I wanted to share on this post earlier, but I didn't want to freak some people out! So I am sharing it now after safely returning back home. On 11th March, when the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, my roommate Ananth had searched for me on Google Person Finder. And the update he received there wasn't very comforting!

I have received information that this person is dead!!

So, do not just rely on these websites set up for finding your friends/relatives. They could be used to ease your search, but you cannot totally trust the information put up here as there could always be some people trying to play pranks without understanding the seriousness of the situation or some honest guys but without the right information.

Dzongri Trek - Days 4, 5 - The Ascent

2011-01-25T02:03:00.007+05:30

Previously on The Dzongri Trek:

Days 1, 2, 3 - Getting there!

We reached Jalpaiguri at 2 AM. Our cab driver, Shishir reached in some time and at 2:32 on the watch, we were off to Yuksom. We travelled along the NH 31a; we passed the new Jhola bridge, Teesta and Kalingpu on the way. Most of the guys were sleeping as we entered into Sikkim at 4:10AM. We also came had to take a detour because a part of the road ahead of us just got washed away in a landslide.

A part of the road 'wiped off' in a landslide

The weather was cool and nice. The view as we drove around and over the hills were amazing; calm streams, tall trees, snow capped mountains far away, and waterfalls were all around. We stopped at Legship to have some tea. Legship is known for a beautiful Shiva Temple (Kirateshwar Mahadev Mandir) at the banks of river Rangit. We didn't visit the temple though; just saw it as we passed by.

Renzil and Masoon had reached Yuksom the previous day. They left Kolkata couple of days back and reached Yuksom after visiting Gangtok. We reached the Blessing Hotel at Yuksom, where they were staying, at around 8AM. All of us freshened up there in some time and were ready to go!

The previous evening, Ren had checked with Sherpa treks, a local group there which organizes treks to Dzongri and Goecha La. They agreed to take us for around 3k per head. We agreed as we didn't have enough time to find another guide and also there were many tourists there looking for trekking agencies and guides. The package included food for the 4 days, accomodation, sleeping bags, a guide cum cook, a porter (Norton, a boy aged around 16) to carry some utensils and help out the guide, a yak - actually a Dzo (hybrid of yak and cow) to carry some of our luggage, food and the sleeping bags, and a yakman to tend the dzo.

Our yakman loading the Dzo!

The initial plan was to get to Tshoka before sunset on the first day. But as we were a little late to arrive at Yuksom, we decided to halt at Baakim (14Kms from Yuksom and 2Kms before Tshoka) for the night. We started off at around 10.30 AM, a couple of hours past the initially decided time.

The route to Baakhim was mainly through the Kanchendzonga national park, known for the Rhododendron flowers, which I was told fills the place in the month of March.We did not get to see the flower. We had to cross 4 bridges on the first day, most of which were suspension bridges.

One of the 4 bridges we crossed on the first day

As hours passed, we could feel the weight of the bags pulling us down. Each bridge did tempt us to take a dip in the cold water running below; but we did not have enough time! We kept walking. It starts getting dark pretty soon here. The sun set at around 5.30PM; we reached Baakhim few minutes later. When we reached there we were starving, but nobody was thinking about food! ( I am not very sure about one person ;) ) We were all digging into our bags, and wearing all the warm clothes we had. In 5 minutes, each person weighed an extra couple of Kgs.

We were served hot mugs of tea, which were gulped down in no time. We then got our dormitory for the night. There we had the popular beer in Sikkim - 'HIT'. Dinner was served soon afterwards. I do not remember many instances when I was more hungry! All of us kept appreciating the food! :)

The next day we woke up around 630, freshened up, had our breakfast and set out for Dzongri. Since we had halted at Baakhim instead of Tshoka, we had to cover an extra 2 Kms uphill. We reached Tshoka in 1.5 hours. We could see few snow capped mountains from Tshoka including Pandim. Our next stop was Phedang where we were supposed to have our lunch. The climb uphill was quite tiring. There were some preliminary symptoms of altitude sickness were shown on couple of us. Phedang is around midway from Tshoka to Dzongri. There is a small wooden cabin where you can prepare your lunch. We had some maggi and biscuits for lunch.

Having a mug of steaming hot tea at Phedang

We were told that the climb to dzongri was steeper than the stretch we had covered earlier during the day. That wasn't very encouraging. We started from Phedang in half an hour. The path ahead was all foggy. We couldn't see more than a few metres ahead for sometime. Within an hour we saw snow. Though it was quite cold out there we didn't hesitate to make balls of snow and shoot at others. I had never seen snow before. We kept walking and in around 2 hours after we left Phedang, we reached Dzongri! We were pleasantly surprised that we weren't too exhausted. I doubt if our guide/cook added some secret ingredient-x in our maggi for lunch!

Our guide arranged for our cabin for the night. We kept our luggage in there and then walked around the cabin enjoying the view. There we witnessed something which for me was the most beautiful sight I had seen till date!

Altitude of Paradise = 13,200 feet?

But was this going to be the most beautiful sight of the trip? The foreigners we met on the way, who were on their way back to the base, didn't think so; they told us that the sunrise at Dzongri has no match in terms of beauty! We would know that in a few hours! Until then we kept admiring the bed of clouds on front of us. It was freezing cold outside; but we waited there till sunset. After sunset, we could no longer stay outside; the temperature dropped to around minus 7 deg C!

Ready to get Bamboo-zled!

The guide told us that he would get us the local brew - Bamboo! It is made of fermented millet and served in bamboo stem, cut and used as a tumbler. All we need to do is add warm water to it; wait for 5 mins...and...voila! You've got something that tastes like wine! Once you finish the drink you just need to add more water to the fermented millet and wait for 5 more minutes to get your refill! It does get milder after a few drinks though. If you go to Sikkim, this is another thing you must try!

After that we retired for the night. We had to catch the sunrise at 4 AM the next day. Would it turn out to be as beautiful as many people we met and all the reviews on the net said? We only had to wait for 6 more hours! And you only have to wait for the next blog-post. :-)

PS: 15 shots of bamboo - Not Advisable! ;-)

Links:

Theatre Acting Workshop @ Pune

2010-12-01T02:02:00.030+05:30

About a couple of months back, we just finished a major release at work. So I definitely had some free time ahead of me; at least during the weekends. So I started looking for an interesting workshop in Pune. That was when I got a message from Niche Stagekraft that they are going to have a workshop on stage acting starting the very next weekend.

Niche Stagekraft is into english plays. It was founded in the year 2002 by Mr Jitendra R Powar. W had gone for their 25th production 'Candles in the Wind' - a collection of 7 short plays, and we had a great time watching. Some of the plays were really good; so when I reached back home, I registered at their site with my email id and cell phone number for their updates. That's how I got the message regarding the workshop.

So that weekend, I started going for the workshop. Acting is not more difficult than it seems; acting is a different world. You try to become another person, try to think like another person. It is not easy. We were taught different elements of Stage Acting including different emotions, body language, stage movements, training your voice and many more things. We also learnt different exercises for the facial muscles, for the tongue and for the voice. It was really nice to know all these things.

They are now conducting more workshops, starting this and next weekend (from Dec 5th and Dec 11th). The workshops will be held twice a week on Saturdays and Sundays, for four hours each in the afternoon. You can come for the workshop, and then if you wish, continue with the group. And who knows, you may find yourself on stage in a few months. Their upcoming plays include Taale Danda (a Girish Karnad play) and Rest's Silence.

You can contact them on the the number given in the image, or through the mentioned email id. If you have any problem contacting, feel free to get in touch with me.

Trust me, it is going to be totally worth the time...and much much more!

Dzongri Trek - Days 1, 2, 3 - Getting There

2010-11-29T00:17:00.009+05:30

Das told me about the trek just a fortnight back. He and Ren had missed out on telling me when they were planning the trip. I always wanted to travel to the east and this one being a trek, I didnt have to waste any time thinking. I got my trekking bag from Wildcraft (Alpinist -55L) that evening and I booked my flight/train tickets on the same day.

Following was the plan:

October 30, 315: Howrah Duronto to Kolkata

Oct 31, 7 pm : Reach Kolkata,

Nov 1, 350pm: Meet rest of the group; Saraighat express to New Jalpaiguri (NJP)

Nov 2; 2AM reach NJP; Cab to Yuksom. Reach Yuksom in the morning. Start 4 day trek to Dzongri

View Larger Map

A - Pune, Maharashtra
B - Kolkata, West Bengal
C - New Jalpaiguri, West Bengal
D - Yuksom, Sikkim

"Bhaiyya...thoda jaldi chalaiye na!" I told the auto driver. I was late for the train! ~~I was~~ The driverwas racing against time, with the heavy traffic of Pune. I managed to reach the station 5 minutes before the departure. The Howrah Duronto (non stop from Pune to Kolkata) was waiting there ~~for me~~ at Platform one.

Das and Muneeb with our ride

I met Das and Muneeb at the station. The three of us got our berths in adjacent coaches. It was a long ride to Kolkata. We were chatting about our college days and friends most of the time. The only time we went back to our places was to sleep or when the food was being served. We didn't have to order food. It was part of the ticket as this was a non stop train. The food was pretty good and had enough variety too.

We reached Howrah station at 650 pm the next day. We had some time in the night to explore Kolkata.As suggested by a friend on the train, we walked towards the Howrah bus station looking for a lodge for the night. Next to the bus station there were few decent lodges which didn't burn a hole in the pocket, where we could crash for the night. We left our baggage there and got out to explore the cultural capital of India.

We walked along the Howrah Bridge. The first thing I wanted to get my hand on there was Rasgulla. West Bengal and Orissa are known for good Rasgullas and I love them too. We got into the first bakery we found and had few Rasgullas and Rasmalais there. Muneeb wasn't a great admirer of sweets, but Das and I relished having them.

After having the sweets it was time to have dinner. All three of us were starving; we met an elderly couple on the street and asked them for their recommendation for a good Non-veg restaurant. He suggested we go to Park Street, where we could find a lot of joints. So we took a taxi to Park Street( recently renamed as Mother Teresa Sarani), but Park Street was a lane with many branded outlets, pubs and continental restaurants. But we were in the mood to have some good Indian Biryani. There we met a group of guys in their early 20s who strongly recommended we go to a restaurant called 'Arsalan'. As we had time and enough patience we hired another cab to Arsalan which was in Park Circus road, a couple of miles away.

People waiting outside Arsalan

When we reached Arsalan, we found a around 50-60 people waiting outside to get in for dinner. We were a little upset as we were hungry and had to wait; but at the same time the long queue meant we were in line for some good food. We waited for about 10 minutes and then when inquired, we were told that it would take around 20 more minutes. So we decided to check the street until then. Right then a tram stopped in front of us! We looked at each other, nodded and then hopped in! Kolkata is the only city in the country to have a tram network (maintained by the Calcutta Tramways Company). Started in 1902, it is also the oldest operating electric tram in the whole of Asia. We had a short ride in the tram and then got out at the next stop. We then walked back; checking a small fair on the way. We were at Arsalan right on time. We got in an ordered some Mutton Biryani and Chicken Tandoori for us. We weren't made to wait a lot; we were served soon. The Biryani was pretty good; but we had spent few years in Calicut, a place known for its good Biryanis. After dinner we went back to our lodge and slept.

The next day we again hung around Park Street, Camac Street and Chowringhee Road before it was time for us to set out for our next destination. On our way to the station, we saw the Victoria Memorial and the Eden Gardens stadium. As suggested by the the Cab driver we got down in Babu Ghat so that we could take the steamer to Howrah.

Howrah Bridge as seen from the steamer

This time I reached the station with some spare time to go :). We met Nirmal, George and Rashmi at the station. They had just flown in from Bangalore. We chatted at the station until the train arrived. The train (Saraighat express) left the station at 3.50pm. We played poker on the train for sometime, after I gave others a quick poker 101. We found people selling all sorts of things on the train; snacks, sweets, cold drinks, tea n coffee, bioled eggs, saris, stationaries, electronic items and many more things! After we had our dinner, Das, Nirmal and I sat there talking. Others went to sleep. We were expecting to touch New Jalpaiguri in a couple of hours. And a cab ride later we were scheduled to start our trek.

It was going to begin the next day; on Day 4!

PS:
Next posts in the series:

Dzongri Trek - Days 4, 5 - The Ascent

Waterfall Rappelling at Vihigaon

2010-07-22T16:57:00.003+05:30

I got a tweet last week which led me to this page about waterfall rappelling at Vihigaon last weekend (17th and 18th July). The pics looked good. The rapel was only of 120ft -around previous 350ft rapel, but the waterfall would definitely not make the descend easy. But the only issue came up when I called up Zeenat on the number specified on the page and she told me that I had to reach Shivaji Nagar at 4 in the morning! That meant I had to leave my house at 3AM and would have to wake up at around 2! That like the waterfall rappelling was something I have never done before! But after booking seats along with 3 of my colleagues, I didn't have much choice.

So on sunday morning, after my alarm was successful in waking me up at 2.30, 4 of us, Prateek, Mansi, Vinod and I went to Shivaji Nagar in a call taxi. Trekmates, the group conducting the event was waiting there for us. We hopped into the bus and in 10 minutes we started off to Vihigaon. It was a long journey, most of it was along the Pune-Nasik route. We made only 2 stops along our 7 hour journey - the first one when we saw a hyena on the way and the second one for breakfast.

A friend we met on the way

When we reached at 11, the group from Mumbai had already begun rappelling. The guys waiting for their turn to rappel were having a nice time watching the waterfall and people rappelling or enjoying in the water. . Within a couple of hours, they stopped for lunch. Prateek had brought tasty puris from home and Mansi had cooked some good pulao for the four of us.

People enjoying the place and their time

After lunch, we didn't have to wait much for our turn. I was the last one to go among the four of us. One of the guys who finished his rappel passed his gloves, helmet and harness to me. I put them on with the help of one of the volunteers and then was ready to go!

My first few steps

When the rope was free, I was called. Few instructions were given, the knot was tied and in a couple of minutes, I was walking backwards along the waterfall.

In size, the descend was only a third of the Naneghat rappel I had done earlier. But the force of the waterfall and the slippery rocks made it equally if not more difficult and challenging. My footwear only added to the problems. I was wearing my shoes earlier, but for the rappelling I decided to change to my sandals thinking I it would give me the same grip and I that I could prevent my shoe from getting soaked! I didn't sleep properly the previous night, I had a fever and still went ahead with the trip but changing the footwear was the stupidest of them! I slipped once after covering almost the quarter of the height. After that I kept feeding the rope faster so that I stood perpendicular to the rocks and managed to complete it fine. It was a really thrilling and enjoyable experience.

I believe the pics speak for themselves

By the time I finished, it had started to drizzle. I was feeling really cold so I changed to a dry shirt and wore my wind cheater. But before others finished and we reached the bus the only dry shirt I had was wet too. We had tea in the evening and then left for Pune around 630; we should have started 2 hours earlier to reach on time. Now we knew we were going to reach back home pretty late in the night, but what we didn't know was about the accident on the highway ahead which caused a huge traffic block and delayed us further by more than an hour. The fever and cold was getting worse. We now had to stop at a restaurant for dinner which again consumed some time. But with the help of the good roads (we came back via the mumbai pune national highway) and the driver's heavy right foot, we managed to reach Pune around 3.40AM. I then took a rick from shivaji nagar to my home and reached there at 4am! I have slept past 4 in the morning a lot of times before, but never after waking up at 230am the previous day!

As Jack Bauer says, "...this is the longest day of my life".

Similar posts:
-Naneghat rappelling
-Duke's nose Valley Crossing

6-legged cow

2010-06-13T16:11:00.002+05:30

Two-faced kitten(Two Face and also Frank and Louise), two legged dog(Faith), snake with a foot, one eyed cat(Cy) - there have been so many odd and mutated animals born around the globe; and I got to witness one yesterday: a 6 legged cow!

At first sight, I thought a cow was having problem giving birth to a calf, and that it was being taken to a vet. But coming closer, I noticed people taking pics on their mobile and a person standing next to it talking of some miracle. Only then I realized what it was.

The cow seems having no problem in standing, but the extra limbs are definitely discomforting, and are of use only to the owner, who was trying to make some money yesterday with the display.

Ke Nako - Its Time!

2010-06-11T02:30:00.008+05:30

The biggest thing that happened in the last 4 years is here! Actually in South Africa.

The teams are in the country. The warm-up friendlies are over. There have been injuries to a lot of the top players. And now the Kick-off Celebration Concert is going on at Johannesburg as I write this post, and is being streamed live on youtube.

My favorites are definitely the men in yellow and blue. I wasn't following soccer before I was 7 years old ('94 world cup). And once I did, Brazil have won 2 of 4 world cups and finished runners-up once. Since the last world cup they've won the Copa America(2007) and the FIFA Confederations Cup(2009).

This year the Brazilians are placed in group G, arguably the group of death this time, along with Portugal, Ivory Coast and North Korea.(BRB...)

(Back from a short break...how could I have missed shakira's hips that dont lie being streamed live from the Johannesburg)

Alright, here are the 8 groups:

So which captain is going to lay his hands on the most beautiful trophy on the 11th of July? Will Brazil, Italy and Germany continue the World Cup domination, or will other favorites Spain, Netherlands or even the English triumph? Are we gonna witness any upsets this year?

We will know only when the Jabulani rolls!!

PS: Its been a long time since my last post and lot of things had been happening since. I resigned at Amdocs and decided to join ZS Associates. Will miss the guys at Amdocs. But Im not losing any friends, I;m just making more when I join another office. My heads at ZS, please don't take it in a negative sense.;)

The world is flat...VERTICALLY!

2010-02-25T19:02:00.004+05:30

"pls let it be full......lord..."
That is exactly what Pancily's chat said, when I told him that I was going forward with the trek even if he was stuck in Mumbai with his work. It was Pancily who told me about the 350ft rappelling at Naneghat on Feb 21st. But later, he had got the deadline for his project as 22nd feb which pulled him back. Girivihang trekkers, a club from mumbai was organizing it, and they would have it again only after diwali. So this was my best chance. Just as Pancily hoped, their bus was fully booked! But as they were coming from Mumbai and I was in Pune they told me that they'd let me do the rappelling if I arranged for my travel.

I then called up Viggy and Kini. We decided to go there on bikes. Kini was hungry for a long ride on his new R15! But on saturday, we learnt that naneghat is around 4 hours away from pune on bike, and your back is not going to like the last few kilometres. So Ashwath and Vignesh dropped out! The organizers had told me about Samyak who, along with his friends, was joining them from Pune. When I called him up, Samyak told me they were going in a Tavera, and they had space for another person!! You know what happened after that. :)

The pic that compelled me to go for the trek ;)

We - Samyak, Rishikesh, Anirudh, Prasad, our driver, Sachin and I- reached Naneghat at 12 noon. The Mumbai guys were there and around 30 guys had already finished rappelling. We sat down and waited for our turn to come.Some of the guys who were in line to go next were looking tensed. But the guys who had just finished seemed thrilled and we were eagerly waiting to get going.

Click on the pic and spot the two guys who are rappelling.

Once everyone from Mumbai had finished, we got to start. They had a two sets of ropes coming down from the top. So a couple of participants could rappel at the same time. After waiting for few minutes, it was my turn. I got into my harness, got the carabiner attached to it and went to the top.

I was then told how to rappel. The instructions were quite simple; atleast seemed simple when I heard them. Keep your feet at a distance of around 2 feet and do not bend your knees. Lean backwards and using your left hand behind you pull and feed the rope to your right hand, which would be a few inches above your forehead. The sole function of the right hand is to maintain balance. So you must not try to hold the rope tight if you are going down too fast. The speed can be controlled with the left. And if you do not come down in a steady manner you could spin around like a top, as Sachin did. :) This mostly happens if you do not use your feet properly or when the rappel is overhanging (it means the rocks are curved inward).

I wore my gloves. The knots were tied and I was at the edge of the cliff! The first couple of steps weren't very easy. An instructor told me a twice not to bend my knees while going down, because I could bang then onto the rocks if I did. After taking around 4 steps, I started to get the hang of it. The speed started to increase and I started to literally run backwards [and downwards ;)] for a few seconds. I suddenly realized that the team at the top was no longer to be seen, neither was the control team at the bottom. I was alone for the next 50-75 meters, before I could even see the guys waiting for me down there. But now it didn't matter much. The fun factor had overcome the fear! I was really enjoying it! And before I knew it I was on ground; ground that didn't make a lot of angle with the sea.;)

Coming back to the base after the rappel.

At 430 pm, everyone had finished rappelling. Once the organizers checked the count of people present, we set out for Pune. On the way, in Junnar, we stopped by at Anirudh's gradparents' home. After having some tasty poha and tea there, his granddad took us to a packaging factory they own. The person managing the place showed us around, and it was really impressive!

After that, it was a non-stop drive to Pune, ending another memorable day and a great experience!

NB: The pics were taken from Kunal Shinde's picassa album of the same trek with rappelling conducted by the same club, Girivihang trekkers in 2009. The first pic was from another blog.

PS: This completes 3 on 'My White List'. :)

Inspired! ;)

2010-02-18T21:50:00.002+05:30

PRANKS! I love pulling some pranks on my friends, sometimes on total strangers too! Today I got to witness one; a couple of strangers fooling a third stanger!! :)

This morning I was walking towards Magarpatta junction looking for an auto. The Pune Sholapur highway was abuzz with vehicles as usual. Walking along the footpath, I was spotting the people I see everyday; people I've seen over a hundred times, yet strangers. The cobbler was there, sitting under the banyan tree, trying to polish someone's shoes into a mirror. Next to him there was an 'astrologer' predicting future for another guy. I bet both of them were confused! ;)

Walking further ahead, there were many small shops on the roadside. I noticed a guy walking a few metres ahead of me suddenly slowing down looking at the ground. Bending down, he picked something, and continued walking.

"HEY!!" couple of small boys come running towards him shouting. My guess is that their parents work in one of the shops along the road, as I've seen them there earlier in the area. The boys rush towards the man and tell him something; one of them pointing at his hand. The guy then slowly handed over a wallet; that he had picked few seconds back, looks around him and walks; this time much faster. The boys had placed the wallet there and were waiting for their prey; and its not at all difficult to find one!

The lil boys celebrate their triumph with a Hi-five, and go back... and inspired, I started thinking of something mischievous I could do. :) Will update as soon as something happens ;)

My White List

2010-02-13T21:12:00.020+05:30

I watched "The Bucket List" again a couple of months back. The movie is about two terminal patients, played by Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, who make a list of 10 things they want to do before they 'kick the bucket'.

I tried making a bucket list, but wasn't able to write more than 4-5 items that i really wanted to do. So keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that there's time left before i cash in my chips, i decided to make a shorter short-term-list. This would consist of 5 things to do in the next 50 days. I call it the white list. You can use your wild imagination and creative mind to figure out why. ;) So heres the first white list.

1. Watch an IPL match. The third edition of the Indian Premier League will begin on March 12th in Mumbai. I am yet to witness a live match in a stadium. So being in Pune, this could be a great chance.

2. Rappelling on a waterfall! I have been wanting to do this for a long long time! Another test for my fear of heights! There is scope for rappelling and lot of other activities in places in and around Pune. That is another reason I prefer staying in Pune over cities like B'lore, Chennai or Kolkata.

3. Join some vocational classes for weekends ;). I haven't yet decided what classes to join. Will need to decide soon. :)

4. Considering the present situation, i feel watching 'My Name is Khan' in Maharashtra amidst all the hullabaloo, could have a place in the white list. :P

5. We have been procrastinating the visit to the paintball arena in Kalyani Nagar for quite some time now. Moreover, spending a lot of time playing counter-strike back in the college, I'm craving to shoot someone down. :P

That completes the list. Today is 13th Feb. So a time frame of 50 days would make the deadline for the above white list, 6 weekends later, the 4th of Apr. Will update the space as I finish each item in the list.

Post Scripts:

15/02 I had gone home last weekend. 'My Name is Khan' was released there; but again with a lot of opposition. It wasn't Shiv Sena there but their cousins Bajrang Dal causing problems. The theatres didnt screen the movie on friday, but they did start from the second day. The theatre didn't display any poster of the movie and you could also see a lot of policemen on duty outside. The screens were obviously running houseful; two of them were screening only this movie. Thought not in Maharashtra, I feel thats good enough to strike #4 off. :P

20/02 There were many guys from college in pune today. Yadu, Hari, Sharath, Padmanisha, Tisa, and Aruna were in Pune for the weekend. The number was good, so this was the best chance to play paintball. It is fun only when you have a lot of guys. So along with them and TP, nishana and chitra, I reached the paintball arena at 5pm. As Padmanisha wasn't feeling very good, the remaining 9 of us went on to play. Chitra, TP, Aruna and I were on one side; the rest on the other. We were given some safety instructions in the beginning after which, we had 5 rounds of absolute fun. If you haven't done this, get around 10 of your friends and rush to the nearest paintball zone! That completes #5.

21/02 I was quite tired after yesterday's paintball. But could I have missed today's rappelling because of that?! ;) #2 done. Check the post here .

13/03 The 3rd edition of IPL began yesterday in the DY Patil stadium, with a grand opening ceremony. With Pancily, I witnessed it and a great match between KKR and DC, that followed. Its a totally different feeling when you watch a game live in the stadium. You need to watch a match in a stadium atleast once; and you would probably enjoy it more if its a IPL. #1 is also done now. 1 more to go!

03/04 This one took couple of weeks. I had a hard time deciding which classes to go for. Finally I made up my mind. Its kickboxing every Saturday and Sunday morning! That completes #3 and my first White List is finished successfully; in time.

Wah Ustaad Wah!

2010-01-15T23:42:00.009+05:30

Jan 11, monday (around midnight): Dunno why, but I suddenly feel like going for a Zakir Hussain concert. I start checking the web for any links to a concert I could go to. The official website only talked about his tours in Oct(in the US of A); of which the last two concerts were canceled due to his mother's demise.

Jan 12, tuesday(around 530pm): I get a mail at my office which said there was a Zakir Hussain concert, in pune, on friday! What coincidence!

20 seconds and 900 amdocs club points later: I've registered for the concert, without any second thoughts.

Jan 15th, Friday: I left office at around 6, with Soumitra. He too, like me had joined amdocs last year. We hired an auto from Magarpatta city which cost us 90 bucks and 30 minutes to reach the venue: MES Abasaheb Garware College Ground. Hundreds of cars on both sides of the road outside the college, told us that the ground is gonna be crowded. We were lucky the concert hadnt yet started. They were just having a presentation about the Maharastra Education Society, which was conducting the concert; celebrating 150 years of its existence. Few minutes later the stage was handed over to Zakir Hussain and Sabir Khan. Sabir Khan had played sarangi in great musical hits like Jodha Akbar, Saawariya, and Chameli.

First Sabir Khan started off with his sarangi, and the Ustaad followed in later. They started off slow first, but within a few minutes their fingers started to move at such a fast pace that the crowd was totally mesmerized. You could hear so many "Ohhooo"s, "Wah"s and "Kya baat hai"s around. Zakir Hussain then started to create many situations using his tabla. He first showed with his tabla, shiva's 'dumroo' and his disciples blowing the conch shell (creating the sound of the conch shell using tabla was simply awesome and unbelievable). And then he took us into a train and its compartments. Few minutes later he produced the sound of rain, clouds and thunder, then a deer running in a forest. The crowd was clapping most of the time; if not they were stunned hearing the sounds. I never knew so many sounds could be created from that simple hollow percussion instrument. And Sabir Khan too is a great talent. He played the Sarangi really well. There were times when Zakir Hussain would go slow on his Tabla and Sabir Khan would start showcasing his endowment.

Zakir Hussain played the tabla so well and at times so fast that it would seem like two or more people were playing at the same time. You would even doubt a musician or a tape playing on the backstage.

It went on non-stop for more than an hour an a half. And during the time he forced out three words from almost everyone present there,
"Wah Ustaad!! Wah!!"

PS: This is my first post this year....so a very happy new year to all the readers!

KK concert on magarpatta city day

2009-12-03T23:50:00.013+05:30

Every year on the 3rd of december, Magarpatta city celebrates 'Magarpatta City Day' and today marked the completion of a decade.[Magarpatta city is an IT park cum residential area, where my office too is located.] As part of the celebration, there was a live concert by playback singer KK.

The show was supposed to start at 7pm. I had initially decided not to go for the show, but Prashant, my group lead, had left an extra pass that he had with me. So at 10 to 7, I left for the concert with ratan. As we entered there were thousands of chairs in front. And our pass lead us to seats that were pretty far from the stage, so we had to depend on the huge screens next to the stage; but when you watch a concert for free, you don't have much of a say, do you? ;)

The show began in a few mins. He performed many hit songs like "Tu Aashiqui Hai" from Jhankaar Beats, "Pyaar ke Pal" from Pal, "Dus Bahaane", "Tu Hi Meri Shab Hai" from the movie Gangster, "Mera Pehla Pehla Pyaar", "Alvida" from Life in a Metro, "Kya Mujhe Pyaar Hai" from Woh Lamhe and "Yaaron" from Rockford and few more. He is a really good singer and a good performer too. I woudn't say it was better than the Shan or Shanker Mahadevan concerts we had at college; but it was definitely worth ~~every penny i paid~~ the time.

Here are a couple of videos I found on youtube...(the audio is not very clear here...but will never be if u shoot a live concert on an amateur cam :P)

"Alvida"-Life in a Metro.

"O Humdum Soniyo Re" - Saathiya

PS: During the break, Satish Magar, the brain behind the magarpatta city project, made a few announcements; mostly regarding few plans to be implemented here in the near future. The last one was what interested most people sitting there. The multiplex giants of Latin America, Cinepolis, had taken up a project to build a multiplex in magarpatta city... and it would sport 15 screens! And it is expected to be complete in around a year's time!

Pranav Mistry and the 'SixthSense' technology

2009-11-19T21:16:00.004+05:30

Had some problem with the net connection yesterday. So embedding the video now. No intro... just watch it!

PS: Source

Kaala Akshar Bhains Baraabar

2009-11-18T03:08:00.000+05:30

Got this as an email forward. An innovative literacy campaign indeed! :)

I love fridays...more

2009-11-12T23:28:00.007+05:30

2012, the much awaited movie of Roland Emmerich, is releasing tomorrow. In the evening at office today, Rama asked Ratan and me if we wanted to go for tomorrow after work. But as our whole team was going out for dinner tomorrow night, we couldn't book tickets for friday and hence we decided that we'd go for the first show the day after tomorrow. The show was at 10am in Fame Cinemas. Rama was assigned the task of booking the tickets and Ratan and I went back to work.

After sometime, I hear Ratan shouting at Rama. The reason?
He'd just got an email that read "Mr. Ramakrishna Pathuri has invited you for the Movie 2012 (U/A). Show Date: Fri, 13 Nov, 2009" :)

Rama had by mistake booked the tickets for the show tomorrow morning. He tried canceling the ticket, but without success. Looks like Fri, the 13th isnt that unlucky for me. With the movie and the dinner, its the best friday at office so far! At office?!

Computer age? Ofcourse it is!

2009-10-30T21:40:00.006+05:30

The stone, copper, bronze and iron ages are long gone. They say we're now in the 'computer age'. Would another name be more appropriate? Something like 'Space age' or 'Nuclear age' ?

Whatever you think, my vote would surely go for what it is popularly known as. Especially 'coz of something that happened recently.

I was at home in Mangalore, having dinner with my cousins. My lil cousins were testing their spellings. After few words (which included even PSP and GTA :) ), Chotu asked his younger brother, Riki the spelling of cartoon network. He thought for sometime and then said,
"C .. A .. R .. T .. O .. O .. N -space bar..."!!! SPACE BAR!!!

All the jaws in the room in the room dropped except one that continued with the spelling "N-E-T-W-..."

PS: Source of cartoon: home.planet.nl

Joy of Giving - Post II

2009-10-01T01:12:00.011+05:30

I was walking along the Pune-Sholapur highway towards Magarpatta junction to catch my auto to Amdocs. Two small kids, a boy aged around 8 and the girl a couple of years younger to him, passed by; and they were asking people for some money. I never give money to those who beg. There are many people who beg when they can actually do some work. And about those who really cant work, I believe many of them only earn for their 'employers'.

Coming back to those kids, I wanted to give them something then. First because it was 'joy of giving' week, and I was looking for an opportunity. And secondly, I wanted to start my birthday in a nice way! ;) In a minute they were in front of me, the boy said that they were very hungry and wanted something to eat. And when I asked them if they wanted some ice cream, I saw the girl's eyes glow. Both of them nodded quickly. We walked to an ice cream parlour which was a minute's walk ahead.

The place had just opened for the day. There were only two waiters inside. I asked one of them to get two double scoops of icecream for them. While having their ice cream they introduced themselves. The girl's name was Lakshmi and the boy was Maruti. He then showed me his name tattooed on his arm.
It was already past 10 and I was running late for office now. So I told them that I had to leave and then went to the counter to pay the bill. But as I was paying, both of them put the icecream into the vessels they had and rushed out! Have no idea why they did that! They were perhaps scared to eat there w/o someone to see that they weren't asked to get out by the waiters.

When I came out and looked around, they'd already vanished. I then continued my walk towards the junction.

"Joy of Giving" week

2009-09-27T09:59:00.004+05:30

This week, from 27th of september to the 3rd of oct, (the week coinciding Mahatma Gandhi's birthday) will be observed as the Joy Of Giving week in the country.

There are millions in the country who aren't as privileged as us. Trust me, you are really lucky; for reading this post sitting in front of a computer, when there are boys n girls, who haven't even held a pencil; for no fault of theirs. They were just born in a poor family. You can easily find people around you who could use a helping hand. And if you haven;t done anything yet why not start on the joy of giving week. Sachin Tendulkar, Saif Ali khan, Nandita Das, Rahul Dravid, Azim Premji, Geet Sethi are some of the celebrities supporting the cause.

At Amdocs, the community relations group is organizing few activities during the week. Most of them include collecting funds for conducting events at different NGOs in the city. The events organized are

Special Kabala Shabath: At Amdocs, the teams have an informal get-together, called Kabala Shabat (means cake meeting) every friday, where we also buy some eatables, sweets, and colddrinks; and have some good time together. Next week we requested teams to voluntarily skip it once and contribute the collection for that Kabala Shabat towards the fund.
We are facilitating sale of Diwali articles (prepared at Rachana, an NGO) and candles and diyas (made in Meghalaya hostel, another NGO). The amount collected would go towards the respective organizations.
A special game of housie-housie conducted by instructors at dance institute of bollywood choreographer Shiamak Dawar. They would teach latest bollywood dance steps to the participants during the game.
Delivering roses with messages to colleagues for a nominal price.

So this week, you too try to do something for another person. Draw a smile on someone's face; and find one on your's too. :)

Links:
Joy Of Giving home page and blog.
Follow JoG on twitter.
and me here. ;)

PS: In mumbai now, enjoying the 3 day weekend. :D

Duke's nose trek and valley crossing

2009-09-19T01:05:00.019+05:30

On the 6th of this month, I went on a trek with valley crossing on the Duke's Nose which is situated in Lonavla. The trek was conducted by Trek'di, a trekking club I found on google when I was back in Mangalore. The valley was around 850m deep! And for 800 bucks I thought it was a good deal. And when I saw these two pics of the valley crossing on their site, I had no doubt about registering for it. :)

The biggest challenge for me was reaching the station at 6 in the morning, which meant I had to be up by 430! LOL! I could only manage to go to bed by 1am but somehow woke up on time and made it there.

We caught the 620 local train to Lonavla, and reached there at 0750. Some guys from Mumbai also joined us there. When we were walking towards the exit, I heard a couple of guys just behind me talking about Manchester United and Chelsea. I realised twas bcoz I was wearing a cap with 'Chelsea' logo behind it. Thats how I met Albes, Vamsi and Prashant who also work and stay in Magarpatta City. Their offices are next to the Amdocs tower.

We took a sumo from the station to the base of our trek. There we had our breakfast at a small ~~restaurant~~ stall. And after the breakfast, we had to sign an agreement which read "I am solely responsible for my safety and for any mishap during the trek and Trekdi isn't responsible for any of my actions." Everyone was so positive after that..hehe ;)

Then we started off. It was drizzling a bit. And was foggy all around. You could see only a 5 meter radius around you. We reached the top of Duke's nose pretty soon [took around 40 mins]. But the main part was yet to come.

From the top of Dukes nose, we had an awesome view. There were clouds below us. We could see rives, waterfalls far away. Well, we couldnt see them very well. They were just a few white lines among the green landscape below.

Can u see the cable across the valley?
click on the pic to see it

When we reached atop, the cables were being setup. There were two trees acting as the base anchors for the cable. And from there, the cable went to three different secondary anchors (just in case the tree got uprooted because of a really heavy guy ;) ). There was another cable too, connected in a similar way, for safety.

We were first shown a demo crossing by one of the organizers. After that, the participants started to cross one after the other. At midday, it started raining. For a couple of hours, it was ok to stand in the rain. After that, it wasn't very pleasant for sometime.:)

Ropeway to heaven

At four, I got ready to cross. The sky had cleared by then too. I got strapped and hooked to the cables; and was good to go. When I was crossing, I kept looking down. The ground was sooo far away; almost a kilometer down! And it was a great feeling to be hanging on a cable so high above. For the minute, I was crossing, I even forgot that I was scared of heights. :P

Looking at the ground far far below

It was over pretty soon. But I had one of the best 60 seconds or so of my life. The best so far was without any doubt the Bungee jump in the second year. :) Even though this was much higher than the bungee, I enjoyed the latter more; the feeling of free fall is totally different.

Below is the video of me crossing.

Next on the 'to-do list' : Rappelling on a waterfall. :)

'Cut' my tea??!

2009-08-31T21:21:00.003+05:30

Ive spent two months here in Pune and it doesnt look like I'm gonna learn Marathi soon. Some rickshaw drivers and vendors speak to you in Marathi even if you speak to them in hindi. You then have to listen to them carefully, pick some words from the sentences that sound like some words in hindi, and then use the situation to try and decode what the person was tryin to tell you. And yea, you also have to know the local lingo. My recent experience would perhaps explain that.

Yesterday, I had gone to a restaurant close to my flat for breakfast. Being a Sunday, I obviously woke up quite late. So there wern't many things to eat, left there in the restaurant. I decided to have a vada-pav and a cup of tea. It is self service there. So after having paid, I went to the counter to collect it.

While preparing tea for me the guy there asked me "Bhaiyya, chai cutting hai kya?" (Brother, is the tea 'a cutting'?) I could only respond with a confused "KYA!!!" (WHAT!!)[What was he going to cut into a tea?? Or was he going to prepare a special tea for me? But I had paid just Rs.4 for it; and I don't think I would get something special for that. :P] It could be some specialty of the place. But I didn't want to take a risk and wanted to ask some reliable person about it before taking 'a cutting tea'! So I was about to ask him to give me a cup of ordinary tea; but the guy at the cash counter interrupted and told the waiter that it was indeed a cutting! Now I was curious, and grew more and more curious as time passed.

Later he kept my plate of vada-pav on the counter and then placed a glass of tea next to it. That was when I learnt what it was. It was the quantity! They served it in a very small glass [they perhaps called it the cutting glass ;)]. Its as if the've cut a piece from the large glass of tea. It looked like the younger brother of the other glasses that I then observed on a small shelf there.

Hmmm...long way to go...:)

PS: A really good week in the sports world for me. Fisichella gets Force India its first podium finish at the Belgian GP. India won the nehru cup. That's really big for Indian football. And Chelsea win four of their first four matches in the BPL.

PPS: Going on a trek on 6th Sep to Duke's nose(Lonavala) with valley crossing. Its gonna be the most exciting trek I've done. Looking forward to it. Check this space for a post on that soon. :)

Hemagglutinin 1 Neuraminidase 1

2009-08-14T09:07:00.002+05:30

No, its not the score of a soccer match! :) Its the latest health crisis in the nation.

Babe - the pig is back in the city; but this time with vengeance!
Swine flu has hit many countries and in India, the situation is worst here in Pune.

Schools and colleges have been closed for some days now in Pune. The malls and multiplexes are shutdown. In the evenings you can find small kids playing with their masks on.

At Amdocs, they're taking it quite seriously too. The company provides us with masks every Monday. Mails about swine flu awareness are sent quite often. Hand sanitizers are kept at many locations in a floor, so that people use them often. And they are thinking about letting the employees work from home too. We also have a doctor sitting in the ground floor for us to consult in case of any symptoms of swine flu.

Most of the people are wearing masks to protect themselves from the virus. But most of the masks available aren't effective or last for maybe a day only. Chemists sell ordinary surgical masks saying that they are effective against swine flu virus. But they are'nt. N-95 masks are supposed to provide you best protection. But even after so many cases here in Pune, the N-95 masks are'nt available easily. I've got mine. If you don't get an N95 for yourself, you can use the normal ones, but you've got to use your folded handkerchief once or some other cloth piece beneath or over the mask, as you need atleast three layers in your to be effective.

The chemists in Pune are trying to make profit at this time of panic and crisis by selling items like masks for crazy prices. One druggist told me that he would give me an N95 for around 500 bucks! One mask, which is supposed to be thrown away after being used for a day or two for 500! Many duplicate N95s are also there in the market. In a TV interview on a news channel yesterday( i believe it was aaj tak), the anchor asked our health minister, Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad, what he would do about these people who were taking wrong advantage of the situation. The minister replied that the masks were'nt meant for the general public, but was only for the doctors who were treating H1N1 positive patients and for the patients already affected by the virus, so that they dont spread the virus while coughing or sneezing. That is how it is supposed to be, according to the WHO or the CDC standards. But the panic always spreads faster.

The death toll is rising and 15 out of 23 deaths in the country have been from Pune; that would tell you how serious the situation is in Pune. The monsoon hit the city very late whn people here were praying for rains. And now when its raining, people want it to stop as it helps in spreading of swine flu.

And as precautionary measures against swine flu,

wash your hands often with soap,
do not take your hand to your face,
do not rub your eyes,
maintain at least 3 feet distance from a sick person,
use a hanky while sneezing or coughing,
avoid crowded places especially in cities like pune and mumbai
if you are using a mask use a 3-layered one or dont bother taking the trouble :)

But these numbers are nothing when compared to the number of people dying all over the nation with diseases like malaria or pneumonia. Its only because H1N1 is new in the country that it has created so much panic here. And ofcourse there is the media hype too. Every day the front page reports about the number of cases reported in different cities in India. And to add to the panic our health minister had allegedly told in a Times of India interviewthat in the next two years, one-third of the Indian population would be affected by the virus. He however, in a TV news channel interview later, had denied the statement.

All this tension and hype will die out as few days pass by. We may just need to wait for the next Indian cricket series to start to turn the attention of the people.

Friendship day at Annapoorna

2009-08-02T20:25:00.018+05:30

Happy friendship day to all my friends! :D

Here at Amdocs, we have a 'Community Relations' group that engages into some small social work. I've joined them and we had decided to celebrate this friendship day at Annapurna and Salvation army schools; with the kids there.

I met the other volunteers in front of tower 2, Amdocs at 945 in the morning. We collected all the logistics and left in two cabs. The rest came in bikes and a santro.

The kids assembling for the national anthem

When we reached there the kids were havin their breakfast. After sometime they reached the school. There were kids from class 1 to 10. We started with them singing the national anthem, after which they were divided into 10 groups. Each groups consisted around 20-22 kids and two volunteers were assigned to take care of each group. Asmita and I got group four. The kids then tied friendship bands on their friends' wrists. We had bands of different colours for each group.

We conducted musical chairs for children from class 1 to 5. The elder kids played Hulla-hoop[i hope i got the spelling right.] They had to stand in a circle holding hands, then each child in the circle had to pass through a circular loop made of plastic, and then pass it to the next person. During these games the music system was on and some small kids in my group who were watching the others play, were very eager to dance. I asked those boys to dance on the side. Soon the number started increasing and the place started getting too crowded; so we promised them that they'd get to dance in the end. Then we had a game where a child in a group would be blindfolded and using his teammates' directions, had to walk through a path drawn on the ground. The fastest team wins. By then most of the kids were hungry.

The kids were taken in groups to the three rooms where food was being served. The kids ate well, and most of them in my group wasted no food. After they finished having the lunch all the volunteers forgot all the dining manners and attacked the food. All of us were starving. The rice was over. There were few puris and sheera left. We shared whatever was left and joined the kids who were waiting for us.

For the post-lunch session we had earlier planned a skit competition; we volunteers had to teach the children what they had to do in about an hour, the scripts for which were handed to us a couple of days back. Asmita had translated ours into hindi and marathi for the kids. But it was quite late for having the skits, as the morning session had taken a lot of time. On popular demand we decided to have few matches of kabaddi. We conducted separate matches for the boys and girls of the higher classes, and then for the smaller kids too. Then there was a match between us volunteers and the staff of Annapoorna. Dont ask me who won that match, but it as pretty close. Its the participation that matters, right? :P

Prize distribution

The game was followed by the prize distribution. The points for each game was added; and the winners were declared. The winners and the first runners-up won got their prizes. My group came third. [should I have a happy or a sad smiley here?]. Prizes were also given to students who passed class 10 last year. Two boys in class 10, Arun and Anil were also felicitated, for securing first and second ranks resp. Arun had also got an internship at Tata Motors. He was also given a new bicycle.

The kids dancing

After that, as we had promised the kids, we kept the music system on full volume, and everyone started to dance. The kids were so full of energy even after playin for the whole day. They started pulling us into the crowd and made us throw our limbs too. We called the cab from Amdocs at around 530 and left the place after having a great time with the children.

Some of my friends here went on a trip to Lonavala today and another group had gone on a trek to Singad. They wanted me to come along, but I decided not to go with either of them and went to Annapoorna; and I am really glad I did that.

PS: The pics here were taken on Abhinav's cam and my cell phone.

The photos of the friendship day celebration at Salvation army could be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/parimalgbhatia/

Dining etiquette workshop

2009-07-23T16:28:00.003+05:30

We shifted to our flat on the 4th this month. I've moved my stuff to one of the bedrooms, Pavan's are in the other. The hall is an empty room except for a stack of newspapers on the left side. Most of the things that we've bought after shifting were for our laboratory: the kitchen! Stove, cooker, non-stick pan, utensils, spoon and many more things. You can expect new additions into the hotel menus soon. :P

Two sundays back, there was an ad on The Pune Mirror regarding a workshop on continental dining etiquette. I, often confused when given the flatware, decided to go for it. So I registered for the workshop and paid them the advance. It was gonna be on sunday, the 12th of july.

When I reached the place, Mrs. Nirmala Lalvani was there to welcome me into her house. There were 3 more guys inside for the workshop; Tanpreet, who works for Bajaj Auto Ltd and two boys doing their second year at graduation, Jaiveer and Shashwath. Mrs. Lalvani is an etiquette trainer and has held classes for employees at different companies. She was now conduting these workshops to collect money for the two girls whose education she was sponsoring.

She first showed us how to hold the cocktail glass, a small plate and a napkin on the left hand, leaving your right hand free for shaking hands. Now that needs some practice, without which you will drop them for sure while walking. Then we learnt to set the table; and then to read the menu, looking at the table setting. She taught us to make the fork and knife look like appendages. We learnt small details to be taken care of while drinking soup, we learnt to eat on the back of the fork, to signal some things to the waiter without speaking to him and few other things. She had prepared a delicious 4-course meal for us and we did take sometime to finish having our lunch keeping everything she taught in mind.

Before leaving I learnt that her daughter-in-law conducted workshops on eating using the chopsticks!:D I have already spoken to her, but she will be out of station for sometime. So thats the plan for another weekend.

PS: Does anyone know how chopsticks got the name?You cant chop anything with it, can you?! I guess it is because it is from the land of martial arts!

Nandan Nilekani's first day at the pariament

2009-07-18T13:47:00.003+05:30

I came across Nandan Nilekani's briefings on his first day at the parliament in an email forward.
I thought you might wanna go through it; so pasted it here.

The House was in pin drop silence. I was brimming with anticipation andexcitement!!!! Manmohan had informed me that my introduction was one ofthe important points of the agenda. I hoped that I will be able to makemy speech properly. After so many interviews and conferences, I was nervous today!!!! After the Speaker indicated that the proceedings of the House could begin, Manmohan formally introduced me to the entire House. He mentioned that as the head of the Unique Identification Authority of India, I was responsible to ensure that each and every Indian had a digital smart card as a proof of his existence.

Manmohan spoke about why I was selected and also some references to the various projects executed by me in Infosys were mentioned. The House listened with rapt attention. I was asked to say a few words and I did exactly the same!!! I thanked the Government of India for having givenme this opportunity and I assured the House that I would strive to successfully deliver this project. The Speaker then formally inducted meinto the House and before the proceedings could move any forward, there was a small commotion on the other side of the hall.

It was Minister of Textiles who had a comment to make before the next point on the agenda. He made a request that I should be attired in a more austere way instead of a flashy suit. It did not go well with the image of a minister who should live to serve the common man and should be less ostentatious in his habits. I stood up to reply. I offered my apologies to the Honourable Minister and assured that I shall be in amore acceptable dress next time. I felt that he was right. We also used to have corporate dress code in Infosys. So it's here as well!!!!

I sat down and felt somebody nudging me. I turned around and to mysurprise; it was the former Indian skipper and one of my favourite batsmen Mohd. Azharuddin. I remembered that he had recently won the elections. I smiled at him and mentioned to him that I used to like hisgame very much, shaking his hand. No Rolex, I noticed. Azhar told me that he would "fix" me an appointment with an Italian designer who had designed his dapper Kurta suit. An Italian designer in Milan doing Kurtas!!!!! I made a note of this and reminded myself to give this example to Friedman for his next book," The World Markets are flattened".

Since there was no doubt about the "Fixational" capacities of Azhar, Itold him to give me the details and I would consider. The proceedings ofthe House went on with numerous bills being debated and passed as I satas a passive audience waiting for my project's turn to come up. After the lunch break, it was the moment for me!!!!

MY PROJECT"S FIRST REVIEW CAME UP FOR PRESENTATION.

I was at sea. My laptop did not have any reserve power. I went to Manmohan and apprised him of the situation. I was sweating. He calmly replied that this would not be a cause of concern. I was flummoxed!!!!The Speaker asked me to explain to the House on what were my plans forthe Unique Identity Project. I replied that I have a plan prepared for30-60-90-120 days' milestones and I have presentation to make for whichI need a power socket, a projector and a screen. I had no idea what was going to happen after this.

The next couple of minutes were a complete jolt for me. I was completelyin a tizzy. Let me just summarize what happened. A Joint CabinetSecretary Committee was set up to judge the feasibility of my request.The Under Secretaries for the Ministries of Power, IT and Broadcasting will prepare a Viability Report after scrutinizing National Security threats to my request. This was because the power socket comes under Power, laptop comes under IT and projector comes under Broadcasting. I have also been told to reconsider my timelines of 30-60-90 days and start thinking in terms of years. Probably, they are right. I did not have the foresight in this matter.

The summary of the issue is that I need to come up with a more inclusive, democratic, comprehensive long term plan for this project tobe executed over the next five years. I have also been given a presentation slot 3 months from now (by which the issues related to the power cord etc will also be resolved). I am filled with mixed reactions.I was planning for a quick resolution; the management wants a strategic solution. I come out of the House and text Murthy.

"You won't believe it but these guys work just like us. I am on a NATIONAL BENCH for the next three months!!!!!!!!"

PS: Steve jobs' commencement address at Stanford

My new home ;)

2009-06-14T22:02:00.006+05:30

In Pune now; reached here on the 7th. The company had provided us accommodation at Hotel Silver Crest, in Viman Nagar. The rooms are pretty good; they're air conditioned,have TVs and only after a couple of days did we discover that there was net connection too. But the luxury was intended for 15 days only. :( We had to find a place to stay by then.

Last few days, mammen and I were busy looking for flats to stay, somewhere close to Magarpatta City (thats where Amdocs has its office) or Hadapsar. We did contact many people and also check the flats personally and finally yesterday we decided on a 2-bhk flat in ECP Vastu campus, in hadapsar. Its a new construction with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a hall, a kitchen and a balcony. All the rooms are quite spacious. The flat is in the 6th floor; so with the huge windows, there is good breeze coming in and is well lit too. And they have a gas connection in the flat already installed and a person would visit every month and take the reading to bill Oh, I forgot to mention the rent. Its Rs.7000 per month with Rs.25,000 deposit. I believe its a good find, as most of the flats were either too far from our office, too old, or were offered for a very high rent. So we're quite happy now and look forward to have a nice stay there. :D

Gonna continue reading 'The Godfather' now. Yea, I know I should have read the book long back; better late than never ;). Didnt watch the movie yet too, as i was advised to read it first.

I shall post a few pics taken in Pune soon. Until then, hf.

How to: sleep well in a bus when the next person is snoring?! ;)

2009-06-04T12:00:00.011+05:30

Situation:
Bored sitting at home, i decided to go to blore to my cousin's place, last week. So i booked a ticket for the same day and boarded the bus at 1030.The bus, KSRTC volvo (airavath) was quite comfortable. They provide you with blankets and a bottle of water.
But regardless of how good it was, I always find it really hard to sleep in a bus. And there was no question of me falling asleep as early as 1030 in the night! So I enjoy the view outside
thru the large windows of the bus .After a couple of hours, I decide to try sleeping. But then...the person sitting next to me starts to snore like a truck with some engine problem!

Thoughts:
I could elbow him or wake him up and ask him to stop the truck and ride a bicycle.
But that would stop the snoring only for a few minutes. As he went back to deep sleep, he would start it again. So i had to stop him from sleeping well so that i could :D

Action:
As we passed the ghats, the mercury was dropping. So I adjusted 4 a/c vents above so that all of 'em blew air directly at the person
to my right. Trust me, not many people know that you have adjustable vents there. :)

Result:
Within 10 minutes, he woke up and started pulling his blanket.
and...it was my turn to sleep now!

Yea, I am wicked!

PS: Got a new phone yest...samsung star S5603. With the 3 inch screen, touchscreen, 8 gb memory and a pretty good cam, its really cool.

Got my joining date

2009-06-02T22:06:00.010+05:30

I was slowly making plans for these holidays. I was expecting it to be a long one; atleast around 50 days long. But unfortunately, mammen called me up to say that we had to join Amdocs on 8th this month! Yep 8th...and today is 2nd! Wat the hell! Yea, i was hoping for an early joining date, with some of my friends having their offers canceled and some deferred. But isn't this a lil too early! My last vacation has just started.
Now all the plans have to be cancelled. I will prolly be leaving Mangalore on the 6th. That leaves me with just 3 days. I just got my unlimited net connection yesterday. But i can hardly use it now. :( Let me see what else could be done with these 72 hours. Hmmm...

PS: Ofcourse I am not very upset about the date with the current scenario; but perhaps it would have been better if I was informed abt an early date in advance. I'd have been mentally prepared for it.
PS: Nadal out, murray out! Will FedEx do it this time at the Rolland Garros?!

My new Dell Studio 15

2009-05-16T23:32:00.001+05:30

Im back home now. And there waiting for me was my new lappie :)...its a dell studio 15

Here's the spec:

Intel core 2 duo processor, 2GHz/80 FSB, 2MB cache
15.6" Hi-def 720p WLED display
4GB dual channel DDR2 SDRAM
500 GB hard drive
512 MB ATI mobility radeon HD4570
2.0 megapixel webcam
8X DVD RW

It took some time to switch it on as i couldn't find the power button!! Then after a minute's search, i discovered it on the right hand side on the hinge. :) I was doubtful about the jetblack colour when i placed an order for the laptop, but I'm quite happy about it now. The belkin backpack is sleek and nice too. I dont like the normal dell bags which look very bulky. Later, when the power went off, the lappie looked really cool in the dark with the backlit keyboard. Was glued onto my seat with my laptop since I got home. Will be taking it to the hostel tomorrow for stuffing the hard disk with movies, series and games! :D

PS: any suggestions for partitioning the hard disk w/o formatting? with the shrink option i could only reduce it to around 210 GB.

Its over! am an engineer now!!! ;)

2009-05-09T22:52:00.011+05:30

Back in my room after the last end-sem exam. It was on my global elective - 'human resource management'. I shall remember the day - 12 may '09 - as the last day I sat in a classroom, and its gonna remain so for a long time - atleast a year or a couple.

This is perhaps the first time I'm not so excited after writing the last of an exam series. Now the only work remaining here is to get 'no dues' certificates from different departments, hostels, and labs. I hate standing in long queues!

So that's all you've got to do to become an engineer?! ;)

PS: did you know that the 'zoozoos' in the latest vodaphone ads shown during ipl, are not animated but real human beings dressed in suits?!! Dont trust me?? Google it! I too didn't believe it first when kavi sent me a mail about it.

A R Rahman ROCKKKKEDDD!!!

2009-05-04T02:28:00.005+05:30

What a show!! FANTABULOUS! Simply superbb!!!

Just back from an awesome concert by the musical maestro, A.R. Rahman. This concert 'Jai Ho', which is also the one after winning the oscars, marked the beginning of his world tour. The show was organized by an NGO 'Global Kerala Initiative', and the profit from the concert would be used for rehabilitation of HIV positive orphaned children. The show began at around 8pm and then I had 3 hours which i wont forget for a very long time!

We had originally booked tickets worth 1000Rs. But luckily Bharath's dad had got 5 complimentary tickets worth Rs10,000 each. So 5 of us - bharath, ramu, murali, anoop, and i - gave our tickets to some of our friends, who didnt have tickets to the show; and took our seats in the 'platinum circle', from where we had a much better and closer view of the stage.

This show would easily displace the recent concert by Shankar Mahadevan at Ragam as the best concert that I've been to. No concert by an Indian can be bigger than that of 'Mozart of Madras', A R Rahman; atleast for a decade. And I doubt if I could watch better concerts overseas too, coz this was just awesome!! The singers who performed included greats like Chitra, Hariharan and Sadhana Sargam. We also had performances by Blaaze, Rashid Ali, Benny Dayal, Javed Ali, Mohammed Aslam and many more artistes. The most striking thing was that even after so many performances and the fame, Rahman was so humble thoughout.

You cant find many better ways to end your college life! And as ramu suggested, we've got to laminate the tickets!

Quite tired now and really sleepy. So cya later.
Hf!

Links: some pics of the concert

_ _ _ _ _ . _ . . . . . _ . _ . _ _ _ _ . . .

2009-04-29T21:22:00.007+05:30

We had our major project evaluation yesterday and now there are no classes to attend too. Lot of time to kill :D. So keep thinking of new stuff to keep me busy. The other day I was writing my name in different languages. Then was wondering how it would be in morse code. So I just googled it. Below the images, there were a few links to some tutorial sites.

So I decide to learn Morse Code! Morse code is not a language, just an encoding technique to represent the alphabet. Every character is represented as a combination of dots (dit) and dashes (dah). It was developed by Samuel Morse for electric telegraph; and was later used for different purposes like radio communication. You must have noticed the google home page a couple of days back. It had 'google' written in morse code marking Samuel Morse's birthday.

The popular nokia sms tone is actually the morse code for "SMS": dit-dit-dit dah-dah dit-dit-dit.

There are a few good sites with good tutorials like this one. You can also try the softwares on the net. Most of them use the Koch method of training, where you would be practicing with 2 letters in the beginning, untill you reach the max speed you want with 90% proficiency, and as you improve your accuracy, you can increase the number of letters.

Softwares: G4fon Trainer, Ham university

Happy morse coding!

Time to say good bye...almost...

2009-04-02T07:45:00.004+05:30

We just have around 40 days left at the college now. Different cubs will soon start having farewell parties for the final years in the club. The juniors from different states will have it for their seniors. We guys from Karnataka will have it this fortnight. Bharath is been having a countdown timer on his desktop to the final day at college for around 2 months now ;). And that would end 4 wonderful years in calicut, 4 memorable years in the hostel.

One is really missing something in his life if he hasn't stayed in a hostel. I bet anyone here would second me on that. Looking back, the stay here was filled with lots of fun, lot of mischief, a handful of times when i was caught [;)], few fights with friends, arguments, wonderful seniors, great juniors, the lecturers, labs, the fests, the common rooms, and many more things! The seniors who came for Convo said that they miss college and hostel a lot; and I'm sure its goin to be the same for us too.

But I can't help it! I cannot screw up one of my exams just to stay here for another year :). Will be leaving the college, but will have lots of memories and some friends for life too to take along with me.

I very well remember the last few days at all the schools and my prev colg...and i miss all of them...but every time i left a place there was another wonderful place waiting, with more friends, more fun, more exciting stuff. And I'm sure the same is gonna happen this time too.

So, cheers!

Ragam '09 - Snapshots

2009-03-29T02:24:00.019+05:30

Ragam, this year, exceeded all expectations and was the best so far!

Here are a few pics taken during RAGAM, courtesy Bharath. He btw won the photography competition during ragam!

It all begins here.

Rajpath.

Yadu, Philip and I, judging dumb charades.

Vegetable carving.

Benny Dayal performing in the OAT.

The OAT was so crowded that people had to climb
adjacent buildings to watch the show!

NITC dance team at Choreo Nite.

Ragnarok Gaming Centre - Sponsored by Intel and Acer, and in

association with Zapak gaming.

Breathe members judging Western Orchestra.

Western Orchestra.

Shankar Mahadevan! It was one of the best

pro-shows at Ragam.

The crowd goes WILD!

English JAM finals.

Face painting.

Breathe - The Delicate Sound of Floyd.

Breathe - superb performance by them too!

Couture Boulevard (FS)

NITC team at Couture Boulevard.

Thats the final RAGAM for us final years :( Hope next year too the Convocation is scheduled for some day close to the ragam dates.

Ragam - A Cult, A Culture

2009-03-11T14:19:00.008+05:30

This year, Ragam, our cultural fest is going to be held from the 25th to 28th March ...and its going to be BIG! With pro-shows by Shankar Mahadevan, Darshan Doshi and Benny Dayal, its gonna be a huge crowd puller. And for the first time, a UK based band, "Breathe - The Delicate Sound of Floyd" (a Pink Floyd tribute band), is gonna perform at NITC. Three years back we had Parikrama and Silk Route perform in the OAT. In our second year, it was Shaan who set the stage on fire. And last year we had Karthik. But this year's Ragam is gonna be the best so far. You couldnt have asked for a bigger fest for your last year at college!

Will also be meeting some of my good old friends from other colleges during ragam. Then ofcourse you have lots of interesting competitions good cash prizes. You can also have a great time at the Ragam Informals stage. I will be spending a lot of time there. So you know where to be during the last weekend this month! Go book your tickets! ;)

PS: 2nd sessionals starting from tomorrow! Looking at the bright side... These are the last sessionals at NITC! :D
PPS: Some snapshots of ragam 09

Links:
Ragam Website.
Breathe The Delicate Sound of Floyd
Benny Dayal

Earth hour

2009-03-09T22:52:00.013+05:30

Earth hour is an initiative of the WWF. Every year they select a time when in cities around the world, people switch off all the lights in their apartments and offices, thereby helping save energy. This year the earth hour is on 28th of march at 2030 IST and millions around the globe will participate. I hope you will join too and the lights in your room will be switched off from 830 to 930.
You can follow the earth hour on twitter for more updates. And yea, here's the link to my twitter page! I shall remind my twitter followers to switch off the lights... ;)

Do check the vid...

Remember! We have to hand over the earth to the next generation in the same condition as we got it, if not better! :)
Dont just keep complaining abt the hot weather...ACT or its only gonna get worse!

PS: Its Bharath's Bday too... So can give him some more GPL in the dark! Hehe...

Links:
Earth hour site
Energy saved in 2008 Earth hour.
On Flickr
Youtube channel

Academia.edu

2009-02-23T16:00:00.009+05:30

I came across this site a few days back. The site shows academics around the world structured in a 'tree' format, displayed according to their departmental and institutional affiliations. It also enables academics to see news on the latest research in their area - the latest people, papers and talks.

Academics are joining the tree rapidly. More than 24,000 academics have added themselves in the last four months. Some professors on the site include:
- Stephen Hawking - http://cambridge.academia.edu/StephenHawking
- Richard Dawkins - http://oxford.academia.edu/RichardDawkins
- Paul Krugman - http://princeton.academia.edu/PaulKrugman
- Noam Chomsky - http://mit.academia.edu/NoamChomsky
- Steven Pinker - http://harvard.academia.edu/StevenPinker

Independent researchers can add themselves at another portion of the tree.
Very soon all the colleges will be included in the tree and that is going to be very helpful for many.

PS: Slumdog Millionaire won 8 oscars today, Rahman 2!

Alter ego

2009-02-19T22:57:00.011+05:30

I had told in one of my previous posts about how jobless we are in our final year. To support my point, some of my friends here, who call themselves 'The Cycle Dudes' have made a video, which is like a trailer to a movie. Its done pretty well considering the materials they had at their disposal. The "movie" is called Alter Ego. You've got to watch this "home-made" trailer.

Theres a tamil version of the trailer too ;) with some tamil songs in the background.

Check out the videos. Trust me, you will appreciate their job! Its much better than some of the lame trailers we see these days.

A trip to Athirapally and Valsan's home

2009-02-11T15:39:00.006+05:30

Last weekend, just after our sessionals, eight of us left for Valsan's home. We reached his home in the evening. Only after reaching there we knew that he had a big German Shepherd at home. As Philip and I ~~like~~ love dogs, we started playing with it. But i guess the dog wasnt too fond of us. :( It bit my hand within a couple of minutes. Luckily i was wearing a full sleeve shirt, with the sleeve folded 4 times; and its teeth fell right on the fold. Though the teeth didnt even touch my skin, it had left good imprints on my hand. We went to a doc there, who said that there was nothing to worry. :D
Early morning next day, Valsan, Bharath, Raja, Jp and I went to Guruvayoor temple. There we had to stand for around one and a half hours before the queue started to move. And once it started to move, you didnt have to do anything; others in the queue would keep pushing you all the way! There was a good rush there. When we came back, Philip, Veepi and Abhilash were still sleeping. We hadnt slept for even three hours, so wasted no time in kicking them out of their beds.
We then quickly had our breakfast and set off for Athirapally and vazhchal water falls in the Innova that we had hired for the day. The water falls were beautiful. At Vazhchal we were able to sight many monkeys and few beautiful birds. There were lot of tourists there too. After spending around 3 hours there, we were all starving! We went to a good hotel from there. By the time we finished, it was 8. From the restaurant we went to a beach near TP's house. And after spending some time there we came back to Valsan's home. We were all out of gas by the time we reached home. All of us went to bed after a shower .The next day we were at home till lunch watching the cricket match and then we came back to hostel.

Big Phil sacked!

2009-02-09T22:43:00.008+05:30

Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari has been sacked today! The decision was taken following the draw against Hull city at home this saturday. Some Chelsea fans had also jeered at Scolari saying he didnt know what he was doing.
The former Brazilian coach, Scolari had a great start this season; with Chelsea winning many matches and staying on top of the table for few weeks. But since the team lost against Liverpool at home in the Premier League, Chelsea didnt win many matches. Following the draw against Hull city, Chelsea has slipped to the fourth position below Aston Villa.
Russian coach Guus Hiddink and former manager Avram Grant are believed be the early front runners for the position. Some fans had also held banners calling for Chelsea legends Gianfranco Zola (currently in West Ham) and Roberto Di Matteo to return to Stamford Bridge.
The assistant manager Ray Wilkins will be taking charge of the team in the meantime.
Hope whoever replaces him, will be able to do a good job for the club.

Update: Guus Hiddink has been appointed as the Chelsea boss today (11th feb)!

Links:
Chelsea Official Site - Scolari sacked
Yahoo sports- Hiddink appointed

Flower exhibition- M'lore

2009-01-24T21:08:00.008+05:30

Im at home for the weekend, as monday is Republic day and on tuesday I have just one hour class. Today, as always at home, was another lazy day; I woke up quite late and had my breakfast at noon. Reading the newspaper i learnt that there was a flower exhibition in Kadri park here. Nothing to do at home, I drove to the venue at five in the evening. There was a small crowd in Kadri park who had come to witness the huge variety of flowers. The main attraction was the "Pushpa doni" (flower boat) that was erected in the middle of the park. It maily consisted of roses and anthoriums. It had 6000 hibrid roses , of 3 colours: white, red n pink(see pic).
There were few other interesting things to watch there including bonsais (there were grown banyan trees, in pots!), sculptures made using fruits and vegetables. It was totally worth the time.

Happy 2k9!

2009-01-19T16:04:00.008+05:30

Hey guys! A very happy new year to all! I guess its a little late to wish you new year; as by now, you must have already started breaking your new year resolutions. ;) I only tried it once. Had a long list of things i wanted do throughout the year; but couldn't take care of them even for a few weeks. For this year there's just one resolution: to enjoy the whole year spending max time with friends and family. Have already gone out with friends twice in the first fortnight this year, and another trip to Wayanad has been planned for the coming weekend too. A class trip to Lakshadweep is also on the cards.
The last sem at college has just begun and i must say i am JOBLESS! With just 12 hours of class in a week, i keep looking for new ways to kill time; searching for new games, new movies, books etc.
Hope you too have a great year ahead. happy bloggin. have fun!
PS: Here are some of my favs from the past fortnight.
Best book: Tristan Betrayal- Robert Ludlum.
Best movie: Slumdog Millionaire.
Best game: World of GOO! :)

Engineering students == Nerds??

2008-10-11T20:06:00.005+05:30

Last week I was on my way home. Most of the branches( actually all except Comp Sci) had planned trips for the weekend. As we didn't have any trip, I decided to head home. And this time I was alone, and so I carried a book to read during the journey.
After a few stops and half a bottle of pepsi, three guys, in their 30s, came and sat opposite me. I gave them a smile and continued reading the book. For most of the time, they were discussing something about their work and also about politics, from what I overheard.
About 2 hours passed. And then I heard one of them ask "Are you an engineering student?" I lifted my head to find all three of them looking at me. I told them that I was. He then looked at his friends and gave them a didnt-i-tell-you smile. I wondered how he understood. I wasn't wearing any t-shirt with the college' name on it. So I asked him. He told me that it was because I was studying for such a long time!! I couldnt help laughing. I showed them the cover page. The guy sitting to his right read, "A Thousand Splendid Suns.... Oh! Its a novel!"
LOL.
They too smiled (the friends of the guy who asked me smiled more than him this time) and then we continued with what we were doing earlier.
But what made him think that engineering students studied all the time! This is the first time I am hearing such a comment about engineering students! One visit to our hostel during the exam time would surely change all his misconceptions. It would have made more sense if he had asked if I was a medical student. Or maybe not. Nerds are there in every college. And there are lazy guys too. You can find people of every type in all the colleges; irrespective of the stream. The college or branch has nothing to do with how much time one spends on studies!
And yes, the book is really good. Khaled Hosseini writes about challenges and attrocities faced by Afghani women especially in the late 20th century; written beautifully and in simple english. The author was able to keep me reading until the train stopped at Mangalore station.
PS: Again... Engineers are not nerds!
Any engineering student out there, who would like to comment on this? ;)

Back in college...after a bad day

2008-09-14T23:03:00.010+05:30

Today, I'm back in the college after the onam holidays...but the trip back wasnt very easy this time...My train was supposed to leave Mangalore at 230pm...but before that, some people of Bajrang dal broke into some of the churches in mangalore(Milagres church, and few other churches) and destroyed some idols there!!...and that obviously resulted in agitation; and within an hour, the roads in the city were blocked...people were pelting stones at vehicles and there were police everywhere...So i wasnt able to reach the station. Then we thought of going to Kasaragod and catchin the same train there; but the roads enroute were blocked too... Then we decided to go to the second station in Mangalore, and luckily we got there on time (actually an hour early for a train that was 1.5 hours late!). And I managed to get back to college. Lucky Renzil...he was supposed to come with me, but left early morning because he wanted to watch the race in the afternoon.
But why do these people do such horrible things?! Cant they just forget about others' religion and live in harmony? Yesterday there were serial bomb blasts in Delhi and now today this!...Will this ever end?! Its the duty of us, 'educated' people, to spread the word of secularism. Most of the wars today in the name of religion. Lets consider people before considering their religion, nationality, caste or anything. Lets make ~~India~~ the world, a better place to live in!
Hoping for a better tomorrow...
Links out:
Mlore shut; police protesters clash-TOI
Mangalore tense-IBN live

PS: Do watch 'A Wednesday', a new hindi movie starring Naseeruddin Shah, addressing the issue of terrorism and communal violence. Its good!

Google - The next Microsoft (?)

2008-09-13T13:26:00.005+05:30

There is no doubt that Google is expanding at an alarming rate, and is all set to be the biggest company in the IT industry.
Was going through the new products of google at Google Labs. There you can find new projects of google, most of which are in the testing stage. There you can find gtalk-labs edition, with invisibility feature (but it has some other problems). One interesting software I found here is "Lively by Google". Its a chat software; but much better than the normal ones. Here you have to create an avatar for yourself, before chatting. You can have fun playing with the animated avatars. There are many chat rooms too(discos, club bars , cafes, beaches, etc), which you can join. And the avatar sometimes reacts according to what you type too...if you type lol or rofl, your avatar would start laughing!
I was watching Download- The true story of the internet, a documentary on discovery channel hosted by John Heileman, sometime back. It showed how Netscape had challenged Microsoft in the 90s, but eventually lost the battle to the giants. But google now doesnt show any sign of losing.They have now come up with their browser- chrome- which is not the best browser now, but is only going to get better. Once Google comes up with their own Operating System(they do use "Goobuntu"- a linux distribution based on ubuntu, but only internally), and something to replace MS Office, they can have the monopoly. But microsoft is not going to watch everything, doing nothing!

Rock ON!!

2008-08-31T12:20:00.002+05:30

Went for a movie today...ROCK ON!
Nice mov! Its about a 4 guys in a Rock band that splits over a small problem
and then reunites after 10 years...really nice way to pass your time on a weekend...
and a nice performance by debutant Farhaan Akthar...
It reminded me of movs like Dil chahta hai and RDB
Recommended!

Other recommendations for this month:
1.Dark Night
2.Bungee Jumping! (just awesome!)
3.Animal Farm (book by George Orwell...must read!!)
4.CoolIris PicLens addon for firefox(Its simply the coolest add-on)
5.Life is Beautiful(english-Would suggest this movie anytime)

Fasting for a month ;)

2008-08-30T16:31:00.006+05:30

Ramzan is approaching and here we have a mess dedicated for students who are fasting during the month. I always wanted to fast once during the ramzan month, ever since 1st year at NITC. (Dont ponder over my name or religion...no i do not follow Islam; just want to try it out the fasting...coz i'm sure once i get out of college, i'l never be able to do it. No harm in trying right)..So this time I asked Faaez to include my name too in the list of guys joinin the mess for this year......but theres only one problem: I have to get up at 4 am to have my breakfast!!It would be a lot easier for me to have stay awake till 4, have my breakfast and then go to sleep!Many guys said I am going to find it very difficult.And moreover I have fallen ill quite a few times this year and lost some weight too. But as this is my last year in college, I decided to go for it this time. Lets see how it goes!

PS: Had a talk by author Chetan Bhagat in our college today. Was quite gud; spoke about current problems in India, and responsibilities of the youth, and also about other 'risks' to be taken by them.

Got 'pool'ed at last!

2008-08-24T13:56:00.000+05:30

Its a tradition in our college to throw people into the 'F-Pool' when students get placed! Its a small pool in the F-hostel. So today it was my turn. I was actually eagerly waiting to be thrown into the pool :). There would be 4 guys lifting you, by your arms and legs, to swing you wildly, before throwing you into the pool. Some guys first held me by my legs, lifted me, and dipped me into the pool; head first. Then pulled me out, and threw me on a pile of sand nearby. Then on the count of three, I was again thrown into the pool! After this Veepi put Kunju into the pool( yea.. one guy was enuf for throwin our Kunju into the pool ;) ). Then we startd pickin guys randomly and throwing them into the pool. Everyone except for a few were thrown into the pool. And as it is Ramu's Bday today, he was given a good GPL before becoming wet.
But it was great fun falling into the F-pool. If you are in NITC you have to fall into that pool atleast once; otherwise you are missing something! (sorry gals of nitc)..
India-SriLanka Match's goin on...Chelsea-Wigan match later!Sessionals tomorrow!Time's runnin out!!

Freebies Galore

2008-08-23T15:31:00.001+05:30

Who would spend his cash on something if he could get the same free!!This summer, I visited some sites on the web for free stuff! ;).
If you are in the US, then prolly you can live on the free stuff alone! seriously! But its a little difficult to find free stuff shipped to India.There are so many sites out there offering free samples of their products to customers. You just have to give them your address.
I first got the Microsoft Visual Studio 2008, and Windows server 2008 trial edition DVDs posted to my doorstep during the vacation. After that I signed up for the newsletter from some sites. And kept ordering whenever I found an interesting freebie. And this time when I came back home after about a month, there were a lot of envelopes waiting for me! DVDs (documentaries, full softwares, trial softwares), posters, cards, magazines etc! And all of them without spending anything.
So try them if you've got enough time (and no cash ;) ).
Links:
Freebie empire
Totally Free Stuff
Soprano
Ofree

[You may get irritated in the beginning coz most of the freebies are only for US residents.]

PS: Got placed in Amdocs today :)
1st sessionals starting from day after(monday)...have to start studying somethin :(

Net-Crazy-World

2008-08-12T00:15:00.008+05:30

Can you imagine what'll happen if the whole internet crashes?!We've all become entangled in the web and its impossible to think of a life without it!
We got net in our hostel few days back. We now get net through optical cable connection and not with wireless connection as it was earlier. Now everyone is in front of his comp surfin the net. The first day we got net there everyone in the hostel had configured the connection on their comps, within about an hour. I logged into gtalk and I found a huge list of people online... I scrolled and scrolled, but the list seemed endless. Then I sat down countin; twas around 70!! see pic..And ofcourse there must have been many people who were 'invisible' too.
So why's it that 'the current generation' is so crazy about chatting and surfing??Why cant they spend time on better activities like playing outdoor and reading books?! ;)

Final lap at NITC...

2008-08-10T20:40:00.005+05:30

Hey im back...We are final years now!! Its nice to be the seniormost batch in the campus!
Placements are going on well here at college.. The start was a bit dull for our branch; with yahoo taking no BTech student (just an intern-Anna), and Oracle taking just 2 (had taken around 10 last year)...But we have had some really good placements in other companies..like DE Shaw, Adobe, GS, Mcafee etc.Btw I got placed in Aricent few days back... :)
Other branches too, especially electrical, are having great placement results...I never knew that they could sit for so many companies. They sit for their core companies, then IT companies of Comp sci, companies of Mech, Tronics, Civil...all of them! There are very few companies which they are not eligible for. But anyways we feel its fine...coz their branch is supposed to have had the most hectic time on campus. They have drawing classes even in S7...lol...
Anyways...gtg now..have got to give a seminar on OCaml tomorrow (Its a language for our PPL lab)...
hf!

Placements!!

2008-06-21T03:02:00.000+05:30

Our placements are around the corner! Campus recruitment is supposed to commence on the 26th of june with ~~Microsoft~~ Yahoo. Preparations are going on. I hope everyone gets placed as soon as possible without much difficulty.
I'll be quite busy the next few weeks, so will remain dormant in the blogging world for some time.
Cya soon!
Hopefully with some good news ;)

Law abiding citizens??!!

2008-06-19T16:16:00.000+05:30

Check out this pic that I had taken a few days back in Mangalore. This is in front of a busy complex, which has a lot of clinics in it.Can you see the no-parking sign?!!

Blog update - 10,000 hits!!

2008-06-15T20:40:00.004+05:30

Yeah! My blog got its 10,000th visit today!!

PS.- Reached college today! Now staying in a temporary room in C-Hostel till the room allotment on 23rd.

Cousin's engagement - Nice trip :)

2008-06-14T21:20:00.010+05:30

Today one of my cousin had his engagement. So had to leave to my native in the morning with my father. Here's in brief how the day went..

0807 - Left home in our car with my father.
0935 - Reached my cousin's place. There were a lot of relatives there, whom I hadn't seen for a long time. Its a custom there for the 'men' of the house to go to the girl's place and ask for her hand formally and then decide everything about the marriage.
1040 - So after an hour all of us started off to her place. There were 2 buses and a car to take everyone. I got into one of the buses, and was quite excited as there were lot of my relatives there and I always wanted to go on a 'trip' like this one! The driver put in a malayalam cassette into his player and started the journey.
1110 - Passed Kanhangad. Its a town on the way. Note the last 5 letters ;). By now many people were dozing in the bus. But I was wide awake and admiring the scenery around! And it was ~~raining~~ pouring outside! Guess what?? Only one person in our bus had an umbrella!!I was trying to imagine how it would be if all of us reached there fully drenched!! lol!
1118 - Thadakk!! There was a loud noise. Someone fell on top of the bus??!!Spiderman??!! It woke everyone who was sleeping. Everyone was startled!
The driver told us that just a branch that fell on top of the bus from a tree on the roadside, because of the storm! Haha...Luckily it was a small one :)
1154 - We reached the place - Karivallur. By now luckily the rain had stopped.Everyone from the girl's side were ready there to receive us. We took our seats and were offered refreshments.
1215 - The elders were seated separately. The girl came out with her father, holding a lamp. Then they sat discussing 'serious stuff'. After some time they announced that the marriage was fixed!
1245 - By now my stomach was growling as i didnt have time to have a proper breakfast. Went and sat in the first sitting itself. The food was good, and was served in the traditional way on a banana leaf. The meal ended with a delicous payasam.
1350 - Everyone had their lunch and we left the place in our vehicles.
1440 - Reached my cousin's place.
1515 - Left for home with my father.
1645 - Reached home

Ran into the house and grabbed the remote of the television. India Pak Final!! Pakistan is moving towards a good score :( Hope India will bat better!!

P.S. :I havent simply guessed the time here. I had noted down the time everytime we reached a place, or did somethin.
hf

Its Vacation Time!! Looking for a hotel to stay??

2008-06-13T18:47:00.008+05:30

Recently one of my friends, Amith had planned a trip to Mysore, with his family and wanted a good hotel to stay. He had tried calling few hotels there for booking. But there was no room vacant there for those days. And so he called me up, two days back, and asked if I knew of any good hotel in Mysore. I had no idea of hotels there; but I told him that I would ask some people and get back to him.
I called a few guys here, who had gone to Mysore earlier, but they didnt know much about hotels there. So took the help of one of my best friends - my Comp!
Searched on the net for hotels in Mysore. Then i came across this site - Hotels Combined.
It was so easy searching the site for hotels there! I just had to enter the city, the number of guests, and the date of accommodation. And the site gave a huge list of hotels! Most of them were sold out but there were still few hotels left. The site gave every detail you needed to know about the hotel, with the price, photos of the hotel, user reviews, and map showing its exact location too!
I immediately called up Amith and gave him details of some of the hotels and also the link to the site. He then booked rooms for himself. In the meantime I started searching the site for hotels in Mangalore and Calicut. And there were a few big hotels in both the cities that i had never heard of!Impressive!
Its Vacation time for most of the schools and if you are planning a tour and want to book rooms in any hotel, you've got to check this site! Its got hotels from all over the globe.
Anyways take care, have fun!

Other useful links:
Hotel Club
Lonely Planet
Side Step
Browse hotels by Country
Hotels in Mysore

Dataquest T-school Ranking - NITC in top 10

2008-06-11T11:44:00.009+05:30

Dataquest recently came up with their ranking for the top technical colleges in our country.
And guess what?? NITC is placed 9th in the ranking!!
There are a few new entries in the top 20 and a few premier colleges are missing.
Here's the list:

Rank 2008	Institute	Score	2007 rank
1	IIT- Khadagpur	84.0	1
2	IIT- Delhi	81.4	4
3	IIT-Roorkee	79.9	5
4	IIT- Kanpur	75.0	7
5	IIT-Guwahati	73.7	6
6	IIT-Chennai	72.4	2
7	IIIT-Hyderabad	69.1	9
8	IT-BHU	67.9	10
9	NIT-Calicut	67.3	15
10	NSIT	66.9	23
11	NIT-Warangal	65.7	8
12	DA-ICT	62.5	22
13	Thapar Institute of Engineering	62.1	18
14	IIIT-Allahabad	61.0	13
15	BIT-Mesra	60.2	19
16	PSG-college of Technology	60.0	24
17	M Vishvesvaraya Institute of Technology - Bangalooru	59.9	–
18	MNNIT-Allahabad	59.9	17
19	VIT- Vellore	57.9	–
20	NHCE-Banglore	57.0	–

Parameters :- Placement (40%), Infrastructure (10%), Intellectual Capital(20%), Industry Interface (5%), HR Perception (25%)

Reasons for NITC entering top 10:
There was a 35.5% increase in the placement score in 2006-07 over 2005-06. The infrastructure score went up 1.9%, and the score of academic environment went up 15.7% in 2007-08 over the previous year.In terms of IT/BPO companies visiting the campus for placements, the number went up from 33 in 2005-06 to 41 in 2006-07.When it comes to all the companies visiting the campus for placements, the number went up from 58 in 2005-06 to 92 in 2006-07.

Links:
Dataquest Rankings 2008
India Today Ranking 2008 (NITC - 19th)

Wanna be invisible?

2008-06-11T10:26:00.000+05:30

These holidays i was in front of my computer most of the time; always signed in on gmail and yahoo messenger. I prefer remaining invisible on the chat engines, because of the huge list of people online all the time. The people keep changing but the number remains constant at about 20. So you keep getting chats throughout the day. Not that i dont like chatting; thats what i do most of the time, but, you cant keep chatting all day, right?
Gmail has also added the invisibility feature recently. And i was wondering the other day how it would be if i could really be invisible!! A thousand pranks creeped into my mind! ;)
I would leave even my computer too, to play pranks on others all day. Also you could know lots of secrets by being invisible.
You could top in all the exams ;by getting the question papers beforehand ;) ..You could get into any restricted area, get into concerts without tickets...and above all scare the hell outta people ..haha...would be real fun!
But then, on second thoughts you would perhaps see and hear a lot of stuff you would never want to experience. You may hear people, maybe some of your closest friends, speaking ill of you, and you would wish you never heard anything or saw anything. People wouldnt always have praises for you, and you would hear a lot of sad things. You could also end up witnessing a lot of miserable sights too.
I decided i would be happier with my invisibility limited to the chat engines. :)
What do you think?

The art of Tagging - Yes i'm weird!!

2008-06-06T00:10:00.005+05:30

Last year,Parvathy had tagged me...So here I am,passing the tag...

The rules are simple:
1) Put down 8 random / weird / habitual facts about yourself..
2) Tag eight ppl.
3) Ask, bug, coax , bully them into taking up this tag :)

The last two rules are quite simple...but not the first one...Never gave
it a thought,though few ppl have called me a really weird person :P

Okay...let me list out some weird things about myself...
Hmmmm...

1.I toss black pepper into mouth like groundnuts. Weird enough??
I find really hard to eat chillies but can even chew pepper easily.

2.I sleep really late..most of the days at around 5 in the morning...and wake up at around 2 or 3 in the noon. Perhaps am the last person to wake up in the country!

3. I dont snore ;) cant think of many weird things abt myself now so writin down watevr i can thiknk of...

4. I can sit with many people on the same table and not listen to anythin the person sitting next to me is saying. If i feel that the topic is not relevant to me i can turn a deaf ear easily and go into my dream world ;) ...It has happened a lot of times with me that people around me suddenly burst out into laughter and then i find all of them staring at me, waiting for atleast a smile. I would then humbly ask them to repeat the funny part.

5. I bathe everyday, in the morning before goin to class. haha...thats actually a little weird when you stay in the hostel. Many guys in ny hostel would agree. :)

6.I am weird.

7.I am weird.

8.I am weird.

Sorry. Couldnt think of anything else!!
If you have found something weird about me, please write them in the comments section. ;)

Just wanted to finish this post. I had actually started writing this post long back. Then kept adding points whenever i could think of. Each time changing the first few words. In the beginning it was ' Yesterday, parvathy tagged me...'.Then it became'Few days back, parvathy tagged me'... then 'few months back'...and now 'Last year, Parvathy tagged me...'!!

And now its time to tag....this part is a lot easier..
1. Naru (Varun Narayanan) for defining bloggin to me...
2.Anna coz of whom i started blogging
3.JD for giving me company while blogging...we startd our blogs almost the same time...we used to discuss about our posts earlier...
4.Shanker who comes up with really gud posts...but only once on a blue moon day...
5.Mithun for his poems and jokes.
6.Mammen(Justin) who started recently.
7. Parvathy (i think i am not supposed to return the tag...but its ok...u dont have to tag 8 guys again..)
8.Kiruba...I thought i could save one tag for a blog i visit often, but for someone i dont personally know... and then thought why not keep it for some really famous blogger!! So Kiruba, here you go. Lets see how weird you really are!!

Pfff...

Be part of a world record!!

2008-06-04T21:23:00.005+05:30

Firefox is all set to create a world record for the most downloads in 24hours! The release date of the latest firefox 3.0 is yet to be announced. Around 744,072 people have pledged to download the software on the release date.

I'm actually using firefox 3.0 (b4 d official release date), and trust me, its the best!! It has many more features than the previous versions. I always preferred the previous versions over IE 7 ; so the latter doesnt stand any chance in front of firefox 3.0.

And above all firefox a free and open software! So i think it deserves to set the record!! So go to the site and pledge to download on the day of release; and do download!

When mother nature loses her temper...

2008-05-31T00:09:00.003+05:30

The Chinese witnessed mother nature's fury on may 12th.The official death toll from the in Sichuan province is 67,183. Many schools were destroyed, including one that had at least 900 students in it. This earthquake is the worst natural disaster to hit China in 30 years. Two further aftershocks have destroyed more than 420,000 houses in the Chinese region hit by the massive earthquake. You can find the facts, figures and more details on the net...and so please do.
Another recent incident was the cyclone Nargis in Myanmar. This was even worse, and even more unfortunately, most of foreign aid to Myanmar are blocked. The death toll is believed to be around 1,00,000.
For a little perspective in death tolls, both are about 10 times worse than either 9/11 or Katrina.

These are a few sites where you can donate and help the victims.
1. Mercycorps
2. America Red Cross
3. International Federation of Red Cross
4. Canada red cross
5. Americares
6. Salvation Army
7 . Foundation Burma
8. International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
9. International Rescue Committee
10.Exotissimo

Do read about the two tragedies, discuss with our firends, write in your blog if you have time, and help them if you can.

References:
BBC news, Red Cross .org, An article on digg( i dont remember d name, but that inspired me to write this post)

Foxit reader

2008-05-29T21:28:00.009+05:30

Recently i had to reinstall windows xp into my computer because of some problems...but since then i was having difficulty installin some softwares...especially those of adobe...flash, photoshop, dreamweaver, and others. I dont use these softwares a lot, but theres one which for me ( and i'm sure for many of u too) is the basic necessity in windows!! and thats adobe acrobat reader...
There again was some error installing it...tried different versions...the latest one, old ones...reinstalling different copies of each version 2-3 times...but didnt succeed...
I couldnt just stop and say that the grapes were sour.
Could have used linux, but i prefer working on windows.
So I started searching the net for pdf readers...and then i came across foxit reader. I got it as a suite with a pdf reader, page organiser and a pdf editor. Its really cool, and i feel is much better than adobe reader. You can edit the pages very easily, add comments, add bookmarks and do a lot of stuff!! If you havent used it yet, you've got to check it out!!
Some of you perhaps knew about it earlier...but Im sure there are many who didnt.
If there was some easier way out...lemme know..
Links:
Download foxit from
1. Download.com
2. Softonic.com

Weird world

2008-05-24T18:27:00.010+05:30

Have you noticed the news that appears just above your gmail inbox? Today i saw
an odd news - a court orderin car makers volvo to pay a man compensation for
he complained that his foot was too bid for the accelerator of his new car!! lol
After reading that article, i googled for 'odd news'...and to my surprise i found
that almost every news website has a section dedicated for odd and weird news!!
Lot of weird n funny things happenin in the world - young kid jumps off a 2 storey
building emulating spiderman, a cow swallows gold chain, croc eats shark for
dinner, lost parrot tells vet his address, donkey goes to jail for acting
like an ass!! and lots more...rofl
Trust me...I didnt cook them up just now...click on the links to read the whole article.
You can google and find many more. Its fun..
As shankers blog suggests, this indeed is a really weird world!

Quit Smoking!!

2008-05-12T02:20:00.008+05:30

I just hate smokers...especially if the person is smoking when i'm around.
Just can't bear the smell.
I can't understand why they do it. I know once you are used to
it, its not tough to keep smoking. But i'm sure it would have been
very difficult taking the first puff.
Then why take the pain, when you know about its ill effects?
Just to show that you can do it??!!
It kills! Everyone knows that..wanna sacrifice your life??then be it...

This video shows how smoking harms you. You'll find millions of them on the net.
Non-smokers watch this video and avoid the cigarette. Smokers watch it and try to quit.

I call it sucking death out of a roll of paper !!
Agree??

How much is your blog worth??!

2008-05-10T01:14:00.009+05:30

I came across a small picture at the side of a guy's blog
saying that his blog was worth a few dollars ( around 500)..
so out of curiosity i clicked on the pic; which took me to this site
where i could calculate my blog's worth by enterin the blog url...so i did..

and trust me it showed a four digit number!
It said my blog was worth $1129.08...dats around
50k Rs. !!

So whom do I have to sell it to?? ;)

Links:
Check your blog's worth
Tristan Louis's research

Another long vacation

2008-05-06T01:55:00.007+05:30

At home after a really long n hectic sem...any previous sem was much better than dis one...bad things happenin everywhere; lab,class,hostel...everywhere...

but its all over now... :)

back home its very much like d prev summer vactn...lots of movies...lots of sleep

The only difference is that this time im not disappointin d tv too..

With the ipl (d team i support always ends fightin a losin battle), epl and champions league (chelsea's chances still very much alive in both the leagues) going on, my schedule has become really hectic... ;)

Our placements will start after dis vacation...actually durin d vacation...in the last week of june So will have to leave for college a month earlier this time...

Eagerly waiting for the ~~next sem to start~~ next year to start... we are gonna be the final years now.. gonna be 'THE seniors'...most of us(guys in my batch) have been idle drifters even in the most hectic of semesters...wonder hw it'll be when we are really jobless...

Will miss many of my seniors in the next sem...there were some really cool guys...really helpful seniors...their absence will linger around for some time for sure...but then, our batch is not bad at all ;)

have lots of plans for gaming...have already kept some cash aside for my gaming mouse and mouse pad...gonna snipe everyone down next sem...

dats for the next semester...got to worry about the placements before that...not chasing rainbows but still will have to start preparing after a few days...

k gtg ...its almost 2 now..

coz this time its unlimited download for me here only from 2 am to 8am...so got some work to do ;)

The cutest pop star

2008-03-01T18:38:00.009+05:30

Recently found a video of this 3 year old kid, Cleopatra Stratan performin in her own music video, on our lan...She has done a few concerts too...and her first album La vârsta de trei ani has sold more than 1,50,000 copies in romania alone!!
Check out this video of her song Ghita..

Lyrics:

The coat is inside out,
There is no sun above
Nothing is going good
Since I think of Ghita.
But Ghita's not in town
I asked why he's not around
It seems to me he's gone
He's gone abroad

Hard, I think it's very hard
Want, I don't know what I want
I know that you like me too
Ghita, what is up with you?
Young, come on in or go
Young, tell me yes or no
Ghita, please dont´t anger me
Tell me how your life will be

Ghita,
Tonight I'm waiting at the wicket
Me at the station I bought a ticket
Come to,
But don't come as you did before
As usually with empty hands...
Who else
Will wait and sing for you as I do
Entire evening just getting there
Ghita,
Show me a girl who's fond of you
That loves you more as much as I do...

Ghita, te-astept diseara la portita
Langa portita de la scoala
Vino da numa nu vini cum vii tu
De obicei cu mana goala
Cine te mai asteapta ca si mine
O seara intreaga numai pe tine.
Ghita, arata-mi tu o fata care
Sa te iubeasca asa de tare

Solving a Rubiks Cube...part II

2008-02-16T20:41:00.004+05:30

I used to believe that solving the cube was something really difficult, something 'god level'...that only very few people could do...but trust me its not!!I learnt to solve the cube during the last semester in my college...there are many ways to solve a rubiks cube...you can check the net for different algorithms...i use an algo with a layered approach...ie solving the cube one layer a time...
Check the videos below for one of the methods...

Solving the top layer

Solving the middle and bottom layer

You may get confused with the steps when you first try to solve it...but after a few days you'll be doing them very fast...but i have no idea how some peole do it blind folded...
So go get your cube..and impress your friends...

Adeiu 2007

2008-01-18T17:51:00.003+05:30

yea...i know..its been a long time...almost a year...i was too busy wid college work ( and gamin)
...and wasnt totally jobless like the previous summer vacation...
A lot of things happnd durin last 10 months...a lot of things happened in 2007...but still it feels as if january 07 was just a week back...time flies!!
S5 was fun...but was quite hectic too...wid 2 labs and a software engineering project...but its nothin compared to the current semester...
...3 labs, a mini project and a dbms project!! omg!!hope everyone manages to finish the sem well...
We had our technical fest, Tathva last sem... and i was in the gamin comittee ;) ...2 sleepless nights...but really enjoyed it...And I learnt to solve the rubiks cube during the last semester(without breakin it :) )thanx to ramu and rohit...now im in d elite club of rubiks cube solvers...
We are having our cultural fest, ragam next month...and again im in d same committee...gaming...will post about experiences during ragam later...
Hope all of you keep smiling throughout the year...and later too ;)...have a great year ahead...

Can we help them?Of course!!

2007-07-20T11:57:00.000+05:30

Most of us are blessed with a wonderful body with all our organs,
especially our sense organs,fully functional.But that is not
the case with all.There are many people who just weren't lucky
enough.Many of them are handicapped from birth;with
absolutely no fault of their own.But they suffer.

You may want to read these three articles.

Though they are handicapped many of them are
determined to move forward.There are many
equipments being made to make life easier
for them too.

But wouldn't it be better ,than helping them to live
with their disabilities,to rather remove them.If everyone donates
his organs when he leaves the world,life of so
many people will be changed for ever.Obviously
noone is going to use their organs after death.
Then why not give it to some one else,who could use them.
Within a year most of the people who are blind
now,will be enjoying the beautiful sceneries around, if we wish.

Give it a thought.

Ratatouille

2007-07-15T14:07:00.000+05:30

Watched Ratatouille yesternight....really nice...njoyed it
I dont watch many animated movies but this mov was one of the
best I've ever seen;the best has to be
Lion King.
Another wonderful product from the Walt Disney and Pixar studios,this
movie is about a rat named Remy who dreams of being a great French
chef like his idol chef Auguste Gusteau,against his fathers wish and
the obvious problem of being a rat.
Its about how he gets separated from his clan , becomes d friend of
Linguini who happens to be the son of Gusteau and then becomes a great chef.
The movie is beautifully made.

Watch d video below...It might force u to watch the movie too :)

Watch it...Im sure u'll enjoy...
And yea...never go wid too much expectations too...

Going to watch Harry Potter and the Order of
Phoenix tonight at Adlabs ;)

Links:
Disney's Ratatouille
Pixar Studios
Ratatouille on rotten tomatoes
Truly moving pictures

My favourite forwards

2007-07-14T20:41:00.002+05:30

Whenever I think about funny email forwards,these two emails
about Hutch always come to my mind.So thought i should share them with you...
Many of you might have already seen them as I too had forwarded them to many
in my contact list...

Check 'em out.

1.A real touching story....
This is a true story of a young college girl who passed away last month. Her name was Priya. She was hit by a lorry. She has a boy friend named Shankar. Both of them were true lovers. They always hang on the phone. You could never see her without her cell-phone. In fact she also changed her phone from Airtel to Hutch, so that both of them could be on the same network, and save on the cost.

She spends half of the day talking with shankar. Priya's family knows about their relationship. Shankar is very close to Priya's family. (just imagine their love) . Before she passed away she always told her friends "If I pass away please burn me with my cell-phone" she also said the same thing to her parents.

After her death, people couldn't carry her coffin, I was there. Everybody including me, had tried to carry the coffin, the result is still the same. Eventually, they called their neighbour, a "bomoh" from Thailand (pak Darin), who is a friend of her father. He took a stick and started speaking to himself slowly. After a few minutes, he said "this girl misses something here". then her friends told Darin about her intentions to burn her with her phone. He then opened the coffin and place her phone and SIM card inside the casket. After that they tried to carry the coffin. It could be moved and they carried it into the van easily. All of us were shocked.

Priya's parents did not inform Shankar that Priya had passed away. After 2 weeks Shankar called Priya's mom. Shankar :...."Atte, I'm coming home today. Cook something nice for me. Dont tell Priya that I'm coming home today, i wanna surprise her." Her mother replied....."You come home first, i wanna tell you something very important." after he came, they told him the truth about Priya.

Shankar thinks that they were playing a fool. He was laughing and said "dont try to fool me - tell Priya to come out, i have a gift for her Please stop this nonsense". then they show him the original death certificate to him. They gave him proof to make him believe. (Shankar started to sweat) ...

He said... "Its not true. we spoke yesterday. She still calls me. Shankar was shaking. Suddenly, Shankar's phone rang. "see this is from Priya, see this..." he showed the phone to priya's family. all of them told him to answer.he talked using the loudspeaker mode. all of them heard his conversation.

Loud and clear, no cross lines, no humming. It is the actual voice of Priya & there is no way others could use her SIM card since it is nailed inside the coffin they were so shocked and asked for pak Darin's help again. pak Darin brought his master (tok Chen) to solve this matter. He & Darin worked for 5 hours. Then they discovered one thing... Hutch has the best coverage. Whereever you go, our network follows!!!

2.Now the second one...

Reason why Hutch network was weak for the last few days...

?

?

?

?

?

Hw wer they? :)

My sleeping habits

2007-07-13T20:40:00.001+05:30

Frankly its really bad...Im more like an owl nowadays..
For the last 3 months Ive been sleeping at 330 am
and waking up at 1130-12noon...I must have slept for
more than a month, out of the 3 months vacation that I had.
And now all my neighbours and relatives know abt this...

The other day I was playing cs on my comp and the power
went off.It was around 2 in the night and I was still wide
awake.I didnt know what to do..No comp,no tv,nobody to talk to...
Wasnt in the mood to read a book too...
I then switched on the emergency lamp and lie down on
my bed,but wasnt sleepy at all.
Luckily the electricity was back in 15 mins...and i continued gaming :D...

Ive no idea what im gonna do at colg which will be reopenin
soon...and we have classes from 8am... :(

yaaawwwnnnnn.....

How to solve a Rubiks Cube??

2007-07-11T01:11:00.002+05:30

Haa!!Quite simple! I jus did that...
What?!!You have never solved it??Dont
waste time...Go get your Rubiks cube.I'll
teach you...Its as simple as 1,2,3.

Hold the cube.Choose any edge.Hold the
middle piece of the edge tight and....pull it out!!
Now similarly pull d other pieces too...You'll
be left only with d middle piece of each side...Then start
assembling it again...

Any kid can do this...unless colour-blind. ;)
Now you have learnt how to solve it...And after you dismantle
it you will also know how d wonder cube works too...

What are you waiting for??

PS: Check out the 2nd part of this post to learn the proper way of solving the cube. Yes!! I've learn't it now!! Click here!

Taj made it!!

2007-07-09T23:02:00.000+05:30

Yeah!!Our Taj has finally made it to the seven wonders'
list.Although many are against this kind of voting as
they believe there is no need of anybody's vote to prove
that these structures are indeed wonders by mankind,while
another group of people believe that beauty cannot
be measured.

But I personally have no objection as the earlier 7 wonders
were chosen more than a 2000 years back,and only the
greatPyramids of Giza,Egypt has managed to survive the
time.The earliest known list was made in 2nd century BC.
And most of the present wonders wern't even present
when the list was made.And if beauty really cannot be
measured why do they have Miss Universe and other beauty
contests??

Don't miss the videos below!!Theyre good...

These are the new seven wonders of the world...in
alphabetical order..

Chichen Itza,Mexico

Christ redeemer,Brazil

The Great wall of China

Machu Picchu,Peru

Petra,Jordon

Roman Coliseum,Italy

Taj Mahal,India

Now have you seen anything on earth more beautiful ?!!I really
want to visit each of them atleast once in my lifetime...Hope i can...

Another blog

2007-06-24T13:05:00.000+05:30

Got an invitation to be an contribute to another blog,yesterday,from
Bharath.As it was related to gaming,I wasted no time in
accepting the invitation.
Here's the link: GAMEON FOREVER

Classes at NIIT

2007-06-23T19:24:00.001+05:30

After wastin 2 months of my vacn on this blog,im
now goin for asp.net classes at niit.(I hate to go for classes
when it rains;perfect weather to sleep in your bed cuddling
a pillow.)

The classes startd about a week back.There are 5 of them
learnin wid me.One of them is teachin in the school where
i studied(KV 2,Mlore),and another lady was one of the
faculty at aptech when i had gone there to learn java
last year(which ive completely forgotten now)...The rest
of them are also elder to me.

So far every day the ma'am at niit has asked a
have-you-learnt question.One day it was 'have you learnt
vb.net earlier?'The other day- have you learnt php;or asp,
vb and so on...All of shook our heads to all the questions.The only
difference between me and the rest of the class was that they shake
their head up and down and i do it left to right.

And then ma'am looks at me and smiles...tryin to scare me.Her
smile shouts"its going to be very difficult for you"into
my ears...And to add to all that after every class she tells
us that so far it was easy,and its only going to get more
and more complicated...

hmmmmm....
Lets see how it goes...3 more weeks...puff...

How many can u solve???

2007-06-21T19:05:00.000+05:30

Yeah...its puzzle time!!!its time to use ur ~~kidneys~~ brains...(??)...Check out these 2 links...
Hacker
klueLESS
Each link wil take you to a page wer u hav to find ur way to the next page...On
each page there'll be some clue to d nxt one...
The first site has 23 pages...and they are quite easy too...I finishd all of 'em...
The second one was made by students of IIM Indore,there're abov 30 pages in it
and they are quite tough too...Im in the 12th page now...
You dont have to be exceptionally good at gk or maths to solve them
Give it a try...
You can discuss about it in the comments section if you are stuck at any level...
and let me know if u complete the 12th puzzle of the 2nd site...
you can visit d comments section for discussions.
pls answer others querries too...but kindly do not post d answers....
as others wouldnt want u too...jus giv them hints to make it easier fr 'em...
All the best...hf scratchin ur head ;)

Save energy wid ur computer

2007-06-19T20:06:00.001+05:30

Nowadays in every magazine youll find an article about the
latest threat to our planet:Global Warming...So what can we
ppl who use computers a lot do about it?
Here are a couple of things:
1.CO2 Saver: CO₂ Saver is a lightweight program that
manages your computer's power usage when it's idle, saving energy and
decreasing the demand on your power utility. The less electricity
produced, the fewer harmful emissions and greenhouse gases such as
carbon dioxide (CO₂) are released into the atmosphere.

What's more, CO₂ Saver shows you the amount of CO₂ you've saved
single-handedly, as well as all other CO₂ Saver users combined!
So go on and become a CO2 saver...
2.Blackle: In January 2007 a blog post titled Black Google Would Save
750 Megawatt-hours a Year proposed the theory that a black version
of the Google search engine would save a fair bit of energy due to the
popularity of the search engine. Google, which has a white background and gets
about "200 million queries a day" could reduce global energy use by
750 Megawatt-hours a year by simply changing the colour of its homepage to black.
It is similar to google in every way,except for the colour...So
use it instead of google search...Save energy by making Blackle.com
your home page ~~if not my blog~~.
And I know it wouldn't be fair if I asked you to use blackle bcoz the screen was
predominantly black and used a light colour for the blog myself ...So I changed it too .
Now my blog also saves energy ;)
Not that I get 200 million visits daily...but small drops maketh an ocean...
Links:CO2 saver
Blackle

Bloggers...Save your template now!!!

2007-06-18T23:10:00.002+05:30

All bloggers out there...if you haven't saved your blog template yet,
do it now.I was fiddlin wid the html code of my blog today,and some error
occurred and i wasnt able to open my page using intenet explorer...but it
worked with firefox...I tried removin all the javascripts i had added to my page...
but it didnt work...so i clicked on revert to classic template...But just before doing that
i copied all the code into my notepad...
When I changed to classic template...it worked perfectly on all the browsers...
but I had lost all my widgets...the slide,the chatbox,the clock...all of them...
All the page elements i had added were gone...
I was so frustrated!!!I had spent days searching for all of them...and
lost them with just one click!!I could switch back to my old template
bcoz i had copied the template seconds before changing it...and I did that only because a few days back JD had lost
all his widgets to a similar mistake...~~Thank god~~ ;)
So after i got all my widgets back,i first downloaded my template...and if you
havent do it now!!

Some more sites

2007-06-17T19:59:00.000+05:30

This is a continuation of my prev post for links to sites where
u can watch movies on the net...
You'll find all movies...new and old in these sites...
Check them out...

1.Just Vids
2.Filmzzz
3.Flickpeek
4.Stage6
5.Daily Motion
6.6Flicks
7.Sakuro

Njoi...

Watch movies on the web now!!

2007-06-16T14:19:00.000+05:30

I have been downloading a lot of movies for the last 2 months that my
hard disk was almost ful...and i didnt have enough space for more
movies...and that was when i discovered these 2 sites...just what i wanted...
Movies-links.blogspot.com and GO4ENT.COM
You can watch movies on the site without downloading them!!And the movies
are in divx format,so all the movies are of good picture quality...
The site will take some time for buffering before you enjoy the movie...
It comes with Desktop dimmer...so everything on your screen except for the movie will fade after some time...
and there is an option for full screen mode...or you can simply double click on it...
and ya dont think that it doesnt use your hard disk at all...coz it does use some memory temporarily while buffering.
The administrators are constantly updating the sites with new movies.
Theyre the perfect sites for ppl like me who are desperately trying to find new ways to kill time during vacations... ;)
hf

300 Trailer - CS Version

2007-06-13T14:18:00.001+05:30

Here is the counter strike version of the trailer of movie 300.
If you have watched the movie or atleast seen its trailer and if you
like playing counter strike(my latest addiction...actually the only one) ,
you will love this video.
Njoi...

Check out this flash game

2007-06-02T12:59:00.000+05:30

Check out dis lil funny game that i came across...might be
a little childish...but still give it a try...and keep your speakers on
full volume...that is very important...dont give up until
u finish atleast 4 rounds...if the speakers r on go ahead...hf

How was dat?

Vote for the Taj

2007-06-01T14:14:00.000+05:30

Most of you must be knowing that the seven wonders of the
world are going to be listed outagain...In late 2005 the
N7W(New 7 Wonders) panel chose 21 candidates from the top 77 nominees that had earned the most votes, and these 21 are now in the final stage of the competition.And Taj Mahal is one among them...The New 7 Wonders of the World will be announced during the Official Declaration ceremony in Lisbon, Portugal on Saturday, July 7, 2007 - 07.07.07.
Don't u wanna see an Indian monument in the list of the seven wonders??..Then go on,and caste your vote for the Taj Mahal,
and be a proud Indian...
Renowned music director A.R. Rahman has launched a campaign
to include Taj Mahal among the 'Seven Wonders of the World, by
releasing a soulful and resonant anthem to motivate people to vote for the
Indian architectural marvel.
One of the most beautiful monuments ever built,the Taj Mahal,stands
on the bank of river yamuna.It was built by Emperor Shah Jahan in memory
of his wife,Arjumand Banu(Also Known as Mumtaz Mahal).
The construction began in 1631,and it took 22 years and 22,000 men
to bring up this work of art.The emperor was deposed by his son
and imprisoned in the Great Red Fort for eight years but was buried
in the Taj.During his imprisonment, he had a view of only the Taj through a
small window in his cell.
Taj Mahal is a symbol of love passion and architectural
brilliance...vote for the Taj...
And let ur friends and relatives know about it too...
Links:
New 7 Wonders
The Taj Mahal on Wiki
A R Rahman campaigns
Vote for Taj Mahal

No flowers please!!

2007-05-31T23:44:00.000+05:30

This incident happened at my aunt's place a few days back...
It was her bday...Many ppl had sent her cards and bouquets for
the day...In the evening wen she came back home from
work, she found an upset servant lady standing at the door...
When asked if anybody had come home,she said that sum1 had
brought some flowers in the morning which she had kept inside...
but l8r another guy had brought a bunch of flowers,which the servant
lady refused to accept... she had told the fellow with the bouquet
that another person had already brought some flowers and that they didn't
need any more!! :) but the guy kept forcing her for a long time and then
she had to accept them...poor guy ;)

Increasing traffic to your blog

2007-05-30T21:17:00.002+05:30

Ive been lookin for different ways to increase traffic
to my blog...tried to improve my ratings by the search
engine spiders too...
and now in the last four days ive got around 600 hits
(blog visits)...and many of my friends hav been askin me
how i managed to get so much traffic in such a short time...
the answer is simple...giv maxx publicity to ur blog...write ur
blog address wherever u can write...
and check out this link:
CLICK HERE
came across dis site yesterday...the site is sure to increase ur blog
hits...and it will lead to other sites dat do the same ...
anndddd.... when u click the link above,it'll increase my blog hits
too ;)...now dats how you increase traffic...hehe...

Mr Bean's Holiday

2007-05-28T21:31:00.000+05:30

A great way too spend an hour and a half...never had
to look at my watch...
Rowan Atkinson decides to act funny after
10 long years...his first movie Bean was released in1997 and
was a great hit worldwide...I would rate the first one
higher but the second is worth every penny you spend...
The movie begins with Mr.Bean winning a trip to France and
a Sony handicam at a church raffle...And thats how
disaster hits France...En route he unknowingly
plays a small role in separating a boy from his father...the movie
is all about how he reunites them.
One thing missing from the earlier Bean movie and the TV
series (aired from 1991-'95)is his teddy...one thing he
always used to carry wid him...
Atkinson says that this might well be his last venture as
the bean...i hope not...unlike the bond flicks,there is no
substitute for this man...
You're guaranteed have a smile on your face throughout the movie...
And dont forget to watch the trailer below...

Njoi!!

Sites u might want to visit:
Mr Bean
Bean's Holiday
Rowan Atkinson

Placement and interview tips

2007-05-27T12:45:00.000+05:30

Campus placements will be starting in a month
for my seniors at col...so decided to make a list of
websites dat might help them...
So here are a few of them that i found and thought might
turn out to be useful :
1. Kamyabology
2. Nefzone
3. Masterclass
4. Groove Job
5. Pohly
6. Adguide
7. Jobsearch
8. Kenmob
9. Integerblr
10.Interview Ques
11.Newsjobs India
12.Careerplus
13.Coders2020
14.Dial Campus
15.University Hiring
16.Geek Interview
17.Interview Info
18.Go 4 Placement
19.Tek Pool
20.Question Bank
21.Freshers World
22.Interview Place
23.Placement Papers
24.Bored Guru
25.123Eng
26.Yuva Jobs
27.All Interview
28.Feucos
29.Placement Week
30.Chetanas Interview
31.Work Smart
32.Interview Tips
33.LibJob
34.Prospects
35.Chimby
I hope it'll be of some use to them...
All the best...

Wow-o-wow!!!

2007-05-25T00:09:00.002+05:30

Hey you must have noticed the small black widget
on the left just below the chat-box.
This widget actually tells you how many ppl are
reading this page at a given point of time...
Most of the time it says one...that is just you...
But look wat i found yesterday!!!
(actually just a few hours back...but its past
midnite already :) )

(Click on the image above to see it enlarged)

My jaws dropped...Thirteen users!!!I was shocked...hardly
two weeks since i statrted this blog and just abt a weeek
since i actually started posting seriously...and thirteen
ppl reading my page at the same time!!!Wow!!
13-an unlucky number??...Not for me...

Goondas on the road!!

2007-05-24T17:06:00.000+05:30

Had gone to Bharath Mall wid my friend...in d noon we wer
walkin towards lalbagh huntin for restaurants...
suddenly i saw around 8 angry ppl on the road runnin
in the opp direction...
they wer well built,tall,most of them
had long hair,and looked scary too...
Goondas!!(just as u see in the movies)
i thought they wer goin to beat up some1...
then our eyes fell on a van in front of those guys wid a
camera in it...Ohh!!they wer actually just shootin for a movie!!!
my friend and i looked at each other and smiled...we wer too
hungry to discuss abt dat...so continued wid our hunt
for restaurants...

The Makkad Man

2007-05-22T13:59:00.000+05:30

Hey guys...Like Spiderman?Check out d Indian version.
Just happnd to cum across dis link in Mandar's
blog(inkscrawl)...Its really funny...

Check it out:

Please make sure you have Adobe Flash installed to watch this and dat ur speakers are on...

Click here if the video doesn't load quickly:

The Makkad Man

Njoi...

Just a coincidence?!!

2007-05-19T18:35:00.000+05:30

Let me show u the strange but true connection b/w the wtc attacks on 9/11 and the number 11:

The date of the attack: 9/11 - 9 + 1 + 1 = 11.

Each building had 110 stories.

After September 11th there are 111 days left to the end of the year.

September 11th is the 254th day of the year: 2 + 5 + 4 = 11.

119 is the area code for Iraq/Iran. 1 + 1 + 9 = 11, 911 - 119 are opposites - enemies?
11 11 polarity.

Twin Towers - standing side by side, looks like the number 11.

The first plane to hit the towers was Flight 11.
State of New York - The 11th State added to the Union.

"New York City" has 11 letters.

"Afghanistan" - 11 letters.

"The Pentagon" - 11 letters.

"Ramzi Yousef" - 11 letters (convicted of orchestrating the attack on the WTC in 1993).

Flight 11 - 92 on board - 9 + 2 = 11.

Flight 11 had 11 crew members onboard.

Flight 77 - 65 on board - 6 + 5 = 11.

The entire World Trade Center event was underlined with the occultic number 11. Occultists all over the world knew exactly what had happened and who did it.

The Illuminati ended the First World War according to Albert Pike's occult plan to produce Antichrist. They deliberately ended it on the 11th hour, on the 11th day, on the 11th month. (11 x 3 = 33) The signing of the Armistice agreement was undergirded by three eleven's!

We have zeroed in on the number 11, because this tragedy is undergirded by this number.

Why is the number 11 important to the occultist? As Wescott explains, "... so 11 is the essence of all that is sinful, harmful, and imperfect." [Ibid., p. 100] Thus, while 11 is very important, multiplication's are also important, such as 22, 33, 44, 55, 66, 77, 88, and 99.

Source :TheForbiddenKnowledge.com

So was it all jst a coincidence?...lets hope so...

World Cup '07...was it all a nightmare?!!

2007-05-19T00:06:00.002+05:30

'Worst ever' dats hw i wud describe the 2007 cricket world
cup in two words....not only b'coz of the upsets,early exits
of 2 asian giants(?)....bcoz of the way it was conducted...bcoz of
d sad demise of Bob Woolmer...and 4 many other
reasons...im sure many wudn't disagree...
And for me the worst match of them all was the world cup final...never seen such a match...was awake til 4.45 am in the mornin only to watch that
match...of course the first half was entertainin... thanx to gilchrist...and the first half of the lankan innings was also not bad...
but the rain and horrible umpiring just spoilt the whole game...
the sight of the lankans playin in bad light was simply ridiculous...the place was
so dark that when the umpires asked the sri lankan batsmen to come back and
play the remainin few overs(when play was stopped coz of bad light),jayawardene went
to ponting and asked him to use slow bowlers for the last 3 overs...the the spectators'
cameras cud be seen flashin in the dark...anyone who has seen dat match wud hope
never to see a match like dat again...
But there is no doubt dat the best two teams had reached d final...and the best had
taken home the cup...the Aussies wer far bettr than any other team in the tourney...
i recently happnd to read an article about worlcup in The Indian Express...the author had
given a tip to make the next world cup more interestin...Include a 17th team in the
tournament(maybe uae or namibia)...give the cup to the aussies durin the openin
ceremony and send them home and continue wid the tournament with the remaining
16 teams for a smaller cup...
Might be effective... :)...wat do u think?

I,Me,Myself

2007-05-12T10:37:00.002+05:30

Hey bloggers out there...im a new blogger...not new to bloggin world xactly..
i read a lot of blogs...one of my friends told me dat its real fun
bloggin and dat i should try it...

havin 3 months vacation and got nothin to do, i thought i should giv it a try...
actually dis isnt my first blog..in first year, we had to make one as part of an assignment...but then i never opened it once the assignment was done.. and yes, i forgot the passwd too... ;)

K... sum lines abt myself...I m a fun lovin person...and i think
d real fun lies in taking risks and also in doin mischiefs...;)...by risks i
mean well calculated risks...not just doin sumthin stupid without
thinkin abt the consequences...and d mischiefs must cause harm
neither to u not to any other guy...

Im currently doin my engineerin at NIT Calicut...just finished my
second yr...did my schoolin in Kendriya Vidyalaya, 11th and 12th at St Aloysius PU college,m'lore...
and here's hw u can contact me:
email addr:angadkarunan@gmail.com
angad930@yahoo.co.in

or u can just leave ur thoughts in the comments section.