Soup for mind

Maximum life..

2012-01-28T15:02:00.004+05:30

I have been quite busy last one and half years. The picture above describes my life more or less. Don't go by the facial expressions of the man in the picture though. It is going on as a smooth journey and full credit for that goes to my better half!

For the said period, i got married, changed earlier job, relocated to different part of the city and if this was not enough, my employer made sure that I travel to another city -Mumbai frequently.

Now perhaps everything looks all set for a smooth journey ahead, and there will be times when I'll drop in here.

Talking about Mumbai, the hordes of people that came across during travelling made me feel that there is no need to look at stars in the sky to realize how small we are in this world!

But yes, the feeling is quite good when you are in a gathering or a huge shopping mall. I enjoyed buying lot of things thanks to the variety of options available.

Expressway is amazing and interesting fact is that it is a subset of NH4 highway which further takes you to Bengaluru where I am heading! Keeping my fingers crossed as of now.

Life will come not to a full circle but somewhat to a spiral if that happens..

copy paste..

2010-11-29T12:04:00.001+05:30

recently i wrote some OOP code but on many occasions compile errors happened and i had to say

“oops”!

:)

most of them were due to copy paste

:-|

so while going back home i made these small lines:
(click on image to view larger)

murphy's law for cooking

2009-12-30T19:00:00.003+05:30

you manage to get all ingredients, everything is on schedule, you turn on the flame and put the contents in pressure cooker and suddenly you realize that pressure cooker's Rocker (steam regulator) is missing!
:)

Then it usually takes time to find it as it is a small sized item. Suddenly it becomes the holy-grail and its absence stops the whole cooking process, when it is supposed to stop something else!

nice bollywood song video

2009-11-20T10:21:00.000+05:30

25 Random Things About Me

2009-11-11T17:26:00.006+05:30

I got tagged recently by Sheetal whose recipes keep me inspired to cook :)

I have seen my sister also managing both work and home, and the way Sheetal tries out different things and blogs about it despite her possibly busy schedule is definitely motivating and I cook sometimes in my own little ways :)

Now coming onto those 25 things, the number seemed quite big to me and hence I am including many trivial things :)

1. I like having long conversations with close friends. One topic leading to another, random topics..get together with older friends is also what I look forward always.
2. To relax after spending hours in front of computer I prefer walking in crowded places like bazaars.
3. I like punning. I'm famous among my friends for that, and infamous for PJs :)
4. The tastiest food I have had among outside eateries includes some fish and chicken delicacies.
5. I consider playing musical instrument as the highest skill of crativity, so I plan to learn it thoroughly at some stage of life.
6. Among sports/games, I used to win city level tournaments in chess in childhood but later I played it lesser and lesser. But I still play on internet sporadically.
7. I am an avid follower of Tennis. From Sampras and Steffi era I am following it and current players (mostly Federer) have made my interest grow further.
8. During cooking I try to optimize time and efforts while preserving/enhancing taste. I believe cooking is a great learing experience considering the multitasking involved and management of lot of things.
9. Here is latest tip which i found empirically- you can add Soyabean nuggets to many curries/pulavs. To keep it crisp, add it initially in oil. It is nutritional and enhances taste in most cases. This has been added as a separate point in list as I think it is worth it :)
10. I used to read books and like fiction, but later I found out that real life has more interesting stories, dramas, tragedies :)
11. Movies are still part of my leisure time, unlike books. courtesy- some friends who are die-hard hollywood movie fans and have a huge collection.
12. I still read books when I have to know/learn new topics. I have read on many varied topics -just to get little idea of many fields.
13. I like songs with meaningful lyrics..then they can be old or new, Hindi or English. Some of the songs composed by Gulzaar are my favorites.
14. I prefer cold weather to hot.. hence liked Bangalore wather a lot :)
15. Early riser and like to go for walk/jogging. On those days in which I wake up before my alarm rings I get immensely satisfied :)
16. Puzzle solving interests me and I had learned techniques to solve very hard level Sudokus!
17. Compact but powerful gadgets are preferred by me..I will buy a Netbook sometime although i have a 14' laptop :)
18. A train journey without reservation is last on my priority list but the same with reservation tops the list!
19. I keep a small bag of few common medicines (my sister being a doctor) and have managed many months to without any sickness leave.
20. like to watch news and comedy programs on tv
21. don't like most of the recent bollywood movies, they have repeated patterns an hence are predictable. see my previous post :)
22. banana chips is one of the favorite snacks option.
23. like trekking, but haven't done much this season
24. within India, would like to visit kashmir, leh-ladakh
25. would like to start a team blog, haven't finalized yet, but i have few topics are in mind.

Choosing among untagged friends, I am tagging Aditya who is in UK, Nikhil who is in US, and Sameer who is in France.

movie remake

2009-11-05T10:18:00.002+05:30

Check out this upcoming bollywood remake of oscar winning hollywood movie:

Hindi :News
Original English Photo, movie link

Considering the Indian star cast and interesting storyline of original movie, I guess it will be a sure hit in India.

Craving for corn

2009-09-07T09:04:00.002+05:30

What would you call a person who eats all corn dishes like corn soup, baby corn & even corn flakes and pop-corn?

(answer is in comments)

'Jai Ho' concert

2009-06-01T09:33:00.000+05:30

AR Rahman's 'Jai Ho' concert in Pune yesterday wasn't only treat to ears but to eyes also with aesthetic stage setups and light effects.

As the electic songs from Slumdog, Dil Se, Bombay, Delhi-6, Jodhaa Akbar and Guru were played, music, lights and emotions danced together.

The music aficionados had thronged outside the venue several hours earlier, and they had lot to enjoy. Roop Kumar Rathod, Hariharan, Raja hassan were also among the performers.

Rahman played piano for some songs, he sang some, then as he played and sang 'maula maula', the atmosphere culminated in transcendental.
As expected, the 'Jai Ho' song also made the fans cheer wildly. The music might have faded out of ears, but the reverberations in mind are going to stay for long.

The streams of music flowing in ears and minds of fans, were originating from the veins of Rahman. Even if this man bleeds he would compose a new melody to gift us.

is this what they call a 'water cooler joke'?

2009-05-01T12:19:00.005+05:30

There is a guy in office whom i give a drop to his home sometimes since his place is on my way to home. This day too, I met him in passage while leaving. He was leaving too, carrying his backpack and was filling his bottle at the water cooler.

As usual, I asked, "Need a drop?" and he answered "yes". Then I said, "But your bottle is full, why would you need a 'drop'?"
:)

The very next day, he was there again at the water cooler filling his bottle and there I was, armed with another joke which i had seen on TV just on the previous night.

I just asked, "Are you filling your bottle since there is a 'liquidity crunch' these days?"
:)

one-liner

2009-03-23T10:30:00.001+05:30

He and she decided to separate their ways.
He said, "we can keep in touch over email, without any attachment"
:)

Something meaningful

2009-03-13T11:02:00.003+05:30

'Here' is the link to this blog owner's some meaningful writing :)
(Look at the bottom - Bonus Presentation. Since we could not travel to attend the event, it was moved under Bonus Presentation category)

'Luck by chance' you may call it :)

Quotable quote

2009-02-24T09:49:00.004+05:30

When AR Rahman won oscar he quoted the most popular dialogue from Bollywood:

"Mere paas maa hein!"

At the same moment, it seemed as if Bollywood was telling Hollywood:

"Hamare paas Rahman hein!"

interesting economic analysis

2009-01-30T14:09:00.001+05:30

see here.

Does God have age?

2008-12-15T20:25:00.001+05:30

God doesn't have an age.
So does it seem for Sachin, who is hailed as the GOD of cricket!

In today's victory at RBS Cup test match, it wasn't only the mumbaikar who gave a fitting reply to England's target.
The Englishmen were the one who gave a fitting reply to the perpetrators of 26/11 by coming back bravely.

By the way, while most of our batsmen are scoring runs when required, there is one who isn't. Reason?
-Perhaps he is watching the show 'Hole in the wall' too much on this channel.
:)

Reality inspired by poetry

2008-12-10T17:49:00.000+05:30

poetry inspired by reality was a part of my life
I knew I had flair for it.
It is a skill not everyone can posses.
It is like having an answer or comment to everything life bestows
It was enough for me to suprise others in many situations.
Then on one day, life astounded me.
It presented a reality inspired by one of my poems!
Though it wasn't perfectly matching, but yet it still keeps me wondering about it.
As I went though it, the feeling was like staying fully awake in your dream!

A scene at my door

2008-11-28T12:04:00.003+05:30

These days a neighborhood child painted a castle and kept soldiers and cannon on it. His (incompetent) neighbor kid disrupted it.

Sadly, the mumbai mayhem going on these days is far different from a child's play..

engrossing film

2008-11-26T09:55:00.002+05:30

I watched Memento recently, after knowing that the upcoming movie Ghajini is loosely based on it.

The way the story is presented in parts and in rewinds is quite innovative. Each time we have to change lot of our assumptions entirely, and so it changes our perceptions about the characters. Its like a big puzzle and you are being given small hints sporadically. You get totally engrossed.

It will be quite interesting to see how Ghajini is made (or changed?) to suit Indian audience.

humourous sense(x)

2008-10-27T12:30:00.006+05:30

The value of Indian Sensex is falling like anything.
I read this conversation somewhere on internet.
...
person A: What if the share values go negative?

(This seemed to be a rather ignorant than sarcasic question, going by the earlier conversation. The following witty reply made me laugh a lot.)

person B: Then you will get money for taking shares from market.
Just keep taking them and you will be richer than the CEO of Reliance!
..

funny quote

2008-09-18T13:59:00.000+05:30

Programmers always confuse Christmas and Halloween because OCT 31 equals DEC 25
-author unknown

Ganeshotsav pics

2008-09-15T14:28:00.002+05:30

I'm not very religious or ritualistic. But roaming in crowds for watching the decorations and beautifully made idols of the deity is a very nice feeling.

I guess the feeling is more so because of spending lot of time with computers at work :)
Here is one nice picture:

Few more are here.

exciting times for sports!

2008-09-15T10:00:00.001+05:30

This year 2008 provided phenomenal entertainment to the sports fans.

Phelps and Bolt, dazzled us with their superhuman performances.

Bolt made this interesting statement, to justify his celebrations before finish line:

"I like to enjoy my work. You can't be too serious at your job".

Usain's feat of the world record is almost exactly found in fiction. If you have seen Animatrix-the short movie episodes which are the precursor of the famous Matrix movie, there is one episode named world record. An athlete there suddenly springs ahead of the other pack of athletes, realising that he is way ahead of the worldly rules.

Nadal and Federer rivalry took the tennis to even higher level after Federer's dominance.

What now has added a topping to these interesting events are the announcements of the return by Lance armstrong and Floyd landis to the Tour de France. While Landis has obviously a strong reason to return, Lance says he is inspired by several olympic athletes winning medals in their thirties.

Bindra completed the logical sequence of Bronze and Silver with his gold. The initiator in this sequence, Leander Paes seems to be getting better and better with his age like an old wine. Reaching the finals of two events in US Open is very extraordinary considering the fact that he even had a brain surgery sometime back.

What 2009 can offer - An interesting Tour de France, more Grand Slam finals between Nadal and Federer-perhaps more than those in 2008.

Tagged!

2008-09-06T16:56:00.005+05:30

I was off the blogger for a while and also didn't check the other fella's blogs. Piyush tagged me and i noticed it almost a month later..

Here is my post:

Last movie seen in a theatre?
'Rock On'. Liked it a lot.. have been telling all the near and dear ones to watch it.

What book are you reading?
"iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon" by Steve Wozniak

Favorite board game

Chess

Favorite magazine
Business magazines these days.

Favorite smells
Lavender

Favorite sound
sound of a keyboard (the musical one), waterfall

Worst feeling in the world
Being misunderstood as selfish when I am not.

What is the first thing you think of when you wake up?
What can I do today to turn that sweet dream into reality :)

Favorite fast food place
McDonald's.

Future child's name
(can't think of it right now..)

Finish this statement. "If I had a lot of money I'd..."
be globetrotting.

Do you drive fast?
Yes, till the vehicle is fully in control.

Do you sleep with a stuffed animal.
No.

Favorite Drink
Hot Coffee.

Do you eat the stem of broccoli?
No.

Storms - Cool or Scary?
Cool.

If you could dye your hair any color, what would be your choice?
Black

Name all the different cities/towns you have lived in:
Nasik; Pune; Mumbai; Chennai; Bangalore;

Favorite sports to watch
Tennis, Cricket

One nice thing about the person who sent this to you
Cool guy and a very nice person

What's under your bed?
sometimes a book if i sleep reading it :)

Would you like to be born as yourself again?
Yes, definitely.

Morning person or night owl?
Morning person.

Over easy or sunny side up?
Over Easy

Favorite place to relax
A garden.

Favorite pie
A Cream Pie

Favorite ice cream flavor:
Chocolate

You pass this tag to:

Aditya, Nikhil (see my blogroll)

Of all the people you tagged this to, who’s most likely to respond first?
Aditya.

Looking at the (W)hole picture

2008-06-03T07:44:00.004+05:30

There were two holes cut in the door of Newton's chamber: one hole, much larger than the other, for the use of his cat, the smaller one for the convenience of the kitten. The joke is, of course, that the kitten required a smaller hole to pass through the door than did its mother.

Well, here is something happened which reminded me of above joke. I installed two linuxes on a system and managed to get them working perfectly. One of them required around 2GB swap space and the other needed only 500 MB. I had made two separate swap partitions only to realize after a while that my stupid mistake was quite similar to that of this world famous personality :)

The Royal finale

2008-06-02T09:56:00.001+05:30

What entertainment the one sided semi-finals could not provide, was provided in abundance by the thrilling final match of the IPL.

Close finish in like this is among the very few sporting moments that provides an ideal climax to a long event.

What made IPL so special was the camaraderie shown by the players coming from different nations and still playing as a team. To top it all, the tourney was won by the only team having a non-indian captain.

The elder Pathan and Watson were more than impressive. Watson made a half century in the semifinal and took first three wickets of the oposition to become the man of the match. An interesting coincidence happened in the final. Pathan also took first three wickets of the opposition and made a quick half-century and won the man of the match trophy.

This was only the first year and the event will certainly get better over the period of time..
Here is an IPL Dream Team.

Now its time to watch Roland Garros. It is almost understood that Nadal is reaching the final and it will be very very interesting if Federer too makes it to the last match.

The clash is going happnen!

2008-05-28T19:50:00.000+05:30

The prediction which i made about the match between Delhi and Rajasthan teams in IPL became almost true. Instead of finals, they are meeting in Semis.
When I wrote it, only half matches were completed for each team. There were teams like Mumbai coming up and Delhi too was unsure of making it to semis until mumbai lost as many as 3 consecutive matches.
So the match will be worth watching and it will take lot of effort from Delhi players to beat Warne's men..

IPL prediction

2008-05-10T17:11:00.004+05:30

The tournament is almost at the half stage, and lot of teams have moved up and down on the rankings. It is tough to guess the result in T-20 for exactly the reason one-day matches are unpredictable compared to test matches.

A couple of good or bad overs completely change the scenario in T-20.

Still, I would like to make a guess.

A final of Rajasthan Royals vs Delhi Daredevils will be a treat to watch.

While Delhi team has the likes of Sehwag, Vettori,Gambhir and McGrath, the Rajasthan Royals have Shane Warne, Graeme Smith, Yusuf Pathan and Shane Watson who can make big difference on the field.

Dell Media direct enhancement

2008-04-25T16:59:00.003+05:30

(This post is for people searching for information on Media Direct of Dell laptops)

I found a way to install vlc player in Dell's Media Direct.

The default player of Media direct can't 'seek' videos while playing. It also cant play Divx files. VLC player overcomes these shortcomings.

I would recommend keeping Media direct as it saves battery power when you are say traveling and only want to play videos/songs. Some people suggest removing it when they re-partition their s

Its easy to install VLC player. Basically Media direct loads under windows xp embedded OS which is in background.

All you need to do is to boot from some liveCD, copy the taskmgr.exe from main (vista/xp) windows' system32 folder to the windows/system32 folder on Mediadirect partition.

Then shut down the system, press media direct button. once it starts, u can press alt+ctrl+del to invoke taskmgr. There u can start new task as explorer, then browse to the setup of vlc player and complete installation.

Next time, again launch taskmgr to start VLC player and then browse for the video files..

I haven't tried but I guess many other popular applications may get installed (like winamp)

Save your laptop battery power

2008-04-11T11:31:00.003+05:30

When you are in journey/without power supply, but want to just watch videos you want your laptop battery to last as long as possible. Even at home you would like to the laptop to boot as fast as possible when you only want to play media files on it.

I was searching for some linux distros who take very small size to save power, can boot from USB/CD and play all Video formats..

I found slax especially useful. It took only ~200 MB on USB and played the formats like divx, even wmv also..
I also tried DSL (Damn Small Linux), which is only 50 MB in size but it could not detect my SATA HDD.
Puppy linux also looks good but I haven't tried that..

Actually my dell inspiron has a button called media direct, which boots to a lightweight embedded windows to give you access of media files on your HDD.
But when I formatted the Hard Disk for partitioning, it was quite a task to get the media direct button working. Interestingly I also managed to install all video codecs of k-lite pack into media direct . They don't come pre-installed, so that is quite tricky. The site http://www.notebookforums.com/ is very very useful :)

I will still use slax on a bootable USB, which takes very small memory and has quite sleek interface :)

Interesting article..

2008-03-05T19:24:00.002+05:30

See this .

I liked the image in this section very much.
Note the IC layouts :)

painting

2008-02-27T12:05:00.000+05:30

I saw a picture-perfect life
joys, struggles and wins rife

I kept painting colors vividly
while others viewing it avidly

subtle shapes someone once found
for a while I too, was spellbound

I continue to paint with diligence
maintaing balance with the credence

My painting is still in under shaping,
till then, o viewer, keep me backing

I have a come a long way till here
and I do have the skills, I'm aware

easy quiz

2008-02-27T11:29:00.004+05:30

Guess who these two famous personalities are:

Don't they closely resemble each other?
rather, the younger would resemble the older as he grows old

Happiest moments

2008-02-22T12:36:00.001+05:30

There are two happiest moments that I experienced in my recent life. And I felt the happiness lasting for a long long period..
Firstly I left my earlier job with a plan to be a specialist in a field, and when this book got published in 2005, much much later and I found the analysis in the book consistent with my plans, my joy had no limits. :)

As I was on the course to go ahead, I was confronted by the highest challenge one can face (known to my close friends). I escaped that too. Of course there was luck factor also in this escape. but I must say, I had to put lot of efforts in both of these challenges and that added to my joy and my strength.

Of course challenges are still coming, in ways I never thought..Some things are getting better and others worse, keeping the life balanced :|
Some hard work that I have put, I thought I deserve some kind of prize, but I am content on the strength I have received in those efforts, which will surely pay sometime.

nice quote..

2008-02-04T17:51:00.000+05:30

"Write to be understood, speak to be heard, read to grow."
-Lawrence Clark Powell

Sparrows in the mind

2007-08-27T10:17:00.000+05:30

The apartment I live in is on the 1st floor of the building. I always climb the stairs instead of going by the elevator to have some exercise.The stairs are divided into two parts. At the place where these two parts meet there is a nice nest of sparrows. It has been there since more than a year. By the behavior of the sparrows you can guess that they may have been there since one or two generations.

They never fly away, even if you reach near them. One always passes by them at a distance close to 1 feet. The way is like that only. The nest is at a height and above a box where children cannot see it. Grown ups can easily touch it but it seems it has not happene since years. When I reach near the sparrow, my hearbeats increase. I take careful steps and keep my hands close to body so that the sparrows are not scared..Whatever trust that was bult over the years should not be destroyed by a single thoughtless act.

But then I also think what would happen to these sparrows if they move out to some other place and the people there are not as good as they are here. Should I break their trust deliberately by shooing them away? Its some philosophical decision..But then this would rob them of the heavenly peaceful place which they were living until now..

Agreed that the world is filled with bad places and bad people. But does it mean that we go on destroying such places also?
My last thoughts dominate all the earlier logic. I let the birds tweet as I pass by, meanwhile enjoying the out of the world experience everyday.

Genuinely good..

2007-08-17T18:05:00.000+05:30

There is no cricket, and there is no chucking.
It is 'Chak' de...

Definitely a genuinely good motion (picture).
What I liked most is how the team spirit is built from the scratch.
My rating: 7/10.

Something to smile about

2007-08-07T09:25:00.000+05:30

check this firefox addon:
link

Freakologic

2007-05-30T18:52:00.000+05:30

The title of this post is on the lines of this bestseller. An interesting book that I had enjoyed.

Here is some 'freakologic' about smokers, based on my observations. We all know the reason why smokers keep on only a single cigaratte with them, and buy one by one-to strike a balance between the strong desire to smoke, and to avoid smoking in excess.

And if they don't have a cigaratte with them, they carry the amount of money sufficient only for a single cigaratte. In case the temptation to have another puff arises after the first one they can forcefully restrain.

Another thing is that they seek company. Having another smoker reduces their feeling of wrongdoing. And they get a big moral support if a non-smoker agrees to just come with them. That gives them the opportunity to make a serious face and tell how hard (and how many times) they have tried to quit the addiction!

And whenever they move to a new area, they inquire other smokers and find out all possible places where u can buy a cigarette. And their uncompromising loyalty with some particular brand makes them burn extra fuel and go miles to get it from another shop!

And now something into sports. Like the many logics which we get by email, which predict the eventual winner of a tournament I too made something weird.

I had stayed awake late to watch this football match in 2005, and then again this one in 2007. Both times same teams made it to the final, but the result was reversed.

Now being an ardent fan of this man, I enjoyed watching him reaching the Roland Garros final last year. Now if same pair reaches the final this year too, it will be a like a dream come true even for the tennis fans. Now will the result reverse in this case too?? :)

Difficult Analogies

2007-05-29T08:35:00.000+05:30

"It takes months to find a customer, seconds to loose one."
I had read this on a poster in office.
After an incident involving rough patches in a friendship, I thought of lines like "It takes months to make a friendship, seconds to break it."

Practically too, I thought it held true for me. But interestingly, I had to change these lines after the sequence of events that occurred.

This is what I found, concluded and it is rational too.
"It takes months to make a friendship, and months to break it."
You may think it is broken, but you cannot forget some memories easily. It definitely happens over the period of time. There can be a lot of things like misunderstandings due to lack of communication, lack of faith which lead to trouble in relationships.

If you intend to abandon something which took a lot of time and effort to develop, then you are insulting it. You are destroying your own efforts by some thoughtless acts. Of course accidents occur, but then you should make an effort to rebuild the things. You don't need to start over from scratch, so it should be easier.

And the friendships which fall apart with single events are not sound. They are not strong enough and are entitled to this fate.

Doesn't the adversities have the potential to strengthen the bond of friendship rather than breaking it?

Salaam Mumbai

2007-05-29T08:22:00.000+05:30

The vast and fast city is certainly awe-inspiring.

Once on a journey I had a conversation with some Spanish tourists about this City. They were on a trip which included Mumbai. Madrid, the capitol of their country also has so many people, they told me.But the manner in which very large population of Mumbai commutes & the way people rush was the main thng they were impressed with. I explained them how the local trains form the backbone of the transport.

There is this book which I intend to read sometime. Recently I watched this movie. Found it as good as this one. Both of these are very realistic, depict the heroics of the city's police force, which highly rated world over.

Cross-talk

2007-05-29T08:19:00.000+05:30

This is a technical term in communication (especially telephonic) where a conversation of a call is heard in another entirely different call.

Now consider one interesting real life situation. A group is going for a trip in holidays in a vehicle. Lets say it is the year end. In your journey you are likely to travel through the region where the cellular network is absent. Your dear ones are eager to call you to wish a happy new year. You too are eager to make many calls.

Once the vehicle reached the area where there is network coverage, the flood of messages starts pouring in. And everybody starts making calls despite the conversations interefering each other.
Now, how do you get rid of such 'cross-talk'?
:)

The Joy of small things

2007-05-25T08:26:00.000+05:30

There are times when even a cacophony sounds like a melody.
Look at this interesting situation which I experienced today. I always set the alram tone to some sweet tune, so that it should not trouble in the morning.

But then someday you would like to sleep longer, or you couldnot get a sound sleep that night and then alarm is a troubling sound, irrespective of the tune which you set. So, ever came across a situation when you hear the morning alarm and feel very very happy?

I felt it today. I slept quite early last night, woke up before the damn summer sun came up and had a long long morning walk. Just when I returned, the alarm rang. And my joy had no limits at that moment.

This small moment embodied a big victory- a victoy of optimism over pessimism. I knew last night that I'm going to wake up early and I set the alarm accordingly, with a realistic time. I wouldn't have been sad had I woken up with alarm.

And, I got a reward too :-)
I reached office early, blogged this, and started work early.

Funny puns

2007-04-18T18:25:00.000+05:30

Reading is my favorite hobby, but I'm not a big time reader or writer.
Here are few words which I came across in real life and found interesting.

Tele-pathy

If one were to ask me what is that I follow among Allopathy, Homeopathy, etc, I would have answered it as Allopathy. My sister is a doctor and she is from that stream, so that is my obvious choice. But now I have another answer-'Tele-pathy'.
I always get in touch with her on phone when I fall sick and since she knows me very well - medically as well as personally, she can almost read my mind. Isn't that a telepathy?
:)

Satisfraction
This one is self-explanatory.

e-motional
"I'm e-motional while I'm blogging"
:)

Certain Uncertainty

2007-04-03T21:15:00.000+05:30

Recently I heard about doing "Nadee Pariksha (Pulse examination) using an instrument deploying data
mining techniques".

This is instrument may be still under development, but a doubt came in my mind- if the operator of the instrument is a good looking lady, then how would the measurement be correct for me?
:)

Doesn't it sound like the famous Uncertainty principle?

roads, wires, etc

2007-04-03T20:57:00.000+05:30

As a consequence of the steady influx of people in Pune, and the flyovers being built at some places, a chaotic traffic is a regular scene now.

As if the riders are wearing T-shirts with a punchline:

The day I obeyed all the traffic rules,
I had an accident!

:)

Now some good news. Here is a news which makes Pune the first city in country in a facility:

Morale boosting..

2007-03-28T18:09:00.000+05:30

I needed to test my logical analysis, its speed, etc. So I started learning to solve the Sudoku which appear in the newspaper. I even participated in a small competition to see where I stand.

The result was surprising to me. Although I coulnot win the prize, I was among the select few who were able to solve that Sudoku.

Then I thought of checking the depth of my logical analysis further and to learn more ways of solving the Sudoku. A friend suggested this website.

There is a 'very hard' level, which I can solve now :)
In the process, I learned new methods to solve it. Its really interesting to try your hand (read: brain) on it.

Sunlight at night

2007-02-09T09:37:00.000+05:30

It was a visual treat to watch the Iridium flare yesterday night.

There was a news in the local newspaper.

We didn't go the place where astronomers were present. We didn't have total information about the directions in which these objects will be seen. So we couldn't locate the first two somehow inspite staring in the direactions mentioned.

Fortunately, we were able to watch the Iridium flare, which lasted for a mere 2-3 seconds and was astonishingly bright!
It even turned yellow at its maxima, so it was sunlight at night :)

Some online photos of Iridium flare can be seen here, here and here.

What we obeserved was not an elongated one but it was pretty much like this.

The new morning..

2007-02-01T18:47:00.000+05:30

Today morning when I went outside, the atmosphere was pleasant.
Today is the election day. One sight caught my eyes and made me slow down and think over it.
A help desk was set up by one political party. There were only two young ladies managing it. Both were using laptops to instantly search the names of the voters.

The scene is quite contrasting to what everyone had witnessed few years back. There is another factor involved here- that I stay in one of the most prosperous place of the city. However, the scene speaks volumes about how technology is playing major role in many things..And how the ladies are participating in many fields, shoulder-to-shoulder with men.

Obviously the scene was more refreshing than the morning atmosphere!

Interesting link

2006-12-29T19:00:00.000+05:30

check this.

made for India?

2006-12-27T19:11:00.000+05:30

yes, I agree that there are a lot of features and preloaded softwares from the indian operators in many cellphone models. like- indian wallpapers, screensavers, preloaded ips of the gprs servers to allow easy connection, etc.

However there are some basic things which are missing-like unicode indian fonts in the sms... or a lack of common format across all operators and phone models.

I own a smart phone since long, allowing me to easily install any useful softwares on it. e.g. I have a dictionary which has a vast collection of words (an encyclopedia).

But the dictionary used for the autocomplete in sms, notes lacks this wide range of words.
There has to be some way to link these two apps, or an app which updates the autocomplete dictionary also. It wont be too much difficult to write an app (esp for symbian). Even some enthusiastic college-going student can also write it. I eagerly await for such app.

Anyways, smartphone has allowed me to manage many of my things by its innumerabale features ranging from the to-do list, reminders, camera, music, memory card to carry data, etc everything integrating into one.

And you know what I did recently? I had rarely travelled to mumbai earlier and needed a good map of the city with me. I got a couple of them from internet (in image format) and stored them in my cell phone. And they are very useful. The zoom in and zoom out on phone allows storing a large image.

Bells

2006-12-19T19:10:00.000+05:30

Lot of bells are ringing nowadays..
jingle bells - since christmas is round the corner.
wedding bells - lot of friends are getting married.
and warning bells - since the deadlines are nearing!
:)

Balanced life

2006-12-14T18:01:00.000+05:30

If it is software which they write, why does the employee in the advertisement say "we work hard and party hard"?
They try to make the life balanced I guess :)

spending time with the 'Times'

2006-12-06T18:57:00.000+05:30

I can now solve all the three big puzzles in the Times of India:
su-doku, kakuro and loop the loop.

It's not that they are tough, I only started trying to solve them few days back.
The medium level su-doku is a bit time consuming though.

Race and journey

2006-12-06T18:55:00.000+05:30

I plan to read this book sometime.
No, I'm not planning for any race. Neither it is for life's race.
It depends your perspective of life-whether it is a race or a journey.

If you think it is a race, read this book slowly (thoroughly).
And if you think it is a jorney, read it fast.
:)

I personally think that life is an interesting combination of both journeys and races :)

Beautiful Day

2006-11-30T20:29:00.000+05:30

Look at these two pics:

And now look at these ones, taken after few months:

The nature has changed very much in few months.. Unfortunately the man-made road (read: the man) hasn't changed much..

Some people still continue to walk the pebble-laden path to reach to place which is worth visiting :)

to watch the colorful paintings on a great canvass of the sky,
and to paint the colorful hopes in the mind,
to feel the fading warmth, to breathe the fresh air,
to watch the birds return home..
to watch joggers..

to breathe the real life... after spending the day with computers..
to listen to the nature's silent melodies... after listening the mp3s..
to let the eyes relax... after the strain of staring at the monitor..
to rejuvenate the mind.. away from the work's attention..
to smell the grass..far from the doors of glass...
to see the twilight.. after sitting in the tube light..
to listen to the birds' chirps... after spending the day with IC chips..
to let the waist stretch ...after the fingers' stretches at the keyboard..
to inspire a jogger in this blogger..
to pace up the heart beats... after woking with bits
to let the legs pace ...after the brain's daily race..
:)

The picture of the place which above road leads is rightly not posted here..For, it changes too often.. the color of the sky, the sun, the clouds and their pattern.. the scene is so 'big' and vivid to capture.. the scene is great enough to deserve to be experienced in its completeness :)
..And I am talking about the time just around the Sunset..
It fills so much in my day, and just when the day nears its end!

It may not be a perfect day, but surely a very good day!
It may not be a perfect life, but surely a very good life!

Surprisingly this area of the city is never crowded as anyone would expect..perhaps the people outside are too busy to visit it..

I go to multiplexes, malls and restaurants with friends on the weekends to feel the real life, and that adds more to make me feel my weekdays surreal!

And here I am, 'shadowed' by the big tree in this another picture :)

Stimulating Dor

2006-10-07T13:00:00.000+05:30

I had thought there would be lot of painful sad scenes in this movie, however the truth is displayed plainly and is often implied by short incidents. Certainly a maverick direction by Kukunoor.

The widow in the movie has to take the life's dor (control) in her hand and that, on a broader perspective makes it more about joy than pain. Joy of listening to the heart, taking the decision about our own life. The other lady character 'Zeenat' and her struggle is equally strong.

Shreyas Talpade's comedy is peppered to make it more light. The movie does not make an impact, but really stimulates the mind.

Dwarfing the human capacities...

2006-09-13T17:51:00.000+05:30

Check out this news.

As the memory (and machine) capacities increase, human capacities seem dwarf.
who has the time for so many movies, songs that fit in a tiny player?

The day machine intelligence evolves, there will be many resources in abundance for them- knowledge of everything on the web, processing power everywhere: PCs, cellphones..

My blog also gets visited by some web crawlers of search engines. And when I see a visitor from a domain like say mit dot edu, I get an eerie feeling that the visitor might not be a human, but a program of some researcher, reading and analysing my blog... :) absurd it may seem now, it might become a reality some day :)

Innovators

2006-09-10T10:10:00.000+05:30

Check this out.
Esp. interesting is this one.

Squirrel audition for the Ice Age

2006-08-16T17:37:00.000+05:30


That is the audition for the introduction to movie Ice Age, the squirrel was not the first to audition!! Eevery actor had to bring their own object to audition.

Friends and distance

2006-08-14T19:18:00.000+05:30

I like gmail chat. Its compact, inside the mail window no need to install, etc.
I still miss one feature of yahoo messenger which allows showing your online presence to individual friends.
As a work around, I make my status as 'away' and keep chatting with some friends as per the availability of time. So if you are 'close' friend of mine, don't think that I am 'away'. I am just a click ~~away~~ close :)

I am not in touch with some really close friends.. Recently I talked to close friend on phone. The call lasted for what turned out be the longest duration of my personal telephonic conversation. I did have hours of official conf calls earlier but it never occurred to me that I will have so long personal call.

Now I think that although some friends are physically away and not in touch, they all are just a phone call or chat window away :)

In fact a friend also realized this and suggested a voice conf on yahoo messenger. A group of us who were together once, and are now scattered over the globe participate in the conf on weekends. There are updates about everyone, there is chaos, gossip and that is real fun!

weekend plan

2006-08-10T22:14:00.000+05:30

Uptil now I was not very much interested in watching K-A-N-K. However the review at this link has changed my mood. Anyways, I am getting busier nowadays in both official and non official matters and cannot give much time to read the books. A movie in the multiplex is certainly a good option in these times :)

impacting execution

2006-07-31T20:44:00.000+05:30

The good things in this movie are the impressive sound effects and a very good direction. The way the climax is 'executed' is awesome.
The bad part-the gaalis which are perhaps there to maintain the (im)purity of the gunda-gardi and to make the rural scenes more real.

The compass of conscience

2006-07-29T12:37:00.000+05:30

There is a magical compass in Pirates.. which shows the path to reach what we desire most.

I think in real life also I should believe that I have a compass-an invisible one, showing me the path to what I desire most. Afterall I know what is of top priority to me and what all is needed to achieve it. Life is complex, but if I focuss myself where the compass shows, it would not be that complicated.
But what if I am unclear of what I desire most? I should decide quickly, for the indecision can hold me back.

If a static period of indecision happens, I should keep faith and believe in thoughts like these:

"Life is no straight and every corridor along
which we travel free and unhampered,
but a maze of passages,
through which we must seek our way,
lost and confused, now and again
checked in a blind alley.

But always, if we have faith,
God will open a door for us,
Not perhaps one that we ourselves
would ever have thought of,
But one that will ultimately
prove good for us."

-A. J. Cronin

Life after death

2006-07-29T12:34:00.000+05:30

If the project goes live after it, why do they call it a deadline?
Maybe the work (development) goes dead and the testing phase is a post-mortem of the work!

Time to kill is time to chill..

2006-07-27T21:13:00.000+05:30

I am not very good at sketching the curves, and I hardly see any curves at work ;)
Work being in digital systems, there are transitions between 1 and 0, and the only 'time' curves are seen is when the glitches occur :)
At a conference, in the less interesting session I drew this sketch to keep myself busy and to ward off the yawns.

(click for a better view)
What makes it more interesting is the starting point. I start sketching from the tip of the pen and try to sketch the view as it is.

my new desktop toy

2006-07-18T19:57:00.000+05:30

This one is a simple 'real-life' toy, unlike the sleek widgets that you see nowadays.

It tells me one thing in simple manner: "In order to be stable, you have to keep moving" :)

Speak but don't listen

2006-07-18T19:37:00.001+05:30

Its bizarre that some blog sites are blocked in a democratic country like ours. Well, the blogger.com is accessible, hence users of blogspot can 'speak' but cannot listen. Of course there are tricks, but it is doesn't seem good.
Fortunately I use this site, allowing me to easily access the blogs I regularly read.

Hopefully they'll only block some blogs (which have caused them to do this) instead of whole site.

Add colors to your firefox

2006-06-13T19:56:00.000+05:30

I have been using many Firefox extensions and recently I found one more cool extension.
It makes the tabs colored which not only helps to easily distinguish between them but it also makes the browser beautiful.
It can be downloaded from here.

One more extension which I like is adblock. You can easily block the gif images of ads, flash ads, iframes etc. And I have found a shortcut way to do block multiple ads. If you are visiting a page like some-domain.com, then initially block one or two ads. Often the sources of the ads are something like ads.some-domain.com/images/ad1.gif and ads.some-domain.com/flash/ad1.swf.

So all you need to do is to block the url upto ads.some-domain.com and voila, the pages are clean, neat and you are not distracted by any animation if you have to read a topic.

The world is flat..

2006-05-27T13:22:00.000+05:30

..is a very good book indeed. The author has deep knowledge of what is happening in all parts of the world.
Let's hope that all the roads are flattened, too.

Gone are the days when I used to go to the office in the morning and start my work straightaway. E-mails from the friends used to some in the daytime. Now, many of my friends are in US. When I reach office in the morning, there are mails to be replied, scraps to be read. And if I have to chat with them then I have to do it in my morning time or evening time when it is start or end of the day's work for us.

So this flattening has made chatting and e-mailing with friends an activity concentrated to mornings and evenings.

Multilingual chat and blogs all have further erased the boundaries and people are more connected and are better in touch with everyone.

Next to be read is 'Freakonomics'. I never knew such interesting books exists on such topics until I read them.

Digital PJ

2006-04-05T19:40:00.000+05:30

This PJ requires some basic knowledge of digital electronics..

What is your 'fan-in' value?
And what is your 'fan-out' value?

Try to guess first.
See the comments if you can't guess..

Another relocation..

2006-02-25T18:52:00.000+05:30

Another relocation of this blog is not needed as of now.
Fortunately the title of this blog is not like 'Chicken Soup..', as the name of the popular book series goes. In the wake of recent outbreak of the avian flu, I would have needed to cull few words and move it to another location.

May god bless the poor fowls' souls. I wonder why Maneka Gandhi is not protesting against the mass killing of the birds. She is otherwise seen to be always on her toes in other cases.

As the topic of chicken has been touched, I think it is worthwhile to mention about fish dishes which are now being used as a substitute to chicken dishes. Recently I happened to eat Goan Fish Curry a couple of times. I have found it good in taste, although it is mild in taste. Maybe it is to suit the taste buds of the urban class. Compared to it, the fish dishes which I had in Kokan were certainly tasty. The fish in Kokan was certainly fresh from the sea, and the spices used were different.

RSS feed has been enabled on this blog. Even though the first paragraph of this post explains the absence of any virus infection on this blog, the subscriber of the rss feed will be solely responsible for any infection arising out of my blog ;-)

Outsourcing to the fullest

2006-02-02T20:07:00.000+05:30

This is an incident when I was involved in a project of a prestigious US firm in my earlier job.

Well, the project was first one for that client by my company and everyone was putting best efforts in the work. The prime goal was to complete the project in time and with minimum defects so that the client will be impressed and order few more projects. I wrote some good pieces of code which required lot of intelligence and efforts. My teammates were also feeling the same. After delivery phase, client was going to do a testing with a dedicated testing team. Now being aware of this fact, we had put our best efforts to ensure a bug-free code.

The D-day (as we were jokingly calling the project delivery day) arrived, and testing by the client team began. A couple of days passed silently. Some initial bugs started coming out which we happily marked as 'not a defect'. They were mainly due to unfamiliarity of the testing team with the intricacies of the functionality.

One day my teammate Dhaval got an email requesting him to explain the purpose of some complex piece of code written by him. Now, we guessed it rightly that it was from the testing team. They had picked up Dhaval's email id from the header of the code comments.

But this was nowhere in the rules. Only communication of functionality was allowed, but that also with our client as an intermediary.
Dhaval, however told that person the code functionality in brief. We were a bit surprised to know that the onsite team too had Indian testers. "Smart Indian fellow, like us :-)" - someone remarked when his first mail had arrived.

Dhaval had, actually sent him the answer in his second mail. Before that he had asked that person who he was. After all a code is a copyrighted material. That fellow (someone Singh) had answered that he worked in one Indian testing company, located in Mumbai- ironically far closer to us than the distance from which our client was pulling the strings. This is what one can term as '360 degrees outsourcing'.

Entertaining thoughts

2006-01-21T16:44:00.000+05:30

I prefer not to entertain some thoughts even though such thoughts really entertain me!

I'll not post such thoughts on the blog as I do not wish to entertain them.

One thought which I wish to entertain is:

"Why must we be winning all the time?
Only to find ourselves the slaves of destiny
When can we be free?
On the day we die?"

Well, this can have a lot of different meanings based on individual interpretation. Based on the context where I read it, it means: The 'destiny' means a goal set by someone else (or by us, but at a very early stage). Winning is reaching that goal and the slavery is the pursuance of such goal after accepting it as our own goal. Being free means taking a path leading to a destiny of our own choice. It didn't mean stopping in life in any manner.

Really thought provoking.

Introducing..

2006-01-09T19:58:00.000+05:30

Two friends from college who have made big strides into the educational field. Find Nikhil and Jaydeep under fellow bloggers column.

Both are on the way to earn doctorate in different areas. Former indulges in watching the night sky and the latter in designing chips. Expecting some interesting stuff from both.

Ugly superstitions

2006-01-04T19:02:00.000+05:30

Events like this expose the baseless practices still popular in rural parts of India. Few days back I could not decide how to react when I heard the news about one such 'baba' who gives advice to the patients after looking at the X-ray. He advices on whether the sick should follow the advice of the doctor and get operated or not.
Isn't this shocking?

आमची माती, आमचा समुद्र

2006-01-02T18:59:00.000+05:30

In English, "our land, our men and our sea!"
The warrior kings who built the fort inside the sea must have said these lines while watching the sea from the fort. I too said the same when on a visit to such an exotic place. There was not any human being visible on either side of the beach and it was like owning the shining sand filled land and the caressing sea waves.

I said goodbye to 2005 while watching the sunset from konkan, the west coast of Maharashtra. On the midnight of 31st Dec, an excellent alternative to watching bollywood stars on small screen is to watch the innumerable sparkling real stars on the large canvass of sky. The sparkle of stars, however small, will energize you for the year ahead. The unending sequence of waves and the beach side volleyball and football will make you fall in love with the sea and cancel the plans of visiting any caves on the return journey.

The warm hospitability of the natives, the delicious dish of fresh fish will satiate you to the fullest. A journey to fort built inside the sea in fisherman's ferry is simply amazing.

On more commercialized beaches people gather at midnight, make bon-fire, sing, dance and celebrate the new year. Even in this season the climate is not cold but a bon-fire is like placing a flag on the beach to mark your group.

The memories- I would like to preserve in my mind like pearls in the oyster. Better, like the living being inside a shell- beautifully alive.

Best Loved Indian Stories..

2005-12-06T21:07:00.000+05:30

Recently I've read this book:

Until now, I had not read any of the books by an Indian author writing in English, except a few by Ruskin Bond. And this book has around 20 of them: R.K. Narayan, Mulk Raj Anand, Anita Desai among others. Initial couple of stories gave a feeling that this book is meant for teenagers and some of them belong to the pre-independence period, but the later ones touch a wide variety of subjects about Indian life and culture. That invoked a though-crescendo in my mind.

Valuing the values

2005-12-06T20:59:00.000+05:30

    Maharashtra government has sought Mr. Narayana Murthy's advice for the further development and planning of IT industry in Pune. This is a wise move indeed. NRN (as Mr. Murthy is fondly called in his company) is one of my idols.

    A man of great vision and wisdom, NRN has enriched thousands of Indian households not only by creating the employment opportunities, but also by igniting the bright young minds with his views. And this happens in an extraordinary manner. NRN seldom talks about his thoughts. His actions speak more. Out of his innumerable speeches made everywhere, people and employees of Infy gather the pearls of his wisdom, the moral values which he supports. Even if you walk in the corridors of Infy, you will listen to his thoughts being discussed. One of my favorites is "The factor which motivates employees most is- challenging work." Then there are many more covering almost every part of the life. He supports the view that IT employees should pay the taxes to government.

    In my opinion, Indian youth should always practice valuing the values. I do not mean that it is lacking, but I wish to stress upon the importance of values here.

स्पंदन गुंजन

2005-11-21T19:01:00.000+05:30

स्पंदनांच्या गुंजनात उमटले सृजनाचे गीत,
दंगलेल्या तन-मनी फुलली जीवनाची प्रीत

Back to the better name..

2005-11-18T20:36:00.000+05:30

(click the image to view in larger size.)

First Quarter Results

2005-11-18T20:31:00.000+05:30

My earlier employer being a heavyweight on the stock market and thanks to its stock option plan offered to the employees, I have invested in some shares and I'm making a 'small' fortune out of this investment. :) Okay, I'm not a share market expert, but I've got some idea about the boom in IT Industry. So far I'm correct.

At the end of each quarter, I follow all the news and analyses about that quarter's results. Revenues reached abc $ and xyz Rs. Profits are so and so. Next quarter's projection is blah blah..One funny thing about is that they send a detailed report on the quarter's results by post to all the shareholders. Its quit elaborate, contains a booklet of over hundred pages with all numbers and graphs which is mostly Greek to me. The cover letter expresses deep gratitude towards all the shareholders for their support to the company & mentions about the enclosed cheque of dividend-which is of more concern to me :) The mood of the cover letter is quite cheerful and celebrating.

Now why I've written a post about this? Recently when a friend and fellow investor like me told me on my 25th birthday that I've completed the 'First Quarter' of 100 years in my life, I laughed a lot, then thought a lot about it. Completing such a quarter is not a big deal, but I've planned to write down a report about this quarter. It will not be published of course. Reader will get bored as I get when I try to go through the quarter's result booklet.

So booklet is not there, but here is the cover letter:
"The way the shareholders provide financial support to the company, you all-my parents, friends and relatives have provided me love and mental support. I thank you a lot for it, and find a cheque of dividend enclosed as a token of my gratitude"

And here is the cheque of dividend:
"I promise to be the shareholder of your life. I'll be there to share the moments in your life when you need me."
:)

Now, some shareholders may ask for a material treat, and their wish will be fulfilled whenever they meet me.

In short, it had been a wonderful and exciting life up til now. I would say that I'm fortunate to have visited so many places, met various people and learnt so much.

Interesting situations and persons-both have taught me a lot. Situations are gone. They cannot be relived. But those persons are there. Every moment spent with them echoed these words in my mind, "Life is beautiful!"

Happy Diwali

2005-10-28T08:46:00.000+05:30

To all the visitors of this blog,

55-word stories

2005-10-19T14:02:00.000+05:30

I too wrote some 55-word stories:

Uncertainty
"Your name should have been Miss Uncertainty!" he remarked annoyingly after another incident involving her resulted into confusing situation. She gave an amused smile, which sounded mischievous to him. He finally decided to ask her the question, when she herself asked the same thing, "Should we avoid meeting hereafter and save ourselves from the trouble?"

Coding
A group of colleagues lowered their voices so as to not to disturb this brilliant guy who seemed to be trying very hard in writing code. Sometimes later, as he paused typing and stared at the monitor with satisfaction, they sensed the completion of some great piece of code. Chuckling, he said "Ab tak pachpan!".

Life's book
He had always looked at the life as a book and living as a continuous process of reading the pages and deciphering the meaning of events until he realized that he was skipping some blank pages. This occurred to him when he was trying to take notes to decrypt something when, he was actually writing!

Intel Inside COEP!

2005-09-26T19:28:00.000+05:30

While COEP(ian) inside Intel will not be a news, Intel Inside COEP is the latest hot news. 6 BTech and 2 Mtech guys from COEP E&TC have got job offer from Intel India..A very good news indeed! It was no surprise for me when I came to know that my friend Nachiket is also amongst those. In fact the moment I heard the figure, I guessed that such a brainy guy will surely be in that list. I don't know whether this is first or second time Intel is visiting the campus, but even if it is second time, this figure will surely be the highest so far.

Looks like COEP is getting better after becoming autonomous. Few days ago, when I had met Prof Rege, she had also expressed satisfaction about the autonomous status. She said that there is a good freedom for profs for administrative purposes.

And getting admitted into COEP is becoming tougher and tougher. This is definitely bringing better talent into the college. Hopefully other aspects will also improve soon..

E-books

2005-09-19T19:20:00.000+05:30

I had been following a pratice quite religiously uptil now.
At some point of my life, I made a promise to myself to always buy original books, in order that the author will get his royalty, especially when it came to reading non-technical books. Although I would have loved to do the same with technical books also, but the sheer number of books needed and the astronomical costs (in dollars) of foreign author books forced me to do photocopying.

But I had been always buying the novels in original copy. I stopped buying the pirated paperback copies the moment I started earning. I never liked e-books, since sitting and staring in front of computer is quite an uneasy position than resting on the bed and reading the books comfortably. Still I have friends who have read many ebooks on computer. Some friends in my earlier company were on bench for a couple of months and savoured the period to pursue their reading hobby :)

Now there are few more issues troubling me. The heap of novels in my collection is continuously increasing. The frequent shifting of my accomodation always hampered my plans to neatly store the books together. I had been piling them up in my home at Nasik. E-books are quite efficient when it comes to storage. You can have many of those on a thin disk. Maybe thats why some people continue to read e-books. But not me. Although my list of to-be-read books scares me when I consider the space needed to store them, I have not chosen to read e-books. And to just mention recently read books- I completed 'Da Vinci ..' and found it good. Next on the list is The Fountainhead. Lots of friends have recommended it from a long period.

The reason I wrote this post is that I found a site with many novels in e-books format. Including the two I mentioned here! Whether or not to provide the url to my friends, is another confusing question!

Duke's Nose

2005-09-15T21:28:00.000+05:30

Duke's Nose is a trekker's delight. Last Saturday we went for a trek there. It is barely 5km from Khandala railway station, till the top of the mountain.

From Pune, 9 people from our Group boarded the Sinhgad Express at 6:10 am and got down at Khandala. Khandala itself being a high altitude place, the trek (and rain too) started the moment we walked out of the platform. The way to Duke's Nose is full of lush green hills laden with thick trees and innumerable springs, few of them becoming waterfalls along slope.

You need to cross one or two such waterfalls in your way. Although you cross it when it is yet to be a strong torrent, passing through the gusty water is not only tough, but tricky too. We formed a human chain in which one strong fellow, rested against a rock in the midst if the flow, helped others to cross.

There are a couple of occasions where it is difficult to move ahead and demand presence of mind from the trekker. You may be climbing upwards steadily or in a zig-zag way, at times crouching and suddenly you face a taller than your body rock which will have to be climbed skillfully.

Your footwear has to have a good grip. You keep reaching grassy plains along the mountain's slope where you can relax, take snaps of the mountains and valleys and move ahead. The last few hundred meter path towards the Duke's Nose is quite challenging. Once you reach the top, you will be astonished to see a small Shiv Mandir built there, and the Shivling alongside it.

Return journey is fairly simple. You get down from the backside of the mountain, where slope is not very steep. This is the way most visitors follow, maybe since climbing down along the earlier way is difficult, and it wouldn't be interesting either.

You reach Lonawala from this backside way, from where you can either go back to Pune or prior to that, visit Bhushi dam where all the tourists throng. To reach Lonawala from Duke's Nose, we took a different route, and (un)fortunately had to cross a river by walking on a two-rope bridge. Although it was damn scary, it was really challenging and was the real climax of our trip. We had to cross a 20 feet wide river, flowing in might, and by walking on one metal rope, holding another metal rope overhead! Worth mentioning is the fact that most of us had bags on our back. IT was really tricky-with shoes esp. Photos are a real testimony. This route, however leads to troubled waters (pun intended) as you reach a restricted military area. However one guy from our group had been there, and he promptly displayed our Central Govt ID card, to which the guards at the gate showed respect :)

It is simply refreshing experience, and takes not more than half a day. The snaps can be seen here. These all photos (including the one at the start of the post) are taken from my new cellphone's (nokia 3230) camera. And you will simply put your fingers in the mouth by looking at the clarity. ;-)

Ela(va)ted!

2005-08-27T11:48:00.000+05:30

    I feel both elated and elevated...and honoured too...I'm a CDACian now. Last 6 months were quite happening.I was quite busy, and quite happy to be quite busy. There were lot of things to be learnt and I quenched my thirst of knowledge to the fullest.

    It was a good time. Being back to student life was quite a satisfying experience. Although some of the things completely bowled me over, many of the things happened astonishingly in the manner in which I had expected them.

    I'm shivering now while typing.. Having goose bumps. This is one of the coldest places I have ever visited..I'm facing Sun. Still it is very cold here!

    Actually I'm in the Sun lab, operating a Sun machine with Solaris OS. The AC is pumping the heat of the Suns continuously outside the building.
I remember that I had read in the newspaper about some scientists achieving the feat of creating a tiny Sun in the Lab. It is quite bright, Sunny but cold day here..

    Things are quite different here. But most of them are as I had expected. It will be too early for me to compare my earlier job and the new job.

    There are many things to be done. I have planned a lot of things. It will be a good phase of life from here on. Life goes on..

Back in Pune!

2005-03-07T16:02:00.000+05:30

If I have to describe the life after visiting Pune, pleasant is the most suitable word. First few weeks in Pune were very much happening. The excitement of returning pune after staying 2 years in Bangalore is a completely unplanned and unexpected experience. My point of view of looking at b'lore was that of a guest, understanding trying to adjust to its culture. Now I invariably compare the life in both cities and comment about it. Climate being quite similar, feel the least difference physically.
When I came back from b'lore, for first few days I found it hard to believe that I am listening to shuddha (puneri) Marathi for full day, whenever I go. Much like the way actor Mel Gibson in 'What women want' feels confused when he hears the voices of ladies everywhere. Well, lots of things happened in first few days. The rides on my bike in streets of pune were amazing! While driving behind a PMT another bus came at a striking distance (in fact at critical distance) behind me and I felt like playing a Roadrash. At such a critical moment, somehow a funny thought came to my mind : "ki mi accelerator barobar jiv hi muThit ghevun dhaavato aahe!"
Soon I had dinner with belhe.com and Sankalp at 'Nisarga' near Mhatre bridge, and lunch with Sankalp and Walya at 'Ganraj' on Bajirao Rd. Chit-chat and gossip with good old friends satisfied the mind more than the delicious food..
There is surprisingly fresh new feeling after being in Pune, since some places in Pune have changed and mainly my perspective of looking at the things has changed over the period f time. After waiting for many weeks, I finally saw the movie 'BLACK' at Mangala Multiplex, and appreciated this extraordinarily different and good genre that is trying to evolve in Hindi Cinemas.
When shopping time came, what else can I choose than Laxmi Road? Including 'Jaihind Collection', most of the shopping shops have improved to look like shopping malls.
On National Science Day, I saw C-DAC's PARAM 10000 supercomputer. I was able to visit the main place where all its nodes are kept. Then on one evening, I enjoyed the panaromic view of Pune City and the cool breeze atop Chatushrungi Hill. On an afternoon tasted the famous Sujata Mastani, after along gap.
Studying is fun and a completely different experience, when you carry some industry experience with you. During lectures, I tend to ask many doubts, than my earlier days in college. Actually when you work in a company and need to attend meetings regularly, you invariably develop the habit of asking doubts in a manner which makes your PM think that you are taking deep interest in your work trying to spot the problems and their solutions. So, in a way, that habit is quite useful. Books ranging from VHDL and ASICs have to be read in coming months, so my main activity will be studying , but I'll surely find some time for hanging out with friends.
For around 2 years, I could not visit COEP, and now the fact is that I can visit it daily if I wish.C-DAC training center is now shifted to a new 4-storey building in Shivajinagar, Pune-5..What a coincidence!

Octane is in Indian air

2005-02-15T12:32:00.000+05:30

Indian flag in this picture looks quite promising, especially since Narain is progressing superbly in the preactice period. Indian flag should soon develop a good friendship with the chequered flag, with able Narain's efforts and his fans' support.
The title of this post, taken from Sumeet, will be more appropriate when threre will be a F1 track in India. That looks very realistic now, eventhough the 'race' between Mumbai and Hyderabad (and other cities) for F1 track continues.
Sania and Narain are two young faces that have taken the attention to other sports from Cricket, though temporarily.

Go-Kiting!

2005-01-22T11:41:00.000+05:30

Did I mis-spell Go-Karting? Absolutely not.
Makar-Sankranti or Uttarayan is the time not only for exchanging tiLguL with good wishes, but also for flying the kites.
After a gap of 6 years, I was at home & enjoyed every moment of kite flying and kite fighting too! The desire to win is a natural tendency of human beings, and competition is the lifeblood of a sport. So is the case for exams :-|
The soaring kites, which once gave birth to aeroplanes certainly represent mankind's high hopes and ambition.
On a leisure moment, I would love to ingeniously make and fly a kite. This time I tried to make a 'Delta' kite based on basic info from some websites, but it didn't fly high, and I reverted back to normal Indian kites. Lets hope that next kite I build will be a hi-flyer :-)

Rebuilding the Life

2004-12-30T17:45:00.000+05:30

Tsumanis have destroyed life along shores of many countries. This disaster might have destroyed life of thousands, but it will not be able to destroy the fighting spirit of mankind. Sympathy and unity is evoked in the masses. Taking this disaster as a challenge, scientists will invent new techniques to predict and alarm such calamities. Colonies will be rebuilt, tourists will flock beaches again and fishermen will continue sailing on waves. The boundless ambition of a sailor is lively illustrated in this Marathi poem.
Tragedies do happen. We can discover the reason, blame someone, imagine if they had not occurred. But it did occur and so be it. From here onward, we must out aside the fear it has invoked in us and begin to rebuild the life. One advantage of a disaster is that it destroys bad alongside good. One can start from beginning, making improvements over the past. Another poem exactly emphasises the undying human courage and optimism in the aftermath of a tragedy.
Recalling the fond memories of days in Chennai, where I stayed in a 'beach-bungalow' on East Coast Road, I vividly remember the heavenly pleasure of walking bare feet on beach. Perhaps nature doesn't have feelings, but whenever a wave unexpectedly came forward and touched my feet on Neelankari beach, I was always amused at the imagination that a sea is childishly naughty. Tsunamis show only the rare furious side of sea.

Kaakaanchyaa Mishaa(A Marathi poem)

2004-10-26T11:46:00.000+05:30

While on a recent trip to Chennai,
I composed this funny Marathi poem:
specially for kids :)
Find it here:

Mermaid

2004-09-09T17:30:00.000+05:30

Fiesta, firework, food and alluring music,
the luxurious ship sails to places fantastic

feeling like caught in a 'Truman show',
Truman dives in sea, swims in the wild flow

mind fixed on island of his interest,
he is swift, but the waves are fiercest

someone welcomes him in a short while
a mermaid- young, pretty, with a lovely smile

he prefers to be in her company
she too, is on similar jouorney

her sublime attraction, may bring distraction
but he is wise, and resolute in his action

waves subside, and storms wither
soon as they both float together,
happily, thereafter....

2004-04-25T11:58:00.000+05:30

Just the beginning. more later..

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Disclaimer

2004-04-20T11:13:00.000+05:30

The opinions expressed in this blog are mine alone. They are not shared by my past, present(at the time that a reader reads this blog) or future employer(s). They are not shared by my past, present(at the time that a reader reads this blog) or future friends and relatives.