Here I am!!

Rings and Bands

2010-09-19T07:26:00.000-07:00

Met my college buddies over beer a few days back. As usual it was an amazing session full of soul searching and exchanging ideas about everything - from work to Common wealth games to technology to women (mostly women actually). Its kinda strange how the word "girl" has been replaced by "woman" in my dictionary . I guess this change comes with age and maturity (though I am not sure if I have become more mature now :)). I have been blessed with the best bunch of people I can call friends . I have known most of them for more than a decade now and some of them at my recent work place. Some of them are already married , some of them are nearly there ( engaged , rokafied and all ) and some of them (including me) are looking forward to get bitten by this "Happily Ever After" bug. After a couple of beers I realized that all of us on that table are hopeless romantics waiting for that one perfect "woman" to come along and light our dark and dull utterly monotonous lives. I couldnt help look back in time and see when did this happen to me. I have always been happy go lucky kinda person who wanted to live in the present and didnt give a fuck about the future. What made me change into this guy who is now longing for a simple yet happy future with someone who he can call his "Soulmate" . Is the reason my failed relationship of many years ? or Is it because of the constantly building peer pressure of all my friends and acquiantances getting married ? .... I guess the reason is something very different and very basic... No one wants to be alone...absolutely no one..... I am happy for my friends who have made their realtionships work and have married or are getting married and for my friends who met their soulmates few months before getting married. Now the question that pops in my head is - how are rest of us single lads gonna go down : The arranged way... The arraged love way... or the "Fight till I die" way.

Love Actually

2010-07-18T10:21:00.000-07:00

Its been a long time since i blogged anything. Last few days I have been really sick and it gave me a lot of time to do some introspection. I also picked up a few books to read and already finished one of them. It was a very light reading even by my standards who hardly ever reads. The book is by Rahul Saini called "Those small lil things in life and love". I still have to make up my mind on whether I liked it or not.

Some people shop when they are depressed, some indulge themselves into a good book, some go have a cup of coffee or grab a beer with a friend and I watch "Love Actually". I simply love this movie and is one of my all time favorites. It reassures me that good things wait for all of us and a bad patch in life is simply part of the journey. It strengthens my faith in Love . So after nearly 6 months I again watched it today....

I love Horses....

2007-03-07T23:13:00.000-08:00

I love those horses as long as they are under the hood....Yess thats the latest obsession....Getting a few more Horses out of the small lil motor of Aphrothena.....Sometimes I regret not going for a 1.6 sports and settling down for a 1.2 ...But on the flip side if I already had a 1.6 motor with 100 Bhp then I wouldnt be looking for more power. It wouldnt have been so much fun to actually try and look for mods for getting some more power out of the motor.

Well getting correct mods for your ride is not a kids thing. One actually has to know a lot about internal combustion engines before you start. The first thing one should do is "know your car" and this starts by realizing that its not just your conveyance but its your ride...your car...your first big investment and you bought it because it was love at first sight when you saw her [;)] ....

I want her to look good but not just all show no go....so after i got her a new set of shoes ( i love those rims on her) and a fairly good ICE(in car entertainment) the next step was to make her perform better......So I got her a super synthetic engine oil Mobil1 "5w50"...this code says everything about the engine oil.....Did a lot of research and called the IIT Delhi chemical stud (one of by good pals ) to know what this code means before i selected this grade of Mobil1.....

Now its time to make her breath more and easy...So the next I am going in for a K&N performance filter....reasearch is on for getting the best suited air filter for the car.... Its very important for the engine to breath easy and to take in cool air. people do all sorts of crazy tests to actually find out where the pressure in adequate to fit an air intake for filter...So the next time you see a zen or a rally gypsy with a hose coming out of the headlamp instead of the regular halonex bulb dont laugh....The guy cares a lot about his engine power and doesnt drive that powerpacked bull during the night(no pun intended)...... So I have many options to chose from ....K stock replacement filter.....k with custom cold intake...K with typhoon intake.....Ractive filter instead of K .....By the way all these filter have a guarentee of 100,000 miles( so a lot more Kms ) and they dont have to be changed on every service ..just clean them every 20,000 Kms...and probably they will outlast your car....Its a good long term investment...the stock replacement one costs aroung 3000-3500 bucks compared to the 250-300 bucks for an OEM one .... The conical performance ones cost aroung 5000 bucks and more money for the intake piping...

The next step will be getting a set of iridium tipped spark plugs with a good quality wiring....These spark plugs dont miss and are much long lasting than the normal OEM spark plugs....

Some people have told me that going for a performance filter with the custom cold intake wont be that effective unless I go for a free flow exhaust (popularly known as FFE)..Automech guys (www.automechexhausts.com) define an FFE as :

A standard exhaust system of any cart consists of a cast iron manifold, fitted on to the engine cylinder head to route exhaust gases out of the engine’s cylinder. This provides an exit for the exhaust gases. A Free Flow Exhaust System consists of pipes with a calculated length that allows a free passage to the exhaust gases. These pipes help in clearing the exhaust gases more efficiently with lesser restriction than in a (standard) stock exhaust system and translates into improved power delivery. An increase in power by around 8-12% and torque by about 6-10% is achieved. This results in enhanced performance (driving pleasure).

Trust me theres a lot to an exhaust than we all think...A lot of fluid mechanics and acoustics go into making one....but at the moment my pocket doesnt allow me to go for one ...Moreover for these kinds of mods one should wait for the warrenty to get over.....The Delhi distributer for the automech exhausts has given me a quote of 15-17000 bucks for the complete FFE...I think its a bit over prices..and it can go up if i want them to do it with stainless steel instead of mild steel....

I think the list is big enough ....For more power hungry people there is cylinder head porting and polishing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cylinder_head_porting)...

Then there is ECU chipping...yes they can reprogram your car ECU to increase horsepower....and then theres NOS and you are ready to burn the track.....

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syn or super-syn

2007-02-20T20:35:00.000-08:00

Time has come to get Aprothena an oil change and as a typical Engineer in my industry I have started the research....goin to team-bhp.com .....wikipedia....different lube manufacturers websites.... which one to go for synthetic or super-syn.... Mobil 1 5w50 or Castrol Magnetec......

Finally I got all my answers at http://www.carbibles.com/engineoil_bible.html

Now the hunt begins for Mobil 1 super-syn in the market

All about coffee

2006-11-18T12:21:00.000-08:00

I always wondered whats there about brewing a good cup of coffee....Few days back my team mates presented me with a Black Decker electric coffee maker as a parting gift on my farewell ( yaa i left the first company i joined after 1.5 years but this entry is dedicated to the art of brewing coffee and not about my career path..)...Most of us think that we know everything about an appliance and how to use it ,so I also tried to be a smart ass and without reading the instruction manual I straight away went ahead to brew my first cup of coffee with this new piece of equipment I acquired....The result was horrifying... the worst cup of coffee I ever threw in the basin....So I started again from ground zero and read the manual carefully, I even visited the Black Decker website for some useful tips ( FACT : Everyone in software industry thinks that world wide web has the solution to all the problems in the world so for anything and everything they google or consult some wikipedia page). So I did my own online research on brewing coffee and I must say that brewing coffee is a cult in its own way....There are seven popular ways to brew coffee :

Espresso:

An espresso is a high-pressure extraction of coffee from a special machine... we all have seen the big ass espresso machine in Barista....the manual intervention is limited to filling roasted and ground coffee beans in the coffee hatch and the machine does the rest....pretty uninteresting...

Middle Eastern, "Turkish" or "Greek":

This method involves boiling coffee powder ( grinded into a very fine dust ) in water.... Traditionally the coffee if often boiled with large amounts of sugar, but not necessarily..... People sometimes add cardamom to their coffee and the coffee isnt filtered from the liquor so its kind of a muddy brew.

Concentrate Brewing:

In this method large amounts of coffee are brewed with little water to brew a concentrate.... When one wants a cup of coffee some of the concentrate is mixed with hot water. The concentrate can be brewed hot or cold . The resulting coffee is mild with a little aroma ....this method is very popular in Latin America..

Percolating:

This method involves continuous brewing of coffee grounds using boiling water which then turns to boiling coffee liquor brewing overextracted grounds...There are various types of electric percolaters available in the market...

Vacuum Brewing

Now this one is very techie....the procedure reminds me of chemistry labs...This method uses an elegant looking device that consists of two glass globes that fit together with an air-tight seal. Either in one of the globes, or between the globes, is a filter to separate the grounds from the
liquor. Ground coffee is placed in the upper globe, often on top of the filter, and e nough water to brew the grounds is placed in the lower globe. The globes are then fitted together and the lower globe with the water is heated. The water in the lower globe begins to heat to a boil and as this causes the pressure in the lower globe to increase it forces the water up a tube connecting the globes and into the upper globe containing the grounds. Once all the water has made this airpressure induced trip, the apparatus is taken off the heat source... This allows the lower globe to cool down back to room temperature, decreasing the pressure in the lower globe and thus sucking the brewed coffee back down (through the filter) into the lower globe(it is a little difficult to visualize )..... The coffee is then poured out of the lower container and enjoyed (right after all this temperature and pressure thingie ).... A great cup of coffee can be achieved with the vacuum brewer, but it has its downfalls. Firstly, the coffee is being extrac ted by water around 212F, while it should be extracted between 195F-205F. Secondly, their is very limited control over the extraction time....

Autodrip

(This is what my Black Decker does)

This is the most popular way to brew in the US...(We all see this method in all the hollywood movies... A borosilicate glass kettle under a drip with a lot of black coffee in it) Drip brewing is simply pouring hot water over ground coffee in a filter and letting the brew drip out the bottom.... Drip brewing is a very good way to brew and can give an excellent cup if the correct equipment is used with the prescribed amount of coffee.... A primary issue with autodrip machines is that they don't brew at the right temperature.... If one has a good autodrip machine or

one decides to heat and pour the water themselves, the next issue to surmount is the filter.... Paper filters can impart a taste on the coffee and also do not allow many of the coffee oils and organic compounds through...I think this can be an issue with the dip tea pouches we use...I never thought about it.... A good gold-plated reusable filter is a great option for drip brewing (Gold plated right...he he he...I checked my machine and it doesnt have one :-( )... Another slight drawback is that drip brewing, in general, does not give the operator much control over extraction time...Well this aint a real problem for bachelors...they have all the time in the world ;-) (Joski will kill me if she reads this)

French Press or Press Pot

French-press brewing gives the operator complete control.... While itmay be more labor-intensive than autodrip, the brewing variables(temperature and pressure ) can be easily and directly controlled... Coarsely ground coffee is placed in the glass carafe, then water at the desired temperature is poured over the grounds and the top is placed on. When brewing is complete, the plunger (a mesh filter on a stick) is pressed down, pressing the grounds to the bottom and leaving the coffee liquor on top to be poured off....The filter is not as tight as a paper filter and because of the larger pores, a coarser grind is required so the grounds are filtered out, and the plunger does not become almost impossible to press down... The mesh of the filter allows the coffee oils and all those delicious dissolved and undissolved solids through without a problem. Also, because a coarser grind is required, a longer steep time is req uired (because of the decreased surface area to volume ratio).... A brew time between 3 to 6minutes is common for French-pressing. This prolonged, direct contact of the grounds with the water allows for a more complete, more controllable, and even extraction.... Unfortunately, even with the highest quality burr coffee grinder or mill, a coarse grind will still result in some very small coffee grounds.... These grounds are not filtered by the French-press filter and thus end up in the cup. A cup of French-pressed coffee with be noticeably fuller, with much more body, an d often with more flavor, it will often also have the tell-tale sedimen t at the bottom of the cup....French Press coffee was served in cafe coffee day few years back...when I saw it the first time I had to actually ask the guy who came with my order what to do with the press pot... The press pots are readily available in the market and I think it should be a part of default utensil set in every house....

So this is about brewing coffee.... Jo got me a nice pack of italian ground beans from costa coffee..... even after all this research , good quality coffee and some good tips from jo's dad I ended up making another cup of terrible coffee for myself but this time it didnt go in the wash basin :-) ..... Well I guess one cant go by theory for everything....somethings are meant

to be perfected by practice....I will keep trying till i get that perfect brew....

GandhiGiri ->GundaGiri ->GadhaGiri

2006-11-08T22:51:00.000-08:00

If you are in Delhi you cant close your eyes to the ongoing sealing by MCD on the order by honourable Supreme Court of India. Few months back I was wondering what's the fuss all about.....you do something against the law you pay for it...but it took me some time to understand the real problem which is deep routed and a difficult one to solve. What does one do to correct the things which were done the wrong way decades back and at that time it didnt seem to harm anyone.....a lot of traders running the shops in the residential areas have been doing this for past 30 years when it didnt seem to bother the residents, infact it was a convenience to have a departmental store and a chemist across the road. But in last few decades the population in Delhi has increased manifolds ,so more pressure on the limited resources and hence a lot of voices with a lot of problems...No one knows what the solution can be. Government is worried about loosing its trader vote bank....SC has to enforce the law....MCD has to do what they are told to do by the SC and traders have to protest to protect their livelyhood....
The protest by the traders started with gandhigiri....people sent floweres with "get well soon" messages to the MCD office ( Indian cinema has so much influence on our lives :) ...MunnaBhai Rocks ).....But nothing happened so protesters resorted to violence .....burning a few DTC buses here and there....peddling stones on law enforcement agencies and stuff like that...The result was that Delhi govt and MCD told the SC that they cant continue with the sealing operation as they cant control the law and order situation resulting from their actions ( such a pity that we hear such comments from over government...Great work Sheila ji ). And now the result is that section 144 has been applied in Delhi so people cant even protest in a group....They have now gotten Donkeys to do their work.. Donkeys with anti sealing banners on then were scene in the city yesterday....Ha Ha Ha...So how can you stop someone from saying -"Hamare Desh ka Kuch nahin ho Sakta"

someone exactly like you

2006-10-24T02:08:00.000-07:00

This one for you my loveeee...... just a small token of appreciation for all the love and care you have given me and I know that theres a lot more in store my me....love u joski... u rock

Ive been searching a long time

For someone exactly like you

Ive been travelin all around the world

Waiting for you to come through

Someone like you makes it all worthwhile

Someone like you keeps me satisfied

Someone exactly like you

Ive been travelin a hard road baby

Lookin for someone exactly like you now

Ive been carryin a heavy load

Waiting for the light to come shinin through

Someone like you makes it all worthwhile

Someone like you keeps me satisfied

Someone exactly like you, someone exactly like you

Ive been doin some soul searchin

To find out where youre at

Ive been up and down the highway

In all kinds of foreign lands

Ive been all around the world

Marchin to the beat of a different drum

But just lately Ive realized

Baby the best is yet to come

Someone like you makes it all worthwhile

Someone like you keeps me satisfied

Someone exactly like you makes it all worthwhile

Someone like you keeps me satisfied

Someone exactly like you

Written by van morrison

Lucknow visit

2006-10-08T00:57:00.000-07:00

I still have to figure out why Lucknow is called the city of Nawabs....Till now my experience here has been pretty good. Seems like that Lucknow is a pretty laid back town overall. I have been roaming around Hazratganj Market which gives an old Connaught Place feeling.
Traffic on the roads is not too bad. Most of e vehicles I saw on the road were state owned Ambassador cars.... People on the bikes don't have to wear helmets and rickshaw walas occasionally abuse the car drivers which is completely opposite to what happens in Delhi...
One very peculiar thing I noticed is the visible politics on the streets.... Although you can't call Lucknow a small town but the lifestyle is kinda old townish, but now and then you can see a group of bimbos and you are forced to rethink your the conclusions you have drawn....
Another thing what Lucknow is famous for is Lucnoe Chikan. Chikan is basically skilfully hand embroided cloth..Mom bought a few for Jo and also a kurta for me which I didn't like as it was nearly see through ;-).
I also got my hands on the ''Tunday kabab'' and ''Mutton Biryani''.....Kababs were awesome....Now l wiill be looking for places in Delhi where I can get this mouth watering delicacy of ''Awadh''....Lucknow is also a city with a mix of various cultures....you can see women in Hijab to salwar kurta clad white women (probably working for a christian missionary ) to a typical Hindu woman wearing bright coloured sari... It was definitely a welcome change from fast Delhi life still having all the goodies of a city..... I think I won't mind coming here again every quarter or so (obviously I have to come to visit mom and dad )...over all it was a nice experience...

Orkut gets money minded

2006-09-29T03:01:00.000-07:00

Orkut has finally stared to contribute towards filling Google's pocket.....They waited for the people to get totally attached to this social networking website and now they think its time to earn some bucks....In orkut communties when you open a particular topic/thread you will now find a small banner for the sponsored links.....It actually makes a lot of sense from the user prespective to have such ad banners in the forums ....I noticed this on a fiat palio community thread....Now one can ask questions and talk about a certain topic in the community and you have google's expert searching techniques to flash relevent (in most cases ) ads which you might want to take a look at......I just hope i dont see such an advertising banner on my scrapbook or with my profile .... As long as orkut doesnt trespass in my personal space I will be ok with them flashing ads in communities...

Can Zune stand up to the ipod

2006-09-25T01:42:00.000-07:00

Microsoft recently launched its own mp3 hard drive player. Its looks pretty neat and the features include WiFi, 30 Gigs under the the hood, built in FM , a 3-inch screen with basic music , pictures and video playback. The screen is a QVGA . The zune is said to support MP3 , AAC , WMA and h.264.
Zune will be available in different colour variants - black , brown and white. Now about the wireless Zune-to_Zune sharing which is being discussed in the gadget community. One will be able to share a music track with a friend (a fellow Zuner :-)) and he gets 3 times to listen to it over a three day period (what crap...this funda is not gonna work in India) after which this friend of yours has to buy his own copy of the song from the Zune marketplace unless your friend is an unlimited Zune Pass subscriber....
Now coming to the price.....Wal-mart accidently published online the intended price of the Zune . This ipod rival would retail for $284. Good move by apple i must say for dropping the price of ipod video from $299 to $249. Lets see whether Zune would prove to be the Super Assassin of MS or Next Apple victim

Accused Number 117

2006-09-14T21:02:00.000-07:00

Sanjay Dutt's life has been a tragic one.....Mahesh Bhatt quoted "Happiness and suffering are the part of the same frame in Dutt's life" .. Sanju baba lost his mother a few days after his debut in bollywood...then he got into drugs and had to go through a rehab...he was arrested in 1993 for his alleged involvement in Mumbai bomb blasts under TADA ( Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Prevention Act ) when his movie "khalnayak" in which he played villian busted the box-office....
The guy has seen the most frequent highs and lows in Bollywood---Drugs, AK-47s , jail, death of parents, death of wife...Whats most impressive about sanju baba is that he has survived 25 years as an actor in Bollywood, from his first movie "Rocky" in 1981 to "Naam" in 1986 to "Khalnayak" in 1993 to "Munna bhai MBBS" in 2005 to "Lage rahi munna bhai" in 2006....And he has improved with age like a good wine .... But, the irony is that even after being a big shot in Bollywood sanju baba has never been able to have a hold on his fate.....Accused number 117 in the Mumbai Blasts case he doesnt know whats in store for him in the future...

The Serpent and the Rudraksh

2006-09-10T21:40:00.000-07:00

This happened early in the morning today and I have to blog it right away to retain the juices of the story....When I came down to my parking lot today I saw that there were 3 cars parked behind my Palio. I had a choice between getting late and brush myself with the terrible peak hour traffic of Delhi or to let Aprothena be parked for the day and take an auto and boy I never thought that I would be starting my day with the weirdest of the thing which was waiting for me at the chirag Dilli flyover...
The red light at Chirag Dilli flyover is relatively a long one and is usually very noisy....I was blowing some air in my shirt to beat the heat when suddenly a safron clad long bearded "Baba Ji" came by the auto I had taken....He had a typical Baba attire and to show off his so called "sidhis" he was holding a snake.....not a cobra, not a rattle snake , not a russels viper , not even a krate (which are harmless during the day but deadly in the night) but a venomless brown sand snake which looks the same at the head and tail......I guess this Baba had no clue that I am an avid fan of Animal Planet shows showcasing snakes and crocs . Late Steve Irvine's (popularly known as the crocodile Hunter) show and few others are pretty informative about serpents. So, I knew that this stupid looking snake is totally harmless. Now baba wanted me to give a little donation and I told him that I am not carrying any change......but, Baba ji had already thought of an evil plan against me so he told me "Yeh paisa waisa hamare liye kuch nahin hai Bacha..Apni pocket se sabse bada note nikaal aur bas Naag dev ko chuu de ....bahut paisa payega" . I thought this would be fun so I opened my wallet and got the 500 bucks note and touched it to the snake...But, he said let me do it the right way and literally snatched the note out of my hand and did a trick and somehow hid the note and told me "Naag devta tera note khaa gaye hain...Abb tujhe paise ki chinta karne ki koi jaroorat nahin hai" ..And he gave me a Rudraksh as bhole nath ka prasad .At this instant I came to realize what this asshole was trying to do and I held his hand and gave a little twist to his arm ( I am pretty good at it :-) ) and suddenly the guy tried to scare me with the snake.... I took his stupid snake out of his hand and threw it to the other side of the auto and the onlookers ( a few bikers and a lady in santro ) were very amused and then I gave two solid whacks on his face and baba instantly had a personality switch and he was apologizing to me and gave me my 500 bucks note which was totally crampled and he had hid between his cuffs.....I think the snake was pretty confused ... It would have been the first time that it had encountered Delhi traffic....The car drivers were kind enough not to run over it otherwise I would have been feeling sorry for the poor animal...The light turned green and I asked my auto driver to start driving while I was still twisting baba's arm....Baba started saying "Sorry Sir ...Sorry Sir " At this I gave him another whack on the face....this was a strong one as I could feel it on my palm as well....and I left his arm saying never to do it again....The guy followed me for a while shouting "Mera Rudraksh to wapis kar do" but I didnt do that...I saw him asking the car drivers to slow down so that he can pick his snake and continue his business....But, I am pretty sure he will think twice before pulling such a trick on anyone....My autowala was thoroughly amused and told me that I earned 500 Bucks today........The rudraksh is still with me....Couldnt help taking a photograph and post it......Usually i feel bad when i treat poor people or beggars badly but I am proud of what I did to this asshole ...I just hope that the snake wasnt hurt....

The Gandhian Way

2006-09-09T13:33:00.000-07:00

I finally watched "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" ....I think its a nice movie.... Some people may think that the glorification of Gandhi was totally unnecessary and others might see it as a good effort to put the Gandhian way back into the people....
Almost everyone of us must have said that this Gandhian ideology cant work in the current scenario but we never question why it wont work? ....or may be we just dont want it to work...I know there are a lot of incidents in everyones life when we think that we have been victims of the corrupt system....but we never ponder on the fact that may be we are responsible to a certain extent for making this system the way it is now....how many people among us have stood in the line and given a driving test to get a drivers license ( I know I have...) . When we are caught by a traffic cop for overspeeding or jumping a light why do we want to take a shortcut by bribing him. why cant we just go through the normal procedure and get a ticket...well we always have an excuse- "The system is sick". We always have the prespective that the cop has stopped me just because he wants money...If for once we change this prespective and accept to get booked for the offence gracefully then may be we can contribute a little bit to get the system on track....
Coming to "The truth" ideology. This is extremely difficult for anyone to follow in its purest form. But I think there is a definite criteria we all should follow ....Always be truthful about your feelings for someone, never to tell a lie which if uncovered may hurt someone in any way and the foremost is to be truthful to yourself. Hiding stuff from your folks about your smoking/drinking etc etc is acceptable or not is a debatable topic so I wont even go there ( ha ha such an escapist I am at times)...rest we all know like "we have to tell thousand lies to cover a lie" blah blah blah....
Now coming to non violence....being slapped is one thing and being bombed is something else....I was just wondering to what an extent this non-violence ideology is scalable....you slap me on left cheek...I extend my right cheek seems okk....but you stab me on left side and I extend my right side to you....or you bomb Bombay and I offer you Delhi seems a little stupid....So where to drop this non-violence and pick up the stick....Can we quantify violence...You know something like
0-level abusive language ,slapping, punching, kicking
2-level Beating the shit out of someone, breaking nose, Bones etc
3-level stabbing, breaking skulls
4-level Shooting someone
5-level Bombing
So till what level should we be Non-violent to the person opposite us.
Finally coming to Gandhi ji ...I am actually a nobody in comparison to that great man to even try to be a critic here....All I can say is that you have be a hell of a man to actually achieve what this great man has achieved with his principle of truth and non-violence....

Ubuntu-"Linux for Human Beings"

2006-09-07T23:19:00.000-07:00

"Ubuntu" is an african word that means humanity to others or I am what i am because of who we all are
There was a time when i used to tell people that although linux is my favourite OS but for the ease of PC usage I would prefer Windows....But, Ubuntu has changed everything...Now I can assure you that latest kernel version 2.6.15 is totally amazing and totally user friendly ....Infact their tag line also says "Linux for human beings" ...How appropriate... The only thing i had a problem with using ubuntu earlier was syncing my ipod mini with my laptop but gtkpod which comes with 2.6.15 has solved that problem also....Even all the extra buttons for volume control , wifi activation etc on my presario v2000 work wonderfully on it and if one has a high speed internet connection then getting new applications and softwares can be done in no time at all with the package manager called synaptic which is a UI wrapper built around the friendly debian originated apt-get command...And the best part is that its all free.....

Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah....

2006-09-07T11:15:00.000-07:00

Most of our plans which happen to formalize come from this guy who has visited almost all the continents (Antarctica is not worth visiting anyways ) so we call him GG'lumbus. Montu urf GG urf Gaurav Gupta has a nack to do different things and that too differently..... soon to be nicknamed " the lone hiker " .... the best part about him making any plan is that you know that we have to do it because somewhere deep down below we know that it is going to be worth it... so when Montu dropped in the idea of visiting Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah to listen to the famous sufi qwaalis ,it didnt take me long to jump in..... Since Montu had to come all the way from gurgaon he was running late and a stage came when we thought that its not going to happen...but he made it just at the right time and we were all set to Hazrat Nizamuddin....

The moment we arrived at Nizamuddin I had this feeling that I would be encountering something which I have never seen before and this was it...... The faith that people have in this Dargah is amazing....There were some foreigners also among the devotees....As we kept going inside the crowd increased and the "gali" reduced to a size that only one person from either side can cross .... There are small shops adjoining this gali where one can buy flowers and chadars etc...We left our shoes at one of the shops from where we took some flowers for the dargah....As soon as we entered the Dargah the whole claustrophobia was gone and we came to this brightly lit place which was echoing with the soothing sufiyana qwaalis... we sat around the qwaals after paying homage to the holy shrine....It was an amazing experience , totally different from anything else I have experienced.....There were oldish looking guys with huge hand fans and they were waving these fans as fast as they can just to make the devoteed enjoy this holy musical experience in comfort....one set of qwaaal got tired and their place was taken by another one and so on......I must tell you that listening to a qwaal on a CD is completely different from a live qwaali and that too at such a holy place where every word that comes out from these qwaals is pure and full of devotion....
By the end of the qwaalis we were very hungry and yet again Montu had a surprise package for us....He led us through the narrow lanes to Karims and we ate and we ate and we ate.....it was totally amazing end to a totally amazing evening....

work to live ....dont live to work

2006-08-24T22:03:00.000-07:00

After so many working saturdays that I have had friday doest feel like friday anymore....In the back of my head I am always worried that anymoment now I will see a mail popping up from my inbox saying "Its a working saturday for us"... It feels like as if I will be in office on a National holiday... It becomes worse when there are some prior engagements and some urgent stuff to take care of and I think i will utilize the weekend for all those activities... I have always believed in the saying "work to live ....dont live to work" ...So at times this whole extended working week totally pisses me off

Keep the fire burning

2006-08-22T05:02:00.000-07:00

The fire for doing something of my own ....starting something new keeps coming and going.....And this time its here with much more intensity than ever..... I am thinking this can be a turning point ......Lets see how things go and whats in store for me in the future.....

Independence day : Under the dark shadow

2006-08-17T10:22:00.000-07:00

Its nearly 60 years since we gained independence ...As the time is passing the meaning of this day is getting distorted...There was a time when people were passionate about this day. I remember going to school to celebrate 15th August and come home with handful of sweets and with happy feelings.... And now, I dont think many parents would allow their children to even go out to the market or to play on this day....There is a fear in every ones heart that something unpleasant will happen....Someone might blow up the market place or the station or something else like this..... The security checks are so stringent that you dont even feel like going out.... At the most some young lads would fly kites that also not in all parts of the city.... I did dare to go out on independence day and boy it was fun......I had never seen the Delhi roads so empty but still after every 2 km or so there was a barracade and the police men look suspiciously at you when you pass by.....
I was wondering whether our forefathers who fought for our independence would have ever thought that 15th August would be treated as a dreadful day and instead of celebrating it with fellow countrymen everyone would sit at home and watch a movie or something.....
I cant help to ponder on what do people gain by killing innocent people .....why do they want to bomb market places or trains or planes .... Do they really think that they will achieve something by all this violence....arent they just pumping more hatred in us by doing all this?? Is there an end to this terror???

Electricity

2006-08-12T10:05:00.000-07:00

Its very sad how much dependency we have developed on electricity.....In earlier days when there was an electricity shortage or no electricity at all, people never used to complain....I have never heard horror stories from my dad or grandparents about electricity cuts.... Why are we so dependent on electricity? ....why cant we sleep in the night without electricity....One should think deeply whether its the AC giving cool air or its the psychological feeling that lets us have a sound sleep.....I think its both.....
I think we should practice to live without these comforts...just small preparation to curb such situations.......i think jo will agree.....right jo ;)

Crossraods

2006-08-09T09:24:00.000-07:00

There are many times we come across crossroads in life, when we have to make a decision...... a decision which can influence your personal life.....career path.....your life style as so on.... Everyone has to take a stand at times .....sometimes we have to make sacrifices....and sometimes our decisions hurt some people very close to us....
Sometimes when we come across a pot hole or a road block we tend to regret our decision of taking that particular route .... We never think that may be this is the best path for us.....may be the other roads we would have walked were to be even worse..... I think when we come across such situations we should not think - "Why did I do it?" or "How did this happen to me?"..... These are the testing times which come in everyones life and we need to find a solution to it ..... we should stop cribbing and crying and think ...... Ofcourse we think.... but we always think of the past.....we always do the pre-situation analysis and come up with answers like -"If I would have done this....". I think success in any business, career or in a relationship depends a lot on how well one can do a post-situation analysis and come up with a solution which works there and then......
The worst kind of crossroads come with the people you love the most....and at these crossroads your mind says something and your heart says something else.....i would say in such situations go with what your heart says.....because love aint Maths or Finance.... it has nothing to do with the mind......May be you think what your heart says is hard and the escape route is much more convenient.....But, who said being is love is easy.....
As Galib has said-
"Yeh Ishq nahin asaan Galib
ek aag ka dariya hai
Aur doob ke jana hai"

Langda Tyagi Bahubali Bahubali Bahubali.....

2006-08-07T20:52:00.000-07:00

I finally saw Omkara yesterday.....I think the movie was completely awesome... Bollywood surprises you when you least expect...
Omkara has given a new Actor to Indian cinema....Yes...I am talking about Saif Ali Khan Pataudi AKA "Langda Tyagi" ..... I think he did the role very well... The kind of hard work he has put in this movie is worth appriciating....I heard that he painted his teeth yellow to get that "Khaini-Jarda" look and ofcourse he also got rid of his silky locks ..... What a character Langda Tyagi is..... I think who so ever saw the movie would want to be Langda Tyagi ....well Omkara too ...but I would definitely go for Langda Tyagi....His opening line in the movie is "Ek bewakoof aur chutiye mein dhage bhar ka farak howe hai" is very true in real life..... And the dehati galis are too much to digest .... Overall the movie was good fun ..... Jo couldnt understand 75% of the dialogues but she liked the movie for the theme and ofcourse music.... She didnt like Bipasha though as I was constantly letching at her....he he he

Long awaited Reunion....

2006-08-07T01:46:00.000-07:00

Sunday happened to be a long awaited reunion with wing mates.....Met Khera , chotu , Bhim , Saree after a loooong looong time.... You know what the difference between good friends and great friends is? ...With great friends time and distance dont create voids in your friendship.... The day happened to be Friendship's day as well ( I know it sounds a lil cliche )... Saree suggested that we should go to Sohna and what an amazing suggestion it turned out to be.....Long drive and the final destination both were equally amazing.... Discussions ranged from old times to love stories to Indian Economy and How to make a difference.....all IITians think alike.......When bhimania and Chotu are discussing something about the economy or something like that you just want to listen to grasp whatever the future visionaries .... upcoming thinkers (no pun intended) have to say......took some pics as well...

Working saturdays are aweful

2006-08-04T03:56:00.000-07:00

One good thing about the software industry is the 5 days week.....Saturday is like do whatever you want day and sunday is more like a lazy day or family day....But, sometimes when you have a working saturday because of pending bugs then its suxxx bigtime....Friday loses all its last working day of the week feeling and Saturday no longer is a party day.....

Cut Throat Competition

2006-08-03T00:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was on the road driving and I saw two blue line buses racing..... And a little further three RTVs were competing to leave a bus stop earliest... I couldnt help wonder why we have cut throat competition in all spheres of life?...Is it the over population or is it something else?.....something very positive - A new spirit to succeed... .. Is this the reason why we have so many start-ups coming into picture everyday ?.....I think this new outlook is going to change the face of the country, may be slowly but surely.......I see many of my friends heading their own companies and theconfidence I see in them is tremendous...... The risk taking abilities of an average Indian have increased manifolds........ Me and a friend of mine went to a focus group discussion and there also the topic started with this......I came to a conclusion that the difference between the earlier days and now is that people are much more confident about their future..... but there are some people like me who are still confused...

Meetings : Cool or not so Cool

2006-08-02T04:07:00.000-07:00

When you are new in job you want to attend all the meetings and try to take everything in the professional world too seriously.....same was with me...I still remember an year back when I used to feel important whenever I was involved in a meeting.....But that was like an year back....Now I try my best to excuse myself from meetings unless and until I am sure that its a no non-sense meeting...... Its seldom the case when everyone else besides you in the group are in a meeting.....But these are a few times when you can visit some totally faaltu time waste sites and not so faltu - blog....so thats what I am doing ....enjoying this brief moment....

Some people say that meetings are an important part of working where people can express their idea , discuss stuff and come to a common conclusion......Others might think that meetings at times prove to be a complete waste of time....I think all of us working have seen both the faces of meetings....So at times I things meetings are cool but there are other times when I think "what crap.....yaar"

Shumi in Me

2006-07-31T20:21:00.000-07:00

Its a wonderful day...Woke up really early today ...thanks to the bright sunshine that comes in my room sharp 6:15 AM... Waking up early not necessarily means coming to office early for me....But today was different so I was off to work at 7:50 AM (naaah I aint workaholic or anything) ....WHY THE HELL???? Well I just wanna avoid the delhi peak time traffic which I very well did today.... I got an empty stretch of well metalled road ( Yes such roads do exist........) between Nehruplace and Modimill flyover so I pushed the gas hard and in no time I was whrooming at 140 Kph....I guess we all have a lil bit of Shumacher in us who wants to come out as soon as you see an empty road with your favourite music playing on the radio.....

Delhi : Full of surprises

2006-07-31T11:01:00.000-07:00

People refer to Mumbai as "Maya Nagri", But Delhi is not behind when it comes to the "Maya Jal" of this City. The moment you think "This is Delhi.....I know it all"......It will surprise you.... It was 31 degrees during the day and pretty humid , but the sky was clear. No one would have thought that its gonna rain.... RAIN!!!!! It just poured with all its might...... It was like a cloud burst with awesome winds...... The fastest speed of my car wipers was proven to be not fast enough and I had to stop my hunt for dinner ....... The pit stop was a pleasant one though..... Unwrapped all the CDs gifted by Jo and hopped through most of the tracks..... And then suddenly it stopped....like nothing happened and the weather beacame awesome....but as I said Delhi is full of surprises ...sometimes they are good and sometimes they come as water logging on the roads especially in and arond the super posh areas ( No pun intended ) like Khirki extension and Panchsheel Vihar (I live here)...where people have zilch idea about a concept called drainage.......In monsoons you can actually use a jetski or a kayak on the roads...Trust me I am not exagerating.....And when you will think again "Yaa Delhi...I know it all" ........ Be prepared .... Delhi will surprise you yet again

Murphy's Law

2006-07-30T05:11:00.000-07:00

Sunday....not so fun day. You know there are somedays when everything goes wrong. Even with the things you consider to be the most reliable .... I experienced murphy's law today..."Anything that can go wrong....will go wrong"...And most of the times Mr. Murphy attacks you right left and center at the same time....I had a multiple electric and electronic device failure....My AC , Water Heater ( Yaa you would be thinking this guy is mad to use a water heater in Delhi summers) and my PC.... but I didnt lose patience....I thought of having a cup of tea and think about dealing with these problems and thanx to Mr. Murphy again , my Microwave was not working either..... So like a person with scientific outlook I checked for the voltage in my CVT ...but everything was A-Ok .... but I soon realize that I have been struck by Murphy ......

Gurgaon suxx

2006-07-28T23:11:00.000-07:00

I went to gurgaon yesterday to meet a friend of mine and it took me bloddy 1.5 hours to reach the malls. if this wasn't enough I had to wait for 20 more minutes just to get a parking place......gurgaon suxx bigbtime

Aphrothena

2006-07-27T22:00:00.000-07:00

I was feeling guilty for not mentioning Aphrothena in any of my blogs.. Aphrothena is my car....Yaa I named my car. One might say how obsessive and weird is that. But, I guess your first car does need some special treatment. Now about the name Aphrothena.....Its comes from the name of two greek goddesses- Aphrodite and Athena .... So Aphrothena will mean Beauty and Wisdom......Aphrothena was born FIAT Palio 1.2 Elx..... I wanted to get Palio 1.6 Sports for its 100bhp engine and the tagline saying fastest hatchback available in India( goes from 0-60 in 4.6 seconds..but, the 1.6 beast is a gas guzzler.....gives an average of 9kmpl and 10kmpl when it is extremely happy....Moreover 1.6 comes only in two colours -Formula Red and Formula Yellow.....So I went for a sober looking , lil less powerful and a lil bit more fuel economical 1.2 Elx....Its not the fastest of the cars but I can vouch that its one of the safest and the most spacious hatchback available....Unfortunately my experience was a lil unpleasant as my car gave some problems just after 350 Kms because of a faulty part...But after a couple of visits at the dealer this problem was sorted out.
Overall I give my car 8/10....I am deducting 2 points for being less fuel efficient and poor service network....
Here is a pic of Aphrothena

28 News channels

2006-07-27T21:33:00.000-07:00

I remember the time when we used to watch DD1 and my dad would wait for the 8 pm news and we used to get the news of national and international relevence. And now we have 28 channels and the demarcation between news and rubbish is getting bleeker by the day. Israel is bombing Lebanon , nearly 500 are dead and over 1500 injured but our new channels are busy covering the escapades of two sahara airlines airhostesses driving their VIP number hyundai sonata to the PM's residence. Its really sad what is happening to our media these days. I think their priorities are more than just screwed up.
The other day I was surfing through the channels and Star News was showing the recap of all the recaps of their shitty saas bahu soaps, so that if one has missed a few episodes they can get synced with the story line ( If they have a story line ;-) ) .
I am not saying that media coverage of everything has all the minus points . The deep penetration of media has benefited the society in my ways. Now even petty crimes like wife beating or bicycle theft are taken seriously by the authorities because they know if they wont take action then "channel 7" or "aajtak" or "zee news" or "Times now" will... If the media were not that active Delhi police wouldnt have ever reopened the Jessica Lal case , CBI would have never thought of opening the Priyadarshini Mattu case, we wouldnt have seen so many sting operations ( some of them were really entertaining )...
In the end it comes down to the question "Is India happening enough to feed 28 News channels? "

my first mobile blog

2006-07-26T21:10:00.000-07:00

I like playing with my phone cum pocket PC. I have an O2 xda Atom and thnx to this free application called diarist I can blog on the move. I scribble on the screen with my stylus and post it using wifi or GPRS. I love being a techie some times.....

wash me Blue and White

2006-07-26T20:56:00.000-07:00

After a long silence it finally seems that the monsoon is indeed showering Delhi ... Today when I woke up in the morning and went to my balcony it was raining like crazy.... And the first thing that came to my mind was the words of Forrest Gump from the movie "Sometimes it rained from
above, sometimes it rained sideways, heck, sometimes it even seemed the
rain was coming up from below"....... But I dint have much time to enjoy it as I had to get ready for office......Took a bath and got ready listening to the soundtrack - Raindrops keep falling on my head.......

And The Ninja returns.....

2006-07-23T10:29:00.000-07:00

Yeahhh it has been a long long time since my last(and also the first) blog.....I think I have been a victim of fast paced Metropolitan life....You start this life thinking its full of fun and goodie goodies but soon you realize that you are trying to live a life which you are not built for.....
I think I was made to live a small town laid back life , but now look at me....every morning I drive to office ....get stuck in the traffic ..... laugh at Mantras jokes ( yaa Mantra....the radio city RJ ) ...reach office....write code....fix bugs.....give builds......piss people off especially my manager and then come back to my dingy 2 room apartment in a shady locality to sleep.....but before sleeping i do have to hunt for dinner....

Now where is the time for myself ..... old pals.....gf....Ofcourse i have weekends but after 5 days of ass whooping who would like to leave the bed on a saturday.....

AAAhhhh!!!....tooo much cribbing.....who am I bullshitting........I chose this life didnt I ??? .....

Hello World!!

2005-05-26T23:05:00.000-07:00

Hello World!!... The first C code most of us have written displays this.. Wonder why is that??...Neways this is my first blog....Will be leaving college in a few days and entering corporate life.....The thought of being out of the protective cocoon of an academic institute sends shivers through the spine...not because I am scared or anything but, the realization of the fact that life is so dynamic...It seems yesterday when I started my degree ...time passes like a flash for sure...