A day to remember

Ever heard anyone saying, "I was so happy that I could't sleep" ?. Haha, that holds true for me right now. Yesterday was my birthday and least had I expected what a memorable day it would turn out to be. So much that finally when I retired to bed at 12am, I just started recalling how the day had progressed, who all called, what all happened and I just kept smiling to myself thinking about all the incidents.

12th night i suddenly fell ill and by 13th morning I was in such a bad state that I could hardly get up from my bed. Severe cold, nothing else. I was almost sure that I am gonna spend my birthday this year resting. But the medicines that I took in the afternoon on 13th did wonders and I was up on my feet by next morning.

I don't know about others, but there is a very special feeling in the air on birthdays for me :) Three calls at the strike of 12am. From a very close friend, an office friend and a school friend. And many more wishes as the day progressed. But I had no idea what surprise was waiting for me. Gaurav (GP) and Nehul had come over to KSS during lunch time from KSPL and I was just glad to see them there. They wished me and both asked me to be in KSPL for the cake cutting ceremony by 5pm without fail. I was in a meeting at 5 and as soon as I got over with the meeting I rushed out of KSS to find Nehul and GP parking their bikes outside KSS. They had come to pick Saurabh and me. While GP had gone inside to call Saurabh, I just told Nehul what a wonderful day it has been and that I am so glad. And Nehul said, "Its just going to be better". That sentence was enough to make me curious what's it gonna be at KSPL. I even asked that is there something that you people have done there and his reply was a simple "no". Anyway, Saurabh had some urgent work so we 3 left for KSPL.

I have been a frequent hopper between KSS and KSPL which has given me a chance to interact with people from both places. That way I feel very fortunate to be friends with people from both our offices. I got an equally warm response at KSPL as I had got from KSS that morning.

We all assembled at the conference room and I saw Nehul sitting with his laptop connected to the projector ready with "something" :) I had yet no clue. GP joined Nehul and all the lights were switched off. They started a slide show, "Happy birthday to PB". And boy !!! what i saw for the next 5 minutes was something beyond my expectations, something I liked so much that I had tears in my eyes. They had made a very cute, nice, naughty, and above all, a touchy movie clip on me to wish me Happy Birthday in a different way. And let me accept, it coudn't have been better :)

The joy one gets from the realization that you are special in your own way, that you are loved by your people and that your people could actually think of giving you such a wonderful gift on your birthday was something I had not experienced in years. Specially since the time I left college. I was simply speachless. Anything I could say seemed too little to express what I was feeling that time.

Thanx GP, Nehul and everyone at KritiKal (KSPL and KSS) who made my birthday a day I would remember for a long long time. And that video, well its gonna be something I would cherish for a lifetime.

We had a cake cutting/rubbing (courtesy Chachaji :P) ceremony, followed by bumps where I almost got stripped of my cargos ;) No ones fault actually, I am so heavy that though people start holding me by my legs but within seconds the hold slips from my legs and the grip clings on to my clothes that I am wearing :D

Phew !! The hangover will take sometime to drain off. But I am loving every bit of it :) And the song that played in the background of that slideshow has never got out of my head since then :)

• Pictures (Thanks to Saurabh and Deepak)
• The Wonderful Gift (click to see the video)
  

Earthquake tremors ...

Dunno why but suddenly I was wide awake at 3:30 am today for no reason at all. I did not have any bad dream nor were the mosquitoes not letting me sleep and neither did I have to attend to "nature's call" ;) Still I kept lying on my bed and tried sleeping again but failed miserably in that attempt. Thought of surfing the net and sat on my bed with the laptop when suddenly my bed started shaking vigorously. I could hear a very haunting rumbling sound like a very heavy huge drum was being rolled on the ground. It wasn't late for me to realize that it was earthquake tremors. I jumped out of my bed and ran out to my balcony. The lane was deserted though the dogs were barking very loudly. But then slowly everyone started coming out of their homes and I was sure that I wasn't the only one who felt the tremors.

It was scary. Those 4-5 seconds I remembered everyone who is close to me. For some strange reason, I always felt I would be strong in such situations but today I was helpless for that moment. I felt very weak. It sounds funny now but that moment was scary then :)

Gimp power ....

Made this poster yesterday - entirely in GIMP and I am already loving the final thing. GIMP somehow never fails to amaze me with all the features it has got, so much that till date I haven't felt like using any other image editing program except for Picasa.

Well, something about the event too :) Life has been very hectic since past 2-3 weeks and in this festive season many of us at the office thought of having some fun. So we, the KalaKriti team came up with this decoration competition - Alankaran at KritiKal which is being organized collectively by the HR and KalaKriti team. There are 4 teams and the entire office has been divided into nearly 4 parts. Each part has to be decorated by one team and the best decoration will win a huge prize.

I really wish that everyone at KritiKal participates in this event with full enthusiasm. Can't wait to see the entire office dazzling with lights, candles and diyas :D

Senior Design Engineer now ..

Got the letter about my promotion just today so now I am officially a Senior Design Engineer at KritiKal Solutions Pvt. Ltd. :)

In Case of Emergency (ICE)

We all carry our mobile phones with hundreds of names/numbers stored in its memory but yet nobody, other than ourselves, knows which of these numbers belong to our near and dear ones?

GOD forbid but there could be a case where we are involved in an accident or had a heart attack and the people attending us get hold of our mobile phones but don't know which number to call to inform our family members. There are many numbers stored but which one is the contact person in case of an emergency?

For this reason, we must have one or more telephone numbers stored under the name ICE (In case of Emergency) in our mobile phones.
Recently, the concept of "ICE" is catching up quickly. It is a simple and important method of contact during emergency situations. As cell phones are carried by majority of the population, just store the number of the person who should be contacted during emergency as "ICE" (meaning In Case of Emergency).

The idea was thought up by a paramedic who found that when they went to the scenes of accidents, there were always mobile phones with patients, but they didn't know which number to call. He therefore thought that it would be a good idea if there was a nationally recognized name for this purpose.

Please forward this to as many as you can. It won't take too many "forwards" before every body will know about this. For more than one contact, simply enter ICE1, ICE2 and ICE3 etc. A great idea that will make a difference!

Let's spread the concept of ICE by storing an ICE number in our mobile phones today. Please spread the word !!

Mute ..

Wasn't well since past couple of days and just thought of going to a doctor today. And he told me that I have got a throat infection, pharyngitis, and he has advised me to speak very little. Ha ! Now thats so unlike me. And the most interesting part is that not many days ago, Deeksha in my office too suffered from a same kind of infection, laryngitis, and she could barely speak. And I used to pull her leg and tease her knowing that she won't reply :) And today when doctor told me, the first thing I remembered was her and I smiled to myself. And minutes later she called me up because it was her turn to pay me back ;)

Will be in "mute" state for at least another 3-4 days until I am perfectly fine. I am too weak right now and have recurring fever too apart from a sore throat and a choked nose. From becoming 60-70% myself just yesterday, I have again reduced to 20% of myself :D Cest-la-vie !

Just watched The Cinderella Man and I loved the movie.

Itni shakti humein dena data

Movie Name: अंकुश (1986)
Singer: पुष्पा पग्धारे, सुषमा श्रेष्ठ
Music Director: कुलदीप सिंह
Lyrics: अभिलाष

इतनी शक्ति हमें देना दाता
मन् का वीश्वास कमजोर हो ना
हम चलें नेक रस्ते पे हमसे
भूलकर भी कोई भूल हो ना...

हर तरफ ज़ुल्म है बेबसी है
सहमा सहमा सा हर आदमी है
पाप का बोझ बढ़ता ही जाये
जाने कैसे ये धरती थमी है
बोझ ममता का तू ये उठा ले
तेरी रचना का ये अंत हो ना...
हम चले...

दूर अग्यान के हो अँधेरे
तू हमें ग्यान की रौशनी दे
हर बुराई से बचके रहे हम
जितनी भी दे, भली ज़िन्दगी दे
बैर हो ना किसीका किसीसे
भावना मन् में बदले की हो ना...
हम चले...

हम ना सोचें हमें क्या मिला है
हम ये सोचें किया क्या है अर्पण
फूल खुशियों के बाटें सभी को
सबका जीवन ही बन जाये मधुबन
अपनी करुना को जब तू बहा दे
करदे पावन हर इक मन का कोना...
हम चले...

हम अँधेरे में हैं रौशनी दे,
खो ना दे खुद को ही दुश्मनी से,
हम सज़ा पाए अपने किये की,
मौत भी हो तो सह ले खुशी से,
कल जो गुजारा है फिरसे ना गुजारे,
आनेवाला वो कल ऐसा हो ना...
हम चले नेक रास्ते पे हमसे,
भूलकर भी कोई भूल हो ना...

इतनी शक्ति हमें दे ना दाता,
मन् का वीश्वास कमजोर हो ना...

Segmentation Fault..

Back to blogging after a long time, it seems so at least. Haven't been myself lately. Things happening in life and suddenly time doesnt seem to pass away. I remember when I was in college I used to lock myself in my room whenever I was down so that no one ever came to know about it and I was fine within a day or two. But things are not the same now. You have to turn up to office everyday, its not like your lectures which you could afford to bunk. And then people start noticing that change in you which you never wanted others to see and would have preferred for it to fade away. They ask you questions and eventually you just spit out those inner thoughts which you so much wanted to let out but at the same time never wanted others to know about it. :) Tricky ehh ?

Anyway, heres some snaps of our office trip to Mukteswar 2 weeks back. Enjoy !

Mukteswar Trip: MHR and Trek to the hill top

We reached Kathgodam in the morning where cabs were waiting for us. The route to Mukteswar is very beautiful and scenic. There were many places where I felt like getting down and take snaps. And when I saw snow covered peaks I couldnt stop myself and asked the driver to stop. But he assured me that I would get to see such peaks in Mukteswar too. I had almost given up but thanks to Poonam that we had to stop since she was feeling uneasy. And I am lucky that I could take the snaps of those snow covered peaks which I never got to see in the entire trip so clearly. Thanks Poonam once again ;) !!

We reached the resort ("Mukteswar Himalayan Resort") by around 10 am. Half of the junta was to stay in another resort which was 10 kms uphill from MHR. I stayed at MHR. The resort was nice in terms of rooms, cleanliness, facilities and surroundings. All of us quickly checked in rooms and got fresh and had breakfast (aloo ke paraathe .. yumzzzz). Though I was feeling very sleepy after a heavy breakfast but I had no plans to sleep. Some decided to take rest till lunch while some of us decided to have a stroll. Phani, Kartik, Shishir, Apoorva, NT, Joy and myself formed a group and left the guest house. Just a few meters away we saw a passage to climb the hills and so we all unanimously decided to give it a try. We kept climbing and taking pictures all along the way. Finally we reached the top of the hill where there were two houses and a temple. One of the house owner (a farmer) offered us cucumber with a special mix of spices and it was refreshing after a tiring trek. We took some more photographs with the farmer and his family and then proceeded towards the temple. The weather up the hill was just too good. Slow cool breeze brushing our faces and dense shade of trees gave a calm feeling. Soon we had more company joining us at the top. Rohit, Jatin, Dilip, Poonam, NS also took the same trek path :) We played dumbC for about an hour there and I really enjoyed it. Rohit did a great job at recording videos and it was great fun watching them later at the resort on TV. I had a light lunch (just salad) and then we all headed towards the other resort where the rest of our junta was staying.

Mukteswar trip: Boarding the train

Finally the office trip which was on the cards since a long time did happen and what a trip it was !! One of the best trips I have been to in my life. I had a great time with my office junta and the place is simply awesome. Far from commercialization, pure beauty and nature.

We all gathered at the old delhi station to board the Ranikhet Express. Our ticket was upgraded from sleeper to AC 3 tier (Laloo jindabad !!) but the coach "BE" was nowhere to be found. We went till one extreme of the train and then marched towards the other end hurriedly since the train was about to leave. After walking for 1.5 times the length of the train we found a coach which had no label on it. Having no other option left we got on that coach and luckily it WAS our coach :) Our seats were all scattered within the coach and it took some time to finally exchange our seats with people and get most of the seats together. We had 18 seats reserved in the coach and we were 19 people. Ashish and Joy had to unluckily share the same berth and they had a "not so sound" sleep.

My latest sketch ..

After a long time, finally I did find time to do sketching. It took me two hours to complete this sketch. And I am really glad and satisfied with my earnings today i.e. my sketch :) Yet to name it. Thinking of a nice title.

Vizag Trip ..

It was a much needed break from work and a memorable trip in all sense. I left Delhi on Friday morning for Hyderabad where all the friends were leaving for Vizag in the evening by train. The most interesting part was that I had told everyone that I would not be coming and yet I had booked all my tickets and wanted to surprise Lini. I reached IIIT and went straight to her lab with my cellphone recording a video to capture the shock on her face on seeing me. I really enjoyed surprising everyone :)

I had plans to meet other friends in Hyderabad but it started raining pretty heavily. We had to leave for station in the rain and as expected, we all got wet by the time we reached the station. My new spectacles broke, my bag got wet and even the clothes inside it got wet. The joy of surprising everyone and the excitement of the trip seemed to fade a little bit but not for long.

Reached Vizag on Saturday morning and checked in a hotel - Hotel Prince. Satya B had a marriage to attend in Vizag and it was his friend who was getting married who had booked a couple of rooms for us in the hotel. That was a nice gesture and we were spared of room hunting. We all got fresh and started for Araku Valley in a sumo. The route to Araku valley is a treat to the eye and a heaven for the photographers. I never stopped clicking snaps from the front seat.

Midway there was a waterfall and all of us unanimously decided to stop for a while and climb up to wherever we could parallel to the water fall. It was fun though I hurt my thumb there. Even Neema di slipped while coming down but nothing serious as she is a "seasoned stumbler" :D

Next stop was Borra caves which was a very interesting and calm place. Its very deep down and lighted with golden lights everywhere. I had never been to such a place. There was a river flowing in the valley near the caves and P! and Lini suggested that we trek down to the valley and come back. It would have been real fun but I had a severe headache so I decided to stay back. Later the idea was dropped.

Araku Valley is more a natural beauty than a commercial place. We went to a small museum which was a very ordinary place. Then we went to a garden where there were tree houses, a toy train, some rides and flowers and trees. My photographer within me had woken up once again and I took some cool snaps there.

It was a tiring first day and we reached back to the Hotel by 8pm. Next day we planned to go to the Rushikonda beach early morning (5am). We woke up at 4 and left the hotel by 4:30. I had been to a beach only once before in Chennai and that too for a small time. I jogged for a while on the beach and then went for a long walk with my camera. When I came back everyone was in the sea already :) So I also kept my camera and got into the water. And we gossiped and played for more than 2 hours in water. Some waves were small and some quite big and each time we prepared ourselves to be on the top. Sometimes we won while other times the waves succeeded in passing over our heads. It was a great experience. Moreover, P! being there with us, we never felt any fear in the sea. Had he not been there I would have been washing my legs on the edge and would have never even thought of going any further into the sea. It was the best part of the entire trip. My mind still keeps drifting towards the beach from time to time and as Neema Di puts it, it will take another week for the "HANGOVER" to go :D

Later that day in the afternoon we headed towards Simhachalam temple. There are two ways to reach the temple. Either by road or you can take the stairs. We took the "path less travelled" i.e. the stairs. The stairs were at quite an elevation and they were 1000+ Neema di and I had a testing time reaching the top but nevertheless it was fun. On the contrary, Tarun soon vanished from our sight as if he was walking on a plain meadow and not on the stairs. On the way we came across two guys who were going to climb these stairs on their knees :O That is some dedication !! Coming down was a much easier task :)

We boarded the train to Hyderabad in the evening and bid adieu to Vizag. Last 2 days were fun packed and we all were already planning for the next trip in the train. We played dumb charades for a long time and that was the second best part of the trip after the beach experience. We laughed and pulled each others legs. We had to get down at Vijaywada and take another train to Hyderabad from there. Neema di took a train to Chennai from there and the rest of us proceeded towards Hyderabad.

Highlights of the trip:

• Reaching Sec'bad station all drenched :(
  
• Neema di's graceful stumbling from time to time :)
• Rushikonda beach experience.
  
• Lini's attempt to enact Asoka while playing dumb charades :D
• P!'s perfect accounts management, and his biscuits, laddoos and chikkis from roadside shops which were a nice "crunchy munchy"

Vizag through my lens:
Click here

Colorization of Mughal-E-Azam

Call it my latest muse, I really wanted to know how are these black and white movies colored and what all effort and time goes in that process. It seems to be a really cumbersome task which not only requires time but also resources and dedication to achieve perfection in colorization. Here are the basic steps involved in colorization of Mughal-E-Azam. (Information source: Mouthshut.com).

Restoration:

"Restoration is an essential process of colorization. Intense restoration was undertaken as the frames were in bad condition. The negative that was being scanned was actually a Dupe negative that was made in early 80s after the original negative had been used for more than twenty years. Restoration included digitizing the 300,000 frames of the film at 2K resolution, gamma correction, contrast correction, scratch removal, pinholes removal, digital stitching of torn frames, stabilisation, fungus correction and various other digital restoration techniques. Each step involved processing 3000 GB of data. The work was done shot-by-shot or frame-by-frame depending on the condition of the negatives. All the above work was performed by a team of restoration and specialists working on high-end computers at Iris Interactive, Chennai. These frames were then made ready for colorization.

Colorization:

"In the west, colourisation has been looked at as an artificial work or as an unethical attempt to touch an artist’s creation. In this case, the purpose was to complete an unfulfilled dream of the creator. The task was undertaken by the original production company, Sterling Investment Corp. Pvt. Ltd. The original music composer re-recorded the music in a digital environment and the original artists always supported the idea. Hence, there is no unethical attempt." The software that was used has a very important feature that accepts only those colors that match the gray shades of the original input. This ensures that the final colors are as close as possible to the original. Since, the kind of colorization required for MUGHAL-E-AZAM was never done before (Mughal-e-Azam has a rich use of exquisite jewelry, fine clothing, grand sets), a special software had to be written to incorporate such features and that too for a 35 mm release. Since the film is an historical film, the color scheme was regularly discussed with historians. History books of medieval times were referred in order to get the essence of the Mughal Era. An in-depth research of 18 months was undertaken before the actual colourisation started in Oct, 2004 at Indian Academy of Arts and Animation, Mumbai. The whole technology development and execution was undertaken in India.

Post Production:

"The whole film (frame-by-frame) was then given a finished product look through colour balancing and was digitally converted to Wide-Screen format and then recorded to make a new negative at Rajtaru Videosonic, Mumbai."

original article

Reliance Fresh ?

Someone here needs to be told the meaning of "fresh". And its the Reliance people who have opened so many outlets which they proudly call Reliance Fresh. Its my third experience of buying vegetables from there and "not-so-coincidentally" every time i was disappointed with the condition of vegetables that they have. Dirty, stinky, stale and everything that qualifies as an antonym of fresh. I am talking about the outlets in Ghaziabad. They might be selling at a lower cost but I feel those days are a thing of a past when people compromised on quality over cost. And that too, the difference in cost is very marginal in this case. I have no idea whether all the outlets sell the same quality of vegetables but at least the Ghaziabad outlets SUCK !!

Creating transparent images in GIMP

Transparent images are useful when you are not certain about the page/image background where you want to put your image which could be an object, a logo, a signature or even a watermark to copyright your photographs. By making the background of such images transparent, you essentially create a mask which could then be overlay-ed on any other image and only the non transparent object/text/logo will float on the output image. This post gives a step-by-step tutorial on creating such transparent images on GIMP(GNU Image Manipulation Program). I find GIMP easier to use than Photoshop or any other image editing software and best of all, its open source ! :) There is a lot you can do with GIMP, but for now, lets see how can you make transparent images.

• Open the image in GIMP from which you want to remove the background. The more uniform the background is, more easier it is to remove it.
• Add an alpha channel (transparent layer) to this image.
  
• Right Click on the image->Layer->Transparency->Add Alpha Channel

• With the fuzzy selector (Keyboard shortcut is Z), click on the background which you want to remove and based on the uniformity of the background, all or part of it is selected on clicking on it.

• Now the last step is to remove this selected background. Click on the menu (Edit->Clear) or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+K. If there are still some patches left in the background then repeat steps 3 and 4 on each of those patches separately till you succeed in removing the background completely.
  
• Your transparent image is ready. Save it as a PNG or a GIF which support image transparency.

Happy Independence Day !

"Where the mind is without fear 
and the head is held high; 
Where knowledge is free; 
Where the world has not been 
broken up into fragments by 
narrow domestic walls; 
Where words come out from 
the depth of truth; 
Where tireless striving stretches 
its arms towards perfection; 
Where the clear stream of reason 
has not lost its way into the dreary 
desert sand of dead habit; 
Where the mind is lead forward by thee 
into ever-widening thought and action- 
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, 
let my country awake." 

  "GEETANJALI -  RABINDERANATH TAGORE"

K-Bakra - Part II

I once installed Airtel Messenger on my cellphone which is just like a yahoo messenger where email - ids get replaced by cellphone numbers and Instant Messages are replaced by smses. When you send a message to any number, the message is received as an sms but the sender is not you. Rather sender's number appears in the message at the starting which we somehow ignore noticing. Today I had taken a break from work and was lying on the bean bag and trying to explore this Airtel Messenger. Suddenly I thought of doing some mischief. I sent a message to Atul which said:

"Dear Mr. Atul. We would like to confirm the receipt of Rs.3257 spent by you on 3rd August,2007. Thanks for using HDFC Credit card"

Within a minute Atul's cellphone beeped and I really enjoyed seeing his expression turn from a smile->serious->tensed->frenzy till he had finished reading the entire sms. I was somehow confident that he will not pay much attention on the sender or even my number that would have appeared at the starting of the message. And I was right :) Atul started reading out the sms to everyone who did not know till now that this sms was sent by me. They started advising him. Someone suggested that he called HDFC customer care center while another person said he should check his transactions online. And Atul kept wondering (loudly :D) that when did he spend so much money and infact he had never used his credit card till now. By now I had let everyone know that it was me who had sent the message and everyone was enjoying . Only after 2-3 minutes of pure panic Atul read out the number from which the message had been sent. But obviously he did not remember my number so he had still no clue what was happening. But I finally told him that its my number and then we all laughed. Now I think (not only me, even others think) that we should have continued the drama a little longer. Atul was all set to call HDFC people. Also, it would have been great had we recorded the whole episode. But anyway, everyone (including Atul) had fun once the mystery was solved.


Atul bhai, apne is chele ko maaf kar dena ;)

CVM ...

Just yesterday I had taken a paddle rickshaw till Sector 18 from my office. I reached there in 15 minutes and another 15 minutes were wasted fetching change for my Rs. 50 note. I needed Rs. 15 and I asked at all the shops near the Center Stage Mall (CSM) but all the shopkeepers denied (read LIED) about having change. As a last attempt I went to a momos & rolls stall and asked if he had change. As was expected, he said he did not have. I had lost my temper till now. I asked him if I buy a roll from him will he have change then and he smiled shamelessly. Felt like slapping that guy but it would have been injustice if I slapped only him :) I would have to slap each and every shopkeeper then who lied to me about not having change even though they had been running their shops since morning. Anyway, I had to buy an egg roll so that I could pay that poor rickshaw puller who had been waiting all along.

Yesterday's incident just made me feel more strongly that just like we have ATM's everywhere, we should also have something called CVM's (Change Vending Machine) distributed across the entire city. CVM's (i like to call it the "Chhutta" Vending Machine) is something that I have given a lot of thought and being an Image Processing guy, I even thought of an Image Processing solution to build such a system. The machine should also not be a problem to build and infact I have a complete design of such a system in my mind. Probably I should think of patenting it :D Just kiddin. But I have no idea about the feasibility of CVMs and if need for such a machine is only felt by me or there are other people too who think on similar lines.

KritiKalSecureScan completes 2 years today

KritiKal SecureScan, a subsidiary of KritiKal Solutions Pvt. Ltd. completed two years today on the 8th of August and to celebrate the day we had a cake cutting ceremony in the evening followed by a group photograph. It was decided that the youngest member of the "family" should cut the cake and so Ravi, our office boy, cut the cake and it felt so great that I am working at a place where all are treated as equal irrespective of their pockets. I am not saying that other companies wouldn't involve everyone in their social events. But this is something I like about KritiKal and probably we are still a small group which keeps us a close knit unit. Way to go !! ..

The KSS Family

PB bole to Piyush Bakra ....

I was in the office basement discussing a Vision problem with Anoop and Phani on the white board when Shome came in. I just strolled upto him and he pulled a buckle of my jeans from behind. As is his playful nature, I just ignored him and got on with the discussion again. NS was busy on the phone while Nehul and Apurva were busy staring at their screens when I last turned my back towards them. A minute later Nehul came up to Phani and took away his cellphone. And seconds later I could hear giggles behind my back. I just looked down and a network cord had got entangled to one of my legs. When I tried to get rid of it I realized that it was hanging from the buckle of my jeans just like a tail :D And there was a burst of laughter suddenly and it wasn't long before I realized that I had been made a "Bakra". Apurva had taken a couple of snaps with one from "closeup" of my tail-ed back view :D Here is that unfortunate snap :( :)Good one guyz ! I owe you one ;)

Videos of KalaKriti's events on Youtube

1. Gajodhar ki mumbai yaatra - Akhilesh, Saurabh, Gaurav, Tarun
2. Guncha Koi Mere Naam Kar Diya - Piyush
3. Teri Deewani - Piyush

KalaKriti rocks the stage ...

It was almost an year ago when a bunch of culturally active members at KritiKal formed a cultural club named KalaKriti to promote and organize cultural events at KritiKal from time to time. Yesterday (5th August) was KritiKal's anniversary and we had a function at Hans Plaza, Delhi where there were a host of cultural events organized by KalaKriti.The KalaKriti members (Atul, Phanindra, Karthik, Saurabh, Gaurav, Deeksha, Akhilesh, Nehul, Tarun and myself) reached the venue by 5pm since we had to set up the stage. The function was scheduled to start at 7pm. We started with our pre-function preparations. Nehul started setting up the buzzer right away while Atul positioned himself with his synthesizer. While the music system was being set up, we had a last round of practice of all the events. The buzzer ditched us at the last moment, though when we tested it at the office it worked perfectly. The guests started coming by 7pm but we had to wait till all the professors had arrived. Finally the function started at 8pm with ganesh vandana by Atul and me. Then Nehul (Master of Ceremony) requested Prof. Bala to say a few words before we started with the cultural events. Tarun's high voltage (rocking) song performance of "Aadat" set the perfect mood for the rest of the evening. Next in line was Phani's rendition of In Dino from Life in a METRO which had a charming effect on the audience. Then came the star event of the evening, "Gajodhar ki Mumbai Yaatra", a skit performed by Saurabh(Baijnath), Gaurav(Manohar), Tarun(Chachcha) and our local raju srivastava - Akhilesh(Gajodhar). And boy !! From the moment these people took the stage, people were rolling with laughter at every dialogue of Gajodhar bhaiyya and every action of Chachcha ji. Then I had a couple of solo performances one of which was special in the sense that I had never before played an instrument on my own song on stage. Last event of the evening was Antakshari hosted by Gaurav and Deeksha. Though Deeksha seemed nervous at the starting but she soon got used to the stage and it went kewl (read cool). There were four teams whose names were based on our products and the captain of the teams were members of that product. The teams were Trazer ke Deewane(Phani), LPRS ke Parwaane(Me), Zenscan ke Mastaane(Akhilesh) and Amsaki ke Afsaane(Tarun). There were four rounds, normal word round, dumb charades, hint round and Audio/Visual round. Not only the teams but also the audience enjoyed themselves thoroughly. Finally we had a sumptuous dinner but the party was not over yet. We had a cool sound system, we had laptop with cool numbers, and we had the perfect tempo for a DJ nite :) So we danced and danced and for a moment everyone was back to his college days. People who were scattered around the hall were dragged to the dance floor and we ensured no one had been spared from doing a jig or two. A fun packed night, smiling faces all around and most importantly, a satisfied mind that our efforts paid off. All the events were thought and practiced in not more than 5 days. And with busy schedules and everyone being in different projects it was only commendable how each one of us practiced after office sometimes in the office basemet and sometimes at my house. In all this I missed out an important event. The background music for all the events be it the skit or the songs. Atul was on the synthesizer all along standing at one corner of the stage. And he is the best keyboard player I have ever met in my life. He is just too good. But at the pace I am learning from him, the day is not far when I'll be the best, hehe. Just kiddin.

Three cheers for KalaKriti, hipp hipp hurray,hipp hipp hurray,hipp hipp hurray
Three cheers for KritiKal, hipp hipp hurray,hipp hipp hurray,hipp hipp hurray

Photographs taken by Deepak, Phani and Me. Do visit the album KritiKal Anniversary 07 for more photographs.

Dr. APJ Kalam to teach in IIIT Hyderabad

'Missile' man to teach at IIIT-H

Hyderabad, July 28: After relinquishing the high office, Former President A P J Abdul Kalam will now devote part of his time teaching students of the premier International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) here.

''Dr Kalam has agreed to be part of the distinguished faculty of the IIIT-H,'' its Chairman Raj Reddy announced at the sixth convocation amid huge applause by students.

Beginning August, Dr Kalam would visit the IIIT-H and fulfil his passion for being in the midst of young people and lecturing them, IIIT-H Director Rajeev Sangal said.

Promising an unstinted support to the IIIT-H, Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, who was the chief guest, expressed happiness over Dr Kalam agreeing to be part of the distinguished faculty.

The E-sagu initiated in collaboration with the IIIT-H in 6,000 farms would be expanded to cover the entire state soon, the Chief Minister said adding three more IIITs would be started in the state from next academic year.

Delivering the convocation address, Satyam Computer Services Limited Founder and Chairman B Ramalinga Raju, stressing on team work, wanted young graduates to adopt best practices available.

As many as 250 B Tech and M Tech students were awarded degrees during the ceremony.

--- UNI

Instrumentals galore !

Though I knew about this site "http://www.apunkabollywood.com" but I had no idea that they have this huge collection of good instrumentals and karaoke music about which I learnt just yesterday. We have our Annual Day celebrations in KritiKal on 5th of August for which I was searching for some original instrumentals and was glad to see the collection here.

I want to download all the instrumentals from here but I was just wondering if there was a better way than clicking on each and every link on every page to download them. Coz that would take me days together I guess :)

ne suggestions ?

New albums added ..

Do visit the new albums

• Lovely Lonavla (June 2007)
  
• Mystical Clouds (June 2007)
  
• Timber Trail Trip (July 2007)
  

Most of these pictures have been taken from Nokia 3250 cellphone with a 2MP camera. And the effects were added using Picasa and Gimp. The panoramas have been made by ArcSoft Panorama maker which has given me the best quality panoramas till now. I am still to understand the features of my digital camera so haven't used it to its full potential.

Fried Ice Cream ??

I was amazed to see this shop at Pinjor Gardens (near Panchkula) where you get Ice cream pakodas and equally disappointed when the shopkeeper told me that the material had got over so there wont be any ice cream pakodas available for the day. Though I did ask him how does he make them. He takes a small cube of ice cream, marinates it in corn flour and deep fries it. I am yet not convinced that the ice cream wont melt but then he has his shop doing great business there, so must be true :)

5 states in 24 hours

Nothing great but just to make a statement, I did travel to 5 states in the past 24 hours. Started from my office in Noida (U.P.) on Saturday evening and reached New Delhi (Delhi) railway station. I was going to Panchkula (Haryana) to my sister's place so I boarded the train to Chandigarh(Punjab). On Sunday we went to Timber trail, Kalka (Himachal Pradesh) which was an awesome trip. A perfect Sunday spent with the family (parents, jiji and jiju). Anyway, details about the weekend trip later. For now, the five states are Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh :D

Talk about travelling ehh ?

Broadband at room

Finally, took airtel broadband connection at my room in Noida. The details are as follows:

Rs. 725 Plan
Unlimited surfing
Unlimited download
Zero rental for modem and landline
No installation charges
One time modem charge of Rs. 500
Flat rate of Re. 1 per call
Pulse is 1 call/3 min for any local landline, 1 call/minute elsewhere.

My first client meeting

It feels good to be back to blogging ways :) Its been a month since I posted something. A lot to be written which includes

-> Lonavla trip
-> Lonavla pics
-> Ubuntu review
-> Broadband at room

But first, something about my first demo to the client without my senior. Today I had a demo/meeting with one of our clients and believe me I was tensed like anything. Had met these people earlier once along with my senior but today I was the one to handle everything. And a decent demo was important. Setting up the camera and software hardly took half an hour and instantly we could run our application live. I cant give the details of the demo and our application due to privacy reasons but the demo went well and I am very happy with the way things went today. Saurabh was also with me so it was not completely being alone which was somewhat soothing. But this is just the starting. The clients have suggested many changes and not to forget the improvement in accuracy which is of prime importance. Anyway, the demo went well and it has made me more confident to handle such meetings/POC (proof of concept) demonstrations.

On the contrary, yesterday was one day I would like to erase from my life. Nothing went right except that one of my friends cleared the CA exams and is officially a CA now. Save this fact, rest of the proceedings were something like this:

1. Had one day to prepare for the demo.
2. Had to pay 500 bucks as late payment fine on my credit card.
3. My cellphone fell from a decent height :) I know it might be a very trivial thing for many but to me its very painful to see my cellphone fall on the floor, that too tiled floor which tends to incur more damage.
4. The demo application ran well on the development pc but as soon as I tried to run the application on the laptop, it crashed. Wasted 2 hours trying to figure out the problem but in vain. Finally compiled the code in "debug" mode and then ran the application on the laptop and it worked. But those two hours were real torture. And I am still a little irritated at not being able to figure out the problem till now.
5. Finally was able to catch a bus for Ghaziabad at 9 pm only to land up in more trouble. The bus engine stopped working after only going a kilometer. The driver did fix the problem partially so that now the bus ran at 20-30 km/hr. And then it dropped me at Vijaynagar which is midway between Noida and Ghaziabad. Changed two tempos to finally reach Ghaziabad at 10:20 pm. Phew !!
6. And when I reached home, there was no electricity :) A perfect rotten ending to a perfect rotten day :D

But I find it all funny today though yesterday I was so mad that I could have easily hit anyone trying to mess with me.

Raam Naam Satya Hai

Got an opportunity to see this play titled "Raam naam satya hai" in the National School of Drama, New Delhi on Friday. It was the first time I was seeing a play though I have had a very keen interest in theater since a long time. It was a comic play with a message about AIDS awareness. But I had a lot of things to observe during the play. How do the artists use the entire stage space, usage of lights to change scenes, background music and how does everyone manage without a mike in a decent auditorium with a capacity of around 200. The artists seemed professional though none of them was a prominent figure. I specifically observed the artists when they just had to stand in a corner of the stage while the focus was another person at another part of the stage. And I was amazed to see the devotion. Even when the focus was not on them, they ensured they were giving their best. They all had to stare at the person in focus who was narrating his story and they all did just that. Not a single movement by anyone, even the expressions on all the faces never went off for even a second. Everything was just perfect. I must say I was mesmerized by the play completely. So much that I actually waited near the stage to meet some of the artists after the play was over. Met the main character, "Gopinath Mirashe", a young and smart guy who I believe was the best actor among all. Others were good too. He had done 3 yrs diploma in acting and was performing in plays under a 6 year contract with an agency. I also learnt that there are regular workshops for people like me who would want to participate in such plays be it part time. It would be a dream come true for me if I ever get a chance to perform in a play ever. It reminds me of an incident when I was preparing for engineering entrance test and met one of my favorite school teachers after months. She asked me what was I doing these days and was shocked to learn that I was not into arts, music and theater anymore. I still remember the expression on her face and the way she told me how I was made for arts and that I might be an engineer one day but I wont be satisfied ever. And how true she was, I can realize it only now. Though I do find time for music, painting, photography and traveling sometimes but that "sometimes" is not that frequent. But I know my job is not going to keep me away from any of this for long ever :)

IIIT Hyderabad finds a much deserved recognition ..

Dataquest Ranks IIIT-H Top #5 in Placement, and Top #9 Overall (2007)

IIIT-H has been rated top #5, in campus placement, among all technology schools in the country, by DataQuest-IDC's annual survey - 2007. The University, which has never been placement focused, has been ranked ahead of IIT-K, IIT-D, IIT-M, BITS-Pilani, BHU-IT, and all other NITs and IIITs, in placement. Read Dataquest's latest edition (June 15).

Overall, IIIT-H has been ranked top #9, among all engineering colleges in India. For a University in its ninth year, being rated top 9 is truly an outstanding achievement, and a tribute to the IIIT-H's visionary founders, passionate management, and committed research faculty. Though top #9 is an achievement, the rank fails to reflect the University's actual standing. By any measure, IIIT-H stands second to none in the country, in computing, IT, and its applications, the only areas where we exist.

News channel sans news

I had missed the match between Nadal and Federer yesterday and simply wanted to know the result of the French Open final. My first choice was to switch to Start Sports but they were showing another live event so I started watching Times Now. Kept waiting for half an hour but there was no news about the match. Not just this, there was no news at all for that matter. All they were interested about was the much hyped Orkut ban controversy and they had been showing it since afternoon (that is when I had seen, might have been since much before too). Going on streets, getting views of the common public in different metros. Switched to Zee news and they were covering the IIFA film awards and the special match BigB played with the metally and physically challenged. Then they started showing clips of Black movie and how the role played by BigB in that movie was a memorable one and how did he relate his match to this movie.

A child falls in a ditch and remains there for N days and all the news channels have this and only this to cover ? I have often seen many news channels showing a haunted house or a sage doing some rituals at night. What is the purpose ? Who wants to know it ?

There is an ad aired frequently on RED Fm where there is a line which goes like this .. "Khabaron se bekhabar yeh khabari channels" (News channels that are unaware of the news). Rightly said !!

News channels these days are more of an entertainment channel which have all the ingredients to make a recipe taste good and spicy but lack the nutritive nature which would keep the consumer healthy.

New additions to the album

Have added new photographs to Abeer arts. Do check them out !! Specially the Jama Masjid and the moon.

A date with the moon ..

Yesterday I had just finished watching Hollow Man on Zee Studio at 1am and was still not feeling sleepy at all. Played synthesizer for a while and as I looked outside the window of the living room I could see my only audience for that moment - the moon. Instantaneously a thought flashed my mind that why not try capturing the moon with my new 10x optical zoom camera. And there I was, standing in my balcony with my camera and aiming at the moon. I set the camera at the maximum possible zoom i.e. 10x optical + 5x digital. At such high zoom and the moon being so far its very hard to even catch the moon on your screen, forget about taking a snap. Also, its important to keep the camera steady and holding it in hands is not a good idea at all. You ideally need a tripod for distant object photography. But anyway, I had no tripod with me so I just tried hard to keep my hands as steady and still as possible. First snap - blurred. Second snap - blurred. Third snap - the moon wasn't even there in the frame :). Fourth snap - W.O.W. I was lucky enough to get a decent snap of the moon without too much effort. I am not sure how easy or difficult it actually is to shoot the moon but for a novice like me, it was a big achievement and I was overjoyed. Tried another 10 shots or so and was able to capture three more good snaps. Quickly downloaded the snaps on the comp and the moon never looked so beautiful to me before :)

Links to the original pictures: (The snaps are also added to Abeer Arts Gallery)
Click here for Snap1
Click here for Snap2
Click here for Snap3

locked the keys to the lock

Yesterday was one of the rare days when I forgot my keys inside my room and locked it. The door has the facility of an auto lock which I generally don't use. But yesterday I didn't feel like taking my laptop to office so thought of leaving it in my room and locking the room. Just forgot the keys inside. When I came back home after office I realized what I had done :( But the best part was that I was supra cool all the time. Tried experimenting with the door knob but Saurabh had a better idea which at first seemed to me more destructive than what I was doing - trying to detach the knob of the door. Saurabh suggested that I break the back door which would require less effort and anyway its better to get the latch fixed rather than the lock on the front door. So we went to the back door and it just took 4 kicks to get the door open. Fortunately, there was no damage in the process. The latch had come out along with the screws from the wooden frame of the door so it can be fixed again with the help of a screw driver very easily. All's well that ends well :)

A quick update ..

Well the latest update is that I suddenly realised that next month would mark the end of first half of 2007 :O Isn't life running too fast ? I still dun believe that 5 months have gone by in this year.

Saw "Cheeni Kum" yesterday and I loved the movie. Its definitely one of the cutest movies of recent times. The chemistry between different characters has been shown very nicely and the dialogues are witty as well as humurous. A light hearted comedy movie, a MUST watch !!

Also saw Shootout at Lokhandwala and I cant believe I actually watched it even though I had no intentions to do so. I cant understand why this movie is getting good reviews. And this person named Tusshar (with a double S(ass)) Kapoor, why is he getting roles in the movies still ?. I am sure he pays the producers to bag roles in movies. He has no idea what torture he is making the public go through with his appearences. God save us !!!

Saturday night we had our HR party at RPM, Noida. Had a great time there with unlimited food, drinks and a dance floor. Danced a loooooooooootttttttt till midnight and the food was also good. Not to mention about the various cocktails and mocktails that we had and even invented some on our own :)

Got an inspiration to do glass painting last friday when I met one of my aunts who has done graduation in Fine Arts. She was doing a huge glass painting since past one week and got a chance to see a live demo when I visted her. Got all the necessary tips and motivation required for me to get going. It would be a nice experience for me too since I have never done a glass painting before. I also showed her my sketches and photographs and was glad when she said that I have that knack of an artist and its visible in my photographs. She liked the pencil sketches too. I was on seventh heaven :D To be appreciated by an artist is a different feeling.

Have been regularly practicing on the piano (synthesiser) since past few weeks and trying to record the instrumentals on my laptop now. The recorded midi files dont sound as great and stereoponic as they sound on the piano. Will have to do some more research/experiments on this recording thing :)

Thats it. Life is so busy and stressed up at times these days that have started taking life on an hourly basis :) Not joking, it feels great when you've just had a fruitful hour at work or a great time chatting with a friend and at the same time the "not-so-happening" hours are easily forgotten :D

Meeting an old friend ...

How about completing the title as follows- Meeting an old friend for the first time !! :) Ha ! Sounds strange isn't it, but its true. Met an old friend for the first time this Sunday. We are friends since past 3-4 years but we had never met in person till now. We became friends on the net (not through chatting). Earlier it was 1-2 mails every week but soon we became quite frank. Its nice to have a friend who knows no one amongst your other friends :) Don't get me wrong but there are a lot of things that you can share with this friend which you are afraid/hesitant to tell even the closest of your friends. hehe. Whatever, it was a nice experience.

My bad..

This part of my life is called "humiliation"

Past couple of weeks haven't gone well both personally and professionally. And yesterday was no exception. Slogged at the office and generally felt like shouting and freaking out at home to get the stress out of me. And did just that. But I failed to realize that I could be disturbing others by such an act. A person called me from the terrace of his house diagonally opposite to our house. When I reached outside to the balcony with Atul, he scolded me black and blue for behaving in such a rowdy manner in the colony and that I was disturbing everyone else. Now I wasn't sure about everybody but one thing was clear that the person was definitely so disturbed with the ho-halla at my house that he had to finally scold me so bad to bring me back to senses. And poor Atul had to go through all this bashing for no fault of his. I felt very bad. Felt bad for that person whom I had disturbed. Felt bad for Atul who did not deserve any of this treatment. And felt irritated and angry with myself for behaving in such an immature way. I apologized to the man and promised that such a thing wont happen in future and I also apologized to Atul.

Went to my room and thought a lot about the past events that have taken place. Things are not smooth in my project and there is a lot of pressure, had a small tension in the office a few days ago, my best friend is not talking to me and now yesterday had to be such a day. But you know whats the best part of going through a tough time, there is very little to feel more bad but there is a certain hope that things will only get better with time.

The lesson was learnt and I am a better person today than I was yesterday.

Rain drops falling on my head ....

Friday evening while returning home from office, it had started drizzling while I was still some distance from home. And with the wind so still, I was sure its going to rain pretty heavily. I started walking fast but not for the obvious reason that I did not want to get wet :) Rather I wanted to reach home as soon as possible so that I could part with my laptop and then enjoy in the rain. Did exactly that. By the time I entered home it was raining cats and dogs. Ran to my room, threw the laptop on my bed, took off my spectacles and came to the balcony to enjoy the rain, in the rain :) There was no electricity and it was already dark so I began shouting on top of my voice only to realize that I had company. Every time I shouted, shrill voices of kids would echo from all corners of the block as if answering me. It was fun and I was literally dancing with joy. The day had been a tiring one in the office and each drop of rain seemed to be draining a part of stress off my mind. For once I was not thinking of meeting my deadlines in office or being out of touch with so many of my friends or not attending CAT classes faithfully. With all this jumping, dancing and shouting I was feeling hungry now. Suddenly a thought flashed my mind which many might consider weird but I loved it. There was some watermelon left in the fridge and I suddenly felt like finishing it off while getting drenched in the rain. And that is what I did and watermelon had never tasted better before :D I could see the stars now and there was a slight disappointment about the stopping rain. But nothing to complain, it was one of the best times I had in recent past.

A party that wasnt to be :(

I find it funny as well as feel disappointed at the same time. All the enthusiasm that was there in the morning to make this unique party happen seems to have lost now. Its funny how could one day affect you in two contrasting ways. No point going into the details of why it happened or how it happened but now I really dont feel motivated anymore. And so the mail below with reference to the previous post:

Hi,
Due to some personal reasons the party stands canceled for now. Sorry for this sudden change in plan but it was as unexpected as was the invitation so i hope you wont mind :) As for the suspense, this invitation was sent to everyone from KritiKal (KSS and KSPL) whose first names contain an "sh"( Call it the SH Club). Just wanted to have a day which could be remembered as something unique for a long time to come and at the same time have something different from the usual office, movie, home routine that most of us have in recent times. Anyway ....

Keep Rocking !!
Cheers,
P!yush.


What has to be, will be !!

Something Different - 2

Just wanted to know how many days can I survive without a cellphone. And therefore I have abandoned my cellphone for sometime till the day I can stretch without it. The only exception being that I would have to call home once every night else I wouldnt have got the permission to switch off my cellphone at the first place :)

Something Different - 1

Off late have been thinking a lot about spicing up life by doing something different, something weird. Here is an attempt. I have sent a mail to some people today which looks like this:

Hi Junta,
"Howz life ?" A very common question with a different answer each day. Haven't our lives become too monotonous these days ? What was the weirdest thing that happened to you off late ? Or let me put it in a different way. When was the last time you felt you were special ? Today might be one such day :) Well....allow me to hold the suspense a little longer. Please take this mail as an invitation for a small yet unusual gathering/party on ***** evening at *********. The details are given below:

Venue: *****************
Date : *******************
Time : ********************

Hoping to c u all !!
P!yush.

PS: Keep it a secret ;)

The details have been purposefully hidden for now. Suspense unveils on Saturday :)

Spiderman - A love story

Yeah, thats what it is. A love story. The movie was not as promising as its promos. Infact I was disappointed with the movie altogether. Looked more like a typical bollywood flick with all the necessary ingredients. Romance, Suspense, Drama, Sacrifice, Action, Twists and Turns. The only consolation was a few action scenes which looked complicated but great. And also a few comic scenes involving the Chief of the bulletin - The Bugle.

If you cant stop yourself from watching it, at least go without any expectations or hopes and you might just like the movie !!

Suraj Ki Garmi Se .....

Prayer title: Suraj ki garmi se
Movie/Album: Parinay
Singer: Sharma Bandhu

Jaise
Suraj ki garmi se jalte huye tan ko
Mil jaaye taruvar ki chhaya
Aisa hi sukh mere mann ko mila hai
main jabse sharan teri aaya, mere raam

Suraj ki garmi se ......

Bhatka hua mera mann tha koi
Mil na raha tha sahara

Leharon se ladti huyi naav ko jaise
Mil na raha ho kinara

Us ladkhadati huyi naav ko jo
kisi ne kinara dikhaya
Aisa hi sukh mere mann ko mila hai
main jabse sharan teri aaya, mere raam

Suraj ki garmi se .......

Sheetal bane aag chandan ke jaisee
Raghav kripa ho jo teri
Ujiyaali poonam ki ho jaayein raatein
jo thi amawas andheri

Yug yug se pyasi madhu bhoomi ne jaise
sawan ka sandesh paaya
Aisa hi sukh mere mann ko mila hai
main jabse sharan teri aaya, mere raam

Suraj ki garmi se .......

Jis raah ki manzil tera milan ho
Us par kadam main badhaoon
Foolon mein kharon mein
patjhad baharon mein
main na kabhi dagmagaoon

Paani ke pyaase ko takdeer ne jaise
jee bhar ke amrit pilaaya
Aisa hji sukh mere mann ko mila hai
main jabse sharan teri aaya, mere raam

Suraj ki garmi se jalte huye tan ko
Mil jaaye taruvar ki chhaya
Aisa hji sukh mere mann ko mila hai
main jabse sharan teri aaya, mere raam

Suraj ki garmi se jalte huye tan ko
Mil jaaye taruvar ki chhaya

Rajjo's Birthday

Birthday Boy: Sourabh (Rajjo)
Place: Terrace, Garima Vihar, Noida
Time: 00:00 hrs, 2nd May

Feeling lazy :)

Feeling lazy though I want to write many things here. I will rather enumerate the latest for today.

1. Celebrated Rajjo's (Sourabh's) birthday at his residence at midnight yesterday with Bedi, Chandu and Jagan. Enjoyed a lot decorating the terrace with balloons tied on a broken ladder and a charpoy along with Jagan and Chandu. I loved the whole setup which looked like a funky cafeteria to me.
   
2. Started practicing on the synthesizer after a long time and its only now that I realise what I was missing since so many days. Feel more relaxed throughout the day and that sense of calmness is back again which had lost since past few weeks.
3. Planning to make another sketch this weekend.
4. This month there wont be any CAT classes (yippppppppeeeeeeeeee). Only revision classes which I am planning to attend to make up for the previous bunks :D

Thats it for now !!

The Murali act

We often play cricket in our house corridor in the morning and also after office. Yesterday I was trying to bowl like muralitharan and trying to emulate that same awkward action that he has. Practiced for everything, the leg spin, the off spin and the "doosra¨ too :) Most of them were wide but the ones which i got correct, Saurabh had a hard time facing them. Saurabh (my roomie) is a very good player so I assume I was bowling well :D. But in that excitement to become a Murali for the day, I got a sprain in my right arm :) and now it pains whenever I straighten my hand.

Started writing this post in the morning but was caught up in so many things that just couldn't complete it until now (6:50 pm). Still some work left but the good thing is that tonight many of us are meeting at a friends place for his birthday. Its strange that we all are batchmates from college working in the same city (different offices) and yet none of us is able to meet that often. Anyway, today is not that day :)

Times Global Village

Past week for me could be termed "work hard ,party harder" because thats how it has been. Two office parties, a movie, Global village trip (snaps) and today its gonna be a pizza party at office :D Had been hearing about this Global Village since long and really wanted to go there. Its located between Delhi and Noida. Infact it is on one side of DND flyway which connects Delhi to Noida. And that is what makes going there from Noida a little pain taking and awkward too. Ever imagined going to Punjab from Delhi via Madhya Pradesh having to take a U-turn and then traveling almost the same distance back ? Off course its an exaggeration but this is how you get to the Times Global Village from Noida. You start from Noida, cross the DND toll bridge (5 kms), drive all the way till aashram in Delhi(another 2-3 kms) until you find the first cut on the divider, then take a U-turn and drive back to reach the destination.

But it was worth the effort. The place has been built over a huge area. Its basically an exhibition of crafts and consumer goods from various countries like South Africa, Kenya, Senegal, Pakistan, UK, China, Arab, Thailand and many more. There are models of Taj Mahal, Twin towers, Egyptian Pyramid and the Sphynx, Roman Colosseum, Eiffel Tower which are an attraction of the place. And there are too many food stalls with cuisines from various parts of India. Things are a little expensive there but not everyday do we get a chance to experience so much.

We made sure we had seen each and every section of the world and it was fun to roam around. We had Neembu paani, Aam panna and Matar kulche for the starters. Then roamed around and I bought a nice gift for my brother from one of the shops. We also had kesar kulfi and I tried Tom Yon Gong soup which is a special Thai preparation. It was awesome !! We had dinner at the "Murthal ke paraanthe" and then "Bihari tikka with paraantha" at the pakistani food stall. Finally we had "baraf ka gola" (chuski) which was a delight in itself.

A kewl evening !!

Monkey Trouble

I got ready for the office pretty early today. As soon as I opened the house door to the stairway, two monkeys (well built) were lying just 4 steps down. Seeing me one of them pretended to attack me. I closed the door immediately. Then started what I'll call "Bandar bhagao abhiyaan" which lasted for about 20-25 minutes. Many of you would have heard the "saam-daam-dand-bhed" technique. I first tried the "saam" method where I tried to talk to them. lolsss. Yes I actually talked to them and told them to go to the terrace. Pointed to the terrace with my hand and strangely one of them even went up. But the other one was not willing to move and was charging towards me time and again so had to resort to the "dand" technique. Finally brought the tennis bat and seeing that in my hand the monkey immediately ran upwards. I was'nt sure how many steps away they were from the door still so asked Saurabh to give me cover while I move downstairs. Saurabh stood at the door with the tennis bat till I left the house :) It was more of fun than any trouble actually.

A new day ..

Not everyday feels like a new day. Its only when the previous day had a lot many things and you just wanted the day to pass, the next morning is a welcome relief. Yesterday was one such day. Slogged at the office till 9:30 pm, had a task to be finished which is almost done but then, "almost" is never "complete". On my walk back called three of my friends. None of them was near their cell. Its dinner time but even after knowing everything it irritated me more. Anyway, reached home, had dinner and went for a long walk. Must have walked 3-4 kms and when I came back I was feeling good. Then fixed the mosquito net over my bed finally and for the first time I had an uninterrupted sound sleep. Woke up early and feeling all charged up to get on with today.

New albums added

Check out the new albums !!

Broadband to go free in 2 yrs

Broadband to go free in 2 yrs
JOJI THOMAS PHILIP
TIMES NEWS NETWORK [THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 2007 02:00:26 AM]

NEW DELHI: The government proposes to offer all citizens of India free, high-speed broadband connectivity by 2009, through the state-owned telecom service providers BSNL and MTNL. While consumers would cheer, the move holds the potential to kill the telecom business as we know it.

You have heard of free municipal broadband — many cities in the US have drenched themselves in wireless broadband connectivity which is freely accessible to residents. The idea is to boost economic activity in general. The government of India plans to achieve free broadband connectivity at a speed of 2 MB per second across the country, with a similar goal. Senior government officials expect to be able to achieve this goal spending only a portion of the corpus of the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF).

All telecom operators contribute 5% of their revenues every year to USOF. It is estimated that the unutilized sum from the USOF has touched Rs 9,194.12 crore by March, 2007-end.

The current technological trend is for voice calls also to shift to the internet, using voice over internet protocol (VOIP). The quality of VOIP calls, patchy to start off with, has been improving steadily over the years and by 2009, is likely to be as good as current analogue calls that establish a circuit between the calling and called parties. When that happens, revenue streams from calls would dry up and telecom companies would need to develop value-added applications to make money from the connectivity they provide for free or virtually free.

The department of telecom (DoT) will be taking a series of steps to make its plans for free broadband a reality. These include, using the USOF to set an extensive optic cable network across the country, opening up the long-distance sectors to further competition, allowing free and fair access to cable landing stations, permitting the resale of bandwidth, setting up web hosting facilities within the country and asking all internet service providers to connect to the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI).

With international bandwidth rates in India being between two-to-five times higher than the global standards, the DoT will also go all out to break the monopoly of existing national and international distance players in a bid to induce cut throat competition in this sector. “India has only a handful of NLD/ILD operators while small countries such as Singapore and Taiwan have over 30 and 60 long distance operators respectively.

Accupressure points on the foot

Dunno how effective it is but from what I have heard from others, IT DOES HELP. The picture below shows which point to press on your foot to get relief from pain in different parts of the body.

My albums

Created a Picasaweb account to post those innumerable snaps I keep clicking from my cellphone and camera. You could find links to some albums here at the right hand side of the blog :)

happy surfing !!

A night out(side)

Yesterday night was an experience of its kind. I had hardly caught sleep past midnight when there was a power cut at about 1 am. The temperatures soaring to new heights everyday and the never decreasing mosquitoes in Noida make sure that you cant sleep unless the fan runs just over your head. Infact I feel these mosquitoes have become immune to these repellants now because nothing seems to make any difference to their numbers. Anyway, so we (Atul, Saurabh and myself) came out to the balcony and started chatting and roaming (you cannot stand at one place coz the mosquitoes will eat you up in a frenzy). The power was back by 1:30 am only to be cut again at around 2:15 am. Only that this time it was different. When I came out to the balcony I realised that other houses had their coolers/ACs running in full swing and it seemed that only our house was the "blessed" one this time. I informed Atul and Saurabh about it. They went down to check if the fuse had not blown up. It was fine !!

It was really hard to make out what could be the exact problem so we soon gave up on the hope of seeing the fan move again at least for the whole night. We were far from being sleepy now, rather in a very jovial mood spoilt only by the fits of irritation due to the mosquitoes and the heat. The whole of sector 15 echoed either with our laughter or "Kallu's" voice. Kallu is the street dog in our colony whom we have named on his appearance. Soon Atul and I started weaving a story on Kallu and his life. It was fun to act stupid for a change :) Suddenly Atul had this nice idea of setting up the mosquito nets at the balcony and make some arrangement to sleep there itself. It was indeed a good idea. Soon we had our personal "tents" lined at the balcony. Due to space constraints, Saurabh had to fix his "mahal" inside the living room while Atul and I made ourselves comfortable inside our respective nets outside.

Once finding ourselves relieved from the mosquitoe trouble and sleep having vanished completely, we started joking more freely, mimicking actors, remembering episodes from laughter challenge and playing music on the cellphone. There were still one or two mosquitoes who did not have to try hard to gain entrance into the net since they were already inside. We did try unsuccessfully to get rid of them in whatever feeble light our cellphones could help us with.

I don't know the exact time when we slept again but I could hear the birds and there were traces of violet in the sky so I guess it was past 4 am. There was a light breeze which was enough for us to beat the heat. Woke up on the bell rung by the maid at 8 am. It also meant that the electricity was restored. Opened the door and went to my room to sleep again. Abandoned my "mahal" where it was and instructed the maid to clean it up. Woke up pretty late (10 am) but still the "hangover" of the last night was enough for me to not feel panicky. Rather got ready for office lazily and was on my desk at about 11.

All said, an inverter is the need of the hour at my house :)

GSM gizmo helps cops find stolen car

NEW DELHI: A chartered accountant's Mahindra Scorpio SUV stolen from outside his Munirka home in southwest Delhi late on Friday night, was recovered by a police team from Haryana just a day later — thanks to a state-of-the-art gizmo.
original article

The state-of-the-art gizmo mentioned above has been built by one of the KritiKal teams. Its Amsaki 9110, a unique wireless home/car security messaging device that gives instant alerts on your mobile phone the moment a security breach is detected. Designed to alert you wirelessly through SMS as soon as your burglar alarm system intercepts an intrusion.

It feels great to see something which was developed in our labs, now hitting the market. Though I am a little bit disappointed that our name, KritiKal, is nowhere mentioned in the entire newspaper article or even on the product website. Its only encouraging to be appreciated and known for the great work done by a company which is just 5 years old and soon growing and working hard to make a name for itself.

Why do Post Graduation ?

Just two months back the weekends were mine to spend the way I wanted to until I joined CAT coaching since I "thought" I wanted to appear for CAT. I don't deny that I want to be a manager someday but what is not clear to me is if MBA is really a requirement for it ? I have studied enough I guess. I am always ready to learn something, but studying something irrelevant is difficult now. Because I have no idea why a would-be-manager should solve Speed and Distance problems, Fluid mechanic problems, mugging up English words just to improve his vocabulary temporarily till he is done with the exams. And since the time Saturdays have been made working days in my company, I somehow avoid coming across Sundays since it is the one day I used to get for myself and that too I loose now in a 4hr session on something I consider useless. Having already paid the coaching fee, I feel bound to attend the lectures and that is simply killing me.

I did schooling because I couldn't have graduated without it lest I was a prodigy like Tathagat Avtar. Graduation was necessary to get a decent job. The question is why should I do a post graduation ? Is it because just being a graduate doesn't sound good ? Or will just being a graduate be a problem for me in terms of career growth ? I hope someone can help me out.

The following statistics might sound kiddish but I hope I have at least some people who think on the same lines. Spent almost 14 years in school. Dropped one year for engineering preparation. Then another 4 years to get a degree. That makes it 19 years. For that past 19 years I have been studying continuously and just when I got time to paint, sketch, travel, socialise and do so many other things, a stupid thought flashed that probably I should do a post graduation too. Another 3 years ? I just dont feel like wasting my time preparing for it... at least not today or tomorrow or even for the next couple of months :) People argue that you could still do everything you want even while preparing for CAT, you just have to plan you schedule accordingly. But thats not my point. Why CAT when I am happy (read satisfied) without it.

Need a break, seriously. Phew !!

Bheja Fry

A total entertainer. There is nothing special about the story but the acting and the dialogues make the movie a full dose of laughter. A must watch if you are stressed out. Vinay Pathak and Ranvir Shourie (V tv VJ's who are a well known comic pair of the recent times) are the two people to watch out for in this movie. Not many directors are able to impress with a remake (of a French comedy Le Diner De Cons) at their debut. I have'nt watched the original movie but would like to. But for now, I am happy to see this flick for the second time tonight :D Offcourse, for free :P (Office party)

Rendezvous with nature

There is something about the sunset/sunrise that has always made me felt great. And if the sun happens to set behind a river or a sea, a more perfect scene would be hard for me to imagine. Such was the experience during the boat journey to Belurmath from Dakshineswar temple a few days back when I was in Kolkata on a short trip. Away from the usual city, away from the numerous thoughts that constantly rock my brain, away from everything else and close to just nature for a change. It was evening time and the Hoogly river was all silver with the retiring sun throwing shades of gold at the water just in front of it. The buildings at the horizon looked nothing more than different sized black boxes marking the boundary between the land and the river. It was a steamer boat though I would have preferred a normal boat which could let me witness the scenery from the river for longer time :) and also because I find the sound of the oars soothing.

Belurmath is a very peaceful place while the famous Kaali temple at the Dakshineswar is crowded by the "bhakt jana". There was a huge line just to get a glimpse of the statue. At another hall in the temple some followers were singing prayers in a unified voice while others were just sitting there with closed eyes. Strangely, even after being in the middle of a crowd, i felt at peace there. Had it not been for time, I would have loved to join them in the "keertan". I am definitely going there the next time I visit Kolkata. And this time I hope I get to see the sunrise :)