The Smiling Moon

I was in IIT Delhi on 1st December evening preparing for a very important demo scheduled for the next day. And as I looked up in the sky to see how dark it had already become before 6, I noticed this awesome event, a gesture by the mother nature. The moon had a very thin crescent and just above it were two planets (Jupiter and Venus) at two corners of the crescent. The three heavenly bodies made a figure which we call a "smiley" :). I loved the view and wanted to reach home as soon as possible so that I could capture this moment forever. Unfortunately, till the time I reached home, the sky was already filled with fog and the trio was nowhere to be seen. I was very disappointed.

Today when I came home, the crescent of the moon had grown in these two days and the planets were still visible. Only the planets were lying somewhere else and the moon was stationed somewhere else. Suddenly an idea struck me. I thought of taking the pictures of both the planets and the moon and then aligning them in GIMP to get a picture similar to the smiling moon which happened just a couple of days ago. And I did exactly that :) Captured the moon and the planets with the same camera settings and then placed everything (had to scale down the planets photo) to get what I was desperate to capture since the time I witnessed it. Wallaah !! I did it :) Though, it would be termed fake and I would have to live with it :(, yet I have the satisfaction that by hook or by crook, I did make the moon smile once again.

Yellow dew

For more photographs: http://www.flickr.com/photos/abeerarts/

Tree plantation drive

A few KritiKal-ites had volunteered for the tree plantation drive which was organized by a social organization named “Kalpavriksha” in Mayur Vihar phase 1 at Sahyog Apartment park on 20th September. All of us had to assemble at the Sahyog Apartments at 8am. Prachi had come all the way from Lajpat Nagar, Delhi. The remaining of us (Meetu, Rana, Madan and I) were in Noida from different sectors. Madan had come to my house in sector 15 at 7am from where we decided to walk till the venue. We had entered Mayur Vihar by 7:30 but it took us half an hour to locate where exactly was Sahyog Apartments. Even the rikshaw pullers had not heard the name. I called up Prof. Prabhakar Rao and he asked me to locate Supreme Apartments and the venue was just in front of it. To my relief, people did know Supreme Apartments and one man who was on his morning walk guided us well. Madan and I finally reached there by 8:10 am. Prachi and Pradipta had already reached there. Rana was on his way and Meetu had already notified us that she would be late since she had another meeting to attend in the morning. There were a couple of more people till then. Later many more kept joining us from time to time.

There were around 50 shrubs and trees which we planted together. It was a great experience. So many strange faces around and all of us working together for a good cause. Pradipta had hurt himself while digging and was bleeding but his enthusiasm had overpowered everything else. He applied the soil on the wound and just carried on with the job. A very old lady (70+) who was there for her morning walk kept asking us if she could help us in anyway. In-fact everyone around there seemed to be motivated by the sight of people planting trees all over, covered in mud and soil. It was funny how Prachi attended a phone call. She took out her handkerchief, wrapped it on her hands and then tried pulling out her cellphone from the pocket :) Everyone gathered after planting all the trees. I was really surprised to know it was 10:30. I never realized I had spent more than 2 hours there. Finally Professor Rao thanked everyone for turning up and we thanked him for giving us such an opportunity and also asked him to let us know of any such future events as well. Then we had a brief introduction session and then finally all of us dispersed.

Pradipta took leave and the remaining of us (Meetu, Prachi, Rana and I) headed for Guruvayurappan Temple. Its a beautiful temple maintained by the local Tamilians there. The actual motivation behind visiting the temple was the food stall outside the temple. All of us were hungry and we thought that its some kind of a “langar” where they were distributing “wada and dosa”. But Meetu, Prachi and Rana suggested that we first visit the temple and then eat something. So all of us went to the temple, prayed for a while and came out. The food stall was no “langar” but that did not deter us from attacking at the stall. All of us ate like we had not eaten in ages :) And the food was too good. Madan himself being a south indian testified that it was one of the best south indian food he had eaten in a long time.

It was a very tiring but a satisfying exercise for all of us. I finally reached home at 11:45 am, took a bath and slept till late afternoon. The experience was great, though I am not that good at words to express what it was like. I had a great time and I look forward to getting more such opportunities in future.

Change your point of view

Wrote this long back ...

Yet another day gone
As the same thoughts passed by,
Does HE even care for me ?
I had a thousand reasons to cry.

Walked past a noisy traffic,
Tired I was like hell !!
How long will I have to wait for the bus ?
I wish if some one could tell.

The bus did come and I pushed myself in.
Packed till the eyes could see
Just then I locked eyes with a man,
Smiling so broadly at me.

Was there really something so amusing ?
I was finding that gesture too rude ..
Was he laughing at my misery or had we ever met before ?
That's all a negative mind could conclude

"Ohh GOD !! was I going to curse this man ?"
As if the sky fell on my head !!
He had taught me an important lesson,
With not a single word said.

On one end there was me, STANDING
Frowning for having no seat.
And on the other end was this man, SEATED
Though to stand, he had no feet !!

There were a hundred new thoughts,
Now running through my mind.
How wrong I was to call HIM rude,
When actually to me, HE had been so kind.

With so much pain all around,
Yet people manage to smile.
Is there really a scope for complaints,
Even if I had to walk a mile ?

So next time on a rough day,
When life comes hard on you.
You'll still have plenty to smile about,
Just change your point of view.

~Piyush.

RupeeMail

An email that pays you for signing up with them :) Try it out.

batch watermarking using convert command in Linux

Imagemagick is a very handy tool in linux to do a whole lot of things with images like cropping, resizing, frames, borders, watermark, compositing multiple images, etc. And with an easy to understand command line interface, it becomes easier to write a small shell script which could process images in a batch mode. I keep taking a lot of snaps and I want all the images to be watermarked with "Abeer Arts" and a nice frame around the picture to add to its beauty. I had a software called "Batch Watermarker" in Windows but the executable got corrupted with some virus (Windows sucks !!!) and I had already accumulated a huge backlog of images to be watermarked. Then I switched to linux mode and did a little bit of searching on google for watermarking with imagemagick library and finally wrote a small shell script which makes a frame around the image and also puts a text watermark. Here is the script:

if test -d $1
then
  for f in $(ls $1 | grep .jpg)
  do
    echo $f
    convert $f -font Gentium-Regular -pointsize $2 -draw "gravity southeast fill black text -5,12 'Watermark text' fill white text 0,5 'Watermark text'" $f
    convert -mattecolor black -frame 15x15+5+5 $f $f
    convert +raise 30x30 $f $f
  done
fi

$1 -> first command line argument giving the directory location containing the images
$2 -> pointsize which defines the size of the watermark text over the image

I kept the name of the script "abeerify" ;) To run the script, copy the scipt to /usr/bin and change the permissions to 755. Then on command prompt type:

/> abeerify folderpath 65
where 65 is the font size for the watermark text.

The Qutub Minar

Went to Qutub Minar with relatives last weekend and badly missed my digital camera. The plan was made randomly and nothing was planned otherwise I would have definitely brought my camera along with me. Anyway, cellphone comes handy at such situations and I managed to click a few snaps. The reflection of minar in the glass could have been much better with the digital camera.

Software Analyst to Senior Design Engineer ..

Monday, 6th June, 2005 was the day I started my professional career at KritiKal Solutions, IIT Delhi (now based in Noida). I had done an internship in GE Bangalore so I was kind of used to the corporate environment but life in a startup is different and difficult. I still very distinctly remember my first day in office which was more like a computer lab than any office. I had been alloted a system but there was no chair at my desk for me. Kapil, our then BD Manager (now the CEO of KritiKal SecureScan) smiled at me and said, "You might have to search for a chair for yourself here, Welcome to KritiKal Solutions !". I was ready for the journey ahead. Our office in IIT Delhi incubation unit was a very small room where 8-10 people used to sit and then there was an embedded systems "laboratory" upstairs of almost the equal size. The strength of the company was around 15-20 people then. Now we are around 65-70 from both our offices (KSPL and KSS). The head count is still less for a company which is 6 years old now. 3 years in my first company... is it an achievement ? a milestone ? I don't know. But definitely, its a gr8 feeling to be associated with KritiKal for so long. Many people joined and left the company, we shifted to new offices, started a product company (KritiKal SecureScan), I have seen it all. And I continue to deliver and put all my efforts to take KritiKal to new heights. KritiKal has been my passion since the time I joined. I do have complaints too, but then, matters of the family are not mentioned in public ;)

Its been a great experience working in KritiKal. There are always risks associated with a startup. But the growth as a professional is immense and very fast. There are various other responsibilities apart from your coding. Interviews, counsellings, client meetings, demonstrations, project management, team management, organizing and managing events, I have learnt so much in these 3 years at KritiKal.

When I left Hyderabad, it was a tough emotional decision for me to shift to north. My best friends were all in Hyderabad. In fact, even my school friends who were close to me had got jobs in Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune. Initially it was difficult for me to stay so far away from my friends. We formed a cultural club - KalaKriti at KritiKal where some of the more culturally active members of the company took responsibility of organizing various events in the company from time to time. While preparing for the annual day celebrations of 2007 together as a team, I got an opportunity to know my colleagues better personally. That was a great thing to have happened. That was the time when I became friends with a lot of people in KritiKal. Our annual day for 2008 is just round the corner and its time we all geared up once again for a lot more masti and fun :)

I could go on writing and the words would never stop coming. I just want to thank each and every person at KritiKal (past and present , KSS and KSPL) for making my stay such a wonderful experience at the company so far. 3 years .. oops .. 3 cheers to KritiKal !! :)

Copying files in C++

Long time no blogging ! :)

I wanted to copy the contents of one file to another file in C++ in my project and was looking for the most easiest and convenient way of doing it on the net. Finally zeroed in on the following way (found it on some other blog):

#include <fstream>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
    ifstream inFile("input.txt");
    ofstream outFile("output.txt");

    outFile << inFile.rdbuf();

    return 1;
}

Trip to my village

Went to my village Vijaygarh (not the Chandrakanta fame) last weekend (12th and 13th April). Its near Aligarh and it took me 5 hrs from Noida to reach the village. Sunday early morning I went for a walk with my camera to capture the pure beauty of the village, its people, fields, etc. Below are some of the snaps (click here to go to picasa album).

Hrishikesh trip snaps

Hrishikesh Trip - Day 2

Day 1 - 5th April

Day 2: 6th April
Day 1 had been a great experience already and with white water rafting, body surfing and cliff jumping still in store for the 2nd day, I was sure it was going to be even better that yesterday.

My first open air toilet experience
Though I had put an alarm of 5am, I woke up on my own at 4:45am. And as was expected, as soon as I woke, I had an intense urge to empty myself as quickly as possible. Took some tissue papers, a lantern, and a water bottle and started walking in search of a "suitable" location :) On my way I also met Phani and Chachaji who were also awake early for the same purpose. They did not have a water bottle with them, thanks to Nehul that he had kept one filled bottle in our tent before sleeping. Anyway, I was over with everything by the time Phani and Chachaji found a bottle for themselves and I was very glad that everyone was still asleep and I was already free and relaxed and ready to take on rafting with full energy :)

Breakfast
By 6 am, 4-5 people had woken up. I had taken out my camera to click some snaps of the surroundings. We did not see the sunrise due to high mountains all around but we were glad to see that it was going to be a nice clear day free of any water logged clouds. I took a lot of snaps before breakfast. And since Chachaji was also with me, he made sure that his photographer (me) had enough work to do on his model (chachaji). Breakfast was served around 7am. There was "aloo poori", "bread butter" and "omlette" for breakfast. I had my breakfast sitting near a cliff seeing the silver water of ganga flowing with full vigor. The sunlight that was falling on the river water and also on the wet rocks had made it look like silver jewelery and pearls all around it.

Two buses had been arranged to take us to Shivpuri from where we were to start our rafting. Nehul and I started the task of emptying the camp and sending everyone to get on the bus as soon as possible. The Innova driver was another character. When all the ladies (some with their kids too) had to go till the main road which went through some tiring and rough path, the driver had his own weird reasons not to take them in his vehicle. We had asked him to at least take the ladies in his car while the boys would come on their own. That time he said that his vehicle will get damaged going up and down this rocky road. But later he got into Innova, collected some guys whoever were still in the camp and left for the main road above.

Anyway, we reached Shivpuri where we were briefed about the adventure and risk involved in rafting. We were given some instructions that we had to follow while rafting and we also got the rafting gear (life jacket, helmet and a paddle).


Rafting
The rapids in the river were graded from 1 to 6+. A 6+ grade rapid meant a waterfall and only professionals were allowed to get into such a rapid. The max grade rapid we were to face was grade 4 (Golf Course rapid and Roller Coaster rapid). Our raft captain had warned us for the worst and also told us what to do in case of the raft turning upside down. We first had a warmup rowing in still water before we started for the BIG THING. In my raft we were 8 of us plus our captain. Deepak, Smitha, Ramakant ji, Panthri, Phani, Nehul, NS and me. Smitha was made to sit in the middle while the rest of ur were on the periphery of the raft with paddles in our hands. The first rapid was a grade 2 rapid and still I was a little scared but more excited about it. When I saw the raft just in front of us go through the rapid, I was like W.O.W. its gonna be fun. And then finally our raft went into the rapid too. And our trainer used to shout "Bolo ganga maiyya ki ...." and we all shouted in unison .. "Jai" .. this happened everytime we plunged into a rapid. And the experience was great. The huge waves try to push you and your boat to the other side so its very important to have a balanced seating on both sides of the boat. That is why on the right side of the raft were Nehul, NS and me (Nehul and Me are on the heavier side) while the left hand side was occupied by Deepak, Panthri, Phani and Ramakant ji. When we passed the first rapid, we all were excited and charged up to face the second one which was a grade 4 rapid. The grade 4 rapid had created a wall in front of our raft at one point. At that time our raft was surrounded by waves on 3 sides - right, left and front. But we emerged winners as did all other rafts too :) Once all the major rapids were crossed, our trainer asked us to jump in the river if we wanted to. And as if all were waiting for his instructions. Except for Smitha, we all jumped into Ganga and floated with the boat for quite a long time. That was a great experience too. Floating in the river and admiring the nature all around. It was splendid. NS is very particular about cleanliness and so Smitha and I had a great time pestering him while he was in water. Specially Smitha, she used to shout that she can see something dirty floating and coming towards NS and he used to feel disgusted and jump inside water and shout that someone please get me back on the boat. That was real fun. We also played another prank with NS while on raft. NS had switched places with Smitha so now he was in the middle facing the river. AT one point our captain just jumped into the water since he was feeling the heat. We all shouted to NS, "look our captain has suddenly fallen into the river and is nowhere to be seen.". And we all gave an award winning performance there on the raft. The expression on NS' face was worth capturing. he was all scared and confused about the future of the raft and his own future. I sm still laughing while I write this incident. No doubt why we call NS "pups". He IS too cute. When we all were assembled at the starting point I wanted to get on a raft with people of my choice. People I enjoy most with. But I am glad to mention here that I enjoyed a lot with my team while rafting. All 8 of us had great fun. And that is why we call it a team exercise. Its all about putting up a combined effort with your team no matter how close or stranger you are to each other. Nothing matters once you are on the raft. It was a great experience for me.

Cliff Jumping
Just two rapids away from our camp (by now I am used to measuring the rafting journey distance in terms of rapids), there was a halt where people were jumping from a 20-22 ft high cliff into the river below. It was a kindof short trek to reach till the cliff. And there was a huge line of people till the foot of the cliff waiting for their turn. All this while I kept thinking should I do this or not. I asked NS whether he knew how to swim, and he said he didn't and yet he was heading towards the cliff top eagerly. That somehow encouraged me too and I simply followed him till the top. Just before me was Rashid who went till the edge of the cliff and then couldn't jump at that time due to fear. As he turned back I got a little scared as to what lied ahead. The trainer also shouted angrily, "Jinko darr lagta hai woh na aaye yahaan" (Those who are scared should not come till the cliff). He used to count till 3 after which we had to jump. I could hear people shouting from everywhere, "Don't look down, just look in the front and jump". Right after Rashid was my turn. Even after everyone asking not to look down I just couldn't help but look down right into the depth and the water below. The trainer started counting 1...2...and without waiting for a "3" to come, I just jumped. Before I hit the water, I had closed my eyes. And within 3-4 seconds I was floating in the water. I opened my eyes, looked around, and whoa !! I was alive :) I looked at the cliff from where I had jumped and I could see Rashid giving a second try. And I screamed from there, "Rashid sir, kood jao, kuchh nahin hoga" (Rashid sir, just jump, nothing would happen).

But the adventure was not over for me. People after jumping from the cliff were getting back on the ground and heading towards their rafts. I thought why get back on the ground. Since I am floating and there is a line of rafts till my raft at a distant corner, I will just float till my raft taking support from the rafts in between. Nice idea and I was enjoying floating from one raft to another in water till I saw a huge gap between the current raft and mine. Before I could think of anything, the flowing water had already thrown me right at the center of the river. By now I was in the middle of the flowing river, far away from both the sides. I shouted "Hello, Help!" in dispair. My friends saw me and they told me (later) that since I was smiling they thought that I know swimming and that I am enjoying there in the middle of the sea. But soon they realised that I am actually in trouble. There was a grade 2 rapid some 60-70 meters away. Rohit threw a rope towards me but it could not reach me since I had reached too far from the raft. I just told myself there is no way I can drown since I am wearing a life jacket. All I have to do is swim till my raft. I started flapping my hands like a bird and easily swam till my raft. Thankfully the current of water was not forceful enough and I did not have to apply too much force to my flapping to cut through the river. I was infact very happy that I could handle this situation with a cool head.

We again got back on the raft, went through our last rapid named "Thank you, good bye" and reached our camp. There we played in the water for some more time. We also played a game of holding our breath inside water. And Anoop was just too good at that. I always came second. Others used to come out of water very soon and the competition was always left between Anoop and me. But Anoop had to be pulled out of water everytime otherwise he seemed quite cozy inside :)

After playing there in water, I got back to my tent, dried up and changed. Lunch had been served. All were looking fresh even after a grueling session of rafting. I had a heavy lunch and then by 3pm we all left the camp and headed towards the bus stand where the bus was waiting for us.

Back Home
Everyone fell asleep in the bus since all were tired. Had our dinner at Cheetal and then we again regained some energy. Chatted a lot and reached office by 11:30. It was a great trip and the hangover is still not gone even after 3 days. The photographs have come out too good and will soon upload all the photographs and also put some pics in this article as well.

Hrishikesh Trip - Day 1

The entire KritiKal family went for a trip to Hrishikesh for rafting/camping/trekking last weekend (5th and 6th April). We had a great time and therez so much to write. I will try to summarize it as briefly as possible yet covering the entire trip :)

Boarding the bus
The bus was to start at 4:00 am "SHARP" as mentioned in the mail to us. The assembly point was KSPL office. And what was surprising to see was that none of the KSPL junta was there at 4:00 am while all the people from KSS were dot on time. By 4:30 am, everyone from KSS was there while I could see only 3-4 people from KSPL. Anyway, the bus finally started at around 5:30am from the office. We were in total 49 people and we had a bus and an innova with us. 7 people got into Innova and from there on they stayed in Innova for the entire trip. In the bus we were 42 people and a lot of mastee was in store for us :)

The journey till Hrishikesh
Everyone was bubbling with energy in the bus. As always, I preferred being a back bencher. There was Nehul, Panthri, Prayas(g), Vaibhav, Joy, Charu, Neha, Pam, Jignes, Rana, Phani and me. We kept cracking jokes and narrating funny incidents to each other. Nt and Apoorva were seated somewhere in the middle of the bus but the energy that was being transmitted from our gang at the back forced them to join us too :D And then suddenly we started remembering the most "Thakele" (idiotic/crappy) songs of bollywood and it was real fun to sing those songs. The winning song (crappiest of them all) was "Tu mera superman, Main teri Lady...Ho gaya hai apna pyaar already" .. lol. Still we were missing one person greatly there in our sabha. It was our beloved CHACHAJI who was busy listening to songs on his mp3 player. But soon enough he joined us too. And as is famous for chachaji (petrol khatam hi nahin honda hai), we did a lot more bakar, a lot more tp and a lot more singing of crappy songs. Infact chachaji came up with a "war of the DJ's" performance with his "Gutar Gutar" feat songs. lol. Every song we sang was remixed by chachaji on the fly in real time. After producing enough noise (sort of music), we switched to some solo performances. Joy's sister had a lovely voice so we started with her. Then it was my turn. Pam volunteered on her own after my song and boy she sings really well. That was a surprise element for me. She sang "Lambi Judai" and it was very close to the original. Then we requested for another song from her. I requested Wasim bhai also to sing a song and he sang a very melodious old number and he sang it too well. But the star performer for that hour was our own "funny" .. errrr .. Phani. We first asked him to sing a song. When he agreed, we made him sit in the center so that he was surrounded by all of us. And just when he had finished deciding upon a song, all of us started chanting the Hanuman Chalisa (Now you have to meet two basic requirements to understand the connection between Phani and Hanuman Chalisa and only then can you actually enjoy this incident. One, you have to be a KSPLite and two, you have to be one among our gossip gang which I cannot reveal since its an undercover group which is active all the time). Anyway, so Rana, Apoorva and Nehul sang the entire 7-8 minutes hanuman chalisa that too looking straight into Phani's face. And the look on Phani's face was worth watching :D And in between he tried joining everyone in singing the chalisa but whenever he tried that, he saw everyone was staring at him and he used to stop. The whole episode was too much fun and i was literally on the floor laughing.

We stopped at a restaurant named "Cheetal" in between which was a beautiful place but very crowded since it had self service. Except for the eating area, the entire place was beautiful filled with flowers all around. Had our breakfast there, clicked some snaps and then moved on. All this while it kept raining very slowly and it was certain that our trekking is almost canceled in this rain. I was a little disappointed to see the clouds and so much raining all along. I just prayed that soon the skies are cleared. We had lunch at Madhuban (Iskon temple's restaurant in Hrishikesh). Our bus stopped at the bus station and from there we headed towards the camp in Tata Sumos.

Reaching the Camp
We reached the camp around 3:30pm. It was still drizzling. But the scene was amazing. There were mountains all around, and ganga was flowing in the valley. And on the banks of ganga was our camp. The sound of flowing river was very exciting. There were 26 tents, each having two beds. We were in total 51 (including Ashwani and his wife who had come by their own car). There was a shaded sitting area with some 10-15 chairs, a dining area, a kitchen and 3 toilets. Toilets were dry toilets with pits. I had already heard so much about these toilets that I did not even go near them. I wonder if anyone used those toilets. For ladies there was an arrangement at a Hotel in the city for getting fresh. We were briefed about the general rules of the camp and about the plan for the remaining day and the next day. After the introduction, Nehul and I had to do a little searching for a tent for ourselves since we were the last to arrive at the camp. Nehul had volunteered to be the event manager and I had volunteered to help him :) We took the last cab for the camp after ensuring that no one was left behind. Lokesh, Sandeep, Ashwani and his wife were the last ones whom we picked and then left for the camp. We got a tent in no time and I quickly put on my floaters. We then played volleyball for a long time. Playing volleyball in sand was fun and a first time experience for me. I over heard someone saying that he was going to the beach. I was very excited to hear that there was a beach too near by. Also, I realized that chachaji had been missing for quite some time now. I also headed towards the beach and there he was, inside the river screaming. I also jumped into the water. The river was chilled. For the first few moments, I felt like a thousand needles pricking my body. But once I got accustomed to the cold water, I stopped feeling anything. We played for a very long time in water. Had a long photo session and then returned to the camp.

Bon fire and Dinner
I dried myself and changed clothes and headed towards the bon fire area. It had become very cold but the positive part as that the sky was staring to clear, there were more and more stars appearing in the sky as the night progressed. We played dumb charades but I don't remember anything interesting happening in the game worth mentioning. I felt we could have planned a little more games for the bon fire. Anyway, dinner was served around 9pm. And a very common discussion at the dinner was what's it gonna be tomorrow morning when every one would have to attend to the nature's call. No one was going to use the dry toilets provided to us which meant we would have to do it in the open air somewhere. lol. And there were plannings and suggestions for the same. I had a heavy dinner not thinking much about the morning. But yes i did think about it. And I kept an alarm of 5am in the morning when I thought I would get over with everything while everyone would be asleep. After dinner Nehul, Phani, Karthik, Rana and I retired to my tent and we shared our childhood experiences which we thought were embarrassing or disgusting. But our conversation did not last long as everyone of us was too tired and we really wanted a good sleep. So we all wished each other a good night and slept by 11pm. I was very happy with how the day had gone. My first time in a camp, playing in the beach, bathing in the river ganga. And I was also excited about rafting which was the highlight of the entire trip.

How to play rmvb in Ubuntu

Did some searching on google and landed up reading the following article which helped me play rmvb files with mplayer without any issues: Hope it proves to be help to others too ..

How to play rmvb files in Ubuntu

our great media

Iske aage hum
Aur kya kahein
Jaanam samjha karo :)

ACM (2004) Roorkee center results

I had represented my college (IIIT Hyderabad) in 2004 in ACM programming contest along with Jagan and Vandana. Just found this link and was somewhat happy to see my name there :) Our team had stood 8th all over India. This contest has some good memories attached with it. We had an internal programming contest in our college to select the team which would represent our college at the ACM ICPC, Roorkee. Programming is something that I have enjoyed since school days. And I might not be a genius at algorithms but yes I do manage to come up with a semi efficient solution pretty quickly. And when I was among the top rankers in that internal programming contest, many were surprised. But since then, people know me as a good coder. I was thrilled to qualify and the idea of representing my college was very exciting and a thing of pride.

The ACM Programming Contest we participated in was for the Kanpur Site and was conducted at two centers - Kolkata and Roorkee. The results were to be a combined list from both the centers though (as given in the link above). At the roorkee center, There was a small prize distribution ceremony to congratulate all the participants and award the winning team. But there was a small surprise element in store for us too. Since we stood 3rd at the roorkee center alone, we were also given a prize and our team was also called at the stage. Not that coming 3rd was any good as far as the final result was concerned but amongst all the disappointment that we could not solve more questions, this gesture was a kind of a relief and consolation for us :)

And now the biggest surprise which I think if Jagan or Vandana are reading here, they are gonna kill me or may be curse me :P I still have all the certificates of that contest with me ;) I don't remember how I ended up having them and why I did not distribute. But I have them safely in a file. Infact even Prof. PJ Narayanan's certificate is with me. He was the coach of our team. Thankfully Jagan is reachable since we both are settled in Noida for now. I'll have to post the other two certificates. All this off course after finding where exactly is that file which contains these certificates ;)

Bikaner, Rajasthan snaps

Patni Top & Jammu snaps

Kota snaps

Ubuntu rocks !

Installed Ubuntu - 7.1 today on my laptop and I am very happy using it right now. Downloaded the live CD from here. And then installed using the liveCD. It took almost 20 minutes to complete the installation and I had nothing to worry about my wireless and ethernet card drivers, sound card, screen resolution, touchpad, etc. All the drivers were automatically loaded at the time of setup. What more, the package manager is so easy to use that you can select any package that you want to install additionally. I am not sure how friendly this distribution is from a developer point of view but yes I do find it as a good alternative to the buggy windows. Installed picasa and azureus (my two basic requirements) and they are working just fine.

I hope I don't have to switch back to windows for a long long time (forever ?) ..

Koshish Karne walon ki haar nahi hoti

lehron se dar kar nauka paar nahi hoti
himmat karne walon ki haar nahi hoti....

nannhi cheenti jab dana lekar chalti hai
chadhti deewaron par sau baar fisalti hai
mann ka vishwas ragon mein sahas bharta hai
chad kar girna, gir kar chadna, na akharta hai
aakhir uski mehnat bekar nahi hoti
koshish karne waalon ki haar nahi hoti....

dubkiyan sindhu mein gota khor lagata hai
ja ja kar khali haath laut aata hai
milte na sehej hi moti pani mein
badhta dugna utsah issi heiraani mein
mutthi uski khali har baar nahi hoti
himmat karne walon ki haar nahi hoti....

asafalta ek chunauti hai sweekar karo
kya kami reh gayi dekho aur sudhaar karo
jab tak na safal ho, neend chain ki tyago tum
sangharshon ka maidaan chhod mat bhago tum
kuch kiye bina hi jai jai kaar nahi hoti
himmat karne walon ki haar nahi hoti
himmat karne walon ki haar nahi hoti....

~ Shri Harivansha Rai Bachchan

Roohafza tea

Had come back from jogging in the morning and a little later Saurabh (my house matie) also woke up and started making tea. As always, he asked me if I would have tea too. And suddenly I saw roohafza bottle on the fridge and an idea struck me. Why not mix some roohafza in my tea instead of sugar ;) Obviously Saurabh wasn't game for anything like this. But anyway, since I take tea without sugar, Saurabh poured some tea in my cup before mixing sugar for himself. And I poured a teaspoon of roohafza in my tea. And I must say the risk was worth taking. :) lol. It tasted good. Or rather let me rephrase my sentence. It wasn't bad enough to have not drunk the roohafza tea at all. Though I must confess I can't have my tea that way always.

Another of my weird experiments with food accomplished :) And the only person I know who can appreciate these things is my very dear friend and a true saggi, AC. He has already done a phd in these kinds of experiments. And obviously, some experiments work, while others don't. But that has never stopped us from trying different things from time to time.

I remember one of my experiments which was really pathetic. I had mixed hajmola tablet in my tea once expecting it to become something like ayurvedic/masala tea. But it was horrible ;) Though at the time I did this act, I pretended that it tasted awesome. ;) Obviously I did not want my colleagues to know at that point of time since they were already frowning at what I was doing with my tea. So I just wanted to prove them wrong :P

Movie Review : RACE

Value for money ! It had been a long time since I saw any movie in a cinema hall. But finally it was worth going. RACE has a lot of style, too many twists and turns (in fact so many twists that after a point you don't feel surprised at all). Saif, Akshay, Anil Kapoor and Bipasa Basu have given good performances. Katrina was cute as usual. Sameera Reddy was there for god knows what reason ? May be just a show piece in the movie. I still remember that innocent Sameera Reddy making a rangoli outside her house in the music video of "Aur Ahista Keejiye Baatein" by Pankaj Udhaas. But bollywood has eaten up her innocence (and her clothes too) i guess. Music is good too but most of the songs do not fit into the movie anywhere. Its more like the songs have been randomly embedded into the movie at different places so that the viewers get some time to relax amidst all the suspense and drama and some food for the eye from time to time(you know what i mean). Definitely NOT a movie to watch with your parents. Go with your friends and you'll really enjoy the movie. If you are one of those viewers who prefer meaningful cinema, then probably this one is not your types.

Rating: 4/5

Sleeper bus...

I had never traveled in a sleeper bus before though had heard about it a many times. Since the time I got my return ticket to New Delhi booked in a sleeper bus I was in a constant tension as to what are these sleeper buses like ? Did a little searching on google and found an article in some blog where the guy had a terrible experience in these kind of buses and he actually ended up in a bleeding nose. Whoa !! Now that was a little scary. Moreover, how would I fit in the sleeper berth ? Are they the same as in trains or something different ?

Anyway, all my apprehensions and fears were gone when I actually boarded the bus. I loved the arrangement altogether. The interior was divided into two columns, each column further divided into an upper half and a lower half. The upper half had sleeper berths while the lower half had seats. One column had single sleeper berths while the other column had double berths. And beneath each berth were two seats. Each berth had a fan attached at one corner and since my bus was non-ac, the windows could be opened at your will. And for my height of 5ft 8in, I think it was comfortable enough to have a sound sleep. Though sometimes you were tossed like a salad whenever there were rough roads.

On the whole, I would give sleeper buses a THUMBS UP. The ticket for a non-ac sleeper bus from Lucknow to New Delhi cost me Rs. 370. And the journey time was also perfect. If took off from lucknow at 7:30 pm and dropped me at Noida at 8:00 am.

Holi Surprise ..

Took an Auto Rickshaw from alambagh bus stand and proceeded for home. All the way I kept planning how to surprise everyone at home. I just love giving surprises to my friends and family. Its an amazing feeling to see that delight on their face, that expression of unexpected joy.

I got down from the auto much before my house. Then called up mummy and started talking generally about what's it gonna be for lunch and that how much I was missing being at home ;) Mummy said that I should come by Bus in that case. Then she said but it would be very tiring to come by Bus :( Her tone had that genuine feeling of concern. I told her that everyone in my office had already gone home and I was feeling very bad and that I so much wanted to come to Lucknow. Mummy said, "To bhaag ke aa jao yahaan" (Then just run and come home quickly). And I asked her should I do that ? And she said yes !! And by now I had reached the gate of my house. I simply told her, "In that case just come to the gate and you'll find me" ;) And for a moment mummy couldn't get what I was talking. And the next moment she could see me standing at the door still holding the receiver of the telephone in her hand. And she shouted on the phone itself, "Tujhe to main maar lagaungi, badmaash" (I am gonna beat you naughty fellow). And then she came running towards the gate and ahhhhh, that expression on her face was out of the world. I could have travelled any distance to see her jump in such joy. Simply amazing. Mummy couldn't stop smiling for the next 10 minutes. We hugged each other and mummy whispered to me, "Papa ko nahin bataayenge" (We will not tell papa). Dadaji was equally surprised to see me. He was watching television in his room when he heard our noise. And then when I entered his room, he too almost jumped out of his bed in excitement. I was really glad and too happy.

Had lunch and then I slept for good 3 hours. Papa came from office around 6:30 pm. I was surfing the net then. Quickly switched off the lights in the room and waited for papa to come inside. When papa entered the lane to the living room, I came out of the living room and Papa just had a quick glance at me and then walked past me another 2-3 steps. And it was then that he realized that what he had seen a couple of seconds ago was his son standing before him. And he simply shouted and turned back and then we kept hugging each other for the next one minute. And papa kept shouting, "hello", "what a nice surprise". Wow. It was great. Just awesome !! Its always great to be home. And if the visits are something special like this one, then its all the more memorable and exciting.

Thanks to GP too for bringing me to Lucknow and then giving me the idea to surprise everyone at home rather than informing them before hand. My day was made :) Gonna have great fun for the coming couple of days !

Wishing everyone a very Happy Holi and a Happy Easter too !

Enjoy the weekend.

My first bus journey to Lucknow

Yesterday I had left KSS and was on my way to KSPL in the evening when GP told me that he was leaving for Lucknow that very night itself and if I also wanted to come or not. Since the morning I was seeing everyone at office leave for their homes and was already feeling bad that I did not book my tickets in advance and now everything was waitlist. But when I talked to GP, I instantly decided to leave for Lucknow with him in the Bus. At that time I had no thought whatsoever about how will I return from Lucknow to Delhi, about the tiring 14hour journey in the Bus, etc etc. Spoke to my boss and the PL and was really glad that they allowed me a leave for thursday at such a short notice.

Reaching Bus stand was also a kind of a struggle. Left home at 8pm but caught in a heavy traffic jam somewhere near the EDM mall, Ghaziabad. Finally we decided to walk till the AnandVihar Bus stand since the traffic did not seem to get any better soon. Walked for more than a kilometer to the bus stand only to find that the last deluxe bus for lucknow was full. I was a little disappointed to hear that but now that I had made my mind to go home, I was ready to travel in an ordinary bus even if it meant a 14hour exercise. But out of nowhere, another guy who was to go to lucknow just like us, came to our rescue (sort of ;)). He told us that he had seen another deluxe bus standing at a distant corner of the stand but he wasn't sure if that bus would go at all or not. So we (6 guys in total) proceeded in search of that bus and within 5 minutes we did find that bus to my great relief :)

The only problem with that bus was that it was an AC coach with AC NOT working ;) And since the windows were fixed, it had soon become very hot inside the bus. The conductor opened one roof top window for some fresh air. Also, there were small fans located at every alternate row. Conductor promised us that as soon as the bus starts, hw would switch on the fans. He also told us that out of all the fans 2-3 fans did not work. I was just keeping my fingers crossed that the fan just over me should not be among the non working lot. The ticket cost was Rs. 280. The bus finally started at 10:30pm. And as was expected (i dunno why though), the fan over me was among the faulty ones ;) Hehe. Anyway, it wasn't much of a problem. Since it was night time, the atmosphere was cool. And then GP and I chatted all along the journey, even watched a movie in between to pass time when we were tired of chatting :)

Finally, reached Alambagh bus stand, Lucknow at 11:30am today. And it felt great to be home without any planning and so suddenly when just a day ago I was thinking of sleeping whole day on Holi in Noida. And now the next thing on my mind was to surprise everyone at home ....

google search ...

Wow. Just realized that if one searched for "GIMP transparent object" right now on google, my tutorial on Creating transparent images in GIMP would be shown as the top result. :)

GIMP Power again ..

Did some designing work last week. Designed our company's T-Shirt and a wedding e-invitation card for one of my school batch-mates. Both of them wore done in GIMP. And since the time I have learnt about layers in GIMP, life has been easier while creating designs.

The picture looks more like a UN or an NGO logo but most people in the company were in its favour so it was chosen anyway. The basic idea behind this picture is that the road symbolizes growth, progress, and a journey into tomorrow. And the white dove is a symbol for peace and security. Therefore I have tried to depict the motto of the company, "Creating a secure tomorrow" in this picture. The white feather has 3 colored segments in the center which represent KritiKal SecureScan company logo in an artistic form. Any person who has seen the logo before will be able to connect with it.


I had no idea how to make a wedding invite since I had never done anything like that before too. Tosh made my life pretty simple by letting me decide completely what has to be done. I was infact surprised a little that he had so much faith in my creativity :) He just asked Ganpati ji to be there in the card. I did some searching on the google images for a nice background to start with. Found one at www.poojasdesigns.com and got started from there. The original design was too bright for a background, so faded it a little, applied a canvas texture and then added some more design to it on my own. Also put a watermark label of the site from where I had picked the background since I felt it should have been done. Rest of the card just happened. lol. Wrote the message and then referred to one of my best friends who is very good at English. I mean she is better than me so you can just imagine how good she would be :P .. haha, just kiddin. She suggested some changes here and there, some words re arranged and the final thing is what is shown here.


I actually enjoy doing these kind of things. After a long time I felt my Sunday did not go waste. Something came out of it.

Btw, today I could not win over my dilemma, went back to sleep again ;) (refer to this) But right after this post, I am going to exercise and sweat it out to compensate for my laziness in the morning.

Have a nice day all !

An interesting observation ...

I can boast to call this observation as my original since I haven't come across this anywhere till now and nor have I heard anyone pointing it out to me. I made this observation long back when I was in college and suddenly this thought struck me as some enlightenment that most of the feminine names in our country end up in a vowel :) I dunno if it sounds very obvious to you when you read it now but of course its something too general and yet no one ever mentioned it or found interesting enough to put it somewhere. And there were always some names which appealed to me more than the others and when I observed this I could actually find a pattern in the names that I like a lot. Payal, Palak, Mehek, Sonal, Snehal are some names which I like a lot. And all these end in a consonant. They are some of those names which are unique in their own way. But not all names that end in a consonant appeal to me and also there are many names which end in a vowel yet they appeal to me.

Can a thought / observation be patented ? lol. Would be glad to know if someone else too noticed it for once...

Jogging event

Ha ! Yeah its an event for me. Right from pushing myself out of the bed till I get back home from jogging is a series of events. There is so much to observe around and also a lot of things that are going on in your mind while you are running or walking. After 4 days of bunking I was up again today at 6:45am. I must accept that its only those 15-20 minutes I need to survive and battle out that I take to get ready for jogging. Because that is the time I am in a big time dilemma of going back to sleep, or go out for jogging. And even though the choice should not be hard enough to make, yet I do get back to sleep sometimes promising that I would do some exercise at home itself or else would jog in the evening - NONE of which ever happens ;)

So today the battle of the dilemma was won and I was out of my house by 7:05 am. The sun was already out which means I will have to leave earlier from tomorrow, which means I will have to get up earlier from tomorrow, which means I will have to sleep early from today :) Anyway, the park where I go for jogging is about 1km from my house. I walk to the park, which in a way warms me up too before jogging. On my way to the park I see school kids with their parents (mostly mothers) waiting for their buses, some private bus owners taking a bath under a hand pump and cleaning their bus. Today there was a policeman stationed near a drain which was kind of deep and there was a fence laid around that region. And the whole area was stinking. And the look on that policeman's face was speaking his mind. No one could stand at that place for more that a minute but he was there all the time.

Traffic was already high since people had started for their offices and anyway not everyone goes through the dilemma that I go through each morning ;) I like the park where I jog for more than one reasons. The jogging track is a 3km track with milestones every 100 meters. So you always know how much you have jogged and how much remains. Its lush green from the inside with a big fountain at a corner too which is hot spot for the kids that come in the morning with their parents on sundays and holidays. On each of the lamp poles you'll find a speaker attached which plays the radio. Anyway, I have my earphones plugged in so I have my own playlist to listen to.

Then there are so many different people who exercise in the morning there and the whole sight motivates me. People of different age, different sizes and shapes ;), some really cute girls, and a few body builders too. When I started jogging in this park some 4 months back, I wasn't sure how long was the jogging track. And I kept jogging until after 1400 meters I gave up. And I walked the rest of the path to find that the track was 3000 meters. I wondered if anyone ever took even a round of that track. And there are many you know. And I am glad that I am one of them too now.

Each day I get on the track, 2 kms are somewhat fine but the last 1 km is a struggle again. Somewhere in the corner of my mind a thought keeps reappearing that "Piyush you could stop, anyway 2km is also too much". But then someone would just pass me jogging, or from the other direction walking and I would tell myself if he can, then why can't I. And somehow I push myself that last 1 km. It may sound funny but sometimes I start following a runner trying to get past him. Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I dont. But while trying that, I complete my 3km quota for the day. :)

A few things which I HAVE to do are:

-> Get up early no matter when I sleep.
-> Be regular
-> Increase the limit from 3km to a little more every week.

My school memories

Click here for snaps

St. Francis College, Lucknow where I spent the most memorable 12 years of my life. Found these photographs in Aniruddh's orkut album yesterday, thanks to both Aayush for telling us about Ani's album and to Ani for posting these "rare" and "precious" snaps. I was literally jumping in my room when i saw these snaps and have been in a trance ever since. Can't stop smiling even now. And with so many people from my school batch still in touch, its a very nostalgic feeling to remember those old times with them. Also, its very funny to observe how we were at that time and what we look like now. If I try to remember some names then here is a list.

Farhan, Gaurav, Tosh, Vaibhav, Saif, Shiv, Pappu, Vipul, Ajit, Kar, Mathur, Jitesh, Mallu, Appu Darling, Farhat, Pranay Chopra, Pranav Prabhat, Deepanjan, Manas, Aniruddh, Ravi Raj, Sameer, Mohit Vij, Ankit Rathore, Navendu Mishra, Ankit Chhabbra, Rishi Anand, RituRaj, Rahul Rastogi, Praveen Saxena, Bhuvanshu Srivastava, Tosh, Naman, Francis Wu, Neel Jyoti Sanyal, Ashish Jaggi, Vivek Pratap Sahi, Raminder, Sudipt Mangal, Shivam, Pawas Shukla.

ahhhh ... wish i could go back to school !! :)

Long time ...

Its been a long time. Haven't been to blogging ways off late. Anyway, a quick update :) This year has been a traveling year for me. In the last couple of months I have been to Jammu, Patni Top, Meerut, Kota, Bikaner and Chandigarh. Attended three marriages. First one in Jammu of one of my colleagues getting married to my senior. Then cousin brother's wedding in Kota. And finally one of my best friends - Manjeet - tying the knot in Bikaner.

On the personal front, it has been a mixed bag this year with equal share of good and bad days till now. But as of now, having a great time :) Work-wise, days are hectic as usual.

Will soon share the photographs of my various trips till now.

And trying to be regular once again .... :)

My first recorded instrumental

Nothing great about it if you know how to play a keyboard. I was amazed to see some great instrumental videos on youtube and that is what motivated me to give a try too. I am nowhere near to being called a good keyboard player but I will be among the better ones soon if i can continue my practice. Wish me luck. and enjoy the music :)

Happy Birthday Netaji !!!

It is a very sad sight that a hero, a great freedom fighter and a great leader - Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose went unnoticed today in one of the leading newspapers - The Times of India. Every year on 23rd January, we celebrate Netaji's birthday and in this nation of the Hrithik Roshans and the Shahrukh Khans, we manage to remember the real heroes at least on their birthdays and sometimes even on our independence day. But today as I ran through the main page of The Times of India, i did not find even a line worth mention about Netaji. Have the "times" of "India" become so awry that a leading bulletin could forget a great freedom fighter. I did not even care to look into the following pages since Netaji definitely deserves a place on the main page. What was more saddening were the kind of stories that did find a place on the first page. Bruni, French president Nicolas Sarkozy's girlfriend, has opted not to accompany him on his India tour. And for a detailed story, turn to page "xyz". What crap !!

The media has a great role in shaping the mindset of the citizens of a nation. What people wake up reading in the morning, see in the news while eating is what they think and discuss and make an opinion about. It is high time our media went through a transformation. I would be glad to read the achievements of our people than read a detailed pictorial coverage of molestation of some NRI girls by a mob. And I definitely feel that by covering such a news in so much details, the molestation of those girls has continued. Only this time, its the responsible media molesting them than some drunk men.

Wishing Netaji a very happy birthday once again. May his soul find peace.

~Piyush.