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 .... :)