KritiKal shining..

The year has been great for our sister firm, KritiKal SecureScan, which is making news everywhere.

In February we won the NASSCOM Innovation award for the year 2008 (related news here). It was a moment of pride for the entire team of VehiScan as well as for the KritiKal family. I have spent more than two years on this product so it was a special feeling for me to be awarded for my efforts.

Then CNBC TV 18 covered our company in their series "Young Turks Innovators" which was our first media coverage on television. (Youtube video). The video shooting team of CNBC was at our site in IIT and also came to our office in Noida. It was in fact funny the way they were shooting the entire video but when I saw the video I was highly impressed by those people.

And today there is an article on rediff.com. (click here)

KritiKal rocks !!

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.

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 !! :)

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.

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 !

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)
  

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. :)

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 !

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.