K-Bakra - Part II

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

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

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


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

CVM ...

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

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

KritiKalSecureScan completes 2 years today

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

The KSS Family

PB bole to Piyush Bakra ....

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

Videos of KalaKriti's events on Youtube

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

KalaKriti rocks the stage ...

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

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

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