Random images from my flickr stream...

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26/03/07

SomeOne Listening?

I feel all the ads that feature the great players from the Hoo Haa Indian Cricket team should be banned from air, for atleast the time they win a tournament against some good teams, as a mark of respect towards their excellent performance in the world cup...

24/03/07

The Pursuit of Happy-ness

There is no WHY in Happyness, it has to be spelt with an I...

Fair point... why ask questions... let Happiness be with I only...

The thought comes from one of the best movies I have seen of Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness... A movie based on the true story of Chris Gardner, who used to sell Bone Marrow Density Scanners and struggled to make ends meet... His wife left him with a 5 year old kid, and there were times when he stayed in shelter homes, and churches, and even the bathrooms of the metro stations in the night..

Determination, and hard work saw him get a job as a broker @ Dean Witter Reynolds, where he worked/got trained as an intern for no salary for 6 months...

During all this time, this guy never let his son down...

Coming to the movie.. Will Smith and his real life and the reel life son Jaden Christopher Syre Smith have done wonders in this movie... The way both of them have played their respective roles, is something that is beyond words for me... Keep it up Smiths...

About the movie experience now... Friday night... thanks to the India Srilanka Cricket match... the theatre did not have a long line... none infact... However, I have a feeling that there would not be any for most of the english movies here... I have not really seen people who are comfortable talking in English... I am assuming the charm for english movies except action would not be much around here either...

So loud strange songs playing in the mall... a decent one though, no lines... and the theatre with two kinds of seats...
Silver : the front three rows with minimal leg room for 120 bucks..
Gold : the rest of the rows with i guess better leg room and seats...

Anyway, there were only about 20 people in the hall with a capacity of over 200 so the movie was a good experience...

Oh, and irrespective of you watching the movie... do check out the links...

22/03/07

Can the Left Be Right?

I try not to walk with the traffic on the left side of the road... I am afraid someone would hit me from the back without me getting any second to even save myself...

So I want on the right side... but they say the right side is the wrong side... however, I say that the right side is the RIGHT side to walk... atleast you see the traffic coming your way and can make some space to save yourself before you get hit because of someone else..

How can the left be the right side? especially when you have to move a li'il towards the road if there is a vehicle parked there... and then you have to look back and wait to see that the road is safe... too much trouble...

I say folks... Left side is not the right side... The right is the RIGHT side...

19/03/07

Sadistic Pleasure...

I drove to Delhi this last Friday... and returned yesterday night...

And needless to say driving the car is such a relief... I was running high fever when I started from NOIDA, but by the time I reached Panchkula... it was all fine... I am still not well... but I guess, I would manage just fine with this worse then ever throat...

Oh let me get back to the reason why I am writing this post... and I guess that is what made me feel better too...

during these two looong drives... about 300 kms each way, I managed to give a nice group of cars a good run for their money and worth... and the list includes

Hyundai Elantra ( I personally do not like this car a bit, but then its much more powerful then my Palio, but on the highway, this guy was struggling to keep me away from his tail)

Tata Indigo (This is supposed to a more powerful car too, but I guess at speeds over 120, she might just fall apart in pieces)

Honda City... Poor Guy... he really tried hard to race... I do not know what was the problem... but at 130 kmph... I was feeling much better then him I guess, and he gave up the chase...

GM Tavera, and the Toyota Qualis... well... i guess they could not really match the 120 kmph rock solid Palio...

N number of Tata Indicas... ok... lets not even talk about them :)

The Wagon Rs, The Santros, the Zens, the Altos and the 800s... not worth a mention here...

Thank You Fiat for helping me take one of the best decisions of my life...

15/03/07

WhErE is the DOG?

The damn dog has not been following me for a week... and can that be a reason why Hutch sucks in Chandigarh?

Pathetic Voice Quality...
Useless Customer care desk... oh... when you call the 111 number, you get a "network busy" message too...
Numbers which are not reachable... the signal strenght is 100% all the time, but you cannot bloddy call the person sitting 100 metres away...

Hutch...

Where Ever you go... Our network follows... TRUE !!!!

It only follows... is never around for you to make a decent call !!!

Audience or Artist...

Music usually flows in the blood of so many young people around... not to forget the ever green classical bands and fantastic tracks they used to play...

Today, however I feel that there is a larger community that listens and understands music... and a much larger group of people who play it... and in this vast ocean of excellent artists a lot of genuine talent can go unnoticed if not identified...

One such website where you can find loads of not so known bands playing the popular genre is Unsigned...

It allows you to sign in as a new artist and upload your music which is then made available to the vast world of Internet users...

As a listener you get to choose between the wide variety of music available online from United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany France, and almost all other countries in the world...

And when it comes to the Genre available on the site... the list is again endless... SKA Artists, Rock, Pop, Jazz, RnB, Classical, Country, Dance, Metal... you name it you have it there...

So go ahead... Login to the site... and enjoy being the artist or the audience, the way you like it...


This is a paid post by Pay Per Post...



13/03/07

My BaLcony....

First night in a rented apartment...

First night on the floor...

First night on a new mattress...

and a sound sleep... satisfaction or fatigue, no idea...

Good morning...

a walk to the 2nd floor balcony of my flat... and I see wide open spaces in the front...

My Company's campus at a distance is visible to me, and is about 1.5 kms away by road...

If I turn right on my balcony, I see moutains... and today there were clouds all over... lovely breeze... fantastic weather...


So far So good....

What's next?

12/03/07

Moving Towards Comfort...

Change... I felt it the last whole week.... looking at flats which were not even worth 50% of the more then 6K per month rent being asked for... Being in Autos which charge more then 40 bucks for a 4 km ride... in shoes that were with me the long kilometers I walked... and daily queue for food in the office food court ( not cafeteria any more)... and thinking if it is worth it at all or not... I left my home, I left my car, I left my people behind to this place where I am struggling... the feeling was bad... and it felt worse, when I used to sleep with a lot of pain in the legs...
But then look at the brighter side, I am learning... I am becoming a better person... I can understand more then before... and the change would be noted soon... and here are the goods in the new company that I have joined...
  • I wear Ties on the first two days of the week... and do I look good? I guess I do... :) Priyanka got me a couple of Ties before I came here, and I was an idiot to leave them at home... so had to manage with borrowed ties last week.. but today and tomorrow and all the coming Mondays and Tuesdays would be different... its a different feeling to be dressed up nice and sharp... I need to work on my body to carry this attire better...
  • People here are responsible for their cups... so there are no housekeeping guys who would wash your cups for you... you use them, YOU wash them... and keep them with you... so no paper cups either...
  • There are loads of umbrellas available at all the gates, to save you from rain or sun... you can carry them from one place to the other, and then keep them back at the designated area....
  • 100% of the desktops have a 17" LCD screen... some Dell, some HP... Excellent viewing comfort... oh, and when I am at my base location, I would be using a desktop as well... I have been with a lappie for about 2.5 years now, thanks to IBM, however this is changing now... I guess its for good only...
  • Excellent guest house, almost 5 star accommodation... one of the best beds I have slept on ever...
  • A great sunset from my office window... here in Chandigarh, you can see the sun till very late unlike other places... so I almost everyday, see him setting over the horizon...
  • The best building !!!!! I have not entered a better workplace ever before... SEXY...
  • Ultra quick and supportive helpdesk... most of the things/information/knowledge is in place... making it easier to everyone around...
  • A state of the art Gym in the campus... SEXY again...
  • Extremely windy area... and I can see the hills as soon as I get out of the office... good view...
  • And finally, a flat with a small balcony, and I can see my office from there... about 1.2 kms by road...
Life is changing... and I do not mind it !!!

Vonage VOIP...

After the internet has come into picture... the world suddenly feels smaller... and from a time when only data (text/pictures) used to flow around the internet...we have today reached a point where we can see and hear the videos and the audios online... thanks to many factors supporting it like low costs, convenience of use, penetration in the user market etc etc... The internet today provides a whole lot of applications, usages that helps us communicate as nicely as the conventional means... one of such advances is the VOIP... Vonage provides VOIP services, and in addition to the regular services like Conferencing, Call forwarding and transfer, Caller ID, Toll Free numbers, Real time billing information and account management, you can have access to the forum where you can discuss issues/concerns related to VOIP almost effortlessly... It would not only introduce you to the telecom concepts, but in addition would give you the opportunity to interact with multiple Internet users and discuss topics of similar interest...

This is a paid post by pay per post...

04/03/07

Dis Comfort...

The day has finally come...

I have been shying away from it for a while now, but its high time that i shift away from my comfort zone and fly...

so i move out...

I move out of the comfort of my home here...

I move out of the comfort of coming back home to parents every evening...

I move out of the comfort of calling any of my friends over...

I move out of the comfort of not thinking if drinking water is there at my place or not...

I move out of the comfort of staying guarded...

...

I am not really emotional about it... i am kinda liking it too.. kinda worried about how things back home would be... kinda concerned about how ma pa would like it...

but then its important...

Let me LIVE it...

and happy Holi everyone... have a colorful year ahead !!!!!!!!!