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...

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...

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...

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...

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...


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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?

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...

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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 !!!!!!!!!

Delhi Metro - More to it...

It was such a wonderful experience travelling in the Metro yesterday... I boarded the train from Mandi House Status to go to Rajiv Chawk (read CP) and the crowd the train and on the Barahkhamba Station got me thinking about how the hell am I going to get off the train... CP station is usually overcrowded and the scene is not too different then the Mumbai Locals or the Kolkata Metro...

Looking at people standing in queues on the station almost shocked me... and then I noticed the Metro Guards who ensured that for every gate of the metro there were two rows of people to board the train, and the centre space was left for the people to de-board the train... even the announcement was now changed from instructing people to get down from the left, to getting down from the centre.. wonderful feeling this was... smooth getting out, and smoother boarding... I even saw loads of people thanking and appreciating the guards for their effort... There were continuous announcements as well which told the passengers to follow the instructions from these guards..

I hope the otherwise "i don't care" attitude, now gets more disciplined this way... and the ride in the best thing that has happened to Delhi in a long time, only changes for better...

Talking to Myself...

Starting to feel too comfortable about something?

you really liking it? or for that matter hating it?

THIS IS the time to wake yourself up and do something about it...

STOP Depending... START acting...

Buh Bye....

Today is Manish's Last working day with IBM... he has been a great friend right from day one of his coming to this account...

I really wish him a great future ahead... and hope that I keep interacting with him closely even after we work in different bays in different companies in different cities...

Aditya, who reports to me, has also resigned from here... Better money, better work Profile... and a better career path... good move this is...

And I have also resigned from IBM... next week happens to be my last week in Delhi... I am moving out of the comfort zone of mom dad friends and my own house to a rented place where I have to make my own arrangement for food, clothes, housekeeping everything... this is not going to be easy at all... but then what the heck... I have to do this for myself.. I need to know how it feels... Infact I am looking forward to this experience...

Life is on the verge of a change... and looks like I am game for it !!!

PodCasts...

Podcasting is something that I have read about for a while, however never made an effort to get enough information to stay at pace with technology...

But looks like I should not be staying too far away either. And here is what I learnt about Podcasts and Podcasting today:

A Podcast is a media file that is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds, for playback on portable media players and personal computers. The method of this syndication is referred to as Podcasting.

A lot of websites like mypodcast.com provide a Free Podcast for users who register on the site.

The content provider usually begins by making a file and then sharing it over the internet and then acknowledging the presence of that file using a feed which can be a RSS feed or an ATOM Feed. which can then be used by people watching the feeds.



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ASK me how...

This weekend was different... unusual... and a Beginning...

Bindiya works with ASK (The Association for Stimulating Knowhow)... You can go through their website for more info by clicking HERE, and allow me to continue what I am going to talk about...

I take photographs of people and I have always wanted to give it a meaning than clicking just like that... Bindiya gave me that opportunity by asking me to click pictures of their center Sankalp, in Moradabad which is working towards "Ensuring normal childhood to working children in brass industry of Moradabad".

The plan was made and then got delayed and delayed and delayed... I managed to interest some of my very close friends Gaurav, Priyanka and Kavita into the idea too and we spent sometime deliberating over what we want to do there and so on with inputs from Bindiya... Also met Dr. Aqueel Khan who leads the ASK team in doing various activities...

Finally landed in Muradabad on Friday night... and started working on Saturday till Monday... here is what all we experienced in the Sankalp Centre in Moradabad...

~ ASK - Sankalp is based out of Gali number 1, Rehmat Nagar and has 5 other satellite centres around the area... A Muslim dominated area with an average family size of about 5...

~ A total of about 500 children many of whom were earlier working somewhere or the other now attend school in one of these centres... The difference this effort brings to their lives is something that I cannot capture in words...

~ A warm and dedicated team of about 30 leads the initiative together with Arif and Kalpana heading the pack... More then anything they fight with a mind block... they do not have to prove anything to anyone except themselves and they do it over and over again...

~ Children have been working in places which are smalled then 20 sq ft. and full of fumes. Someone like us might not be able to stand in there for more then 10 minutes and they work the entire day there... We all can however do something or the other to make a difference, and I am keen on making some...

~ Sankalp happens to be a self sustainable model where they build up on their own resources internally and keep the motivation high... We all however can participate in the cause in one way or other... Sankalp even has a fully functional unit where all the related processes can be done. If someone who can help get them business, they would be able to make things themself in units which have been properly built to function...

~ It was heartening to see how dedicated and sensitive the entire team was towards the cause they are working for...

~ All the teachers are ladies there and from the community itself, making them more aware and independent...

~ The kids are great without a doubt, and we managed to meet a few who went ahead to do their class XI, XII and then graduation after studying at Sankalp... They are the people to look up...

~ Also understood the Brass industry in detail with help from Kalpana and Arif.... They are real rockstars I know... what they do is something that no normal person can do... Hats off to them...

In all, it was an experience that my words cannot express...

Meanwhile here are a few links again:

ASK website

Sankalp- True to their name...

Go Wi-Fi...

Wi-Fi enabled networks, Wi-Fi enabled airports and express highways...

But what is Wi-Fi exactly?

W-Fi is a brand originally licensed by the Wi-Fi Alliance to describe underlying technology of Wireless LANs based on the IEEE 802.11 specifications...

A person with a Wi-Fi enabled device such as a laptop, a computer or a hand held can connect to the Internet or to the local network he is in when in proximity of an access point. The region covered by such an access point is referred to as an Hot Spot. Wi-Fi also allows connectivity in P2P mode which enables devices to talk with each other, and is helpful in electronics or gaming scenarios.

It has really helped LANs to be deployed without cabling... Just one ACCESS Point using a Wi-Fi enabled router and wifi enabled Laptops/Desktops/Peripherals typically reduces the overall cost of network deployment and expansion. These days almost all of the companies out in the market for network devices offer various options with Wi-Fi devices.

All of the Operating Systems Platforms like Windows, Apple OS X, Open Source Unix like systems support Wi-Fi now.

Read more about Wi-Fi on Wikipedia, W-Fi Alliance Home Page and for the products, check out the Cisco Site offering solutions in Wi-Fi, VOIP, Video Conferencing, Secure Networking etc.

Go Wireless Go Wi-Fi...


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Credit Cards Review

Credits Cards... Some love these small plastic play things and some people would go to the end of the world to stay away from them...

I have been using one for about 5 years now without a problem... In fact the card company has been more then keen on excellent customer service, good promotional offers, and quick responses...

Infact in case one wants to enjoy the card then here are a few things that I personally feel should always be taken care of..
1) Always know your payment limit and spend only under that...
2) Keep some cash ready in your account, to pay for the bills...
3) Do not use a card because you do not have money, infact use it to save yourself the hassle of carrying money around...
4) While selecting a card, look for the best deals possible both immediate and in the longer run. 0% credit cards these days provide good deals and minimum rates of interest...
5) In case you have been using a card for a while, and have some amount pending... You can look for a better card which provides 0% balance transfers and switch for a better deal...

In the end it all depends on how you use it, you can use it for your convenience or make things worse... the choice is yours and of-course the card companies would always be around to facilitate your choice...


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Jai Ho Beimaani Ki....

I have people around me who would keep truth, principles, ethics very very near the dustbin...

For all practical purposes, these values are treated as junk only except the times when they have to "showcase" things and prove that they still live by those values in front of visitors !!!

Long live these men !!!

Review - Lombard Direct News

I always had a fear of the financial market... Did not really know how the finances work... how does money flows from one person to the other, from one company to the other.

The most difficult part is to start reading about this area on the net... Also every search that you do for a word is going to get you millions of web pages, and its not very easy to comprehend information.

And then I got introduced to Lombard Direct, one of UK's leading online providers for over 10 years. The moment you go to the site, it greets you with a quick and simple loan calculator which lets you either put in the amount you need or the amount you can afford monthly...

One important and interesting feature that has been recently introduced is the Lombard Financial News... News which are consolidated, news which are segregated by categories, news related to Motor Finance, Home Finance, and Repayment Insurance...

For the internet savvy, it also has a RSS feed that you can use to read the news on your individual RSS readers...


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LiFe of A ThouGht... ThouGht for LiFe...

I am a feeling...

I am will...

I am the power...

I am the word that changes life...

I am held close...

I am scared...

I am loved... and hated...

I am stuck...

I need to breathe...

I need to see the sunset and the sunrise...

I am surrounded... Its suffocating in here...

I need to get out...

I need to be free....