I scream

Last November I fought with myself and persuaded to give up ice-cream for a pre-decided time period. The reason was partly for a noble cause and partly to see how much control I have on myself. 7 months since that day I have somehow managed to stay away and trust me it has not been easy. For someone who had ice cream at least on a weekly basis, it is till date going tough to conjure up new excuses for not eating and then to watch others gorging on the delightful flavours. No one in the family or friends circle knows that I have stopped eating ice cream and all are under the impression that I have a very sore throat for the past few months. But finally the craving won the war against determination and I gave in. ‘Gave in’ in the sense I took an ice-cream quiz and found out that I am a chocolate chip ice cream. Now whatever that might mean but my favourite flavour is indeed the chocolate one. So yay for that!! Which is your favourite flavour?

You Are Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

You are kind, popular, and generous. You tend to be successful at anything you try. A social butterfly, you are great at entertaining a crowd. You are most compatible with strawberry ice cream.

What Flavor Ice Cream Are You?

Butt obvious

One of my very good friends was smoking a lot of cigarettes a few years back and I tried and tried to get him quit smoking but failed. Failed in the sense, I could get him down to 12-13 a day from his count of 20. I considered this as an achievement till a girl walked into his life and when she asked him to cut down on the smoke he came down up to 2-3 a day. Now after a quite nasty break up he is back to around 15 a day. Talk about girl power!

Desktop Goddess # 15

Every moment spent with you

Something different, always something new

I watch you sleeping, I hear you sigh

Oh I even love the way you cry

Now every kiss is a season

And every touch keeps me believing

Girl you make it feel, like the first time

Like there's never been another

Girl you make it real, like the first time

Every time you lay down by my side

It's the first time

“We love you Shilpa” shouted the poster in the stadium and the person holding it danced frantically for the camera, probably to catch Shilpa’s eye to it. The whereabouts of the poster are not known but the Rajasthan Royals team must be headed out of South Africa after losing out of the semi-final race. The last year’s champions were not up to the mark this year even after a few wonderful last moment victories in the past two weeks. Maybe they (and Yashita) were missing all rounder Shane Watson. But I am not here to analyze RR’s performance; instead we will talk about their team owner Shilpa Shetty. Do you remember any super-hit movie starring this beautiful lady? Ok, I get your answer as you laugh and fall off from your seated position. My very first memory of watching Shilpa Shetty is in a song from her debut movie Baazigar, which was way back in 1993 and I was just 11 years old then. In a dance sequence of the song, she asks the hero to zip her shorts and SRK bends towards her and obliges by pulling the zip up. In those days we friends used to stare at the television screens with open mouths (more in an astonished way than lecherous) wondering if boys were socially and legally allowed to do such an act in public. 15 years after that incident we were enlightened that zipping up is not an illegal act but getting unbuttoned on a fashion ramp surely is and can land one in jail.

Acting skills or no acting skills, I confess that she is one hot babe. If I am asked to name a few hot and perfectly toned bodies in the film industry then definitely her name will be the first one in the list. Who can forget her Big Brother racism episode with Jade Goody? From that point of time, her life has catapulted to a dizzying height which Bollywood would not have given her. Then she came out with the yoga DVDs’ and later the Rajasthan Royals team stake. This goddess has been scaling new heights with each smart move. Shilpa might reach newer heights but her fondest memory for me would be the first time I saw her on screen in that Baazigar song.

Tarun, I am not sure if you like Shilpa Shetty but this one is dedicated to you. You had asked earlier if the DG series will stop post-marriage; I guess the answer lies in this post. Some things never change :-). Have a good weekend everyone!

Inspiration!

So after all the sessions and advertisements for voting, only 46 percent people voted from Pune. Mumbai also paints a similar voter turn-out picture. Seems people liked the ‘Jaago Re’ (wake up) campaign but decided to sleep over the polls. Initially I went to the wrong polling booth after reading half part of the address and mumbling “Ah! I know it”. Later I walked to the correct one as the parking lot was full and it would have been stupid to vacate my space and later finding no space at the new location. If there were so many vehicles, how come only 46% turn-out?? I noticed that last time there were far many (seemingly) educated people out there standing in queues to cast their votes. This time it was more of the lower class out there. Or at least that is what I felt. The most bizarre thing was when I showed my index finger to the lady who was applying ink, she demanded the middle one. Middle one? I wondered about the advertisement which urged youngsters to be proud to show the inked index finger rather than showing the middle one to the administration. I met a colleague on the way out and she said that photographs were being taken at her booth with the middle finger up showing the ink. Ha ha ha! A few days back the Mumbai election photographs showed many celebrities showing off their middle fingers. And some were laughing too. Anyways, 16^th May will decide the winners and I hope that competent contestants do win.

A good leader inspires people to have confidence in the leader; a great leader inspires people to have confidence in themselves.

Are you interested in cricket? Yes. Are you watching IPL? Yes. In case you have the answers as no then you are missing it big time. The point table is getting topsy-turvy with every match. It is really getting very difficult to predict the winner. I am rooting for Mumbai Indians like last time and sadly my team is sitting at 7^th spot out of the 8 teams. Sad indeed. Sigh! I am hoping against hope that they bounce back to form and win all the remaining matches to enter the semi finals stage. Sample these conversations in our company:

Guy1: It amazes me that Yusuf Pathan is a match winner in the IPL matches but when he plays for India he hardly scores.

Guy2: Well there is a very important reason behind it. The reason is ‘inspiration’.

Guy1: Hmm.. Shane Warne is a good captain.

Guy2: Nah! Shilpa Shetty is sexy. She makes everyone do her yoga thingie watching the DVD and the match winner gets to do a personal yoga session after the match. Carrots and stick approach, simple.

Guy1: Ha ha! Then why did the team lose the initial matches?

Guy2: Shilpa took her sister along with to South Africa and the guys got scared. But the baboons were not.

Guy1: Have you seen how sloppy is KKR’s fielding?

Guy2: Yeah, lack of inspiration.

Guy1: Hmm.. The captain himself has butterfingers.

Guy2: Nah! The team owner. Look at other teams like Punjab and Rajasthan. They get nice hugs after the matches. Remember how a guy had cried out on the field last year just because he did not get a hug. Incentives matter a lot. Are we working now? No. Why? Lack of incentives. Lack of inspiration. Simple.

Any sort of resemblance of guy2 with the blog owner is a mere co-incidence. Today’s match is between Mumbai Indians (my team) and Delhi Daredevils (wifey’s team). Looking at the current form of players of both teams, her team is going to thrash my team it seems. If her team wins I will have to cook the dinner and if my team wins then I will have to sleep on the couch. A contra-win-win situation eh? Quite an inspirational thought to leave for home.

She & Me – Part VI

This one was lying half-written since many days. The incident took place back about… mmmm 5 months back.

‘She’ is an ex-colleague of ‘Me’.

She (somewhere in her office): Hello!

Me (at his desk): Hey! Long time eh?

She: Yeah, loads of work in the new company :-(. Congrats on your engagement.

Me: Thanks :-)

She: Though it is hard to believe that YOU are getting married and that too with her

Me: He he he... nice guys get nice girls :-P

She: Nice girl I totally agree but nice guy?? *ahem*

Me: Ok ok.. how are you doing after your marriage? I hope you don’t beat your husband if he doesn’t cook well :-P

She: Grrr!! Anyways, marriage date?

Me: April first week.

She: Ohh… I won’t be able to attend :-(

Me: Why???

She: Will be on my honeymoon that time :-)

Me: You got married long time back! Honeymoon in April?

She: Well, we thought it is better to practice first at home and then go on a honeymoon. It is better to fail at home in the initial days rather than on a honeymoon :D

Me: Ha ha.. nice nice! I hope you guys have practiced a lot then :-P

She: Where are you guys going for your honeymoon?

Me: Nowhere! I mean we don’t have enough leaves sanctioned so joining back office after all the wedding functions are over

She: Liar! You changed your mind and want to practice first at home, isn’t it? :-P

Me: He he he…

 

Latest news is that ‘Me’ still hasn’t got any leaves sanctioned for a vacation but prefers to say that he is practicing because practice makes a man perfect :D

Edit:

Graffiti line for my whiteboard:

Did you know that a seven day honeymoon makes one week?

Bo down!

Dear terrorist friend,

How are you doing? Glad to say that long time no see. But I thought maybe you will be showing up soon somewhere as my country goes into parliamentary election mode. Oh ho ho hello hello this letter is for the external terrorist and not the internal terrorist as Sonia had quoted. God save me from raking up any controversy on this blog. I am not sure how interested you are in the political scenario but sometimes watching the mud-slinging between the political leaders is fun. ‘Sometimes’ by the way means just 20 minutes of your day otherwise you can get hooked up to the television set 24x7. There is a vicious circle of slandering doing rounds, literally. The head of one party targets the prime minister in his speech. Then one family defends the PM and in turn targets the party head. The party head’s supporters then dig in the origins of the political family. Then the other parties go left (pun intended) and right clobbering everyone. Phew!

So what is your plan of action for the next 1 month? Nothing, you say!!! Ahh.. I get it, I get it. We already have our politicians who are on the verge of killing us so we really don’t need your services. We have a Mumbai blast accused person as a national secretary of a political party. We were a bit lucky that the Supreme Court put a stay on his contesting the elections this time. Then we have a candidate who took cue from inflammatory speeches by others and found himself behind the bars when he gave one. By the way this young man had given false education details reports tell us. Tch tch tch! Maybe you should cool your heels and let these people do your job staying within the country. We do have some good contestants this time also but I don’t think they will get elected or hardly a few will reach the doors of the parliament house.

But let me tell you that in case you want global attention then instead of targeting the elections go for IPL. The T20 cricket festival has been shifted to South Africa. I won’t go in detail why it was shifted from India because you already know that some of your colleagues had attacked a cricket team in my neighbouring country. Everyone will be glued to the television sets till next month and most probably everyone would be watching the cheerleaders than bickering politicians. Sad maybe, but true.

By the way friend in case you are not married and looking for someone to tie a knot with then you can take part in Rakhi ‘Indian Jade Goody’ Sawant’s search for a husband. I bet it will be fun; not for you but for us.

Till next time... tada!

-------------------------------------

EDIT: Urging all the Indian citizens to vote for the right candidate. For Pune, the date is 23rd April so please cast your vote as it is precious. Thanks!

Guess who’s back, back again

The detective asked her the reason why people marry. Mrs. Clarke replied, “We need a witness to our lives. There's a billion people on the planet... I mean, what does any one life really mean? But in a marriage, you're promising to care about everything. The good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things... all of it, all of the time, every day. You're saying 'Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it. Your life will not go un-witnessed because I will be your witness'.”

On 4^th March I got a witness in my life and became one myself, as well.

Get a belt and get kinky

In case you are reading this post and living in or visiting Pune and you have a car in which you drive around the city then you better have your seat belts fastened up. The sleepy police have woke up and instead of the usual practice of eyeing erring bike riders the four wheelers are the new target and they are minting money with the fines (or the bribe being offered to let go). By the way a lady police officer who mans (err womans?) the signal near University, with her junior guy in tow, used to stop me daily for 'random' license checking. Finally I got fed up and told them that they stop me daily and they retorted "Ah! No wonder the helmet looks familiar"!

Life is an expectation

I was reading Parag’s blog and came across a post about expectations. I paste an excerpt directly from the reader feed (without his permission, sorry for that).

We take some people for granted. We make up a mind about how they are, how they behave, how they'll react and then we expect. Expectations is always the root cause of turbulence. I read a quote few days back which has stuck in my mind. Cause of all bad is ignorance and laziness.

Going back, when we have a certain getup of a person in mind, we make expectations of how they are. And when they cross those boundaries we feel they have done something that was at least not completely right, if not wrong.

Now that is very true, isn’t it? You can easily remember when someone crossed the boundaries but can you remember when you crossed the boundaries? As I was reading that post I remembered an incident which took place not quite long back. My dad, my soon to be father-in-law and I were sitting at our place that day. Somehow the topic of discussion turned to wedding anniversaries and I congratulated both of them for completing a combined more than half century years between them in their respective marriages. They started handing over tips to me in the talk and both mentioned that for a successful marriage or for that matter any successful relationship one needs to stop expecting. Where there are expectations there is bound to be disappointment at a point. Bitterness follows disappointment and dents a huge blow to the relationship. Lastly they concluded that not expecting is a very tough job as it comes to us naturally.

And Sam Walton had said
High expectations are the key to everything

I expect that all of you have a nice weekend :-)

I got engaged!!

Nice title for the first post of the year, isn’t it? Though like the last time I am not misleading anyone by the title :). By now most of you know and have seen the pics as well but well to let my blog know that on October 18^th (yeah I know I post quite late) I got engaged to Neha. We have been together in the same company for last two and half years now. Yep, I know I have to take back my words from that last post on people working in same company and getting married :-). But it has been a fun ride till now… the entire secret love affair thing and hiding it from other colleagues, confronting parents with the news of intentions to get married when they were thinking of other marriage proposals, being a good boy in front of in-laws (well I am good but you know..) and then facing the barrage of questions about future plans from parents and in-laws and then later from friends on the entire story how it started, who proposed and how etc. Phew! Looking back at the last two years it feels good that all pieces of the jigsaw puzzle* fell in the right place, somehow. The engagement ceremony too was a good experience as I never knew I had so many relatives ha ha. That too when, only the close ones were invited for it. I dread the fact that I am going to have a tough time recalling names of everyone in the marriage reception and plus names of relatives from Neha’s side as well… sigh!

I am not sure if it is a good time or not but before the engagement or marriage one starts remembering all the excess… err ex-s and the crushes till date. The infatuations which we thought were true love and the gut feeling that no one in this world could make us part our ways. When I was mailing the invites for the engagement pics, I did send out the link to all such. I remember the girl from college with whom I always thought of getting married to. Looking back it makes me laugh because I hardly ever talked to her. Then there was this one from school days on whom I had what we call now a childish crush. That time I could never think of any other girl and was dead sure that she was the one for me. On seeing her mail after ages I did not think I would be glad to read that she is married and doing well; in fact I was happier that I am with Neha. There have been umpteen crushes and the fond memories (some not so fond) associated with it. Such is life and memories! Well the marriage is set for March and we would need all your good wishes for the future.

I just had a look at my archive section and found this post written a year back. Memories, I tell you :).

*At the mention of jigsaw puzzle I remembered a story book I got as a birthday gift from my parents. It had a nice image of a jigsaw puzzle land and a boy who sets out to solve the jigsaw mystery. I distinctly remember that I loved that book a lot, sadly mom gave it later to a cousin (who must have thrown it away after reading). Did I mention memories?

Desktop Goddess # 14

phir chhidi raat baat phulon ki
raat hai ya baraat phulon ki


phul ke haar phul ke gajre
phul ke haar phul ke gajre
shaam phulon ki raat phulon ki
phir chhidi raat baat phulon ki


aapka saath, saath phulon ka
aapka saath, saath phulon ka
aapki baat, baat phulon ki
phir chhidi raat baat phulon ki

I love this song and I love this wallpaper. Courtney Cox looks delicious in this photo. I had mentioned sometime earlier that love my goddesses images when they are lying in a couch or some place like this. And the flowers added here make a wonderful combination. I simply love it. This is the last post of this year. So wishing all the readers a very happy new year. May the coming year be like a phul (flower) to you without or least thorns. Well we can wish for that, right? Har din aapka ho phulon jaisa aur har raat ho aapki phulon jaisi. Enjoy the New Year's Eve and please don't drink and drive. Be safe. Be good. See you all in the next year and heading for a party with friends. Ciao!

Neo-bharat Times!

Neo and Oracle sitting on a bench in a park…

Neo: Merry Christmas Oracle!

Oracle: Merry Christmas Neo! You look happy today. Got a gift from Santa? Got a date for New Year’s Eve?

Neo: No, it’s just the Christmas spirit

Oracle: Hmmmmmm hmmmmm…

Neo: What?

Oracle: Nothing… just humming ‘Last Christmas I gave you my heart’

Neo: Please stop. You know I don’t like that song.

Oracle: No I didn’t

Neo: For God’s sake you are the Oracle

Oracle: Yeah yeah, I know. Have you checked your horoscope for the next year?

Neo: Where?

Oracle: Peter Vidal’s column in the Neo-Bharat Times

Neo: You daily read those columns? For God’s sake…

Oracle: (cuts in) Yeah I know I am the Oracle. Listen, your sun sign says that you should stop making mountains from molehills

Neo: Does that have something to do with the moles on my body?

Oracle: Err... no. I am not talking about Melanocytic nevus

Neo: Ok… Yesterday night I was counting the moles on my body

Oracle: Why?

Neo: Didn’t you read the mail which said if your lover kisses all moles on your body then your sexual life will be great?

Oracle: Eewww.. Why do you read such spam mails? Anyways remember that you need to stop making mountains from molehills

Neo: Ok fine! But it would be fun when Trinity kisses my moles

Oracle: I don’t see that happening since she is dating Agent Smith

Neo: (frowns) Of course she will. I just need a few more moles on my body

Oracle: Shave off your hairy chest and you will see 4 moles

Neo: (ecstatic) Really? How do you know that?

Oracle: For God’s sake Neo I am the Oracle

Vinte e Seis

I have this notion that how you celebrate your birthday or the first day of the New Year is a reflection of how the coming year will be. Taking a look at yesterday the coming year would not be much different for me I feel. Yesterday I had fun with friends and also did a lot of work due to the ongoing client visit. Yesterday I had my share of laughs and also had some sad moments. So many called up, mailed and send text messages that I was soaking in the blessings. I always wonder that no matter how many times I forget to wish everyone, all have been very understanding and remember to shower their love on me. No matter how much you achieve in life these are the small moments when one feels truly accomplished. As per tradition I had a small mishap on the birthday eve but don’t worry as I am perfectly alright. Lost my bike key yesterday at the place we had dinner and then we all searched for it all the way on the road where we had gone for a walk. Then climbed up the wall as the restaurant had closed down and found the key near the table where we were seated. Lost a key and found it. Lost a few people in the past year and found some new gems. Well that is what they call it life. I still wonder how fast the last year has flown by. It just seems a few days back that I had entered the quarter life crisis he he he. Cheers to the coming year… bring it on I say! One of my colleagues gave this to me :-)

When will enough be really enough?

Dear Terrorist Friend,

I know you would be smiling reading the words dear and friend thinking that you have got one more stupid person to carry out a fidayeen attack. But I want you to think that I am your friend so that we can embrace and then I can rip your stomach off with bagh nakh with me visualizing that I am Shivaji and you are Afzal Khan muahahahahaha! I prefer that you ought to be tortured to death and not killed in an encounter. Yesterday I received a mail which had a presentation attached along with. It had pictures and names of all the soldiers of my nation who laid down their life defending Mumbai. The presentation depicted these brave men as heroes and on the last slide it had a photo of one of the Mumbai attackers. Beside that image it was written that “You might be a hero to someone but you definitely are not human”. I agree with the last part of the line because I read in newspapers that you did not even spare the stray dogs which were barking at the railway terminus. You mercilessly killed every living thing which came in your way. A person capable of doing such a thing would have been brainwashed since a long long time. I have full sympathy for your parents and especially for your mother, who must be cursing herself for giving birth to such a scoundrel. But yes I really think that you deserve some praise for planning this attack. Before this attack you used to target the common man and a few days of mourning later no one ever talked about the killings or bothered to secure the borders. This time you attacked the elite people and the tourists especially the westerners. And everyone can see the outrage of this. The streets are flooded with people carrying banners against you all and the politicians. Well you all would have sufficed because the politicians come under your banner. We have seen heads rolling down on pretext of ‘moral responsibility’ and thankfully the Rajs’, the Uddhavs’ and the other rogues who usually put Mumbai under threat have gone hiding. I heard a few days back somewhere that this time the public outcry will make the politicians aware that they can be held responsible for such attacks and the masses will rise to protect the nation. Let me tell you that I was an optimistic guy but somewhere down the last few years I have given up the optimism and embraced reality. I don’t think that the politicians of India will think good for the people. I don’t think that security will be beefed up to prevent such attacks. The common man and the elite person will go back to do his/her normal routine. All news channels will gear up for the coming elections. Everyone’s focus will be back to the upcoming cricket series against England. The politicians will be back to their mudslinging game blaming the rival parties. Basically everyone will be back doing his own business and you will be back to plotting another attack at some another place. But let me remind you that such attacks won’t cut India into pieces. No matter how much we fight amongst ourselves we are a nation. Ours is the country having the largest democracy in the world and sooner or later when the endurance limit exceeds people like me will take up arms if need be and barge into your country. Then it wouldn’t matter to us whether your country is in the neighbourhood or is a far flung country. We would not sneak in and I promise you that we will take care to wipe away the entire spoilt race of yours. The innocent will be spared and respected and the guilty would be punished. After that the world will live in peace. I have that much of optimism left in me.

Yours truly

A friend turning into a fiend

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone

aankhon mein tu saanson mein hai tu meri
manzil hai tu kaise bhulun yaadein teri
tu paas rehkar bhi hai mujhse duur
na honge phir bhi hum majboor
sehlenge hum saare sitam
bhulega mann tujhe na sanam
teri kasam sehlenge hum saare sitam
bhulega mann tujhe na sanam

For a change little Johnny will be behind the Barracks

Never had an election aroused such an interest all over the world. Might be the global recession and the impact of the new elected person on the economy was a main factor that most of my colleagues were following the Presidential race. I was about to leave for work on Wednesday morning when my cousin tuned into a news channel and then the stage was set for Obama to give his victory speech. I waited and waited but finally left as I had a meeting to attend. Later in the night while having dinner I caught up with his victory speech. I loved his oratory skills. I loved the way he kept the huge crowd nodding their heads to his lines and then erupt in 'Yes we can' cry. I loved the way the crowd behaved. It was such a nice thing to see a leader speak in a style which I am not sure can be matched by Indian politicians and it was even nicer to see that the entire crowd was standing all the time and still it was not looking/behaving like a mob.


In the last few months whenever I saw Obama's picture I would think about 24 Season 1. The image of Dennis Haysbert comes up though later Elisha Cuthbert overshadows that image :D. Keeping Elisha aside for a while… I always wonder why over all these years I have always seen a 'coloured' person in my imagination when anyone said the words 'US President'. Bill Clinton didn't come up, nor did George Bush, Senior or Junior. Most of the times it was Denzel Washington… might be the surname has influenced my imagination. Then sometimes it was Dennis Haysbert and a very few times it was even Lawrence Fishburne. But since Obama has been in the news, Haysbert has been looming large on my mind. Maybe watching Obama a few more times on TV will clear my thought bubble.


One of my colleagues said that the Americans love the letter C coz they have had Bill the Casanova, George the Comedian and now Obama the Coloured. Might be the Coloured term will be replaced by Change, gradually. But Sonia Gandhi must be very happy and dreaming of becoming the Indian President. Well everyone has a right to an American Dream, right? :-)


For a change Elisha rules my thought bubble ;-)

Happy Diwali!!

Wish you all a very happy Diwali. A bit late in wishing all of you but most of you will pardon me for that. Some of my maternal cousins were here with us this time. It was fun supervising the kids bursting crackers and taking them to the roof to show the brightly lit city and the wonderful display of fireworks over the city horizon. Scrumptious Diwali goodies to gorge into and 2 days of holiday… bliss! Not all was good this Diwali though… some parts of India had terrorist attacks while some didn’t need terrorists as the people have started fighting amongst themselves. With some persons aiming for political supremacy the common man has been made to suffer. My heartfelt condolences to the family of the boy, who was gunned down by the Mumbai police. Instead of lighting lamps during Diwali we are more desperate to snuff out the light out of someone’s lives. I hope God gives all of us sensibility as well this time along with the wealth which comes with the festival of Diwali. Have a nice weekend everyone.

Happy Birthday Google!

You must have heard and read about the masseuse who turned rich on Google shares. As Google celebrated its 10th birthday I was thinking of the tools and sites I have been using and contributing to the success of the company and well the other masseuses working there :). Here is a list…

Google
When Yogesh introduced me to the internet, apart from Yahoo’s mail and a few porn sites, Google was one of the first sites he had shown me. “Type in a word and hit Enter, you will get all the information”, he had said and Google crawlers have kept his word true till date. Long back I had noted down in a post that I hate Google when someone searches for Sudeep Sharma and I am not the first one to be linked. When my girl friend’s cousins came to know about our engagement plans the first thing they did was to google me out to see my photo and landed here. Now her family knows about this blog where as mine doesn’t, great isn’t it? Don’t be surprised if you find censored posts on this space now on :D

Blogger & Blogspot
If Suraj had not shown me his blog three years back, then I doubt I would have used these servers and I wouldn’t have been typing this and you would have been reading something more entertaining somewhere else :). Even though Blogspot is blocked by the System guys I am lucky that I can access Blogger to keep posting.

Reader
My access to the blog world for staying updated with all the nice, very nice, not-so-nice posts everyone writes on their blogs. I have some complaints regarding Reader but I won’t turn my post into a jeremiad. If you are a Reader user, then have you got directed to a feed which you hadn’t subscribed to? Well I got one such feed, when I had entered a changed url of a fellow blogger who had moved to different url; and unfortunately it was of a teenage girl who was fed up with something/someone and was contemplating either running away or committing suicide. Soon that blog turned into another language (probably Spanish) blog and I don’t know what happened with that girl, if she was real. I hate bloggers who don’t set their blog feed to the full :-.

Gmail
Earlier I hated the fact to compulsory shift to Gmail for Blogger and Orkut login id but when I started using Gmail, I found it to be great. In fact I have stopped using Yahoo and Hotmail since then. The best part of Gmail is the conversation windows (cascading mails).

Orkut
Yesterday’s newspaper carried an article how some companies have started looking at the social networking site profiles of candidates to get an insight of the person’s character which is not seen in the resume. Orkut in the initial days was an addiction; with no messengers allowed at the work place it was the only source of free networking and reaching out to friends. Now that Orkut is also blocked it has been a year I have logged there but I loved it (and still like it) for many reasons.

Gtalk
Even though this is also blocked, people here find out amazing ways to meander their way across the firewall. I use this rarely but since all the address book contacts are present this is a good way of interacting. Absence of invisible mode (not in the applet of Gmail) is one complaint regarding this.

Picassa Albums
I use my photo blog to share my pics but most of my friends use Picassa to upload their stuff. Thanks to this I came to know that there are many wonderful photographers in my friend circle. And Sean still prefers Photobucket! :D

iGoogle
The live cricket score gadget on iGoogle was the main reason I accessed it. A lot of nice gadgets shows how immensely talented people are coming up with such stuff. Jokes, puzzles, astrology, games, videos, weather etc. all come under one roof. I had subscribed to Babes of Googledex gadget on Google’s recommendation but they have only Angelina Jolie and Jessica Alba’s photos. Not that I don’t like these two but they are ranked way below in my list of hot babes. So later I subscribed to Sports Illustrated Model of the Day and now I rub shoulders or let’s say eyes with hot bodies like Ana Beatriz Barros :). Did someone mention censored posts somewhere in the post? :D

Google Groups
The conversation windows in Gmail are best to be used for group activities. My katta group had a conversation of about 150 mails in one day on a very silly topic.

Then there is Google Analytics for analyzing blog visits but I prefer Sitemeter, when I have time, for having a good laugh at the search words people use to land here. Also had started using Google Docs but for a very very short time. Google’s Language Tools also comes handy to me when I am working on my company projects as I have to deal with 8 foreign languages. When my company’s ex-CTO was with us we used to surf Google Earth and he used to tell a lot of interesting stories about some places he had been to.

Google has launched a project on the 10th birthday, so if you have a great or simple idea, which will change the world, then participate in it. With all the creative juices flowing may God bless you, me, all bloggers and readers, Google and the masseuses working there :)

Bull’s eye or Bull Shit?

(Had written this when the Games ended but was in Drafts till now)

2008 Olympics has been wrapped up. Beijing had its share of highs and lows and London is gearing up to match the set standards. Someone said over lunch that India might get to host the one in 2020 to which someone else countered that “The Commonwealth Games are a few months away and see the condition of the roads. How can India build a roadmap to Olympics if we can’t maintain our roads?” The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and the authorities concerned with road development has (or rather had) taken up the task of cementing all roads leading up to the Commonwealth Games venue here and to sum up the status and situation of the task in one word will be ‘pathetic’. It was expected that the repairs work will be over before the monsoons hit Pune and the 10 km patch which I use for travelling to and from office does not have a single road which has been completed. Where ever one goes the roads are dug up, the rains (this year they were below normal) have added to the misery of the commuters and no one from the governing body really cares about this.

So what do the authorities care about, you ask? Well they care about our Olympic gold medalist Mr. Abhinav Bindra. I am really happy and proud of the fact that India has bagged 3 medals (1 gold and 2 bronze) this time but I am rather amused at the 15 lakhs award for Bindra by the PMC. Let me make it clear that I am happy to know that Mr. Mittal has come forward to help Bindra and much more happy that in a cricket crazy nation even the Cricket Board has awarded the shooter. But PMC?? It is good that his state awards him; it is fine that other states including Maharashtra are awarding him but why the hell the PMC, when they have so many right areas where money needs to be put into for the citizens. Anyone please enlighten me if there is some plausible explanation for this. Drawing attention to the Commonwealth Games being hosted here might be one reason I can think of. Whatever the reason might be but it goes from the tax we all are paying, right?

I just hope that the athletes coming here from all over the world don’t find this place bull shit just due to the apathetic behaviour of the PMC and all involved in the hosting.

Hat trick!

And when we were kids we thought that it meant a magician pulling out a fluffy rabbit from his black hat. The devil sure finds work for idle hands.