This is about me and my life and my thoughts and my whims and well u'll see :D

Tadaaaaaaaaaa............................

For the people looking for some useful piece of information or anything remotely related to the word useful, should leave immediately, as this blog comprises of useless and arbit pieces of things which merge together and make my life :D

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Selfish

Was just wondering what is limit to which one can think of his benefit without being selfish.
Or if there is anything known has thinking of yourself without being selfish.
These days am just skeptical about anyoen and anyone being nice to me 'coz from past 5 months I have seen only one thing that if someone is being nice to you there has to be hidden agenda behind it.
and kills you to just think that its not you for which people approach you but what can they get from you for which do that.
Anyways lousy thoughts,guess will do some cheering up exercise to come out of this kinda mode or thought process

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Spidey-3

Well I just read a rather vociferous and verbose review of spidey 3 and am really tempted to write my version.
Well The movie also amrked my meeting with rashmi (my ex-roomie) after a long long time(first time after her marriage).
So it was kinda big deal.atleast for me it was.
So much so that I agreed for getting up early on a sunday (yeah it is a big deal for the persom who sleeps at 4 in the morning and gets up at 5 in the evening).
Anyways, knowing me, Rashmi messaged me at some 1 in the night (rather morning) and asked me to go sleep.
I took heeded to her advice and went to sleep at 3,finally!!
I got up at 9 as I had planned and just when I got up rashmi called me to check if I have got up.
I got ready with all the swiftness I could muster ona sunday morning (I generally get depressed ona sunday owing to the approaching monday)
Anyways so I finally got ready and in the meanwhile rashmi again called if I am still in bed and she was really impressed, when I told her that am ready.
Then she did her routine check and asked me the following list of question:
  • Is it the spiderman ticket that you have( and asked me to get the ticket and look it )-Answer positive
  • Is it for today-Answer positive (with an enquiry about what date is it today)
  • Is it for 10 A.M or 10 P.M.-Answer morning 10
  • Is it for PVR forum koremangala-Answer positive.
  • It is the english spidey and not the hindi one- Answer positive

See, this is the confidence people have on me but well I dont blame her, 'coz if a girl can end up in an airport one day before the day of flight, and again miss the same flight the very next day, she is capable of any fiasco. So without many whimpering and whining and tool her advice and started from my place.

Finally after a couple of calls to each other and little bit of confusion we finally managed to meet each other and proceeded towards the hall to find our seats.

After stepping on a few people's foot and a little bit of pushing here and there we finally found our seats, and sat there for some 15-20 minutes, listening to all sorts of ads and making fun of them ( you see, thats the best part of going for a movie with rash', You can never have a dead moment).

Finally the movie started.It went on and on a little slow and all but the worst thing that hit me was how cheap spiderman was.

I mean cummon, it was his girlfrend's first performance and all he gave was some home grown flowers (even they were dying, may be they suffered froma reall inferiority complex sitting in front of harry's flowers). And this continued not at one place but again and agian. Finally when I pointed this to rashmi she said he must be some aiyanger boy, some spiderman aiyangar or something. They are the only who are so cheap, he even borrowed the wedding ring from aunt may.

Anyways apart from the fact that spidey was cheap he was so sobby throughout the movie. I mean for god's sake, come what may, he is a superhero (reminds me of bheja fry's dialogue"kya idiot insaan nahi hote" similiarly "kya superhero insaan nahi hote") welll my answer would be "no". They are not just heroes, they are superheroes. so they should live upto the expectation and crying once is fine. He cries at the drop of the hat. Plus in the middle of the movie I thought almost everyone is in spidey's enemy list. i mean i lost the count fo how many villians are there. Harry (his friends), Sandman,eddie(reference coming up), MJ, aunt may, wait aunt may was on his side, but who cares it was all so confusing.

The story line had more tangles then spidey's web and our pooor spidey got majorly stuck in it, along with several other. It was all like some mamohan desai movie, where everyone is related to someone and somehow they get connected someway to somebody.

Like sandman, who turns out to be his uncle's killer. Man! talk about coincidences

Then eddie who is just some junk guy, who had a crush on some girl, who was a lab partner to peter parker and also liked spidy and also kissed him, Oh gaaaaaaaaaawddddddddddd

Then MJ, which is also the name of my client, I mean heights of coincidence, now. Well it doesn't have anything to do with anyone else, but it did effect me and this is my blog so I have every right to mention it here.

The only delighfull thing (and I completely, totally , with all my heart and soul , mean it) in this whole mess was harry. That guy is too damn hot and he is getting hotter with each sequeal.Sad he wont be there anymore coz the director killed him, damn you, Sam Raimi. he could have killed the overweight spiderman (yeah he looks a little chunky) but know he will kill the good looking guy. May be spiderman got him killed as was outshining him.

Anyways after three loooooooooooooong hours it came to an end and we finally came out. But after the movie I just thought it wasn't all that disastrous. It was kinda fun watching a movie in hall after a long long time. Though it was a little weepy but who cares till the time he can fly high.

But I think, the bhojpuri or the punjabi spiderman would have been more fun then this one. It just hilarious wen u say aunt May and MJ talking in bhojpuri :)

Music and lyrics

Had a bad bad start of the day.
First there was a lot of cooking going on in the house (who does so much of cooking right in the middle of the mroning ), owing to a friend's friend, who has come over for staying for a "few" days and has upset the whole scenario in the house(yesterday she locked one of the room. thankfully, I had the keys else we would have been short of one room).
Then I gave a donation to some orphanage, not that am cribby bout it but I really have my doubts about it reaching to the rightfull candidate.
Then had to change an auto due to the misbehaviour of the auto guy AND the meter.
Ended up paying more fare (Am so tempted to buy a car seeing all this).
But the whole thing was washed of once I read an article.
The article was about teh worlds 20 worst lyrics ever.
Man what all these guys come up with.
The link is here http://www.spinner.com/2007/03/27/the-worst-lyrics-ever-no-20/
And a few examples of these in case the link doesnt work.
here goes(it has some expert comments as well and those are deadly)



20."If I was a sculptor but then again, no"--Elton John's 'Your Song'(lyrics by Bernie Taupin)

Well, then stop bringing it up already! This line has been wasting our time for three decades.




19."Lucky that my breasts are small and humble

So you don't confuse them with mountains"--Shakira's 'Whenever, Wherever'

The woman makes a lot of sense. And lucky that Sacagawea wasn't more buxom or Lewis and Clark might not have found the Pacific.




18."I love you like a fat kid loves cake"--50 Cent's '21 Questions'

Gangsta, schmangsta -- brotha should write Hallmark cards.



17."There's an insect in your ear if you scratch it won't disappear"--U2's 'Staring at the Sun

'It's sure hard to tell that U2 scrambled to finish their 'Pop' album. At least Bono didn't mention "driving rain."



16."Relentless lust of rotting flesh to thrash the tomb she lies
Heathen whoreOf Satan's wrathI spit at your demise"--Slayer's 'Necrophiliac

'Never mind 50 Cent, these guys should write Hallmark cards.



15."Leaving was never my proud"--R.E.M.'s 'Leaving New York

'Sorry, Michael, but we scoured all of our reference books, and "proud" just doesn't wash as a noun. Lions do live in prides, but we don't see the relevance.



13."There were plants And birds And rocks And things"--America's 'Horse With No Name

'Like in New York, nouns are scarce in the desert, and apparently our poor soft rockers simply ran out of them. Too bad they didn't consult Michael Stipe: "There were plants and birds and rocks and prouds."



12."Time is like a clock in my heart"--Culture Club's 'Time (Clock of the Heart)'

Awesome analogy. Time is soooo like a clock, because, well, it's freakin' time!



11."I wish it was Sunday That's my fun day My I-don't-have-to-run day"--The Bangles' 'Manic Monday'(lyrics by Prince)

We're cool with the easy rhymes of Monday to Sunday, and even Sunday to fun day, but "I-don't-have-to-run day"? No, now Prince is just messing with us.



10."I'm all out of faith This is how I feel"--Natalie Imbruglia's 'Torn'(lyrics by Anne Preven)

Can you say filler line? Like, oh, we get it, this is how you feel -- because it's been so darn long since you told us how you were all out of faith.




9."Now you're amazed By the VIP posse Steppin' so hard Like a German Nazi"--Vanilla Ice's 'Play That Funky Music'

Dude took the original song's "white boy" lyrics a little too literally. Good thing he specified German though, because those Austrian Nazis were way too light on their feet.



7."I don't think that I've got the stomach To stomach calling you today"--Saves the Day's 'See You'

And we're betting that this clever emo fella doesn't have the eyes to eye you, the hands to handle you ... or even the mouth to mouth your name. Oh, the humanity!



6."Your butt is mine"--Michael Jackson's 'Bad'

The worst opening line in pop history. However, we hear it's huge in Dubai.



5."But if this ever-changing world in which we live in ..."--Paul McCartney and Wings' 'Live and Let Die'Dangerous combination:

Sir Paul having so much money and prepositional phrases being so cheap. Any junior-high English teacher would take points off for everything after "world."



3."I don't like cities But I like New York Other places Make me feel like a dork"--Madonna's 'I Love New York'

So, so true. Which is of course why Paris is so famously known as the City of Dorks.



2."War is stupid And people are stupid"--Culture Club's 'War Song'Boy George again, and this time he's illin' like Bob Dylan.

We wrote a song just like this in seventh grade, but the next line was, "And your mom is stupid."



1."Coast to coast L.A. to Chicago"--Sade's 'Smooth Operator'

Sade was born in Nigeria and grew up in London, but her biggest hit reveals that she's clearly not a smooth navigator.

Number 4, 8, and 14 are missing owing to their over exposing lyrics.
But anyways these are good enough for a hearty laugh.
Apart from this there were some 25 saddest song list, a few of them I thought were really goood and here's the link to that
http://www.spinner.com/2007/05/04/the-25-most-exquisitely-sad-songs-in-the-whole-world-no-25/
Enjoy!!!

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Night- Mare

Today morning I was really pleased to read the headlines bout that bill on ban on women nightshift, going out of the window.
It is so utterly prepostrous (yess I learnt it today!!) to even think of such a ban and paint it with the so called culture grease.
The minister who came up with this abolutely funny idea ( specially in the city which is suppose to be the mother of all the call centers) to not let women work at night. The idea was of protecting women from all the crimes ( rape , robbery etc etc).
So this is their solution don't fight the criminal or the crimes but the victims freedom. I think in their view the best way to solve a case is to dont register it (yeah, thats how they maintain low crime rate, low FIR low crime rates).
But this is just as ridiculuos as issueing an arrest warrant for richard gere on the kissing fiasco.
Some of the women whom they are asking to leave out their night shift and sit at homes are the sole bread winners of their houses and with them sitting at home no santa will come to give them some loot.
The government or the lawmaker should have the brains to get this fact.
And the whole doesnt end here, these same lawmakers are trying to give a justification of this whole thing as the culture of india.
They say that its not the culture of India for a women to go out and work specially at night.
Well I have no idea how many culture books they ahve read or how many Phd's they have done on indian culture but am sure no women respecting culture would ever disreagard the right of women to earn or be independent.
And I think modern India is way behind the ancient India and its broadminededness as far as women and their rights are concerned. Never were a women was stopped from being indepent at that time,whereas today if a women independence is marred by such laws.
I am not being a feminist or anything of that sort but by earning a living a women is not defying any laws or going out of control. All she is trying to do is live a respectable life and support her family.
I was reading the various response that people gave in a nwespaper regarding this issue.All the guys thought its a very thoughtfull thing that the labor minister had come up with but all the women considered it to be demeaning which again shows what kind of mentality men have.
We still live ina society where women are comapred to food and its said that women and food are two things that should always be covered.
Thats all a woman means to them. I think its more then the shift- revamping the society needs. It need to revamp the thinking and mentality they live with, this will have more positive effect then juggling with the shifts pf women.

Friday, May 11, 2007

Weekend dhamaka!!!!!!!!!!

ITSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS FRIDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYY
And well this weekend looks quite promising with shweta&Akshay's Rajma chawal party scheduled today, dance classes tommorrow and meeting with anjali tommorrow and then meeting rashmi and watching spidy on sunday. Although I have least hopes with the movie but am hoping the meeting would be good.
Plus my lead has left early and considering taht as a good omen I would start the friday :D

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Auto meter analysis:)

This is one blog that I have been wishing to write since eternity.
Anyways here goes, this post is basically a tiny little analysis based on my experience with the auto and the auto meters.
This basically is for everyone who travels by the auto and feels that why is it that they dont get the same fare for any two autos when the start and end place remains same.
There can be various theories trying to explain the above problem or the above inconsistency of the auto.
Could be that the auto driver too a difrent route, and if there is just one route then there could be heat, pressure, density ( I somehow feel I am just giving the class 9th physics syllabus for first term).
Well in this blog we not try to prick any of those theories and give out a very difficult einstienish theory of auto travel but certain simple observations tied up with each other.
Well to start of with i would like to give a disclaimer thats I am not an authority and its been only some 1.5 years since am travelling in autos and these are just my observatiosn.
So, first of all lets define the problem.
The problem with the varying fare that we get is that eithere the meter is tied up with the axle of some other auto which is running at a much faster speed or the meter is at fault.
Now coming to the pint how does the meter works.
Well the meter works by counting the RPMs and for a certain number of Revolutions it makes it charges 50 paisa(am still not sure how many revolutions).
So if someone has to do some nasty thing with the meter all they have to do is decrese the number of RPM for each 50paisa charge (and that is done by the small wire hanging right below the meter which connects the meter with the axle, I have seen autowals fondling with it, once I tell them there meter is fast).
Now coming to the type of meters
Basically there are three kinds of
  • Standard meters
  • Super meters
  • Perfect meters

Apart from these there are some other genre of meters like paras etc.

A close to 70% of the autorikshaw are non digital meters (This is based on the times I have come across a digital and non digital meters and in this analysis am taking an assumption that the probability of getting an auto from BTM water tank is random and not biased in any way).

Out of these 70%, some 60-65% are standard meters and the rest are super meters.Rest of the 35-40% of meters are super meters and if not super they generally have the name of teh meter comapny scrapped off it.

Prefect meters are generally digitall meters and the probability of fudging with them is very low but that does not means that they cannot be doctored (read this for details http://www.hindu.com/2007/02/21/stories/2007022121760300.htm). We will take up the digital meters a little later, lets now focus on the non digital meters.

The standard meter is generally a worn off meters with lines of time all over it. they Genrally remind me of e reall old lady waitng for her death.

but no matter how much old they might be the auto driver will never to fail to swear by their authenticity.

Anyways, coming back to the topic these meters generally work fine till 2km (which is the minimum fare) then out of the sudden their whole mechanism work on some underworld don principle "Grab as much money, with as less effort as possible". So these meters by the end of the third Km go off by some 2 rupees (which seem a very small amount when written in a blog),but it does not ends there coz the meter keeps on increasing its fudginess with the distance.The discrapancy in the fare is directly propotion to the distance you travel, so the more you travel the more you get robbed. The discrapancy can range from Rs. 5-15 ona travel of some 6.5-7 km (dats the disctance I travel twice a day).

Coming to the second breed of meters.They are the super meters, well the way they run during the waiting time will make superman look slow. They would be fine till 3-4km but once you see red light just get out of the auto coz they just go crazy seeing a red light, and the auto walas slow down seeing a red light gng from green to yellow. As for the kilometerwise problem they are little behind the standard meters as the discrapancy ranges from Rs. 5-8 in these autos, though I have seen some meters go upto 20 buck, but that was on higher distance.

Then comes the perfect meters, more often then not they are correct, well almost.

They might have problem of a few bucks but other then that I dont see much of a problem in them and above all when u see one of these they look so promising due to their digital attire. But that doesn't mean that they cannot be doctored. Its very much possible that even they can have problem, but then again they are simple auto meters, not some nuclear missile luanching timer.

The other meters like paras are generally digital meters and like perfect meters they are often correct (or as the auto driver would say "correctaaaaaaa, madam"). I would give more marks to paras then perfect, 'coz almost 98% of times a paras meter has been correct.

Well the best way to combat all these problem is to mark points and the correct fare (generally the lowest you have come across during your travelling experience 'coz I have not seen a slow meter in these one and a half year) at those points, so that you know when the meter reading is going hay wire.This is for the people who take the same route everyday.

As for the lucky ones, who have to deal with sweetest of these creatures named the autowallas and there coveted meters only once in a blue moon or even less (may be in a red moon) then that, they can follow this:

  • after crossing the 2 km boundary try out the dialogue" bhaiyya meter fast hai".
  • the autowala would say "By how much (he is testing one by asking this).
  • Dont fret, just give some arbit figure (say some 4-5 bucks) and if that right (which would be the case in most of the cases)he will shutup if not he will argue back, then u can take a call whether to continue or change auto.

That's my modus operandi ( and I think for many others in Bangalore) :),

Post script: Few more thoughts from few of the great thinkers of the group :D

But I guess these superheros are the so lucky that they fly or cling to some building or something like that.

I mean travelling is so simple for them, no extra charge, no one and a halfa. Best is superman he can fly wherever he want and he doesnt even has to wait for his onsite turn or anything to see other countries. He can do that all by himself. I fell spiderman is a loss here coz for him to operate he needs to have some realll good skyscrapers and all that so he can only operate in new york or tokyo or some place like that and not in places like Bangalore or Delhi, as the buildings are quite short in the height department, and they are much more spaced as compared to New york n all. So spidy can't travel much in places like delhi or Bangalore.

Imagine spidy going out on a missin in Chandni chowk.Man, its gonna be one messy mission with the fear of getting stuck in parathe wali gali's tents or chauwdi bazars stalls. Then after some time will find there is nothing but a stalls. Poor spidy the mission will fail before its start.

Anyways thats enough for the day.

Fondest memories

Well this post is not about my fondest memories but the fondest memory of the person with whome most of my fondest memories are associated.
Yash, Yeah thats the guy.
Yesterday while taking to him he asked "Can you guess what is the fondest memory that I have got of our college day"?
There were so many of them, It was almost impossible to point one.
So I gave up on it or maybe I pointed to one.
And then he started off, "My fondest memory about this guy who is drunk and out on the 3rd night of ENGIFEST (that was our engineering cultural fest, there are so many stories associated with it, but lets focus on this one first) and asks them that he wants to perform on his world famous in DCE dance number, that he had performed some umpteenth number of times but still wants to perform again".
So the organisers knowing that dance is oen the things he is actually good at say"Ok sir let this thing (a fashion Parade thingy) finish next would be your ITEM".
He also asked the organisers to call some girl from the audience who was suppose to be his dance partner in the item.
The girl's name was anounced.
She was sitting in the audience without realising it was her name being announced on stage, then one of her "friends" shouted "oh!! she is sitting over here". The comparer looked my way and says ma'm can you plz come back stage".
Haveing no choice and thanking her"Friend" she goes stomping towards the stage.
There is that boy standing drunk like hell, the girl just luks at her and ask"kitni pi hai (how drunk are u)" and he goes like"No matter how much drunk I am I can still dance.
She goes "You will fall" and he says adamantly"If I fall today I will never step on stage,again".
They start of with K3G song you are my sonia.
Miracualously the boy does'nt fall and after the intial hooting and howling, everyone enjoys the song (a profs. timy daughter also came on stage to accompany up :D).
With this yash completed his fondest memory.
The boy in this memory was ofcourse yash and girl was me :)
If ever there was a way by which we can store our memory (something like dumbledore in harry potter) I would have doen that.
But I know no matter what happens these mmemories will always be there and would always bring a smile on my face during the tough times.

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Trust

Read a reall good line bout trust that a friend sent.
It goes like:
Trust should be like the feeling of a one year old baby when you throw him in the air, he laughs.....because he knows you will catch him........ that's Trust............

Yeah, generaly kids trust the more and when u go out with the brain of a kid and try dealing with the world you will have the time of your life when everyone try to make most out of the oppurtunity.

May be I have turned bitter owing to my experiences and experiments but I guess this too shall pass.
Will take some time to shake it off but this bitterness would go, I know that :)

Life

Well this is not the right time to write this blog but I guess to let the emotions flow this is actually the right time to pour in my thoughts and complete this blog.

I actually dont feel writing anything owing to this disgusting feeling I am having right now.
The feeling of losing all your friends.
The friends who meant so much for you, with whome you have spend and shared so much.
Today how they have turned away.
How they are acting so much against me,
How they loath talking to me.
The ones whome I never thought would ever will be able to separate and whome I trusted so much, they are the ones who wants me to be chucked out of their celebrated group.
And these are the people I have trusted with all heart and soul and then they turn back and rub on my face.
Its like falling flat on my face with nothing at all coming to my mind but just numbness.
Well, thats life I guessss, but I guess will always miss them.

My golfing experience:)

Well well welll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This weekend I finally experienced the game of the riches, GOLF:)
It was kinda good experience.First it was a long lovely drive (despite of me sitting at the sunhit side,which i think I was tricked into by akshay :D) then the whole resort (yeah it was a resort some 35 km from Bangalore) was lush greeennnnnnnn.
And by lush green I mean lush green, even the sticky and stuffy air seemed to be pleasing us once we were there.
The whole place was so huge and it was a treat for the eye to see so much of green after only buildings and traffic for so many days.
So finally we reached the much coveted eagleton resort and started off with the game.
I was very hungry by the time we reached there ' coz as usual I woke up 1:30 by shweta's call ( and now noone should judge coz I think weekend are suppose to relax your body and mind) and got ready in hurry and obviously didnt have anything.
So by the time we reached the resort I was literally startving.
So the first thing I asked on reaching the resort was "what is there to eat" and shweta came to my rescue(as usual) and told me there must be some sandwich or something, which was right and so much right that there was only sandwich available.
I ordered the sandwich, which again had a problem coz it was suppose to be made somewhere else nad then brought here and some thing like that. SO I just bought a pepsi and came to safely watch others play (and not try anything jazzy till I get a hang of things).
Rithwik as usual was trying something "diffrent" then the other (he had a diffrent club, a lighter one) akshay was doing good with his hits (was driving something close to 100 yards) and swapnil was also kinda okish. Rithwik was trying really hard to get a hang of that club and hit the ball at the "sweet" spot but all the balls totally refused to listen to ritwik or his club. And in the middle of all this I was sitting there totally clueless bout anything and everything, waiting for my sandwich to gimme someway to ihde from all the people who were cajoling me try my hands at it.

Finally my sandwich came and I got busy with it, but as I had expected even other got busy with it and it was finished withing no time and now I had to try my hands at the game.
So I decided no problemo and went on to learn how to hold the club.
Akshay and shweta game me the intial tips on how to hold the club how to place the ball and how to try and hit the ball.
With all this information in my head and full zeal to make the ball move atleast I went on the green mat and placed a ball on it.
I took some last minutes advices from akshay and some last seconds advices from shweta, the best one being "play with your own instincts", but the problem was I was having no instincts :(
so I just made some distance with the ball and others (so that I dont hit them) made my grip on the club and with all my might I swung the club.
I looked up in the sky to see ho high and how far has the tiny little white ball gone.
I could see nothing and then heard someone laughing, it was ritwik.He was pointing to something on my mat and when I looked down I saw that tiny white spheroid sitting at the green mat and had paid no heed to my "powerful stroke"(somehow powerfull stroke reminds me of castrol oil).
So I thought no problem it was my first one so I quickly took another shot but the ball was in no mood to move and I had by this time I was loosing both my patince and faith in this game.
But then giving up so soon would be such a horrible thing to do, so I decided, nope, I won't give up so soon.
So this time I took another one, with all the tips given by all the people in my mind, thunbs in a strtaight line on the club, check, ditsnce from the ball, check, placement fo ball, check and finally I again hit it without moving my eyes from the ball, and just like it is in movie, it happend the ball finally moved.
Although it just moved a few inches but it moved.
I was dancing with joy by that few inches movement :) and I followed the same thing and improved on that.
Aprt from me there were other who were struglling with the game as well but at diffrent levels.
There was ritwik who was trying to get a hang of the wooden club and trying to find the "sweet" spot. Then there was ritwik whose performance was splendid in a few shot and almost equal to mine (not that it any bad but still) in the others.
Akshay got tierd after a while and shweta got really bored.
But as the day went on I really started enjoying the game owing to the amzing leg pulling that we were doing and the game it was was so good.
I remember when once swapnil was desperately trying to hit the ball and the ball was in no mood to listen to the club suddenly his phone rang.
Shweta said "oh its his mom, its his mom, sehwaag ki maa ka phone hai sehwaag ki maa ka phone hai, now he will paly his best stroke :D (more on the tune of the reliance ad and sehwag's mom thingy :D).
Then there was this pro who came in to play and all our maharathis (akshay and swapnil to be precise) sat down after they saw him playing but ritwik went on to take the challenge headson (talk about being a bullhead, he is a true taurean!!:D) and proved in 5 years he will be as great as that guy.
All in all a fun outing and am already looking forward to our next golfing outing.

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Moraly right .............??????????????

Well yesterday I was reading this article in Bangalore times( yes I do read that crap and in fact that my favorite newspaper). It was about some ad about some deo which was totally demeaning for women.
Well I thought what’s new in that any Ad you see today it has women. Even if its a Car ad or a butter ad or any damn thing a skimpily clad chick would be roaming around with some muscle man ( I really don't understand why are women considered so brainless and why are guys so shallow to fall for that).
Any ways so I went on to read the actual story. Well knowing Bangalore times I knew that these bimbos running around in an ad won't make a news enough for Bangalore times to bother enough, there has to be something else. And Viola!!!!!!!!!! as if they wanted me to be right, there was more and come to think of it so much more, Well to be precise it was the new axe ad that is being aired on almost all the channel and almost all the time, with the tag line "turns nice girls naughty". and prove their tag line they have used librarian, policewomen and hold your breath, A SCHOOLGIRL.

Yeah you heard it right a school girl. Well what on earth the creative director of the ad was thinking and who actually does he thinks he is. Well am sure after that article he must be laughing allowed saying “See, using the school girl thingy paid off. No matter for what but at least people took notice and any publicity is good publicity". I think they should know what exactly is there limit, where are they suppose to draw the line and how much are they allowed to go beyond the line. I means seriously a school going kid should be used as a toy for there erotic ads, just to create some sensation.
He should know that there is a limit to which the ads can be raunchy, beyond that it’s nothing but being pervert.
And this is not the only ad which on with such stuff. And at this note I just wonder where are those moral policemen who have taken the moral responsibility of the whole society on their tiny little weak shoulders. Be it the shilpa-Gere kiss, or the Hrithik-ash smooch, or even Konkana sen smoking on screen. The censor board, the police, the lawyers, the judges everyone just come out with their weapons ready to shoot on anyone who tries to fondle with our culture. Even to Mandira bedi wearing a Saree comprised of all the flag or sporting ek omkar tatoo, everyone had some or the other problem.
And am not showing any disrespect to our culture or flag or anything am as proud to be an Indian and would go to any extend to condemn anyone who disrespect it. But aren't we ridiculing ourselves by shelling out arrest warrant for a non-Indian for publicly kissing someone( And come to think of it I do feel it was inappropriate but a warrant is a lil too much, I mean what was the judge thinking) and taking any step for such a thing.

There is no moral conduct that these guys should adhere to. Well there has to be something that should be done about such people who wont even spare kids out of their fantasy world.

There was an ad recently where snow white was suppose to be doing it with the seven dwarfs (honestly at first I thought it was funny, but then I thought it was stinkingly perverse)

I think no one has the answer about, what is it that is morally right and what is not and who would decide when is it that the line is crossed.

Thursday, May 3, 2007

Missing mom:(

Today while coming home I realy started missing mom.
its not like I decided to miss her today but just that somehow I missed her being around and her pampering.
There are so many things people living alone might miss about there mom and its not just good food that I am talking about here.
Having mom around is like having a shded tree around you. Though there is so much nagging and bickering also but still when you come home thinkng the world has come to an end or rather your world has come to an end that is the time your mom comes up with these tiny bits that makes you think, no there is still some life left.
She is there to tell you how special you are, how you are the best thing that the world can have and how the world wont be able to move, if you lose hope.
There were so many times when I thought mom doesnt know anything (specially when you ask her to pick some clothes for your to wear while going out and she would pick the least desirable dress :)), but with time you realise that MOM KNOWS THE BEST.

I miss how much she would supports you and she would know the exact moment when you need her the most, even when some 3000 odd kilometers would be separating you.

My mom can know my mood just by my hello.
she would whether am sick or had a bad day or anything bothering me.
I try a lot not to give it out but all my effort go kabum by just one thing"beta bata to kya hua hai".
And when I tell her she worries like hell.
She know when to say what and how to say it.
There are so many time that I have been rude to her written her off and all that and on those ocassions all she used to say was "Keh lo aaj tum, aaj tumhari baari hai".

I miss the very presence of her's around me, how she used to take care of me when I wasn't well, how she would make things which I like and how she used to pamper me.

When I was coming to bangalore she had total faith in me that I am big enough to take care of myself. even though I wsant sure of that a bit.
I still remember how she cried when she came to see me off when I was leaving for Bangalore.
Though she knew her little girl is big enough to take care of herself she didnt want to seem me go :(

I don't think so that I have ever told her how much I love her and respect her but I do think she knows and if she doesnt then I will let her know and most fo all thank her for giving me all that she could.

Self appraisal:)

Another one from Avinash kaushik.
Was skimming through his blog and found a lot of articles worth a read.
Go to http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2006/06/ if you have some time on hand.
Till then you can read it here at my blog
This one is how to identify a good anlyst AKA 10 salient features of a good analyst.


Here is my personal point of view, a check list if you will, on what makes a great Web Insights Analyst (it is important to caveat that this is not me, I only wish I were this good, this is something I aspire to be) :

# 10 You have used more than one Web Analytics tool extensively.While each tool is the same in our field, each tool is really different. The way Omniture computes Unique Visitors is very different from ClickTracks, or how either one of them handles sessions. Using different tools gives you a broad perspective on how the same thing can be counted ten different ways and at the same time a rich understanding of why some tools are great and some sub optimal. The interesting outcome of a diverse experience is that a great Analyst can work with any tool and yet find meaningful insights.
You don’t have to be limited to what you have at work. If you do a View Source you’ll see that this blog is measured using MapSurface, Google Analytics, ClickTracks and AnalogX (so tagging and web logs and real time data and a paid and free tool, great for learning).


# 9 You have not only heard of the Yahoo! Web Analytics group but 20 mins of each day is spent reading all the posts.Mr. Eric Peterson has had many great accomplishments but IMHO his best one is the Yahoo! Web Analytics Group. This is the most awesome collection of smart people in our industry who share their wisdom on every topic under the sun that touches our world. I personally read all the posts every day and I learn about challenges others are facing, innovative ways to solve those challenges, general trends in the industry, pointers to the latest and coolest happenings that impact us and on and on. There are repeat questions, the interesting thing is that even those get different answers all the time.
I attribute 90% of my knowledge to this group and I’ll be eternally grateful to Eric for the love and energy he has put into it over the years. (Do you meet this criteria? If you know the story of the button on the right, you meet the criteria. : )).


# 8 Before doing any important analysis you visit your website and “look” at the web pages (site experience).This one probably sounds stupid. But it is amazing how many times, how many of us, simply look at tools and numbers and data but often have no idea what the website looks like. It is impossible to analyse the data without a solid understanding of the customer experience on the site, what the pages look like, where the buttons are, what new “great” navigation change went live yesterday. A great Analyst stays in touch with the website and the changes constantly being made the the designers and marketers on the website.
For example: Great Checkout Abandonment rate analysis is powered by actually going through the site, adding to cart, starting checkout (using all options available), going through checkout all the way and getting a order confirmation email. Then you will look at numbers in a new and more meaningful way, I assure you that you will then not have to torture them for insights rather they will sing to you.


# 7 Your core life approach is Customer Centric (and not Company Centric).In the morass of data quality and TV and UV and cookie values and ab test id’s and sessions and shopper_ids we look at massive amounts of data and forget that real people are using our websites. Great Analysts have a customer centric view that makes their mind a lot more amiable to think like customers, all 1,000 segments of them, and you are aware of their personas and challenges (this is awesome by the way for data segmentation). This keeps you grounded in realityand will help you apply Occam’s Razor (because data trends and patterns without a “customer mindset” will always complicate thinking).
A great Analyst is capable of descending to the Customer level from the “analytical heights” and help her/him to move forward (because customers can’t fly).


# 6 You understand the technical differences between page tagging, log files, packet sniffing & beacons.This is specific to Web Analysts. How data is captured is perhaps the most critical part your ability to “process” the data and find insights. Each data capture methodology comes has its benefits and dangerous negatives. You understand hard core the technical differences between each data capture methodology and then appropriately adjust the kind of analysis you do and the value you extract from whatever your company uses.

# 5 You are comfortable in the quantitative and qualitative worlds.Clickstream, on its best day, should be the source of 35% of your data. Rest comes for site Outcomes or Qualitative data (the Why, see post on qualitative data). Great analysts are just as comfortable in the world of parsing numbers as the “open ended / ambiguous / soft” world of observing customers, reading their words, inferring their unspoken intentions, sitting in a lab usability study to glean insights etc.
You have a inherent ability to hear people and their problems and all the while in your brain you are thinking of 10 interesting ways in which you can slice the Site Overlay or other clickstream metrics to validate. Great analysts follow a slide on core clickstream / outcomes KPI’s with a slide on Segmented VOC Pareto Analysis.


# 4 You are a avid “explorer”. Reporting is straight forward. There are inputs, outputs, KPI’s, tables and rows. Analysis is not, it has no predefined paths to take, it has no preset questions to answers. It requires having a open mind, a high level of inquisitiveness and after hearing a ambiguous business questions a deep desire to find new and better ways to use data to answer those ambiguous questions. You don’t worry about the if and how it will work, you save that for later. You seek out possibilities and the non-obvious.
When faced with “incomplete / dirty” rather than think of all the reasons why you can’t analyse data you make reasonable assumptions and can find a nugget of gold in a coal factory. A vast majority of us fail at this, we face bad or incomplete data and we get paralysed. Framed another way you are really really good at separating Signal from Noise (be it using data segmentation, using statistics, using common sense, understanding your customer segments, or other methods).

# 3 You are a “smooth talker”.In our world Analysts rarely have the power to action things or implement recommendations. Great analysts are great communicators, they can present their message in a very compelling easy to understand manner, and be a passionate and persuasive advocate of company customers / website users. The 15 hours of complex multivariate statistical regression model analysis is hidden, they keep ego aside, and tell the “simple minded” decision maker that the changing product content presentation will have the highest correlated impact on revenue. They are just as comfortable talking to technical folks as presenting to the VP of xxx or yyy and selling either one of them a boat that they don’t need.

# 2 You are “street smart”.Great analysts are not “theory sprouting making things complicated and much harder than can be in the real world types.” Think Occam’s Razor. They have oodles and oodles of common sense and a inherent ability to degrade a complex situation to its simplest level and and look at logical possibilities. This does not mean they can’t look at complex situations, on the contrary they have a awesome ability to absorb complexity but they are also scrappy enough to look through the complexity rather than end up in rat holes. They know how & when to keep things simple.
(The original version of this was: You are Business Savvy. I think that is a incredibly hard quality to find, even harder to judge in a standard interview. Yet it is perhaps the one thing that separates a “report writer” from a “analyst”. The ability to see the big picture, the ability to understand and solve for strategic objectives. But in my own experience I have found that people who are “street smart” inherently have this ability and hence the framing of #2 as you see above.)

# 1 You play “Offence” and not just “Defence.”Most of us in this field play “Defence”: we supply data or we provide reports or we at times provide dashboards. Mostly we react. But we don’t play “Offence”: we don’t get in front of the business and say this is what you should measure, we don’t reply to the question “show me what the tool provides” with “tell me your strategic objectives and I’ll tell you what insights I can provide with the data I have”.
Great analysts spend 30% of their time looking at all the available data just to look for trends and insights, time they don’t have and doing things that no one asked them to do. But that 30% of the time that allows them to play Offence, to provide insights that no one thought to ask for, insights that drive truly impactful actions. You do it because you realize that you are smarter about the site and data than anyone else out there and you do it because it is a lot of fun. :~)


This was supposed to be a Top Ten but here is a bonus:

# 0 You are a “Survivor.”The reality of the world of our web decision makers is that most of them just want to measure HITS (
Jim Sterne Definition of HITS: How Idiots Track Success). The other day someone asked me to give them a “Site Counter” to put on the website for measurement, I am sure you have not heard the words Site Counter to measure anything in the last few years.
A key skill of being a great analyst is the ability to have patience, survive and stay motivated in a world where people might ask for sub optimal things. Of course you know better but transforming perceptions is a very hard job and take a long time. But you are a survivor, except the part about a million dollars in the end! ; )


Well, I think I would honestly give myself a three out of 11.
yeah that's all I am doing right now, but I am on my way to greatness.
Will soon get 10 outttaa 10.
Till then 3 is the IN thing:)
These are the thoughts of a well know web analysis expert,Avinash Shrivatva, as he explains how a web analyst should spent his time.

Following is an excerpt from his blog:


So if you are a Analyst then here is what I recommend you start with (customize for your organization as you see fit):
• 20% Reporting – Sorry you can’t escape this, you are still going to do reporting. But on the bright side it is a great way to keep in touch with reality.


• 20% Analyze Acquisition Strategies – What is your company doing to attract traffic to your website? SEM? Affiliate Marketing? Banners? Email Marketing? What else?
There is no faster way to win the hearts and souls of your company stake holders than helping them understand how their efforts are performing.

Focus your analysis on Outcomes (revenue?) that your company desires and you’ll do fine.


• 20% Understanding On-site Customer Experience – Using a mix of ClickStream and qualitative methodologies analyze what the customer experience is on your website. Really. Not what you think it is, not what your company wants it to be. But what it is in reality.
There is no better way to make money then this (and you’ll get happy customers as a bonus).


• 20% Staying Plugged into the Context – Most Analysts suffer because of a lack of context. They are put away in a corner with Omniture or WebTrends or HBX or Google Analytics and expected to produce earth shattering insights.


We need to have our Analyst use 20% of their time simply to stay plugged into what else is going on, in the marketing organization, on the websites in terms of operational changes, with senior management (anyone higher then their boss) to know what their strategic pain points are (then imagine how web data can solve them), with the phone or retail (big box) channels, etc.
Web analysis is not a silo and the analysts needs to be plugged into the context so that they can look at the right data, better and provide relevant insights (that they can’t possibly provide when locked in their ivory tower (!!).


• 10% Explore New Strategic Options – I don’t know where your company is but you always want to move the ball forward, this chunk of time should be spent in experimenting with new and different ways to move your program forward.
Think testing, competitive intelligence analysis, multi channel integration, usability etc. If you really are a one man band this is really hard to do (especially with 10% of your time) but think of tiny ways in which you can show that web analytics is not just about ClickStream, it is about creating better customer experiences and it is about creating a strategic advantage using data.
• 10% Bathroom breaks , oh and lunch! I am generous aren’t I. : )


I realize that each company is unique and each Analyst is unique, but I hope that the above picture provides a semblance of universal guidance for anyone how has the word Analyst in their title. Do a quick back of the envelope of how you spend your day/week and compare it to the picture above.


A few points in the above things are damn useful as they dont focus just on the analysis and all the statistics that one might be expected to do but it emphasises on how important it is to know something about everything.

How your analysis effects the content and how one might be able to use these anlysis not just to gain traffic but to enrich the user experience.

There is also an emphasis laid on the innovative ways one can think of for all sorts of enhancements. This is just to point out that how important it is, not to restrict yourself within the realms of your own job description.

It is very important for the brain to breath and the layout that avinash kaushik has given, does just that.

Sultan



I just loved this pic. This picture actually reminds of a story that Yash told me.

For the uninitiated Yash is my bestestestest friend. So this is the story about SULTAN.

Yash's bhaiyya (bunty bhaiyya) had a colleague, and by the way yash told me he seems to be quite a boaster. So the Colleague bought a doggy (not a puppy but a doggy). He named him SULTAN(yeas he totally believed in royalty and his dog deserved nothing less then the king's name himself).Anyways this colleague started boasting about his SULTAN in the office like hell. Sultan is this, he is fearsome, and he is adorable n all that, which kind of kindled the fire of curiosity in our bunty bhaiyya's tiny little heart.

So one fine weekend Bunty bhaiyya, just set out to satisfy his curiosity. So he finally reached that colleagues (I hate calling him colleague again and again plus the spelling of colleague is difficult so the ease of the writer lets call him "pingu" :)) place. After some normal ‘chai panni’ and a lot of formalities and no no and insistence n all that, Bunty bhaiyya finally asked pingu"ummmmm, where is SULTAN"(I feel like calling him "The SULTAN" now).

Pingu very proudly called "SULTAN, SULTAN".Bunty bhaiyya waited with baited breath for The SULTAN to arrive, but the door just slightly moved and nothing happened. After a while when he could take it anymore, bunty bhaiyya asked” Is sultan busy, why isn’t he coming”.

To which pingu replied "What's the matter with you, he is there right in front of you" and he pointed bunty bhaiyya to the floor. And when Bunty bhaiyya looked at the floor he noticed something crawling there. He saw a dog, no larger (yeah I would use larger) then a big mouse there on the floor. He was just three finger above the floor and was looking at bunty bhiyya with full resentment as if saying "Don't you challenge my capabilities, the showroom might be small but the godown is loaded”.

Even with a lot of effort Bunty bhaiyya couldn’t control his amusement or amazement and smiling he said "I hope you don’t have mouse in your house coz they can beat him up", which he found neither amusing nor appealing to his taste. He made a face and said "You guys don’t have the etiquettes of raising dogs". "In houses and apartment such dogs are more viable. Those big dogs are for farm house. This is the IN thing" he said looking at SULTAN and beaming with utmost pride.

Bunty bhaiyya didn't say anything but returned back but next day pingu had a real tough time in office with him and SULTAN's story doing rounds in office.

He gave the same reason to everyone (yeah that farm house and house difference) but as they love and office knows no reason. So it went on and on till one day, when pingu arrived in office and declared that he has sold SULTAN, which to his irritation made an even bigger new :).

Any ways, bunty bhaiyya and his colleagues had a nice time at pingu's expense for months and the story made me laugh like hell. Not that I don’t like such dogs but naming him SULTAN, seriously what was he thinking :) Posted by Picasa

Calvin's profession!!!!

Here are some thoughts from a friends friends friends and all that networks but an extremely good read if you are a calvin and hobbes regular.

Calvin, as a kid; is a "mind" of a free will. And though he can inculcate himself to be on top in any 'ever-imagined' profession; I personally feel that as he grow up; he'd give his "passion" more value than "money". As a kid, he is un-doubtfully fascinated by money; especially in his strips with "lemonade", "selling advices", "selling Car – Cheap for sale", "pocket money" and other numerous ones. Yet, over all focus of Calvin has always been on "Nature" "Animals" "Evolutions" "Era" "Progress" "Culture" "Science" "Space".
To answer the question, as to what is he going to be when he grows up; there are two "primary" possibilities:
Astronomer
Paleontologist
And even though Calvin might often sound more inclined towards "Space and Space Travel" as "spaceman spiff" I feel, it's eventually "Paleontology" that he will choose as his ultimate profession and that too for very distinctive reasons.
Firstly, Dinosaurs, the most vivid part of Calvin's imagination. As a Paleontologist he has opportunities, to quench his thirst of evolution of not only mankind, but other species in the umbrella of fauna, on this planet. This is a very crude sense, provides, a means to "travel through time". It also, keeps him induced with several other aspects of his interests; like "Nature", "Culture" "Science and technologies".
Secondly, I personally feel, that when Calvin grows up, he'd be nothing of sort of what they call "social". He'd be instead, the "loner genius" of his own era; ever engrossed in his work; eventually proclaiming his deserved glory; like Einstein or Newton or Steve Irwin!!!
Also, as he grows up, he'd definitely realize, that along with other precious species, Tiger are on verge of extinction; and irrespective of fact whether he is able to "see" Hobbes as a "live" companion or not; his special affinity to specie, will be successful, in drawing his attention away from celestial matters; and towards Paleontology instead!
So, Paleontologist is what I choose. Yep, that's what Calvin's going to be! J
As for Susie, I think; yeah that's the girl he'd marry; or the only girl who can put up with him. She'd be not only intellectual, but will also make a good wife. [As it's evident in scarce games she has played with Calvin and her Mr. Bun] J
Though, I would hate if he'd grow up; because right now what this world needs is NOT astronomers and Paleontologist; instead what we desperately need is an " impulsive, insubordinate, imaginative, energetic, curious, intelligent and rambunctious six year old ", who does not have much restraint between his mouth and brain! Because, that's what's going to teach the real lessons of life; in most ingenious of forms!

Innovative Insults

1. Any similarity between you and a human is purely coincidental!

2. Are you always so stupid or is today a special occasion?

3. As an outsider, what do you think of the human race?

4. I'd like to kick you in the teeth, but why should I improve your looks?

5. At least there's one thing good about your body. It isn't as ugly as your face!

6. Brains aren't everything. In fact, in your case they're nothing

7. Careful now, don't let your brains go to your head!

8. I like you. People say I've no taste, but I like you.

9. Did your parents ever ask you to run away from home?

10. If I had a face like yours. I'd sue my parents!

11. Don't feel bad. A lot of people have no talent!

12. Don't get insulted, but is your job devoted to spreading ignorance?

13. Keep talking, someday you'll say something intelligent!

14. Don't you love nature, despite what it did to you

Interesting

They are easy to understand but what was the logic behind the phonecian numbers?

It's all about angles !
It's the number of angles. If one writes the numbers down (see below) on a piece of paper in their older forms, one quickly sees why.
I have marked the angles with "o"s. No 1 has one angle. No 2 has two angles. No 3 has three angles. etc. and "O" has no angles


Evolution????

Probably written by some American, but applicable to us as well, I think.

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kidsin the 60's, 70's and early 80's probably shouldn't have survived, becauseour baby cots were covered with brightly colouredLead-based paint which was promptly chewed and licked.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors orcabinets and it was fine to play with pans. When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, just flip-flops and fluorescent 'spokey dokey's' on our wheels. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or airbags and ridingin the passenger seat was a treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle and it tasted the same.We ate chips, bread and butter pudding and drank fizzy juice with sugar init, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.
Weshared one drink with four friends, from one bottleor can and no-one actually died from this.We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then went top speeddown the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running intostinging nettles a few times, we learned to solve theproblem.
We would leave home in the morning and could play all day, as long as wewere back before it got dark.
No one was able to reach us and no one minded.We did not have Play stations or X-Boxes, no video games at all.
No 99 channels on TV, no videotape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, nopersonal computers, no DVDs, no Internet chatrooms.
We had friends - we went outside and found them.
We played elastics androunders, and sometimes that ball really hurt! We fell out of trees, gotcut, and broke bones but there were no law suits.We played knock-the-door-run-away and were actually afraid of the ownerscatching us.
We walked to friends' homes. We also, believe it or not, WALKED to school; we didn't rely on mummy or daddy to drive us to school, which was just round the corner.

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

My ex-roomies

I just overcame the big turmoil caused by the long power cut (almost 8 hours).
Its 3:15 in the morning or night or whatever it’s known as and I am not sleepy as am still recovering from the shock all that darkness has left me with.
With the power cuts all my hidden fears come up (as mentioned in the last to last blog).
Anyways just to overcome that shock I wrote a real long post about my Ex- roomies but then as they say (by they I refer the voices in my head) some days are not meant for you to write blogs ( yeah they say some real funny stuff) so the whole post got deleted (of course by my smartness).
But I decided that today was the day I was missing my roomies, or so to say my ex- roomies, so today should be the day I should write a post bout them, no matter how many times I have to rewrite(I hope this is the last one :().

So, I had two roomies, both absolute delight, and this coming from me is no normal stuff as I seriously have this strong dislike for girls (well not all but most of them, Ok some of them, very few actually).
So the first one was jeena AKA jeans.
She is one of the sweetest rolly polly that I have ever met. I little reserved in nature but once she gets handy (yeah handy is the word use for her) she will never let you down in any department.
Not a very fabulous cook but she never gave up on that. Her motto was “try and try till some dies".
So as we waited for our death she kept her experiments on, with breakfasts, lunches and dinners.
Not all her cooking used to be bad.
I remember once when she made chicken curry it was fabulous, except for the chicken dissolved in the curry, but the curry was damn good (seriously!!).
She is one of the most caring people that I have met and the best part is that she won’t be all show kinda caring.
She would care n her own subtle manner. She used to cook so many times for me when I used to come home starving n all that and even during the weekends when I would be saying no I am not hungry n all that.
She had her own set of principles to which she stuck with all her might but with us spoilt creatures she would let them go for once or twice in day :)
All in all a sweetheart.
Also she was this chubby thing who was on a little higher side of the weighing scale.
We used to pester her so much about going to gym n all (specially after her marriage was fixed)but she was reall happy with herself (A big achievemnet for a girl as no girl is happy with her looks these days).
The second that I had in my room was Rashmi AKA rash' (I till this date have not understood the significance or meaning of this ' in her alias but nevermind)
She was one of the most sensible jokers that I have ever met in my life.
Had a caustic sense of humor, with impeccable timing (she will kill you with just her "Whatever", just when you thing you have finally given your best comment and there is no comeback for her)
She had her typical jokes like "Are you a blond with hair dyed as brown or black or whatever".
She gave full competition to jeena in cooking ( I remember once she made Ladyfinger for her fiancĂ©' and asked my views, I very earnestly told her "don’t make him eat it". He will not marry you if he survives after eating this.)
She was the mother of the house not in the caring sharing sense but somehow in times of crisis the first that used to occur to us was"rasssssssssssssssssssssssssssssshmiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii" more on the tone of "mooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy"
So that’s why I call her the mother of the house.
Damn responsible dame, I mean from the house's calculation to contacting the house owner, to electricity bill. to gas agency, everything somehow used to be her responsibility ( I miss her more as all this has fallen onto the most irresponsible creature possible, yeah yeah that me).
Watching Tv was so much fun with these two, specially rashmi.
She had these killer comments about everything on TV (especially with the juicy e-news on Zee cafe and VH1). Even the sad(I would call them sadistic) Saas-Bahu traumatic serials used to be fun with her special backend commentary in full blow.
I was always in her awe for her vast knowledge about English songs, specially rock.
If ever there is an English song antakshari she would surely be the winner or something close to it. She was some dame and despite of being extensively bold she was never reckless about anything.
There are a lot of things that both these dames taught me.
How to handle various people right from your boss to your colleague to your husband (Rashmi had more "pearls of wisdom" to give to both of us then anybody else).
So many troubled times when I was totally clueless about what to do next these two girls came forward and not just supported me but advised me with the best solution.
I really miss all the tiny "In-house parties" that we used to have and how sharing with them used take all the load of my shoulders.
I remember once when I had a huge problem in office these too girls just gave me the instruction of how to brave out the battle filed.
And it worked like a charm.
But like everyone lese these two too got married and left with their husbands :(
I really miss all the times spent with them and cherish all the moments that we had together.
May they get the best in life and stay the same forever :)

My new phone

Yess this is the blog about my new phone.
Now before I start with the story of my new phone I would like to throw some light on what me change the phone.
No no. I am not the tech savvy chick who wants the newest phone in the market and wants every thing a phone can offer ( I don’t even know half of the things my last phone could do).
So it started when one day out of the blue my phone decided to stop talking to me or at least telling me that someone is trying to reach me, precisely it stopped ringing. It already was not vibrating so the only option I wsa left with was to check my phone time to time and see the missed calls and call back the person who has called.
It wasn’t much of the problem till the person is not out of state as I can always call from my office phone (See not all the things bout working are bad). But then one day the 5 digit button of my phone stopped working.
So now I cannot call anyone who has a digit 5 in his phone number but even that did not cause much of a problem as almost all my number were stored in my phone.
The only problem I faced was writing messages as they used to be without the letter J,K,L.
But even I bore with that as now no one messages me, since am almost friendless these days (everyone is busy earning a living).
So I was still OK with all the above added features in my phone.
But then one fine day my phone decided that enough is enough and when it couldn’t take anymore it just said goodbye and died.
It just went blank, I tried reviving it by switching it on and off again and again but all it used to do was blink a li'l and die again.
and when it finally came to senses it had one more huge feature added to its list.
When I pressed the digit 5,6,7,9 it was getting switched off.
I mean till 5 it was still ok but 6,7,9 too, that moment I decide its time to let go.
So I just went to a mobile shop with the hard decision to buy a new phone.
I asked the guy in the shop to show me some phone.
I told him to show 1200 wala phone.
He said "there is no such model as 1200". I told him" no, no, not the model 1200 but the phone which comes for 1200 bucks". He looked up gave a sinister smile and turned back. He picked one phone and said here u go, “this is the cheapest we have, but this is for 1800".
I said "fine, give this one then",
I asked "what are the features in it" (yeah, that was totally commendable thing that I did).
He looked up again and said” Nothing".
I said "Fine, give this one".
He said "Anything else". I asked him if he had the N- series, he looked up again smiled and turned to take out the N-series models.
I took a look at the n series models and thought of wasting his time (he anyways wasn’t doing anything) but then decided against it.
He asked “Aren’t you buying one” and gave a big smirk.
To which I just gave a shrug and said” I will buy it when I grown up”.
Which I don’t see happening anytime soon so till then its my cheap Nokia will do which by the way I have dropped two times since I bought it so I would it a wise decision.
As for the high phone I think my brother is a better choice for them, so will buy one for him as a birthday gift.

My fear!!

This is my exact feeling put into words by non other then IRON MAIDEN :O
Anyways, this is exactly why I cant sleep in dark.

I am a man who walks alone
And when Im walking a dark road
At night or strolling through the park

When the light begins to change
I sometimes feel a little strange
A little anxious when its dark

Fear of the dark, fear of the dark
I have a constant fear that someones always near
Fear of the dark, fear of the dark
I have a phobia that someones allways there

Have you run your fingers down the wall
And have you felt your neck skin crawl
When youre searching for the light?
Sometimes when youre scared to take a look
At the corner of the room
Youve sensed that somethings watching you

Have you ever been alone at night
Thought you heard footsteps behind
And turned around and no ones there?
And as you quicken up your pace
You find it hard to look again
Because youre sure theres someone there

Watching horror films the night before
Debating wiches and folklore
The unkown troubles on your mind
Maybe your mind is playing tricks
You sense and suddenly eyes fix
On dancing shadows from behind

Fear of the dark, fear of the dark
I have a constant fear that someones always near
Fear of the dark, fear of the dark
I have a phobia that someones allways there

When Im walking a dark road
I am a man who walkes alone

Good one!!!!

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Auto menace-Part2

This one is just to prove that not all auto walas are nasty and ready to pounce on you.
Once while I was coming back from office, I took an auto usual.
And halfway I realized that the auto meter is not right and is running slightly fast.
I told dutifully told the automata this thing which he very comfortably ignored.
I repeated this thing (pretty loudly this time) when he halted at the next red light. He insisted on the meter being right but I very wisely told him all the statistics about the road and the meters and the fare and the Indian economy and all that and he just gave me a nasty look which was more like "You are cheap, Man!!".
Anyways we moved on and kept bugging with my knowledge of how much is the fare till this point and that point n all that. Come to think of it he showed a lot patience with me :).

Anyways we moved on and so did the meter, so much so that by the time we reached till maruthi nagar (it some 2 Km from my place) I finally decided that it was enough (no no not my bugging, of course not, but the meter's wrongdoings) and either I will take 'nother Rick or walk from their on (yeah I do that).

So I stopped that guy paid him whatever the meter said and stated walking.
After sometime I realized that an auto stopped right next to me and when i looked I realized it the same auto Walla.
He asked where do you wanna go (yeah it sounds scary) but me being me and totally brainless and with all my earnestness I told him my destination "BTM water tank". He smiled and said come I will DROP you.
I looked at him surreptitiously and said I will go by own self (the first thing that crossed my mind was that this guy wants to get even for the bugging I did) . So I just thanked and started walking but he kept on saying "koi baat nahi madam sit down I will drop you".

I was skeptical bout the whole thing but then moving on my impulse I took the auto.
And I was right he kept on blabbering throughout the two Km till my place, but in no other way he did any harm. All he was saying was how meters work and how they can go fast or slow by themselves and also, how the drivers have nothing to do in any tampering with the meters yada yada yada.............. And I still feel that his own little revenge :).
Anyway he DROPPED to my place and when I tried paying him he plainly refused it.
All he said was that I thought you might be walking so far as you might get auto for such short distance that’s why I thought I would DROP you.
I was kind of touched by this thing.
I anyways paid him but it was really nice to know that the world still has plenty of people who don’t do everything for some benefit or gain (if you just write off his small revenge of all the meter talk).
Anyways that was my tiny bit bout the good auto wallas although they easily outnumbered by the nasty ones but they are not totally imaginary.