Bright Sam's Blog

Ponmudi

2006-09-24T11:44:00.000-07:00

Ponmudi, a hill station situated at an altitude of 1000 meters from the sea level is a perfect spot for one-day trip if you live around Trivandrum, it’s hardly 75 k.m from here.
This is not only my first ever trip to any hill station in Kerala, it’s also my first ever long trip in my new car. Me being an inexperienced driver added more thrill; we kicked off the journey from Kazhakoottam around 9 a.m. and reached half way within the next hour, but the remaining half took three hours. There were 22 deadly hairpin turns in the final 17 k.m, which thoroughly tested my driving skills, I was lucky enough that there were no KSRTC buses turned my way during uphill. At times I felt that I was not the only driver in the WagonR, there were four others, Dipesh, Peyush, Biju and T.K, one of whom forecasting the forthcoming hairpin, another peeping out anxiously looking for any oncoming vehicles, another one directing me not to go extreme left, another one asking for sound horn. Well, it was all over by 1 p.m when we reached the hilltop, it was time for a small trek in the rocky mountain surrounded by lush green. Leeches did not miss the chance to taste my and Peyush’s blood.

We did’t miss the chance to take a dip in the chilled waters flowing through the hilltop and rocky terrains. Also visited Neyyar Dam on the way back. And finally back home by 9 p.m.

Three cheers to the entire unit! Can’t wait for the next one!!

Ponmudi peak - can't reach any better

uprooted

together we challenge the wind

Poovar

2006-06-20T11:35:00.000-07:00

The never-ending season of outing along the costal Kerala continues as we decided to explore the still backwaters of Poovar. On the 17th of June, an enthusiastic 15-member squad kicked off the journey from the East Fort junction, Trivandrum. Suresh had brought bagful of ‘medhu vada’ to keep up the energy levels. It took less than an hour to reach the ‘Isola di cocco’ resort. Plenty of games; cricket, volleyball, football and boating to name a few and; the swimming pool to keep us cool.

Though it was a nice trip, the beach was not up to our expectations. The seawater and atmosphere around was filthy. I don’t know who to blame, is it that we arrived on a bad day or is it the same all through the year. Neither the backwaters were as good as we thought. Peyush had a narrow escape from being hurt by a broken glass piece. However we had enough fun off the coast.

I would prefer Kovalam than Poovar.
Lessons learned: Web sites can misguide at times.

Rowboat

Swimming pool

Gods Own Country – A trip to Angamali & Veegaland

2006-05-23T10:10:00.000-07:00

It’s not just about deadlines, schedules and targets; it’s also about entertainment, outings and fun if you are in our team. Yup, we’ve got a wonderful team which loves to stretch at workplace and beyond.

As usual we were at the mid of a busy week when one of our colleague Greety came up to us to present her brother’s wedding invitation which is to be held at Athirapalli near Cochin. It was a quiet day till the noon till our boss Nixon came up to us to ask if any of us are interested in attending the wedding. It took a while for me to make out his master plans that we could actually visit Veegaland and Angamali falls in the name of attending marriage as it’s on a weekend and is hardly 6 hours journey from Trivandrum.

All set, the master plan is ready and 10 of us decided to go in two cars. It was 13th morning 5 am, Peyush, Geo, Shiju and myself got into Nixon’s car while the rest of the crowd including Deepu, Liju, Nripen and Ajit into Sajosh’s car. We reached the Veegaland, a theme park in Cochin.

Around 11.30 am we all were straight into the action; started off the day with the roller-coaster ride, which tested our blood pressure. The games went on an on until all us were too tired to try out any more. The post lunch session was full of water games including slides and fountains. The highlight of the day was the journey into the dark-deep cave depicting the Malayalam comic characters. Finally we ended the day with a late night blast; with half the crowd joining the party we had a long walk back to the hotel room. Only in the morning we realized that we came walking for more than 3 km J

After attending the marriage next day, we visited Angamali falls. It was one of the best waterfalls I had ever seen. With wonderful scenery around, the brownish water could not stop our enthusiastic gang from having a go at the water for almost an hour. And finally we headed back to Kazhakoottam in the evening.

Pattanamtitta – A Travelogue

2006-05-08T11:09:00.000-07:00

It was one of those interesting bike trips around the southern Indian state of Kerala. It was 6th May 06, my friend Sundeep was getting engaged to Miss. Jaya. The Engagement ceremony was to be held at the girl’s place at Pattanamtitta. As I am working at Trivandrum which is about 120 Km from Pattanamtitta he wanted me to be present for the occasion at any cost.
I took off from Kazhakoottam at 5.45 pm on 5th evening; my colleague Peyush whose house is on the way accompanied me till Punaloor which is 25 km before Pattanamtitta.
I said it was one of the interesting bike trips because the road to Pattanamtitta was full of deadly curves. Of the 120 kms, I would have come across at least 50 curves of which some were deadly. We reached Punaloor around 9.30 pm in the night, just another 5km and we reached Peyush’s hometown; I didn’t have a clue of the place as it was deep dark. Another 25 Km to go for Pattanamtitta; I do not know the way, but there were signboards all over the way for me to get going. I reached hotel Rose Mount at 10 pm in the night.
The engagement ceremony went well the next day; I got introduced with Sandeep’s friend Shaji. Both of us decided to go around the city before we finally depart. The hotel receptionist advised us to visit “Aaana Koondu” (Elephant cage) which is just 11 km from the hotel. Both of us flew to Koannhi to visit Aaana Koondu. I am sure Shaji had enjoyed the trip to the best; we didn’t miss the opportunity to have a snap on the way as the scenic river stopped us for a while. Aaana Koondu was a special experience as we saw a baby elephant being fed inside a wooden cage; the elephant ride was the best part of the trip; and I found Shaji the happy man.
I had to bid good-bye to Sandeep & family and Shaji soon after we reached the hotel as I don’t want to miss the 120 km ride back home while the sunlight was on.

TN Elections: Opinion poll

2006-05-08T11:06:00.000-07:00

As usual it’s another political drama in Tamil Nadu having both the leading parties DMK and ADMK throwing impossible and impractical promises. Let’s wait and see if they keep them all.

The opinion poll conducted by Mr. Sam :-) at the work place shows that DMK has 50% chance, while the rest of 50% says that it’ll be a cliffhanger.

The election results are not far away, let’s wait and see.

But whatever happens is not going to change the fate of TN.
Hence I decided not to travel 160 Km to cast my vote.

Trip to Kovalam Beach

2006-02-22T09:39:00.000-08:00

“God’s Own Country” that’s what they call it; Kerala the southern state of India. It was my first ever trip to Kovalam, one of the best-known tourist spots in Kerala. Kovalam beach, popular for it’s clean waters, surrounded with coconut trees swaying to the jazzy wind and the well maintained beaches around witnessed a team of young and energetic people walking on the shore, playing football and swinging along the high raise waves.

Though Kovalam beach is hardly 45 Km from my hometown, I never visited it in the past 15 years. We a team of 11 started our journey from Techno park in three two-wheelers and a car. In the next 30 minutes we all arrived at one of the viewpoints near to the beach; from there we reached the Samudhra beach resort where we had light refreshments and kicked off the days proceedings with a game of football. With my team leading the game at 4-1 during half time, most of us shifted the gear towards the high raising waves and there started the most amazing part of the trip. Even after receiving warnings from the lifeguard about the high raising waves, we went on to the deep waters and had fun for hours and hours before the sun finally decided to hide from us into the deep sea leaving us to pack the bags.

It’s not over yet, for those enthusiastic young guys the resort had a swimming pool which some of us could not afford to miss. Five of us went on to explore the calm and clean water for the next 30 minutes and finally we all settled for dinner at the resort before we found our way back home in the night around 10 pm.

View point

Kovalam Beach

e-Treat??

2006-02-07T22:53:00.000-08:00

I sent an e-mail to one of my friends at Delhi that I’ve cleared CSQA exam, CSQA is one of those certifications which I thought I would never be able to clear it with my kind of preparation. Now he’s asking for treat, the reason being he has already cleared CSQA and gave me few tips as how to approach the exam. I had heard about e-greetings e-mail e-business etc., but how can one do an e-treat?

Sania Mirza, India Questions – NDTV

2005-11-15T11:10:00.000-08:00

One of the programme I enjoyed the most in NDTV is “India Questions: Sania Mirza”.

Sania Mirza, the teen sensation in Indian tennis, the hard-hitting girl from Hyderabad made her presence felt in international tennis competing with the world no. 1 William sisters. Yea, I am her fan; I wrote about her a while ago when the Sania mania started catching up, I really admire her; she is one of the best personalities Indian women tennis has ever produced. A true inspiration for those young guns in India who are aspiring to fire!!

A perfect example of her fan club is my friend Mr&Mrs Suman Kumar, I was surprised to see these young couple (sorry suman, I mean young Chitra) spending sleepless nights watching Sania’s play.

Sania is smart, I think she has done her homework before appearing for the NDTV interview; she knows very well about these crazy Indians. You know what I mean if you are an Indian cricket fan.

Way to go Sania, I love I am there to back you in any of those upcoming tournaments.

By the way she celebrates her 19th Birthday today.

Happy Birthday Sania!

Round trip around Delhi

2005-11-06T07:38:00.000-08:00

A sunny and foggy Sunday, Parth and me took a round trip around the capital city for few hours. We kicked off the journey from B70, Sector 22, Parth’s house at 11 am by Satya’s Baja Pulsar. After getting Parth’s camera checked at the Sony Service Center at Dhiyanand Vihar, North Delhi, we took a short break at Cox&Kings, Connaught Place, Parth’s office where the welcome scene caught our eyes stunned for a while, which is of a young female turning her fat butt to us.

The next stop was at Parliament Of the Republic of India where the security guard was hesitant to allow us for a picture and hence we took off straight to the Presidents house catching few nice snaps and had a bike trip into the Rastrapati Bhavan, which is built picture perfect and guarded well. Straight down the Rastrapati Bhavan is the crowded India Gate; after spending a short while we rushed back home to catch up the early moments of glorious India cricket against the wrecked Sri Lankans which starts at 2.30 p.m. Parth never missed the opportunity to pick up few Andhra style spicy pickles on the way back home.

The Great Delhi Run, Oct 16th

2005-10-20T11:43:00.000-07:00

Finally the day had come for the much-awaited Great Delhi Run, 15 of us reached the Pragathi Maidhan at Delhi from where we took the shuttle service to Nehru Stadium. The shuttle fully packed with aspiring youths reached the venue at 9 am. The Nehru stadium flooded with young guns raring to go wore a lively atmosphere; the run started at 9.15 am had few celebrities including Kapil Dev to cheer up the crowd. With lots of young faces around, the live media coverage, the helicopters overhead, and our own style of attracting the crowd, there was no lack of fun. I would say it was a fun run for our team, though we all lost in the crowd within the first 500 meters from of the start we managed to make it as a team at the end. The interesting part of the run was Sonu, our fella runner running away with the second runner up prize for best-dressed runner (read as funny dress) among the 20000 participants. It was fun run for a Noble cause at the end. The longest run ever in my life. Just for the records, I crossed the finish line in one-hour.

I wouldn’t have asked for a better gift on my Birthday!

On the track

2005-10-03T09:26:00.000-07:00

Just about two hours ago I received a confirmation email from the Hutch Delhi Half-Marathon committee that my entry for “Great Delhi Run” on October 16 is confirmed. Though I wrote about Chennai Marathon race few months back, this is the first ever Marathon run I am taking part in my life, I am excited about it. It’s not just about excitement; more than excitement it’s about contributing for a noble cause. As of now we are a group of 9 people and we expect to have a bit of fun as well.

Another two weeks from now and I got to be prepared to run for 7 Km on the highways of Indian capital watched by thousands of people and viewers around the nation. So I decided to give it a trial run at our office gym, after a long wait for around 25 minutes I got a chance to step into the treadmill. It’s a modern treadmill; it even calculates your pulse rate/heartbeats per minutes. I kept on increasing the speed to 6 (not sure about the speed measurement unit), it started shouting at 6.4 that I shouldn’t go beyond this speed for my pulse rate. I turned off the pulse detector and went on till 12 speed without much problem, but soon after completing 2 kilometer I was completely down, I now needed the help of the handbar, I couldn’t stand on my own. Oh Man! Once I thought 7 Km is simple, but now 2 Km itself seems to be a tougher target. I now started questioning my stamina; I play football rarely, I workout at home often, still I am no way near the 7 Km target. Race is not just about fitness, it’s also about stamina and control.

This is just an initial assessment. Miles to go before 16th.
Cheers!

Delhi Half Marathon 2005, October 16

2005-09-28T01:33:00.000-07:00

More details here,

http://www.hutchdelhihalfmarathon.indiatimes.com/

http://shopserve.indiatimes.com/delhimarathon/marathon.html

Maharashtra floods

2005-07-30T23:57:00.000-07:00

Mumbai continues to be under the threat of rain for more than a week as the death toll in Maharashtra reaches 850. (source: rediff news). The raising water level, landslides and the tsunami rumor spread by a group of people, all contributes to the toll.

One of my colleagues was saying that his friend’s house in Mumbai was covered with water that he lost many valuables including his passport.

Mussoorie Updates

2005-07-26T13:47:00.000-07:00

It was the 23rd July 2005, early morning 3.30 a.m, I woke up in the middle of the sleep to check the weather outside, “Thank God it’s not raining”, I told myself and started preparing for the trip. Raincoat, medicine, bike registration papers, camera and more important my 97.5 cc, 7.5 bhp Hero Honda Splendor, all ready and geared up for the trip. We four of us including Parth, Probuddha and Gaurav started from Varun apartments at 5.30 a.m. The trip started in a mixed weather had number of stops on the way, for rains and refreshments.

We were welcomed by the greens and hills as we neared Mussoorie. The most exciting part of the journey was the route to the hilltop, as the U turns and steep curves could make anyone unconscious anytime. Half way through the hills we could see the clouds kissing the hilltop; and we reached Mussoorie at around 3.30 in the evening. 10 hours drive and the journey continues, we checked into a hotel and caught up with the rope-car trip to the mall through the clouds. The next day morning we visited Sahastradhara falls near Dehradun and back home by 6.30 pm.

A wonderful trip to be remembered forever!

Mussoorie trip updates, pictures

2005-07-26T02:08:00.000-07:00

Check-out Parth's weblog for pictures and write-up on the Mussoorie trip.

600 km, 36 hrs

2005-07-24T12:00:00.000-07:00

What a trip it was! A trip of a lifetime, the first ever bike trip in my life covering more than 600 kilometers involving a ride on to the deadly curves and the steep roads of the Himalayas in less than 36 hours;

More updates to follow soon.

Going Mussoorie This Weekend

2005-07-21T04:25:00.000-07:00

We a group of seven bikers have planned to go for a 2 day bike trip to Mussoorie in the Himalayas this weekend.

Popularly known as the queen of hills, this charming hill station, 34 kms. From Dehradun is situated at an altitude of 2,500 mts. above sea-level. Enchanting view of pine covered hill slopes and snow capped mountains leave an indelible impression on one's mind. The modern bungalows, malls and well laid gardens which are located on the small hills around the area are enough to attract any tourist. Read more

Another Jam Session

2005-07-14T12:20:00.000-07:00

It’s getting better every week; the ambience at A-51 Sector 23 was lively on the 9th of July. With Satya returning from holiday and Mukesh had his electric guitar tuned for the event, I felt as if I am into a live concert. The event started around 4 pm in the evening went on till 5 am the next day. More than 12 hours of non-stop music filled with loads of fun; one wouldn’t have asked for more.

About half way through the session Mukesh had to go home to return his car, we seven of us followed his car in four bikes hoping that Mukesh would get to join us for the rest of the session. But luck did not favor Mukesh this time, as he could not escape from the strict orders of his father. We decided to send Satya as the mediator, but there was no change in the outcome and so we had to return back to A51 leaving the guitarist behind.

On the way back to A51 we all settled for dinner at Galina where the late night fun started. Soon everyone finished their food and the bill was presented, the whole crowd vanished into the dark leaving the poor fella Partha alone, who was caught by the waiter to settle the bill. Watching this from the dark, we couldn’t control our laughter that Sumeet started rolling on the mosaic floor.

It was the idea of Partha that ‘Pizza Hut’ is famous for entertaining customers with free gifts whenever someone comes to celebrate their birthday. So we all got into Pizza Hut; it was 12 in the night, the guy at the door stopped us saying they are closed. We convinced them saying its Sam’s (me) birthday today (actually it was not) and we are here to just sing couple of songs for him. He agreed upon and the gang got in and sang happy birthday song for me; but no hope, none of the waiters turned to us or offered any gifts.

The door next to Pizza Hut is McDonalds; we all got in neglecting the security at the gate. The guy in uniform said “Sir, we are closed”. Partha replies “Then why are you open now, the doors are open”. He again says “Sir we are closed now”, Partha replies back “Nowhere it’s written you are closed now”…and the whole crowd walks out.

Back home after a long break, and the event continued till the dawn! A Memorable session!!

About Music, Masti - A Night Out

2005-07-03T08:19:00.000-07:00

With the monsoon showing it’s presence felt in Delhi and Noida, and the light showers coupled with slow breeze bringing down the temperature from 45 degrees to a pleasant 34 mark, we wouldn’t have asked for a better time to host a welcome party for the south-west monsoon.
On the 2nd of July night, a group of music enthusiasts decided to get-together at PB’s house for a jam session. While I took charge of arranging food for thought, PB got busy with organizing the Guitarist Mukesh and the tablist Satwik who is a diploma holder(Sangeet Visharat) in tabla instrument. Among the other participants were Mukesh’s friend Ankit, Partha, Amit and his brother Sumeet who is a very good vocalist.
The music session then started went on till the next day early hours, among the varieties were Indian classical, few western and the North Indian ghazals. The highlights of the session were the tabla play by Satwik, Flute/guitar by PB, Mukesh’s guitar and the melody of Sumeet. Ankit and Satwik had their share of jokes to wind up the session in a happy note.

It’s about 2 a.m the next day, we all geared-up for an early morning bike drive (call it as race) to Comesum restaurant in Delhi, in four two-wheelers. The race started from Varun apartments had lot of pit stops on the way. The first one being Amit’s new Honda Unicorn which ran out of fuel, the next at a gas station for PB’s tyre air and the next one near Delhi where Mukesh and Satwik were drilled by the late night cops. At Comesum, we were joined by three more people (met them at the restaurant); one of them is a biker who later demonstrated his wheeling talents by lifting the front wheel at 90 degrees from the ground. As we carried the guitar along, we spent the next couple of hours in front of the restaurant playing few Indian classical watched by people around. Finally we settled for an early morning snacks and bid good-bye to Delhi and good morning to Noida. It was 6 a.m when we got home, and 3 p.m when I got up again, a perfect weekend.

Dust storm rocks Noida

2005-06-12T13:50:00.000-07:00

Usual power cut at 12 in the night, I opened my balcony door to let the free air in and went to bed. Within minutes, my balcony window doors started knocking heavily asking me to close the doors. I got out to see what's on; the noise level kept on increasing as the wind howled through the apartments in the neighborhood. I could not stay out anymore as the heavy winds stared turning into a dust storm. "Close all the windows and get in", screamed Satya! I tried to close one of the iron-framed doors near the stairs, but the cyclone was too powerful that I gave up closing that door. And, the dust storm continued for another two hours.

Delhi to Kanyakumari – Travelogue

2005-06-05T08:12:00.000-07:00

The longest trip I ever had within India covering a distance of 2750 kilometers and eight states. Surrounded by colorful seashore, coconut trees and paddy fields, the two hours bus trip from Trivandrum to my hometown via the inter-state national highway is the best part journey as the canopies of coconut trees swaying to the gentle breeze can sweep anyone out of their feet.

There are more to enjoy at home, as my father turned the backyard into a farmhouse of his own taste. To list a few are the huge fish tank having catfish (I think it’s also known as African Musci) measuring up to three feet long and a small shark fish, the Beekeeping which he’s been passionate about for more than 25 years now, the banana, coconut, papaya and jackfruit trees. Some of the scenes that caught my eyes are,

The papaya

Beehive

Catfish

On the way back to Delhi I had a chance to see around Coiambatore for the first time as I had to attend one of my friend’s marriage there.

You are in India

2005-05-30T12:16:00.000-07:00

You are in India

It takes around a month’s time to get a new mobile connection. Purchased a data cable for Rs 650, but my laptop never recognizes the cable. Later on I realized that the shop owner has cheated me and has to return the cable after trying out all possible options (uninstall/install the drivers) and brought a branded (LG) cable for Rs1250 which works fine without any problem. After couple of weeks, the new mobile connection gets de-activated saying the address verification failed. God knows what they (reliance guys) were doing all these days?

Yes, I am back to India and been enjoying the roasting summer and the babulies around Delhi. You wonder what’s babuli! My employer was kind enough to take us all for a Hindi movie “Bunti our babuli” after 80% discount on the ticket price.

A Trip to Isle of Wight

2005-03-29T13:58:00.000-08:00

Time is running short, just another week to go in the UK and a long weekend ahead of me before I head back to India on the 2nd of April. I started searching in Google for tourist attractions around Britain. One such places caught my attention was Snowdoniain Wales, I thought it would make a perfect weekend place for two days and started looking for an accommodation. At this point I realized that I've already made a mistake by not booking a hotel in advance. I called up around 10 to 15 hotels and the response from everyone is that there is no room available for this weekend at any of the hotels around Snowdonia, as it’s a long weekend having Good Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Easter Monday holiday. So I finally decided to visit Isle of Wight, which is not far away from the place where I live.

On a bright and sunny Saturday the 26th morning, myself and Ananth started our journey to Isle of Wight. With full of enthusiasm and excitement we reached the Southampton Ferry terminal at 11 in the morning from where we need to catch a ferry to get to the Island. There is a slow ferry that takes you to Cowes (in Isle of Wight) in about an hour and an express ferry to West Cowes, which takes around 22 minutes. We decided to take the express ‘Red Funnl’ ferry as we are already running short of time. We crossed the Solent (Solent meaning - A strait of the English Channel between the coast of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight) and reached West Cowes around 12 noon. From there we took a bus to Newport and to Alum Bay where ‘The Needles’ is.

The Needles, one of the most famous tourist attractions of Isle of Wight graced by the red and white lighthouse tower, the chalk cliffs, the unique colored sands of Alum Bay and the restless ocean is a treat for the eyes. The chairlift down to the beach proved to be the best as it provides a spectacular view of the needles and the entire beach while you travel above the treetops. We spent most of the evening on the stony beach watching the silent ripples and throwing stones over the wave-tops. The best part was the boat trip to the needles point as the guide took us through the history behind the colored sands, the cliffs and the lighthouse.

Don’t miss it if you are around!!!

Few clips from the Needles

Isle of Wight - The needles chalk cliffs and lighthouse

Isle of Wight - Chairlift above the treetops towards the beach

Isle of Wight - Picture perfect boat

Windsor Castle

2005-03-27T08:40:00.000-08:00

A perfect weekend place if you are around UK, frequent trains from Stains to Windsor all the day. Anand and myself decided to explore the 900-year-old remains of one of the working palaces of UK where the Queen resides presently and is going to hold the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles on 8th of April. We were stunned with the giant walls stand tall guarding the Queen’s home just outside the Windsor station.

“Over 900 years ago William the Conqueror, with the help of his victorious armies commenced construction of the castle. The site was chosen with great care; high above the river Thames on the edge of the Saxon hunting grounds. The castle was a days march from London and guarded the western approaches. It is a massive castle, the largest inhabited castle in the world and it is bigger than people realise.
Source: http://www.plus44.com/royal/winds/windsor.htm”

The collection of guns and swords acquired during various war against India, China and other countries just reflect the power of such a small nation which ruled the world with iron hands. Tipu Sultan’s Sword and Gifts were also part of the collection.

Windsor Castle - view of the outer wall from the road

The Windsor Castle

On and off the field: India Pakistan

2005-03-15T12:31:00.000-08:00

India and Pakistan cricket teams may be fighting for the cup on the field, but off the field they are heroes. With the second test match between the two arch-rivals about to kick off in few hours from now, most of the team members from both side contributed to the tsunami fund by participating in a charity auction organized by ‘Together we will’, a Kolkata based NGO. Among the cricketing gear auctioned were bat signed by team members, T-shirt, ball and glove.

We will see the real face-off when they pad up for the second match at Eden Gardens

The snow is finally here

2005-02-27T15:05:00.000-08:00

Snow is finally here in England. Though it is just about one inch snow around most places, I enjoyed it thoroughly as this is the first time I get to see snow in my life. The most beautiful snowfall was the one last week while we were at work. I ran outside and stood near the car park for few minutes, I was covered with snowflakes all over my body. It’s pure fun.

The snowflakes are interesting if you take a close look at them. Each snowflake is made up of 2 to 200 snow crystals. These snow crystals are crystals that have formed around tiny bits of dirt that have been carried up into the atmosphere by the wind. Snow crystals take different shapes depending on the temperature at which it was formed. The simplest one is a long needle shaped like a spike. The other shapes all have six sides. One of them is a long, hollow column that is spiked like a six-sided prism. There are also flat six sided plates. And lastly they are intricate, six pointed stars.

I hope it snows heavily this week!

Run for a cause

2005-02-20T06:37:00.000-08:00

The Chennai Marathon jointly organized by Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu and Rotary International went well this morning with over 10000 runners from across the country taking part in the run. This year’s marathon “Run for a cause” is dedicated to victims of the tsunami disaster. The run took place on the beach road in front of the Marina beach and the Elliot’s beach front in South Chennai.

I wish I was there!

Young guns fire

2005-02-10T14:35:00.000-08:00

If it was eighteen-year-old Sania Mirza who made her entry into the Indian tennis history books couple of weeks ago for reaching the third round in the Australian Open, it’s time we add a new chapter to the history books for Narain Karthikeyan making his track debut as the first ever signed Formula One racing driver from India.

Jordan Confirms Narain Karthikeyan and Tiago Montiero
Its official now.

Jordan Grand Prix today announced the signing of Tiago Monteiro and Narain Karthikeyan as its race drivers for the 2005 Formula One World Championship.

Karthikeyan’s signing marks a new history in F1, the entry of the first ever Indian driver to the top echelons of motorsport, giving Formula One exceptional appeal in India with the potential for an enormous new audience and business market associated with a national racing hero known as "the fastest Indian on wheels". F1 in India will not be the same again.

Trevor Carlin, Jordan’s Sporting Director, said, "I know Narain very well because he drove for me in 1998 in Formula 3 and I have run him in various formulas every year since then. We’ve won a lot of races together. He’s very competitive, a super-quick driver, sometimes a little bit raw and wild in his style but he is a proven race winner and I am confident that in our environment he will thrive. He’s ready for F1 now I think he’ll do a good job for us.

Narain Karthikeyan said, "My aim has always been to compete in F1, it is where no Indian driver has been before. I’ve got the hopes of a nation behind me so I’ve no choice but to succeed now. I have tested with three different Formula 1 teams at various circuits and I’m going to give it everything I’ve got so I am confident that this is going to be a good year for me. "

The other driver from Portugal Tiago Monteiro incidentally has also driven for Carlin, last year in the same league World Series by Nissan as Narain.

"We have been very lucky to put together a driver line-up which gives us a really strong package in terms of youth, technical ability, speed and talent.” said Carlin.

Source: http://www.narainracing.com

Way to go Narain, Good luck!

Newton's Laws

2005-02-10T10:17:00.000-08:00

Law 1. Every Software Engineer continues his state of chatting or forwarding mails unless he is assigned work by external unbalanced manager.

Law 2. The rate of change in the software is directly proportional to the payment received from client and takes place at the quick rate as when deadline force is applied.

Law 3. For every Use Case Manifestation there is an equal but opposite Software Implementation.

Bonus :-) Law 4. Bugs can neither be created nor be removed from software by a developer. It can only be converted from one form to another. The total number of bugs in the software always remains constant.

Received via my friend Sangram. Please excuse me if you are not an IT person.
I like the Bonus point ;)

Student offers hope to orphans

2005-01-22T11:28:00.000-08:00

Nicole Foley is waging her own tsunami relief campaign, starting with a concert at 2 pm this Sunday, Florida, USA. If you are around Florida this Sunday, please make yourself available for the concert. Your presence means a lot for those who lost everything in the recent tsunami.

Good Luck Nicole! Read More...

Fictitious story for some unsung heroes

2005-01-19T13:52:00.000-08:00

There was a happy kingdom besides a wide seashore. The sea was the lifeline of the people, calm, divine and deep. People were happy and rich. And then one day a tsunami hit them. There was a chaos. People running here and there with confusion. Houses were gutted, trees destroyed. As if millions of Sharks turned the musical tides to sea monsters. But there was our hero who stood strong. Stronger than the tides. He screamed, pulled kids from the fiery water. One who saved lives and forgot himself. Whose shoulders felt like rocks to those who he saved. He was tired, out of breath, pleading to the supreme power, looking for another shoulder. But alas as if the sea wanted its own share of life. When the chaos ended no one was there to look for him. He was dead and so people who knew him. Our hero had just turned to another victim.

Source: Sun blogs

Bit of news from Chennai

2005-01-17T14:38:00.000-08:00

Here is an update from Biju about the situation in Chennai/ Pattinappakam.

“Two days back I visited Pattinappakam (fishermen area), which is one of the most affected areas in Chennai. I could see people staying in the roadsides making their own house with cloths. While enquired the situation to the people, they say that government has promised that they will construct new houses for them in areas far away from the sea. I also noticed a group of around 100 people sitting in a small area spread all over and being silent.

At that time, there came a green Tata Sumo with 3 people inside. As the sumo rushed to the seashore, people gathered around in multitude from nearby places and formed a big queue thinking that they are going to get something from them; to their surprise, the sumo left the place immediately ruining their little hopes.

After a while came a van and a Maruti car carrying a group of Hare Rama Hare Krishna devotees (religious group) dressed up in white. The group started singing songs while playing drums and distributed food for the people around.

Anyway, they get food from somebody; but the main factor is they don't have a safe place to stay right now. Since there were many policemen surrounding us and it was late evening, we couldn't take photographs. People are not satisfied with the help they are getting. Torn fisherman nets, tattered boats, houses bearing huge cracks on the walls upto 20 meters and unshaped roads are the common scenes everywhere. Around 50 people lost their lives from that particular place itself.

All we could see around is silent people with fear and sorrow in their faces. Though we left the place studying the current situation and their immediate needs; the tales of terror will remain in our heart for ever”.

Helping hands

2005-01-16T06:14:00.000-08:00

Recently there were number of e-mails from people around who want to help those suffered or want to know about their loved ones. It’s great feeling that people all over the world hold hands together leaving language barriers, religion, cast, breed, region and all other factors behind. One of such is Andreas from Germany who is the foster-parent of Child Shaiju Francis. Here is an excerpt from our e-mail communications.

Andreas wrote:
“Francis lives in Kurumpanai closer to the costal areas of Colachel to Kanyakumari. I am the foster parent of Shaiju Francis, who lives in the CSI Rehabilitation & Training Center for the orthopaedically Handicapped, Kanyakumari District. My "child" is 12 years old and we write us letters. With his parents I had no contact. I try to get in contact with his parents also with the help of the hospital. The parents of "my" child lived in Kurumpanai. As name of his father I only know "Mr. M. Francis" and have no address. He’s working as a fisherman. The brothers of Shaiju are between 9 and 16 years old. From the stepmother I know not more also. The family is Roman Catholic and belongs to the Mukkovar.”

I was able to contact the CSI Rehabilitation center authorities with the help of my brother Biju and his friends and we found that the child is safe, though we do not know the whereabouts of his stepmother and his four brothers.

Andreas also have a pledge for “A fisherman boat” for this community.

Great job Andreas, Good luck for you future plans.

More updates from Colachel in Kanyakumari, TN

2005-01-08T07:11:00.000-08:00

With the rescue efforts almost coming to an end, the focus now is to build the society and getting them back to their normal life. Though it might take years to bring this fisherman society washed away by the sea to their normality, the local authorities, government organizations and ministries like YWAM are doing their best in getting them back.

As per the reports from Biju:
People are being given shelter in Schools and Churches around Colachel. Many Church pastors have taken up the task of looking after those staying in Churches. Many more are temporarily being put-up with their relatives and neighbors.

Around 40 to 50 people died during the recent tsunami were inside a Church that was hit by the waves.

The main focus now is to build boats, houses and provide food for those living in temporary housings.

More official reports from Colachel and the team in Andaman expected.

Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware(Beta)

2005-01-06T11:00:00.000-08:00

Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware(Beta) available for download now. It protects your PC from spyware and other potentially unwanted software.

I think it's a good piece of software, go get it from microsoft website now.

Updates from Colachel and Kanyakumari in TN

2005-01-04T09:28:00.000-08:00

Youth With A Mission (YWAM) team has identified one such relief camp in Karungal with about 1,000 people. The thousand people in this camp are from 4 villages; Thotil Padu, Simon Colony, Colachel and Kurunpanai. Karungal is about 6 km inland from colachel. The people who ran the camp exhausted their resources and as a result have handed over the camp to us.

We have to house, feed and provide medical support for this camp till they are shifted back to their villages. Right now there are about 17 YWAM’ians on site and they have networked themselves with the government, the township president and the Catholic Church. Most fishermen of Kanyakumari district are Roman Catholics.

Our team is also collecting data from all the residents of the camp right now in order to find out missing people, reuniting families, tracking the number of dead in the families and applying for death certificates with the government, as these would be essential to receive relief money from the government.

We foresee that we will have to run this camp for at least a month. However this situation can change any moment. Our leaders who are overseeing the camp have decided that they will not focus on having large numbers in the camp but quality.

Please continue to pray for them and see how you can help.

Blessings
Bose

Appeal from JIM Ministry team and YWAM - Chennai and Colachel

2005-01-02T05:16:00.000-08:00

Below is the e-mail from my brother Biju who is at present in Chennai working with missionaries in helping the people from Chennai and Colachel who are affected by the recent tsunami.

"As i requested you earlier, there is a big need to continue relief works in the affected areas. Here my friends (missionaries) are working in two different ministries YWAM (Youth With A Mission) and JIM (Joel India Ministries) . They have already started working to help people in the affected areas especially YWAM teams are working in Colachel and JIM team in Chennai."

Here is the e-mail from Joel India Ministries, India. If you are willing to help, please contact them through e-mail at the below e-mail ids. It will be of more help if you are from around Chennai or Colachel.

E-mail from Joel India Ministries...
"Would you be able to send this email to your mailing list and encourage people to donate to this relief effort that we are now undertaking in Tamil Nadu? You can send it to churches, friends, and donors and see if you can raise some funds for this effort. We have people already on location working but we need substantial funds to carry out the below project.

For donors in the US they can contact Pastor, Charles Kennedy, and Email to Nolevn@cs.com if they want a tax-deductible receipt. Please consider sending it out to your email list and encourage people to respond. This is a Joel India Ministries effort. Already teams were been to different areas, which are the worst effected area in the State. We are doing some relief work in Chennai but focusing more on the south where the resources are scarce. Let me know if you can help us with this in multiplying this email. We will track it down and get it to you.
Nobody was warned of any upcoming disaster and preceded with Sunday morning, December 26th, in the usual manner. But when the tsunami hit, lives of people all across South and Southeast Asia were changed dramatically. In Tamil Nadu, fishing villages are among the worst damaged. With boats and huts wrecked, people's loved ones and livelihoods were stolen from them. The fishing town of Colachel is among the worst hit with more than 400 dead with more expected to come. Huts situated along Colachel's coast have been flattened. The Indian Express newspaper notes that Colachel has been the worst hit by the Tsunami wave. There are more than 7000 families who are now homeless. As the debris is cleared and the ocean waters recede, more bodies are expected to be discovered. In Nagapattinam, the stench of decomposing bodies lingers heavily in the air. It has been reported that the progress of relief and rescue efforts are moving at a snail's pace.

The tsunami has rendered many people homeless, taken away their livelihoods, and left many with no hope for the future. When the tsunami becomes a memory for the rest of the world, the people of Colachel, Nagapattinam, and other coastal villages will struggle to move forward with their lives. This tragic story stretches all along the coastal towns of Tamil Nadu right into the city of Chennai The numbers continue to rise. Although much work has already been put into action, much still remains to be done.

Our church member as well as YWAM is already moving quickly into action. One of the fisherman's villages in Chennai where we have a permanent ministry was also hit by the tsunami. Another fishing town down south where one of our workers who leads our slum ministry was home for Christmas holidays. He is now deeply involved in relief work on the coast. We are sending teams and our staff into these troubled areas. Already they are moving into action as you get this email.

We need to have a two pronged approach...

one is the short term relief work...which the government machinery is working on...

a. food - kitchen

b. medicine

c. clothing

d. clean water

e. safe place to stay on a temporary basis

f. helping families clean, helping in burial...

f. trauma counseling...govt may not focus on this...

long term relief work...which we as ywam can look into apart from the short term relief...and the things that i can think of right now are

a. reconstruction of homes...if they own personal lands...we can build permanent concrete structures...

b. rehabilitation of widows...self help projects...

c. counseling for those who lost family members...

d. repair of boats...

e. children educational fund for those who have lost their fishermen fathers

f. long-term disaster relief coordinator

we are trying to gather information from different places...i tried getting to some of the worst hit areas and those places were cordoned off by the police...we will be going out again tomorrow morning to see what are the areas we can focus on...

WE NEED YOUR HELP.
The immediate need RIGHT NOW is US $40,000. The breakdown is below.

Immediate Needs:
1. Food packets for the stranded fishermen. We are planning to provide rice, dahl (lentils), and oil for at least 700 families that will last those 5 days to help them get through the initial stages of the relief work. This amount is needed right now. Cost: 5,000 US dollars.

2. Medical: Because of the mass amount of dead bodies that are being washed ashore and the devastation of homes there is a pending outbreak of dysentery, cholera, and other diseases. We are setting up dispensaries for IV fluids rehydration, and medicine to combat this potential outbreak. Cost for Medicines and distribution: US 2,000

3. Temporary housing and shelter: We will provide plastic sheets for people to sleep on or cover themselves from rains that may come. The ground is still wet and they need something to sleep on. Cost: US 2,000

4.We are mobilizing 20 team of people in the relief effort.

We need US 2,000 for transportation, housing and food to keep them working.

Long term Needs:
5. Distribution of cooking utensils, pots, plates to 500 families of the poorest of the poor in the disaster area. Cost: US 13000

6. Finally, we are planning on complete rehabilitation of three fishermen villages. This could include helping those who have been widowed, the orphans, rebuilding of houses, repair of boats, and purchase of new boats for the poorest of the poor and repair or purchase. Cost: US 16,000.

We are also working with other mission like YWAM and local church’s

Please include a note in the envelope that the money is for the Tidal Relief Project in India.

For US Dollars from the United States: If you would like a tax-deductible receipt, please make your checks out to Joel 2:15 Inc and include a note in the envelope that the check is for the Tidal Relief Project in India. Send it to JOEL 2:15 INC P.O BOX 14931, 4704 5TH STREET W, BRADENTON FL 34280-4931 USA

If you lead by the Holy spirit please email us we will direct you the next step.

1. Pastor, Charles Kennedy at Email to Nolevn@cs.com or

2. Chandra Bose Email to: boseindia@hotmail.com so we can track their donation.

Blessings
Bose & Rosy

Joel India Ministries. India"

Reach me bright_sam@yahoo.com

New Year begins as world mourns

2004-12-31T13:56:00.000-08:00

The disaster has cast a shadow on New Year's events outside the quake zone:

In Turkey, a country frequently hit by earthquakes, plans to hold a huge party in Istanbul's Taksim square were called off by the city's mayor
In Paris, black mourning crepe was strung throughout the city centre and along the traditional rallying-point of the Champs Elysees
Sweden, Norway, Finland and Germany will honour their dead and missing by flying flags at half-mast throughout the night
In London, a two-minute silence will precede a huge fireworks display attended by an expected 150,000 people along the River Thames. Read more

Source: bbc

Bloggers beat conventional media - Times of India

2004-12-29T14:06:00.000-08:00

Follow this link to read what Times of India has to say about our bloggers, Suman kumar's site is been featured in their article.

Phuket Pictures

2004-12-28T08:52:00.000-08:00

Phuket Tsunami and Phuket after the Tsunami

via www.sumankumar.com

Colachel under the threat of sea

2004-12-28T08:41:00.000-08:00

Less than 20 Km from the place where I hail from; a town near Kanyakumari where most of the population depend on the sea for their daily bread is now under the threat of sea.

Young and enthusiastic boys from around Colachel are in rescue work.

I talked to my brother an hour ago; he told me that the Bishop of Nagercoil has conducted a mass cremation of over 300 bodies. No one wants to hear this; it’s terrifying.

The churches in Colachel and the volunteers from Tamil Nadu Muslim Munetra Kalagam are standing together in helping the victims; there is no religion or caste!

Now the fear is that, how the hospitals and local health authorities are going to control the outbreak of any diseases in the next few days?

Indian bloggers doing their bit

2004-12-28T03:50:00.000-08:00

I could see many bloggers around Chennai and other parts of India doing a better job in publishing how people can help those affected by Sunday’s tsunami than the government and other media. The advantage with bloggers is that they do not have any restrictions unlike the standard web sites that need to follow certain guidelines before publishing anything on the web. Great job guys!

Few links where you can contribute are,
The Hindu - The Hindu Relief Fund
AidIndia.org
Rupya.com

TsunamiHelp is a collaborative blog for News and information about resources, aid, donations and volunteer efforts.

Also Cheque/DD can be sent to: Prime Minister's National Relief FundAddress: Prime Minister's Office, South Block, New Delhi-110001.

People who want to help may send bank drafts/cheques in the name Indian Red Cross Society, New Delhi. One may also deposit cash or relief material at the Delhi office. The society is accepting everything except perishable items and used clothes.

Address: Indian Red Cross Society, 1, Red Cross Road, New Delhi - 110001Phone: (011) 23716441, 23716234

I have already sent a mail to Nanda Kishore S, who is distributing blankets and cloths to victims expressing my willingness to contribute. If you are also willing to donate a blanket write to nandasethuraman[at]gmail[dot]com

Special thanks to my friend Suman Kumar, who is doing his best sitting in front of his computer in Banglore.

Scenes from tsunami hit TN

2004-12-27T04:24:00.000-08:00

The killer Tsunami: In pictures

2004-12-27T03:27:00.000-08:00

Link from sumankumar.com

Pictures here...

(All pictures courtesy Nanda Kishore.S)

PM seeks contributions for relief work

2004-12-27T03:24:00.000-08:00

In view of the appeal by the prime minister to all citizens to donate generously to the PMNRF to help relief and rehabilitation operations, 12 banks have been authorised to receive such donations.
They are State Bank of India, Central Bank of India, Union Bank of India, Dena Bank, Syndicate Bank, Corporation Bank, Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Punjab National Bank, Indian Bank, Allahabad Bank and Citi Bank.
The spokesman said the donations could be made by cheque or draft in the name of the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund and sent to the Prime Minister's Office, South Block, New Delhi-110001.
The nationalized banks will not charge any commission on preparation of draft in favor of PMNRF.
Contributions could also be sent through money orders with no commission chargeable, the spokesman said adding that the contributions to PMNRF have been notified for 100% deduction from taxable income under section 80 (G) of the Income Tax Act.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday announced an ex-gratia relief of Rs 100,000 to the next of the kin of each of those killed when tsunamis struck the Indian coast at Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Kerala on Sunday.
The ex-gratia payment will be made from the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund (PMNRF), a PMO spokesman said.

Source: Rediff.com

Killer Tsunami Hits South-Asia: Kanyakumari, Kulachal, Nagapattinam and Cuddalore among the worst hit in TN.

2004-12-27T02:41:00.000-08:00

The killer tsunami, which took the breath of thousands around the world, unleashed its fury across the coastline of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, A.P and parts of Orissa. The costal Tamil Nadu was among the worst hit by Sunday’s tsunami spreading it’s killer wave from Chennai to Kanyakumari and the neighboring state Kerala. The latest reports from rediff.com claim that the killer wave took a toll of more than 3200 in Tamil Nadu itself, with Nagapattinam accounting for 1700 deaths.

As per the reports from my family and friends, the killer wave claimed around 400 lives in Kulachal (The southern most tip of Tamil Nadu/India) and another 400 to 500 in Kanyakumari most of whom are children. And the scene is still getting worse with many people gone missing most of which are fisherman.

Around 500 people, who got trapped inside the Vivekananda rock memorial in kanyakumari, were later transported to safety by helicopters – reports.

Merry Christmas

2004-12-25T02:26:00.000-08:00

“ For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ”- Isaiah 9:6

Wish Aou All a Merry Christmas.

Life goes on…

2004-12-18T05:19:00.000-08:00

Past 25 days have been sleepless day/nights for me, as I am yet to learn the techniques of commanding an army and the skills of a general. Yes, it’s all part of game?!? I am talking about the PC game Command & Conquer: Generals which was introduced to me by James, here’s what he has to say about my game:

“Sam’s Insomnia: They call me the dealer... It's true. I have introduced Sam to Command & Conquer: Generals... and he's not slept since! Truly international appeal - I hope he doesn't work out how to build a nuke too soon. The team responsible for Sam's insomnia has been busy working on another RTS title called Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth, and it's due out next week!” Read more... (Note: This link takes you to the entire blog content, please scroll down and look out for ‘Sam's Insomnia’)

Yes, James is right in saying that I doesn’t work out how to build a nuclear missile soon; that’s where I always fail. Hmm…if it’s not enough playing against the computer, the real talents come out when you play against a human opponent within a network. I played against Steve and James other day and I could not survive for more than 10 minutes. Fine, one also need to consider the 20 days experience I have in these games against the two year experience James and Steve has ;)

Hopefully I will get a deluxe edition of C&C Generals next week.

I am back...

2004-12-18T03:12:00.000-08:00

It's been more than a month I've updated my blog. So my target this weekend is to update the blog, add a link to james blog and add a bit of RSS feed.

The British Museum

2004-10-31T11:13:00.000-08:00

Few clips from the British Musuem which talks about the pre-historic culture.

Scroll mouse over the pictures to see the description

Interesting...huh!

2004-10-30T14:59:00.000-07:00

The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, is not in agreement with the appointment of Mr. Barnala as the new governor. Excerpts of the conversation between Patil and Jayalalithaa:

Patil: I am sorry to inform you of the change of the governor of Tamil Nadu. ... I have spoken to Mr Barnala and he has agreed.

Jaya: Are you consulting me or are you informing me?

Patil: I am informing you.

Jaya: Whether it is a decision already taken? I would like to have two days to think over the matter and get back to you.

(But Patil said that the time could not be granted because the file had already gone from him, the application said.)

Jaya: Has the order been issued?

(According to the application, "Patil said it can be issued at any time since the decision has already been taken.")

Jaya: How could you take the decision without consulting the CM? Should I not have been consulted before the decision was taken?

Patil: The Sarkaria Commission has made this recommendation, but this is the way we usually do these things. I have spoken to Mr Barnala and he has agreed. He is a very good choice for governor.

Jaya: I am sorry I don't agree with your opinion. The present governor is apolitical. He is a former director general of police with no political affiliation, wheras Mr Barnala is the specific nominee of Mr Karunanidhi.

Jaya again: What crime has the present governor committed? He is totally fair and impartial. What is the reason for wanting to remove him?

Patil: I don't want to discuss reason.

Jaya: How can you remove the governor without any reason?

(According to the application, Patil's reply was that the governor did not take the salute on August 15, 2004, Independence Day. To this, Jayalalithaa replied: In TN, on Independence Day, always it is the CM who takes the salute and hoists the flag. The governor never does it. The governor hoists the flag only on Republic Day. According to the application, Patil said the governor did not host the tea party on Independence Day which he was supposed to do.

(Jayalalithaa said that the governor always hosted the tea party and only this time he was away from the country, and so he could not host it. She specifically asked Patil: "Are you saying that you are removing the governor only because he did not host the Independence Day tea party?")

Patil: Yes, it is a serious mistake but I don't want to discuss the reasons any further.

Jaya: Can you give me some time, at least two days, to consider the matter and get back to you?

Patil: I am sorry. It is a decision already taken.

Hello, Hello

For all bloggers around

2004-10-27T14:36:00.000-07:00

If you think are a smart blogger, read this article in bbc website before writing about your work in a personal blog. Blogger grounded by her airline

Do not publicize your post-via-e-mail blogger id

2004-10-26T04:48:00.000-07:00

If you are still wondering why god help you. Remove the id from your blog,
anyone in the world can post to your blog with that id; and change the id
from your blogger settings. Ennadaa!
Suman

Trip to London

2004-10-25T14:57:00.000-07:00

It was cloudy Sunday afternoon! London city might face a heavy rainfall any time during the day, the TV channels were shouting. Me and my friend decided to have a go. We reached there by 3 in the afternoon; as it was an unplanned trip we didn’t know where to start and where to end. Let’s walk down to Trafalgar Square, my friend said and I nodded; famous for holding political meetings, rallies, filming and cultural events Trafalgar square lies in the heart of the city as one of Britain’s great tourist attractions. Built to commemorate Admiral Nelson, the square was named after the Spanish Cape Trafalgar where his last battle was won.

What’s next? Asked my friend sang; let’s have a bus ride around the city. We got into the double-decker and went straight to the top-front row making sure we do not miss anything on the way ;)

Everything went well till we reached Westminster Bridge. Walking down the pavements I was watching here and there across the crowd ended up banging my head across a steel pole lying at the center of the pavement that left our trip uncompleted.

Take a look at my right brow,

When you fail to deliver - TOI

2004-10-17T09:48:00.000-07:00

When the expectations are high and you fail to deliver, this is what the kind of criticism you come across. It’s all happening here (in the web) for Times of India; one of the leading news journals of India is been under criticism from fans all over the world for its lack of professionalism. What it used to be one of the best news journals of India is now turning into a tabloid or even worse than a porn blog. Recently when one of my friend told me that he used to watch those bikini revealing models from his office desktop I was shocked, but later I learned that he is using TOI site as an alternative for porn portal while at work.

If this is not enough, take a look at the ****** comments and articles in the TOI blog section which was one of the discussion topics in today’s TOI blog Team India batsmen’s collective failure! Even someone tried to test the editorial by using some of the worst slang and millions of readers around the world get to read all these shit when they get up in the morning to read good news around their country.

Block Pop-up Windows with Internet Explorer

2004-10-05T14:55:00.000-07:00

Finally Windows XP Service Pack-2 has come with a solution to the internet pop-ups; this is something I've been waiting for long. If you are a frequent visitor to some of the daily news sites like timesofindia.com, dinamalar.com or those service providers like bazee.com you know how painful the pop-up windows are.

If you have XP SP2 installed in your PC, you can turn on the pop-up block option from internet explorer Tools, Pop-up Blocker, Pop-up Blocker Settings.

More on Microsoft website, click here

The Jumbus

2004-10-03T10:58:00.000-07:00

If you have read my article dated July 31 you know what I am talking here. The championship matches got over few weeks ago and the sports committee at Indore is waiting for a big occasion to honor the heroes. Certainly it’s my team “Jumbus” who proved that they are the best in spite of the tough competition involving 13 strong teams from across the organization. While the rules remained same for chess and carom, there were slight changes to the football rules that only 6 people were allowed to play football from each team. For Jumbus every game was equally important that only a team scoring highest overall points altogether in chess, carom and football would be announced as the overall champions of the tournament.

While Guru took care of Chess, Tamali and Lu took care of Carom; Myself, Goti, Inder, Nags, Guru and Jagi were involved in football. Though the first two rounds of football league matches were easier ones, we have come across real tough teams in the semis and finals. All I loved is the finals that I will remember forever, and I am sure it’s the spectators who enjoyed the match more than the players.

Here it goes…the grand football finals,

It was always in my mind to make a goal within the first five minutes of the game. Things didn’t go good for Jumbus as we missed couple of goal chances in the first half. However it’s once again Jumbus who dominated the show right from the start. Ball Busters almost had their heart in the mouth when Tripathi’s attempted goal was saved by the goalie, which in turn hit the goal post turning in favor of Ball Busters. Our defenders Inder and Jagi were as good as the Great Wall of China that the opponents hardly get to cross the fence except shooting the ball straight over the top giving net practice to our goalie. The tall man Inder, Man of high spirits, man with courage and determination not just want to play defence, it’s he who always wanted to go forward and shoot a goal, but it’s our strategy and strong opponents who hardly allowed him to move from defence position.

The only man whom I will rate as exceeded the expectations is Jagi. To be honest, it was in my mind earlier to have Jagi standing out for the crucial matches and play Lu instead. But it’s he who proved that he can play any position whether it’s defence or forward and went on to score a goal in the semis and one in the league.

It’s Nags the thief, who put the opponents in a dilemma by stealing the ball every now and then to take it to the D area. However Ball Busters were with a solid game plan that there are at least three players covering our striker Nags alone which prevented him from scoring any during the normal game.

Here comes the man with a golden arm, none other than our Guru who has done it for us in style with a penalty shootout followed by a golden save. I could hear him shouting “Sam come back”, “Come on Jagi”, “Come on Inder” etc., throughout the match that shows the dedication our people had. We are proud of you Guru. A special thanks to Tamali and Manager-Lu for their outside support.

It’s not just football that made us the champions, it’ the hard work from our carom duo Tamali and Lu that took our scoreboard to the heights within first two rounds of the tournament. Also, if there is some one who has done well in more than one game, it’s none other than our Guru who has done it in Chess as well by reaching the finals defeating as many teams in the league rounds.

Overall it was a wonderful tournament to witness and be a part of. It’s the morale and the team spirit that took Jumbus to the unreachable.

aphorisms

2004-10-02T12:00:00.000-07:00

aphorisms

Life @ The Wee Waif - Bed and Breakfast

2004-09-26T10:32:00.000-07:00

The living conditions and food culture in England and America suits better if you are a non-vegetarian eater than a pure vegetarian eater. This is going to be a major concern if you are to be put up in an English hotel, what they call here as 'Bed and Breakfast'. As I already know what an english hotel is and I am a non-vegetarian eater, I was not much bothered about these things for the initial 14 days where I am put up in one of the Bed and Breakfast in Twyford, Berkshire, UK. It's not just a Bed and Breakfast, it has also got an English traditional pub where people start gathering in the evenings till 11 in the night. Most of the times I have to eat scrambled eggs, bacon and cheese along with the green leafs, brown bread along with the tomato ketchup and other stuffs as the dinner. If you are a pure Indian curry eater, don't worry you have got as many Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani hotels around which serve delicious Asian food as well.

So far so good, got to wait and see what's on the cards after these 14 days.

In the UK

2004-09-19T11:55:00.000-07:00

This time I was not excited about the UK trip because this is the second consecutive trip to UK in two years, neither I was afraid at the immigration or during the flight. The immigration officer at the Frankfurt asked me if I have a work permit to enter the UK, by the time I react to his question he realized that I was already been to the UK and asked me to proceed to the aircraft. The Frankfurt-London lufthansa flight took me to the Heathrow airport in less then two hours and I never felt that I am in a foreign country.

So far so good, the much awaited weekend in is here in the UK. I know it's not going to be a peaceful weekend anymore because I got to find a permanent house to stay in the UK in another 10 days. It's not like India where you ask your neighbours if they have any room vacant. So I and my friend have decided to go around the Farnborough and Fleet area to find out the in-and-outs of the place and the local agents out there. Yes, we have got an idea of the place at the end of the day and now its upto me to decide what and where to stay.

If you think that's all you need to know in UK you got it wrong. Getting an accommodation is the basic thing for any country. You have lots n lots to know than finding a house in a suitable location, here are a few things should you know if you are new to this country.
1) House lease agreement/contract
2) Council tax
3) Water/Electricity/Gas bills
4) TV license(If you have one)
5) Rail/Bus service to that area.
6) Bank account
7) Phone connection
8) Food/Shops around And the list goes on...

Much more to go in the weeks to come...

57th Independence Day

2004-08-14T03:17:00.000-07:00

World’s largest democratic country celebrates the 57th Independence Day tomorrow. The patriotic Indians waged a powerful struggle under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi and other Indian leaders to make this nation a free India. It was 15th August 1947 when India attained Independence and power passed into the hands of Indian people from the British rulers. The journey started then, has made a remarkable progress in all fields of human activity. In politics, India has become a vibrant democracy, known worldwide as the Worlds largest democracy. India has become a prosperous country where industry and agriculture has registered impressive signs of growth. We Indians can rightly feel proud of its achievements as it celebrate the 57th Independence Day tomorrow.

Let’s all pray that this free-India will continue the journey forever spreading the message of Love, Friendship and Peace.

Happy Independence Day.

Jambus in the race again!

2004-07-31T07:24:00.000-07:00

The same Jambus I was talking about months back is in the race again; this time it’s not about volleyball, but it’s all about soccer, chess and carom. We are getting prepared for yet another innings in our office Recreation Committee tournaments. I have made minor changes to the team to comply with the rules. There’s going to be only 6 players in soccer team instead of the normal 11, chess and carom remain the same. First round match for all games are on the way and we are already thru to the next round of soccer and carom. Though our first round soccer match was against a week opposition, we took it seriously and done it in a nice fashion with a score of 8-0. Most of the players got to score at least one goal each with Iron Man Nags scoring the highest number of goals 3 and Goti and myself ended up with 2 each, this victory means 10 points to the team. The former carom champion Lu is also in our team that he won the first round in style with a score of 25-0, this means our points table read 20 out of 20 by now. First round of chess is yet to go.
Team: Nags, Tamali, Guru, Jagadeesh, Lu, Goti, Inderdeep and Me.

More to go in the coming days!

The rain factor!

2004-07-31T06:57:00.000-07:00

Last night I returned late from office and found that the front side of my house fully covered with muddy water that I could not take my bike inside. It’s not just the water that prevented me from entering the house; it’s the muddy soil over which water stays for around one foot did not allow me or anyone else to drive through that water. Just within days the local municipality started laying underground water pipes in that area, rain started and it never stopped then on which created lots of trouble to those who live nearby, I am also one of the victims.

At last I took a deep breath and entered the house; there was another surprise waiting for me that night, my bedroom was fully wet due to water leakage through an electrical hole in the sidewall, which covered almost one half of the floor. All I could is call the landlord and show him there is some flaw with the construction so that it could be rectified later. It's already 12 in the night, I am lazy enough to wipe the floor and slept at another corner of the room pulling the bed ahead of the wet surface. At least I was happy for the air-conditioned effect due to the water inside the house.

Of hilltops, lakes and observatory!

2004-07-20T12:25:00.000-07:00

Alangayam, the place where my elder brother live with his family is surrounded by hills and greeneries. We a group of seven including two of my brothers and few others have decided to explore the places around. We kicked off the journey around 10 Am in three two-wheelers and reached the main spot called Beema falls in the Javadu hills of Vellore district in Northeastern part Tamil Nadu around 11 Am. Though it's hardly 25 Km from here (Alangayam-Vellore), it took us more than one hour because of the deadly curves and the rocky roads all over the way from Alangayam to Beema falls in Jamunamarathur which is the main village in the Javadu hills famous for it's sandalwood and fruit bearing trees.

From there we moved on to the lake view nearby. The brownish lake water, greeneries and the light drizzle welcomed us and we all were surprised that such a small village has a beautiful lake well maintained and cultured. After spending couple of hours on boat riding and having taken enough photos, we moved on to a place called Kavalur which house an observatory in the midst of a greenish village.

Few pictures
1) Boating
2) My bro's colleague with family at lake view
3) My younger bro Biju at a mango farm
4) My elder brother&family and me

"Kavalur observatory is located in Kavalur in the Javadu Hills of Vellore District. It's located in a 100 acre forest land in Tamil Nadu which is strewn with a variety of greenery of tropical region besides a number of medicinal plants with an occasional appearance of some wild life like deer, snakes and scorpions. Several varieties of birds have also been spotted in the campus. The observatory is at an altitude of 725m above mean sea level (longitude 78° 49.6' E ; latitude 12° 34.6' N). Apart from being reasonably away from city lights and industrial areas, the location has been chosen in order to be closer to the earth's equator for covering both northern and southern hemispheres with equal ease. In addition, its longitudinal position is such that it is the only major astronomical facility between Australia and South Africa for observing the southern objects."
One of the scientists over there demonstrated us the working principle of the 93 inch Vainu Bappu telescope while my elder brother and his colleague enjoyed every bit of it as they are also physics scholars. It's a treat to eyes watching the movement of the doom shaped ceiling moving in line with the celestial objects.

No wonder "Science and Technology" is way ahead than our software! Read More...

We also visited few mango farms and fish farms on the way back home.

My Travelogue

2004-07-20T11:40:00.000-07:00

It was Friday night, 25th June ’04, Recreation Committee has organized a get-together at a nearby hotel. I reached the venue around 10 in the night though the party has started around 8 p.m. After having tasted the variety of food from across the country; myself, Nags and Lu headed to Shalimar Township around 11.30p.m to get ready for the early morning trip to Bhopal where we are supposed to board the Karnataka express to Banglore.

Though it was hectic journey from Bhopal to Banglore for more than 30 hours, Lu and myself managed to enjoy every bit of it by playing rummy and cracking those good old jokes; Even Nag’s Sherlock Holmes novel could not stop us from playing and chattering. Unlike other trains, the quality of food served was also good that Lu found himself enjoying the Masala Dosa, Samabar and the masala teas. It was Nag’s idea to go for ice cream after every meal that collapsed my throat for at least the next one week.

We hardly found time to sleep or roam around the city as we reached Banglore around 3 pm and had to attend Suman’s Marriage function the same evening itself. Overall the journey to Banglore was good, and this doesn’t even complete one way of the entire journey as each one of us had to travel at least another 5 to 15 hours to reach their hometown after attending Suman’s marriage the other day.

Best is yet to come they say…

2004-06-25T07:17:00.000-07:00

Yes, I watched few league matches of this Euro cup, but yesterday’s one between England and Portugal was the best. Though the England striker Michael Owen opened the scoring in the third minute, Portugal players put in their best to take their team to the semis. Scores were equal 1-1 at the end of 90 minutes play and went on to 2-2 at the end of second extra time. England captain missed the first penalty sending the ball over the bar. From then on, Portugal never looked back and went on to win the quarterfinals 6-5. It’s Ricardo, the goalkeeper who scored the winning goal.

Three cheers to Portugal!

Southwest monsoon is here!

2004-06-16T09:23:00.000-07:00

It’s time for sunshine to take a break; the rains are here. Southwest monsoon has already advanced into most parts of India like AP, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, most parts of Bihar, Kerala and TN. Indore is no more left behind, it drizzling here most of the mornings.
I love rains, I absolutely do; they are despite the muck and the dirt, my favorite season of all. Gone are those childhood days when I used to collect rainwater from gutters to fill our fish tank and used to build small fences across the course of water. I used to play for hours and hours till late nights as long as my father is away from the home. Those days are never going to be repeated; they are the golden days of my hometown life I guess.

Leaving all these behind, the roads and traffic in Indore gives a scary look during the winter, the local public here most of who are bicyclists has no traffic rules, nothing; all they know is just see who is coming opposite and not from behind. After all it’s three years here now, I am used to it.

The JAMBUS

2004-06-09T08:56:00.000-07:00

This time it’s all about Volleyball! Yes, four strong teams from our office fought for the cup and after ten days of hard work, the JAMBUS stole the cup with their brilliance and teamwork.

The day it was announced there’s going to be a Volleyball tournament, myself and seven of my friends Nags, Lu, Jagi, Babai, Guru, Ravi and Srinesh decided to form a team called JAMBUS. (don’t ask me what it means, ask sriram). Right from day one, we were on the right track with Guru and Srinesh providing good support in the first two games. Jagi who got entry into our team in the last moment has played his best and come up good when it's needed the most, especially in the first game against 'PP Regulars' which I feel is a moral boost for the rest of the tournament.

Needless to say, if it was the blessings from our vice captain Ravi made things happen for us in the first two games, the rest has happened with Ravi himself in action during the last league against 'Bom Shiva' and finals. Once again I bow before him for the blessings and peace he has showered on us.

Babai has done extremely well in the center court providing support to Lu and backing up others at time. His serves were at the best when needed. Would he have been happy if he were able to complete that final short in style with a smash as he wanted to do.

Someone from the spectators commented that, "once the ball leaves the center court towards Mr.Lu (let's respect age) the opponent has almost lost their confidence"; yes, it's the deadly smashes from Nags which made the opponent loose their confidence. Full credits to the power packed pair Nags and Lu for displaying talent and pure sportsmanship during the entire tournament. I will rate them as the best booster and spiker of the tournament.

The cap (myself) who was supposed to play in the center could not make it to the center position, as I was hurt in the little finger. However babai has done a good job in the center while I was taking care of corner position and the serves.

All in all it's a team effort which fetched the victory against ‘PP Regulars’! Job well done!! Congratulations all of you!!!

Score: 3-0 (Match of 5 games)

Coming soon: Tennis tournament.

Political Drama!

2004-05-18T23:24:00.000-07:00

When the majority of a Nation has voted in favor of Congress party, why can't the BJP and it's allies accept the president of a major party as the Prime Minister. When it comes to the origin of Sonia, it's up to the people of India to decide whether she should be the Prime Minister or not. Yes, the nation is matured enough to take decisions and the recent Lok Sabha election results reflect the same. Why can't a lady whose husband died for the nation become the Prime Minister of that nation? I don't understand the problem with Uma Bharti and Sushma Swaraj protesting against Sonia becoming the Prime Minister. Remember that Gujarat and Tamil Nadu are the states where the BJP has used Mrs. Gandhi's foreign origin as an issue in the election campaigning and went on to loose all the seats in TN and a major loss in Gujarat. This clearly indicates that the Nation is not eyeing Sonia's foreign origin as an issue any more.

Why not the BJP pointed out the foreign-origin issue when Sonia was the opposition leader?

If we Indians can accept and take pride in a Bobby Jindal doing well in the American politics, why can't we accept an Italian doing well in Indian politics?

When Mr. Nathan of Indian origin be the President of Singapore, why can't a person of Italian origin be the Prime Minister of India? Fiji had an Indian Prime Minister and Malaysia politics has quite a good number Indians, even after why this discrimination only in India?

Yes, there are many unanswered question in front of every Indians, let's hope the best will happen in the coming days!

Have your say first!

Blogger, new look!

2004-05-11T08:37:00.000-07:00

Blogger looks better with new icons and with more administration options. It also got a HTML debugger which can be turned on to show warning messages if there is any error with the HTML tags. Visit blogger site today itself, am yet to explore the complete blogger site!

It’s log out time for TDP!

2004-05-11T08:04:00.000-07:00

Would it have been the 90s or 80 elections, you can easily cheat the rural population
by throwing fake promises or by paying little money to the voters. It won’t workout anymore in the world’s largest democratic. The recent assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh is just an example of the how much the poor farmers suffered because of drought. There were times when the poor farmers went on to sell their kidneys to pay off debts.

The landslide victory for Congress party means not only the end of TDP, it also puts up more pressure on the center in forming a coalition government. There is more bad news waiting for the NDP alliance with the exit poles in Tamil Nadu showing good signs for DMK and it’s allies, which is not good for the NDP.

Yet another weekend gone by!

2004-05-03T04:58:00.000-07:00

It was May 1st , Labours Day. Yes it was and that too on a weekend. Kicked off the day with the football match with my fellow colleagues. Though we lost the match, I am happy for the superb goal scored by me with a direct kick from behind the 18-yard penalty circle. No one could believe their eyes that it was a goal, which took my personal goal count of this season to two.

Thanks to the recreation committee for arranging "Main Hoon Na" movie show at Velocity3 Theater to endup the day with.

Radio Mirchi 98.4 FM, It’s HOT!

2004-04-29T21:03:00.000-07:00

One thing I like about Indore is the Radio Mirchi entertainment channel, which gives non-stop Hindi, English, and Pop, old and new songs throughout the day. It’s popular among the taxi drivers and local mass not only in Indore, but also in all metro cities and few major cities like Pune and Ahmedabad. The anchors are very good and they’ve got various flavours like “subah-subah”, “Breakfast Show”, “Hello Indore”, “Garam Garam”, “Total Filmi”, “Bollywood Gold”, “Mirchi Top 10” and the list goes on…a new revolution to the entertainment world…

Long live Radio Mirchi!

Soccer Mania!

2004-04-26T03:23:00.000-07:00

For all the football fans out there! The football season has kicked off this Saturday with few sensational goals and saves from the “Men in black”(My team) and “Men in white”. Men in white scored their maiden goal of the season without much resistance from us, that was the only goal for the whites and from then on we (black) dominated the game scoring four goals in a row. The fourth goal was scored by me, which I will rate as the best goal ever in my life. Finally men in black steal the show with 4-1 victory over the Men in white.

More to go in the coming weekends…

Jaipur Trip

2004-03-30T07:11:00.000-08:00

Jaipur Trip

It was 19th March 2004; a group of around 100 people from our office took off to the pink city to see the beauties of ancient forts and the Ranthanbhore tiger reserve.

Amer Fort
An overnight journey from Indore took us to the pink city, which is almost 500 kms from here. Situated at a short distance of 11 kms from Jaipur, the Amer Fort complex stands amidst wooded hills overlooking the Delhi-Jaipur highway with its forbidding ramparts reflected in the still waters of the Maota Lake below, one of the finest examples of Rajput architecture.

Jal Mahal
Jal Mahal is an 18th century pleasure palace situated within the Mansagar lake, which is in turn nestled amongst the Nahargarh hills. The Jal Mahal Palace, Jaipur is noted for its sophisticated design and grand architecture. The Palace was developed as a pleasure spot and was used for the royal duck shooting parties. The first four floors of this building is under water, only the top floor remains outside. One can have a wonderful view of the lake and the palace from the nearby hilltop fort or even from within the bus on the high way.

Birla Mandir
Birla Mandir is one of the many such temples built by the Birla family, one of the largest industrial dynasties in India. The temple is a great reminder of the secular traditions India has shown over the centuries. The temple has been constructed in white marble and has three domes, each portraying the different approaches to religion.

On the way back we have visited the Brindhavan Garden which is a real treat for the eyes.

Ranthambhore Forest
Ranthambhore National Park located on the rocky terrain of Aravalli and Vindhya famous for tigers and other wild animals was the main attraction of the trip. It was fun traveling into the deep forest in the specially designed jeeps, which can carry up to 20 people and is the safest way to travel such a dangerous forest. We were welcomed into the forest by groups of deer, monkey and peacocks and many other wild animals and birds. After traveling deep in to the forest we reached the tiger point where we all waited for an hour silently to see the tigers in action. At one point of time rest of the gang (other jeeps and tourists) lost their hope and took their way back without seeing even a single tiger, but we were one of those lucky groups where the driver (also the guide) was patient enough to wait till the tiger comes out of the den to show his majestic face to us.

Surname concept followed in the US and UK

2004-03-15T05:18:00.000-08:00

Last week when I called up my home to find out if there was any letter for me from one of the local bank over here, my father immediately replied saying that there was no letter for me since a week. After talking with him for sometime, he told that he was supposed to go to Kerala the same day evening, but postponed the trip for a day because he has to meet a local income tax guy. When I asked him the purpose he said that he has received a letter from the Inland Revenue department and for that he want to meet somebody. Inland Revenue? You? I asked him, he said “Yes” and further added that even there is some confusion with the name written over the envelope, it says “BS Abraham” instead of “A. Abraham”, the house address looks perfect and none of our neighbors also have the name as that of mine.

Now I understand there is some confusion with the name and asked him if anywhere it’s written it is from UK, “Yes” he replied and I told him that this one is for me because in the UK they follow the last name concept. Even though he knew that it’s from UK, he was sure that it’s for him because my name (A. Bright Sam) doesn’t have Abraham in it as per the Indian records (School/College certificates). But my passport and UK records read my name as “Bright Sam Abraham” and they (the UK tax department) made it short as “BS Abraham” instead. At the end he was feeling for the day he has wasted because of this confusion otherwise he would have traveled to Kerala the same day itself. However he was happy for I have called him that day accidentally to ask if I have received any letter from the bank otherwise it would have been more interesting.

Hope you are not confused now ;)

Late night cops…

2004-03-10T04:27:00.000-08:00

It was late night yesterday I was returning from work, while two uniformed cops stopped me on the way asking for license and insurance papers for my Opel Astra (read as Hero Honda Splendor:) This is nothing new to me, and started answering all their stupid questions politely (haun ji), while one of them was looking into the driving license and other documents, other one asked me “aap bhar sae aa raha hai kya?” (are you an outsider), I said yes and it continues, “yaham kya kaam karthae ho?”. After frisking me for around 10 minutes they left me saying not to be so late next time.

What I wonder is, do these cops have a system in place to check whatever I am honest or am I trying to cheat them by producing fake license and documents? Why not we follow something like online verification of driving license and documents as followed in countries like US?

Long way to go India!

My brand new Digital Video Disc and Indore cable-TV operators!

2004-03-09T12:10:00.000-08:00

It was not in my wish list to go for a DVD player, nor I was in a hurry to get one; the reason being I hardly find time to sit in front of the television or any other media. And it happened that one of my friends who left to the US has asked me to keep his TV till the time he comes back. Now it’s that I have the TV with me and decided to get the cable connection from the local cable-tv operator. As most of my friends had bad experience with the cable operators over here, I decided to get it done with the help of my landlord. And it’s more than two weeks my landlord has been chasing the cable operators; the worst part is that these guys never picks-up customer calls or complaints. While this is still going on in one side I went on purchasing a Philips DVD player so that I no need to hold on my temper till I get a new connection.

I wish I would get it done before the Indo-Pak series start.

Adding political colors to Holi

2004-03-08T01:47:00.000-08:00

The religious significance of the festival of Holi is to mark the burning of self-conceit, selfishness, greed, lust, hatred, in fact all the undesirable demoniac tendencies, propensities, thoughts and behaviours. It marks the victory of righteous forces over demoniacal forces.

The festival of color has something to do with the politics this time while the run-up to the Lok Sabha election is already underway. Most of the politicians including A.B Vajpayee, L.K Adwai, Sonia Gandhi and Laloo are seen themselves playing Holi with the local crowd and media.

Let’s hope these colors prevail in the real life of these politicians as well.

2004-03-01T20:20:00.000-08:00

"Our dreams have to be bigger
Our ambitions higher
Our commitment deeper
And our efforts greater

This is my dream for Reliance and for India"

- DHIRUBHAI HIRACHAND AMBANI

U r fired, layoff frm 2day

2004-02-29T21:12:00.000-08:00

SEOUL: South Korea's third-largest credit card issuer fired a quarter of its workforce via mobile phone text messages on Friday, after negotiations with striking unionized workers broke down.
KEB Credit Service Co sacked 161 employees, a spokeswoman for the company's parent bank said.
" The layoff date is February 28," the message said, according to a member of the union. "We will receive applications for voluntary retirement package until February 28."
The firm said it had no method for contacting striking staff other than using the short message service ( SMS ).
Unionized workers, who make up nearly 90 percent of the firm's 662 staff, have been on strike since mid-December over a takeover by Korea Exchange Bank (KEB), fearing job cuts.

What's next? Don't be surprised if it happens in India too!
Source: Timesofindia

Hello world!

2004-02-28T06:00:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to say hello to those who love java, watch out for more!

Yet Another Weekend At Indore!

2004-02-22T21:58:00.000-08:00

Summer has started soaring and we wouldn’t have found a better way to spend our weekend than going to one of the amusement parks of Indore. We a group of around fifty people from our office were been to ‘Shell City’, one of the amusement parks of Indore which is around 25 Km from here. Even though we had transportation (mini bus) arranged by the office, most of the people preferred their own mode of transportation so that they could come back whenever they want. But we, a group of around ten enthusiastic people have decided to go by the mini bus so that we could have some fun on the way.

We reached the venue around 4.15 in the evening and straight away got into action with beach volleyball. As most of our guys were part of regular volleyball team, we didn’t find difficulty playing in a new surface made with raw sand and small gravel. By the time we finished two games, it was already getting late for water slides and we all shifted our focus into water games. I was waiting for someone to start the adventures with the slides and it’s Ravi who lead the show by going for the 360-degree twist and turn slide. From here on we never looked back and went on to enjoy the fun and thrill of sliding down at an exhilarating speed for around an hour.

At last we had the fun of watching tug-of-war and races by the kids, which were the real highlights of the day!

2004-02-15T23:06:00.000-08:00

What a day, Valentine's Day!
This time it's on a Saturday so my day started around 11a.m and the first thing to do on my list is washing clothes. After an hour-long hard work in the house I decided to go for breakfast at "Sharma Namkeens" and settled down for a plate of kachori, jelabi and a shikanji juice. From there I went straight to office around 12.30, just before entering the office, met two of my colleagues Venkat and Arul who wanted me to accompany them to 'Sewa Mandir' which is a school for the deaf and dumb, I never wanted to say no to these guys because it's for a noble cause. We took a cake for the 'Sewa Mandir' children and reached there around 1.30. To our surprise there was a marriage function going on this day wherein the couple is from owrangabad and they wanted to have their marriage in front of these physically challenged people. We also joined the crowd in wishing the couple and spent some time with the children and back after sometime.

Day is not yet over, evening is yet to come; Sriram was eagerly waiting for me and Nags to join him so that we three could freak-out somewhere. We went to Apollo arcade where Valentine's Day is already getting hot and we decided to crack something out of their delicious food items. After having few veggie burger, pizza and fruit juices we moved on to Chappan to have chilli-veg-sandwiches and then it was Sriram's turn to make sure the bellies are air tight by going for few masala-popcorns. No one wants to miss the three hours left in the day and we went for a Hindi movie Maqbool to end our day.

2004-02-13T00:29:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day, a day honoring love and lovers is celebrated on February 14th. There are several interpretations as to the origin of Valentine's Day...

The Feast of Lupercus
The first interpretation has this celebration originating as a pagan tradition in the third century. During this time hordes of hungry wolves roamed outside of Rome where shepherds kept their flocks. The God Lupercus was said to watch over the shepherds and their flocks and keep them from the wolves. Every February the Romans celebrated a feast called Lupercalia to honor Lupercus so that no harm would come to the shepherds and their flocks. Also during Lupercalia, but in honor of the goddess Juno Februata, the names of young women were put into a box and names were drawn by lot. The boys and girls who were matched would be considered partners for the year, which began in March. This celebration continued long after wolves were a problem to Rome.

St. Valentine's Day
As Christianity became prevalent, priests attempted to replace old heathen practices. To Christianize the ancient pagan celebration of the Feast of Lupercus, the church officials changed the name to St. Valentine's Day. To give the celebration further meaning and eliminate pagan traditions, priests substituted the drawing of Saints names for the names of the girls. On St. Valentine's Day the priest placed saint's names into an urn or box. The young people then drew a name from the container. In the following year, the youth was supposed to emulate the life of the saint whose name he had drawn.

By the fourteenth century they reverted back to the use of girl's names. In the sixteenth century they once again tried to have saintly valentines but it was as unsuccessful as the first attempt.

While it can't be proved historically, there were seven men named Valentine who were honored with feasts on February 14th. Of these men, two stories link incidents that could have given our present day meaning to St. Valentine's Day.

One of these men named Valentine was a priest during the reign of Emperor Claudius. Valentine was revered by the young and old, rich and poor, with people of all walks of life attending his services. At this time Emperor Claudius was heavily recruiting men to serve as soldiers for his wars without much success. The men preferred not to leave their wives, families and sweethearts to fight in foreign lands. Claudius became angry and declared that no more marriages could be performed and all engagements were cancelled.

Valentine thought this to be unfair and secretly married several couples. When Claudius found out, he threw Valentine in prison where he died. Friends of the priest retrieved his body and buried it in a churchyard in Rome.

Another version had St. Valentine jailed for helping Christians. While Valentine was in prison he cured a jailer's daughter of blindness. Claudius became enraged and had Valentine clubbed and beheaded on February 14, 269 A.D.

Yet another story claims that Valentine fell in love with the jailer's daughter and wrote her letters that were signed "From your Valentine."

All of the seven Valentines eventually evolved into one. In 496 Pope Gelasius declared the day in honor of St. Valentine. Through the centuries the Christian holiday became a time to exchange love messages and St. Valentine became the patron saint of lovers. Lovers' quarrels come under his jurisdiction and, naturally, he is the patron saint of engaged couples and of anyone wishing to marry.

2004-02-12T07:48:00.000-08:00

All about Indore – Part 1

Situated at the heart of India, Indore also known as the financial capital of Madhya Pradesh has a variety of culture and food to offer. The mixed culture can be invariably seen in the typical food habits ranging from South Indian Idli-Dosa, Vada-Sambar to Dal-Bafla, a typical Malwa Food. Indore is specially known for it’s wide variety of Namkeens, Gujrati and Chineese food restaurants and Bengali sweets. The garam garam Poha & Jelabi, which you find in almost every teashop in the nook and corner is the trademark of this city. Snacks like Khaman, aaloo kachori, dal kachori, samosa, petis, Bhel puri, Pani Puri, mathri are a few to name, and the list go on…

Late night sweet stalls are another beauty of this city, which comes alive at 11 P.M in Sarafa (heart of city) where one can find mouthwatering stuffs like Gajak, Gulab Jamoon, garadu, Rabri, aalo tikiya, Gajar Halua, icecreams, milk-shakes etc., and finally tasty paan to end your day.

Opportunities never knock again; grab your share if you’re here!

2004-02-12T00:27:00.000-08:00

To blog or not is what not I think, what I think is to blog what!

2004-01-20T22:13:00.000-08:00

Guys, this one is the reply I got from my friend Suman Kumar (www.sumankumar.com),
while Sriram Iyer is getting prepared for a new innings in his IT career. Suman is currently
working with wipro. Must read... if you are an IT professional.

I can understand, empathize and condone being sentimental about friends
and family; what I don't understand though is this almost heart-breaking
romance with your company. Let's get it clear: It is business. Your
company will not remember you, for you were a resource; a mere number.
As with any business, you never get what you want, not always. That's
why I kept saying 'I want to work with people better than me.' That
should be a benchmark; if majority of the people in your company are
less smarter than you are, pack you bags and get out. Or, be a one-eyed
king in a country of blind. What we have achieved -other than marrying
and becoming a father- is nothing. Read my furry lips. Nothing. If you
are ambitious you know what I mean. If you are working only for money,
stop reading here.
I work for money, and glory. I want to be remembered, no matter what. I
want to be famous. I want to make a difference. So I keep trying. To me,
I am doing a company a favor by joining it. If I leave a company it
means that the company stopped turning me on. Honestly, the earlier
company was a mistake for me. But I more than compensated by making
some wonderful friends. So life evened out.
There are three types of people: one, those who live for themselves, by
their rules. Two, those who live for others. Three, those who don't have
a life in the first place. Most fall under category two. And a few
losers (Devdas, Kurt Cobain, Jim morrison...) belong to three. Very few
belong to one. Because they are the people who rule the world.

Choose who you are. Let me put all that I said in one line: Getting a
COA is ok. Getting a Booker is better.
I want to be one of the world's best story-tellers. Nothing will stop me
from that. Companies, people, nothing. Stop thinking of working for
companies. Start thinking about owning companies.

2004-01-20T08:44:00.000-08:00

The road ahead!

Dear Sriram: Less than a day you left Indore office, I feel like lost myself somewhere; neither I could see the smile in naughty nags nor we feel like cracking jokes during the break. Better that you are also moving to Pune where you always have the company of your sister and our Suman, the worst part is that you are leaving the place where you have spent half of your life.

Fine it’s all part of life, when people like me are staying away from home leaving family and friends at the far end of Kashmir:) Pune wouldn’t be a big deal for you as it’s just an overnight journey. As you said, may be this Indore does not want you to stay here for more than 11 years. It’s not that you are leaving the company matters here, but it’s that you are leaving few good old memories of our everlasting friendship with “Sama LU”, “Manmada Raaza” and “Psycho Suman”. Moreover you are climbing one step ahead in the ladder of success when things are not going the way you expected at the present company.

All I want to say again is “All the best!” you are an inspiration to all of us, your hard working nature and personality will be remembered by us for ever.

And finally this is all I have it for you,

The woods are lovely dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep.
And miles to go before I sleep.
And miles to go before I sleep.
-Robert Frost

With best wishes from,
Nags, Lu, Suman and Sam.

2004-01-19T00:53:00.000-08:00

2004-01-17T06:10:00.000-08:00

Friends: Wish you all a Happy New Year 2004. In this New Year will you keep your resolution? This is the question I have asked to myself before making a resolution. Fine, New Year's gone by and time has come to practice what I have promised to myself. It's not an easy task for a guy who is working in the IT industry to keep the blog updated regularly, but I wish I would keep my blog updated at least once in a month. The interesting thing here is, I have created this blog almost a year back and this is the first posting over here.

Thanks to my friends Suman Kumar and Sriram Iyer who made me realise that there are lot more to do with the web rather than just sending e-mails and chatting.

-Sam
e-mail: bright_sam@yahoo.com

2004-01-17T04:26:00.000-08:00

Test !