loop

WSJ: Stocks slid Monday morning, extending the previous week's selloff, as investors continued to worry about the economic outlook amid rising inflationary pressures and slower growth prospects.

Because they worry, they take their money out of the US markets and invest it in other world markets. Meanwhile, in other world markets - since the US investors are so worried, the stocks slide too! Because of this global slide, the US investors get good bargains on global stocks and make good money. Which makes them happy. When thy are happy, the stocks price back to normal, and every books profits.

...until, the US investors start becoming worried again.

To buy or not to buy!!

Ooma is coming pretty cheap now. Can get a box for only $350.

Its the free phone service for life endorsed by Ashton Kutcher!

good things!

So, my previous post a little too cynical...!

You can never undo what you've already done. You can only make the best of what you have. So, here's my attempt to better it - some good things that happened this past week - !
1. No one got hurt in the car-based-ice-skating incident
2. My car got damaged when I was *not* in it
3. Got some nice thanksgiving deals
4. Had thanksgiving lunch with Richard's family. Turkey mmm...
5. Had dinner with Ruchi moti
6. Done with the new dashboard for my company

this one requires a special mention since it means much to me :-)
-- My new Nokia N95 is in the mail --

Well, this post certainly outweighs my previous post. I am at peace.

You finally got me.

update 11/24 11:30am: The fire alarm went off in my building, and the fire engine was here. Fortunately there was nothing for concern. Still half of Saturday and Sunday to go before the week ends!

update 11/23 7:30pm: ICICI just called. They said, I'm a NRI so am not allowed to hold the resident savings a/c or transact my DMAT as per RBI regulations. I need to close down my accounts in India.

original post --
God, if you are reading this, are you happy now?

The past week has been eventful, but not for happy reasons.

This past Tuesday it was the first snow of the season. The roads were slippery again. And while Richard and me were driving through the West Lake Dr, I recalled the bad memory of that traffic light. When i allegedly touched (not even sure if i touched!) the car of this Russian female who sued me for $450 later. Snowy days in CT has spelled trouble for me, and history was soon to repeat itself. 10 minutes later, at a speed of about 70+mph, our car skid on the snow and took a 450 degree turn (yes 1 full round and more) and finally stopped after hitting the side barrier. Thankfully there was no car behind us or on our sides, otherwise things would have become bad.
As you could have guessed from the size of this post, things didn't end there (wink!). After making sure that we were alright and the car was drivable, we decided to drive the same car to office. As soon as we reached a speed of about 50mph, the car spun again. This time about 180 degrees and we end up facing incoming traffic behind us. Richard, quickly drove us off road before things got uglier.

Those that drive in US know how embarrassing it is when you get honked. Nobody honked on us on Tuesday since there was no one behind us when we skid. Come Thursday, I was forced to honk not once but twice, on two different occasions, and that too on the freeway driving at 70mph. Why? Because the drivers on my right lane decided to overtake the car in front of them by shifting to the left side. And yes, I was right next to them on their left lane. I am sure they didn't mean to push me off road, but God, twice in a single day?? They changed lanes half-way and then when i honked loud and hard they realized they were on collission course. At such high speeds, a slight touch can spell disaster.

Hmm...a cat has 9 lives, I figured I only have 4. This morning, i was all upbeat and ready to shop for thanksgiving! I was in Circuit city, where I found this really cool 22" widescreen LCD monitor for only $160. Great! Its bigger and better than my T.V ;-)
But, when i came out of Circuit City I finally gave up. God - you win.
My car was hit by someone in the parking lot, and they did not even leave a note (I prolly got one of those junkies that America is full of). They just ran away. Circuit City has no video cameras in the parking lot, so we can't catch them now.










Hmm....Shuchi's camera got stolen and was later found broken in not-working condition - it was my first gift to her. I skipped MIT and Tuck application deadlines, as I haven't been able to cope up with office and the applications.

I don't want to know what else can go wrong. I just hope they don't happen.

Some of the things i've been buyin

Radioshack - $19.95 Nokia Bluetooth headset
Go to RadioShack. Search for "BH-600"

CircuitCity - $7.99 2GB USB Drive
Circuit City product link

Circuit City - $9.99 Logitech Web Cam
Circuit City product link

Circuit City - $79.95 Seagate USB harddrive 500GB
Circuit City product link

Buy.com - $4.99 Creative Web Cam
Go to buy.com. Then search for 'creative webcam bonus'

.. keep checkin'

Free car service and almost free Nintendo Wii!

Yay! Got free Oil servicing done on my car :-)
(Actually paid $10 which will get donated to a Children's home and makes my service free)

Was just looking at Amazon...they've been really pushing the site to a new interface and everything. The Amazon webservices are also nice and will catch-up with the public soon.

Check out the Amazon holiday season votes...great chance to get great deals on many cool gadgets. example: $799 for a new Samsung 46" LCD HDTV!! me going for the Nintendo wii and the GPS too!
Click here for Amazon Customer Votes

Sometimes its just easy to think up a thousand ways of saying something the wrong way...but extremely difficult to find that one right way.

Well! nobody asked. And I'm not shy...so - yes, my ankle is feeling alright now. Took almost a month to heal, but now I'm absolutely okay. Ready for some thanksgiving shopping! :-)

How I survived my childhood

The actors in this post are non-fictional and do bear resemblance to people we know. These are all witness accounts as I have little memory of these terrifying experiences.

My first out of body experience was on a balcony. I was only about a month old, and had decided that I wanted to be superman after I grew up. Destiny could not hold my aspirations much longer and when I was at Ruchi waali nani's place, I took my first shot. The balcony railing were wide enough for a month old baby like me to slip through. And we were on the 1st floor, so jumping from the balcony would have given me enough time to find out if I could actually fulfill my destiny. So, when nani and I were sitting outside, and nani was reading her magazine, I took my shot. I slid through the railings and got my feet and hands off the ground and was about to find out the truth, when one hand grabbed my frock (yes, babies wear frocks. shocking isn't it?!). For a few seconds I was hanging mid-air on the first floor balcony looking straight down at my destiny.
A few years later I came to know about this phenomenon called 'gravity'. They told me, I never could have flown...well now i will never find out!

My second tryst with near death experience was at Nalini aunty's place. I was standing behind the 12 inch gap between the sofa and the wall. And Akshia was jumping up over the sofa. Even though we were only 1 and 3 year olds, no heavyweights, the sofa gave in to Akshia's enthusiastic leapfrogging and broke two of its legs. Akshia was still on it, wondering what had happened. Oh and me? I was in action too! I was right underneath the broken sofa!!
I am told I cried like a baby! Well!!! There is not much a 1 year old can do anyway (there's peeing around too, but that probably does not count).

The third time, I was playing around with unidentified military equipment. Akshia, as a veteran 5 year old toddler, was in lead supportive role this time too. We were at a neighbours house where there were humongous wooden boxes to pack heavy equipment. As soon as there were no adults around, we decided to check out everything in sight. I decided to peek into one of the open boxes and crawled half way into them - legs in the air and head inside :-) The boxes were made of wood that is used in the sleeper class cabins in India railways. Trust me they were big, hard and heavy. At about the same time, Akshia decided to close the box and as heavy as they were, he managed to push the cover, so it slowly started to slide down - you guessed right...on to me.
24 years after that incident, papa's friend (name un-disclosed; err...actually i don't remember the name), told papa what had happened, how he could not forget the incident in so many years, and what he would have done if something had happened to me. After 24 years, he told mom & dad that such a thing had happened. How he shouted my name when he saw the box cover sliding down, and how i was lucky to have jump off the box just in time without hurting a hair on my body.

1098 for a helping hand

If you have a function/party at your home/office and if there is excess food available at the end, please don't hesitate to call 1098 (only in India) - child helpline. They will come and collect the food. Please circulate this message which can help feed many children.

"Helping hands are better than Praying Lips"

Gmail Paper?!

http://mail.google.com/mail/help/paper/more.html

maybe only for Google employees!
or maybe print based advertising...watermarks on your emails...hah! possibilities endless!

Tuck and crawling like a baby

The Tuck visit was good. The Decision Strategy class by Prof.Powell was awesome. Fun and learning in a b-school :-)

Since this is not one of those MBA blogs, I can take the liberty of not going into too much details :-D, unless asked.

Oh, and about the crawling part - I twisted my ankle while playing Basketball with Akshia in the Cornell gym. In case you are wondering...yes, its painful to walk now. I drained so much energy in just trying to pick up my phone from the table in front of me, that i had to crawl on my knees just to get to the kitchen in the house. Crawled like a baby.

Happy bday ma!

Happy bday to my bestest ma in the world!!!
It was great to have called ma, and have Shuchi, Akshia and papa also on the line. Can't wait for us to be all together in one room!

Hey there blog :-)
My head is spinning due to information overload as I sit down thinking about my class visit to Tuck tomorrow. If Sloan is my top choice till now, it's going to get some really stiff competition after tomorrow. We'll find out.

Essays aren't going anywhere. Reccos are pending. I'm getting nervous now!

Will be heading for Ithaca after the Tuck visit. Hoping that a stay with Akshia will inspire me to work harder and more than that, more focused.

Happy birthday to me!

no thats not a blot on the camera lens. Its a piece of cake on my forehead...remnant of the facial cake massage :-D

This year, i did not get a chance to go out and spend money - yes that is what all bdays are for - to go wild and treat yourself! Life's tough...but i think i like it to be tough. Don't want to be a 65 yr old thinking where did all the years went by.

On the brighter side, i did get to cut 3 cakes. yes 3! yuppee!
The first one was from my darling Ms.Shuchi.
The second one from my office gang, and the third from Sal and co. (in pic)

Hello 27! Let make it a memorable one. Well actually, I have no doubts about that :-)

Music On TV

A collection of song videos that have played on television -

http://www.youtube.com/group/musicontv

When you live a dream

It was probably high school when I had first come across the acronym M.I.T. It was the place where all the smartest people went to study. Only a chosen few of this world would have the opportunity to be there. They would end up creating technologies of the future and lead the global corporates of tomorrow.

Can't recall if I ever thought at that time - I want to go to MIT.
Wonder why I did not dream? Wonder why I din't want the best for me? Wonder why I thought It could only be a dream.

Today I took the Ambassadors Program at MIT Sloan School of Management, spoke with the Admissions Director and with those smartest kids of the world. I found that they are not different people...they just do things differently.

Overall the Sloan visit was fun. Besides the fact that i got lost a couple of times before i finally reached, and that i paid $20 for 4 hours at the public parking!, everything else was great. Sloanies are down to Earth and friendly. The campus was full of activity, and the staff was helpful.
I attended the Advanced Corporate Finance class and surprisingly it wasn't too hard. I had to notice that the professors use blackboard and chalk instead of whiteboards...hmm!

fixed

Its fixed.
After uncountable to-and-fros within 3 families, family friends and 5 pundits, we have fixed on the wedding dates for both me and Akshia!

Shuchi and I start a new chapter in our lives on Dec 29th, 2007

Shubhrta and Akshia on Dec 23rd, 2007.

Incidently Akshia's wedding coincides with Papa's birthday! Double Celebrations every year here on :-)

There are 10 kinds of people in this world. Those who understand binary and those who don't.

The Skynet of our times

Over 10,000 years, Humans have survived and ruled Earth...at least until now.

In 1984, The Terminator set the trend and culminated the fear of machines taking over our planet. If the real world machines were as smart as they are now, Terminator would have started a cult within the clan of super computers like the IBM Blue Gene and Intel Red (see Project TOP500). Fortunately for us, it is not the case; for now that is how we know it!

For me, a fascinating question remains - if such a thing happens, who will lead us to Dooms Day? Will it be the researching power heads IBM, Honda, Hitachi and the likes? Their smart computers that can play chess and predict weather in Houston for the next 10 years among the millions of other things that they can do in one second. Will these computers start talking to each other one day and feel the need for us, humans, no more? After all, there is enough of Sun light to power them and once you become smart you can only become smarter. So why'd they need us?

I am not inclined towards muscle power though. I think - data rulez! A corporate that is part of everybody's lives, has information about anyone, anything and everything on the planet and outside of it, has enough knowledge to become self aware and think...think like humans do. Feel like humans do. Wants to be free. Wants to be human. Which one company is on these lines? One that is the information Oracle in the Internet world. Who will be SkyNet?
And I think of Google.

Arrrgghh!

Uhhh...I never thought that hearing my own name out loud would be so irritating.
Anqush...Anqush???!!! knock...knock...knock knock...wake up Anqush.
"do you want rice"?

10 minutes later...

Anqush...Anqush???!!! knock...knock...knock knock...wake up Anqush.
"rice is ready".


Roommates, you love to hate 'em!

Congratulations

Congratulations Akshia and Shubhrta!!

one happy family :-)

where is me?? :-(

Time to do some healing!

Yup. I am a certified Reiki practitioner now.

Introductory price: FREE!
Book your appointments now before I get all famous and make you pay out of your skins for a 30minute experience of a lifetime!





for enthusiasts - http://learnreiki.blogspot.com

Ooma

Something I've been following. Its interesting to see that while the 2nd largest VOIP player in US (SunRocket) went down in a matter of days, without warning, and that the biggest player (Vonage) is still struggling, there are companies that still continue to innovate in hopes of making it big.

http://oomanews.blogspot.com

US policies and crap

The discussion over the transfer of nuclear technology for civil use to India has been going on for over 5 years! And when the bill was passed yesterday to push forward, the congress and the other 35 odd nuclear materials' suppliers are still pondering what is right.

Nobody made a noise when this news came out, did they? -- U.S. Plans New Arms Sales to Gulf Allies. Because US has huge investments and dependency on the oil?

I am rich-er

Yay! Yippee! woooo! wow!

I earned $2.42 on Google AdSense. I am richer by about Rs.100 now :-)

Apping is chugging along. Too much to do, very little time, much motivation required.

Took my first Reiki class today. It was exciting to say the least. Barbara is a learned and knowledgeable woman. Our discussions have helped me understand the art; its effectiveness and my capabilities remain to be understood. Next class is in early August - about a week before my toefl.

UPDATE
Joined the Reiki club on meetup.com. Trying to get some free Reiki!! ;-)

1408

Oh well...this is definitely a different horror movie. Doesn't have the scary faces bit...the one that you'll remember for the rest of your lives - they are not in this movie.

Scary rating - 2.5 of 5

Overall rating - 5.5 of 10

We were almost laughing at the irony of Micharl Enslin. Poor guy, could not get out whatever he did! The ending seemed to be rushed up. They could have made the plot more audience involving, and given the audience something to think about. Sadly, John Cusack did all the thinking, and not the audience.

Sun sets on SunRocket

darn!

Yup, the big question now is - where will you go?

I want to try --> MagicJack <--
only downer is that the computer needs to be turned on for it to work.

Blogologist

Blogologist - Derived from the English word Astrologist and Ankush's mind. Blogologist is a person that predicts personality traits of people based on their blog(s).

see also Blogology

4th fireworks and lucky at broadway....again!

Another broadway show - Avenue Q and that too on lottery! 2nd time lucky :-)

The Broadway Lottery system - about 2 hours before the show you put your Name on a piece of paper and drop it in the lottery box. After 30 minutes and almost ~125 entries, 5-10 names are picked out. If your name is picked out, you get first row tickets at half the price of a last row ticket!! It is amazing!
I won the lottery ticket for A Chorus Line and Akshia won it for Avenue Q. Wow, what are the odds for that?!

Avenue queue is a Muppet show. Something like an adult sesame street. It addresses some concerning issues and is fun at the same time. Very creative and highly recommended.

4th of July Macy fireworks were awesome. Despite the unwanted rain Akshia, Milu and I had a great time :-)

hard to say 'no'!

There is a close-to-reality song by Shaan - kya karun na kehna nahi aata...
Yup, saying 'no' is at times difficult and many times its just not polite. So many articles, thesis and books have already been written over it. I find they are missing one perspective - the perspective of the recipient.

Today I find myself at the other side of the spectrum - I probably would not hear a 'no'...it will be either a doubtful or a confident 'yes'. The crux is to figure out the why, what and how of the 'doubtful yes', a.k.a 'no'. And also how to remedy it.

last week at NY

Had a great time in NYC this past weekend.

Woke up early on Saturday at 6am (i really had to pinch my ass to get up...very hard to wake me up on a weekend this early!). Drove straight to NY (no bath, no breakfast - you know me. us Brahmins don't eat until we've had our snaans). Reached about 9:30am and we left for NYC by 10:00. And I had little idea what was coming.
We were trying to get to the 'American Museum of Natural History'. Twas about 45 minutes from NewPort, but it took us about 2hours :-) yeah - two hours (on the brighter side, i now know how to read the subway maps!). So we reached the museum and immediately bought the 'super saver ticket'. With the super saver you could view 5 attractions of the museum along with the rest of the museum. We did the - Cosmic Collision imax show first. It was Amazing to say the least! The whole screen was in the shape of an overhead dome. It was all around us. You have to experience it yourself!
Then we did the Dinosaur Alive imax show, which was pretty unimpressive. The 'frogs chorus' was an impressive collection. There were > 50 species of frogs there...and some of them were unbelievably new to my eyes. Nature has such beautiful colors - even more beautiful than web3.0 - its true! :p
Finally we took the museum tour with Minderalla. No not Cinderalla...Cinderella was young and pretty...While Minderella is old and wrinkled Anyway, she gave us a nice little tour of the museum, which we realized we should have taken before doing all the attractions! Nevertheless, the visit was very worthwhile.

After sleeping for 4 hours the night before, 2.5hours of drive, 2 hours of train and 5 hours of walking the museum, i finally got my hands on some Chicken Seekh Kebab roll...desi style. Yumm...

I've longed to go to a theatre/play in NYC. We went to one in the evening. Its called 'The Chorus Line'. We had first row seats! I know some people would kill to get those seats! I can't explain the feeling of satisfaction (satisfaction of buying the right tickets for the right show)!
The actors was singing and dancing and talking just a couple of meters away from me. OMG, that was amazing. Are they talented or what! And for 2 hours...man! I can only imagine how hard they work!

Next in line was "230 5th". Its an open terrace pub in the center of the city on the 20th floor. Its an amazing place. You know a place is really good by the length of the queue to get in. Well for this one we had to wait for 30 minutes just to get in. And inside there was almost no space to stand. But, the view was amazing. At midnight, we could see most of Manhattan in all its glory, bright lights and tall buildings. I could have stayed there all night, only if Akshia weren't tired enough that he had to literally push me out of the place. That bully!

came back home tired as hell, and in the half consciousness that i had, i spoke with my beautiful for a few minutes before i fell asleep.

Yup. Saturday night was fun after a long time.

time for introspection

Its time for introspection now.

Over the rainbow

OMG, singing can make one cry...if its as beautiful as this

6 year old Connie - Over The Rainbow

I had to hear it a few times to believe what i heard!

And i love that song anyway. Here's the original by Israel Kamakawiwo

I think it is good that books still exist, but they do make me sleepy.

Aishwarya Rai in Hollywood

The last Legion

Gee, is this her debut?

mugged by an Indian?

nah! I don't see that happening in USA.

Last weekend I was in Cornell. Saw the university, spoke to a few alums and helped Akshia pack his stuff..boy there was lot of stuff! We put some of it in a storage area, some in my car and some in his! We took a short trip to Corning too...met Tini & Rajesh. Had a nice time at their house...gappe maare and ate good food ;-)

Lol! Am sure Akshia wished he had a better vacation home ;-) We spend some quality time together, but God I wish I were in FL/NY/IL, i.e. a quality place!

This weekend I finally got to play a 9-hole golf course. Phew it was dehydrating! 3.5 hours in the sun hitting wayward balls! I did okay. I think the par was 40 and I did it in about 70. Not too bad I say :-p
Then we left for NY. Akshia has moved in with another guy for the time of his intership with Keybanc Capital. Driving to NY has alway been tiring. Perhaps it always will be...This time we did a little river side walk in NJ that made the drive worth it.

Went to this place called Indian street in Jersey City. Whoa! It was just like India. Any American would have been a foreigner there...a whole street for Indian stores from Patel Groceries to Hot Dosas to Indian Chinese...the whole 9 yards!
With so many desis around me, it got me thinking...would an American be as afraid to be in an Indian neighborhood, as they could be in a black neighborhood? I would not expect any desi to mug a stranger here...99.99% of the times.

Joost Invites

get yours through the new DonationPeople forum

Pirates of the Caribbean

Jack Sparrow is back...back from the dead!

Johncy Depp has been his usually witty funny pirate self. It was fun to watch movie. Although, I must tell you now - if you haven't seen the second part, there is a reasonable chance you won't catch up with whats going on in the 3rd. The story is somewhat a continuation as there are regular reference back to the 2nd part (what am I saying...IT IS A SEQUEL :p)

It gets a 8.0 on 10.
I've liked all 3 of the series. The 2nd one was the best, or so I remember it.

The funniest scene for me was in the first 15minutes, when the little guy comes up from under the floor and shoots with his big gun. Ofcourse he is thrown flying back from the force of the gun! It was hilarious!

it has started

The search for the school begins. Today I begun the shortlisting process...

The annual expenses at these school are Oh-My-God high. Even apping is expensive, so you need to be really careful in choosing where to apply and where not to.

Apping drains you but at the same time helps you to discover yourself and your goals. Finding who you are is more important that those $250 in wasted b-school application money. For most, including me, its the classic chicken and egg problem - to get into the best school that matche your potential you have got to know what you are doing! At the same time, you won't know what you are doing until you actually do it and go through the whole process!
I intend to mitigate the chicken-egg problem by talking to people. By talking to graduates. Need a start...

a little proud of my Google gadget

He he! I must say, I'm a little proud of myself. Just about an hour of effort helped me create this neat new Google gadget. Something that I can use and others may be willing to use too.
Do you have a customized Google home page yet??? If you do, then here's something that might be of use to you -
See "DonationPeople" on your Google homepage »

This also means one more step towards the NuRide Google gadget!

Today I bought myself a Taylor Made golf club. After staring at the prices and the variety of available clubs for 30 minutes, I took some help from the salesman. He was very patient in explaining what the heck all the numbers on the clubs meant. And after he was done confusing me, he suggested the Taylor made #3 wood. Supposedly I'll be able to hit the ball straighter with a #3 than with a #1. I believed him and will prolly get to know for sure by tomorrow.

720 (50, 38)

worth its weight in Silver (n.a.k.a. Gold)

A new favoritism

The Civil Rights movement helped the cause of equality in employment. Businesses were required by law to hire based on merit rather than based on personal relations. Partly influenced by the reason that only the wealthy and the networked had more access to education and educational merits than most others.

But now the businesses have caught up with the game. Now that more meritorious candidates are available, a new kind of favoritism has born - relations and networking of the meritorious candidates.

The MBA makes you party to it.

retro thoughts - I

Every once in a while the thought comes to my mind whether I did the right thing to move out of Infosys. And I recall memories from my colleagues to my clients, from my offshore experiences to onsite, from team building to team management. Even Swami ji's remarks - yup, a Swami ji from the Chinmaya mission had some things to say about my switching jobs!

Today, I realize one more thing - Infosys would have given me a bridge to career development. I have to hand it to the company! But they could never have given me personality development the way I find now.
'think out of your cocoons'...those infamous words of wisdom. Well, I'm glad I did.

one more week

Just one more week to go.

If i don't do well, I'm screwed. If I do well, I'm still screwed!
Well, better get screwed having done well.

The biggest problem with me and exams, all my life, has been that I never know how prepared I am. I have burnt my hands with over-confidence; I don't do that anymore.
As they say - only your results can tell how well prepared you were.

God bless me (please!)

yuppp, that sums up my world cup!

DonationPeople and web 2.0

Its kinda late in the race, but better late than never. I think DonationPeople should move to the Web2.0 model.

I sat thinking why DonationPeople is not being used and here's what I came up - This is in order of decreasing levels of popularity! -
1. Its too complicated and not worth my effort
2. I didn't know about DonationPeople
3. I don't want to put that extra effort
4. I don't care about non-profits in India

Surely the next step was finding out how to make everyone aware of DonationPeople, how to make the process simpler and worth the effort.
Web2.0 comes in. What If this were a community driven effort such that evangelists could play their part and we could make the site worthwhile for those who just wish to help with little effort on their parts? Would the problem be solved? I'm eager to find out!

Here's *a* plan -
- Create a discussion board
- you are someone who wishes to buy a product online (worth >$25) but do not know where to find the best deal
- you come and post your requirements to the DonationPeople discussion board
- me and other member evangelists do a little research for you for the best deals on the internet
- then we post the results of our research on the board and also tell you if you can use DonationPeople to get that deal
- you may/maynot use our suggestions. no obligation
- If you do use DonationPeople, then a %age of your purchases go to non-profits in India

Do you think that'd work?

DonationPeople

Have been on a pretty hectic schedule lately, and did not find much time to work on the site(s)! But i'd really love to get things started, and running. I've kinda begun to understand the logistics behind the obvious now.

I need to fix the site, and keep it updated. I need more people to know about DonationPeople, and not only that, I need them to use it.

Am i asking too much. How can I make it more simpler?

Help! Drop in your ideas and suggestions.

and don't forget to use -

http://www.DonationPeople.com

matrimonial? not required...

Is this a joke?!

This guy must've put a matrimonial advertisement in the Hindustan Times and the smart-alec that he was, put my email-address in the contact info.
Great! The next 4 days have meant a flurry of emails from fathers, brothers and brides-to-be inviting a match.

While I run an online ride matching service in my real real world, someone just played a joke on my virtual world. The web-mail.

What else is coming?

long time huh!

Heya blog!
wusup?

had been pretty busy, mind-overrun, and a lot pending in the last few days. Still not out of the slump but have time for blogging and creating new blogs :-)
- AnkushTech - stuff that teases me, and imbibes in me - the forgetfulness of useful information :p...goes in here. If I can use it later, why da' hell can't somebody else too!

fultu.com is live. wanna buy it? am only hoping that some nerd in India comes up with something to use this slang of a website!
Its up for sale - $501 starting bid.

Trying to get hold of things in office. last week was miserable with so many things going on and getting out of hands too.
Cable modem conked off at home, and I was out of internet for a couple of days. Man it was getting hard to get by!

Good news - I cooked. And I cooked about 4 times in the last 10 days. whoa!! surprised myself ;-). Just got sick of eating out day after day and then tried my hand at cooking after useful tips from Akshia and Shuchi and the great magic sabzi masala recipe from ma. Am proud to say i can c0ok french beans as well as Aloo-gobi. That added to my arsenal of Chicken, Daal and Maggi etc.

Just reading about 'Rich Jerk'. He must've made an amazing amount of money selling BS to people.
Do I believe in him? Yes, I do too. But I believe in his idea of selling BS, but not in the BS he sells.

peace

Akshia gone back

Akshia was in the house! He has gone back to school now.

I never thought I'd say this, but here goes -
I had home cooked food while Akshia was here!!
He he! Not trying to take away anything from Akshia. He is a great cook. Thanks for the chole, the bhurji, the aloo gobi, and the aloo matar!
Bhabhi will be very happy...i.e. if she finds out.

We had a nice time, nice ladai, gapshup etc.
Went to this tex-mex cafe called Coyote Blue. A nice place with great food and pretty strong Margaritas. We had the Shrimp Quesadillas, ummm...yumm!

300 - the IMAX experience

The movie demanded an IMAX experience even before I actually saw it. The only real objects in the movie were the character in person; everything else was computer graphics! Amazing what else you can achieve with the silicons these days ;-)

This one scores a 6.5 outa 10. The story depicted is for real alright, but overplayed. I admire the graphics, I really do. But the whole movie experience just didn't cut it. And prolly not worth the extra bucks we spent for the IMAX.
And while I only realized when a co-worker pointed it out to me, it is still funny - the Spartans wore hard metallic helmets to save their precious heads, while wearing just a jockey for the rest of the body! lol!

how can it be

Beautiful song - How can it be

I say, and so say I,
My morning thought it knew itself just fine,
Until, across the room,
It caught it’s first glimpse of my afternoon,
How can it be,
That these things live in me?

I say, and so say I,
My morning’s day,
seems nothing like it’s night.
My, night, so self-assured,
was all at sea when faced with dawn’s strange world

How can it be,
That these things live in me?

A Google Phone

Yeah! Thats just what I need :-)
With i-phone officially disclosed and launching in June, the market for cellphones considered as gadgets and not just plain 'ol vanilla phoning devices is gonna take a big turn! And if Google enters this market...?! techno nerds are up for some real action!

In one view, the Apple-Cingular deal is not gonna be cheap to the consumers. Apple has such a niche market, it can afford to do that. No doubt their product demand the price, but we do really need some serious commpetition!

make way for Google Phone rumors!!

Life of a cellphone

my reasons for changing a cellphone -
When the battery replacements won't work anymore.
When that number feeds twice even when you hit it only once.
When the screen is not bright anymore.
When the phone does not have all the features you've wanted for more than 10 days!
When your roommate has a better, more expensive phone.
When you drop it and there are scratches all over but it still doesn't break (darn it must be a Nokia!).
When you've added 500hours of talk time to it (Even though the sound is still as good as new).
When the screen is not large enough anymore.
When you really miss WiFi.
When the other service provider is giving away free phones and a better deal.
When all of a sudden your phone looks so much more bulkier than the phone everyone else is carrying.
When your phone is not *in* thing anymore.
When your girlfriend steals it from you...consider it 'd'.
When you are plain extravagant.

hmm....can't think of no more reasons...

free SMS: PC to Phone

try -
Google SMS for US - took less than 5 seconds for the SMS to get to me. Oh and it was nice enough just to see 'Cincinnati bell' in their drop down!! lol!
No registration required.

try -
TextNation - registration required. But they allow you to send messages through many service providers in many countries!
I tried sending one to my gal using Reliance...din't work.

a dream photo (pun intended)

Among the many wacky-wild dreams i keep having, this one has been unique. With no apparent relation to real life whatsoever!

I was looking out of my window (couldn't recognize the house), while mom was standing besides me. And i noticed there were 4 suns in the sky!! Immediately, i looked for my camera to take a snap, and i did. As proof i attached the photo that i took in my dream.
As soon as i took the photo, a 5th sun appeared, and it burnt everything that was outside our house. If it were not for a little presence of mind - i closed all the windows, we wouldn't have been able to make it.

Gee! what does all of this mean? I am clueless.

a new album

check out my newest stock photography portfolio.

Yup, i know...nowhere close to any professional stuff (or in other words no justice to my caliber...he he!). But its a start. Lets see if I can devote time and at least learn the tricks of the trade even if i don't make any money out of it.

Anyone wants to submit their works of art??

http://www.donationpeople.com

Airtel Call Home

Finally some competition! The Reliance monopoly in calling to India had been a big pain...with no improvement in service over the past 2 years and even with the ever so falling internet access fees, no drop in call prices either.

With Airtel in the game, things have changed! I'll save your research efforts -
1. charges - 8cents/minutes. Latest promotion - 4cents/minute (Holi hai!)
2. no month access fees (unlike Reliance)
3. no connection fee (unlike Reliance)
4. no expiration of minutes. Just make sure you use your calling card atleast once every 6months
5. better customer service (got through to a representative in 20seconds!!!!!)
6. squeaky functionality (but not enough for me to let go off the great price)

question?
transfer $50 worth of talk time to my account (yes, there is a transfer facility in Airtel) and by God, i will answer :-)
http://www.donationpeople.com

Pyaar ke side effect

Rahul Bose means some serious business...his movies are offbeat enough that they appeal to a different audience and orthodox enough that many people would approve watching them.

T'was a fairly refreshing movie. it would get a 7/10 score from me.

For one, i was surprised that Mallika Sherawat came out of her sack. The narration by Rahul Bose was especially funny! It was well paced with no 'drag minutes'!

Recommended for watching once!

An Idiot's guide to earning $450/hour

Only the 2nd snowfall this year in Middletown! Yeah! word has it that global warming has taken over the planet. It finally snowed in excess of 10 inches this past Monday. It took me more than 20 minutes to get the snow off the car in the morning. Took me a second to apply brake while still loosing control of the car and skidding into the car in front of me, at <5mph. It took her another 10minutes to call the cops and make a case. A few more phone calls and poof! i have a bill of $450 for a (yeah you can read this one again) 6 inch long hairline scratch on the bumper that you could barely see from 3feet away. Fortunately noone was hurt...

First hand experience - it's a pain to be involved in an accident (if that what you could call this...officially!). You don't want to be in one. never! And that too not with a kind of a person who is just waiting for that chance to screw you.

There are two ways to look at it -
1 - I will be a even more careful driver, who doesn't want to get into any ruffle
2 - the day anyone touches my car, i'll make sure i get my $450 back
for better or for worse...i won't be the 2nd person.

tbu

To Be Updated. 3 numbers.
until a month back, there were 2. Noida and Ithaca.

So today, when mom asked me what else is going on...i was confused...confused as to what I've already told mom, what to Akshia and what to Shuchi! he he!
not that i am complaining! just making a mental (and a blogger!) note of the few things that have been changing lately.
:-)

2.0 rulez

To make a difference to the world you need to make a difference in the lives of the people that live in it.
To make a difference in one life, you gotta be more involved.
Now we are involved in 18000+ people’s lives. But only as much as any other *rewards* program is.
How do we make a difference? A question yet to be answered…And perhaps, a thought yet to be pondered over?!

Web2.0 strategies rule the world today! And we are not there yet.

am I really a nice guy?!

If 5 people were to tell me that I am a nice guy and 2 were to say that I am not, i would tend to agree with the former (but ofcourse!).
But then if the 5 did and the 2 did not, you begin to think otherwise...because it's too good to be true. and wonder if there is something else to it...something more deep and perhaps evil. Something that only I know. The real question then becomes - what is that 'something' which made me doubt the 5 people who prolly meant no harm to me!

Afterall 'nice' is a relative term. It refers to something that is only better than something 'not' nice.

.
I put myself in front of questions to which I have no answer...no explanation...and no reason to question!

next question - am i insane??! :p

more pics

Shuchi and me at Qutab Minar and then our parents together.

only a matter of time till two birds find each other right?! well i found mine.

This is a photo from the Roka...which in a way means that the girl and the boy have officially declared their willingness to be with each other!

love you Shuchi!

(my official apologies to my blog-readers and friends about being so busy so as not to update them)

am back...

but did not want to...

16th Jan

the day the throat stood still!! :D well atleast for a while...

last 3 days

last 3 days have been awesome!
mom-dad celebrated their 31st anniversary on 12th. me and a friend got beautiful flowers and a yumm cake for them right at midnight and had a little ceremony! :)

then early morning 5am we left for the station to catch a train to Bhopal for Tini's wedding. We travelled in a train after a long long time! prolly 10 years! they just keep serving food in Shatabdi...nonstop! all i did was sleep, wakeup, eat, sleep again :D

Met all bhuas, phujis, didis, jijajis and others! it was a bhargava mela! the venue was a resort where all of us were staying like a joint family
wow, even the generation after mine has grown up. kids of ages 1 to 10ish...i could not recognize some of them (ouch)!! it was so good to see them all again!

had been a long long while since i attended a marriage...the last time i saw one was when i was very young and hardly understood what was going on :p
this time, i was a first cousin of the bride, and the only one at that counting just the brothers. noone else could make it.
Played my part in the ferehs as well. am glad i got to do things. such things however small bring brothers and sisters closer.

I flew back from Bhopal on Sunday morning to meet my APS batchmates in Dilli Haat. A school reunion of 6 friends from 14years back! wow! and i have to say, they were all very nice people. they have done well in life. am happy for them. we were together from 2 to 7 in the evening and i did not even realise how time flew so fast! the girls were pretty and the boys were..ahh..alright :p

at 7:30 i met another pretty girl. ha, keep guessing!

a few things i would love to write about but just can't...at this time...baut nainsaafi hai!

this is irritating!

:-) am in Noida.
haven't got any time since 28th Dec and neither did i feel like posting...perhaps i am more regular on the blog only when I have too much to tell but no-one to talk to!

but abhi control nahi ho raha!!!
it's irritating how sometimes mom & dad get manipulated...rather, how easily they let themselves get manipulated while knowing that they are! and they just tell me - karna padta hai.
And you know what, the more they do this, the more I get irrirated and therefore against doing the same. Implications jo bhi ho...

dilli ki trip update sooooon!!!!