End of might, mate???

Is this the end of world supremacy Australia used to have in cricket? Are they only good at "motor-mouthing"?
Looks like they are, according to this article in espn-star site. :)
I feel sooooooo happy!!!!! :)

A quick hi

I know, I know, I was absconding from normal blogging for last few weeks... :)
Reason for it was, the change in job.... or should I say a better paying job! ;)
And yes, I witnessed a lotta things in those past few weeks, I screwed up my Motorokr E6(frens sms me your numbers), Bangalore hosted the Gorkha Saanjh (and I was busy clicking pictures)... dashera came and went by, australians are here for the test matches, dada has announced his retirement and lot more...
And yes, m planning to buy one lappy soon, it would be a HP-Pavilion or a Dell-Studio.
So keep your fingers crossed as there'll be a lot of creativity flowing down here from my side.
Till then
CIAO
Luv
D

The Google Chrome - browser with gears

I have this unfulfilled desire, a desire most of the Technology Labors aspire to achieve, and yours only is not an exception. And this desire increased by leaps and bounds when I read Comics adaptation of Google Chrome - The Web Browser with gears, an epitome of how and on what they work on! And their official blog confirms it!
A common product, if you look at it first, but as I went through it, it unveiled a lot of promises(and I'm sure Google keeps it!).
I think I'm dragging this thing too much so let's break the ice, I'm talking about Chrome - the Google browser with gears!
Tabs have revolutionized and eased the way browser's UI is presented. And Chrome will revolutionize the way tabs will work.
With product as such, Google marks yet another presence in the Internet(as if they din't do anything till now! *poor me*). And the reason they have mentioned to make it open-source, competition, is what left me flabbergasted. Kudos to Google for bringing up the Chrome into the scene in an open-sourced version. May god bless IE. :)
And the best thing is, it's getting released today!

Twin treat this year, on the eve of Independence day

Who would have thought somebody from India would do it! Who would have thought, Tajikisthan would lose hands down!
But India shines, despite the serial bomb-blasts, despite political turmoil over nuclear deal and despite the rising inflation. Abhinav Bindra made us proud by winning us the Gold in Beijing, and so did the lads of Indian football team, by drubbing the holders Tajikisthan by a scoreline of 4 - 1. It marks the rise of another star in making; Sunil Chhetri. I ain't sure how far will he go, but what I am sure about is, India has talents, no two thoughts about it. Only if the talent search would have been a li'l more organized, a li'l more unbiased. Hope everything will fall in place, everybody will know the talent's worth.
A proud occasion for India and the Indians on the eve of this year's Independence.
Let's pray a few more medals are on the way to India.
And last but not the least;

Happy Independence Day

More photos during weekend

After a pretty long self-induced hiatus, I held my camera with a purpose this weekend, and the results are here for all of you to see! :)
First of them captures beautiful mood of the pups playing;

And this is the last one, near my cousins' place, there is a unused plot, where a non-functioning tractor has been standing still for almost a year now! This picture was taken in color accent(selective coloring) mode.

Hope you all liked few of my work! please pour in those comments if I could have done more justice to these pictures!

Happy Friendship's Week

So, this week's Happy Friendship's Day week. Everybody says so! I wish a very happy friendship's week to my all my friends, near and dear ones, long lost ones, those who are in constant touch and those who have forgotten the legend by the name 'D'. :)
And I also wish the same to all you readers, and pray to god, may you all achieve everything you wish for!
Ciao!

Maps : answer to my confusion!

Here's something that may amuse you all. Pretty useful for person like me, who have no sense of direction, whatsoever!
I find remembering the directions utterly uncomfortable. Unless walked for a week regularly, I don't get the idea about how, what, which and where about the place!
But thank god! here's the savior. Dunno about whose is this initiative but it has indeed made my life easier to move around the city! It gives you all the details about routes, place searches, bus routes and even live traffic. What more can I ask?

Here's how it looks like, try it to believe it.

Five Blasts rock Bangalore

Shit! I'm scared man! there have been 5 serial blasts in Bangalore, around the place I work! :(
The situation is like, whether to stay back at office or to go home.
Normally these people target intellectual properties, you know! Intellectual properties... like me, like my office!
Oh my god! How am I going home today? God be with me. Mommy, I want to go home....

Lighter side of the story: I'm not as scared as I've written above, I simply want to go home earlier than usual, so making myself prepared to skip rest of the day's work! :)

Still, you people around Bangalore, be cautious. That's what I can say.

Similarity....

One of my friends forwarded me a mail with a chain of Dilbert specials. This(in my opinion) was the best, matching my office life frame-by-frame. I felt, as if Dilbert's creator knows me! :P
On the other hand, I think I'm losing my originality! :(
Anyways, you lot enjoy the post!


Click on the image to enlarge it!

Meeting place blues

Hee yo people! I've come out of the hiatus, to serve you all! :)
before coming, I thought "comeback post has to be something amusing!", so here is a small work of art from my side.. done inside the conference room, I hope you all must be thinking by now that I was a mere audience. But hey! I had done my part of the briefing(to the Superior), and my creativity oozing out(as always :)), this was the after-effect:


Hope you all will appreciate it! :)
Bye for now

Beat this! :)

It was one of the contents of a forwarded mail. But I found it so amusing, I couldn't stop myself from posting it here(even though it was forwarded).

The title of the picture: Parenting is by example
And the headline: Children learn fast. Don't fight at home

Sticky Notes

Have your even given a thought about how much paper you waste in office? All those meetings, trivial li'l details about your work, everything that you jot down in your notebook, or a sticky note. Now think about it, how much you must have contributed in consumption of paper, and harmed the environment, you paper-scoffer!
So here's the deal, use the e-sticky note. Serves the purpose of a sticky-note, without wastage of paper! And the best part is, it comes for no extra penny, and even better part is it's not a shareware!!! :)
I recently downloaded it, and I'm using it. Here the link to download it: www.tk8.com/easynotes/
Hope you all will!

Baap of music streaming sites

Tired of searching your favorite songs online? Well, rise and shine, I've a good news for you all. We have a savior now, it's called Songza. The bad news is, you can't download it. :)
But I guess unplug will make our lives simpler. :)
Anyways, it's a good site for all the music lovers. Check it out here.

Were you involved?

A follow-up for my previous mail. Finally I laid my hands on ff3(for those morons who have no idea what ff3 is, it's firefox 3)!
A mail was waiting for me when I opened my gmail. I clicked on it, and it took me to this page
So I have the new improved version of my favorite browser! with few add-ons. There's really a dearth of add-ons for ff3, but looking at Mozilla's initiative, it wont take long when you'll be using unplug with ff3.
I left you all wanting with the last post, regarding the positives ff3 has brought.
Click here for the complete list.
Finally, the link to download it : Firefox 3
Till then, ciao!

Firefox3, set for a world record

Yes, it is true. Much awaited Firefox 3, the savior of those, haunted by Internet Explorer, is releasing tomorrow!
I had downloaded the beta, rc3 version from their ftp site, but had to downgrade soon as it didn't have the compatible add-ons. And while trying to hack the browser configs to disable compatibility check, I screwed it up bigtime. My browser wouldn't start, and kept on saying, Firefox crashed!
So only respite was to downgrade it to 2.0. And that's what I did.
Few +ves for firefox 3

• less resource hungry, compared to ff2,


• smooth scrolling of the tabs really fascinated me,


• address bar information, ie, when you type a site address, it not only gives you the site-addresses you have visited previously, but also the details about the site(by details I meant, the site title and sub-title). It also does the pattern matching while you are typing. Pattern matching is done with site address and title, unlike ff2 or any other browser, where you only have address address completion/prediction,


• And the information on favicon. Once you click on favicon, a window pops up which give you the brief info about the page, how the data transmission is taking place(encrypted or not), etc.

In short, a browser to own.
Negatives:

• Very less number of compatible add-ons. I hope the developers across the world will come up with the ff3 compatible add-ons soon.

And ff management have come up with a unique idea, to set a Guinness World Record of a top downloaded software. As I found out through the articles, no such record exists till now, so they'll surely achieve this wonderful feat. And here's their page where you can subscribe, so that they can send you a mail, when ff3 becomes available for download!

So please visit DOWNLOAD DAY 2008 and subscribe yourself and help them achieve their record.

Lalu follows the pack

After the film-stars, now it's politicians who have embraced the blogosphere. Once hesitant of technology, now a blogger, that's Sri Lalu Prasad Yadav, our very own railway minister for you.
It's not me but this article in Economic Times says so.
And whatever Lalu does, he does it with elan, like his blog. His blog not only has the posts but the audios to go by. Seems whatever Lalu said was first recorded and then later given the form of a post.
People too are interested in his posts and have responded to him, and huge number of comments show it.
By now, you all must be curious where if could be. So here it is.

The accidental post

Needless to say, I'm short of thoughts these days! :)
It must be because of the lateral pressure I'm facing in my profession, or may be I'm too much into something clandestine... :)
Well, finally Euro '08 has started and after initial matches, it looks like The Neatherlands and Germany are the strong favorites. Portugal holds the edge, but my money's on former two teams. Only problem is, it's ruining my sleep, for I'm awake till 0230 Hrs most of the days, and it's visibly reflecting during my office hours. Power naps they say.. :)
I'm hitting lows these days, and somebody is backing me through and through during these hours of need, I feel so privileged and proud the the way I chose my eternal happiness.
And in between all these chaos last week, Jannat happened. :) By Jannat, I didn't mean the heaven, I mean the Emraan Hashmi starer hindi flick. It's okie. I wonder why people overlook him as an actor! May be because all his movies' songs have done well in the past, and they have so well that they have overshadowed his acting skills. By acting skills I mean they way he does all those useless, leave-your-brain-at-home-to-watch-me-act stuffs.
He acts well, no doubt, but I see something lacking, may be the aura, signature style(barring his kisses, I see no signature style in him) and the star-power. But yet, he's the god's loveliest child.
Long time ago, in one of the stand-up comedy programs, one comedian cracked a joke, here's how it went:

God created the world, and after its completion, he looked over from heaven and thought, wow! what a wonderful thing I've created, now there should be somebody to enjoy this wonder. And then he created Emraan Hashmi, and told him, 'See my child, this is what I've created, now go down there and enjoy its beauty'.

And from that day onwards he wishes he'd never taken that decision, coz Emraan is enjoying more than god himself. :)
Oh yes, we were in Jannat, isn't it? Okie, this movie is good, 2.5 out of 5. Suddenly, Taare Zameen Par's father looks sooo old in this movie. Watch it if you want to see Emraan Hashmi, doing dirty things to this new actress. :)

Post-IPL euphoria

A euphoria called IPL swept the whole nation by its feet. And importantly, (I think) it thrusted the idea of belongingness to it's Indian viewers/supporters. When people cheered Shane Warne while bowling to Sachin Tendulkar was the kind of change it brought. Quite unconventional, yet feel good change. How long Indian supporters would support an inconsistent team backed by richest sports governing body!
Time was ripe for the supporters to get their support's due, and IPL just did that.
Now Rajasthan Royals happily back with the IPL trophy with them, IPL has silently abated for the time being, promising yet another battle of performers next year. And no doubt, I'll be watching them with same enthusiasm.

The day I saw this ad, I was damn convinced something big was coming our way. And it happened. Every idea behind IPL was innovative and brought smiles in viewers faces. This ad was, by far, the best of the lot. True Indian ad in making. Simply loved it.
This is my small tribute to the ad and people who executed it.


PS: A day after IPL finals, when I reached home after office, I felt so incomplete!

You call that a news???

See guys, I don't want to call it a news, what do you all have to say?

Adam Sandler raises hair in "Zohan"

One weird thought

Have you ever woken up in the morning with one of your body parts hurting? You know you didn't stress it yesterday, yet it's sore and hurting! Well, I too have such mornings, not frequent but still I come across such mornings. I don't know what you think about your sore body part, but I like to think them as an act of other side of my personality! Yes, I wish I had MPD(Multiple Personality Disorder) :). He would be, everything I'm not. He could do everything that I can't. And he could do anything that I can't or couldn't when I should have. His name would be, ummmm, one heck of the name, hearing which my foes would tremble with fear. :P His name would be Aakrosh, wow! what a name! (Aakrosh's crude english translation would be Wrath).
So, my everyday's altercations would be extended and then made even-steven by Aakrosh, especially those where I would be on the receiving end, and those where I had to show the decency. Life would be simple for me, as Aakrosh would do everything I wish to have done, he would be my savior, my problem-eradicator. So it feels good when I think the soreness in the mornings is the result of my other half going out and levelling my unfinshed altercation. And it gives me immense satisfaction and confidence when I meet that person next time.
I told you all the good effects about MPD, now think about this. What if Aakrosh would do some horrendous mistake, say, kill somebody while equating my terms? You can't say he can't, cause I already told you he is a pile of arrogance, raw anger. So that would be bad, really bad!!!
In the end, moral of the story is, it's good to think about your other self when you have sore and hurt body in the mornings, but don't rear the idea of having one such Aakrosh in real, it may bite you in your backside before you know!
(One parting thought: I wonder how it would really feel to be the one affected with an MPD!!!)

PS: The idea to write this post was shamelessly picked up from some other creative work, yet I've tried spice up things all by my imagination and experiences.

My abnormalities

After years of sporadic introspections, I have come to know, well, I have several abnormalities... :)
And I must say I have never tried to normalize them, for they've bailed me out of several dire circumstances and desperate situations. So these abnormalities have been blessing in disguise. You too might find several similarities, read on:

1. The sense of direction : This might be because of my ethnicity, I'm not sure. I feel this is because the way I learned to recognize directions. As I come from hills, all that I learned about directions was either up or down. :) Quite comical, but this is how it is. In hills, when you give directions to a certain location, either it has to be up or down from your relative position, and each place has it's own signature, that is, no two places are identical. So it easier for a person to have the picture of the direction to a place once he reaches. But in cities, woah! I find everything similar, I can't make much difference out of them. Now, here something comes handy when I travel, advertisement hoardings and shops' title boards. After staying so many years in cities, still I use this trick to track down the route to a given destination. But the problem arises when the hoarding changes or the shops' title boards are written in the language I can't read!

2. Left or right : I can't make out which side is left and which is right, the way people do. I have to think for a while, and then I conceive the idea of left and right. Sometimes(especially while in autoricksaws), by the time I sense which is left and which is right, the vehicle passes the given diversion. :)
So now a days, I've come point my hands towards the direction I need to go, don't think about left or right, sounds pretty crude, but serves my purpose!

3. Dreamless : This could be funny to those people who dream even during the days... :)
For me dreams are like oasis, a year has 365 days and I dream may be 5 to 6 times in a whole year. How I long to dream not to be mentioned here dreams, how I long to dream those wonderful, success story dreams.
The funny part is, I had to make up stories when I was in primary school, every friend of mine used to have a dream to tell, and I use to fake a dream!! Hardest part comes when my loved one says, she had seen me in dreams! Now what the hell should I say? If I say I don't dream, I might be tagged with a heartless adjective, and if I say even I had seen her in my dreams, it's an outright lie. I wont write here what I do in such situation. :)
P.S : I sleep like a hog. :)

4. Photographic memory : Lots of people find this abnormality similar to theirs, but I have twist in the tale. For me it's easier to remember what I read, what I hear, word by word. Sometimes my radar picks up the conversations not related to me in remotest sense and still makes me remember. I used to see the entire book, word by word(well, not exactly), during my examination. :)
But with this privilege, comes a disadvantage, I forget things quickly, and pretty quickly. Good part is I still remember the essence/gist of what a particular sentence meant.

So far they have helped me in some way or other. So I would conclude it's better to have abnormalities if you use them in good effect.

A moron and his dilemma

Well, here I'm again, at your service, for the second time in a day. You must be wondering whether I'm nuts. My answer is NO, I'm not. But, I'm hurt, by seeing the people, who matter, acting like one mentally off-balanced freak. Yes you read it right, Mentally off-balanced freak!
You must be thinking why I'm fuming, well, see the excerpts of the blog written by a very renound personality, here it goes:

blah blah blah blah

Shahrukh is licking my feet and I am feeding him biscuits every now and then. What more can I ask for?

Now, before you jump to any conclusions let me add that Shahrukh is the name of our dog. And before you jump to any further conclusions let me add that I had nothing to do with naming him. In fact Shahrukh is the dog of the caretakers of our house. When I bought this house it came with the caretakers and their dog! Apparently Shahrukh (the actor) was shooting for a commercial in this house a few years ago, and that very day the caretakers bought a pup…, and named him Shahrukh. What are the chances of me buying a house which comes with a dog called Shahrukh!!!

blah blah blah blah

Well Shahrukh is once again begging for my attention, so let me get back to him. He is smelling too much, I think he needs a bath. “Heel boy, heel.”

Well, this gentleman is Aamir Khan, the very cute, shy-looking, versatile actor and heart-throb of millions. Now, you must be thinking I'm a ardent SRK fan. No I'm not, don't get surprised, I said I'm not a great fan of SRK the actor, but I love SRK the person, SRK the brand, SRK the entrepreneur. He may be acting(over-acting to be precise) in the movies a tad too much, yet he has his charm, his aura and his brains when it comes to handling the situation. I've never heard SRK trying to hog the limelight, never read/heard making cat-calls to other actors. I've seen him as a thorough gentleman. I simply hate to read/hear such thoughtless crap that Aamir has thrown all over his blog, what a moron he is.
This reflects how much insecure, envious and unpopular Aamir is! I feel he did this just because he wanted public attention. People say, when you don't achieve something by playing within the rules of the game, play dirty. That's what this imbecile, half-witted idiot has done. He says: "Well Shahrukh is once again begging for my attention", I say fuck off, it is showing who's begging for attention, for this is not the first time he has maligned SRK's name. Few months earlier, news channels were flashing news about Aamir saying he's number one and SRK is number two, SRK obliged, rightly so(I too feel Aamir is a better actor). But digging the old shit again, will surely smell foul. I find this whole saga of utterly bad taste and all these utter nonsense simply screams one thing: Aamir Khan is one low-laid, attention seeking moron!
PS: I don't have any personal grudges against Aamir Khan, and his latest Movie, TZP was a treat to watch, that makes him a succeeded-in-the-first-time director. But what's the use, when he doesn't attend award functions to be felicitated. I would have banned him from film fraternity, had I been a power-broker in the industry. ;)

More sports update

Wow! What a night I had! Staying till 0315 Hrs in the morning didn't go in vain. One absolute rocker of the game!
Well, for those morons who don't know what I'm talking about, it's much awaited Champion's League final showdown between the two giants of English Premier League, Manchester United Vs Chelsea. They headed the EPL charts and also the Champion's League table.
It was only few days back, Manchester United became the English Champions with a narrow margin, 2 points to be precise and Chelsea, the second. Similar fate awaited for Chelsea in Moscow. Chelsea is good side but Manchester is superior. Avid Chelsea fans wont like to believe it, but well, that's the truth, otherwise the results wouldn't be lying.
This Champion's League final once again proved why Ronaldo is best player around, for he was the one who started the scoring in mid-first half. Frank Lampard balanced the equation in the dying minutes of first half. One thing I want to mention here, I never rate Frank Lampard as best of the players, he's just been over-hyped!
Second half couldn't break the dead-lock, and the thirty minutes of extra-time too was unfruitful, except Didier Drogba getting a Red card, for slapping Owen Hargreaves(I think, pardon my carelessness, I was feeling very sleepy then! :) ).
And then the penalties happened, Petr Cech saved the third penalty from Ronaldo and John Terry threw away the eufa cup by shooting his chance outside the net. So finally it came to sudden-death, Ryan Giggs converted his chance and Edwin Van Der Sar saved Nicholas Anelka's shot. At the end, it was ManU 6 and Chelsea 5 in penalties.
It's ManU all the way in Europe.

Airtel going Vodafone way

First it was Vodafone and now it's Airtel who has come up with the same promises made by the Vodafone and seems Airtel is quicker to do it.
In my previous post, I had said Vodafone is tying up with Apple to bring i-phone to indian market by the end of 2008, but now Airtel has promised to do the same but the timelines are nearer, that is, around Diwali this year(Check the full article here).
These two biggies are playing each other down for tapping the huge indian customer base. First Airtel dropped the STD tariffs to Rs. 1.50, immediately Vodafone played its cards by announcing the same, but charges lesser than Airtel by Rs. 0.20.
While these two biggies are playing each other down, somebody is smiling.... and that's you, the happy customer.

Are you smarter than a 8th grader?

Hi all, now that SRK's Kya aap paanchwi pass se tez hai has already kicked off... Here is your chance to prove that you are better than those who get selected for the competition. So folks, jump in and show how much you score...

PS: Don't forget to write your result in the post comments.
Ciao
D

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

i-phone coming your way

Finally the news is out. If an article in the Times of India is to be believed, the day isn't far away, when gizmofreaks in India would be using the authentic, unjailbroken version of i-phone in 2009. Vodafone is set to bring it in the indian market.
I was planning to go for the i-pod touch, now I guess it'll be better to wait till 2008-end and go for the i-phone.
Thank god finally something good is happening :).

Humour : the brand new section

Okie, here comes another addition to my repertoire of variety of posts. I call this one the Humour. In this section, I'll add those incidents(fictitious or non-fictitious) that'll tickle you funny bone. The content however may not be entirely original, still I'll try my best to give it my originality.
Here goes the first one.

A stranger was seated next to a little girl on the airplane when the
stranger turned to her and said, 'Let's talk. I've heard that flights
go quicker if you strike up a conversation with your fellow
passenger.'

The little girl, who had just opened her book, closed it slowly and
said to the stranger, 'What would you like to talk about?'

'Oh, I don't know,' said the stranger. 'How about nuclear power?' and he smiles.

'OK, ' she said. 'That could be an interesting topic. But let me ask
you a question first. A horse, a cow, and a deer all eat the same
stuff - grass - . Yet a deer excretes little pellets, while a cow
turns out a flat patty, and a horse produces clumps of dried grass.
Why do you suppose that is?'

The stranger, visibly surprised by the little girl's intelligence,
thinks about it and says, 'Hmmm, I have no idea.'

To which the little girl replies, 'Do you really feel qualified to
discuss nuclear power when you don't know shit?'

Dsez: Sometimes we miss trivial facts, even though we know it, we can't recollect it, or say, we don't try to recollect it.
Keep your fundamental knowledge right before you run towards bigger things!

Couldn't think of a good title

I've completely lost the track of the time now a days. The change in project, my evil intention, my hard-work to see my evil intention get through, IPL and Champion's League... all sums up to one sentence, I really have lost the track, or rather, I'm running in a different lane!
Different late-night ToI sessions have drained me. Moving and start working immediately into a new project hasn't helped much. Feels like I've become the epitome of a cheap-labor, or you can say a synonym for Big Bazaar(remember their punchline? "Is se sasta aur achcha kaha milega?"). How dearly I wish my evil intentions to be true soon, sadly that hasn't happened till date. So I'm still trying.
And there's Champions' League and IPL. In second semi-final's second leg between, Chelsea and Liverpool, Chelsea got through after a 4 - 3 aggregate. They were deadlocked in the first leg at Anfield(Liverpool's home) 1 - 1, courtesy Jon Arnie Riise's own goal in the dying seconds of the match. It was always goign to be a herculean task for (my favorites) Liverpool to register a win at Stamford Bridge(Chelsea's home ground). And my fear become true as Drogba muscled in, tearing the Liverpool defence to hit nets twice. It was a well fought battle, and scoreline read 3 - 2 after 120 minutes of play, as 90 minutes of play couldn't decide the better team. Babel's goal from near-centre was a treat to watch, but as commentator said, it came a bit late. Finally it'll be Chelsea Vs Manchester United in all English European League final at Moscow.
Enough of Europe, coming back to India, now a days there's a craze called IPL prevalent in Indian heat, spreading like wildfire, catching everybody's attention. The strongest teams, Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders have bitten the dust, after successive losses. Team Chennai is clearly showing how Australians had dominated the initial part of this inaugural IPL edision. I guess Dhoni must be finding it hard to pull back his teams act together, but still he has to do it, and do it faster.
Controversy looming around the captain's head, Kolkata Knight Riders too are well below their standards. Frankly, has Sourav Ganguly ever shied away from controversy? I think he isn't an apt leader for T20s, hasn't led from front and this is showing in the group-standings. Now that Shoaib Akthar has been cleared to play, it may boost their morale.
Rajasthan Royals have always brought something new to IPL everytime, latest being Asnodkar, looking him play, one surely agree : Dynamites indeed come in small packages. What a man, I'm impressed, though not very much refined and may fall against quality pace attack, yet a talent worth your money! They are looking very good side, after Smith's arrival, their top-order has gained more ground. And Sohail Tanvir is troubling the batsmen like never before, I'm sure Parthiv Patel, didn't see the ball coming, I can bet on that.
Okie then, Bangalore Royal Challengers Vs King XI Punjab is on the cards today, I seriously want Bangalore to win this one.

Sports Update :)

Hi folks, well I couldn't keep away from writing, especially so much is going around! :P
This IPL has brought a whole new set of subjects for me to write about(I'm salivating! :)!
Let's talk about the Champion's League, 1st semi final, 2nd leg, between Manchester United and Barcelona. My oh my... Paul Scholes, where on earth were you, till you scored that goal? He has always been a power-shooter, yesterday too he proved that he has not faded away. Playing along-side the holy-trinity of Rooney, Ronaldo and Tevez, it's not always possible to steal the lime-light. But Scholes, you did it, and that too in such a major clash. Kudos to you!
Note: Only Paul Scholes right-footer powerful shot from outside the D-area in fourteenth minute separated the two sides and pushed ManU to finals.
Now let's talk about the IPL:
8 teams, 59 matches, salivating prospects for press, players, viewers and BCCI of course(nearly forgot BCCI! :) )
Great teams, great matches so far... Let's look at the teams..
Delhi Daredevils : My favorite in IPL. This team boosts of quality bowlers, with likes the of McGrath, Asif, Vettori in their ranks. But they lost to KXP.
Chennai Super Kings: Probably the strongest teams so far, four matches without loss proves that they are the Kings till now, but they'll be short of Hayden and Hussy now. It's worth watching how they'll fill the void.
Kolkata Knight Riders: I had thought they'll be a team to watch, but losing two-in-the-trot has somewhat dented their morals(mine as well). Now Brendon McCullum and Ponting is goin back for their national duties. I think KKR will suffer their absence.
Kings XI Punjab: This is the fourth team I had tipped to reach semis. With likes of Yuvi, Sreesanth, Sangakara and Brett Lee, they have the firepower.
Rajasthan Royals: Though they don't have much foreign-imports, the able shoulders of Shane Warne has taken them to the new heights. With Shane Watson and Yusuf Pathan contributing big time, they have become a force to fear for.
Bangalore Royal Challengers: An out and out test side, with Jaffar, Dravid and Kallis filling the upper 3 spots. Don't expect a firecracker whilt their inning is in progress. Though they have Boucher and Misba to provide that option. Good bowling side with, Zaheer, Morkel and Praveen Kumar(and Kumble of course).
Deccan Chargers: Most star-studded line-up for T20. So far, they have failed to impress, barring that last match against Mumbai Indians. With Gilchrist, Gibbs, Afridi and Symonds, they can tear anything coming their way(though Symonds will be bcak now).
Mumbai Indians: Most expensive side, but they money spent is not showing up in their performance. Shaun Pollock is my all time favorite. Sachin is every cricket-lover's god. I'm desperately waiting for Sachin's comeback, for only he, can save the Mumbai Indians' sinking ship. Though they have won their last match against KKR, I'm still not convinced.

Today's match: Bangalore Royal Challengers Vs Delhi Daredevils.
I'm afraid how big will be the winning margin today, coz you all know the winner, Delhi Daredevils(my favorite team :) ). :)

The Comeback

No no... I wasn't in prison serving the sentence, nor was I in some self-imposed exile... My reason for being away from the blog was well... there are various reasons: but foremost being the preparation for the switch...(those in IT know what is switch! :) )
I sat for one of the best companies... flunked it.... dint expected subjective types questions in written test.... seriously! for this one, all my assumptions went awry. Anyways, I still have a whole lot of options open, so planning to capitalize on them. Hope I'll come out blazing guns... Wish me luck, and till then, there will be a drought of posts here(Most likely :) )
And oh yes! We have IPL going on now and today's the ManU VS Barca, Semifinal, 2nd leg, from 11.30 IST. Dont miss it.
Signing off for the day
D

o'reilly a book???

Have you ever come across a book which doesn't make you feel like you are reading a book? :) I guess I confused you, let me rephrase it, have you read a (text)book(a programming language cookbook) which is humorous and grasping, page-turner(that's what they call good novel, isn't it?) ?
Well I came across one quite unexpectedly. This was a book in C++, Practical C++ Programming, Second Edition, by Steve Oualline. Wow what a book, I'll say a double-wow for the people who are really into novels. Folks I recommend you this one, grab it and you wont regret. You benefit two-fold at the cost of one, you get to learn C++ and that too in a novel(noble?) way.
Ohgosh! What am I doing! Why am I praising this book, shouldn't I be showering my praise to it's author, Steve Oualline? Wow! he's the man, I mean the way he has put C++ in that book, yeah! thumps up!
I bumped into it accidentally. I wanted to brush up my C++ skills so I went to library for C++ Primer by Stanley B. Lippman, Josée Lajoie, Barbara E. Moo, and this book caught my concentration. I must say it attracted me by it's looks at first :) everybody does (attract by looks), everybody is (attracted by looks)! So I checked the contents, read a few topic which I've out an out knowledge about, found it okie to resume things.
The way author has put down his thoughts, various historical facts and habits of programmers, it's nice. That's why I liked this book. A very good book for beginners, as they'll enjoy the reading.
Last point, it's good for beginning and good for brushing up C++, as this book doesn't cover more deeply seated culprits of C++. Nevertheless, it's a good book, go grab it!

Cartwheeling Feelings

Starry night, a lonely by-lane, dimly lit street lights almost about to extinguish, a dog howls at a distance. Several other follow the proceedings, as if they are communicating. I guess they must be telling their tales of the day which now has matured into a cold, dark and silent night. I've to reach the destination, I pull my jacket more closer to my body and start walking in a uniform motion, almost mechanical. I've been walking for long, how long?! I've no track of time, as my automatic watch has stopped functioning, it shows forty-three past six. Yes, exactly the time I had started this long walk. But one thing I know, when I started it was still evening, the sun had just gone past the horizon and night was approaching with its black cloak on. I want to reach the destination, meet my friends who are waiting for me as we've planned a get-together today.
So here I'm, walking alone. A thought crosses my mind, what if I don't make it on time, what if they have already left. I increase my speed, now the feet start moving faster, but the movement is same, machine-like. I don't care! I just have to reach there on time, my long lost crush must be waiting for me, I'm sure she will be. Ah! how can I forget her! Her beautiful face that used to lit me up, her sweet voice that used to soothe my wildest of feelings. How can I forget how her arrival in my life had changed its course. This feeling makes me lighter as fatigues vanishes and I move swifter.
I've just crossed a four-way crossing, a pack of dogs come towards me, I stop fearing they would attack me. They look vicious, and I'm sure they are vicious after the day's humiliation they go through from so called the humans, us. One of them, leading the pack, halts just in front of me, looks at me as if I was the one they were searching for. I'm afraid and want to run away, but something tells me not to, so I stand defensively and I look into its eyes. We are almost about to clash, a fight imminent. But suddenly these strays run away growling and howling, I sense a fear in their howls. I'm surprised how? My mind questions, and I've no answer. But the moment I raise my eyes, I find the answer. A man, mid-forties, is coming from the opposite side. I feel a shy of relief as I was dying to talk to someone after so much of silent walking. So I ask him: "Excuse me, what's the time?" He retorts "ten-thirty" without bothering to look at me, he passes by, a strong synthesized alcoholic smell makes me uncomfortable. But then I have to reach my destination, so I start my synchronized walk again.
After walking for another half-an-hour, I'm able to see my destination. Hell! this is on secluded place. Why did my friends choose this place for get-together? I curse them, couldn't they have chosen a bit accessible place! The road has street-lamps, standing silently, just for the sake of it. A few people standing here and there. I feel strange, they didn't notice me when I passed by them. But I'm in too much of hurry to stop and think over it. My long lost crush is waiting for me, I have to reach there, and on time. I reach the place, the door is unbolted, I slowly push the door, peek inside. Deadly silence! In one corner of the room, all of my friends are gathered around, in a huddle and are staring at something, lying between them. To see it for myself, I move closer to the huddle, I'm about to peek in, I hear a shrill sound of police siren. I becomes louder as the vehicle approaches nearer. I could see it through the open door through which I'd just sneaked in. Now this sound is so, loud, as if it would tear open my ear-drums. I press my hands against my ears, close my eyes and fall down, unable to withstand the sound.
And there was brightness, as white as it could be and everything was gone, I was flat on my back, my alarm clock ringing like an enraged animal. I switched it off and went to loo, to start another of those boring routine days.

A spectator's desire

Watched the second leg of the Champions' League Quarter Final between ManU and AS Roma, staying awake till 0230 Hrs. I must say I'm a li'l disappointed as a spectator, for both the teams missed quite a few opportunities, and biggest heartache came when I couldn't see Cristiano Ronaldo even after watching the entire match. I had seen the first leg of this quarter-final till half-time, where ManU had come victorious, kudos to Rooney and Ronaldo, latter scoring a goal out of nowhere! The form Ronaldo is in this season, I don't have to think about who will the recipient of the golden ball this year be, I bet it's his. And yesterday, it's was the same cupidity of watching him in action that stretched my awake-hours. While the match was in progress and was well paced in second half, I thought Sir Alex Ferguson must have plotted against all Ronaldo fans to increase TRP of the CL(Champions' League) :) .
Both the teams were equally inadequate in terms of scoring and defending, the defenders let slip a few of the attacks and those attacks were spoiled by the strikers or the keeper. AS Roma even got a penalty(which I feel wasn't, as far as my football knowledge is concerned!) in the first half, but Daniele De Rossi shot it powerfully over the horizontal bar. Phew! That very time I knew this would be a near-to-boring affair, but still watched thinking that Ronaldo will come and change the course of the match. But that was not to happen.
Tevez scores in 70 something minute
And all of a sudden Carlos Tevez unsettled the parity with a low header to a Owen Hargreaves' cross. Another nail in the coffin of the hopes of Roma going to semis, after ManU had won the first leg with a 2-0 margin. I must say AS Roma missed their striker and captain Francesco Totti in a huge way, for they lacked the poaching instincts up front.
Finally it's ManU going to CL semis to face Barca by virtue of a 3-0 aggregate win. Barca who were superior to Schalke in both the games has reached to semis with an aggregate of 2-0.
Now let's cross out hands, wait and watch, who will lift the cup. This year my favorite is ManU, for their players are fluid, plays in any position and unsettles the opposotion defence quite easily. And yes, J.S. Park is an asset to ManU, and yesterday too he proved why has he been in ManU for so long!
Parting notes: I'm angry with Sir Alex for not letting me see the ever selfish, ever arrogant but the best player around this year, Christiano Ronaldo. With that form and those skills he can afford to be selfish and arrogant. But I am still angry at Sir Alex.

Race : a review

Have you been happy lately? living a life in absence of anger? Well then, I recommend you Race. Watch it if you really wish to heat every neuron in your brain. Really, at least I came through those series of fluctuating level of anger during its entire run.
The movie starts okie. Good, like a hollywood movie, goes past one month back and the story starts. Till it reaches the same point(the accident), everything's fine, superb acting by all the biggies! Then comes the myriad twists and turns, which wont make you excited, but surely make you bored. "Too many cooks, spoil the broth", anywhere that idiom fits is here. My god how many twists and turns, even the director must have been confused while visualizing the script during the preparation.
While watching the movie, I friend aptly said, the director(s) must have seen a lot of hollywood movies. :) Seriously, they have tried to put everything in one movie and in turn the movie has nothing to offer, cheap thrills, sleazy act between Saif and Bipasha, that's it. That's Race for you. And I don't blame the duo of Abbas-Mustan, for it's been long and hard wait for them to celebrate a hit. I sympathize.
Do you know what I thought about this movie afterwards??? If Ram Gopal Verma had laid hands in this script, he would have come up with at least five movies. Such is his versatility :), no wonder he keeps on producing flop after flop.
Race, go for it, if you are living a happy life, haven't been annoyed with anybody for long, and of course, watch Saif Ali's good sense of choiced clothing and of course his acting, Katrina's "Touch me! Touch me!" act, Akshay's curt brilliance and old war-horse Anil Kapoor tickling his funny bone. At last I rate Race a two out of five.

An unconventional source of entertainment

As promised in one my previous posts, I'm here with few gossips that relates me to our very own news channels. To start things off, I present you a trivia about myself, I used to hate news channels, dint like them at all, but after I started watching AajTak and Headlines Today, now a days, the first thing I do after I reach home is tune in to one of these news channels. For all those who watch the soaps and serials, I would recommend these two channels, for they provide you equal amount of emotions and drama, in addition to the usual news. So don't you think it's an advantage, one channel providing you your daily dose of emotions and news at a go? Here's how;
I don't have to explain that they provide you the daily dose of news, they are the news channels.
Now about the best part, the emotions overflow, ooze out while watching this channels, there are usual suspense, drama, action, everything that your favorite series provides. I'll present here the live examples which has brought best of the emotions in me.
Think about this headline: "Amitabh Bachchan ko thand lagi!"(Amitabh caught cold!), now, what the f***ing news is that? And visualize this line at the lower end of screen, flashing continuously!! Seriously man, people are f***ing dying on the border, thousands of people are suffering from much more acute diseases, and what they are covering is whether Amitabh caught cold or not! My a**;
And there's this one, the coverage on "The Great Khali". I myself being an avid follower of WWE for many years, I know it's all planned, synchronized, scripted way of fighting. For God's sake, that's why they call it World Wrestling Entertainment, damn it! Do I need to tell them what WWE's E stands for? Khali lost the match to this, lost another match to that. I wonder, a giant of 7'3", losing a match to an opponent much more weaker(physically) than him. And that too, they dedicate a huge slot for this so called giant's news and cover absolutely everything about what he does, what he eats. If given a chance they'll prepare a report on how Khali's shit looks like!
And there's The Grand Stand, which talks about the bollywood, I dont know whether it offers the news outside bollywood. This lady who anchors this show, my god, can't she act normal??? Even if she's like that in her real life, can't she act like human just for the span of that show??? She could be a great asset to the doctors who study or are researching on human facial muscles. Looking at her, I feel like... puking in her face. Wait, there's more to it, her voice modulates with the expression in her face, shit! wonder where they get these people!
They don't show the news, they first do an autopsy on the news, put as much spice as they can, and present them... I wonder what's wrong in showing the news as it is. They try to reach to the base of the news, it's cause... especially if it's related to cricket, then forget about the depth they'll dive in to get those facts and cause. Well well well guys(news channel guys :) ), that's not for you to investigate, we have CID, CBI and other federal agencies to do that! Somebody please tell them so.
Anyways, they serve dual purpose for me at least, news and entertainment! Wow! that's great considering a news channel. Thank you guys for helping me focus on news again!

Send a Mail to Past: Gmail Introduces Custom Time

Probably Robert Zemeckis 'Back to future' is not yet the future. But Yup sending a mail back to Past is indeed. Introducing Gmail's Custom time (You'll find a hotlink to this in Bold Red font on top of your Gmail Window) where you are able to send a mail to past, and the mail delivers to the intended receiver as though it's been delivered in Past to the time you set it to. Isn't it cool, No more Belated Happy B'day or Delayed submission of Assignments :D :D Welcome to future, Welcome to Google ;) ;)

Gmail utilizes an e-flux capacitor to resolve issues of causality (A classic situation is the Grandfather paradox - “suppose a man traveled back in time and killed his biological grandfather before the latter met the traveller's grandmother. As a result, one of the traveller's parents (and by extension, the traveller himself) would never have been conceived. This would imply that he could not have traveled back in time after all, which in turn implies the grandfather would still be alive, and the traveler would have been conceived, allowing him to travel back in time and kill his grandfather. Thus each possibility seems to imply its own negation, a type of logical paradox”)

Want to know how? Check it out Gmail Custom Time

Way to Go Google !!!!

P.S. Please go through the program policies to be abided, before you try it - Program Policies

From Chennai with love

He was 'Nawab of Najafgarh' in the beginning, he hit the Ranji circuit and became 'Delhi Dasher'. The 309 in Multan made him 'Sultan of Multan' and today, on 28th of March 08, he became 'Chennai's Champ' with another milestone in his kitty, the fastest triple century in the history of test cricket. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present you all, the ever unpredictable, maverick indian batsman Virender Sehwag, whose charismatic, unorthodox hard-hitting showed him the highest of highs and lowest of lows. Today, I followed him ball by ball (not exactly, might have missed a lot in between) and his majestic, supremely sublime touch saw him through 200 first and then 300 with quite an ease and in process, made statisticians and cricket historians busy, breaking several of records, viz, highest individual score by an indian, highest individual score by an indian in India, fastest triple ton, two 200+ consecutive partnerships, only person after legendary Sir Donald Bradman and Brian Charles Lara to go past 300 twice. The list goes on. At the end of the day's play, he was unbeaten on 309, with 41 fours and 5 sixes, that too with an strike-rate of more than 100. Wow! that's quite a record ! I can't say he looks as fluent as a Sachin Tendulkar on song, or as classy as Brian Lara, and today too he played some risky shots by the test cricket's standards, but then again, it's Virender Sehwag we are talking about, who attacks from the word go. Out of all the attacking batsmen I've watched playing, I regard him only behind Gilly (Adam Gilchrist), and that's not because Sehwag lacks on hard-hitting, it's because the way Gilly plays his shots, with an elan, with a majestic authority and quite frankly I never saw Gilly out of form. What a pity, now I wont be able to see him in international arena.
Anyways, Sehwag's still there to provide the firecracking effects. After today's play, what I desperately wanted to see was the reaction in AajTak. One thing about AajTak I like is the way they project the news to the viewers. Well, you need to see it to believe it.(Headlines Today too is not far behind these days. May be that's called competition.)
So I came back home, tuned in Aajtak(that's what I do most of the days), as expected, the host was present with a panel of experts talking about Viru's innings. Same Breaking News was flashing at the bottom of the TV screen, 'Viru's 309*, will it be a 400 tomorrow?'. I specially liked the way that host put it, here is how: Sehwag ne aaj naabaad tin sau nau run banaaye, jisme ekchaalis karaare chauke aur paanch gaganbhedi chhakke shaamil thhe'(Sehwag today made unbeaten 309 runs which included, 41 cracking fours and five sky-piercing? sixes) The discussion went on and on. They discussed about absolutely everything that had Sehwag to relate with, from his family to he getting dropped in the past to will he score a 400 tomorrow and break the record. But I thought of only one thing, paanch gaganbhedi chhakke.

PS: I sincerely wish that he scores that 400 and goes past to post even higher score.And I also wish to come up with an exclusive blog on Aajtak, so watch out for this column, and dont forget to tune in to Aajtak.

My first go at carting

When we reached Patel's Inn, everything was calm and silent, so boring I thought while getting down from the vehicle. A few, countable people were here and there, a medium sized car park area and a few coconut trees overlooking it, what a waste, I thought again. After the heavy lunch at The Beach, I had already started feeling sleepy and ambience of the place was so grasping, I nearly somnambulated. :)
But when I turned to the right, the asphalt was calling. A topsy-turvy, serpentine, black asphalt, guarded by colorful tyres on both the sides, looked quite exciting. The call was undeniable, excitement unstoppable.
The same adrenaline rush that Schumacher, Alonso and Hamilton feel, though not of same degree, but yet, I felt this afternoon. Man, this was my first encounter with the go-carting and of course first time behind the four-wheels. Felt great, at first I was a bit hesitant but the way it was zipping past us, it surely made me ready to have a go. So my turn came, my first seven laps behind the wheels, in driver's seat. My lap started after I handed the ticket to the instructor/coordinator. First curve came, I conquered it with ease, second came, third came, then came fourth, fifth curves, I managed them, but when the sixth curve came, I lost the balance, the car skidded and slam! it hit the pile of old tyres and got stuck. The person who was roaming around the track came, leaping the track boundaries created by the old tyres, pulled my car and helped me to be back on the track. I raced away, again the same adrenaline rush, the heat of the gen-set behind my seat, screeching of tyres, everything added to the excitement. Completed one lap, again the same curves, I crossed, again I hit the same place(sixth turning) and got stuck, same guy came and pulled me(along with my car) from the pile of disarrayed tyres, I raced again. I lost the measure of time and the number of laps and the race was over, the person flagged a stop sign and my race of excitement was over. Poor me!
Liked the experience, and I remember I hit the same pile of tyres four times in total during my seven laps of happiness. :)
When I came out of track, my friend asked, were u drunk? how many times did you hit the same pile of tyres? I simply smiled! :)
Everybody completed their share of race/laps and we were happily back in the vehicle, all of the reckless drivers. While coming back I fell asleep, woke up only when the destination had arrived. But the experience was unbeatable, I wish to visit the place some other day and soon.

An artificial hope

About the picture: One of the most boring days of my life, and click! this photo makes it to my camera's memory card, and makes a journey from memory card to PC to internet to this very blog. Now a days, I've started appreciating the boredom, for it brings along the moments when I think, examine the surrounding, the every object I throw my sight upon. And in process gives me a heck lot of subjects to experiment with my photography. So, it looks like boredom is vital for me to evolve as a photographer. And so far, I'm setting my foot on right direction! :)

The waterboy

About the picture: Have you ever wondered how life can become so very utterly boring sometimes? - are the exact words I have written in my journal. The 3 days off came as a wasting-curse for me, only I know how boring were those three days. Nevertheless I watched two good movies during these three days, Ocean's eleven and Ocean's twelve, good movies, the first one ever better.
And only thing I did during this weekend was watched movies or slept, as the weather pulled it's uncertain curtains upon itself, calling off my brave plans to go out. I stayed put at home except for going to the nearest shop for a puff or two and occasionally clicking the surroundings when the sun-god offered some light.
This picture was taken during the evening. People come at that very place for filling up the water. Old, young, men, women, everybody comes there with their containers. I was trying to capture the shot from long time ago but, there are few cables(electrical) which were obstructing my view, but on saturday I found out another angle to capture this shot sans electrical cables.

Stairway to heaven

About the picture: A fine saturday morning, with an overwhelming 'don't-have-to-go-to-work' feeling, I start off the day in vigor. Now that a contradiction to my earlier post, isn't it? And yes, I've been, wont say out and out successful, but yes quite successful in changing some of my habits and this 'getting-up-early-on-saturday' is one of them. Reason behind these change in my routine being my health, can't say I'm not keeping well these days, but still there's always something there which makes me feel I'm not 100%. So health has become a prime concern for me these days. Saturday, always feels good when I think about it, feels better, always, for the next day too is an off-day and you do what you wish to do on these days. I'm particular about saturdays here because sundays mark the end of the weekend and what follows it is, well, you yourself can run into conclusion.
Okie, so saturday, oh saturday, my lovely saturday....
And last saturday I was simply killing my time as going outside was kind of hard with all that sun(read heat), I came out with this idea about how it would look if I take this picture. So without further ado I clicked, result is in front of you. My friend, who's far more better than me when it comes to photography, told me it would have looked better if had been taken from a bit higher place. But right now, it looks good to me. Watdyasay?

Captive forever

About the picture: Another day, another subject. This subject looks so very ordinary but the way it has withstood the apathy of its owners surely makes it one of the toughest, most robust, and hardest to bring down doggy. From the time I first saw it for the first time(at very same place) behind that wrought-iron grilled gate, it has seldom failed to occupy that space. It serves a purpose for us too, for it's absence(from that place) is warning-bells for an imminent rain. I had always thought about putting it in my blog, very uncharacteristic to be a dog, it's four-fifth of life has already been spent behind the bars :)
Yesterday when me and my friend were were enjoying our evening tea on our balcony, my friend happen to see that dog(you can't fail to notice it standing on our balcony) and instantly he uttered, Kaiid(as in kaiid-e-azam) mein hai bul bul. I too thought, what a perfect title for my blog ?!

Rise and fall of Big Brother

He came, he saw but he failed to conquer, that's how one would say after the recent debacle, crisis he's going through. And why not, it was in making, his eccentric thoughts and imagination paved the way for his collapse. Now he rests, with future full of uncertainty, near from home yet so away, amidst his people but as a stranger, lost, cast off. The future of the one who unified the Gorkhas now rests in the hands of the very people who he first brought together, then led them and took them nowhere, with a result worse than he himself had imagined.
The fall was indeed in making. An article, found talking about the same.

Ghisingh's pride, hunger for power did him in
13 Mar 2008, 0424 hrs IST,Anand Soondas,TNN

If one looked at Subash Ghisingh closely, gaunt, bare-boned, unsmiling and perpetually wrapped in the sartorially killing feather-jacket and tie combination, nobody could remotely imagine he was capable of such atrocious lies or flabbergasting flights of fancy.
A sample: Gautam Buddha was 18 feet tall and each of his ears weighed 10 kg.
Another sparkling gem: Earthquakes occur when gods angrily stomp in the heavens and so it’s essential to periodically get Ganesha drunk on tongba, the local beer.
Ghisingh, who’s just stepped down as the strongest, often meanest, power centre in the Darjeeling hills, lording over 20 lakh people for 20 miserable years, could well have been India’s own version of Papa ‘Doc’ Duvalier, the Haitian dictator of the 1950s who believed more in voodoo than vox pop and once got all black dogs killed in his country because someone told him Clement Barbot, his rival, had turned into one to avoid prosecution.
In the years since Ghisingh marched for Gorkhaland and got Bengal to submit to a settlement that was half way between independent state and autonomy, the Gorkha Hill Council, no dogs were killed in Darjeeling. Darjeeling went to the dogs instead.
"There was nothing to look forward to except Ghisingh’s bizarre take on life, history and religion," says Deepak Pradhan, a businessman in Darjeeling. "People initially didn’t complain because they were too busy putting together pieces of their shattered lives after the violence of the 1980s. Later, when they did, GNLF (Gorkha National Liberation Front) goons physically throttled protest voices."
By the time Ghisingh finally relinquished power, all that the former soldier of the elite 8th Gorkha Regiment was left with was a legacy of eccentricities, a long list of corruption charges, horrifying tales of excesses and, as his cohorts say, a severe bout of diarrhoea.
The man who once unified the more than one crore Nepalese in India and had grand, if suspicious, visions of Greater Gorkhaland, a warriors’ swathe that would straddle Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim and Darjeeling, had by the end of his eventful but abject rule become a caricature of himself. He was his own mascot. The Ghisingh mystique had morphed into burlesque.
"Who said Durga has 10 hands," he would thunder during Darjeeling’s famous Dussehra festivities. "She has 18." The goddess metamorphosed, too, as artisans implanted extra limbs, the new ones clutching frightful weapons.
At other times he harangued about evolution as hapless audiences feigned interest.
"The earth was formed on June 20," he said, without either care or concern for Darwin. "And in 15 years there won’t be any mosquitoes in the world."
Not that he spared anthropology, theology, medicine and quantum physics. "Some of us," he announced earnestly, "have come from Ukraine." In more adventurous moods he would insist global warming happened because Shani had made the sun its home. The solution: Rubber plantation.
When he got tired with flying rocks that became nations, he would take on medicine and ask people to clap their hands if they wanted to beat tuberculosis. But one of his most bizarre and fantastic notions revolved around a folk singer from Nepal called Ani Tshering Doma. "Three lakh restless spirits have found peace after hearing her spiritual songs," he told a gathering once.
"That’s what it became finally," says Roshan Giri, general secretary of the rival Gorkha Janmukti Morcha. "Our hills became a fool’s paradise. There was no talk of poverty alleviation, unemployment, corruption and the dying economy." Another GJM leader, H B Chettri, sees this as the beginning of the end of Ghisingh and his GNLF.
"There’s finally light in the dark mountains," he says. A GNLF man, who changed sides timing it with the changing mood, said it was Ghisingh’s pride that did him in. "Just like the foolish emperor and his new clothes, our leader was blinded by power. And he had no one with courage to advise him better."
It’s almost certain Ghisingh’s maddening run of the hills is over. The 72-year-old, who’s still not dared to return to his land, may have given the Nepalese identity, unity and dreams of Gorkhaland, but there’s little hope for himself. He could get back to writing—he’s written 21 novels, many distinctly titillating and, pen an autobiography that could be called Nothing Hill.
Unless, of course, Durga with her 18 hands comes to his rescue or a flying stone miraculously turns into a kingdom he can rule, naming it ‘Ghisinghland’.

Courtesy : The Times of India

Reality that weighs you down

I came face to face with my moment of truth, yesterday! The information was crystal clear, written all over, in front of me....
I don't know whether I should be cautious, happy?!, sad, alarmed... I don't know how to embrace this situation. I had always known this was inevitable with the daily schedule I go through, but this soon? I hadn't even imagined.
Yes sir/ma'am, I gained, but I guess gain isn't always synonymous with profit, or for that matter benefit. Without further suspense, I, here, announce that I stepped from over-weight to obese zone. :) I was astonished to see my process of rapid progress, the journey from 73 Kilograms to 81.1 was in fact a very short one, hardly of 3 months, and increased frequency of junk food, mini-meals per day colossally helped the cause. And now I've become the thing(remember Fantastic four??? :) ), nemesis for weighing machines. It all started with the tummy problems, and to counter the upset-stomach I started grubbing several times a day, feeding myself with the junk food. And today morning, when I faced myself(in the mirror), I thought someone was looking at me, someone obese, someone who had just been pumped with air all over. So, now time for me to do a round up, a physical introspection, for if it is not restrained I have a feeling I'll blow myself up... :)
The were times when I used to hold a cup of water in my each collarbone, and now hehe... let's not divulge the secrets.
I accelerated upwards like the rocket, now I need to descend decently, for I know the rapid descend is the possible symptom for incurable disease.
So anybody with fool-proof idea can post the comment(s), because I desperately want to be an overweight again! :)

Ghisingh resigns, a new era begins in hills

Ghisingh quits, split in party

March 10: GNLF chief Subash Ghisingh today resigned as caretaker administrator of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC), ending a 20-year rule that had swiftly lost popular support in the last few months because of its failure to push the statehood demand.
In the Assembly, three GNLF legislators raised the demand for Gorkhaland during mention hour and staged a walkout. Later, two of them — Pranay Rai and Gaulan Lepcha — told reporters that they had resigned from their party and formed a group called GNLF (Rebels). The third MLA, Shanta Chhetri, said she would remain with the GNLF.
Ghisingh, down with a flu, signed and handed over the resignation letter addressed to Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to Darjeeling district magistrate and DGHC principal secretary Rajesh Pandey at the WBSEDCL Inspection Bungalow at Second Mile off Sevoke Road in Siliguri around 11.10am.
“I cannot speak on the content of the letter. I will forward it to the state government”, Pandey said after coming out of the bungalow where the GNLF chief has been staying since March 6.
In Calcutta later in the day, the chief minister said he had received Ghisingh’s resignation letter and accepted it. He added that Jalpaiguri divisional commissioner B.L. Meena would take over as the DGHC caretaker administrator tomorrow.
A source revealed that the 10-line resignation letter, drafted by Pandey upon Ghisingh’s instruction, mentioned that the GNLF chief was eligible to continue in the post till March 24. “He has said in the letter that considering the current state of affairs in the hills and a request from the chief minister, he preferred to step down,” the source said.
The district magistrate said the GNLF leader would continue to get Z-category security cover from the state.
The septuagenarian leader stayed away from reporters. “He is likely to leave for Darjeeling on Thursday and is expected to talk to the media before that,” the source said.
This is the first time since the formation of the DGHC in 1988 that Ghisingh is not in any administrative post of the council. “All these years, he was very busy with administrative duties,” said Dawa Pakhrin, the president of the Kalimpong branch of the GNLF. “From today, he is free and can devote more time to the party. We expect a meeting soon where our future course of action to fight for a separate state will be planned.”
However, leaders of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, currently spearheading the movement for Gorkhaland, said Ghisingh would find it difficult to garner support in the hills.

Courtesy : The telegraph, Calcutta


Ghisingh's 22-yr rule ends

KOLKATA/DARJEELING: Virtually hounded out of the Hills by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM), Subash Ghisingh on Monday stepped down as caretaker administrator of Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council.
The Gorkha leader left Darjeeling in the first week of February and since then, he could not go back to the Hills due to GJM's agitation. Even on Monday, when he tendered his resignation, he was in Siliguri. A senior official said he was not likely to go to Darjeeling in a day or two as he was indisposed and would take rest in Siliguri for some time.
Darjeeling district magistrate Rajesh Pandey went to Siliguri to receive Ghisingh's resignation. "Yesterday, Ghisingh complained of health problems. So, I decided to come to Siliguri and take the resignation letter. We will provide security to him as soon as he is well enough to travel," he said. Later, in the Assembly, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee announced that he has accepted Ghisingh's resignation.
Jalpaiguri divisional commissioner B L Meena was appointed DGHC administrator in the evening. He is likely to take charge on Tuesday.
There was jubilation in the Hills as soon as news reached there that Ghisingh's rule as DGHC chief had ended. "People have given their verdict and it is only right that they celebrate their ‘mukti' today," GJM president Bimal Gurung said. "We will not stop Ghisingh from coming to Darjeeling now that he has resigned. We can concentrate on our future agitation programme for Gorkhaland," he said.
People from all sections of society came out in droves after the news of Ghisingh's resignation reached Darjeeling. Their faces smeared with abir, the locals chanted: "Jai Gorkha Jai Gorkhali, hamro maang Gorkhaland." Firecrackers were burst throughout the Hill town.
There were celebrations in the other subdivisions of Darjeeling, too. All India Gorkha League and Communist Party Revolutionary Marxist also welcomed Ghisingh's resignation.
Events in the Assembly during the day, however, indicated that Ghisingh's resignation would not end the problems in Darjeeling. For, after many years, the demand for a separate Gorkhaland state was voiced on the floor of the House by three legislators from Darjeeling.
The demand was raised separately by GNLF MLA Shanta Chhetri from Kurseong and two others, Pranay Rai and Gaulan Lepcha from Darjeeling and Kalimpong. Rai and Lepcha announced that they had already resigned from GNLF and joined GJM. They also submitted a memorandum to the chief minister, detailing the demand for Gorkhaland.
As opposed to the Gorkhaland demand voiced by GNLF in the 1980s, the new demand for a separate Gorkhaland state included not only the hills of Darjeeling but also large areas of Dooars.

Courtesy: Times Of India

The result of my utter boredom

About the picture: As the title suggests, work of art comes out of utter boredom too... :) and it does come from a most boring person as well. :)
During weekends, I often visit my cousins who stay at the other side of Bangalore, South Bangalore to be precise. Our daily routines, time-tables are exactly opposite, say mutually exclusive. Time I sleep they wake up and when they sleep I work. So it is implicitly understandable that I'm an alien(time-table wise) when I go there, still I try to match their time-table foot-by-foot. And when I lose it, I come up with such shots. This image was taken when everybody was sleeping, well.. except me. This guitar has become a mere entity of decoration. And after taking this shot, I saw some cobwebs in it as well. :) If this guitar had been a living thing, it would have ran away long time ago, and nobody would notice, such unattended it is.
Anyways, the shot I have here is taken from the edge of the body and I feel it is a pretty good shot AFA my photography is concerned. :)

Adding a favicon in your blog

Inserting a faviocn for your blogger is easy if you know where to look for. :)
First you need to create a favicon from your existing image. There are lots of online websites which will make a favicon provided you feed them with an image. One of such site is here.
Now the steps:
1. Go to above mentioned site and feed an image you have chosen for your blog's favicon.
2. Make sure you click the check-box which says, Animate Favicon, before pressing the button Generate FavIcon.ico.
3. Download the favicon and unzip it.
4. Now upload your animated_favicon1.gif which is inside folder extra to some image hosting site like picassa or flickr.
5. Copy the link for that favicon in some textpad.
6. Now go to Dashboard of your blogger. Click on Layout. And then click on Edit HTML tab.
7. In the code window, search for </html>.
8. Once you find it, insert this code just above it.
<link href='YOUR-URL' rel='icon' type='image/x-icon'/>
9. Replace YOUR-URL with the address of your image. Click on Save Template
10. Voila! you are done.

A lovely piece of comment, found somewhere in net.

I liked this person's idea of keeping things straight. This is how a comment should be. I specially liked the way he's ended it. :) Read on

Just Get the side right. Hopes is the LUCKIEST player going around in WORLD cricket..Why he is even in the side? He can't play spin - What goes on there. How ridiculous at this level. Where's the State cricketer of the year?? The Bradman Medalist - What's the point of having that award if you don't get a Guernsey?..Where's' Dave..Where's Ash?? And SYMONDS getting regular games is a joke..is it just me that cringes every time I see him walk to the crease..He is the biggest scam of international cricket since Greg Ritchie or Dirk Wellham. Seriously thou, I am still in shock that he gets a regular Test match gig. One dayers - yeah I guess I can understand the idea of Symonds is nice (a batting all rounder that can field brilliantly), but the truth of the matter is he's just an excellent fielder. If he scored runs REGULARLY(& by that I mean 30/40+) then we wouldn't need his fielding. At the end of the day he's not a batting all rounder, he's not a bowling all rounder. He's a fielder.

The despised

About the picture: This one was taken on 23/02/2008. The underground sewage system renovation work had just finished when I took this one. Mind you, the renovation work was done under the road(rather, on the road) where it(the tow-wheeler) now rests. That two-wheeler got it's share of contemn then(it was almost buried when excavation was in progress), and now again it's bravely fighting the debris and bricks that surround it. It has seen many months of sunshine and has faced numerous bursts of rain, but still it stands majestically(not really :) ) against the each and every odd. And everytime I wonder who its owner is...

The first among equals

May be I get bored with things pretty soon or may be I prefer to see the constant changes around me, that's why I'm standing against my previous (not-so-brilliant)idea of blogging different facets of my posts into different blogs, and now going through the blogs, it looks cumbersome to blog different posts in different blogs and besides the same distinction can be brought in using a category list. So I plan to post all my posts under one roof(read blog) and that is here.
Hope you all will appreciate the change too or will bear with it.
Luv
D

Creating the sticky notes, your way

1. Login to Dashboard.
2. Click on Layout of the blog for which you want to create a sticky note.
3. Click on Edit HTML tab.
4. Add the following code just below the #header-wrapper code
#sticky-wrapper {
width:660px;
margin:0 auto 10px;
border:1px solid $bordercolor;
}

#sticky-inner {
background-position: center;
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;
}

5. Now search for following code snippet in the code window;
<div id='header-wrapper'>
<b:section class='header' id='header' maxwidgets='1' showaddelement='no'>
<b:widget id='Header1' locked='true' title='Customizing blogger (Header)' type='Header'/>
</b:section>
</div>

6. And add these lines of code just below the above code;

<div id='sticky-wrapper'>
<b:section class='sticky' id='sticky' maxwidgets='2' showaddelement='yes'>
</b:section>
</div>

7. Now click on SAVE TEMPLATE.
8. Click on the Page elements tab and then click on Add a Page Element link.
9. A new window will open, select HTML/JavaScript and click on ADD TO BLOG.
10. A window will open where you can insert your sticky note.
11. Click on SAVE CHANGES.
12. See your sticky for yourself!

NOTE: You can customize you sticky as well in this HTML/JAVASCRIPT window, with your choice of HTML tags.

Background Image for Blogger Template

With this guide, you will be able to
1. add a background image or picture to entire blog or to the posts only or to your sidebar only.
2. add a static background image that stays in place when you scroll through the contents of your blog.
3. customize the position of your image.

All you need to have is an image readily hosted in some image-hosting websites like flickr, picasa or any picture that you'll find on the net(googling).
Goto your image hosting site and take note of the picture URL.
Next, log in to your Dashboard click Layout and click Edit HTML, and search for the following code in the code window;
body {
background:$bgcolor;

and add the following code;
body {
background-image: url(URL address of your image);

Remember to insert the URL address of your image in the brackets.
Insert the URL of your image in the above brackets and Click Preview to see the feel of your blog.
If you like the page feel, save the template.

Background for sidebar:
You can also have a background image just for your sidebar. Locate the following code-snippet and add the background image code accordingly.
#sidebar-wrapper {

#sidebar-wrapper {
background-image: url(URL address of your image);

Background for posts:
For a background image to your main post body only, find the code-snippet #main-wrapper { and add the background-image code like the way I've done below;

#main-wrapper {
background-image: url(URL address of your image);

Repeating background image:
By default, the image is repeated to fill up the entire background of the page. If you have a small or tile-sized image, it will appear like a print pattern in the background. Sometimes, you dont want to have the image repeated. In such cases add the following code snippet in the place where you have added the above mentioned code;
background-repeat: no-repeat;

Alternatively, to repeat the image horizontally. The code is;
background-repeat: repeat-x;

To repeat the image vertically, the code is;
background-repeat: repeat-y;

Positioning background image:
If you dont want your image to be repeated and you want to specify the exact position of this image on your page, the code that to be inserted is;
background-position: top left;

The image will appear at the top left corner of your page. The other possible values that you can use to replace 'top left' are;
top center;
top right;
center left;
center center;
center right;
bottom left;
bottom center;
bottom right;

If you do not want it entirely left, right or center, you can also define the horizontal and vertical alignments either in percentage or in pixels. Use either of these values instead, with x being the horizontal value and y being the vertical value.
x% y%;
xpx ypx;

Static background image:
You can also make the background image to remain in a fixed position when the contents of your blog are scrolled. By default, the picture scrolls with your content. To make image pinned down while your text scrolls, the code you have to add is;
background-attachment: fixed;


Putting everything together
The final code that you will have for your customized template after altering according to this guide would look like;
body {
background-image: url(image url);
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-position: center center;
background-attachment: fixed;

You can also combine the attributes into one line and the shorthand code will look like;
body {
background: url(image url) no-repeat center center fixed;