Never Knew I was living in the world

And so arose the phoenix...

2008-01-28T23:23:00.000+05:30

Falls down slowly,
seeps into the ground
isn’t just flowing water,
won’t stop until your brain is found….

Acid…..Acid Rain…..

Such was my state of mind, when I quit blogging. One thing after another kept smashing into me like a hurricane. Things aren’t normal even now, but now I know, the only way to become normal is to try to “be normal”. And what’s better than a new home to rejuvenate you. So, here it is. My shiny, flowery, and over-all feel-good blawg is back for your bouquets and brick-bats at http://blog.shantanugoel.com . Most of the things have been migrated from my old blog here minus a few paining posts, plus not all the posts are tagged, categorized yet. Will do that gradually. Blogs shall be added back to the blogroll after some cutting-shutting. The theme is also be polished around the corners. Just getting the hang of this cool thing-a-magic that wordpress is.

Not just this, I’ve also given shape to an old desire - to have my own tech blog. Head over to "My Technophilic Musings." (http://tech.shantanugoel.com)
Thats it for today. Hope to see you there soon...

Call The Internet!!!!!!!

2005-06-05T09:53:00.000+05:30

Just saw this on a show called "Attack of the Show" on G4 TV and just had to blog about it. Apparantely, there is this site that has opened just 3 days ago and what is it called? Its called "Call The Internet".
What does it do? What is its purpose? Those are the questions that arise when one goes to the page because of their unique and *intricate* design of the website. Just go there and see it first before I proceed further. I'll just while away some time.
LALALALALALALALALA *Whiling away some time* LALALALALALALA...
LALALALALALALALALA *U done yet? No? Still Whiling away some time*LALALALALA....
LALALALALALALALALA *Ok, so u r back*. Lets stop the *whiling away some time* and move further....

So, now that you are confused as to where this is heading (and are probably deranged or maybe even frustrated enough to strangle me for having wasted your time). Now what they do is still not completely understood by me but one of their *wide array* of services is that you can "call up the internet". HUH? That was quite brilliant of me...well, the concept is that if you don't "have" the internet, or a computer, you can just call up Mr. Internet and ask the guy himself "Wuzzup". Like you can call up the number given and give them an address and ask em to explain to you what that site looks like, or maybe summarize the content for you, and so on. You do the math (even if there is no math involved here)..

Incredible, isn't it?? ;)

[Listening to: Chords Of Life - Joe Satriani - Strange Beautiful Music (4:15)]

Fragging all the way

2005-06-04T04:38:00.000+05:30

well guys, u must have been wondering where I disappeared after coming back to the blogging scene after so many days. Well, I've gotta a confession to make. One of my old loves is back. Yes, here in the US. And in so many forms. Yupz am talking abt games. My sweet darlings. Just can tell you how ecstatic I feel while holding that flak cannon in my hands in UT2004. It feels like roses are being showered all around me as I shred up my opponents in a crammed up online room. And the high that I get when tony Hawk himself salutes me after I pull off a 1080 in THUG2. And neways, vin diesel can never even come close to the drifts that I do in NFSUG2. Mr. Gordon Freeman (of HL and HL2 fame) is awaiting his turn right now cuz the rest of my time is prettty tied up with his highness himself, yeah a prince, the "Prince of Persia". So, please forgive me for not writing more often cuz as soon as I try to write, the games just take control of my fingers and they just want me to do the tango on the keyboard and mosue rather than doing a military march of typing. Neways, now that the initial euphoria of the heavenly reunion is over, I guess I can now settle down and write more often. So, u can expect me to be a bit more regular. :D

And for being so patient, heres a gift. Stealth bomber caught on google maps. Zoom a little to locate it.

[Listening to: Right Next Door To Hell - Guns n' Roses - Use Your Illusions I (3:02)]

I've learnt.....

2005-05-28T10:27:00.000+05:30

Today was a day when some important lessons were learnt, lessons that would change my outlook towards life, lessons that would leave imprint on me forever. What lessons? These lessons:
1. No matter how hard you try, whatever you buy will be available at a lower price somwhere else. The hard disk enclosure that I bought for 60$, after a research of 3 weeks, was available for just 30$ at fry's.

2. Never fill in you mail-in-rebate form before checking the stuff that u've bought. The linksys router that I bought today doesnt work, but I realized this only after i had filled in and mailed the rebate form. The chances of a refund on this one look bleak. :( (Another 40 bucks down the drain).

3. Good times don't last long, they are always eaten up by greed. The blazing net speeds here just compelled me into downloading a bit too much and my ethernet port was blocked by the Hotel's ISP today. Have got it unblocked now but with a warning. :(

4. A blog is a man's best friend. As I sit here in the dark corner of my hotel room, with no one to talk to, with no shoulder to rest my head upon, the blog is my only reprieve, my only confidante, *sob* *sob*

Neways, I'll be strong. The dark force cometh. O sysadmin, beware, may the force (of port forwarding, Mac spoofing and packet encrypting, be with me....

And yeah, here is a pic of my new found love. :)

[Listening to: Mercyful fate - Metallica - Garage Inc. (11:08)]

Making a Comeback

2005-05-26T06:30:00.000+05:30

AT LAST!!!!!
Yeah, the d00d is back in the house. I had not blogged since the time I had reached here. Thats over a month...
Why? No man, I was not busy. But its just that the gora log do only one thing in office, and that is "work". They do have their share of fun at the work place but still they believe in working hard for 8.5 hrs and then start thinking abt the fun part.
They have perfectly divided their lives in two parts: professional and personal and dont let any of them intermingle. They keep their personal matters restricted to their homes and also keeps stringent limits on the hrs they spend in the office (And they also efficiently utilize each and every minute of that spent in the office).
Well, enuff of the background info. The point is, I couldn't blog from the office and didn't have any source to access net at hotel. But now I got my laptop (Yipppeee)....
Thanks to all those who had given me inputs to finalize my shopping list, I have done a sizable amount of my buying. Here are the things I have bought so far:
1. Laptop.
Specs: Compaq R4000 series. 15.4" WUXGA with bright view screen, AMD Athlon 64 bit 2.0 GHz processor,
1 GB RAM, 128 MB ATi Radeon Xpress 200 m Gfx card, DVD writer, etc...

2. iPod

3. Digicam: Canon Powershot S1 IS (Just love the 10x zoom)

4. An extra 120 gig hdd

5. 1 GB CF card

and some small tit bits....

The major thing I like abt the states so far is the driving part...everyone drives in such a civilized manner....
But facing a bit of problem in the food deptt as its difficult to find good veg food.

Neways, thats it for now. Pics next time....

Leaving on a jet plane...

2005-04-22T13:00:00.000+05:30

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go..
am standing here outside ur door....
and so goes the song, but the difference is that I don't hate to go. I'm excited...
So guys, my next post will be from Dallas as my flight leaves tonight...:)

[Listening to: End of the line - The Offsprings - (3:02)]

Woes of a "holiday" Tortured soul..

2005-04-16T15:58:00.000+05:30

My friends told me that you cant survive in Dallas without driving and you can't drive without an IDP (International Driving Permit)...
So began my crusade to get one. Left for chandigarh on thursday. The mission was simple:
1. Go to State Transport Office.
2. Give forms to officer (all forms already completed) for stamp and signature.
3. Come Back

But as it turned out later, the enemy was prepared. The 3-point agenda was just a trap to lure me behind enemy lines...
Each point branched off to several other points and to perplex and torture me further, even recursion was thrown in.

WARNING: For the weak at heart, this is a good point to stop. Cuz the details below are quite gory and graphic. Any resultant effects, like frustration, hair tearing, teeth grinding, etc, will not be my responsibility.

So, let the story begin...
Woke up to a melodious tone ringing in my cell. It was my alarm...
After such a long time, I had seen morning, yeah, I woke up at 7:00. Birds were chirping, a mild breeze blowing outside...The day seemed to be off to a good start...
Came out of my place to find a baba (saint) standing there, who, on seeing me, instantly uttered the words "Videsh yatra nikat hai baccha". (Foreign travel is near, my child). The day was indeed good. I managed a smile...:)
Well, the first point went off well. Reached the STO (State Transport Office)....
Knocked at the door of the official who had to sign and stamp my papers. No response...
Waited a bit and knocked again. No Response. Opened the door and peered in.. It was empty.. A peon saw me and said, "Madam Chhutti pe hai" (Ma'am is on leave). Is it starting to go wrong? I thought.
Met another officer and was told "Since wednesday and thursday were holidays, so she took the friday off. She's the only one in this office who can sign ur papers. However you can go to another office near high court. One Mr. X is also authorised to sign."
Nothing to worry yaar, i told myself..
Went to the office and what do I find, Mr. X is absent. Why? Same reason as before...But then you can go to DC's office. ADC will sign it.
At ADC's office when the same episode was repeated I had started to crumble...
Someone told me to go to old STO but they said nothing was done there now. Then came back to new STO. Then a guy gave me a ray of hope. Gave me a slip and asked me to meet someone in the second office. Then in the second office i was given a slip and asked to meet someone in the first office and told that work will surely be done. And guess who was i supposed to meet.
I found out when I came to room no 3. It was the same room where I had knocked first thing in the morning...
Then I was told that my work would be done on monday...But alas, our merciful Government, Monday has also been declared a holiday and here I am, the tortured soul, back in my office, torturing souls like you and deriving sadistic pleasures out of it...

[Listening to: Sweet Child O' Mine - GNR - GNR (0:-1)]

Life is beautiful again :)

2005-04-12T18:40:00.000+05:30

Thanks for cheering me up and for being there for me, guys. Am feeling much better now that I spent a few days with my family. My parents and bro came down to gurgaon for a couple of days and we talked so much. Went around shopping like a family. And it was so much fun. More fun than any outings with my friends. I really feel refreshed....

Meanwhile, the date for my leaving is coming closer and I havent planned anything. This is my first time so am quite excited but also a bit uncertain whether I'll be able to sustain this enthusiasm for three months. But am not thinking much about that right now. Lets take things as they come. But at present the worry is that everybody is telling me to start buying things for my stay there and I havent even started making a list as yet. the only list am making right now is what I'll buy from there. Currently, following 2 things are certain (Have been on the list for a long time):
1. An iPod (thinking of getting a 30 GB photo)
2. A decent 4-5 MP digi cam. (Canon/Sony or Nikon)

The things that are almost on the list are:
1. A gaming console (PS2/XBOX??)
2. A laptop

Do share with me any thoughts, advice, suggestion that you may have about any of these things. What models would be good. Where to buy them from? Any other options available? Know of any discount coupons/ rebates or other deals?
Or may be u can add something to the list...
Chalo, mez off to slickdeals, pricegrabber, etc for now.. :)

[Listening to: devil's child - JUDAS PRIEST - screaming for vengeance (0:-1)]

Why....

2005-04-07T20:42:00.000+05:30

Its 8:15 PM. Am sitting in the office. And will keep sitting for atleast another 4-5 hours. Working? Nah.. Doing nothing at all....Its not that I don't have work. Got loadsa it right now. Have to do so much for the oncoming trip....but its that I just dont feel like working. Life's become a drag...
The same old routine everyday. Wake up, get ready, go to office, work, come back, sleep. Throw in a couple of eating time slots in there too. Even the games now bore me...
What am I missing??For Christ's sake its been only about 10 months since I've been working and I already feel spent....No enthu left for anything...
While in school, it was always like, just pass 10th, then life'll be cool.
Then college, I thought, just get into a good engg college, then life'll be cool.
In engg college, the feeling was, its just the last hurdle man. clear this, get a good job, then life'll be cool...
Now it feels life has surely become cool, rather, *thandi* (for those not knowing hindi: *without any spark*) as it should be put..
Read on someone's blog a few days ago: The motto of life should be "Wake up happy, sing a tune during the day, and go to sleep with a smile". And the way I am living right now, its more like:
"Wake up with a splitting head ache, roam around like zombie through the day (the only tune on the lips being that of the grim reaper's song), and go to sleep wondering if i'll indeed be able to sleep"

GOD, whats happening to me....
Is it homesickness?? Is it my laziness coming to fore?? or maybe I'm going crazy..
Or maybe its nothing at all...
Hope this phase gets over soon...

Remember this before bug fixing

2005-04-05T19:46:00.000+05:30

Just came across this:

And still ye mortal programmer soul tries to sweep out the bugs.
ALAS! The irony of ignorance....*big sigh*

[Listening to: Almost Honest - Megadeth - Cryptic Writings (0:-1)]

Visa Update

2005-04-01T17:21:00.000+05:30

Just received this mail from the HR deptt:
----------
Hi
You have been given a 2 year multiple entry Visa. Please collect your passport from me..
---------
What do I say now???
"Yipppeee" is the only correct word I think... :)

[Listening to: Born to Raise Hell - Motor head - (4:57)]

The "Holy" dip

2005-03-29T18:35:00.000+05:30

This holi was one of the ebst ever for me...Why? cuz I spent it on the banks of ganga in rishikesh. It was an eventful weekend as we (around 30 ppl in all) celebrated an extended holi with white water rafting (2 sessions of 28 km and 24 km respectively), body surfing, cliff jumping, mountain climbing, rappling, kayaking, beach volley ball, etc...
The rafting part was especially adrenalin pumping. It was just an amazing experience as we passed over thrilling rapids like "The Wall", "Daniel's dip", "3 Blind Mice", "Crossfire", etc...And when are boat filpped over the crossfire and I went under the water for about 5 seconds in the raging rapid, it was one hell of a feeling.....it seemed as if I had spent an eternity coming towards the light....
Most of the time we all were body surfing in the water instead of being on the raft...
I also climbed a mountain and though I didnt feel it at the time, my hands were shaking when I came down finally and I just coudn't move my forearms, such was the stress that one had to put on the fore arms...
And the standing under the waterfall was so kewl, it felt like someone was massaging my back and head (albeit with hammers instead of hands)...
All in all, it was one great trip....
Neways, enuff abt the trip, I've my visa interview tomorrow, so wish me luck....

[Listening to: With Jupiter in Mind - Joe Satriani - Crystal Planet (5:46)]

Still No time...

2005-03-23T11:50:00.000+05:30

Am back from home but still there's not much time to write much...Am unable to visit you all too. Please bear with me for a few more days ... :)

Meanwhile, just wanted to let u guys know that yesterday, bro and me gifted a Maruit Alto to Dad as a birthday gift. His first car...Dad was so happy and I was even happier cuz it was my first step to *try to* repay everything he has done for me so far... :)

And yes, my roommate has written something that is in context of a common friend of ours but applies universally. It happens so often with the poor male species..tsk tsk..
Go and read "Neha Network Systems" by Amit.

[Listening to: Ghosts Of War - Slayer - South Of Heaven (3:53)]

Finally some respite

2005-03-18T11:28:00.001+05:30

Whew, that was a tough week...But now its a bit light and am going home today :)... So will get some good food for a change...
"Maa ke haath ke bane khane ki baat hi kuchh aur hoti hai... :D
neways, just d/led this video by green day "Boulevard of broken dreams" and it totally rocks...
Green Day always seems to surprise me with the variation in their style and they do it in such a kewl way..
The song is from the "American Idiot" album and if the title song (american idiot) was written and sung with loadsa attitude, this one shows us their sentimental side as Billie Joe longs for someone to accompany him in the journey of life....
If you haven't heard this song yet, then go here to download the video Green Day Videos.

[Listening to: Boulevard Of Broken Dreams - Green Day - American Idiot-RETAIL (4:20)]

An apology

2005-03-16T10:40:00.000+05:30

An apology to all my visitors for not having written anything lately. Work load has increased a lot all of a sudden and its hard to find time or energy to write on anything....
Guess, it'll remain like that for a few days...Something new and interesting is in the offing, so lets hope that turns into reality...
Will get back to you guys soon...

Someone's gotta do something..

2005-03-11T10:59:00.000+05:30

While coming to office today, I just ran a cursory glance over the newspaper and a small news item settled at the back of my mind "Bugs bunny to be a superhero". After coming to office I thought about reading up on it. A quick search on google news revealed a lot of news items. Gladly anticipating to see our own *wabbit* in a new role, I scanned the results which were something like:
Bugs Bunny turns slick superhero!:
Bugs Bunny and pals getting futuristic makeover

But what irked me was the presence of these results:
Bugs a bugged bunny over 'Loonatics'
Look what they did to the wabbit

Exploring a litle more I found that Bugs will now be renamed "Buzz Bunny" as he, along with five others, is transported from the looney toons to "Loonatics". Quoting from one of the reports:
Hes got no eyeballs, or his eyes are shaded. His ears look like spears. His paddle-fists look like theyre groping for some kind of weapon.
By Golly, is this the Bugs we know. More importantly, is this the bugs we want?
Where will be the good ol' humour, where'll be the funny antics, where'll be that "being cruhed by a tractor and coming out flattened and then getting air pumped in to regain normal body", where'll be our wabbit.
Where will be "What's up Doc?".

Quoting more from the report:
"He sports Mel Blancs funny, nasally voice.And, its not you better laugh or Ill shoot you.
When you reach inside a figure and pull out its guts, put an iron over its face and smash down its expression, you have ruined its legacy, a state-of-mind and body passed on to descendants."

For God's sake, we don't want a new superhero. We already have enough anime action and enough american heroes are cleaning the streets of evil just good enuff. But if warner bros. still wants a new hero, fine, go ahead and create a new one, leave bugs alone...
I don't want a gun-slinging, hard-talking, lean-mean-fighting machine, I want my buggy, looney, bugs back...

Somebody do something :*( :*(

A lesson learnt

2005-03-09T12:57:00.000+05:30

I learned this today " Never get too excited too ealy" and i learned it the hard way :(

Had posted this earlier today:
---My earlier post----
Ever heard of recursion through google??
Quick, open a new browser window and head over to google. Write "shantanu goel" (without the quotes) and hit the "I'm feeling lucky button". Guess where u end up....
Where else but here :) :)
Yeah guys, my blog has finally acquired the no. 1 rank for my name as the keyword....
:)
-------------

But as soon as I posted this, just a few hours after that, my blog again slipped to the number 2 spot. Guess it was a case of The Page Rank 100 Incident...

Go away..Let me sulk a bit so that I can overcom this... *boohoo* :(

[Listening to: Book Of Thel - Bruce Dickinson - The Chemical Wedding (8:13)]

Google Desktop Search

2005-03-08T10:41:00.000+05:30

Just when I was about to switch over to Copernic, there came another update on the google desktop search and man, is it just WOW!!
Google Desktop now supports:
Firefox
PDFs
Music
Videos
Images

Just what the doctor ordered...Go and download this baby [Link]

[Listening to: devil's child - JUDAS PRIEST - screaming for vengeance (0:-1)]

Tada......

2005-03-05T19:28:00.000+05:30

Here's a brand new template....
Comments, Compliments, suggestions are welcome....
Do tell me if u find something broken cuz I think there are many. For one, I can't find a way to modify my archives template which is not showing blogger comments section.
Till then... :)

[Listening to: All About Her - A New Found Glory - (3:02)]

Something to wait for....

2005-03-03T12:01:00.000+05:30

Wait for a few days...U guys are gonna get something new soon....:)

And my sweet doodle-board has died. Doodle-board is going to be a paid service. So, the hunt for a new one begins..Any suggestions??

Side note: Just a small incident that happened yesterday. As the axe of the Taxman approaches, ppl are running helter-skelter arranging bills. My room-mate (who is a bengali and doesn't know hindi that much) was doing the same. He went to a few medical shops to get few bills made. Now, every shop he went to, he found a board there in hindi, on which it was written "Dawai ki Dukaan" (in Hindi, meaning a Medicine Shop). After visiting 4-5 such shops, he got very confused and returned home with a puzzled look. After a while, he just cudn't resist asking me "How come I never heard of this "Dawai" chain store brand in Bengal. All we have there is "98.4" ".

[Listening to: Now or never - Godsmack - Godsmack (0:-1)]

Finally some relief...

2005-02-28T20:25:00.000+05:30

The last couple of weeks went in so much of agony. The agony of being bored to death. Now, I don't have a TV at home. So, my only source of entertainment once I reach my place is my roommates' computer (or Dabba, as we lovingly call it). We squat around it religiously every night as The Show begins. Some times a movie that i downloaded at work and managed to get it written onto a CD but generally it is re-runs and re-reruns and re-re-reruns of "Friends". Don't laugh cuz though we have memorized most of the dialogues by now but they are our only hope and sahara. Then the show is followed by an un-ending loop of songs that are in abundance.

Just when I had started utilizing the "Never Played" section of winamp (How I was horrified to see about 20 GB out of the total 43 GB collection listed there), something happened. We were happily watching "Friends" as usual, Chandler made a PJ, I threw back my head laughing (since my sense of humour is so pathetic that i find pleasure in those PJs), as my head came back forward and my eyes started to open again, I expected to find a bustling "cafe perk" in front of me, but instead I found a pair of eyes staring back at me from a dark background. What was the horrifying part behind this was that those eyes were my own, belonging to a reflection that aws cast in the now-blank screen. Too dumbfounded, I coudn't move for a few seconds. After gathering my senses, opened the CPU cabinet, hoping it was just some lose wire or something. But my heart skipped a beat on seeing the soot covered Power supply. Yeah guys, the power supply was gone.

We mourned the passing of our pyaara dabba into coma for complete two minutes (that is the maximum attention span I can give to anything). And our life has been hell since then...
Neways, thanks for listening to one of the most tragic incidents of my life. But here's the good news...
My roomie's got a new power supply and its gonna be one rolicking night. Hope my landlords aren't feeling too sleepy today cuz they aren't gonna get any......
Dabbe, Rock on....:)

[Listening to: Twisted Metal - Rob Zombie - (3:13)]

Well-designed hoax or genuine fraud?

2005-02-25T10:29:00.000+05:30

A few days ago, a news spread like wild fire all over the country. Every newspaper, TV channel, radio station screamed that this high school student "Saurabh, from Bihar had topped the "NASA" International Scientist Discovery examination. Reports further claimed that the same exam had been taken by the Prez APJ himself as well as Kalpana Chawla (For those who don't know, she's an alumnus of my college. I'm not very modest, u see.. :D ). The boy was hailed as the child genius all over the country and every newsgroup, forum, blog, webpage was flooded with "I'm proud to be an Indian and India is the best" messages.

People say I'm a bit too sceptical about everything that I hear/read from any kind of media. As always, it was a bit hard to digest for me. Not because I don't have faith in my countrymen, it was becaue there are just too much of this child prodigy stuff going on nowadays. Remember that "Tathagat Tulsi" scam? But when I read it everywhere I was forced to believe it was true. And proud indeed I was, of the feat of this young man.

Take Two:
Date: Feb 25, 2005
Venue: My bed
I woke up, got hold of the newspaper and what do I see? NASA refuses that Suarabh has topped the test, what the heck, they don't even have such a test, they never had. Rashtrapati Bhawan (President's office) says that Kalam never gave such test either. People of this child's village have taken to roads and are blocking highways, torching vehicles to protest against these reports and maintain that he has indeed won the award.

More reports pour in that actually he's won some award in an exam conducted by a universtity affilliated to an organisation called "NAASAA", God know what that is...

I don't know what to believe...Even the sceptical me is confused that where should my scepticicm be directed? Is the boy (and his family) innocent and they were just duped by some fraudulent organization or were they the active part of an elaborate hoax?

But one thing is for sure. My *faith* in the media has been restored, faith that it'll lap up anything and eveything that comes its way and project it to the world without even verifying the barest of the facts...

[Listening to: Knockin' on heaven's door - Guns'N'Roses - Best Ballads (5:44)]

Free Mojtaba and Arash Day

2005-02-22T10:36:00.000+05:30

Today I came to know that Iran is clamping down on various blogs and bloggers, stifling their voices, condemning the freedom of speech and expression..[LINK]
It was sickening. When humanity is oppressed, its last hope lies in speaking out against it, atleast someone about it, share its pain with others. But the Iranian government is seeking to take away that last hope from its people.
Its like beating someone up brutally and then telling him not to yelp in pain...
An example of this brutality is the arrest of Arash Sigarchi and Mojtaba Saminejad in Iran.
The global web log committee is calling upon the bloggers of the world to rise against it.
Curt Hopkins from the committee says that we could atleast dedicate today, February 22nd, for the revolution against this henious act. We could atleast do this by putting nothing other than "Free Mojtaba and Arash Day" on our blogs today...That'll tell the world this story it is still ignorant about.
Here I'm putting my drop into the ocean and just wishing that the ocean fills up soon. And if we all unite, that day will not be far when we are able to get our fellow bloggers their speech back...
Amen....

Smells like teen spirit

2005-02-20T13:21:00.000+05:30

Last words by Kurt:
"This note should be pretty easy to understand.All the warnings from the punk rock 101 courses over the years since my first introduction to the shall we say, ethics involved with independence and embracement of your community, it's proven to be very true".

"I haven't felt the excitment of listening to as well as creating music, along with really writing something, for too many years now".

"I feel guilty beyond words about these things -- for example, when we're backstage and the light go out and the roar of the crowd begins, it doesn't affect me the way in which it did for Freddie Mercury, who seemed to love and relish the love and adoration of the crowd. Which is something I totally admire and envy. The fact that I can't fool you, any one of you, it simply isn't fair to you or to me. The worst crime I could think of would be to pull people off by faking it, pretending as if I'm having 100% fun".

"Sometimes I feel as I should have a punch-in time-clock before I walk out on stage. I've tried everything within my power to appreciate it, and I do, God believe me I do, but it's not enough. I appreciate the fact that I and we have effected and entertained a lot of people. I must be one of those narcissists who only appreciate things when they're alone. I'm too sensitive. I need to be slightly numb in order to regain the enthusiasm I once had as a child. On our last 3 tours I've had a much better appreciation of all the people I know personally, and as fans of our music, but I still can't get out the frustration to gather the empathy I have for everybody. There's good in all of us and I simply love people too much. So much that it makes me feel just too fucking sad.Sad little sensative unappreciative Pieces --".

"I had a good marriage, and for that I'm grateful. But since the age of seven, I've become hateful toward all humans in general only because it seems so easy for people to get along that have empathy. Only because I love and feel for people too much I guess Thank you all from the pit of my burning nauseous stomach for your letters and concern during the last years. I'm pretty much of an erratic moody person and I don't have the passion anymore. Peace, Love, Empathy".

Happy Birthday Kurt....We miss U

With the lights out, its less dangerous..
Here we are now, entertain us....

[Listening to: Smells like teen spirit - Nirvana]

Just some info for pecobians...

2005-02-18T13:51:00.000+05:30

This is just a piece of information that might be useful to you if you are a passout of PEC (Punjab Engineering College), Chandigarh.
There is an alive and kicking forum for all the PECobians out there. Check out http://www.pecobians.com. Within days of its conception, the memberlist has become huge and we are all having loadsa fun..
So, do register over there...

Comments....

2005-02-16T12:02:00.000+05:30

Some time back, I was asked a question by Neelima that why did I visit her blog many times a day even though I know that there is no new post. Well, she came closer to the answer when she created this blog. Yes, the reason is "comments". As much as I like reading the posts of my favourite bloggers, with the same enthusiasm (if not more) I like to read the comments various fellow readers have posted.

They say "Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder". The posts are indeed beautiful but anything's beauty can only be seen only when defined by the beholders (here, the readers). Comments let u see the different aspects of the posts that u might have missed, add to it by exploring further and if nothing else, urge u to go on and write more. If we give a little bit of extra thought towards comments, they are nothing less than short posts themselves. If posts are like stories trying to drive home a point, then comments are like those witty one liners that make u ponder over it for just a moment and nod ur head in appreciation. This is why the comments mean so much to me and this is why I visit various blogs again and again even if they are not updated. Cuz they may not be updated postwise but for me, they are as they contain a lot more meaningful content later in the day when the beauty of the post has been enhanced in the context of the comments....

This is all from me today as I move towards some more comments hopping, to soak in the great words of hundreds of intellectuals around me emanating from just a handful of blogs....

[Listening to: Aerosmith - 013 - Aerosmith - (3:42)]

The Adventures of Shantz: Shantz in Meerut

2005-02-14T13:44:00.000+05:30

Spare the Tintin style heading...Neways have just returned from a cousin's marriage in meerut and boy was it fun.
Well, a few days ago, mum called up.
Mum: Beta, its ur cousin's marriage on sunday. So u have to come.
Me: Aww mom, I don't want to. I don't anyone there. I'll be bored.

Mum: Nahin, u have to come. U don't know anyone cuz u never go there.
Me: But I've so much work at office. (Even though I didn't ;) )

Mum: I'm not going to listen to any of ur excuses. u've to come.
Me: Ok mom, I'll come on sunday evening.

Mum: Nahin, u've to come on saturday and that is FINAL
<click>Enough hint to show me that was the end of discussion.

Neways, with a heavy heart and lethargic arms, I picked up my bag on saturday and started for meerut. Just to worsen my mood, I had to change 3 buses to get there and each was filled to its capacity. I even had to endure the Delhi heat, standing next to smelly armpits, hanging on to a shred of a holder in the bus.

Reached my aunt's place. Put on a fake smile trying very hard not to show my grumpiness.

AND THEN IT HAPPENED.
Saw so many ppl (and kids, loadsa them) around. The place was just buzzing with cheerful activity. I told myself "Okay buddy, this may not be as bad as u thought". How wrong I was. Cuz it dint turn out to be "not so bad", it turned out to be an amzaing and wonderfully pleasant experience.

The adventures began with the introductions. I was introduced to so many of my Aunts and Uncles whom I'd never heard about, what the heck, I dint even know they existed. They were all so frank. None of that formal stuff of just sitting around with ur lips just glued to make a silly smile. I mean, these were real party ppl. All the guys and gals (don't get any wrong notions ppl, the gals there were mostly of my auntie's age or my niece's age) talked to me as if they knew me for a long time.

Had a blast all night long, dancing to the tunes of dholak (a traditional indian musical instrument) and later on to the thumping beats of CDs belting out Bhangra numbers.
Next morning woke up to the sounds of "Pakad oye, dheel de, kheench kheench, kaat kaat" (Catch it, loosen it, roll roll, cut it, cut it).
Obviously it was basant panchmi and when I walked out of my room, I couldn't see the sky cuz it was completely filled with kites all around. It was just amazing. It seemed as if the sky had got bored of that dull old skyblue and had put on a new colorful garb. Spent the next few hours learning the intricacies of kite flying from a group of 5-10 year olds who talked about kite flying with just panache and authority that even Tendulkar can't demonstrate about cricket.

In the evening, went to the marriage place and had all the meerut specialities like kachories, halwa parantha and what not. Had so much fun participating in all the customs and rituals with the ususal ladke wale - ladki wale stuff and all.

Whew, and snap. It was over. My bus was waiting and had to start back for home. Come to think of it, earlier I dint want to come here and now I dint feel like going back. But guess there is only so much of fun that a guy can have. For the sake of keeping its charisma intact....

[Listening to: breakfast at tiffanys - - breakfast at tiffanys - (0:-1)]

Blinding flash of the obvious

2005-02-10T10:54:00.000+05:30

Let me ask you a question. What is about the human nature that annoys you the most?
Well, for me the inherent habit of stating the obvious does the trick.
Everywhere I go, people will incessantly talk something like this.

At a movie theater: "Oh, you are here to see the movie too?"
Me thinking:"Nah, just wandered down here to look at you and have fun seeing the expressions you make during the movie"

At an exam center: "Oh, you are giving the exam too?"
Me thinking:" Nah, its just my hobby to wander around the exam center and stalk every nervous creature I can find"

Standing at a bus stop during rain:"Its raining hard."
Me thinking:"Oh really, Till now I was under the impression its a sunny afternoon"

And more recently, at a newsgroup, in a discussion regarding the apple shuffle:" In my opinion the iPod Shuffle was a effort by Apple to conquer the Flash MP3 Player sector."
Me thinking: "Damn it, and I was thinking that they wanted to conquer the vegetable market."

No doubt then that Dilbert so often goes berserk yelling out "GAAH, blinding flash of the obvious." I think that this peculiar nature of the human species can be explained only by Ford Prefect's theories in The HItchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy.
Theory 1: If human beings don't keep exercising their lips, their mouths will seize up
Theory 2: If human beings don't keep exercising their lips, their brains start working.

I tend to agree with Ford on his abandoning theory 1 in favour of the theory 2. If only, people could stop continually stating the very very obvious, aah, i can just imagine.
Neways, enuff blabbering from me. I think I should also stop typing now and get my brain started......

[Listening to: Sick Of Life - Godsmack - (0:-1)]

Me, the movieholic

2005-02-08T10:20:00.000+05:30

I never was much into movies. Yeah, used to go to an odd couple over a month, combined with another couple on the idiot box/comp. But over the past 2 months, I've become a complete movieholic. Believe it or not, I've seen atleast 100 movies over these 2 months with about 10 being at the theater. That comes to more than 1.5 movies per day. Dunno what has come over me, but am glad that even though I've had to go through a lot of hopeless stuff, still I've seen some true pieces of art, strokes of masterclass.

One of them was "Finding Neverland". Watched this a few days ago and just couldn't speak anything for about half an hour after it finished. Kept soaking in the slight sensation of pleasure it had aroused. Johnny Depp enlivened the screen of my PC with such an enigma that I couldn't rip my eyes off the screen lest I should miss a sentence he said. He delivered the dialogues with such charisma, he really seemed to enchant and entrance me with every word he said. He really seemed to be Peter Pan. One must see this pretty little movie.....

Neways, on a side note, just wanted to mention that I just came to know that the central character, Howard Hughes, around whom "Aviator" is based(saw it just before finding neverland), is actually the original founder of my company (Hughes Software Systems). He found the General Motors, under which then lied Hughes Eleectronics, Hughes Network systems and Hughes Software Systems. Now, that is one nugget of info that made me proud ;)

[Listening to: Voodoo - Godsmack - (0:-1)]

Gmail....

2005-02-04T14:10:00.000+05:30

It all started one fine day(or rather night) when I opened my blogger account and saw a little box on the right hand side...
The box said that I was one of the chosen ones (remindes me of Neo) to get the highly coveted "Gmail" account...
Ironically, I didn't know at the time what a gmail account meant. All I knew about this gmail was that I had seen that a few of the mail IDs, in the mails that I received, ended in "gmail.com".
Anyways I clicked on it and was amazed to find out about the 1 GB space being offered. That was quite a shock considering that I had spent a large part of my cyber life in a situation where a 6 MB account at yahoo was a lot and hotmail with 2 MB was okay. 15 MB at softhome gave me a feeling of "whoppingly" (ok ok, I dont know if that is even a proper word) large space....
After I was able to overcome the initial shock, I registered and began a journey that has only got better so far for me in the world of e-mail....
At that time, having a gmail account was a matter of respect and pride.
Sites sprung up everywhere to trade gmail accounts. Even I received many offers.
One guy offered to give up his US $150 worth of Gamespy+Fileplanet+IGN account in return of a gmail invite. The euphoria was such.
I love u gmail....ummmmmah...:)
And My dear gmail, I think u r now mature enuff to come out of the beta and move on to the final release. And I think u r on the path cuz yesterday only u bumped up the 6 invites lying unused in my account to 50.....So, my dear lets see u in the full flow....Just waiting for u to bloom out and blossom further.....

PS: Yeah, I know everyone of u must be having a gmail account by now. Who doesn't??? But still, if there's any soul out there, bereft of this lovely cyber partner, just ping me to get onto the ride....:)

[Listening to: Deep Purple - deep purple - stormbringer - Deep Purple - (4:04)]

Indian flag reaches F1 circuit

2005-02-01T14:28:00.000+05:30

"About time" is the general feeling right now all around as news pours in about the Jordan offer to our very own Narain Karthikeyan to be their number 1 driver.
The guy has already test driven for a lot of teams (vis. a vis Jordan, Jaguar and Minardi). I felt a lot for him when he was offered a drive by Minardi but he coudn't raise enough money as asked by Minardi. He missed the chance to break onto the F1 circuit by a whisker. But it seems God has much better plans for him cuz unarguably, starting with Jordan means much better prospects for Karthikeyan. Jordan might not be a front runner but it is still a much better platform as compared to Minardi, who are happy to just finish the races, let alone fancying any chances of winning some points. This also means that more and more Indians will be exposed to F1 now, and better prospects for the proposed Hyderabad Grand Prix.

So, herez wishing luck to Narain and hoping that he is the one to fill the shoes of Michael as and when he leaves.....

PS: Next one month is surely going to be too hard to pass for me now waiting for that first glimpse of an Indian driving in a grand prix

[Listening to: Motor head - 099 - Motor head - (4:37)]

Tests and quizzes....sigh....

2005-01-31T15:31:00.000+05:30

And my quest for finding some sort of a semblance of a reason behind the pointless tests goes on....

[Listening to: A Piece of Liquid - Joe Satriani - Crystal Planet (3:03)]

Happy Republic Day (albeit belated)

2005-01-27T10:46:00.000+05:30

Got this in mail:

"An amendment to a motion may be amended, but
an amendment to an amendment to a motion may not
be amended. However, a substitute for an amendment
to and amendment to a motion may be adopted and
the substitute may be amended."
-- The Montana legislature's contribution to the English language.

AfterThought:
The law came to force today.. much to the misery of written and spoken language, and all her initiates!

[Listening to: genocide - JUDAS PRIEST - unleashed in the east (0:-1)]

Miracleman or just another conman??

2005-01-24T16:18:00.000+05:30

Benny Hinn came to India. Some moved rhythmatically to his tunes and prayers, while many others moved to get him out of the country...
Hinn came, put up a hell of a show, punctuated by the usual "I got healed" testimonials and went out, his pockets heavier by another few millions. People thronged the Hinn show, with genuine faith, and out of curiosity what the furore was all about. Hinn, the miracle healer, supposedly healed many there and then. The healed ones, then being invited on the stage to recount their experience. But why wasn't there any place for the ones that didn't get healed. They were told that they "weren't ready" yet.
Human mind is a wonderful thing.
It has the power to heal the body all on faith itself. Even a pouch of sugar taken on faith works wonders. Is Benny Hinn that pouch of sugar??
It also has the power to make u "believe" that u r healed even though u r not. Is Benny Hinn that "make believer"?? Sometimes, people testify that they got healed just by feeling "something". Like feeling a "warmth" inside them. Infact, just a quick search on google will tell u about news reports of hundreds of such incidents where people have "felt" being healed but are not really healed. And there are incidents where the on-spot doctors have given false reports of the healings having taken place.
The famed healing of "Evander holyfield" that is paraded around by hinn every now and then was not a healing after all as it came out later. Holyfield himself says that there wasn't even anything to heal about his heart, so there is no chance of a healing taking place.
And yes, one's own personnel interspersed among the crowd isn't out of the consideration too.
This is why I'm sceptical of such healers. Why do they claim something if only 100 people out of crowd of 10000 get healed. That makes it just a 1% success rate(even if we consider that all of them really got healed). What makes them (and the followers) assume that they did it.
Atleast, we thinking individuals shouldn't give in to this kind of insane drama....

[Listening to: Aerosmith - 032 - Aerosmith - (0:-1)]

My birthday

2005-01-20T12:36:00.000+05:30

Hey Guys, today is my birthday and guess what my orkut fortune says:
Today's fortune:
You are next in line for promotion in your firm.
:)

Kudos to the Indian judiciary

2005-01-18T10:08:00.000+05:30

Finally, an act that proves that justice is still alive....
Rahul and Amit awarded life sentences. NEWS
Rahul and Amit, who? Rahul and Amit, the prime accused in the MAMC rape case. In the words of justice Chander Shekhar
“Murder destroys the physical frame of the victim. But a rapist degrades the soul of a helpless female, in consequence whereupon the victim suffers and dies everyday. The convicts have been held guilty of committing gangrape on an unmarried helpless girl who was a medical student. Such act of bestiality deserves stringent punishment. They do not deserve any mercy and have to be given exemplary punishment so that it acts as a deterrent to others also.”
The verdict might have taken two years to come but it came nevertheless and in quite appropriate proportions too. Some people might have said that those sickening criminals should have been hanged instead, but I say that this is a worse punishment for them. They'll live out their entire life, burdened with guilt, enduring the rigours of the prison, and repenting over the henious act they committed. Yeah, a death sentence would have been like an easy acquittal.
I hope that this verdict results in lesser Rahuls and Amits.....

2005-01-14T14:59:00.000+05:30

I think all of us can relate to the predicament of asok (the one with the paper in his hand)

[Listening to: Jesus Of Suburbia - Green Day - American Idiot-RETAIL (9:08)]

A new dimension to racism??(update)

2005-01-13T12:01:00.000+05:30

Yesterday I read it in the newspaper and today I heard this clip on net http://www.edrants.com/_mp3/Power99_Call_to_India.mp3.
This is the infamous call made by a radio jockey in US to a call center in India. Read about it here.
This is a post that was made on our internal newsgroup:
---------
Hello All

We all know that lots of calls are outsourced to India by majoy MNC in US. Here is a link to audio clip which is from theradio jockeys Star and Buc Wild's show.

http://www.edrants.com/_mp3/Power99_Call_to_India.mp3

There is apparently a campaign against suchoutsourcing and some people are encouraging others to spend 20 min of time of the day to give such kind of callsto thecall centers inIndia and thwart such initiatives by MNC's.

--------
I ask what is this?
Is the whites v/s non-whites rearing its head again?
Am too stumped at this stupid outburst of hate to comment anything more. Please take a look at the clip and just ponder over whats happening....

Update: One of my colleagues wrote a mail to the GM of WUSL-FM regarding the matter. Here is the transcript of the mail and the reply:

Hi Sir,
> I would like to say something in context of recent Controversy that
> is erupted on abusing Indian
> call center worker by your RJ
> Through I do know that outsource wave is let to resentment in
> US for the same. We all know,
> per dollar saved on outsource ultimately help developed world only to
> focus their resource on advance
> Technology. It is different matter , the cycle of change takes time. If
> today it is flip flop based computers
> Tomorrow it can be nano-technology based machines that will help making
> more MNCs from US .
> Making this outsource resentment as laughing matter
> /Abusing lady by your man
> is highly regrettable matter. I am sure taking feeling of large population
> feelings. You will do the needful to
> not to repeat such act again. Better Mr Troi Torain make public apology to
> the lady in question. That will be
> gentle-man act on his part.
>
> Regards
>
> Gagandeep

Reply:
Dear Gagandeep:
Thank you for your email, i wanted to response quickly as your email popped up
as I was checking my inbox this morning.
Please accept my apology for the use of the language you referenced in your
email.

All of us at WUSL-FM do not condone the use of offensive language in any form,
on or off-air. This situation has been discussed with the people in question,
the on-air hosts have apologized and been suspended, and I am confident nothing
of this nature will happen again, so I do feel the level of action taken is
warranted. I have also reprimanded the staff and reminded them that posting
such material on our station's Web site is not acceptable and will not happen
again. I sincerely regret any discomfort this may have caused you or any
friends and family. WUSL-FM (POWER-99), for many years, has been synonymous
with being a helpful resource for our listeners and offering a great radio
station to listen to, and my goal is to continue to build on that. Again I
apologize to you personally for this and I understand your point of view.
Gagandeep, I do appreciate your taking the time to let me know your thoughts
and I hope you have a wonderful day.

Richard Lewis
RVP & Market Manager
Philadelphia, PA

Apple launches iPod Shuffle

2005-01-13T10:40:00.000+05:30

It may be smaller than a pack of gum, but this baby packs in a lot of punch.At less than 150$ (about 6500 IRS), it doubles as one of the most amazing MP3 payers in the world and also as a 1 GB USB drive. A great deal all in all.
Just take a look at some of the features:

weighs only .78 of an ounce

Run, jump or shimmy down to skip-free playback

Enjoy up to 12 hours of continuous playback

Play MP3, AAC and audiobooks

All u guys in love with technology and music, go get it.

PS: The apple site lists a warning/suggestion on its page which goes like this:

Music capacity is based on 4 minutes per song and 128Kbps AAC encoding

"Do not eat iPod shuffle

[Listening to: Shook me All Night Long - ACDC - Back in Black (3:30)]

Mogambo ab khush nahin hoga....

2005-01-12T19:34:00.000+05:30

Its a shock to hear that our dear old next door villain is no more.
The guy who single handedly revolutionalized the role of vilains in the Indian Cinema has left for the heavenly abode...
The best thing I liked about him was the intensity with which he performed, no matter what the scene demanded, monstrosity of the devil or the love of a father.
His eyes had such power that one look from was all that was needed to keep u riveted to the seats in anticipation of another great performance.
How can I forget the shivers that went down my spine as i saw him, as a little child, laugh in "Mr. India".
How can I forget the roles he played in DDLJ, Hero...
Indian Cinema has lost a true actor, a true star.....
I salute u "Mr. Mogambo" and I wish that your soul rests in ultimate peace and happiness.

The beginning of a new era...

2005-01-12T16:59:00.000+05:30

or is it the return of the Emperor???
Well, actually this is about the change of the catering service at my company's cafeteria. For too much time now, we all have been cribbing and cribbing about the quality of the food that the caterer dishes out to us. But to no avail, that is, until now.
Initially, the atmosphere was almost ecstatic when we heard that the caterer's being changed but there hung a pause of uncertainty as soon as the name of the new one was declared. This new one is the guy that was removed a couple of years earlier due to "poor quality" of food.
Am keeping my fingers crossed that the new caterer doesn't cross my stomach out.....
Pray for me, guys.
And yeah, may be put in a few words for my colleagues too...:-)

[Listening to: I Love Rock n Roll by Joan Jett - - I Love Rock n Roll by Joan Jett - (2:54)]

Food for thought...

2005-01-06T19:04:00.000+05:30

Just came across this somewhere...
Guys, just a small thing for you to ponder upon...
Many a man in love with a dimple makes the mistake of marrying the whole girl. --Stephen Leacock

[Listening to: She's A Rebel - Green Day - American Idiot-RETAIL (2:00)]

Whats in a name...

2005-01-06T13:34:00.000+05:30

"What's in a name?" Shakespeare said...
Well, there is a lot....
Since Rupert Murdoch's News Corp sold off their stake in my company Hughes Software Systems to Flextronics, this was inevitable. Yes, a change in the name of the company.
The board has approved a new name of Flextronics Software Systems (FSS). Although everything, including the complete management, remains the same but just a change in the name brings about a strange feeling in the hearts of the employees.
Till now, it was common matter to be instantly treated with respect whenever I told someone in the city that I worked for HSS. But whos gonna know whats FSS. It might be just another call center for all they know. I know I may be over reacting but it feels like I'm losing a big part of my identity.
Neways, one thing in this change is for good. Now I don't have to try to correct others' pronunciation. Till now, I've heard all sorts of variations by people in pronouncing "Hughes" ranging from "Heu-jes", "Hajes", and, believe it or not, even "huggies". Hopefully that won't be the case with Flextronics.

[Listening to: Iron Head - Rob Zombie - the sinister urge (4:10)]

saw...

2005-01-04T11:29:00.000+05:30

Yesterday, I saw saw.
You: Huh?Wadda ya mean?
Oh, I should have said, "Yesterday, I saw "saw"".
Still confused?
Well, how abt this. Yesterday I saw "saw", the movie.
Well, can't tell u how frustrated I am right now.
IMDB gives this a rating of 7.4/10.
Tagline of the movie: Every piece has a puzzle
So, I go on and spend 2 hours of my precious time in downloading this 1 GB of crap off the net.
The starting is OK types. One does get a bit curious.
But Mr. director has other plans.
Plans to fizzle out all ur curiosity. After "jhelo"ing this 1.5 hr monster, u take solace in the ending which has a mild surprising element. But thats all there is to this movie.
u r probably trying to find atleast a hint of a good reason behind making this post. Well, there is none.
The sadist in me is cheering me up as u r reading this, tearing apart ur hair in frustration...
So, thank you, sucker....
<Monstrous laughter>Ha ha ha ha...ha ha ha ha</Monstrous Laughter>
-----------
-----------
------------
PS:This is the part where u say exclaim:"HUH?Whatever!!" and move on...

[Listening to: Ball Tounge - KoRn - Self-Titled (0:-1)]

back....just a regular update

2005-01-03T12:19:00.000+05:30

hi guys...am back from the holidays....
didn't have that much fun as i had expected. more than half of the parties at chandigarh were cancelled. and major areas (like lake) were closed down.
neways, over the weekend had fun with my project team at the lodhi gardens followed by some "community" pool and bowling at essex farms. And yes, the kiddy bit was brought to the fore again when we all jumped into those bouncing cars game, shrieking and bouncing into each other. it was so much fun that we are already planning to have a kiddy party next weekend...
chalo thats all for now.
gotta see "saw". just downloaded it off the net. the ratings are quite good for the movie. will write a review soon.

[Listening to: The Reason - Hoobastank - The Reason (3:52)]

A simple wish for u...

2004-12-30T22:23:00.000+05:30

As the countdown begins (and I'm counting in the comfort of a razai at home :) ), the hearts are racing faster. Everyone will try to wish his dear ones as soon as the clock strikes 12. But I'll most probably forget (as I'm very bhulakkad) or I'll be partying in my dreams, the venue being that razai I talked about earlier, hence I wish u all a very happy and prosperous new year in advance.

:-)

EDIT: The wish I made above might be simple, but don't make the mistake of thinking about it as just another mundane set of bits and bytes, being streamed to your monitor (actually ur hard disk) by the impassive routers of the internet. The wordings might have been simple and so might have been the feeling behind it but the intensity it has, packs the punch to ward off even the strongest of evils that even think about coming near to u....
So, once again.... Happy New Year

going home....

2004-12-29T10:28:00.000+05:30

going home for a looooooooooooooooooooong weekend...... :-)

Tsunami........:-(

2004-12-27T16:19:00.000+05:30

I don't have a television at my place so didn't know about it until today morning. I woke up just like any other day. Went out to the balcony just like any other day. Picked up the paper just like any other day. But the day was most unlike any other day as soon as my eyes became accustomed to the gory scenes splashed all over the front page....
Shook my head three-four times to clear the cob webs. But the spinning didn't stop...
The headlines were screaming as if they were live hooters...
Tsunami claims over 5,500 lives in India
Over 14,000 killed in SE Asia
Lanka toll 4,857, still climbing
Just cudn't muster the courage to read the horrifying details.
My heart goes out to the hapless victims...and pleads and hopes that such an event of destruction never happens again, never.....
I hope I never get to read the word "tsunami" again, never......

Telecon with Parents

2004-12-23T10:18:00.000+05:30

Yeah, herez a sample of a typical telephonic converstation that takes place between a son who *was* ill a couple of days ago and his parents.
(Note: The son here is me)

Mom: Beta, ab kaisa hai?

Son: Mom, Ab bilkul thik hoon. Nothing to worry about.

Mom: Beta, teri awaaz to bahut dheere aa rahi hai. Tu to bahut kamzor lag raha hai...

Son: Arre nahin mom, bola na, I'm perfectly OK.

Mom: Khana to thik se kha raha hai na...

Son: Haan

Mom: Doodh pee raha hai na?

Son: Haan Mom

Mom: Dawai kha raha hai na?

Son: Haan Mom. I can take care of myself now. I know what things I've to do...

Mom: Haan beta I know that.

Son: Thnx

Mom: Vaise, garam kapde to pahanta hai na thik se. Bahar bahut thand hai...

Son: Moooooom....Not again....

(Dad chips in)
Dad: Ab thande paani se to nahin naha raha?
(I have a penchant for bathing in cold water actually and was doing the same until 21st of Decemeber)

Son: Nahin dad, i'm using warm water now.

Dad: Geyser lagwa liya?

Son: Nahin, I'm using a heating rod.

Dad: Heating rod is dangerous. U can get an electrical shock.

Son: Dad, I switch it off before touching the water.

Dad: Fir bhi beta, kabhi bhool gaye to?

Son: Nahin bhooloonga dad.

Dad: Nahin, I'm coming there to get a geyser installed.

......And after many more such dialogues I convince dad not to come down here.....

Yeah, I do feel irritated when they treat me as if I'm 5 year old. But simultaneously, I'm forced to think what if they hadn't done so. All this makes me feel so loved. Had it not been for the constant nagging by mom and dad, I'd have felt so lonely and left out.

Thank you Mom, Thank you Dad. I love u guys...... :-)

[Listening to: Dragula - Rob Zombie - Hellbilly Deluxe (0:-1)]

Been sick...

2004-12-22T18:01:00.000+05:30

Had to live out the whole day yesterday on the bed as I was down with fever...:(
Its really a sickening feeling (pun not intended) to just lay there doing nothing. And with the electricity playing cat and mouse with the sockets of the household, the maximum fun u can have is watching the thick sheet of fog get even thicker thru the window.
Neways, am glad that it lasted just one day and am back....:) :)

The world is saved.....once again....jus' like ol' times

2004-12-20T11:07:00.000+05:30

Yeah, the movie's great...Huh, what am I talking about???What else, dude, "The Incredibles". Went to the movie yesterday. First time to the new DT Mega Mall in DLF Phase 1. And guess what, I got 5th row tickets (from the back), on a Sunday evening, for the 5 o'clock show and that too when i bought the tickets at 3 PM. I mean, u can't get even a front row ticket at PVR or old DT cinemas at this time. Guess, it pays to go a little farther away from the buzzing malls road.

Neways, had a whale of a time, watching the movie, munching on popcorn (Hey Neels, u listenin'?? :P), and in general, laughing all the way. The laughter induced in me was enhanced by the dude sitting next to me with his girl. The guy laughed like he was just coming back after playing his role in a Nautanki. (The nautanki being "Ramlila" and the role being of Ravana.) And in the complete movie, he went on sipping his diet coke like he was gorgin on his madira. But despite the distractions, I managed to catch most of the movie....

Then I had an idea for the dinner. Was in a mood to try something new. One of my friends had suggested one "Aloo Posto" dish from "The Bengali Kitchen" at the Metropolitan mall. So, zoomed over to the place and ordered the same. The after effects were such that I'm glad that I've to "write" the blog and not dictate it. Yeah, u got it right, my throat has gone so bad that I can't utter even a single sentence without making the listeners run for cover from my thunderous cough.

Chalo, ek achhe weekend ke liye itna to seh hi sakte hain.......

The Irrationalities of Indian Police.....

2004-12-18T14:24:00.000+05:30

"Baazee.com CEO Arrested", screamed the front page of TOI today. I woke up to find this startling news which was punctuated with another smaller headline "Non Bailable Warrant Against the DPS boy".
It has been reasoned that the CEO was arrested cuz he was responsible for what was sold on his site (the MMS CD in this case). However, the police fails to understand that:
1. Trade worth lakhs of rupees is done thru baazee daily and it is quite difficult to track each and every transaction.
2. The CEO doesnt track any transaction, the hundreds of technicians involved, do.

So, why was the CEO arrested???
They say that it will set an example for other sites to take care in future...Example, my foot, I say.
What sort of example will be set when u arrest the CEO of a company which, from day 1, co-operated with the police to apprehend the culprits.
And is the destruction of a man' life and reputation (including the harrassment caused to his family), and that too for no apparent fault of his, worthy enough to "set an example".

And if this wasn't enough, the police have issued a non-bailable warrant against the boy. Why isn't there anything regarding the girl, I thought. And then I came upon an innocuously added line in the report "Police have also decided to question the girl who was filmed." That's all??? The boy is being hanged publicly while the girl goes scot free. Don't take it in any gender discrimination sense on my part but I'm just curious to know why is this preferential treatment being given to the second person who was as much involved in the incident.

The police are just searching for as many scape goats as they can so that they can close the case soon so as to save their face, or maybe even get a few accollades from the janta and the media.

In whole, I can only say what I'm "forced" to repeat every few months " Shame on the Indian Police..."

[Listening to: sacrifice - Creed - (4:58)]

1 TB mail account?????

2004-12-14T12:23:00.000+05:30

Came across this site today Hellacious Riders, which is supposedly giving away 1 TB of mail space (Actually they start at 100 GB and u can continue to use any amount of space even if u cross that limit).
I went over to the site, though I was suspicious about it from the very beginning, and what did I see:
1. Patchy Design
2. Quite old scripts for carrying out various tasks
3. Not much depth in the site

which leads me to believe that its not run by a big company. Now, lwts ask why wud anyone give away so much space. Even hellaciously big companies like M$ won't (even though companies of such stature are the only ones that can probably provide it)

This seems to me like one of those sites where u get some space when they start out but soon after either the space u have is reduced or worse, the site is no longer there when u log on one fine day to check ur email....

And by all means, it could also be an email phishing scam.

Neways, coming to my opinion, I won't use it cuz my gmail account is enough for me (I've used just about 150 MB so far). Will create another couple of gmail accounts for myself even if this space is filled up.

[Listening to: A Stranger - A Perfect Circle - Thirteenth Step (3:12)]

Movie: Ocean's 12

2004-12-13T20:46:00.000+05:30

Went to see Ocean'12 this Sunday. And have to say, this is the second time in recent time that I've felt that it was a sheer waste of money. And to think of it, I had to buy a Europa ticket, which is priced at 200 bucks against PVR's 150. So, there went my 200 down the drain.
The movie started off in a very solemn style. We thought that it must be the build up to a rousing storyline, ending with a goose-bumps wala climax. But all we got was a lousy storyline coupled with a sulane wala climax.
I have to say that the movie lived up to the old adage, " Sequels are just a waste of time and money. Don't ever fall into the sequel trap." (Okay, okay its not an old adage, I invented it)
The movie just goes on and on with silly sequences and then later tells the audience that actually something else had happened. Everyone seems to have a third eye to see what's coming.
Ocean's 12th person was julia roberts, who didn't have a role of more than 15 mins(putting together everything she did on the screen).
And to top it all, the heist that was pulled out by the 12 was of such a silly nature that we see everyday in Bollywood B-grade movies and that too with a huge outside help. Even the "supposed to be" thrilling break-in by their competitor gives u laughs instead of the chills.
My rating: *1/2 (out of 5 *'s. Deducted a 1/2 * cuz the director and producer clearly meant to just cash in on the first movie's success and there was no meaning to the story)
My advice: Better watch a "K" serial on star plus or zee. There u will get better laughs atleast.
Oh God, send in some nice movies, puhleeeeeeeeeeeeeez.

[Listening to: Paradise City - Guns N Roses - (6:46)]

Bird Watching...

2004-12-12T15:26:00.000+05:30

Well, this weekend we (read "the cubicle dwellers of HSS") decided to do some bird watching. No, guys, don't get it wrong. Not the bird watching we do every evening at the malls and in the market place but the "real" bird watching. Decided to drive over to the nearby Sultanpur bird sanctuary. For a change, had to wake up so early (8:30 AM to be exact, and yes, don't be surprised, that is indeed early for me).

But when we reached sultanpur, it had everything. Well, except the birds!!!

The promised lake of the much hyped "Supltanpur lake and bird sanctuary" turned out to be a large muddy pond of sorts. There we saw our first and only creature that we don't see normally, "neelguy" (Dunno what they call it in english). But it wasn't so pleasant as the "supposedly" blue cows were cows after all and then they have that old Prem Chopra saying "Bhains poonchh uthaygi to gana nahin gayegi, gobar hi karegi". I'm sure u can now do the rest of the mathematics urself and see where 2+2 leads to ;).

Neways, somehow after managing to jhelo all that bird watching, we came out to have lunch at the only restaurant there (run by the Haryana tourism). And the "nice hospitality" showed by them lead us to eating a Rs. 118/- per plate meal which wasn't even worth Rs 18/-.

But the trip wasn't a total failure. We decided to make good use of the situation to let our hair down. We played all those kiddish games like dodgeball, frisbee throwing, et al, and I'll be only understating it if I say that we had a lot of fun. It feels good to be a kid again. :-)

The journey (to and fro) was, as usual, punctuated by antakshari session in the bus, with me mouthing hindi filmi songs with such ease that it left me wondering about the effects of passive listening cuz I cudn't understand where from were the lyrics coming to my mind cuz I never indulge in this genre of music.

All in all, the trip was successful (though in a different way) and yeah, did i mention that i got to know so many new people...:-)

Quake III GOD, that I am :)

2004-12-08T20:25:00.000+05:30

Just finished another Quake III multiplayer session in my office. And my 1 week flawless winning streak continues.....
Earlier we were majorly having sessions of UT and UT 2004. I used to win there too but comparatively the frequency was very low. Had some tough competition from Kiran and Utkarsh. But when it comes to Quake III, I think its my old attachment with the game that makes me so good at it. Kiran (maverick as he calls himself in the game) is really searching for a breakthrough nowadays....
Lets hope the streak coninues....
May the best fragger win

[Listening to: Ghost behind my eyes - Ozzy Osburne - (5:11)]

Doodle Board

2004-12-08T13:42:00.000+05:30

Had been delaying the addition of a doodle board to my blog (out of sheer laziness. Getting myself to do that 2 minutes of work required a looooot of self-motivation)
Neways, here it is now on the blog.....

[Listening to: Feel So Numb - Rob Zombie - SINISTER URGE (0:-1)]

Brrrrrrrrrrrr

2004-12-07T13:31:00.000+05:30

The cold weather is on the rise, the mercury on decline,
My poor soul, freezing to death, but can't even whine.
Have to wake up early morning to reach work,
to write these rhymless verses like a dork.

Yaaron, ye sardi thodi kam karvao bhai...... :-)

[Listening to: School of Rock - School of Rock - (4:12)]

Resident Evil: Apocalypse and last week

2004-12-06T11:43:00.000+05:30

Last week was pretty good. Got to see the movie Resident Evil: Apocalypse and that too for free.
Actually my room mate has got another job offer (one that pays almost double my current salary). So he took me and our other flat mates (a total of four of us) to the movie.
The movie was quite good, the graphics and the sounds enriching our senses of seeing and hearing.
What the movie lacks in the storyline, it more than makes up in stunning action (coupled with the fact that most of it is performed by two beautiful ladies).
In all, it makes for an enjoyable 70 mins as it is bound to keep u upto the edge of ur seats for the whole of the duration.
My rating: *** (out of 5)
My advice: This is a movie to be seen only in theaters. Dont go to that DVD store, instead drive to the nearest theater.

That's not all, after the movie we went to Pizza hut where my room mate than treated us all to a "whatever u wnat" treat. Budget: No limit. :-)

Had a hearty dinner. Gorging on Stuffed Crust Pizzas and soda.

Celebrations apart, I'm going to miss the guy. He's one hell of a fun-loving dude. And I like the humble attitude. I can say anything to him and he sitll doesn't feel bad. (BTW he just wrote a great testimonial for me in Orkut :-) ).
So, Bhols, just want u to know wherever u remain, u'll always be in our hearts. Bbye and Best of luck for the future.

[Listening to: Bad Religion - Godsmack - Godsmack (3:40)]

We, the Explorers

2004-12-01T10:20:00.001+05:30

From "The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes"

Explorers are we, intrepid and bold,
Out in the wild, amongst wonders untold
.Equipped with our wits, a map and a snack,
We're searching for fun and we're on the right track.

I just love this comic strip. Calvin may sound so ridiculous to most but what I like about this puny character is the vivid imagination he has for a little boy and the fact that he lacks any sort of inhibitions. Reality of the world doesn't stop him from thinking and infact, experiencing things that we, adults, wudn't even dare to think about.

Oh, how I want to be a child again. Not knowing that Santa is not real was so much fun. Not knowing that wearing "action" shoes can't make me climb up the cealing was so thrilling. Not knowing that blowing a big bubble out of a bubble gum can't mek me fly was so exciting. Not knowing that there is no Peter Pan to take me to Never Never Land was so enchanting.

How I wish I could meet Peter Pan, so I could say" So Mr. Pan, (or is it Master Pan??) please turn back the process of aging and make me a child again. So that I don't have to think about the rationality (or the lack of it) of anything. So that I don't have to weigh the pros and cons of every move I make. So that I don't have to think before I speak. So that I can believe anything I want to without ever needing any proof for it....".

Calling Peter, if he's out there...
Wait, I still have a small feeling in some little corner that ther emight actually be a Peter Pan out there. May be, the child inside me isn't completely dead yet.

:-)

[Listening to: Feeling This - blink-182 - blink-182 (2:51)]

Movie: Hulchul

2004-11-29T11:23:00.000+05:30

Went to see the movie Hulchul this Sunday with Divya. Didn't have too much expectations fromt the movie as I'm not a hindi movie buff but still knowing that it was a piece of Priyadarshan had its effect and I expected it to be much better than it later turned out.
The movie hits on the ultimate formula of hindi movies, vis a vis:
i) Khandani Dushmani
ii) Ladka ladki mein bhi dushmani in the beginning
iii) Then they fall in love
iv) Family opposes
v) Finally they agree after a lot of fighting
vi) and they live happily ever after

Rubbing salt to the injuries was the mindless dialogues that happened. And also the unusual coincidences that everyone knew where to find anyone else at any poi8nt of time and he/she reaches there in an instant (be it the midlle of the road, a mansion, college, hostel) or anywhere else to have a dialogue.

The much promised comedy was missing. Just abt a total of 20-30 mins of comedy in the total movie and that too of a childish sort. You laugh more at the director's antics rather than the actors.
In my case I forced myself to laugh at whatever i could remotely connect to comedy, after all i had paid 150 rs per ticket out of my hard earned money (well, soft earned as am a software engineer ;-))

If comedy was missing, this didn't mean the movie was emotional. Actually every sort of emotion was missing. Acting looked like over-avcting. Especially of the MAa Lakshmi of anpara village.

Songs were meaninglessly crammed in, lacked good lyrics, music, choreography. In short, it was as good as not being there. The only song that might enthuse some ppl (the rickshaw wallas and auto wallas, that is) the item song " lut gayi lanka ravan ki".

In all, my opinion about the movie: worthless.
my rating: ** (out of 5 *'s)
My advice: Instead of going for this movie, u'll be better off having an extended nap in ur bed at home.

[Listening to: American Idiot - Green Day - American Idiot (Internet CDS) (3:00)]

Me and My Bike

2004-11-26T17:25:00.000+05:30

Me and My Bike
Originally uploaded by shantzg001.

w.bloggar

2004-11-26T17:15:00.000+05:30

Hmmm. Kewl tool. Just got hold of this tool w.bloggar for posting on blogs. Kewl features, nice looks. Integrates with almost any blogging service/tool out there.
My recommendation granted. w.bloggar website

For more pics

2004-11-10T13:19:00.000+05:30

For more pics, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/shantz/

"Me, dancing away"

2004-11-10T12:20:00.000+05:30

"Me, dancing away"
Originally uploaded by shantzg001.

"Me, checking the ID of a lowly earthling"

2004-11-10T12:18:00.000+05:30

"Me, checking the ID of a *lowly* earthling"
Originally uploaded by shantzg001.

"Me, with my fellow Dwarpal"

2004-11-10T12:17:00.000+05:30

"Me, with my fellow Dwarpal"
Originally uploaded by shantzg001.

Diwali Bash at HSS

2004-11-10T11:31:00.000+05:30

Diwali Festivities at my office are over (Diwali is celebrated at my office a week earlier than the real date cuz then most of the people have gone home).Well, the celebrations started on 1st of november and continued till 5th Nov. So it was a whole week of fun and frolic.
The celebrations were named Phooljhadi 2004.
The week began with daily events like crossword, who dares wins, etc. Good fun games there. Especially the dare to roam around the office dressed like Superman. Alas, no one came forward to try it.
Then we had a quiz contest, in which I also took part. My team outshined all the others in the prelims. We were the top team amongst the finalists and that too by a huge margin. But then, our luck ran out, and we failed miserably in the final round, finishing last. :(. Our claim to fame lasted for a very short time, I think.
We had a talent show, which had to be stretched over two days, from the initially planned single day event, due to the large no. of entries. With everyone vying to show their talent, rangin from poems, mono acts, songs, instrumentals, and all, we had a fun time cheering them on (read hooting ;-) ).
Then came the antakshari, one of the major events. It was an interplot event. (My company has offices on 9 plots in the same area). The scenario was very competitive, with participants on their toes for each and every second of the game. The audience was going wild cheering for their respective plots. My plot led the game till the end but due to a small mistake (both on the part of our team as well as the compere), we had to settle for the second.
The last event was Plot Decoration Contest. Again, an interplot event. We collected about Rs. 40,000 for this. The theme was ramayana. It took us two days to deck up our plot as "Treta Yuga". We showed the ground floor as Ayodhya, the land of Rama and the first floor as Lanka, the city of Ravana.
All the small events of ramayana were also depicted with our cubicles being made to look like jungles, rivers and all. (Will post a few pics soon).
We made a person Rama, there were two women depicting Sita (one in Ayodhya and one in Ashok Vatika) and tthe best part was Ravana. I became the dwarpal(the door keeper to the treta yuga) and the fun part part was when I asked our CEO (who was judging the decoration) for his ID card before he could enter the plot. :). Guess wht he replied.He lifted his glasses and said, "Is this ID okay?".
We won the hearts of the whole of the HSS (my company) with the efforts we had put in.
Fianlly, we had the Diwali Bash at a nearby place where my company's new campus is being built. It started off with excellent performances in terms of skits, dances, and songs. We also had a lazer show that left us wanting for more and more of it. It was just stunningly amazing.
To top it all, I just got a Philips Food Processor as a Diwali Gift from the company. So, in all it was my best diwali ever, and that too even before Diwali has come :)

Diwali

2004-11-05T00:10:00.000+05:30

Its midnight and I'm still in my office decorating my deptt for diwali. This is so much fun. More details later. Gotta catch up on that rangoli now.

India's disastrous performance

2004-10-29T15:53:00.000+05:30

These two posts appeared on my company's internal newsgroup soon after India's disastrous performance against Australia:
---Post 1---

hurreeey australia ko bevkuf banaya
australia ke betsmen ne itnmi mahenat karke run banaye.
jabki zarurat hi nahi thi.
wah wah !!!
--------

---Post 2---

BCCI CRICKET TEAM recruitment
Calling Guys For Place in the INDIAN Cricket Team ( Oooopsss BCCI CRICKET TEAM)
Experience --- 1+ yrs in playing Gully Cricket
No interviews … direct recruitment…
FCFS basis …. HURRRYYY RUSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
desired skills:
batsmen should have expertise in managing run outs out of nowhere
fielders shud be sure to fumble when catches come along and gv as ugly a dive as possible
if applying for the post of skipper, shud have gud vocab to gv bold and outrageous comments to match other teams' mind games
if applying for WK, shud be able to manage let everythin pass between the legs and score consistent 40's in all matches
bowlers shud be capable of maintaining regularly irregular line n length
if applyin for the post of GOD, shud be sufferin from tennis elbow so as to b able to furnish proper excuses for non performing
if applyin for WALL, shud be able to struggle shamelessly on "non-foreign" pitches
if applying for VERY VERY SPECIAL post, shud be able to struggle against spin and play as far from the body as possible
if applying for OPENER, shud hv an inspiring "maa"
finally bowlers shud be able to score runs and batsmen shud get wickets regularly......
----

For the impuslive forwarders

2004-10-28T14:21:00.000+05:30

Hi
This post is being made to address the species (as christened by me) " Impulsive Forwarders ".
Here it goes.
If you believe to this rather abundant species, then before mailing me, please note that:
1) I DO NOT want a free phone from Samsung, Nokia or Motorola
2) I DO NOT want any share in Bill Gates' money
3) I DO NOT want to protect my computer against any "newly discovered" and "covered by CNBC and CNN" virus that is going to hit me through my email with a "loving" subject and blow my hard disk, processor and everything.
4) And yes, I DO NOT want to help that blood cancer affected 10 yr old girl by sending his plea to more people (For GOD's sake, tell me how come she's still 10 yrs old though i've received her plea for past 9 yrs now)

Tagore and mails making him turn in his grave

2004-10-28T14:09:00.000+05:30

Recently I received a mail in my account. It was one of those forwarded mails that everyone just keeps on passing for the "good" of humanity (in their opinion, that is). It related to how our National Anthem was not actually the praise of nation but it was abt the king of Britain (whor ruled over the Indian Colony). It took me by shock that people could believe all that without even verifying anything that was written in the mail. And they were not just believing it they were leading several other morons to believe the same by fwding the mail.
Here's the mail and my reply to it.
---The original mail that I received----

hi guys,
Please note that I do not mean to insult the national anthem by any means through what is written below. But it certainly provides some food for thought.
Please do read it. Every word of it.
I don't know how authentic this article is, but it made me think seriously. Are 100 crore Indians so dumb they will be singing praise of King Geroge for 55 years even after Independence, there is something seriously wrong somewhere...

A thought for our (Indian) National Anthem!
How well do we know about it?
I have always wondered who is the "adhinayak" and "bharat bhagya
vidhata", whose praise we are singing. I thought may be God! Our current National Anthem "Jana Gana Mana" is sung throughout the country. Did you know the following about &nbs! p;our national anthem?
I didn't. To begin with, India's national anthem, Jana Gana Mana Adhinayaka, was written by Rabindranath Tagore in honor of King George V and the Queen of England when they visited India in 1919. To honor their visit Pundit Motilal Nehru had the five stanzas included, which are in praise of the King and Queen.
(And most of us think it is in the praise of our great motherland!!!) In the original Bengali verses only those provinces that were under British rule, i.e. Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat, Maratha ...etc. were mentioned. None of the princely states were recognized which are integral parts of India now - Kashmir, Rajasthan, Andhra, Mysore, Tamilnadu (old Karnatak) or Kerala. N! either the Indian Ocean nor the Arabian Sea were included, since they were directly under Portuguese rule at that time. The Jana Gana Mana Adhinayaka implies that King George V is the lord of the masses and Bharata Bhagya
Vidhata is "the bestower of good fortune". Following is a translation of the five stanzas, which glorify the King:
1st stanza (Indian) People wake up remembering your good name and ask for your blessings and they sing your glories.

2nd stanza Around your throne people of all religions come and give their love and anxiously wait to hear your kind words.
3rd stanza Praise to the King for being the charioteer, for leading the ancient travelers beyond misery.
4th stanza Drowned in the deep ignorance and suffering, poverty stricken, unconscious country? waiting for the wink of your eye and yo! ur mother's (the Queen's) true protection.
5th stanza In your compassionate plans, the sleeping Bharat(India) will wake up. We bow down to your feet O' Queen, and glory to Rajeshwara (the King).

This whole poem does not indicate any love for the Motherland but depicts a bleak picture. When you sing Jana Gana Mana Adhinayaka, whom are you glorifying?
Certainly not the Motherland. Is it God who is praised here? The poem does not indicate that. It is time now to understand the original purpose and the implication of this, rather than blindly singing as has been done the past fifty years. Nehru chose the present National anthem as opposed to Vande Mataram because he thought that it would be easier for the band to play. It was an absurd reason. But today, for that matter, ba! nds have advanced in technical skills and they can very well play any music. So they can as well play Vande
Mataram, which is a far better composition in praise of our dear Motherland -India.
Wake up, it's high time! Vande Mataram should be our National Anthem. Forward and spread this truth to as many as people you can.
Don't forget to do it.....
----
---My first reply----

Ok, Actuallly, ahem......
Well, before forwarding this mail dutifully (as asked in the end of the mail), did u ever try to find out if the facts were true.
It clearly says "I don't know how authentic this article is," but even then that guy and then u just blindly forwarded it. If u say "I do not mean to insult the national anthem by any means through what is written below." then i'd say that it is sheer lying cuz if one has even a bit of respect for his/her national anthem he/she wud not forward such a mail without checking out the facts.
Everything in the article is based on an stupid hypothesis.
If the mail mentions "Is it God who is praised here? The poem does not indicate that." then it doesn't even mention that it was king George.
The 1919 provinces of 'British India' did not include Sindh, Gujarat or Orissa. At that time, the first two were part of the province called the Bombay Presidency, and Orissa of the Bengal Presidency. Sindh and Orissa were created as provinces only in 1937, and Gujarat and Maharashtra - the province of the Mahrattas - were created only in 1961 - after Independence!
The vast majority of the provinces of 'British India' are not recorded by the anthem: Baluchistan, The North-West Frontier Province, The United Provinces of Agra & Oudh, the Province of Central India and Berar, the Bombay Presidency and the Madras Presidency, the provinces of Upper and Lower Burma, the province of Ceylon, etc.
And the portuguese DID NOT control the Arabian sea and Indian Ocean in 1919, they lost this centuries ago.
SO, please refrain from just mindlessly forwarding such things. Atleast the mails which attack ur nation or its integrity.
Regards
Shantanu
-----
---The Sender's reply to my reply---

well....
before saying anything, did u verify the facts or just went onto replying for the sake of replying,
i said it's a food for thought,
it needs some thinking before inferring and replying,
i don't forward mails for the sake of forwarding,
every word written in the mail is true to my knowledge,

Rabindra Nath Tagore was in no way a supporter of patriotism,
He had

reservations about patriotism, which, he argued, can limit both the freedom to engage ideas from outside "narrow domestic walls" and the freedom also to support the causes of people in other countries.
y i'm tellin u this b'coz he did never tried to make india separate from the other parts of the world , his vision of this land was a part of the world and it should not be left behind , or cut off for that reason ( patriotism) from the rest of the world, and one thing,
at that time in the eyes of many leaders of the day, loyalty to the nation and loyalty to the Emperor were identical. King George V had proclaimed on Dec.12 the annulment of the partition of Bengal. There was therefore nothing unnatural or extraordinary in a Bengali poet, Rabindranath Tagore, composing or singing a song in praise of the Emperor out of gratitude.
want to see what the newspapers of that time said:
The news papers reports had the following comments on Janaganamana:
"when the proceedings of the Indian National Congress began on Wednesday 27th December 1911, a Bengali song in welcome of the Emperor was sung. A resolution welcoming the Emperor and Empress was also adopted unanomously." (Indian, Dec. 29, 1911)"
"The Bengali poet Babu Rabindranath Tagore sang a song composed by him specially to welcome the Emperor." (Statesman, Dec.28, 1911)
"The proceedings began with the singing by Babu Rabindranath Tagore of a song specially composed by him in honour of the Emperor." (Englishman, Dec.28).

------
---My Final Reply----

Well my frnd,
That is what I want to infer. Food for thought is not "processed" through newspaper reports but hard facts. Media can write anything they want.(Like with one failure they can just lambast a cricketer over his bad technique and then write another full page report on his deftness and skill just 2 days after when he makes a ton) How do they know for sure what was the purport of the song. BTW, did u notice that all the newspapers quoted were run by the english.
>Rabindra Nath Tagore was in no way a supporter of patriotism,
And just where did u find out that Tagore wasn't patriotic. In fact, Tagore was a proud and ardent partiot.
He renounced his knighthood in 1919 as a protest against the Amritsar(jalian wala baag) affair in a letter to the Viceroy which is among the great documents of freedom.
In 1939,Tagore asked Gandhiji to lift the ban on Subhash Chandra Bose and have his cooperation cordially invited in the "supreme interest of national unity". What do u call that???
And even if he wasn't patriotic then why the hell was " his loyalty towards nation = loyalty towards king" cuz as per ur words he didn;t have any loyalty towards the nation at all. So if LHS doesn't exist then how come RHS does???
If he had reservations abt patriotism and wanted that lands shud not be separate, then why did he write "Amar Sonar Bangla" (which is now the national anthem of bangladesh)
Look at this excerpt from the official website of nobel prize (nobelprize.org):

For Tagore it was of the highest importance that people be able to live, and reason, in freedom. His attitudes toward politics and culture, nationalism and internationalism, tradition and modernity, can all be seen in the light of this belief.11 Nothing, perhaps, expresses his values as clearly as a poem in Gitanjali:
Where the mind is without fear
and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been
broken up into fragments
by narrow domestic walls; ...
Where the clear stream of reason
has not lost its way into the
dreary desert sand of dead habit; ...
Into that heaven of freedom,
my Father, let my country awake.
Rabindranath's qualified support for nationalist movements—and his opposition to the unfreedom of alien rule—came from this commitment. So did his reservations about patriotism, which, he argued, can limit both the freedom to engage ideas from outside "narrow domestic walls" and the freedom also to support the causes of people in other countries. Rabindranath's passion for freedom underlies his firm opposition to unreasoned traditionalism, which makes one a prisoner of the past (lost, as he put it, in "the dreary desert sand of dead habit").

So, we can clearly see that waht his reaservations about patritism were. He di want India to be freed. He was the most avid supporter of freedom but what he didnt want was that one is chained in traditions and that u r not open to outside world. But it didnt mean that he wanted to be ruled over by someone.
Again from the site, I quote this:

Tagore was predictably hostile to communal sectarianism (such as a Hindu orthodoxy that was antagonistic to Islamic, Christian, or Sikh perspectives). But even nationalism seemed to him to be suspect. Isaiah Berlin summarizes well Tagore's complex position on Indian nationalism:
Tagore stood fast on the narrow causeway, and did not betray his vision of the difficult truth. He condemned romantic overattachment to the past, what he called the tying of India to the past "like a sacrificial goat tethered to a post," and he accused men who displayed it - they seemed to him reactionary - of not knowing what true political freedom was, pointing out that it is from English thinkers and English books that the very notion of political liberty was derived. But against cosmopolitanism he maintained that the English stood on their own feet, and so must Indians. In 1917 he once more denounced the danger of ‘leaving everything to the unalterable will of the Master,' be he brahmin or Englishman.21

Tagore was strongly involved in protest against the Raj on a number of occasions, most notably in the movement to resist the 1905 British proposal to split in two the province of Bengal, a plan that was eventually withdrawn following popular resistance.

Tagore's criticism of the British administration of India was consistently strong and grew more intense over the years. This point is often missed, since he made a special effort to dissociate his criticism of the Raj from any denigration of British—or Western—people and culture.

He wanted to assert India's right to be independent without denying the importance of what India could learn—freely and profitably—from abroad.
---
So, I can say that people just read one or two lines about him, quote them out of context and then try to make others believe. That line abt narrow walls, if u read it in this complete context now as given above, u'll understand that it meant that India and Indians should be free from aoutcracy of british rule but they shouldn't have reservations about accepting the good things in their philosophy.
In the end, I'd say that all u got is a few newspaper reports (infact opinions of english writers) and one quote , presented out of context.
On the other hand, what I offer u is hard facts.
Its for u to decide what u want to believe.
- Blindly accept someone's opinion
- or see the facts and decide for yourself
Regards
Shantanu
------------------------------

Actually the point is that what the mail wanted to tell might actually be true (though I whole heartedly believe its not and even if it was then the song might have meant something else that time but now it means something completely different to all of the Indians and that is what matters), but still one should not believe anything without verifying anything. And nowadays every mail that one receives listing one hoax or the other is sent to the complete address book by almost half the population using internet.
Think about it.

Back from Home

2004-10-26T09:29:00.000+05:30

Am back from home. It was a nice trip. Met so many frnds. Also visited my college. (PEC - Punjab Engineering College). It was so nostalgic.
Drove past the verka booth where I used to hang out so often. Went to the cafeteria. aah.
And yes, a visit to the girls' hostel was a must too ;).
Now that I'm back, it feels so odd to get back into the daily grind of mindless coding.
Lets see when I'm able to head back to home again.

The Zincer Song

2004-10-19T15:21:00.000+05:30

The Zincer Song
(Courtesy: The original zincer aka Rahul Jindal aka Zombielabs)Here's to the crazy ones...
The Misfits,
The Rebels,
The Troublemakers,
The Round pegs in the Square Holes,
The Ones who see things Differently,
They're not fond of rules and have no respect for the status quo,
You can quote them,
Disagree with them,
Glorify or Vilify them,
About the only thing you can't do is ignore them,
Because they change things,
They push the human race forward,
And while some may see them as the crazy ones,
We see genius,
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world,
Are the ones who do.

(Yes, I'm proud to be a zincer http://groups.yahoo.com/group/zincers )

Copy Protection

2004-10-18T18:17:00.000+05:30

Here is a story courtesy Google Blogoscoped that tells us about the mindnumbing effects of the MPAA and RIAA.
In fact, they are hurting themsleves in the process too.
------
Copy Protection
Here's the story of a boy who was mildly angry at vendors shipping copy-proteced CDs and DVDs.
He always liked to buy stuff at Amazon (or offline shops), and this worked well for a while. He didn't like KaZaA and others because he wanted things to be complete, in good quality, without spyware, and easy to get – he also didn't mind paying the artist. (Mind you, he wasn't mildly interested in booklets or fancy covers, or something to stick in a bookshelf, or so stuck to the material world he wouldn't accept anything purely digital. That wasn't it.)
Now the industry tried to protect itself from those people it feared would not order the stuff at Amazon (or offline shops), and they came up with Digital Rights Boycotting, pardon, Management, software. The boy who sold his old DVD player and bought a new one now found he couldn't play most of his DVDs because he bought them in a shop selling American movies. But the boy happened to live in Europe. (The boy also found some DVDs suddenly started to ask him to key in a password because they were for adults only. Luckily the boy was in his late 20s. You could rightfully call him a man, except for the fact he wasn't always treated like one by the industry.)
Lately, he also couldn't play some of the CDs he listened to on his computer (he does have a pair of speakers, but no stand-alone hi-fi set). Whenever he gets a copy-protected CD which will open up a web site or a shockwave file or tries to do something else than play music, he promised to himself to never buy from this band again. And he did. He was fully aware the actual artists might not be responsible for the copyright protecting mechanisms, but he didn't care, as it was not his responsibility to pay every artist.
Lately, he also wanted to buy a CD from a band he heard on MTV. This happens about once a week when MTV or another music channel would play interesting music for around one hour, to then continue with the same old. (It might also have been mainstream, because as we know, not everything falling prey to mainstream is automatically worse than before.)However when he came upon Amazon, he saw a review warning of a copy-protection for this CD. Seeing this he gave up on his plans to buy the CD, and told his girlfriend – who happened to use KaZaA on her own computer. She sent him the music files several minutes later after downloading them for free. (Thanks to Gmail, it was actually possible to send these via email.)
Lately, the sister of the boy told him they couldn't play a CD they bought inside their car. When they went to the store they told them this is because the CD protects itself against copying it to distribute it for free. Of course, as side-effect it also wouldn't work for a gazillion of other uses. Oh my.
Lately, the boy was more and more convinced people stopped caring for those actually buying CDs or DVDs, or they just didn't care enough. Maybe they wanted to push their online music services. Then again, there was no way to let the DVD player download movies just yet. Maybe they were just incredibly stupid.
See, with DVDs it's like this (and you probably know if you ordered from foreign countries because something wasn't available in your own country): most DVDs come with a region code restricting it to play in just a certain DVD player supporting this, and no other, region code. (Interestingly enough, there's even a region-code for places such as aircrafts or cruise ships.)This of course is silly because you paid for the product, and you are not a thief, and you don't really care about anything else except the gut-feeling the company cheated you.
Sidenote: the boy remembers that in Malaysia, things were quite a lot easier for people. You would walk into a store, and there were a lot of mediocre movies available for 30 Ringgit (and for RM30, you could eat one week – the best food, by the way). Now here's the twist: nobody actually bought these DVDs or CDs which were showcased. You had to walk up to the counter and ask for "movies," upon which you were handed a case with movies filmed straight from the screen (which is illegeal, as every cinema-goer is painfully made aware of prior to recent movies). These movies were so fresh they weren't in cinemas yet (or, in case of movies such as Daredevil, which were banned in Malaysia, would never be in cinemas). And these movies were actually affordable (around 3-6 Ringgit).
Now when the boy went to the shop to ask for a region-code free player, he was told that there was no region-code free player sold. But he was also clued in to the fact there were web sites on the internet which would educate the customer on these issues. So what was suggested to him was to make a note of DVD players available in this shop, then go look them up on the internet, then to come back and buy one (incidentally, he never did). Hey, the boy's being pushed onto hacker sites once more, and he can't help it. Again, this must be the music and movie's industry's utter cruelty, a suicidal tendency, a last cry for help, or just plain stupidity. The more the boy feels it's just stupidity, the more he wants to make the industry wake up by spreading the word.
The good thing, though the battle was far from over, he wasn't alone. I for one am definitely on his side.

Da Vinci Code

2004-10-18T11:08:00.000+05:30

Just finished reading The Da Vinci Code - By Dan Brown. Have to say the book is just amazing.

A must read for all. The story takes constant twists and turns. The conspiracy theorists will love it. I like the way the story moves, intertwining different scenes/stories so seamlessly within the chapters. The emotions depicted so beautifully. The images, whether of the situation or of the artwork, are painted in words so intricately that u feel u r standing there facing it all.

More importantly, the character of Robert Langdon has been conceived so beautifully. His stance on the whole of the issue (I'm not spoling anything for u by revealing the "Issue" here) was the perfect stance that shud have been. It'll let u think on ur own whether if all that was said in the book was true, even then wud it be wise for the world to accept the truth in an instant. Even the greatest lie (as portrayed in the book) has given the world so much. In fact, it has given the world much more than it has taken away. So, Robert's (and Priory's) stance stands vindicated.

BTW, I can tell u the "issue" itself will change so many meanings during the book, u'll just want to read it all in just one go.

The epilogue was, once again, a fitting ending to such a good book.

Thanks Mr. Brown for producing such a masterpiece.

The Page rank 100 incident

2004-10-15T11:36:00.000+05:30

Just came across this. Makes for a good read :)
----
The PageRank 100 Incident
It was an incident, Google later said – a mere wrong "0" deeply hidden in the code of the ranking algorithm, triggered at completely improbable circumstances, a bug so exotic and rare one could say it practically didn't even exist. But of course, it existed. And one person's life in specific would be changed by this little bug. This person was a 20-something with a keen interest in the Web by the name of Josh.
When Josh woke up this fateful morning to update his blog (he wanted to talk about the nightmarish colors he experienced, something not too unusual for Friday nights, after all there were a lot of nightmarish things going on in the world)... he already felt something changed. There were 320 comments to his last entry, which was unsuspiciously titled "Meeting Joann For Dinner". 320 comments were about 320 more than Josh usually got. His blog was up and running for just well over a year, and even he didn't feel it was especially exciting (mirroring his life, like personal blogs do).
Hundreds of comments on a single entry? And these were real comments, practically spam-free, taking apart his grammar, commenting on the food of the pub he mentioned, freely chatting away and just saying Hi. So really, what went wrong? Was there one of the big sites linking to him? For this quantity of visitors, and there surely must have been millions this morning, he wouldn't be surprised if Amazon or Apple used their start page to roll the drums for him.
Josh checked his mailbox, but it was crammed. Completely full with hundreds of emails, some of them – hmm, this was weird. Some of the emails talked about "PageRank" in the subject line. Josh knew well his little blog, thanks to some avid backlinking he did from other sites he maintained, had a PageRank of 3. "Not too bad" in the eyes of Google's measuring algorithm, but nothing that would ever rank him especially high. So Josh opened up one of those emails, and then he had this awkward head rush which made him jump to the kitchen for cigarette and coffee.
PageRank 100. Apparently, his little blog achieved a PageRank of 100. And after a coffee, Josh realized what this must mean. He called up one of his friends, a search engine affiniciado who took computer class. Matt arrived quickly, because he too never saw anything like this, and equally quickly Matt checked the rankings for some words Josh wrote in his blog. He mentioned "dinner", and boom, his site popped up on Google's number one spot for this word. Hundreds of millions of people visiting Google, thousands of them entering "dinner", hundreds of them being transferred to Josh at any second.
And "dinner" wasn't even one of the hot words. In fact it was the mass of words and phrases taken together, like "eating out", or "San Francisco", or "dating", or "singles", that had the huge impact. Josh, as Matt knowingly pointed out to him, gained the complete power of the word. Something like instant world control, he jokingly added.
"Whatever you say man, whatever you say, people will listen to you. And there will be a lot of people. Don't tell anyone about this, you're gonna get rich. And famous."
Nothing too bad, as Josh thought, "After all being rich and famous means a lot of money and fame" as Matt concluded.

And three months later indeed Josh was a celebrity. Every single word of him got quoted somewhere. CNN. ABC. BBC. Slate. Wired. Daily Mirror. New York Times. Some opened up daily Josh-columns. Josh never imagined there would be so many journalists around spicing up their story with a random quip they just googled. There were Josh fan forums. There were sites dedicated to post essayist comments on Josh's posts. Illustrations. Explanations. Discussions.
Josh, slowly and inevitably feeling responsible to say something at least remotely interesting, changed his weblog from personal diary to commentary on important world events. He didn't have the insights, it's not that. In fact you could consider him exceptionally clueless about politics and all. But he did have a way of putting things straight, a no-nonsense, plain real approach of talking. Not a style he invented – it was around in millions of blogs before. It was around when your neighbor started talking in the bus. It was the every-day chit-chat traditional media doesn't consider polished enough to be worthwhile. But Josh got a PageRank 100. And Google did not know about it.
So when Josh talked about Iraq, the President had to give a press meeting. When Josh found that his Operating System was buggy, Bill Gates had to announce to do everything to better help the "average user". (Josh was mildly annoyed by being considered an average user, so Bill Gates had to call in yet another press conference promising not to think in terms of "average users".)
In fact when Josh commented on anything happening in the world he found to be somewhat wrong, it got changed within a course of a day or two. Nobody likes bad publicity.
On the other hand – talk about mind control – whenever Josh mentioned a record he bought he liked, it would jump into the Top 10. It would become a world wide hit almost immediately. Not everybody would like the song, but you just had to know what the hype was all about. (Loudon Wainwright III in Top of the Pops. And he didn't even have a new album out.)
Josh could now end wars, shape products, close shops, invent fashion (the list goes on)... and revamp the life of a generation.
Of course now Josh knew why every celebrity around complains they get too much attention outside. When he walked the mall, girls would snicker. On the street people turned around, pointing. There were camera men outside in the garden, for chrissake. Josh felt like he had to adopt an attitude quickly, something like a rock-star lifestyle, so he would always know what to do and say and walk like. That's probably why later the talking Josh-doll (Mattel paid him well) uttered clichees like "You know you want to" or "All the world's a blog" or "Don't listen to me, listen" or "You are a stranger, my friend".
The only friend he lost was Matt. Matt felt like Josh didn't have as much time these days as before... before, when Josh would still meet him and Joann for a drink. So Matt decided to end the charade; he emailed Google. And Google reacted. Josh was not only put down to a PageRank 0, he was completely banned from all rankings. It was like he lost his voice.

Sure, as Josh would later say, he enjoyed celebrity status for some more weeks before the media decided to shift focus. But maybe it was for the better. After all, he didn't have that much to say, really. So in his journal he continued to write about his nightmares, which admittedly gained a few outlandish colors. He could even find time to meet Matt and Joann. Knowing he'd be a footnote in future history books sort of made him proud, and well, a bit lazy.
These days mostly Josh wanted to find a nice restaurant to relax. Listen to the music, have a dinner. And whenever someone asked him if he liked the food, or if he liked the music, or – beware – brought up a political issue, Josh would keep awkwardly quiet. Changing the world was a job for others. And today, Josh found a nice restaurant indeed. He lit up a cigarette.
That evening someone, somewhere at Google, was laughing. He just put a "0" deeply hidden in the algorithm, so exotic and rare it practically didn't exist. Diane was in for a surprise.

Google Search: More, more, more

2004-10-15T10:58:00.000+05:30

Google Search: Now for ur desktop
Google just continues to amaze me more and more. NOw the power og google search for ur own computer. Now i dont have to use that f****** MS search anymore to find that file i made some years back :)
go download it now

Quote for the day

2004-10-14T11:12:00.000+05:30

There's no place like 127.0.0.1 . Yup, am feeling homesick.
But yes, I've taken 2 leaves for this dussehra. Team em up with the subsequent Dussehra hol and the following sat sunday, and man, is that a killer combo.
Yeah dudes, going home for full 5 days this time.

So far every time I went home, the schedule was like this.

Get a bus to Delhi on friday evening around 6:00. Read ISBT by 8:00. Take a bus to Chandigarh (my home :) ) from there. Reach home by 2:00 AM on Saturday.

Sleep out the whole of the saturday. Then start back for Gurgaon on Sunday around 11:00 AM.

So, this is like the real homecoming (going??) for me. :)

Something u'll surely want to try

2004-10-12T20:05:00.000+05:30

If u trust Google translation , try this ....

step 1: go to http://www.google.com.my/language_tools?hl=en

step 2: enter the following line into the translate textbox: Aishwarya's mom is nice and cool

step 3: translate from english to spanish.

step 4: copy the translated text, and translate it back from spanish to english.
So, what did u find, Sonny Boy?? ;-)

Thwart those firewalls

2004-10-12T19:52:00.000+05:30

Yes, I'm gonna tell u right that.
The quest started when my company blocked orkut. My expression was "WTF!!I can't use orkut??". Hell, i tried a bit and here it is for all of u.
Well, for IM's the best tool i found was hopster.
Download hopster. Install and let it configure itself. Might take abt 10-15 mins for that.
Then fire up ur fav IM. Set it to use a socks5 proxy with server 127.0.0.1 (localhost) and port 1080.
Also ask it to use proxy to resolve hostnames. And u r ready to go chatting.
However, u cant use yahoo msgr this way cuz yahoo doesn't allow logins from systems that have yahoo msgr and proxy servers running on the same system.
Also, u can't use hopster with any browsers (like IE, Mozilla firefox etc) cuz there was no option to let it use the local proxy to resolve hostnames.
Then what.
WTF, there is a solution for that too.
Download sockscap , a tool that'll add socks support to any of ur apps. So, just d/l and install sockscap. Add ur apps to it. Also set sockscap to use the local proxy that u r running (hopster). And there u r ready to go.
So, in these 2 ways, u can thwart most firewalls.
The only drawback is that u'll get limited speeds for free version of hopster (abt 5 kbps) but for just 2$ per month, u can get much more bandwidth.
So, thats it for today.
Happy surfing. :)

Gmail Drive

2004-10-11T12:10:00.000+05:30

GMail Drive is a Shell Namespace Extension that creates a virtual filesystem around your Google GMail account, allowing you to use GMail as a storage media...

GMail Drive creates a virtual filesystem on top of your Google GMail account and enables you to save and retrieve files stored on your GMail account directly from inside Windows Explorer. GMail Drive literally adds a new drive to your computer under the My Computer folder, where you can create new folders, copy and drag'n'drop files to.

Ever since Google started to offer users a GMail e-mail account, which includes storage space of a 1000 megabytes, you have had plenty of storage space but not a lot to fill it up with. With GMail Drive you can easily copy files to your GMail account and retrieve them again.
When you create a new file using GMail Drive, it generates an e-mail and posts it to your account. The e-mail appears in your normal Inbox folder, and the file is attached as an e-mail attachment. GMail Drive periodically checks your mail account (using the GMail search function) to see if new files have arrived and to rebuild the directory structures. But basically GMail Drive acts as any other hard-drive installed on your computer.
You can copy files to and from the GMail Drive folder simply by using drag'n'drop like you're used to with the normal Explorer folders.

Because the GMail files will clutter up your Inbox folder, you may wish to create a filter in GMail to automatically move the files (prefixed with the GMAILFS letters) to your archived mail folder.
Please note that GMail Drive is still an experimental tool. There's still a number of limitations of the file-system (such as total filename size must be less than 40 characters), and it doesn't make full use of the secure internet protocols available.

Visit here to get gmail drive.

DSP/BIOS et al

2004-10-08T16:38:00.000+05:30

AHHHHHH!!! How boring this all is. been mugging all this stuff abt this TI RTOS that works on the TI DSP c64x. Well, its driving me#$@$..................sleepy, what else ;)

I'm Back

2004-10-06T17:37:00.000+05:30

Yes dudes. Am back.
Well just a few days after I started blogging, I joined the corporate world and blogger was banned at my company ( :( ). NOw that the ban has been lifted (temporarily or permanentaly, I don't know...), I'm back to give a vent to all my random thoughts.

Well, the past few months have been quite exciting. The professional life has been quite kewl so far.
Even won the alpha award for quality of project (yoo hoo).
Bought a Hero Honda Karizma.
Started learning Guitar.
Going to Gym.
Well, life's hectic but still it feels wonderful.
Chalo rest later. Gotta code now.

Love.2loop.com

2004-06-25T16:24:00.000+05:30

Was visiting Khopadi's blog (http://khopadi.blogspot.com) when I saw this link http://www.love.2loop.com/ and his exploits with it. He asked the world have some more fun and that is what I had and here is the resulting story it churned out:

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

One ghatiya summer day at timbuk too you see the most bekaar creature you have ever seen. Their name is peeli bhains , and every move she makes just turns you on more and more. You nudge your best friend monkeyman and say, "Wow, that has to be the most big body I have ever seen." Suddenly, she looks in your direction and starts walking right towards you!!! she says, "I noticed you staring at me from over there. I just had to tell you, that I think you are so idiot , and was wondering if you'd like to go to chandigarh with me and drama ?" With a stupid smile on your face you say, " WTF " and go with them. When you finally get to chandigarh , she moves closer to you, and gives you the biggest kiss ever. The two of you are passionately kissing, when you feel a pencil hit you on the back of the head. You open your eyes to find out it's all a dream, but there is a note left next to your bed.

It reads: " peeli bhains is the love you've been waiting your whole life for. she will ask you out in 9992347893407653223535235212 days or less, but only if you send this e-mail to at least 10 people within the next few minutes. The more people you send it to, the sooner they will ask you out, and you both fall in love. Do not take this lightly, because if you simply ignore this, you will have bad luck in love for the next 9992347893407653223535235212 years!"

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

Ah just love this crap dude. Way to go khopadi bhai, u r the dude in time pass.

वैसे मैं भि अब कुर्सि मेज पर सोने कि तय्यरि कर रहा हूँ. ;)

More invites

2004-06-23T21:31:00.000+05:30

Gmail gave me 6 more invites today and they are on their way to the people who wrote to me.

ENjoy guys !!!!

Test

2004-06-23T01:22:00.000+05:30

Just found out about email blogging. So trying it out.

Bored

2004-06-23T00:57:00.000+05:30

Am bored to death. I've seen for the first time how boring vacations can be...
Most frnds gone, all mods played out, nthin to do...
GOD save me....

Blogger problems?

2004-06-22T00:40:00.000+05:30

Blogger is giving probs. It lets me post and publish but it is giving problems in displaying the blog. Hope it is fixed soon.

More Gmail...

2004-06-21T14:16:00.000+05:30

Gmail is just showering invites on me. But the thing is the invites diappear at much quikcer pace than they appear.
I sent a msg on orkut to frnds if they want gmail and almost instantaneously received some 50 msgs.

Am trying to hard to fulfill their requests. Hope gmail gives more invites soon.

Gmail

2004-06-21T00:55:00.000+05:30

Gmail guys seem to be very happy with me.
Earlier I got to invite just 3 ppl after a month. But now i got 8 invitations in as many as 3 days.
And as expected it took less than 3 minutes for those invites to disappear.

Tanhayian Tanhayian :(

2004-06-16T01:10:00.000+05:30

Gone are the college days when we used to have all that fun. Now its just the mundane corporate world of concrete and silicon that beckons me.
Joining HSS on 28th of June.
Nothing to do nowadays except play mods of Deus Ex and Quake 3.
BTW, Bid for Power (for Q3) and Zodiac (for Deus Ex) truly rock.
Truly exceptional mods I've seen so far. The story line of Zodiac is gripping.
Desperately awaiting the release of Part 3. And yes, for those who believed at the end of Deus Ex that aliens didnt exist. Well, guess again. In true DX fashion, we have a new twist to the story and aliens (mind-controlling evil ones and their nemesis, i.e., our buds) surface again.
No more spoilers for u now. Go d/l the mod.
Am too lazy to give the link. Search for it. Or take a look at www.planetdeusex.com/zodiac .

I'M DOWN BUT NOT OUT

2004-03-26T22:11:00.000+05:30

Today was a rough day.....
The sinusoid of my life was at its trough for most of the time.....
I think i've got over it but not sure....It can occur again.....
Oh......help me Lord

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

ACID RAIN

2004-03-25T22:52:00.000+05:30

Falls down slowly,
Seeps into the ground,
Isn't just flowing water,
Won't stop until your brain is found.

Seeps into your little green eyes,
'til it meets your brain,
Runnin' through all of your brain cells,
'til it drives you insane.

Acid...Acid Rain

Yeah!!! My illusion's gone....All those I thought were my frnds actually aren't....It took so long for this acid rain to reach my mind. Till now I was dancing with joy as if I was dancing in rain but now I know its gonna melt me down.

But I'm happy I've got someone by my side who heals me everytime I'm hurt.
Yes, I'm immune now. No acid can hurt me now.
I don't need u world....I don't need u....

Shantz
------------------------------------------------------------------

THE BEGINNING

2004-03-25T22:45:00.000+05:30

Never knew we were living in a world
With a mind that could be so sure
Never knew we were living in a world
With a mind that could be so small
Never knew we were living in a world
And the world is an open court
Maybe we don't want to live in a world
Where innocence is so short

Who Am I?
Shantz (¶SkyWaLKer¶).....Shantanu Goel to the uninitiated
Currently in Final Year E&EC, Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh ( www.pec.ac.in )
Set to join either TCS (www.tcs.com) or Hughes Software Systems (www.hssworld.com) after college.
My email : shantzg001@yahoo.com

Why Am I?
GOD Knows....

How/What/WTF Am I?
Thats whats the blog's for....

Since two years, I'd been wanting to give a vent to my feelings. But u always need a push, they say. Then along came zombie's blog and that too written in true Zincer style followed by a series of events that made me quote the lines above. And here's my blog.

I'll begin with this msg to the world (a la Silverchair):
We are the youth
We'll take your fascism away
We are the youth
Apologise for another day
We are the youth
And politicians are so sure
We are the youth
And we are knocking on death's door