The One!!

Don 2

2011-12-24T06:41:00.000-08:00

After the poor debacle of RA.One, SRK owes one to Farhan Akhtar now. SRK is all stylish, sleek and super suave. This is a really good way for people to erase the traumatic memory of RA.One. Honestly.

SRK's first Don was marked to be a remake of the old classic page by page ( however ,the climax scene actually reversed the whole thing, but still ). This movie had freedom of coming out of its image of being a remake and it does justice to same. The story is pretty simple actually. Continuing from where it ends in part 1, Don ( SRK ) is now seen in Thailand. Opening scene has some fighting scenes which is just part of movie to make an entry of our hero (villian). The weird hairdo of SRK is quite funny to look at. He has all mean look btw. Don surrenders himself to Police, gets to meet his old foe Vardhan ( Boman Irani ). They plan an escape from the jail. Next up, they plot the burglary of the century. Twists and turns throughout the movie, ensure that there are not many boring scenes.

Movie has Priyanka Chopra ( Roma, who now is a police officer) and Om Puri ( Malik ) from the previous part. New entrants worth mentioning are Kunal Kapoor ( nice change i would say ) and Lara Dutta ( Replaces isha koppikar, but has even less and meaningless role. Infact her role didn't even have any oomph factor baring the one song. Waste !! )

Mission impossible , ocean's eleven, die hard, matrix -- Movies from where stills are "inspired" from in the movie. Some action scenes are really good. Car chase between SRK and Priyanka is one of them. Add to these some cheesy comments by SRK throughout the movie. and you do get an entertainment package there.

Performance wise, Its actually SRK all the way. Even a heavy star cast like Boman Irani, PC, Kunal Kapoor, Om Puri is no match to presence of SRK. In fact, hardly any scenes in movie, where SRK is not part of it. SRK has done his best to give 100% to glorify the negative role.

A perfect masala movie. SRK lovers would obviously watch it. SRK bashers, still watch the movie, worth watching i say !!

Mega reviews

2011-08-07T03:38:00.000-07:00

I watched a couple of few movies lately and so a review toh banta hai yaar !! .. toh here it goes

I am Kalam :
Such a nice move this was. Initially i thought that this would be some children movie, but this turned out to be movie that has emotions and drama to touch heart of anyone and everyone.
The story revolves around a rajasthani boy named chottu (performed by Harsh Mayar ) who is inspired by the life of India's former president APJ Abdul Kalam , and has an undying urge to read and learn new things.

Chhotu is an intelligent boy from a poor family in Rajasthan. Born into poverty, his mother makes him work at a roadside dhaba owned by Bhati ( Gulshan Grower ). Chottu is quick to learn the tricks and languages as the dhaba is visited by many tourists. One day Chhotu watches President Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam on television and it inspires him so much that he changes his name to Kalam.

The boy brings smile to your face every time he comes on the screen. The movie showcases the problem of lack of education in rural india pretty well. It makes a point in a very good way. 5 stars for this movie !!

Zindagi Mille Na Doobara: Another good movie. Starcast itself ( read Katrina ) was enough reason to watch this one. Comparison with DCH was obvious. Story is about 3 friends who go out on a trip to relive their lives and end up facing one or other "fears" in their life. The movie is nicely connected with events in their life. Farhan's character has some good funny lines. Abhay Deol proves once again why he is such an underrated actor. He is one actor with awesome talent. Hrithik is also good. Kaifu "looks" good :-D .. guess she does justice to her role. Oh, and spain is now right up in the to -visit countries list :)

Silence of Lambs :
This was on my to watch for a long time. Finally watched it. Superb !! ..

I hate luv Storys:
Why did i watch this movie ??. Sonam, please teach her to act !!. Just looking good ain't gonna work. We already have Kaifu for that and she is done just good. I guess, this was the only reason why i started watching this movie. Note to self .. Do not judge a movie from a single song ;)

Singham :
Paisa vasool movie. Keep your head out and watch this movie. nahi tar tumchi pan sataknar ;).
Good cop thrown in land of goons where rule are made and broken to suit the goon. Cop goes berserk and decides to teach the goon a taste of its own medicine. Mediocre story, but still, movie has the entertainment tag attached with it. Marathi dialogues by Ajay are so funny. And the gravity defying action stunts are must watch. The villian too has some catchy dialogues. Dabanng had bound to have some imitation and guess Singham just started the series.

Phew !! .. I guess i should watch some hollywood movies now :-D

2011-08-06T09:58:00.000-07:00

So google rolls out a new preview pane feature. This was one feature missing since a long time. The view now makes it quite similar to what we can get using outlook / evolution . Though it messes up the existing labels / folder listing / chat windows on the left side currently. I think, big monitor screens would be better equipped for using this setting . One more good feature !!

Chillar change ...

2011-06-15T21:30:00.001-07:00

My mom has just become aware of the the fact that coming next month, the circulation of 25 paise coins would be stopped.

The only good part in this news for me is that my monthly pocket money would now see a hefty 100% rise and i will now get a handsome amount --- 50 Paise !! Yayyy :)

Kudos to the government !! .. Its party time ..

Error message

2011-06-09T23:08:00.000-07:00

This is another old one ... but i kind of recalled it the other day when i was using windows machine .

There was once a young man who, in his youth, professed his desire to become a great writer.

When asked to define "great" he said,

"I want to write stuff that the whole world will read, stuff that people will react to on a truly emotional level, stuff that will make them scream, cry, howl in pain and anger !! "
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He now works for Microsoft, writing error messages.

Korea Part2

2011-06-08T06:02:00.001-07:00

If you are a proper veggie and are in korea then you are in for some royal treatment. Based on my experience of 4 months 15 days i can vaguely let you know what you should expect here.

If you fall into the category of eating food which has "no meat, no fish, no egg" category ( like i am ) then surely its difficult for you here. But you can still find the below things that can be tweaked to bring that indian taste ;)

- Lassi : You get in various flavours: common one being plain , strawberry, mango, banana. Stick to plain !! , you will never regret.

- Samosa: This varies from place to place. Though, i haven't eaten like the ones you get in india though, but the ones here are usually eatable.

- Soup: Be prepared to add salt / pepper or else you feel like you are just drinking tap water with vegetables thrown in.

- Noodles: Go to some chinese restaurant and try explaining that you want simple vegetarian stuff. You will get one.

- Pizza : Go to pizza hut, point to the size of pizza you want to eat, point to all vegetable photos placed on display and you are done !!.

- Rice: You do get plain rice here, but its sticky as koreans eat rice with chopsticks. If you are not comfortable with this kind, there is a way to get biryani type rice. Read the menu and pick up the fried rice you want. Say, it has "shrimp fried rice" , Just order "shrimp fried rice without shrimp and egg !!" ( don't forget the egg part ) and you get your good old fried rice.

- Indian hotels. I was lucky enough to be "posted" in places which had atleast one indian hotel. Though food can become monotonic after some days in such places, but you don't have to sleep on an empty stomach.

- Ice creams. One of the things that i like in korea. Baskin robbins itself has 31 different flavours. Though strawberry has monopoly in the flavours available, the thing worth is the combination flavour. I kind of like it.

- Fruits . This is the best part. You get fresh fruits in all hotels ( Watermelon / pineapple and lichee being the normal ones). Visit homeplus and you get all grocery you can ever think of.

- You do get maggie too in korea in some other brand name, but i always doubted how "vegetarian" it is. If anyone tries it, please let me know :p

Right then, this is few of the things i could think of. More so, if i happen to visit korea again, i would use this list whenever i feel hungry :p

2011-06-06T18:24:00.000-07:00

5+ years in this field, and i still have an ocean to explore !! .. Having a great experience here courtesy my current company. Apart from food and good "people" , there is actually a lot to learn this time around ( or may be am genuinely interested this time ;).

All i want now is to have one fundoo solution for a super duper critical issue .. Will be great fun ..

Korea - Part1

2011-06-05T16:52:00.000-07:00

This time, am travelling to Korea for some days again. I hope i don't have to stay here for long time though ;). Anyways, so just an attempt for the travelogue of this journey.

Time 5:00 pm, 4th June
This was the supposedly start, scheduled, pick up time for members for the trip, M , R and me !!. At 5:15 pm i received a call from R that M's trip was supposed to be a day before. Same flight same time, but a day earlier. PANIC , Panic , panic !! . Last moment hassles and the tickets are booked for the flight. Finally journey starts at 6:30 pm.

Time around 8 pm
We stopped at a roadside for a break. Initial discussion led to conclusion that we will just have some food packed and continue travelling to save time. However, the hungry careless people we were, we not only ate food at our leisure time, i also ordered more food, just in case we don't get good food later on

Time around 11:30 pm, mumbai Airport.
Mumbai's traffic can be sometimes such a pain in the wrong place !! . After lots of cursing and hitting people's vehicles to make way for ours, we managed to reach airport, a full 1:30 hrs behind my expectation. The automated check-in system's crew was on overtime laugh mode and he kept laughing at all questions / answers he asked / told me. Sometimes people can be so weird. Then came the declaration part at the customs. M got his electronic equipments declared first. After 15 minutes of scrutiny of all his details, his letter was duly stamped. Enter me.

Q: where are you going ?
Me: Korea

Q: So you two guys from same company
Me: Yes

Q: Ok ..go
Me: Yipee !!

Took less than a minute!!!

Lesson learnt: Piggybacking is so good :P

Time around 10 am, HongKong:
Hong Kong's airport is pretty huge with over 60 flight hangers. The 4 hours transit time was happily used by some of us ( read R) to sleep , by some ( read M ) to try and check mails, and some ( read me ) to look at all people ( gori chamdi :P ) like a baby (:P) . After the usual photo session in what-not poses, i set around to see if there was a good restaurant around.And my search operation gave good yeilds when i did find a good place where i had rice and curry . Tasted good :P ..

Next plane to Incheon
Had booked window seat so that i can doze off. However, Korean girl named Kim, who could speak english sitting right next to me :p .. 3 and half hours of bliss ;) . A segment of my love for korea got a turbo boost in this 3 hrs ;) .

Incheon Airport , 7 pm KST
We had planned to take a limousine bus from airport to the hotel. But a sudden change of heart for all three and we decided to taxi along. 45 minutes and we are in the hotel lobby. Being a foodie, one of the best part of booking in such big hotels is that you get good indian food , 24 hrs :-D , which is such a rare case in korea otherwise.

To continue ..

2011-05-23T22:14:00.000-07:00

Feels good to see your name in linux :-D ....

Feels bad that why can't i get time to contribute more :(

Reviving !!

2011-05-12T07:49:00.000-07:00

Its over a year and half since i visited this section. This is like my n-th attempt to bring this part back to life. Hope i do so this time around ..

The US diaries

2010-02-13T18:05:00.000-08:00

Never in my wildest dreams i had thought that i would pen down something over here from Uncle Sam's land !!. Yes ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, i am currently traveling in US .So all of you who have missed out on sending the list of things, they want from Amreeka, here is your chance. go ahead and mail me !! ( Note -> Bringing the stuff you mentioned is purely at my discretion ;) )

Right, so what am i gonna write down here ?. As a first timer here in US, this will be purely a comparison of things here and back in India. So here we go ...

First and foremost, a well known fact. There are 4 C's you need to have ,without which life in US is quite difficult. Computer , Credit card, Cellphone and a Car. These things are considered to not only help you in emergencies, but sometimes not having one of these may put you in a very uncomfortable situation.

I happen to travel here on roads which are boarder and smoother than any roads i know of ( even certain comfortable sections of Pune - Mumbai expressway can't compete here). Also people here follow rules loyally. May be the fact that you cannot bargain, once a ticket is filed on you or because of strict rules to the extent of revoking your license for road offense. Back in my place, a paper with Gandhiji's photo on it is sufficient to overcome any problem ;)

I have been lucky enough that my basic needs of food , clothing and shelter have been taken care of here. Royally, i must add. Food wise, bay area has plenty of desi outlets to choose from. The food is good, no complains on that front :p

I was very curious to know the neighbouring places and things i could do on weekends. There are lots of places one can go around. From crowded tourist places like SanFrancisco, to hiking on MissionPeak, to driving to Las Vegas or Half Moon Bay, to the local malls, there is no dearth of things that you can explore here. Not that pune doesn't give such options, but being new to this place is adding to the curiosity level :p.

The food here is served in large proportions. And by large, i mean large !!. I always thought that i eat a lot, but am no competition here !!. Infact, it has so happened that i have thought of packing up remaining food during lunch time which was sufficient to be my dinner. And mind it, i had not ordered extra , its the normal basic quota they provided :p. May be, i have been to such hotels that serve large .Should try out more different restaurants.

This place ,where is happen to stay,is very scenic. Though, its a bit cold here with many parts of US receiving heavy snowfall, still the weather adds up to the beauty of this place. Clouds floating around the mountains make up a very pleasant view. Trees with half of their leaves dried up, don't come across as a scary landscape, but actually look awesome. But then, as they say, beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder !! ..

Hmmm .. nothing more to comment now. Life is complete fun here, when your trip is being sponsored by your company :-D .

(Few photos here.)

The light bulb problem..

2009-10-14T19:15:00.000-07:00

How many programmers does it take to screw in a light bulb ??

None , ... its a hardware problem !!

Change in time ..

2009-10-04T06:55:00.000-07:00

When i was a kid, an elderly person had asked me few questions. Namely :

Q: If a japanese guy opens a school in maharashtram what wuld he name it ?

A : Ya shikha

(For those not understanding marathi,it means "come and learn" ).

Q: If a chinese guy opens a tea shop in maharashtra, what wuld he name it ?

A : Phun kun pi

( Again,in marathi, it means "blow air before you drink" the hot tea)

Right , so those PJs felt a great deal at that time and i enjoyed telling it to everyone i could get hold of. Even my alien friends !!! .

Today i met a person, who had named her baby girl "Yashika" !! .. My first reaction was laughter .. How times change ? . People first named there kids with meaningful names. These days kids names need to be unique, meaning has got less or no importance at all. May be there will be time when absurd things like chemical formulaes would be used to name kids.

Hmmm ... what should i name my kids ?? Just Incase ? Dan Druff? he he ..

I wish .

2009-10-02T19:09:00.000-07:00

My life looks in complete turmoil these days. Nothing is going right :( since the past few days. It is making me think all over again as to what have i done till date . The more i think, the more it makes me realize that am doing things the wrong way. Sounds depressing ?? .. yeah !! .

But then,the people who know me would agree that this is just another mood swing and the phase would be over pretty quickly before i jump to some another useless thought to ponder over for days !! . Right, so in the mean time i have thought of job alternatives that i wish i was in now and believe that i could pull off, with the kind of qualification i posses to support my daily bread and butter.

- Not exactly an astrologist, but somehow i would predict people's future :-D.

My first prediction - The ongoing champions trophy will be won by Australia !!.
Also it will be a Australia vs Pakistan finals ;)

- I will become a farmer . ( Too much of farmville on facebook has influenced this decision)

- I will open a books library in my area.
Typical business minded observation that there is no books library in 8 km area of where i stay. So what if i live at the end of my city, surrounded by hills and animal grazing all around. Infact owing to my prime location of livinig , I might apply for living life as a nomad and get the certificate too. Life is bliss !!!

Ok, the mood swing is getting worse. Now am depressed again :(. Why am not doing these things !! . .Why god why ?? .. Ahh ... please grant me my wishes ... But then, if wishes were granted as shats , i would be one happy bloke ..

A thought ...

2009-07-16T05:15:00.000-07:00

While having lunch the other day, the topic of social service cropped up and suddenly a friend popped up a thought that:

"An organization,that even in these recession times, goes to different countries , sets up their base there and recruits local people is doing a nevertheless pretty good job which is no less than a social service."

We all agreed unanimously , with few errant noises here and there made by the over enthusiastic people, that indeed these organizations are doing a noble cause from one point of view.

However the organization in question turned out to be: Al Qaeda

After the usual "Tch Tch" responses we did find out few points in this regard where we started discussing its pros and cons:

1. It not only recruits people with exceptional talent in their fields but even those people who aren't educated and don't find any job. Thereby creating employment.

2. As mentioned it gives job even to local people where it plans to set up its "industry" and expand its business.

3. There are frequent on-site "visits" in place. You might get to go to a new place if you return with "success" from the first visit ;).

4. People recruited are ready to give up their life for the cause. It takes a great deal to perform some work when u are sure that death is eminent and there is no looking back once you get in. The employees are motivated to such an extent that they are ready to lay down their life. Contrast this with a software company, a PM can't even make his sub-ordinates to work till late night consistently. All top management people should be sent to Al-Qaeda to take practice and learn how to motivate people.

Even though we were all joking around with this topic, these points are so true. Only wish that Al-Qaeda had a brain cleaning session and used its resources for a more better outcome.

Exporting shell environments via scripts

2009-07-15T23:35:00.000-07:00

More of a technical one this is.

Recently, while creating a release package, i was facing a problem which, after some tries, I finally figured out the solution for. So here it is.

The need was to setup an environment by running a script, after which application can be run seamlessly. One of the entries in the script looked like =>

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH= $(pwd)/../lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

The step was needed as the the package did install libraries in a separate path than the default one.

However even after i executed the script as " ./load.sh" , running applications still gave me error:

":error while loading shared libraries: : cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory".

I was able to set the path inside the script and running the application from within the script worked, but from the terminal (parent process) which executed the script (child process) i was not able to set the env. paths.

The reason for the failure was that the settings done by the child process are not visible in the parent process.

Solution-> Execute script as part of parent process instead of forking, as:

. ./load.sh OR source ./load.sh

Happy shell scripting :)

Curious case of Mr. Singh

2009-07-15T23:30:00.000-07:00

It was the evening when celebrations were in full swing to mark the end of a long , tiring journey of being the judge of supreme court and starting of a fresh, comparatively sedate one for Mr. Arun Sanyal. 28 years at the helm had not only made his hairline recede but also thought him a thing or two about life and human nature. Sipping wine at the pool side Mr. Arun was engrossed in talks about "what next"? with his close friends , just when a petite young girl in the group popped up a question.

"In all this years, you must have been through cases which were not as straight forward as they seemed. Do you remember any such case ? "

What followed next as the reply not only baffled all people there, but it also left people astounded with the complications of a bizarre death.

Mr Arun started recalling each and every detail of the case.

On April 14, 1984 the medical examiner viewed the body of Shekhar Singh and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head.

Mr. Singh had jumped from the top of a thirteen story building with the intention of committing suicide. He had also left behind a note to the effect indicating his utter sadness and having no resolution of living.However, as he fell past the ninth floor his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast passing through a window, which killed him instantly.

Further on.... neither the shooter nor the deceased was aware that a safety net had been installed by the building constructors just below the eighth floor level to protect some building workers carrying out repair works. Hence, had he not been shot, Mr. Singh would not have died as per his plans, would have be injured at the maximum, but not died.

"Technically," Mr Sanyal continued, "A person, who sets out to commit suicide and ultimately succeeds, even though the way in which it is achieved might not be what he intended, is still defined as committing suicide." That Mr. Singh was shot on the way to certain death, but probably would not have been successful because of the safety net, caused the medical examiner to feel that he had a homicide in his hands and not a suicide case.

Further investigations revealed that in the room on the ninth floor, where the shotgun blast originated, was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing vigorously and he was threatening her with a shotgun.

On that particular day, the man was so upset that when he pulled the trigger he completely missed his wife and the bullets went through the window, striking Mr. Singh who happened to jump at the same instance. When someone intends to kill person "A" but kills person "B" in the attempt, one is guilty of the murder of person "B".

When confronted with the murder charge the old man and his wife were both adamant and both said that they thought the shotgun was unloaded. The old man said it was a long-standing habit of his to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder her.

Therefore the killing of Mr. Singh appeared to be an accident; that is, if the gun had been accidentally loaded. The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old couple's son loading the shotgun about six weeks prior to the fatal accident.

It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son's financial support and the son, knowing the habit of his father to threaten his mother with the use of shotgun,loaded the gun. It was an ideal plan on the son's part wherein he can get revenge from his mother and also be not caught. In the course of the case, it transpires that since the loader of the gun was aware of this, he was guilty of the murder even though he didn't actually pull the trigger.

The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of Shekhar Singh.

Now comes the exquisite twist. Further investigation revealed that the son was, in fact, Shekhar Singh. He had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt to engineer his mother's murder. This led him to jump off the thirteen-story building on April 14th, only to be killed by a shotgun blast passing through the ninth story window. The son had actually murdered himself, so the medical examiner closed the case as a suicide ......

How interesting it could get ? :).

Update: As pointed out by my friend, this is an indianized version of a story. Link to the original one shortly. Or look at comment sections if i get lazy to point it out here

joke time

2009-06-12T04:27:00.000-07:00

PJ of the day:

Saap ne mujhe Duss diya.
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Maine usko 5-5 ka chutta diya :)

Tch Tch !!!

#1 -> #28

2009-06-04T22:46:00.000-07:00

In a bid to blog more regularly i have always tried to think out of the box and try things to increase my regularity ..but nothing has helped me to press that publish post button more often. So herez one trick i was suggested and would like to implement it. Every title should go with the blog number. Increase in the number might help to encourage me to write on more stuffs regularly and over time i can stop including that # numbers. Right so here we go. But wait... i can't blog just statments like this. So here one joke:

Two bats are going for their midnight feed.

After an hour or so, one bat gets tired of looking and goes home with no blood.

The other bat comes home with blood dripping from its mouth. The first bat says enviously, "Where did you get all that blood from?"

The second bat replies, "Follow me. I'll show you."

After awhile the second bat leads him to a tree with blood spots on it. e says, "You see that tree branch over there?"

The hungry bat excitedly says, "Yes!"

Other bat says, "I didn't."

And the next question is ...

2009-06-04T22:15:00.000-07:00

By now, we all know abt the marriage proposal of Rakhi Sawant. The glamorous doll has found this innovative and rather bizarre way of publicly searching for wannabe-brides who would get the umpteen punishment of marrying her. Well ..i saw an advertisement where she is asking us to send across questions to her which she would ask to the chosen candidates to find her numero uno lover, someone who loves her and not her money / fame / looks /blah /blah /blah . (U know what those blahs are ;) ).

Right, so being this good (looking),helpful, kind hearted, family valued (?),well cultured citizen of india ( NO !! .. am not one of the candidates of the show .. just using the opportunity to blow my own trumpets :p ) i decided i should help rakhi and came up with few questions from here and there which Rakhi should ask on her shows. So lets start the show !! ( AB in KBC style ..)

1. Can you dance ?
This is pre-requiste. Atleasst he should match the steps with rakhi on the dance floor. Else it would be so boring. Also then Rakhi can make her hubby dearest dance to her tunes ( Ungliyon pe nacchana types ;) ).

2. Can i hit you?
We all know what Rakhi did to Abhishek . Those 1 and half kg muscles do make a sound when hit hard .Hence the guy should be ready for such "physical" closeness :p ... preferably have a health insurance ..

3. Can u cook for me if i come home late?
Late night parties and the hang overs of it would not allow Rakhi to cook food u see. Also ghar ka khana is the best khana. Doesn't matter who makes them, but has to be home cooked, hence the better half has to pitch in ..

4. Can u take controversiries with pinch of salt ?
Rakhi and controverseries are synonyms. He should be ready to accept every such news and not make a big cry out of it. Atleast he should support Rakhi all long (no matter whether shez right or wrong)

5. Are u ready to go under the knife ?
Rakhi is supposedly fond of plastic surgeries. Might ask her would be to alter some parts she is disinterested in..

And last but not the least:

6. Will you allow me to wear skimpy dresses after marriage ?
Marriage with a guy might break someone's heart but not "performing" would be so bad ..

Jokes apart .. i seriously think that at some level this is surprisingly very interesting... also another thought says that this is just a attention - seeking gimmick performed to increase the TRP ratings.. No matter what, but with Rakhi hosting the show, one would definately be looking forward to see who does most of the talking this time. The host or the guests?

Your guess is as good as mine .. :-P

Tax woes

2009-05-05T22:02:00.000-07:00

I recently calculated the total amount of tax am supposed to pay this time around and was astonished at the whopping figure !! .. Don;t understand how i have to pay so much tax when am getting paid peanuts . I have had my share of visits to the Tax department last time around and am not really interested in going back there. Also my accountant scrached every hair of his head and used all his mathematical experience gained over the decade before coming to the conclusion that this is the least amount i will have to pay. Hmm ... no wonder am so poor :p Nevertheless i remembered this joke about the Income Tax Department .so here it goes :

The local bar was so sure that its bartender was the strongest man
around that they had a standing Rs 10,000 bet. The bartender would
squeeze a lemon until all the juice ran into a glass, and hand the
lemon to a patron. Anyone who could squeeze one more drop of juice
out would win the money.

Many people had tried over time but nobody could do it. One day,
a scrawny little man came in, wearing thick glasses.

"I'd like to try the bet," he said in a tiny, squeaky voice.

After the laughter had died down, the bartender grabbed a lemon,
and squeezed away. He handed the wrinkled remains of the rind to
the little man. But the crowd's laughter turned to total silence as
the man clenched his fist around the lemon and six drops fell into
the glass.

As the crowd cheered, the bartender paid the Rs 10,000 and asked
the little man what he did for a living. Was he a lumberjack,
or a weightlifter, or what?

"I work for the Income Tax department."

Just wished that i come into some special category where upon i get to decide how much amount of money i need to pay as tax to the government . I promise i will honestly pay some amount. Is any "law rules maker" listening ;)

IPL ..

2009-04-25T07:14:00.001-07:00

Just watched the Mumbai Indians vs. Deccan Chargers. MI lost :( . Sach says that he hopes next time they will win. Bhai .. haath ki match haar gaye ho .. shaa .. hurts more cause i had bet on MI winning :(( :(( ... Never mind .. i hope CSK wins against KKR .. Raina is my trump player .. :p .. lets see ..

The great Indian Team

2009-04-21T05:04:00.001-07:00

IPL has started and evenings are no more boring. With IPL comes the joy of making up your own "fantasy" team and see it winning ( mostly losing :( .. but still ..) amongst other teams in the league. But then elections are coming up too. As always i will cast my vote to that precious candidate whom i think is the most deserving one. But, if my past records of voting are to be noted, the person i have voted for never won. Infact, i once voted for a ruling party candidate and even he lost !! . Hmm .. opposition parties that want to win should contact me ;)

Anyways, with so much of prachaar and all going around, i gave a serious thought as to who should win. I realized that which party wins is not important as to who is nominated to the minitries is more important. So, i thought what the government would look like if some "dignitaries" come up to the different ministries of india. So here we go ..

1. Education Minister: Arjun Singh
If i have a son, he will face serious problems in getting admissions in institutes all because of this great !! (Or i wander around and figure out a way to get reservation certificate :p) . After all its the competetive environment which brings out the best u see :p

2. Foreign minister : Lalu Prasad Yadav.
Lets teach the world how english is spoken ;)

3. Sports Minister : Toss up between Jayalalita and KPS Gill
The first would Lead by example as in how atheletic one should be. and the later can make cricket suffer so badly that the lost sheen in other sports would be recognized.

4. IT Infrastructure : Mulayam
No computers, No english , No problem

5. Law And order Minister : Toss up between Varun gandhi and Raj Thackeray. I think half term for each :p

6. Animal welfare minister: Rabri devi
She would feel homely with animals around

7. Health minister : manmohan singh
Flexing muscles, he can promote better

8. Finance : Harshad mehta !!
Though he is no more, he would be the most apt person for the post. Did such a big scam but went almost unrecognized. Great brains

9. External Affairs:
Salman Rushdie, very good at "affairs"

10. Textile Minister: Ram Dev Baba
Less Clothes = Less money spent = rich individual = rich country = Everybody happy !! ..
(Hmm ... bollywood actresses should be considered for this post ;) )

11. Ministry of Sound: Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Pause ...... Pause .... Enough said :p

12. Food Minister: Adnan Sami

Do i need to explain ?

13. Communications Minister: Mayawati

Behenji is Mis(s) Communication leader !!

14. Prime Minister - with ministers like these, a PM is not needed .. However applications are accepted for the post

Look Ma ...my Lookalikes !!

2009-04-06T23:48:00.000-07:00

Ever thought of ending up lookalike of some famous personality

The fun part is that every time you place a different photo of yours your lookalikes also change :p .... Hmmm ..

MY target => Keep trying with the photos till the day Tom Cruise is one of my lookalikes :-D ( End of the world =)) ..)

Ghajini -- Review

2009-01-02T02:50:00.000-08:00

“Itni Shiddat se maine tujhe paane ki koshish ki hai; ki har zarre ne mujhe tumse milane ki saajish ki hain”.

This is a dialogue from the OSO delivered by SRK. However, while watching the movie ghajini, i felt the dialogue more apt here. Right, so i have seen this movie and also read countless reviews people have written. Infact i read the review first and then watched the movie ( hah ..kya dude huin na main ? ). But then, i would also like to point out few things about this movie.

First, anyone who still believes that this is inspired from the movie Memento, then my friend you are correct. But the similarity ends at the fact that our hero also scribbles onto his body small details and uses photos to manage his memory as he is suffering from "short term memory loss" or referred to as the 15 min. guy as he lasts for 15 mins. I mean, his memory. Thatz it. Rest of all is the old Indian love story masala. Rich guy falls for poor girl, girl is killed, hero takes revenge !!!.

Even though am a Aamir khan fan, i don't feel the movie is upto his standards. It could have been better. May be i am comparing it to its original hollywood (which is a master piece by-the-way, you must have a dekho at it), but then, i didn't find the movie more appealing, apart from the few funny moments in the beginning and also the ease with which Aamir transformed himself from a normal guy to a revenge seeking ferocious animal and vice-versa.

Secondly, i guess what the story line would have been, had our female lead shown common sense and placed her mobile on silent mode when she was hiding ?. Nobody thought abt it ?? ..or is it just my great observation !! .. Nah, i know am not that good, and hence proves that there were some goof up .. Aamir are you listening ??

Jiah khan, the less i talk about her, the better. I did like her one time ..but now she is un-watchable. May be she was without her makeup or something , i don't know.

Overall i would say, a bit bloody and gory movie, some scenes were really cruel. A good one time watching type.

Also have a look at this .. its self-explanatory as to why women should not be allowed to watch ghajini ..

He he ..

New Year .. new begining !!

2009-01-02T02:19:00.000-08:00

Happy new year (to any1 who is reading this !!). New year means ..celebrations .. fireworks .. and making of new resolutions which are meant to be broken within few days or months for most of us. As i lie in that category of breaking resolution ( in few hours sometimes ), i have decided not to make any new year resolutions, instead i have made a wish-list :D.So here it goes ..

1. Around the world trip in a personal jet.
2. At least 10 servants to help me out.
3. Around 5 people whose job is to carry out my office work.
4. I want a swimming pool filled with chocolates and all sweets :-D ( still a kid u see ;) )
5. I want the prime-ministers and presidents of each country to read out news to me every morning.
6. My house should be on a hill top from where one side shuld be ocean ..and the other side should be mountains ... with the best scenery on offer ..
7. My music system should have access to all radio stations all over the world ( May be extra-terrestrial too)
8. A round the solar system vacation for me and my frnds :-D

Thatz all ... i am not greedy .. i just want everything u see :)

Women's appetite for answers ??

2008-12-19T00:53:00.000-08:00

For the starters, i am learning to drive a four-wheeler ( bullock-carts / modified rickshaw / tum tum and others are next on the list ;) ). Now being an inquisitive engg. myself, i always thought i ask a lot of questions. And when in mood, i can ask the most stupidest question ever. However, today this long lasting myth got broken and now the fact is that i at-least know one person who asks more irrelevant questions that i can think of. So here it goes ..

Morning 7:00 am, i reach the driving class destination, shivering. Its more cold than i had anticipated and should have worn that sweater instead of trying to look cool. There was this petite young lass. I guess, she was a product engg. from infosys because at-least her bag had those words imbibed on them. 7:10 , she broke the eternal silence and asked .. isn't it cold ?. I was like .. no ..its damn hot here ..feel like going for a swim .I just smiled and reminded her that this is the cold season. Immediately the next question was, how late is this man today. Though she had asked a right thing, i didn't reply back ( simple smile !!).

Finally 7:15, the instructor came. I get to drive first. Its been 7 days that i am driving now. I haven't learnt a great deal yet, but have improved a hell lot !! . Right from the first day , wherein i removed my hands from the steering wheel on seeing a truck coming from opposite side , i guess am at pretty good situation. Straight line drive is comfortable while side turns / U -turns still need assistance.

Right, so there i was completing my drive and driving cautiously on a small slope enjoying the serene morning and the calm and quite surrounding that pune showers on u these days .But that was the end ( of the thought and the calmness). What started next was a whole round of 20 minutes of firing of questions at point blank range.

Am driving, and up pops the question:

She : Sir slope pe konse gear pe gadi chalate hai ?
Instructor (I) : Stares. Thinks that he needs to give sum answer. And mutters "second".

She: Accha, matlab gadi uppar le jate samay bhi second aur neeche aate samay bhi second ?
I: madam, woh aapke speed ke hisab pe hota hai.

Wow... does she always drive with the rule books ?? , drive at this speed on this lane only !! ..

Next i was asked to take a U-turn. Not being good at it, i was a bit nervous and wanted to get over with it as soon as possible. But the champion lady had other thoughts in her mind.

Up pops the question, "sir mujhe aapne U-turn kyun nahi sikhaya ??"

For a moment i felt telling her .. le bhai .. yeah le steering, maar de U-turn tu hi. But sanity was restored and i completed my round of training quite comfortably.

Next it was her chance, and boy ..she clocked more questions than the wheels did the revolutions.

S: Sir clutch dabau ?
I: Aap ka pehle din thode hai Jo yeah basic questions puch rahe ho...
S: Nahi sir, mujhe darr lagta hai..
I: chalo ..

She accelerates more instead of leaving the clutch, hence the car vibrates instead of going ahead.

S: Sir, car main kuch kharabi hai ?? ( What the hell ??)
I: clutch chodo .. accelerate mat karo
S: ohh ..

The moment she gets car moving:

S: Sir second gear?
I: Ruko.

Just when the instructor signals for gear change:
S: Sir sab gears dalu ek ek karke ?
I: huh
S: Sir, woh dusre sir ne aisse hi sikhaya (The other instructor's job is gone i guess now).

After few moments.

S: Kitne thandi hai na?
S: Sir, 4th gear pe kitna speed hona chahiye ( Thatz a valid question)
S: Sir, gadi control main nahi rehti..

While taking a sharp turn,

I: Slow , clutch, third , release clutch, clutch, second.
S: Sir, directly second gear main dal du ??

By this time , i was actually enjoying the whole thing. There was a bus stop ahead, with few people standing there. While going near to that part of the road,the car moved a bit towards the stop. Instead of getting the vehicle back in line, she mumbled out , logon ko laggega main unhe pick up karne aa rahi huin !! .... killer statement.

I must confess,the lady has set new standards in my books when it comes to blabbering and asking useless questions. Looking forward to drive with her the next time around ;)

God, am i a mess ??

2008-12-15T23:31:00.000-08:00

When God gave out brains,
I thought He said trains,
And I said I'd take the next one.

When God gave out looks,
I thought He said books,
And I didn't want any.

When God gave out noses,I
thought He said roses,
And I ordered a big one.

When God gave out legs,
I thought He said kegs,
So I ordered two fat ones.

When God gave out ears,
I thought He said beers,
So I ordered two long ones.

When God gave out chins,
I thought He said gins,
So I said, "Give me a double.

"God, am I a mess!!

Marvell-ous Begining

2008-12-03T01:46:00.000-08:00

Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted

Dan Sanford

40 months of work experience and i couldn't understand the meaning of this statement. However it got crystal cleared within 3 minutes one fine day. I resigned (lay off !! ) from my previous company and have joined a new one. Work wise nothing would change i guess ( it might get better ).What is more difficult i how i adapt to new environment, new people (and hence new friends) and overcome the fact that i can't keep missing my old office.

I was ghastly shocked / sad when i resigned as i had never thought of such situation. What was more bad was the untimely occurrence of the event.After the initial hiccup, where the whole world seemed against me, i now think that whatever has happened did happen for a cause which was to open my eyes.

It is in this period that i came to know who my real friends / well-wishers are. I called up some people considering them to be my friends but i was greeted with the words "will call u later" and hunged up to be never called back again. And then there were people, who called me up on their own and gave me all sorts of moral support (which was the need of the hour), some even from outside india ( Just shows how popular i am ;) ). Also it gave me some time to introspect myself and figure out where i stand today in the given scenario, how well can i cope with it, what are my strengths and where do i lack. Hence the real "eye opener".

Another bad thing that happened in the previous week was the Mumbai terrorist attacks. My deepest condolences for the victims of the attacks.We must thank the NSG commandos / fire-fighters / police and all ppl involved in the grueling attack and should be proud of their bravery. Hats off to them. Somebody please give me Raj Thackeray's phone number coz i want to ask him where is he hiding now? , Where is his marathi manus theory gone and his sena of dacoits who can vandalize at an examination centre on poor and innocent students, but are left hiding under their beds when a real trouble came. Also the NSG commandos who risked their lives never said that this is an issue in a marathi speaking region, hence we won't go there. They treated the attack on motherland and did what a true Indian should do.

But then, the good part is that atleast now some steps would be taken and stringent actions performed to ensure such stupid security lapses do not occur again in future.

Coming back to my new job, i still have to get to the terms and conditions b4 i feel settled in. Till then .. tata :)

Mistaken Identity

2008-11-10T22:36:00.000-08:00

Rahul Dholakia had a dream., he wanted to be like Ketan Shah. He used to follow Ketan quite minutely and over a period of time he developed a Ketan Shah walk and talk.

However, it turned out that Ketan Shah instead wanted to be like Rajiv Kapoor. So, Ketan made it a point to atleast physically resemble Rajiv Kapoor. He also tried to wear the kind of clothes similar to the ones worn by Rajiv Kapoor so as to look as cool as Rajiv..

So, Rahul Dholakia ended up walking and talking like Ketan Shah in the attire of Rajiv Kapoor.

And Rajiv Kapoor was himself a very big impersonator of Tejas Chandok. Rajiv's every move was in itself nothing more than an attempted imitation of Tejas Chandok.

So overtly, Ketan Shah's attire was not really Rajiv Kapoor's but Tejas Chandok's.

And coming back to, Rahul Dholakia- He ended up walking and talking like Ketan Shah in the attire of a guy called Tejas Chandok mixed with some alterations done by Rajiv Kapoor.

Tejas Chandok, instead was inspired by quite a few people in a quite a few number of things. He tried to follow Amol Deo's style, Ajay Shetty's Accent, Aneesh Gore's build,Shailesh's Tie tying method, Dev Anand's hand rocking ways, Rajesh chawla's watch, Shalini's smile (?) , Ayub's hairs, Ram Singh's moustach etc. etc.

Now, even God doesn't know who exactly is Rahul Dholakia resembling.

Moral of the story: Most of us look upto someone and try to be like that person or attain the heights / traits which a particular person has achieved. In the process we forget what we can do on our own. So it is best to do what u feel is correct rather than trying to do what someone else has done !!

End of Rahul's gyan :p .... chao

Chinese in the box

2008-10-01T00:27:00.001-07:00

Following are my all time favorite 4 chinese jokes !! ... they are really hilarious :p ... IF any1 is reading this ...then you must check out the last joke ...unbelievingly mind blowing to say the least ...

１：一艘船失事后，1名女乘客和10名男乘客漂到了一个荒岛上。
一个月后，那个女的自杀了，因为她觉得这一个月发生的事情实在太恶心了。
一个月后，他们决定把她埋了，因为他们觉得这一个月发生的事情实在太恶心了。
一个月后，他们决定把她挖出来，因为他们觉得这一个月发生的事情实在太恶心了。
一个月后，上帝把那个女的复活了，因为他觉得这几个月发生的事情实在太恶心了。

２：有一个成年男子来到一家旅馆，他看到车库里有很多漂亮的车，于是就问老板，怎么有这么多漂亮的车啊，老板告诉他，我有一个五岁的儿子，他做三件事，如果你能跟着做到，这里的车随你挑一辆开走，如果不能，就把你的车留下，很多人做不到，所以。他想，五岁的小孩能做到的，还能做不到嘛，于是就试一试。老板就带他到一个屋子里，里面有一个漂亮的裸体美女，小孩过去亲了她一下，他跟着做了，然后小孩又过去摸了美女的全身，他也跟着做了，第三件事，小孩掏出小弟弟弯了三下。

３：某男隐居深山,一曰赤裸身体躺于草丛中休息.突然来了个采蘑菇的小姑娘:“1个,2个,3个,4个,5个,5个,5 个,5个...“最终放弃离开.此男甚爽.第二天依然裸睡于此,来了个采蘑菇的小熊:“1个,2 个,3个,4个,5个,5个,5个,5个...6个,7个,8个......“

and ...

４：说白雪公主与皮诺曹生活在大森林里，一曰，白雪公主终于耐不住寂寞，抓住小匹的头夹在两腿之间说道：“说实话、说假话、再说实话、再说假话...”这样说了一千遍，公主才把小皮放开。

wasn't that funny now ? :p

chao !!

Windows - A virus ???

2008-09-15T22:43:00.000-07:00

The one thing i do everyday religiously is browse the web and figure out what is new in linux. Needless to say i come across comparison with M$ (windows ..if u didn't figure it out ;) ) at various levels. I do have a few points to say from my side too. I was reading about what virus does and have seen uncanny resemblance in what windows does. Herez a small peek-view

1. Virus are known to perform haphazardly and block all your system resources for its own usage.
Windows works the same way. somehow i always ran out of system memory as the OS was doing something "more important" thing of its own.

2. Virus replicate themselves.
Well once problem starts in windows, a reboot is the only option, or the problem just keeps on growing !!.

3. Virus usually reside inside a piece of code and get activated when the code is executed.
Official Windows come in packaged form,that you buy ,and once you run windows ...

4. As i mentioned, Virus hog the system, making u to buy new software.
Windows does that all the time :-D .Though its not just software up gradation but also hardware in some cases.

5. If anti-virus fails, reformatting the file-system is the best known solution against virus.
In windows, sometimes i feel formatting and reinstalling things is the only option available :p

Until now it seems Windows is a virus but there are fundamental differences:

a. Viruses are well supported by their authors (You can actually see the signatures of the proud owners)

b. They run on most systems (Sometimes viruses are made cross-platform )

c. Their program code is fast, compact and efficient and they tend to become more sophisticated as they mature. Some serious man power is utilized in creating virus !!

So from the above differences mentioned, i conclude:

Windows is not a virus. It's a bug

ha ha !!!

12 sep 2001

2008-09-11T22:22:00.000-07:00

Seven years before, exactly this day, I stepped out in a new world. It was the first day of my engineering life which would then be followed by my service (job) days. It was the first day of what would be my ever-lasting , fun-filled most precious years of my life that would shape up and bring me to the point where i am today and i must confess that i have enjoyed every tiny-weeny bit of it.

I still remember that day, because just a day before it ,that is on sep11 ,the twin towers were brought down by "osa mama". I had enthusiastically taken up Information Technology as my engineering . branch in a college which was hosting that particular stream for the first time. Despite the never-ending looks and scoldings i got from my near and dear ones for taking up such a step when i was easily getting the more established streams(E&TC / mechanical etc. ) ,i still stuck to my decision. After all ...bhai merri jindagi hai ..kuch bhi karu.

However the US bombings had made it clear that the IT boom would no more be a story ..and all the people had started saying "You taken IT ?? " with the pity full eyes. Amongst this high tension volatile surrounding i had gone to a place which somehow was filled up with loads of people and yet i found myself all alone. Though this was not going to be a for a long time because i met up the 40 odd people of my batch. And boy , how much i should thank God for giving me the best college mates i could have ever asked for. The actual learning process did start with a bang ( and is still continuing ). The assignments, the college canteen, standing in the corridor and doing "bird watching" , mimicking college professors , completing (copying) assignments at the last moment, studying together to scrap through the exams , and the celebration on even the smallest achievement. Such memories are hard to forget :)

4 yrs of college was followed by almost 3 yrs of service in the software sector.Right from being this college pass out who took his job as just other practical assignment, to now where i guess i am more serious about what i am doing , is also worth applauding. (Altough my dream life is that of a pensioner's ... sit at home and u get monthly wages :p ). I had never expected myself to do so well. The fact that my company has yet not kicked me out does somewhere tell that i am not doing that bad either. Well done Rahul !! .... (This is called blowing your own trumpets ..hi hi)

Seven years onto this day, i think i am fairly placed to take up responsibilities (family / social) .. have made really good friends .. made horrible mistakes in those 7 yrs and have learnt tons of things from those mistakes.If someone would ask me that if i had a chance what would i change in those 7 yrs ?.. then i would say that I am proud of what i am today and every aspect of those years have helped me to become to what i am and hence nothing needs to be changed. Its just PERFECT !!! ... ( Shouldn't i get some award for such a good answer ?? :p)

Olympic fever

2008-08-20T23:10:00.000-07:00

Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps are once again making news in the 2008 Olympic edition. I came across this link which gives a slight overview of their diets.

Hmmm .... I think i can reach the mark set by Michael. I am already eating as much as he does (may be more ) . A bit of more food here and there and Michael Phelps will soon have a competition .

The Three Mistakes of my life ....

2008-08-06T22:27:00.000-07:00

SPOILERS ALERT !!! .... Only read it if you have already read the book or are not planning on reading it

Hmmm... so where do I start ??. This piece of Chetan Bhagat is one of those predictable kind of books where in you just guess what would happen next and most of the times it works out that way (apart from some surprises here and there, but off course.) But hey, this is in fact the best compliment an author of a book can ever get cause the reader is able to connect to the characters in the book and can foresee what is going to happen :-p.

Story revolves around G Patel (Govind) and his two friends Ish and Omi. These three are chaddi friends. All three have certain qualities (good / bad ) that the other two are aware of and yet they stick with each other through thick and thin (almost i would say) without complaining.. After all Isn't that what friendship is all about ?? . Add in some more characters like Ish's sister, their parents, a Muslim boy and few people who form the "anti-social" genre and u have the complete chat-pata story in your hand !! ...

Since its fictional, be ready to accept the fact that the mistakes are not planned ones and coincidentally happen by chance. Also i have not come yet to digest that those three were actually mistakes.

Mistake 1:
Govind books a store in a big posh building where he invests all that he had saved and also borrows a lot of money thinking he could repay. However an earthquake causes the yet unfinished building to collapse and also the dream of Govind to make it big. Sheer bad luck i would say.

Mistake 2:
Next, Govind falls in love with his best friend's sister thereby breaking the code. Personally i don't see this as a mistake and is one of the points where i don't agree with the author.

Mistake 3:
This is really a mistake that if i would have committed, even i would have felt bad about it for a long time. Govind's inability to save Ali (Muslim kid) from being injured which could have been averted had Govind shown better presence of mind.

However if i were to judge the three mistakes, i would say that not able to save Ali from injuries is not that big mistake. I would say that the third mistake would be that of Govind calling Omi to the fateful place on the night of the riots which lead to eventually death of Omi. Circumstances created by a person which unknowingly initiate a chain of actions and causes loss of a dear friend is a far bigger mistake than injuring a kid's hand. But then ..thatz my opinion ..so tomorrow if i write a book, u now know what to expect .

On the whole, a very good book and a satisfying one !! ... The climax is full on bollywood style ... and the end is i guess purposely left a bit hanging ... just in case author decides to make a sequel to this book. How smart na ??? ... both author and me too cause i have figured it out . . ha ha ..

File converter

2008-06-09T00:09:00.000-07:00

Before you start frowning and saying what gr8 stuff is this, my explanation: arre bhai free of cost hai aur kafi accha hai [ I wish i get paid for such publicity ]

So herez this one file convertor that works for linux and converts any file format to any....any matlab ..any . yakeen nahi hota ..toh yeah dekho

File Converter is free of cost web based utility. Quite good and i have really felt its importance when my boss suddenly asked me to give a document in a "abc" format when i had taken so much pains (yes ..for a change) and did the document in "xyz" format.

Do have a look :).

Googlization of google

2008-06-06T02:06:00.000-07:00

Every Software Engineer believes in GOD ... yeah got it right ..Google Oriented Development .

We all know the success story of google, two college students starting it as a project which today rules the internet. However not many would know how google's web page used to appear previously .

The first thing to catch anyone's eye is the fact that google boosted of indexing ~25 million pages. Last heard, this number had risen to some billion pages .

Another insight, when google was still a Stanford research project, it was nicknamed BackRub. It was called so because google implied a technology that checked backlinks to determine a site's importance and hence the name .

The site also has a special note saying ""Google is research in progress and there are only a few of us so expect some downtimes and malfunctions." Imagine today google going down !!

Lastly, i really think google's webpage still resembles its first layout. If you remove the text part from its predecessor, it will almost come down to what google's webpage looks today (If you excuse the logos i.e. ). Simplicity .. isn't it ?

scratchbox in hardy

2008-06-04T05:02:00.000-07:00

One sunny morning, i decided to upgrade to hardy on my desktop.I upgraded , and it started to rain (literally ..its raining now in pune :) ).

Starting scratchbox gives the following error in hardy:

Welcome to Scratchbox, the cross-compilation toolkit!

Use 'sb-menu' to change your compilation target.

See /scratchbox/doc/ for documentation.

Inconsistency detected by ld.so: rtld.c: 1192: dl_main: Assertion `(void
*) ph->p_vaddr == _rtld_local._dl_sysinfo_dso' failed!

Inconsistency detected by ld.so: rtld.c: 1192: dl_main: Assertion `(void
*) ph->p_vaddr == _rtld_local._dl_sysinfo_dso' failed!

Inconsistency detected by ld.so: rtld.c: 1192: dl_main: Assertion `(void
*) ph->p_vaddr == _rtld_local._dl_sysinfo_dso' failed!

The work around for this that worked for me is as follows :

Execute the following commands:

# sudo sh -c 'echo 0 > /proc/sys/vm/vdso_enabled'
# sudo sh -c 'echo 4096 > /proc/sys/vm/mmap_min_addr'

The explanation i gathered is that the first echo enables video support. The virtual memory "mmapped" page size is set to 64K.Therfore compiling inside scratchbox won't work. Hence the second echo.

If any1 has more insight about the same (other method / reason ) , feel free to enlighten me about the same :).

Last Few days......

2008-02-12T23:08:00.000-08:00

OK ..first a explanation for the pervert frnds (yes you there), the title is intended to mean what happened in last few days ..and not my last few days. hah u wish !! ..

Apparently the best way to describe the last few days would be "unimaginable ". Yeah ..really. The last few days have been full of activities which otherwise i would have taken around a month to do it (considering how lazy i am .. may be over that :) ).

For the updates, last week top officials of my company went to showcase our product at 3GSM in Barcelona. (Inside news ...we are getting lots of good responses ;) ..yipeee )

On the weekend, family members ( mom particularly) decided that i have to go with them to nashik to attend an event. The important part to mention was that i was "told" about the decision and was not part of "making" decision . Not that i was busy a great deal ...but still ... kuch toh bhav hai apna :-p.

Tickets were booked, and the journey started. The only thing i thought of in the whole 4 hours bus travel was that our state government must do something about the state of the roads. I couldn't help but remember the famous words:

"Everyone travels on the left side of the road, in india we travel on what is left on the road"

However i later on realized that throughout the journey ,there was actually road repairs going on and our bus was forced to go from the leftover side roads. So much for the tax i pay ,huh !

11:30 pm we made up to our destination and soon i was dozing away in the comfy- cozy hotel room we had booked. Next day morning 8 pm sharp India-Australia match :-D. I know .... parents were just short of hitting me as i switched off the TV on time :).

I visited this place called Muktidham . It was real nice ..huge in fact. And then started the function. It was good, apart from the fact that most of the people were interested in finding soul mates for their son/ daughter , but it was still good. What mattered at the end was that it had good food and i had lots of eye exercise which was a welcome change:). In fact i had promised some one that i would take a girl's picture without letting her know and guess what i just won the bet :).

The return journey was more harrowing compared to one i had while going.It was nothing as i was promised.Nothing comfortable, stale AC , old movie . I was literally counting minutes before the torture ended. Infact, i couldn't forget the conditions for the whole next day as i could still feel the pain in my back :( .

Just when i thought that i had enough, an amazing thing happened which has never happened before in like almost 12 yrs. I woke up and early morning i had an unexpected guest having aaram in a nice place. Now am proud to say that our place is completely void of such frnds, but have no clue from where did he make it upto my bedroom's window. What followed next was a bit mayhem with mom sis going into the aggressive mood while i could tried my level best to get a momento of this uninvited guest. I guess he ( i guess it was he and not she , gut feeling u see) got real bored of watching all the motion happening with him being the center stage and decided to call it a day. He quite acrobatically returned from where, i assume, he had entered. I don't want to exaggerate this incident but am definitely going to remember this for a long time because thatz something unusual in my books.

In the end, hectic week with lots of events.Won't say didn't like them, but then had they occured every now and then i wouldn't have noticed it either this time around ;)

END !!

For geeks , visit this.

Only in Pune

2008-01-29T22:47:00.000-08:00

If you know some one staying in Pune (India) let them know this. If you
are in Pune, do go through this story COZ, its a real one. Read this
true story…and let everybody you know in and around Pune especially
University Road……….

My friend lives in Deccan… One day he went to University Road to visit his uncle for some days as his parents had to attend a wedding in Alibagh. One evening he and some other of my college friends went to Adlabs for a
movie. He had so much fun that he forgot that it’s very late.

He caught the last PMT to University Road….. he reached University road around midnight. He had to walk about a mile from the bus stop to home. It was pretty late and not a single soul was visible for miles.As he was walking alone, he could sense that the night felt very creepy as it was so dark. While walking, he was astonished to see an old weird-looking guy selling some books. It was a very unusual thing to see a thing like that (man selling books so late ).

The situation got worse when he noticed that this old guy was unusually pale and staring at him… The old guy said “Son why don’t you buy a book…it would keep you company”.

Then my friend did something which he would regret for the rest of his life. My friend started to act brave & thought why not & had a look at his collections. My friend’s hair started to stand on end as he noticed that all the books were related to supernatural activities…but he found one that was very interesting.

So he asked the old man “how much is it, uncle?” The old guy replied, “Well son…this is an interesting book…it’s only for Rs 250.

My friend was shocked and said “but…but… it’s expensive”.

This time the old man stared which freaked my friend. My friend did not want to cross this scary old man, so he quickly checked all his pockets & found Rs.200 & said “This is all I have.” The old guy replied “It’s OK son… you can have the book for that price”.

As my friend was just about to run for home…the old man called back and said “Son … whatever happens, don’t ever flip the book to it’s last page… remember these words or you will regret…!!!!!”

My friend nodded and never looked back. Reaching home, he quickly asked his Uncle whether there was any new old book seller nearby?. The Uncle replied ” I haven’t seen him but ….we’ve heard that therez one old man who comes once in a while during full moon nights but heard that there is something creepy about it…why son?”

My friend freaked out. He told his uncle “nothing uncle… just asking”. He started reading the book with the old man’s parting words on his mind…At night, 2 o’clock, as he went to bed, a gush of wind blew which chilled him up to his bones. At that point, he noticed the wind had blown the pages to its last page. He remembered what the old man had said !!!

But we humans tend to have the tendency to know. Out of curiosity, he flipped to the last page & fainted… What he saw at the last page is stated below:

Don’t look further down if you have a weak heart

I warn you

…………

…..

….

…..

….

…..

….

…..

….

…..

…

….

…..

….

…..

Original price:– Rs. 20/-

Promotion price:– Rs. 10/-

Disclaimer: This is a very old story i had read when i was in school, but i actually remembered it when i was just strolling FC road sub-lanes the other night and it kinda felt good at remembering such a old thing that i had read once :). three cheers for my memory :p

Matrimony Personified

2008-01-17T05:00:00.001-08:00

Over a period of time ,i have come across a number of mails which showcase (rather esoterically ) the profound emotion (desperation) of people to put across their "down-to-earth" and "i-don't-expect-much" attitude while applying for a profile description for matrimony.However their supreme command over the language not just conveys the "correct" message but also tickles even the hardest punter !!. I really felt like picking up few , which stand out ;)

Right then ... here we go ... keep your brain out to have more fun

Hello To Viewers My Name is Shekhar , I am single idon't have female, If anyone want to Marie to me u canvisit to my home. I am not a good education but iworking all field in bangalroe.. if u like me uwelcome to my heart...when ever u want to meet plsvisit my resident or send u letter.. Thanks yoursRegards Shekhar

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i want very simple girl. from brahmin educated familyfrom orissa state she is also know about RAMAYAN,GEETA BHAGABATA, and other homework

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she should be good looking and should have a service.she Should have one brother and one sister. she shouldbe educated.

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I am a happy-go-lucky kind of person. Enjoys everymoments of life. I love to make friendship. Becausefriendship is a first step of love. I am looking formy dreamgirl who will love me more than i. Because ilove myself a lot. If u think that is u then why tolate come on ........hold my hand forever

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My wife should be as 'Shivani' as in Kahani Ghar GharKi and as Tanwerr as in KSBKBT......

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i want a girl with no drinks if she wants she can wearjeans in house but while stepping out of house sheshould give respect to our cast

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whatever she may be but she should feel that she isgoing to be someone bride and she must think of thefuture life if she is too like this she would becalled the woman of the lamp

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i love my patner i marriage the patner ok i search mypatner and i love thepatner ok thik hai the patner hasa graduate ok

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iam kanan. i do owo businas.one sistar.he was marred.

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ssc failed three times and worked with privated ltdcompany which not paying salary at present

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iam very simpel and hanest. i have three sister onebrother and parent. i am doing postal sarvice andtailor master my original resdence at kalahandi distenaw iam staing at rayagada dist.

priceless statements !!

Geek Code

2008-01-02T21:07:00.000-08:00

The other day i came across this cool geeky thing and decided to give it a try.

My geek code is as follows :

GE/IT d- s:+ a-- C++++ UL+++ P+ L++ E+ W++ N+++ o+ K++ w--- O M V PS+ PE+ Y++ PGP+ t+ 5++ X++ R+ tv++ b+++ DI+ D++ G++ e++ h r--()>+ y

ok ok ... to understand what that means u need a geek decoder ( now how smart is this :) )

You can find a geek code decoder right here.

speed up menu popup in ubuntu

2008-01-01T22:43:00.000-08:00

I came across this cool hack which helps to fastens the menu popup in ubuntu. Add it really works :)

Create a .gtkrc-2.0 file in your home directory and copy:

gtk-menu-popup-delay = 0"| tee -a .gtkrc-2.0

in the file. Now relogin and experience the difference :-D

Bluetooth wonders

2007-11-12T21:35:00.000-08:00

Long time back i had decided to blog regularly ( daily !!! ) . The time frame increased to weekly, then monthly. So now after almost two years ( yeah, it has been that long that i am working, unbelievable isn't it ?? ) i have decided to come back to this battle field to fight the unwon war . Listening to music, i have now decided to write about bluetooth. Why this ?, arre bhai .. its my blog ..i can write about anything :-D

I actually have bought Nokia N73 lately, and my tryst at getting my photos transfered from PC to / from mobile brought me more closer to this technology. So herez how u do it on linux.

1. Bluez-utils / libs is the user space package that is needed to get bluetooth apps running. Get that installed

2.Check whether bluetooth is "on" . fire the command "hciconfig -a" to check output. No output from this command means, no bluetooth hardware available.

3. Next time to scan devices. "hcitool scan" does it .Bluez now has a rich set of dbus API's and i decided to use them.

Bluetooth protocol follows simple steps ..viz search, select , pair , connect , do your work, disconnect !!

As simple as it would get ;)

You can use GUI apps that does all those things with a click or use the dbus APIs (for the "ohh i need terminal people) and get things done simply.

Gnome has the gnome-bluetooth package whereas the ever reliable KDE has the kbluetoothd (my favorite :) )

You can refer this FAQ. Also the wiki is worth reading.

Adios ;)

First blog

2006-03-01T05:32:00.000-08:00

phew!! writing the first blog !! (do i sound nervous?) ha ha . i think this turns out to be more fun then what my friends suggest .. however things r not looking that good to start with ... need to spend some time wandering around to check how things happen and how to make things happen !!