pmd@blog

2009-12-05T02:23:00.001-08:00

Unga Ponnana Tamil Song | Online recorder

Latest Music at Muziboo.com

2008-09-29T06:58:00.001-07:00

Latest Music at Muziboo.com | Upload Music

Reviving my personal blog

2008-05-02T22:02:00.000-07:00

A year back I left this blog to start blogging on my own domain name and since then it has been very difficult to write a lot of personal thoughts there as I am always afraid it will confuse a lot of people who come to my blog.

I have decided to write back again here. Lot of personal thoughts .. certainly nothing much about business or Muziboo. There have been a few personal triggers lately to start blogging here again.

Feels nice to be back again here as I don't have to think about what am writing here and if it will make sense to everyone.

One of my favorites

2007-09-25T22:46:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite song in Muziboo.com

Trying out the new camera

2007-05-28T00:10:00.001-07:00

Stork
Originally uploaded by Prateek Dayal

Tried out the new EOS400D camera and the sigma 70-300mm lens yesterday at ranganathittu bird sanctuary near Mysore. Some shots came out well although a DSLR is still very very baffling to me compared to a point and shoot. I think a long way to go before I can take great pictures .. the kinds that originally inspired me to buy a DSLR :)

Got it!

2007-05-25T20:34:00.000-07:00

I finally got the following gear:

Canon EOS400D Kit
Sigma 70-300mm DG Macro Lens
2 GB Sandisk Compact Flash Card
A couple of UV filers, bags etc

I got the stuff from Jayesh, Chikpet, Bangalore. Must say a nice enthu guy :).
Will click some pictures soon and post them somewhere. I plan to start a photoblog or start tagging these posts with soemthing so that I can keep a track of them in future :)

Ubuntu !

2007-05-24T03:40:00.000-07:00

So I finally installed ubuntu on my laptop and quite a few softwares too. I have installed 7.04 and the only issue was in getting the wireless working. I have Dell Inspiron 2200 and have wireless mini pci 1370 b/g adapter. I followed the instructions here finally and it was up and working. I think the main thing is to use the driver files for ndiswrapper from the link given in this forum post.

Feels good to be running linux again!

Photography 201

2007-05-18T04:55:00.000-07:00

hi,

I think I am kind of through with photography 101. But then that is a personal feeling. I often feel the need for much better zoom and also want to try out with a digital SLR. I have been reading a lot lately about different cameras and lenses etc and I think this would be the gear that I would be buying soon. May be not all of it at once but over some period of time

1. Canon EOS400D kit (with 18-55mm lens)
2. 2 GB Extreme CF Card
3. A decent tripod, camera bag, some filters may be
4. 70-300m Tamron Telephoto Macro lens

Right now I am just trying to figure out the best deals and also work out funds for the gear. I am getting a very good deal on 350D but then I am not sure if I "don't" wanna buy a 400D. Let me see !

Hello Fiesty

2007-05-16T02:42:00.000-07:00

Right now I am installing Fiesty Fawn on my laptop and blogging from the same machine. I hope to get back into some linux action again. I suddenly have this itch to be all geeky again and this will be the first stuff. Second or third should be to get a domain name and start a website with a technical blog.

Lets see how the whole experiment goes.

PS: Can someone lend me a DVD writer so that I can backup my second windows partition and make it /home ? :)

Getting Married !

2007-04-23T20:24:00.000-07:00

I am getting married on the 28th of this month to Nithya. We got engaged on 14th of march and here is a link to the pictures

Engagement

See you after the wedding ! :)

Prateek

Barcamp 3 in IIM Bangalore on 31st April and 1st May

2007-03-26T00:10:00.000-07:00

Barcamp Bangalore

Barcamp is an adhoc gathering, an open event for people to meet up, share, exchange ideas and possibilities. We turn around the notion of a formal conference by eliminating the distinction between speakers and delegates. Everyone is just a participant, and is equally welcome to propose a discussion, moderate it, or speak up on a topic they are familiar with.

Does this work? Indeed! Look up the main Barcamp site for the several that have taken place around the world so far, or read up on what an unconference is.

I hope to attend this barcamp as I have heard a lot about it. See you all there.

iMate

2007-03-23T05:25:00.000-07:00

I finally got a new phone. Check the company link here

I have been using it for like 3/4 days now and I feel its worth the price. I got it from official mobiles, residency road, bangalore and they offered a really good price to me. I got the phone with a 2GB memory card (mini-SD), which is the maximum the phone can support. Without a memory card, its very tough to exploit the features phone has to offer as you cannot install any new applications.

Looks and built quality of the phone is really nice although I would have preferred a camera lens cover. One thing I found was the keys are really closely spaced and I feel some problem typing messages.

The interface is pretty neat and once you get used to it, things can be done real quick. The phone is responsive enough unless you are running a really heavy application on it (like a mp3 player with equalizers etc). It sports an internet explorer and pocket outlook and they work very well. With integrated wifi, the phone is very useful. I installed skype on the phone and could talk to a friend in US (using skype out) while connected to my linksys router. The connection manager handles security keys etc pretty well. I have faced no issues on that front.

In terms of the software bundled, Active Sync is included and its pretty easy to transfer files to the phone. I have not been able to figure out a way to sync using bluetooth yet, but then I have not even opened the manual till now.

On the entertainment front, it is good to install core player on the phone for videos and pocket pc music player for mp3 as the integrated media player is not very impressive. Pocket PC music player, though very heavy on system resources is actually very impressive in terms of sound quality. If you are a music freak, this is a must have software. However its not freely available and you can only try out a shareware version for free.

The camera on the phone is 1.3 M pixel but has no autofocus. I feel cameras on sony ericsson (ones with autofocus atleast) are much better and if you are really looking for a great camera, consider those phones.

My overall impression of the phone has been pretty good and I feel its worth the money I paid. I paid around 11k for the phone and 1.5k for the mini-SD card, which sounds reasonable to me. I had considered sony ericsson etc too while buying this phone and I feel one must seriously consider an iMate before you finalize on something else.

Waters and more ....

2007-02-12T21:07:00.000-08:00

Roger Waters' Dark Side of the Moon concert
Febuary 18th
Bandra Kurla Complex
Mumbai

One day trip ...

A memory for life ...

Looking forward to it ...

See you there :)

Love or something like that

2007-01-11T00:45:00.000-08:00

Today I am going to write about something I don't even have much insight into. I wrote a post on relationships some time back. My perspective on it. Today I will write on love .. just the emotion. I will try to explain what it is and I know I will fail miserably. It takes a thousand ghalibs to explain it. But I still want to :)

I feel love is like a state. But before that its like this transition. You don't see it happening in you, but it happens and you look in the mirror after sometime and you see a different person. Love has this great power to make you happy. And with happiness comes a lot of other things in life. Belief in another person is one. Now this is a great feeling in itself. In this world full of cynicism, betrayal, you start trusting a person more than even yourself. At first you find it funny, but slowly it becomes a state of mind. This trust can do wonders to you. You start looking at life in a new way. All the bad things stop mattering or don't matter that much. As put beautifully in "Shall we dance", your life starts mattering to someone. So even the mundane things become romantic all of a sudden. Life does not change as such. You still go to work, drive through the crazy traffic, but then one day you realize that you are not cursing the bad traffic enough. You wonder whats wrong .. or is the world a better place ... its not .. its just you. You are in love ....

Another interesting thing happens in love. It happens more so if your partner shares an interest for the things you like. You always liked things; but those things being liked by someone else is like this invisible bond between the two of you. You can call it "having same taste", but then you know its a much deeper emotion. Everytime a song plays on the radio and the two of you look at each other with the "I know ... ain't that song great" look, you know you are in love.

However there are many example to suggest that this is not necessary. I think it has more to do with the fact that you want to do things together. In fact you do not even have to do things together. All you really want to do is be together. Be together to witness the moments in each other's life. It could be one of you playing a song on the guitar or making a great dish or even something geeky. Does not matter what it is. All that matters is that you feel proud of the other person and you can see it in the other person's eyes how much it matters to them that you are there to appreciate something they did. In fact in love it all comes so naturally. Your partner doing something that you always wanted to do or found impossible is like you doing it. I guess thats why they call them "your better half". In a true sense two people in love complete each other, as well as they can. Thats the spirit. That should be the spirit.

There are lots of other nice things in love. There are some not so nice things too. Anything that gives you so much happiness can give you a lot of pain too. But then I love the spirit that two ppl have in love to get out of their problems. The lack of 'i-have-had-enuf' attitude is what makes love such a great emotion. Relationships still break. But then I feel you should be seriously asking if there was ever a 'i-want-to-make-it-work' attitude and if there was .. where did you screw up. I think love in all forms can be a great teacher. Its an education for life. It teaches you how to find the most valuable thing in life and how to keep it. How to cherish it and
how to make sure it gets better over time and so do you.

As a friend once told me "Love is like God; its existence can always be questioned. Its your belief that really matter". I guess thats love for me as i feel it right now. Nothing makes sense ???? you were warned :)

Welcome 2007

2007-01-04T06:07:00.000-08:00

2006 finished on a not so pleasant note. 2007 arrived in the most beautiful way but has been not so obliging since then. But then this is a long year. Somethings were expected and the unexpected things add spice to life and also are like an exam. I think I will manage through ... I think "we" will :)

Here is wishing everyone "A Happy New Year"

Life this year

2006-12-22T01:10:00.000-08:00

Since I have been very lazy lately, I thought I will write a long post about life this year in general and about life in the last few months and stuff like that

You know :)

This has been an amazingly fast and happening year. I started with a new job and I am ending it in another company ... I started it in one house, shifted to another one and then I am ending it in a third (and if i can say .. a great) house. I drove around for 3000 kms in my car ... had a great time with my parents and played the loving son for a couple of weeks. I met lots of interesting people through orkut and then I kissed orkut goodbye after I am sure making what looks like lifelong friendships. I did not really travel very much this year ... however made quite a few roadtrips.

On another note, I found someone very special in my life and I think this year will be the most special year in my life for this very reason ... at the same time I know that life can be very unpredictable and one never knows whats lying ahead of them. I tried to start a company and even though things did not work out in the end, it was a great experience. I met tons of interesting people during that time and I really got to know what entrepreneurship is all. Its not a concept, its a state of mind, its a way of life. I still have a stack of visiting cards (with a bangalorebuyz email id; thats the company we were trying to start) with me and everytime I look back at them, there is a feeling of giving something a good try rather than a feeling of something not working out.

This year has taught me a lot of things in life. I think most important of them is that you hear about being strong and it looks like a good thing to do, but then when the time comes to be strong, it is actually tough to be strong .. its tough to stick to your values but if you do, in the end you will feel good. Now I don't want to sound very pedantic here :). But then I have reasons to feel good ... I know I have acted like a jerk sometimes, but then I have tried my best to balance if off

Well thats my year ... if really not all of it ... a lot of it ... atleast the spirit of it ...

Here is wishing you all a great new year ahead .. full of love, life, energy, music, movies, dance and everything and anything that can put a smile on your face

Enjoy the two long weekends!

Sweet November !

2006-11-29T20:35:00.000-08:00

I am not sure if this is a really famous movie but I cannot think of a more apt title for this post. This has been an amazing month. Lots of highs and some serious lows. But when I look back at it, it seems to be all so worth it. I am not sure where things will go from here, but I am quite bullish on the future :)

I have been hit by a thunderbolt !!!

Relationships

2006-10-25T21:00:00.000-07:00

This is something I wrote a couple of days back and now that I have internet at home I am putting it here

Stages in a Relationship

From what has been my limited exposure to the world of love and relationships, this is what I have arrived have. I may (will) be biased and some of the stuff may (will) sound negative

The starting phase:
This is the most rosy phase. Things seem great and the one is quite bullish on the future. The small signs and the big laughs all point towards a great future. Hot cups of coffees and cool icecreams taste their best in this phase. You start contributing to the growth of the telecom sector by making long long distance and longer short distance calls. Money seems to have no value in the great realtion that the two of you seem to be sharing. You start looking at each others' childhood pictiures in payjamas running after butterflies. Building memories for life. Life was never better !

The reality phase:
This phase is marked by small conflict on "tastes" and "values". Things start seeming less rosy but never the less optimistic. After all romeo and juliet had misunderstandings. You will live through them, you tell yourself. You start wondering how someone cannot like that legendery singer or that great dish. And whats the deal with drinking afterall ?

"Its not you, its me" phase:
I must admit that this part is certainly biased as I am sure lot of people never have to listen to this line (multiple times) in their life. I am even more certain that such people don't read my blog. They have better things to take care of. For those who have to live with this line, what can I say. This little line sums it all up (whatever it was) and leaves you wondering. Best thing to do is to startover and the easiest is to curse the other person. Atleast you are free to chose whichever gives you more peace (read: none).

However I am sure (and I want to believe this) that life does not end with a few such incidents. You move on and its for the best. No matter how hard you try to stay away from it, you will go through the stages again and at one point, there will be no "Its not you, its me" phase. I will post what stage will that be later ;-)

Disclaimer: I am drunk right now and may sound like a MCP. May be I am one .... who cares :)

Wired Again

2006-10-25T10:48:00.000-07:00

Finally have internet again in the new house. Its a zeenext connection and its been good so far. There were some installtion issues but the guy at the other end of the phone was able to help (and that really means something considering the average IQ of people in call centres ... no offence meant .. should i say technical IQ ?)

Current Music: Radio City :)

Slideshare: Sharing presentations

2006-10-05T03:36:00.000-07:00

A few dahlias on my building's roof

2006-09-11T01:12:00.000-07:00

bunch_dahlia
Originally uploaded by Prateek Dayal.

Took my camera to the roof in the evening yesterday and tried a few sunset shots with MG road buildings in the view and then tried my hands at a few dahlia plants on the roof. Here is one result. My flickr page has some more pictures

Downtown

2006-08-04T00:07:00.000-07:00

Mahuya's status message was Girl Interrupted. This was one movie that I casually picked up never expecting that it would leave such an impression. I really want to read the book when I get time next. However for now I want to hear the song downtown from it. I cannot however find it anywhere up for download or sale :(

DOWNTOWN
Tony Hatch
- as recorded in 1964 by Petula Clark

When you're alone and life is making you lonely
You can always go - downtown
When you've got worries, all the noise and the hurry
Seems to help, I know - downtown
Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city
Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty
How can you lose?

The lights are much brighter there
You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares
So go downtown, things'll be great when you're
Downtown - no finer place, for sure
Downtown - everything's waiting for you

Don't hang around and let your problems surround you
There are movie shows - downtown
Maybe you know some little places to go to
Where they never close - downtown
Just listen to the rhythm of a gentle bossa nova
You'll be dancing with him too before the night is over
Happy again

The lights are much brighter there
You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares
So go downtown, where all the lights are bright
Downtown - waiting for you tonight
Downtown - you're gonna be all right now

------ instrumental break ------

And you may find somebody kind to help and understand you
Someone who is just like you and needs a gentle hand to
Guide them along

So maybe I'll see you there
We can forget all our troubles, forget all our cares
So go downtown, things'll be great when you're
Downtown - don't wait a minute more
Downtown - everything's waiting for you

Downtown, downtown, downtown, downtown ...

?1964 Welbeck Music Ltd., London, England. Sole selling agent MCA Music
Publishing, a division of MCA, Inc, NY, NY. International copyright secured.

One Year

2006-07-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

On July 7th, I finished my first year in bangalore.

After a peg of whisky, if I look back at it, it has been a strange one year. Lot of good things happened, lot of not so good things (i really do not like saying bad things ... coz as I have found out over last few years, things can get really worse) and lot of things which I don't know if they were good or not. I can always call them as experiences which helped me grow as a person but I am sure I would have grown up alright even without them. I worked for and left one company and lived in and left one house. One of my roomie got married and the other I have lost touch with. The first five months were not too great professionaly, although I still cannot understand why. They were kinda good personally though. I made some good friends and I am still in touch with some of them.

The last seven months or so have been good professionally and not bad personally. I made fewer friends and started living alone. Living alone certainly has been a growing experience (no pun intended). It was kind of hard initially considering that I had just switched my job at that time and touch with someone I depended a lot upon. It took me sometime before getting used to the fact that I will have to have dinner alone. Coming from a place like IIT where hostel life rocks in its own way, it can be quite some time before you come to terms with living alone. Atleast that was how it turned out for me. On the positive side, I picked up on my reading and became less(er) dependent on people.

I did buy a lot of household stuff over the last one year and a common joke amongst my friends is that I am preparing for marriage. Well I am not. Not as such of course :) I bought a digital camera arnd january and that has turned out to be one of the best decisions of last one year. I just love clicking away with it and capturing beautiful objects. Atleast I make an effort and sometimes it does turn out allright. I went through a lot of mood swings in last one year. From the lows to highs, I keep seeing it all every now and then. Something that I love from the last one year will be

*. Radio city (night 9-12)
*. The weather in bangalore
*. Some good friends I made
*. The bottles of Royal challenge that I finished.
*. The confidence of being able to finish some work before a deadline
*. Some trips to places around bangalore
*. The lobby meetup in chennai
*. Posting pictures on flickr
*. Lunch @ Indijoe

Lot of things that I do not like so much, but there is no point listing them here ... Most of them are not really bad as such but may be they are just not what I expect them to be.

I get there is so much to write about this year, but I think this should be enough to remind me of this year; which is the real purpose of this blog .... and yes this has been one year where i think i blogged every month without a break ...

Mobile Phone

2006-07-01T08:55:00.000-07:00

In the last couple of years, we have seen mobile phone's penetration increase more than anything. Since incoming calls were made free and the call rates dropped and schemes such as friends and (would you be my ?) family came out, people have started spending more and more time and money on phone. No matter what the news; good, bad, happy or sad, there is always someone to call. I think my phone knows the most about me after myself. Only if it were a little more intelligent (which it may be in near future .. who knows), it could actually provide me with help on several decisions and I would take its advice seriously because I know that it understands me so well and knows so much about my life.
Will there ever be a day, when I will be able to pick up my phone and talk to "it" ?

something on YouTube

2006-06-29T05:02:00.000-07:00

i am only now discovering this great place called youtube.com

here is something i found

Baby kittens' first steps :)

2006-06-18T11:41:00.000-07:00

shot at kovalam beach, chennai

2006-06-18T11:40:00.000-07:00

junta@mocha cafe in chennai

june !

2006-06-18T11:27:00.000-07:00

First post of this month .. considering the frequency at which I write here, its been a long time. This month has been good so far and certainly quite a busy one. Had some good results at work which helped boost the low confidence levels :)

Went to chennai last weekend (will post pics using hello later) and had the best time since graduation. I must say that nothing in the last one year has even been close. The whole "gang" meeting up after more than a year. Something had not changed and some things did. All of a sudden it was like the not so old days ... having fun in everything done and said. There is no way to describe that time. Best thing about being with old friends is that you can be yourself. They know you very well and can understand whatever you throw at them.

We had a great time at chennai's Gandhi beach and kovalam beach. Took some great shots at kovalam. Had great meals in chennai including one at GRT Radisson's "The Great Kabab Factory" ........ thanks to moka, chugga and ashu (from ghy not blore) for the treat

I am back in bangalore but I can still hear those voices, the laughs and the jokes .... Saw the Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy movie. Found it ok .. but loved some characters like Marwin who has been depicted too well in the movie ... Trillian has a more important role than the book and looks too pretty :)

Looking forward to a brand new week ahead ... lets see ..

btw .. check out www.flickr.com/photos/prateekdayal for some more pictures !

This week

2006-05-26T09:09:00.000-07:00

Last few weeks have been kind of busy. At work and at home too. Our company got some coverage in hindu buisness line's magazine. There was supposed to be a picture too but somehow that got replaced by a random pic :(

But here it is

There has been a lot of debate about reservations on email and in real life and I have seen that the issue is quite close to a lot of people's heart. What I do not understand is what as an individual I can do. I know PAN IIT is thinking of writing to the prime minister on behalf of the IIT Alumni. You can write to PMO directly if you want by going to this link

Write to PMO

Please be nice :)

Some corporates are also supporting the youth who are protesting. You can find them here

Youth For Equality

I have been doing a lot of kernel hacking (If I am allowed to call what I do that) and am enjoying it quite a bit.

Have a great weekend !

Pepper Fry

2006-05-14T10:03:00.000-07:00

I tried this today

Recipe

It turned out ok again. At least that is what I think it was after two pegs of whisky :)

The mustard seeds added a sort of sweetish flavour to the whole dish (can't describe it better), which was quite new to me. But I surely enjoyed it a lot with rice.

So long then !

Whats cooking

2006-05-13T09:37:00.000-07:00

I decided to try something new today. I generally cook dinner and lately after getting a gas connection, the cooking possibilities have been expanded. Generally what I will be cooking is decided by what ingredients I have in my fridge. Today I had potatoes and curd at my disposal so I thought of making something out of it. I got a recipe from here

Link to the recipe

I modified it a bit to suit my resources again and used ginger-garlic paste instead of the 'real thing'. Also I preboiled the potatoes a bit in microwave before going to step 4. The stuff turned out quite fine. Just that I should have added a little more curd I feel.

Tomorrow is Mutton Pepper Fry :)

Movies' Blog

2006-05-08T11:20:00.000-07:00

ok .. so again with nothing better to write about, I have started a blog on movies. Watching movies is something that I do quite regularly and I thought that it will be a good theme to write regularly on ... atleast i will have something to write about every once in a while that may be of interest (a weak assumption) to others

Dee on Movies

A movie reviews blog with a nonsense name (I frankly speaking could not come up with anything better and did not want to name it Me and movies or Me Myself and Movies or something equally stupid (but not worse than the current name)).

Enough !!!

its that time again

2006-05-03T12:01:00.000-07:00

its that time again ..... its 12:30 in the night .... I feel sleepy but I do not want to sleep .... The day has come to an end but i think i have not got from it what i wanted ....

I am trying to keep myslef awake. There is nothing interesting on TV. I am too tired to work at this hour, there is no one online to talk to right now .... but I still want to be awake. I do not want to succumb to sleep right now. All sorts of things coming to my mind ... those IIT days when i would see a sunrise and sleep. The night was never long enough for all the activities. It has been a longtime since I saw sun rise over a sleepy city. That blue after a long black. It has been almost a year i must confess ....

I have only radio city to keep me company ..... i have only myself to keep me company ... i think its good enough

Yeh jo des hai tera from swades playing on radio city ... i wonder how many people are there listening to this song right now .... people i do not know ... people like me who do not want to sleep right now ...

the crashed post abt india gate

2006-04-28T03:47:00.000-07:00

why the *@#$ does this recover post button not work ?

I just wrote a small piece about how a lot of us met on holi in noida and the damn browser crashed. So I am not going to repeat all that stuff again. it was useles anyway. Anyway we started out the day (or the night as some may prefer to call it) at Centre stage mall in noida's "famous" sector 18.

From centre stage mall we headed to a daaru shop and got a couple of beers and RC (Royal challenge for the uninitiated). Then we headed to funky's place where we were joined by his brother. After a couple of rounds of whisky, I popped up the idea that we go to India Gate. It was close to 11 and we got some dinner packed from a dhaba (delhi has ltos of them compared to blore) and we reached India Gate around midnight. The great monument was not lit up as such but there was lot of lights on road. Driving in Delhi is a great pleasure especially in the night. Delhi surely lives up to the expectation of a capital city. We had some icecreams (thanks mama) and pranshu and I tried to make a tripod out of some sign boards and took this picture of India Gate.

Now once I am back in blore .. i miss my friends and time spent with them in IIT all the more :(

Hope for all (Geeks)

2006-04-19T21:32:00.000-07:00

I found this when i was reading about IRC on the net. Last few days I have been reading a lot about IRC channels for different open source project and so was just looking for some information about what this really is.

I ran into this online wedding transcript.

Net.Wedding :)

Have Fun (and hope) !!

When Harry met Sally

2006-04-17T21:17:00.000-07:00

If you have not seen the movie .. watch it rather than reading the stuff below .... you will thank me later I am sure

One of the greatest movies I have ever watched. Just came across the transcript of the movie and so I am putting it here

Transcript of the movie

If you do not know about the movie

Wikipedia on the movie

I miss that time

2006-04-17T05:37:00.000-07:00

I remember that in my school I used to have a big crush on a girl. She was in my class and I would talk to her sometimes. I had just got a new phone connection at home and I would dial her number with shaking hands and say something with trembling voice sometimes to her. I really remember how happy that it-means-nothing would make me. Today I really miss that time. I could never tell that girl what I felt for her .... May be I did not feel much .. it was most likely an infatuation ... nevertheless just the sight of that girl or her voice would make my day. High on hopes and dreams ...

I really miss that time now. I have the courage to go and ask a girl out but I do not have that hope ... that foolishness some people may call it. Blame it on the previous relationships or call it maturity or practical viewpoint .... I find myself having very little faith on things such as love and unconditional love especially. I find people making very sensible choices about love and marriages. Thinking about social structure of their family, caste, job and a thousand other factors when breaking old relationships or making new ones. I see that in friends and may be in me too. I am not blaming anyone. This is not an attempt at insinuation. May be that is the way to go about "such" things in life. May be we are not kids any more. May be things are not that simple as I think they are ....

But I really miss that time ........

Madikeri Trip (Coorg District)

2006-04-03T20:53:00.000-07:00

just made a trip to madikeri last weekend. I have more pics than I can uplaod. Here is a quick album a friend of mine uploaded on yahoo

Madikeri Trip on yahoo photos

I will upload my pics soon ... have just too many of them (abt 200) and there are all very big in size :(

Ajmer Trip

2006-03-28T02:42:00.000-08:00

With some determination we left for Ajmer around 7 O' clock in the morning and were on the expressway very soon. The GVK maintained expressway was quite impressive as I think I mentioned in my earlier post. About 19 kms from ajmer, we took the bikaner bypass to reach pushkar. We could have reached through the city as well but somehow the bypass looked attractive to explore.

The bypass again was quite well maintained and there was a Swami Dayanand Saraswati University on the way. Both sides of the road one could witness a lot of desert vegetation. Every once in a while there used to be a truck coming from the other side on the narrow road and my parents would put pressure on me to slow down and be careful. I would get to hear lines like "dekh ke chalo" :)

Inside Pushkar city, the traffic was a little more challengin and I switched seats with my dad. In pushkar, one can find a lot of foreigners roaming on rented bike. I found a Pink Floyd Hotel and Cafe also somewhere inside the small city. Pushkar is famous for the only Brahmo Temple in India and we paid it a visit. It is also very well know for the beautiful mansarovar. The lake surrounded by white shining building on three sides. I really found the place very beautiful and tried to capture the beauty in my camera. Lots of pigeons flock the place and you can if you want feed them too. After mansarovar, we went to Ajmer Sharif Dargah but as I was not sure abt the rules, I did not take any pictures there. We left back for jaipur after having some great non-veg food near the dargah and reached there around 7:30.

On the left are some other assorted pics clicked in ajmer showing the beautiful rajasthan and its culture.

Vacation

2006-03-24T06:04:00.000-08:00

I took a not so well deserved break and went to delhi two weeks back. I was supposed to reach there on 9th march 8:30 AM but thanks to official carrier of common sense I reached on 10th of march 2:30 AM. Picture on the left shows Bangalore airport's departure building. I clicked a few images before putting my camera back for the fear of being spotted as a terrorist planning an attack :)

Good thing about going home this time was the new car my parents had purchased. A shining beam blue zen LXI. Enthu of the new car made us plan a trip to rajasthan. We wanted to sample the expressway (actually we later realized its not a expressway) between delhi and jaipur. We found it to be a pretty good one with only problem being lot of places where you could take U turns. Haldiram in guragaon was a great place to eat before you step onto the highway.

On our way we took a break at a Rajasthan tourism motel. We only had some tea there and bought a couple of chocolates there but we found the people there amazingly well behaved and courteous. The highway pretty peaceful apart from the patches where there was some construction and both side traffic was put on the same lanes :)

In Jaipur we stayed with my dad's cousin and it was a fun stay for sure. Had great food and sampled some good whisky too :). My cousin told me about the 6 lane Jaipur Ajmer expressway and next day we set out to try it and visit ajmer too. The expressway was much better than the delhi jaipur highway and for those who have been to bombay pune expressway, its as good. This blurred image shows the highway at night.

I found ajmer more of a religious city. Will cover ajmer and the rest of the trip in the next post !

Golf Course @ Eagleton

2006-03-09T02:00:00.000-08:00

Gaheri Dosti

2006-03-09T01:58:00.000-08:00

Stupid Pose

2006-03-09T01:51:00.000-08:00

Allgo's entrance

2006-03-09T01:46:00.000-08:00

Office

2006-03-09T01:43:00.000-08:00

giving fundae to some poor soul :)

Terminator II on Star Movies

2006-03-07T22:26:00.000-08:00

Nothing better to do than watch this great movie again on sunday evening :)

The Allgo Mug !

2006-03-07T21:14:00.000-08:00

2006-03-05T23:23:00.000-08:00

And this is what happens when you had not shaved in ages or spent on a hair cut but spend on a new camera give it to sachin to try out ... and he tries it out on you ....

Corner house again

2006-03-05T23:20:00.000-08:00

This pic was taken with a exposure compensation of -2.0 and no flash .. note the color of the slab ... its much clearer than the last picture

Coner House

2006-03-05T23:15:00.000-08:00

If you are in blore and you love icecreams you know this place ....
Known for the amazing variety of icecreams and the famous, "Death by chocolate (DBC)"
Well my favourite remains "Creme De La Caramel" .. vanilla icecream with caramel sauce and cashew nuts ...

this pic was taken without exposure compensation ..

IndiJoe

2006-03-05T23:12:00.000-08:00

My favourite dining place in bangalore, IndiJoe in carlton towers. Love the buffet lunches here and the sizzlers :)

Bombay Post glow sign

2006-03-05T23:09:00.000-08:00

A restaurent in the carlton towers, also well know for indijoe and TGI Friday and corner house.

Panorama creation

2006-03-05T22:57:00.000-08:00

I took three images of my hall and created this panorama with the picture projects software supplied with the camera. You can see some distortion around the books but otherwise it looks ok

2006-03-05T22:47:00.000-08:00

I finally get myself a nice digital camera. After being disappointed by the camera prices at the showrooms in bangalore, I decided to give the hong-kong market a try. After about two hours of searching at different stores, we managed to get a deal with a 256 MB sandisk card for about 12.5k .. throw in another 500 bucks for a nice case and I am ready to click. The camera features nice zoom and resolution and even comes in with rechargeable batteries and charger. Read this review after buying

Actually nikon was not on my list as it was not available in the showrooms. I had researched canon and kodak, but i found this camera with its brilliant 2.5' TFT a much better bargain. I will soon upload some pics I tried out with the camera over the weekend.

5 weeks

2006-02-08T00:21:00.000-08:00

Today i complete 5 weeks at my new job. I joined on 2nd of Jan, after being unemployed for two days on 31st of December 2005 and 1st of Jan 2006. When I switched, I had a lot of apprehensions regarding work, culture, life and all the small things that I could possibly think of. I think I was afraid of change in my life as always.

Sitting today, writing this post, I do not even feel that 5 weeks have passed since I started working here. It took me about a week to get used to the culture here. This being a very small place there are very few people to run to when I am stuck up or who tell me what I should do next. Initially it took me some time to get used to the fact that this is the independence I wanted, but once I understood the implications, I could make it work for me. I spent the last one month here practically on chapter 5 of the legendary book by Proakis. If you have gone through it, you know what I am talking about. Reading, understanding, simulating and then realizing that I have still not understood it well enough.

Had the most intereting discussions on communications with my team mate and met some great new people and teachers :)

Picked back on reading and thinking (constructive stuff) :)

There are some not so good things that I wanted to write about somedays back, but now, revisiting them to write them here does not seem to me to be such good idea ....

Memory

2006-01-20T02:34:00.000-08:00

Memory is a strange thing. You sometimes remember what is best forgotten and forget what needs to be remembered. While at work several times, I cannot recall something that I read may be a year ago and need right now. I will have to spend a whole day reading some textbook to brush up small concepts. However I do clearly remember more often than not people or events that I do not want to remember. It is also funny to track triggers to memory. I am sitting thinking about something innocent enough and then the thoughts start slipping, going from one event to the other in the past, people to people and sometimes reach memories I do not want to visit back.

I wish I had more control on my memory. I wish I could be like history. Remembering things that go well with today. But may be then I would not be me ....

Life

2006-01-15T23:21:00.000-08:00

In the recent past my outlook on life has been changing a lot. One day I find it funny, the other day ironical and what not. I have had a lof of mood swings, had some really terrible days and have seen a lot changing around me. Still, I probably have come to believe more in life than i did before. If I look at the events in the past, it is almost funny that I sometimes feel that this is the worst that can happen to me and yet after some days I am almost over it. Life goes on and you have to let it be that way. You can really not fight it. You think you can but you are just fighting with yourself and you cannot win against yourself. I have finally come to appreciate this aspect of life although I have come to appreciate it the hard way.

Whenever I look at the past, all the events that I thought brought my life to a standstill for days or even months sometimes seem to be so trivial. Does it mean that nothing mattered. I think it did; probably a lot sometimes but then life goes on. Things that you never wanted to change did change and many a times for bad. What i find funny these days is that whenever I am going through a bad time in my life now I feel that after some days I will be over it. I have somehow started feeling that nothing is so big that I cannot do without it. On the downside I do not try many new things because I feel that if I can do without things I thought I can never do without, why do I anyway need anything new. Funny ways the mind works for and against you ....

Another random test

2006-01-04T05:03:00.000-08:00

Global Personality Test Results

Stability (40%) moderately low which suggests you are worrying, insecure, emotional, and anxious.
Orderliness (56%) moderately high which suggests you are, at times, overly organized, reliable, neat, and hard working at the expense of flexibility, efficiency, spontaneity, and fun.
Extraversion (63%) moderately high which suggests you are, at times, overly talkative, outgoing, sociable and interacting at the expense of developing your own individual interests and internally based identity.

Take Free Global Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

Some personality test

2006-01-04T04:56:00.000-08:00

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

2005-12-23T01:25:00.000-08:00

We meete santa in office !!!

2005-12-21T23:52:00.001-08:00

View from my office's terrace on an average afternoon

2005-12-21T23:52:00.000-08:00

Parikrama Foundation's rock concert @ Palace Grounds on 17th Dec 2005

2005-12-21T23:50:00.000-08:00

Yes that me and yes that a Yamaha R1, the macho 1000 cc bike :)

2005-12-21T23:49:00.000-08:00

Spotted on CMH road on a not so bright saturday

An unusual morning

2005-12-19T22:11:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, I leave my bike in the office and get a ride back home in someones car. Next morning I have to take some public transport to office. I can take an auto but its too expensive and I am really not in a mood to spend so much early in the morning. I generally take a shared cab to some point and from there a bus. Normally when I am driving I am too busy focussing on the road to look around and feel the morning. But in a public transport I do not have to worry about getting hit or worse, hitting someone. I use this opportunity to read people, listen to FM and so on. This is certainly an unusual experience. I can feel the pace of the city; everyone trying to get somewhere. The traffic jams, the wait for the signal to go green, the frustration when someone cuts your way and so on.

I can be in the bus and feel the bus blocking the way of so many people when it stops in the middle of the road or just next to a busy circle. Just feels different ... feels a little unusual

2005-12-04T09:11:00.000-08:00

me in front of my home

2005-12-04T09:05:00.000-08:00

another one ... (this one actually scares me)

2005-12-04T09:02:00.000-08:00

Diversity of dogs in our street ...

2005-12-04T08:59:00.000-08:00

Some home made pizza :)

Weekend

2005-11-20T08:08:00.000-08:00

Well this weekend can be classified as a little more happening than usual. First of all I saw the latest Harry Potter. My roommate was very enthusiastic about it and I decided to give him some company. I liked some scenes but could not really appreciate the movie as I have never read the movie and was told by the (enthu) junta that it is very much required. Sunday was CAT. For someone who has never given any mock test or anything and never prepared I guess CAT can be a surprise. Unlike the GRE where you have to cram up books and work like a zombie (atleast thats what I did and managed a descent score) CAT really makes you use your brain a lot.

Also on saturday I spent about $19 on a guitar book so that I can pursue my hobby in a more serious and fruitful (hopefully) fashion. Let us see how that goes. I will be posting my progress on the blog (Do I have any other timepass ?)

Thats all for this weekend ... Monday Blues surround me right now :(

Nothing

2005-11-15T06:30:00.000-08:00

Well really .. there is nothing in particular to write about ... I am writing more to keep up the discipline of writing to this blog once in a while and also to capture some of my thoughts. I do not expect this post to make much sense to anybody because some of the thougths are a result of long actions and reactions.

In the recent past I have generally wondered that no matter how much you want to stablize in your life there are always a lot of external influences that keep you from achieving this peace. You cannot really do much about a lot of these things because they are the same things that also give you dhots of happiness. In general they make you happy and when they behave in a wierd way, they upset you. So what I have finally realized is that you cannot really do away with most of them because they play such big role in your life that good or bad, when you do away with them, you feel a big void in your life which you start feeling every minute. Sometime you get so much used to somethings in life that it does not really matter if it is troubling you .... it just becomes a part of you lifestyle and you think that you cannot have any other possible lifestyle

But what happens when these things themselves go out of your life .. how do you cope up with that. It may be good in the long run but what about the present ?

Some text

2005-11-06T06:09:00.000-08:00

for my last couple of posts, to keep my blog alive and still not have to write for it, I have just been putting some pictures up. This time I am going to write a bit as I am more enthusiastic than I am mostly these days. My parents just paid me a 10 days visit and it was fun. A lot of shopping for my mom and dad, eating out a lot, meeting my relatives in bangalore and talking about my career aspirations and plans (or lack of it) with my parents.

To really boast of something, I am the proud owner of a philips 5130 6000W Home Theatre System.

To add to the misery, my TV is not working so all I can do with ridiculously expensive piece of equipment is listen to 91 FM. Also I have decided that I will starting another blog (??) and writing all my dark thoughts in it. It should be a good starting point for someone looking forward to getting depressed but not sure how to go about it.

Also I have a pop up question in my mind for the last couple of days. If it were not for the movies, how many of us would have known that there exist things like love, soulmate and all the related stuff. I know its a stupid question but it has been bugging me for sometime now so I thought I should share it with interested audience.

Thats all for now ... stay tuned for the "Depression for Dummies" blog :)

2005-10-27T06:15:00.000-07:00

On my way to the rappling face of the mountain :)

Club Cabana

2005-09-25T08:56:00.000-07:00

One fine saturday morning arnd 6:30 the alarm goes off ... i think about my choices .. get up .. get ready and reach Tejas by 7:40 .. get on the bus and reach club cabana peacefully for the offsite ... i rule this one out because i am so sleepy and (someHOW) feel that I want to reach there fresh and not someone who did not have a proper sleep. I decide on the other option .. get up at 8:45 .. get ready by 9 .. start my bike and head towards club cabana. Gandharv is msgng me to tell me the way .. I drive to MG road and then take the road orthogonal to vidhan soudha and drive upto mekhri circle ... I keep going straight ... never sure if i should have taken the turn that just passed. I reach somewhere around yehelanka air base and experience what i never though i would .. i am driving arnd 100kmph and a few hundred meters away and above me a military aircraft lands on the airstrip. I remember top gun and smile :)

I finally reach club cabana after about an hour of driving .. of which i feel every bit is worth it ... I meet everyone have my breakfast and we all gather up in Jade Garden. The cosmic meltdown crew is already there and we are greeted with some great tracks ... lot of people dedicate tracks to the entire tejas gang .. I dedicate "teri to" but when it plays i somehow feel it is out of place .... we have a lot of team games and our team orange which had a bad start finshed excellently winning (the trophy?) ... the lunch was good .. the interaction at club cabana superb and the ride back to home most memorable ....

All in all it was a great day .. thank you Tejas for that

2005-09-23T04:19:00.000-07:00

Onam Lunch @ Tejas on the 21st of Sep ... Most of the freshers make it to the first batch of servings (as usual) :)

2005-09-01T11:10:00.000-07:00

Thinking about the days gone by ..... hmmm

Lights

2005-09-01T04:45:00.000-07:00

My life these days revolves a lot around the following pattern

Red --> Yellow --> Green --> Yellow --> Red

I guess everyone's life in Blore revolves around the same :)

2005-08-31T02:51:00.000-07:00

Freshers at Tejas having some fun !!!

Broadband Welcome

2005-08-12T13:43:00.000-07:00

So we got our broadband (well actually its not a broadband .. its just 64 kbps) connection today from hathway ... its working great so far and as its an unlimited connection me and ashu are trying to eat up as much of their pipes are possible by voice chatting random souls on planet earth (and beyond ??)

so if u have nothing to do .. please give us a yahoo voice call and we will be at ur sevice and have an hour of totally baseless conversation ....

Life these days

2005-08-11T06:33:00.000-07:00

Life these days involves a lot of biking (my office is about 12 kms from home ... 12 kms in blore traffic) ... then its working at tejas where i am trying to understand things right now .... eating at lalita with ashu and kaustav ... saying goodnight to kaustav (as he sleeps early) and then a lot of bakar with ashu ... with occasionaly cooking ... and making tea almost everynight ... listning to Roshan Abbas on radio city in the night .... and then dreaming abt future

well thats my life these days

Club 977

2005-07-23T11:00:00.000-07:00

i have recently tried a lot of internet radio and winamp really does rock in this domain ...

one of my favorites currently is Club 977

Bangalore Again !!!

2005-07-23T10:41:00.001-07:00

I had a post on my blog sometime in feb about a weekend visit that my made to Bangalore !!!

I have finally moved to Bangalore for a possibly long time and have joined a startup called Tejas Networks. I was in JP Nagar for about 2 weeks and will be moving in with a friend for a few days before ashu, kaustav and I move into our rented house in Domlur ...

These two weeks have been fast and interesting .. got introduced to the corporate culture that is so much talked about in academics ... people in tejas are really fast with their training and expect us to start delivering soon ... good thing is that I got to drink a lot of free coffee day cappacino for free at tejas ....

tried a lot of eat outs in the last two weeks and saw two movies, Dus and Dark Waters. Dus was disappointing as expected and Dark Waters turned out to be really different for a change. As for the eat outs, had a lot of good stuff at the Panda House in transit, the food lounge at forum and tried a great sizzler at Millers 46 at the end of cunningham road. Tejas threw a party on 15th july to celebrate the opening of our new complex and the food in that was good too ... Besides we got to hear to Narayanmurthi in person at hotel goldflinch where he attended a close group function of tejas employees.

We went today to Water Park and Amusement Park. There were a lot of ones for me today and especially in the water world. Had loads of fun although I could not muster up the courage to try out atleast a few of the covered rides :(

I should be getting my bike sometime next week. I had it shipped from delhi and hope to explore Bangalore using it very soon. We should also be getting some real work next week so the week is really going to be happening .... i hope to bring the events to the blog soon .... :)

Countdown

2005-06-30T03:07:00.000-07:00

I am about a week away from joining my new job and beginnning a (hopefully) new kind of life. To give up the lazy feeling that I have had for sometime now, I have set myself to the task of building myself with a new website that reflects my personality. Now the work is easier said than done.

First of all there are several motivations for doing this .... My website at geocities has been lying around for sometime. It has some basic information but is very boring. I myself never like to look at it and everytime I visit some cool webpages, I crave for one myself. Also I have got a fresh account at hostingzero with 1 GB of storage and tons of bandwidth and I want to host something fresh on that. It currently mirrors my geocities account and can be reached at hostingzero address.

I am trying to get nvu up on my gentoo system but as i am trying with a prebuit tar ball i have not had much success ....

A day out

2005-06-29T08:44:00.000-07:00

So i finally went out with my mom today. She had been complaining all this long that I have become very lazy and never go out with her.

We went to East Delhi Mall, not very far off from or home. It was quite big for the malls that I have seen in Delhi and there were quite a lot of shops. And as usual, there were a lot of people all around to watch. It was fun watching people take the ride on an esclator and not very smooth ones all the time :) ....

I too had a small accident when i barged into one of the showroom without realizing the too clear glass door (now i get those clear glass advtsmnts) that was not open as i thought it was. There were not too many people otherwise I am sure I would have made a comical site and made them laugh. The salesmen were trained well as they did not giggle :)

Pizza Hut was good with their meal for two that included the new freshizza and CCD was good too unlike the one in Noida's Atta. With a lot of rain pouring outside the whole affair was pretty much fun ...

Limit Exceeded !!!

2005-06-14T07:26:00.000-07:00

Today after uploading a file to my geocities.com/pmd_iitgw website I for some reason chcked the website and what do I find ... something to the effect that my website access has been disabled because the data transfer usage limit has exceeded ... Initially I felt a little bad because I had floated a lot of links on gnuradio mailing lists ... like my thesis and the video of my B.Tech Project. But then I realized that the limit was exceeded because so many people must have downloaded these files ... I am sure must have been in the order of hundreds to cross a 1 GB limit ....

the access was restored after about an hour but the happiness is still around me :)

please keep downloading and crossing the limit

Also I spoke to Mrawat after a long time ..... he was funny as usual and became elated when I said that I am Dee calling (he thought I have picked up the name after the movie) ....

Thanks lobby for this name :-D

After a long time

2005-06-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

I was gone for a long time ... a lot of reasons .. I finished my course at IIT Guwahati and I was gone home for some time ... then I had an interview in Bombay for which I wasted the first half of my vacation :(

I got my degree on May 30th .. It was a nice ceremony ... Groys and Cadet made it to Telegraph ... My parents were there with me and were quite happy to see me get my degree ....

I have finally got my 1 GB internet from reliance and so I am back online without the fear of clock ticking ....

I have about a month before I get on with my new job and have big plans .... but the Delhi heat is beating them right away :)

Getting Depressed

2005-04-21T10:28:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I wonder how we allow some people to make us feel down .... most of the time they do not even know that they are at such a position in our lives .... and people who really know us and can make us happy .... we do not really let them do much ....

I am sure that none of the above makes any sense

All these days

2005-04-05T05:12:00.000-07:00

Its been almost a month since I wrote here. I was not sure of what to write. Last month was one of the darkest in my life .... Something unexpected happened that shook me up and I could almost do nothing about it. It was for the first time in my life that I realised what it is to be hit and not hit back .... As easy as it may look, its never easy to be wronged and be cool about it .... It shakes you up and it has shaked me up for sure ....

Trying to get back my life these days and getting the final chores done here .... its only about a month before I graduate and I do not want to leave this place with unfinished work ......

Rest later ...

The Week

2005-03-05T09:44:00.000-08:00

The week thats coming to end was average .. nothing much .. I mean no surprising news .... no surprising gains :)

Nevertheless quite a few small things did happen .... I rejoined guitar classes (as a matter of fact the guitar classes restarted) and so I am officialy learning guitar again. I watched "Aviator", the only movie this week and I read "Digital Fortress" by Dan Brown, a nice book with not so impressive ending.

I did eat out a lot during the last weekend and some of this week and tried out "Pizzeria" for the first time. It was pretty good as we (me and moka) found out. The burger was amazing even though I had only a few bites. We plan to go back there soon :) ... The BTP is also coming along slowly and the mid sem report is due Monday 4 PM. Burger is due 5 PM :)

Four Years

2005-03-04T06:25:00.000-08:00

Today I went to the administrative department to get a bona-fide certificate. Something unexpected happened there. As I was about to leave with the certificate, the guy who issued it looked up at me and said "Four Years Huh !!! ..... So how have been these four years". I looked at him and smiled and kept smiling for sometime before I realized that he is really expecting an answer from me. I was not really sure what to say to this guy so I said that so far so good. The guy still did not look really satisfied with my answer and said "So far so good ?? .... would'nt you say it was good.... do you think there is scope for improvement ...... anyways that is always there". I said yeah there is really scope for improvement, both in me and in the system. I then told him that I think the administrative staff here is really helping, more so than the staff I met at IITB. "And what about the faculty", came the next question. I said that its OK and I feel that there should have been more faculty as ours is a very small department. Thankfully our meeting ended with this. I find it really difficult to answer this question. Yes I did have lot of compaints intially and it was difficult to adjust but over time a lot of those memories have faded and for good I feel. I do not want to remeber them and am happy the way its going right now. I think that I have finally made my peace with things here :)

Midsems Over

2005-02-24T08:47:00.000-08:00

Finally the midsems are over ... these will be the last midsems of my BTech Programme and I am more than happy to write this line ......

Lot of people have asked me lately how did they go ... well the answer has come out spontaneously and certainly without any deliberation ... "they do not matter" and as a matter of fact I have not given it any thought ..... they really do not matter .... i have better things to think about ... in fact I do not want to think about anything in particular .... :)

Even while writing the papers, I felt some kind of disconnectedness ... it was not that I was not interested in learning from my mistakes, its just that my mistakes did not ruin my sleep any more !!!

I think I am just looking forward to the future .......... who knows ... i do not for sure :)

Some Work (Seriously)

2005-02-22T09:44:00.000-08:00

I recently compiled a page out of the results that I have got in my BTP. The link to the matlab file is not working because geocities does not let me upload unknown file type ".m" :( ........ In case you are interested (which I seriously doubt), please drop me an email and I will be more than happy to send you the code and see you struggle with it (its not documented yet :)

the link to the page is

Geocities Page on BTP Progress

Over and Out !!!

B'lore

2005-02-19T04:45:00.000-08:00

I reached my cousin's place in Thippsandra around 4 PM. He has been working in the software industry for a very long time and he seemed really pleased to learn about the TVS motor company. I left his place in about an hour and went to Ashu's place. For those of you familiar with B'lore, he stays near the ESI hospital, one of the coolest place to live in B'lore. We had some chat and then we left for where every B'lorite hangs out during the weekend : MG Road. We reached there and got ourselves tickets for 'Black'. We had a couple of hours to while away so we went to CCD, my favorite hangout. Now something really cool happened out there. This CCD also had a few PC's where you could pay and browse. I found a famous model and a friend of her browsing there. I do not remember her name but she has featured in videos like "Hum Bewafa hargiz na the " (Dance Masti) and a few other .... So I meet another celebrity. I have not met many and talked to even fewer :(

We went to B'lore central and I got a pack of ITC's Chicken Stew for my friends back here in Guwahati. The not so good part about all this is that B'lore is really crowded and even on pavements, there is hardly any place left to walk. We came back to the theatre after loosing our way a couple of times and ate in Domino's. Movie was really good and sound system added to the whole experience. I had watched "Ocean's Twelve" in the same hall, but was disappointed by the sound system. I guess problem was with the movie then ...

We came back to Ashu's place around 1 in the night. On the way back, we found a Barista open that late and packed with people .... (really cool !!!) Then we had a big round of bakar session that went upto around 4 in the morning after which we dozed off. We got up again around 7:30 and were eating our breakfast at a close by place by 8:45 or so . I then left for the airport and ashu for his job. My flight was on time and I was up by 10 AM. I touched down Guwahati at around 4 PM and was back in the good old IIT amongst good old friends in about another hour with lots of new stories :)

Thats all for those nice days !!!

TVS Visit Day 2

2005-02-18T22:15:00.000-08:00

Day 2 (Feb 13th, Sunday) began relatively late at around 8:30 AM. We had our breakfast and left for the Sports Day Celebration by 9:30. On our way to the sports ground, we visited TVS Nagar, co-operative housing society for TVS Motors owned by TVS employees. It was a small but well laid out place. I was happy to know that rents here are much lower than in B'lore and that is one more advantage of being in Hosur. The other being the time that you save compared to living in b'lore and commuting every day. I have to scan and post the pictures of these places .... (i hope to do it sometime soon :)

We arrived at the sports ground shortly. It is a big place with a big field and a big enough covered seating area .... The welcome was grand with people sprinkling rose water on you !!! ... there were roses and hair pins kept for the ladies. The best part was that the place was very well managed despite the huge crowd of about 7 or 8 thousand people. This day was basically the culmination of the sports activities in form of prize distribution and sport events for the kids and family. I witnessed the whole thing for some time and then a Abhi and I left to take a stroll .... We came out and called a senior of mine who stays in TVS Nagar. He has been with TVS for a few years and we went to his place. We came back to the sports ground in about an hour and met Mr. Kovi and wife of another VP. The best part of the afternoon came after this. We had lunch with everyone. Lunch was again south Indian and I like curd rice with pickle the most. With no spoon at hand and all other efforts in vain, I had to eat with my hands, somthing that I do not do often. Shortly after we left for the hotel. On o0ur way back, we were given "TVS Snacks" ... coldrinks and some snacks to take back home with other employees of the company :)

We came back to the hotel, clicked a few snaps and then with Debashish and others left for B'lore .. it was a fairly long drive with Radio City playing in the background. Most of us dozed off by the time we entered Karnataka. Chris and I dropped down at Koromagla and took an auto to the airport road. I went to my relatives and he went to his'

BTW Krishna just sent me this photo links

TVS 05 @ Yahoo Photos

TVS Visit Day 1

2005-02-18T00:49:00.000-08:00

The day started out early at around 7 in the morning (yeah that is early considering that I mostly get up very late)... I was the first one to get up in my room and the first one to dress up and get down. But to my surprise I found that almost everybody did come down and had the breakfast in time and was ready to leave. In fact we were delayed a bit because the bus came late to pick us up :(

Breakfast was typical south Indian like idli and vada and pongal which and made a good eating. We were not allowed to carry cameras or mobiles to the factory. We started out close to 9 from the hotel and it took about 15 minutes to drive down to the factory. On the way we had a view of the TVS Nagar and TVS Petrol pump. The really nice thing to note on the way was that atleast 9 out of 10 bikes and or mopeds are TVS ... It has a really good name in product quality in south India.

Inside the campus we visited the plants, assembly lines, R&D etc and even though I want to write about it, its all damn classified :-( ... finally I have something that I can keep a secret and say no to my friends about ... nice :)

We came back from the campus at around 4:45 and we had to leave around 5:30 again. This was ambitious considering everyone was so tired but again to my surprise, we were all ready before the vehicle came to pick us up. We were taken to the Mahindra Ramee Guestline hotel which was about 20 minutes away from the hotel that we were put up in. The road connecting B'lore to Hosur is a 4 lane road and so that traffic moves fast. The hotel was the best types that I had seen and the dinner was on the pool side lawn of the hotel. The whole thing had a big corporate feel to it.

We were seated in groups of about 8 or 9 in which there were 2/3 freshers, 2/3 seniors and other super-seniors (aka the Vice Presidents :) .. we had lot of interaction and games .. our team ("The Dazzling Stars") won one game and that was more than I had expected :).

We had a best ethnically dressed competition and Anuj and Suchithra won it. I was told that I was the first runner up in my category .... but as they said "In the end .. it doesn't even matter"

Dinner was descent and the best part were the jalebi's. We left the place around 10:30 and reached the hotel in a couple of minutes. In the hotel we had a round of bakar that went on till 2 PM. Some of the people left early in the morning the same day ....

Contnd to day 2 ...

Visit to TVS Day 0

2005-02-17T21:09:00.000-08:00

I recently got an opportunity to visit the TVS Motor Campus at Hosur, TN. The purpose of the visit was to attend the graduate engineers get together. I hoped to meet the company and meet my future colleagues. And the best part of it was that it was an all expense paid trip :-) .....

I started out from Guwahati on Feb 11 at around 10 in the morning, reached airport and took off at 12. I had to change my flight at Calcutta and then we had a stopover in Hyderabad. I finally landed at B'lore airport around 5:45 PM. Even though I missed the B'lore airshow, a guy in the flight showed me the airstrip from which the airshow takes place .....

I took and auto and then a bus playing a southi movie to Hosur.... got down an Dargah and walked to the nice hotel the TVS people had booked for us. It was called "Sivaranjini Hotel" and was a really nice place, even though the food was not what I had expected. I met a few TVS guys at the reception itself and we went straight upto Room No 409 where we had a informal session will all other would be graduates and some of our immediate seniors. We had Debashish, Nishant, Shakti and Sushmita from TVS, with whom I had already interacted by email before. Meeting them was even better !!!

I got to know a lot of people from different colleges all over India. After the short interaction, we were served dinner, which was a typical south Indian thali. The dinner table discussion ranged from Music to the food and food joints I had been to while in my stay in Chennai :-)

After a short walk we retired to bed as we had to get up at about 7 and everyone was already jaded after the long travel. I had not much travel fatigue but lack of sleep and company showed me the way to bed :)

The best part of it all was the flight and the interaction .....

Another Movie

2005-02-04T13:52:00.000-08:00

To celebrate the rare moments of my productivity I watched "A Walk To Remember". Another movie goes into the list of movies I will be taking back from Guwahati !!!

Well this is one of those movies that has an average start but slowly grips you and then towards the end you wish only if it had ended differently. It derives a lot of inspiration from Love Story and that pretty much explain it all. The songs were really beautiful and I liked this one the most

There's always something
in the way
There's always something
getting through
but it's not me
it's You
it's You

sometimes ignorance
rings true
but hope is not in
what I know
not in me
it's in You
it's in You

it's all I know
it's all I know
it's all I know

I find peace when
I'm confused
I find hope when
I'm let down
not in me... me
but in You
it's in you

I hope to lose myself
for good
I hope to find it in the end
not in me ... me
in You
in You

it's all I know
it's all I know
it's all I know

in You
in You
its in You
its in You

there's always something in the way
there's always something getting through
but it's not me...me
it's You
it's You
its You
it's You
it's You
(it's all I know)it's you
it's you
(it's all I know)it's you
it's you
(it's all I know)it's you
it's you
(it's all I know) it's you....

what !!!

2005-02-02T06:05:00.001-08:00

You are Toilet Paper.

You are used and taken advantage of by a lot of people, including your friends. They make you be the one to clean up their messes in their life. But the only reason that this happens is because of your kindness and commitment. These are the qualities most members of the opposite sex look for, which makes you hot. Yes, toilet paper is hot. But be careful that your lover doesn't use you to their advantage, and be sure that they are not seeking too much control. Remember: Toilet paper is used by many, but is most often considered valuable when it is not there in time of need.

Most compatible with: sock.

Click here -- What Random Object Represents Your Inner Self?

Pizza Party

2005-02-01T06:46:00.000-08:00

Pranshu went to Calcutta for an interview or something and got pizzas from Pizza hut on his way back. Of course he could not meet the half an hour guarentee and was not paid for the pizzas :-)

After the pizzas, went out for a walk and then an hour or two later had a brainstorming session (read "Lukhagiri Session") till about three in the morning. Talked about a lot of things and then about the rise of people who spend a lot. Someday we may be one of them (all smiles again).

Sumit told me that I should write more of my thoughts and really be myself on the blog. Lets see : I really try to do that but may be because I am new to this medium of expression, I really can never key down my deepest thoughts, but I will try to do that starting from the next post. So this blogs average weight is going to increase.

Today went to get a hair cut and had a chance to listen to Vividh Bharti after a long time. It was nice to have all the memories to JEE come back to me. I used to find company in the radio when I was reading for my JEE and after that lost touch with it. But those familiar voices of Kamal Sharma et.al, were able to strike a lot of chords even after so many days .....

thats almost all for today :-)

Lukhas Inc.

2005-01-30T01:26:00.000-08:00

Too too much lukhagiri these days .. so many posts just testify the statement ...