Sharing All Trivia and Random Thoughts

Do you know? alpha-numeric....

2009-08-12T11:53:00.001-07:00

Letters 'a', 'b', 'c' & 'd' do not appear anywhere in the spellings of 1 to 99 (Letter 'd' comes for the first time in Hundred).

Letters 'a', 'b' & 'c' do not appear anywhere in the spellings of 1 to 999 (Letter 'a' comes for the first time in Thousand).

Letters 'b' & 'c' do not appear anywhere in the spellings of 1 to 999,999,999 (Letter 'b' comes for the first time in Billion).

And the letter 'c' does not appear anywhere in in the spellings of the entire English Counting.

Silence's Sound

2009-07-12T05:28:00.000-07:00

“Well, How can Silence have a sound when it literally means absence of sound” is the very first thought that used to come to my mind (and perhaps to your mind also) on reading this line earlier. Not anymore.

I first got a mobile phone about 8 years ago, primarily for communication purposes and also as an alternative to my existing landline. But soon came a mobile phone with FM radio, internet, e-mail, gaming, Bluetooth, MS Office, MP3, dual SIM, calendar, camera with video recorder and MMS. It was pretty much an alternative for my laptop.

Despite such oceans of features available in my new gizmo, the one basic feature that has enthralled me and kept a tab on my wallet while I effectively communicate is the missed call. Today it has become an important part of my (and I am sure yours too :-) ) life. I receive my day’s first missed call at 6.00 in the morning from my friend for our cricket game signaling ‘Wake up Buddy! Let’s play’. I may miss a few cover drives or leg glances in the game but never forget to give a missed call to my mom at the fag end of the game to keep my breakfast ready.

While having lunch, my colleague gives me a missed call, reminding me that there are only minutes left to catch the company cab. I can’t afford to miss the missed call for dinner from my buddies at office, because it is as good as missing their company at the dinner table, along with some interesting and important (you know what kind of important) conversations. During the fag end of my shift my Cab driver throws a volley of miscalls to me to let me know that he is waiting for us, making me think sometimes as to “Who is serving whom ?“. And did I forget to mention the one missed call I (not only me but everybody) literally can not afford to miss. Yeah, you guessed it correct, girlfriend.

In between all the day’s schedule, a missed call from her means, call me back! The most important of all the missed calls one gets during the day, one cannot afford to miss it, or else be ready to pay heavy penalty both psychologically and economically. I have become so habituated to the missed call that when my friend called the other morning to tell me he wouldn’t make it for the match; I ignored his call assuming it to be his regular missed call!

One survey done by some firm says the most commonly used application on mobile phones is SMS text messaging, with 74 per cent of mobile phone users vouching for it. I feel, however, that if a missed call application ever existed, it would certainly have trumped messaging by leaps and bounds. While my mobile phone bills are plummeting, my inter-personal relationships are soaring; thanks to the “heavenly” missed call. The missed call communication involves a very simple yet powerful protocol of mutual understanding and trust and is extremely effective in saving precious talk time making you more productive(which we hear more these days, no prizes for guessing why :-) ).

While attending a soft skill session, I was recently told about non-verbal communication where messages are exchanged through facial expression, body language, posture, gesture or eye contact. I fully agree with the list, but of course I still feel though that the missed call is still missing its true place over there. I hope you also agree........

By Raj

You should get to know all these......

2009-05-30T13:03:00.000-07:00

1. Ants don't sleep.
2. Owls have eyeballs that are tubular in shape, because of this, they cannot move their eyes.
3. A bird requires more food in proportion to its size than a baby or a cat.
4. The mouse is the most common mammal in the US.
5. A newborn kangaroo is about 1 inch in length.
6. A cow gives nearly 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime.
7. The Canary Islands were not named for a bird called a canary. They were named after a breed of large dogs. The Latin name was Canariae insulae - "Island of Dogs."
8. There are 701 types of pure breed dogs.
9. A baby bat is called a pup.
10. German Shepherds bite humans more than any other breed of dog.
11. The animal responsible for the most human deaths world-wide is the mosquito.
12. Cats respond most readily to names that end in an "ee" sound.
13. A cat cannot see directly under its nose. This is why the cat cannot seem to find tidbits on the floor.
14. Snakes are immune to their own poison.
15. Cats have more than one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten.
16. The biggest member of the cat family is the male lion, which weighs 528 pounds (240 kilograms).
17. Most lipstick contains fish scales.
18. A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.
19. A cockroach will live nine days without its head, before it starves to death.
20. The cat lover is an ailurophile, while a cat hater is an ailurophobe.
21. A woodpecker can peck twenty times a second.
22. Dragonflies are one of the fastest insects, flying 50 to 60 mph.
23. A black panther is really a black leopard.
24. Carbon monoxide can kill a person in less than 15 minutes.
25. TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.
26. Women blink nearly twice as much as men!!

7 Reasons Why Computers Run Slower As They Get Older

2009-05-25T09:52:00.000-07:00

It never fails - awhile back, perhaps it was a few years, perhaps it was only a few months, you bought a new super-fast, top-of-the-line desktop or laptop computer. At first it ran fantastic - there were few software crashes, browser pages visually popped onscreen, and games ran smoothly at high frame rates.

Unfortunately as the computer got older, problems started occurring. Crashes became more frequent, web pages took longer to load, games appeared slightly jerky, and the overall computing experience lost its luster. Why did this happen? Is there a conspiracy among computer and software manufacturers to make computers run slower so you'll give up and buy a new machine? While conspiracy theories are questionable, here are seven valid reasons why your computer may start to run slower as time passes:

1. Slower boot due to installed software

If you install software, device drivers, or other applications that request to be loaded upon a computer's boot, naturally your computer will start up slower. Security software such as firewalls and antivirus applications must start up immediately to help increase your security. Some software partially loads at boot so when you launch applications they seem to start faster. Plus, device drivers and helper software for printers, multimedia devices, and other peripherals may require being loaded at boot to make using such devices in a plug-and-play environment as seamless as possible. All of this increases your overall boot time.

2. Slower overall experience due to installed software

Just as loading these applications slow your computer's boot time, they also may require additional CPU cycles, causing your main applications such as web browsers or word processors to run slower. Plus, more tasks require additional RAM, requiring your computer to use your hard drive as virtual memory. Paging information to and from your hard drive increases the disk thrashing, slowing down your computer further.

You can help offset this somewhat by installing additional RAM if supported by your computer.

3. Uninstall software doesn't always work well

While most applications support an uninstall procedure, these don't always work perfectly. Uninstallers may leave temporary files, items in the Windows Registry, startup tasks to now non-existing files, device drivers that now are not needed, etc. Install and uninstall many applications and the leftover garbage can drastically slow your computer's overall speed.

4. Hard drive fragmentation

As you write and delete files on your hard drive, the locations of files become scattered throughout, and files themselves can become fragmented. This causes longer times to seek for and load individual files, slowing down your computing experience.

This is more of a problem on Windows computers, and while it comes with defragmentation software, it may not automatically run by default and need to be executed manually. Plus, it is debatable how well it actually works. Third-party software claim to do a much better job in defragmentation, potentially increasing your computer's performance.

5 Updates require more power

Updates to your device drivers, software, and operating system just may require more computing power than older versions. This can be due to sloppy programming or the addition of newer features. Plus, as security holes are fixed and workarounds created, such software may require more CPU cycles, RAM, and overall storage space on your hard drive.

Security is one reason why an older version of Windows may run much faster than a newer version. While the older version may seem to work fine, its lack of protection features can expose your computer to all types of security risks.

6. Possible hardware problems

In some circumstances, failing hardware may be to blame. Bad sectors can form on hard drives, and if the drive repeatedly tries to access a file on a failing sector or has to block off certain sectors as unusable due to minor failures, this can increase file access time. Other problems such as software that never used to crash but now aborts continuously can be linked to malfunctioning RAM. Diagnostic programs found on the Internet can help confirm either of these problems if they are suspect.

7. The dreaded malware

Of course, viruses, spyware, and other malware may be to blame. These create additional processes that put more strain on a computer and can increase its overall boot time. Other users may be lurking around your PC via an open port, causing all sorts of nastiness. Malware may be running in the background using your computer to relay e-mail messages, attempt to shut down websites via denial of service (DoS) attacks, and more. Thus, while security software may decrease your computer's overall speed slightly, not having such software (and keeping it updated) can cause an even worse situation.

As you can see, perhaps the debated conspiracy theory of hardware and software makers teaming up to slow computers down as they get older may not be accurate. Installing and updating software can increase your boot time and decrease speed of other applications. Faulty uninstallers leave junk behind that can slow your computing experience. Hard drive fragmentation causes increased file seek and read time. Hardware failures may be to blame for other problems. And of course, there's always the possibility of a malware infection slowing the machine. By understanding the true reasons computers may slow down with age you can take steps to offset these problems.

Src : malektips.com

Some facts may not useful for you

2009-05-23T13:01:00.000-07:00

You wanted to know...

1) Giraffe sleep requirements vary between 5 minutes and 2 hours.(Ask me)

2) Hippopotamus fart through their mouth (eeks!! How weird)

3) The amount of Carbon present in human body, altogether can form 900 Pencils ( and we complained that we don’t have pencils)

4) The amount of Iron present in human body, altogether can form 3 nails (enough to nail us)

5) Most tigers live in India. Most are actually kept as private pets in the United States. There are estimated to be 12,000 kept as pets, 4,000 in Texas alone (now that’s what you call dare (d)evils)

6) Like humans who are typically right- or left-handed, elephants are usually right- or left-tusked. The dominant tusk, called the master tusk, is generally shorter and more rounded at the tip from wear (is out prominent hand shorter)

7) Everest is not the tallest mountain. This is true if one measures from base to peak: then Mauna Kea in Hawaii is the tallest. However, most often, when people speak of Everest as the tallest mountain, they are referring to it being the highest point above sea level. (now that’s called relativity)

8) An adult elephant can consume 140–270 kg (300–600 lb) of food a day. 60% of that food leaves the elephant's body undigested (what a waste)

9) Elephants gestation (pregnancy) period lasts about 22 months (630–660 days), the longest gestation period of any mammal (so sad)

Mobile phones- With or without?

2009-05-22T08:59:00.000-07:00

It's close to 10 years now that mobile phones have made their way in India. Every one of us has become so dependent on it now. I often wonder whether the burst of mobile phones are good or bad. So this just an article is neither speaking for it nor against it.

Many years ago when I was 15, I had to travel overnight on a bus and reach Mysore to a relative's house. That was my first long journey alone. All I had was the postal address of my destination. My bus tickets were bought much in advance and the intimation of where my cousin should pick me up from bus station was intimated by post card. And believe me it worked like charm. I reached safely.

Recently I went to Mysore, this time to meet a friend. We were not sure where we will meet or what time we will meet. We had the convenience of what we call "the mobile phone". We could plan the meeting as late as possible, as convenient as possible. And at last we did come to a conclusion and decided where to meet and when to meet. The directions to get there were discussed. We made at least 10 phone calls and on reaching the place, we still called each other to exactly find out where we are. We finally made it to the meeting after about 10 odd phone calls! Cool huh?

But honestly I liked what I did many years ago much more! There was a thrill in doing it that way, there were surprises.

Going on, many times I go to shopping mall stand in front of the shopping racks of my favorite retailer. I then call up my wife who will stand in front of the refrigerator and we shop what we want thru' a phone call. But what about those good old days where we used to make a list of items on paper, review it, go over it again. I definitely miss them!

We were a bunch of college friends meeting after many many years. The meeting went on, except that any point of time at least two of them would be on their mobiles talking something more important (I hope?)

There was a robbery in Jayanagar, Bangalore last month. Reportedly mobile phones were used effectively to coordinate the activity, finding out when the house will become empty etc. And how about 26/11 Mumbai attack? How about those satellite phones used by the terrorists?

I won't even want to write about driving while talking on mobile phones on one hand. It will save the length of this article considerably!

My cousin who is studying has a fancy mobile rate plan, all his SMS are free. Off late, I see him more with heads bowed down, stressfully working the mobile keys to type his messages and trying to make best use of this rate plan.

And then came bluetooth. At least a dozen times I have spoken to guys with Bluetooth/hands free, only to realize that they were speaking on the phone and not with me.

I don't remember when I attended a meeting where that irritating phone call from one of the members disturbed everyone else.

I don't remember when I saw a full length movie without being buzzed by the phone
Sometimes when I am on a bus, I hear people giving the exact whereabouts of the bus. Is that needed? What were they doing before mobiles came into their lives? I cannot sleep in the buses anymore.

I am mostly happy where we are with the mobile phones today. But sometimes I wonder whether our life was just as good without them!

byAdige

* Stars, Beeps and Realities *

2009-05-20T09:19:00.000-07:00

Stars have made me wonder since childhood and so is the situation even now except the change, that earlier it was when gazing at the night sky and now at the idiot box. Given above are the samples which could switch on your brains to guessing mode. Well the last three stars are “etc”. Others are left to you for figuring.

Yes. This is the current scenario about the various reality shows currently on air in our TV sets; Sub-titles, with most of the words concealed by STARS and the Results given by judges, with BEEPS dubbing in the actual words. The interesting and unfortunate part is that such shows have a high TRP!

Take the instance of a TV show where Youngistan (oh! Not a country, but Young + Hindustan) flocks to DATE and Romance using all the abusive language to seduce. The shocking ones are those used by the Judges (or the so called moderators) which are new to our lexicon. These shows have been designed in such a way to be the breeding grounds to create betrayal, hatred and loss of our culture.

Leave alone the youths; even children are not spared by these shows! Agreeing on the point that the shows create many opportunities, I regret that the young minds are misguided by these shows. A child speaks of looking sexier! I neither understand where they pick up such words nor do I know if they understand what they mean. The child is often over-loaded by their parents in the name of such competitions hindering their normal growth.

NEWS and quizzes have become sparse. Reality shows are occupying those slots. Moral and Ethics are at Cross-fire. There is an urgent need to get things straight before this turns into the loop for our own destruction. The silver-lining is that there are still a few programmes like “Mission Navy” which inspire youth.

This is the awakening alarm for each one of us before those stars and beeps are removed to display the uncensored. Things should change. But this requires joint effort of the entire society. Would it turn into a REALITY!

by Kumar

Mirror Mirror on the wall

2009-05-18T08:02:00.000-07:00

It was Sunday 30th of November 2008 the evening light was fading fast; I had spent most of the weekend glued to the television set like millions of others watching in despair, anguish and horror; the mayhem of insanity played out with guns and grenades. My eyes moist as the thought of loosing so many of my country men and women in the Mumbai terror attack kept hitting me again and again. I was struggling to come to terms with the trauma, the feeling of being vandalized, ravaged by a band of mad men.

Wanting to run away from this feeling I decided to take a walk to the jogging park close to my residence. As I walked to the park in the cold evening breeze everything around me seemed to be affected by the terrorist attack. It’s a mind game I said to myself. The scars of the past week were predominant and that was perhaps leading to this gloomy perception said the voice within. Everything I saw was tinted with the same pair of glasses one had anger and the other despair in them. I decided to sit down at the park bench to take a breather. As I rose my head to gaze around I realised that the ground had plenty of kids playing as is usually the case on a Sunday evening.

My eyes then locked on to a bunch of kids about the age of 10 playing to my left. They were running in a chaotic manner making a lot of noise. One of the kids who looked rather bullish caught my attention. With a deliberately bloated chest he was chasing the others with loud screams or more aptly put imitations of growl much like a lion. This certainly brought back a welcome smile to my face.

Kids will be kids I said to myself. Just then I heard the boy changing his growl to a peculiar innovative ‘thoo’. A plump well dressed lad he was with sneakers on and a jacket over his T-shirt that had a teddy on the front. From his actions he looked more like the last action hero from one of the popular cult action movies. His fingers and thumb were joined as if imitating a pistol as he went around chasing the other rather hapless kids with his random ‘dishum-shishum’ and ‘thoo-thoo’. The kids ran around in all directions trying to flee away from this urchin as it were who had a finger pistol; all of course in good fun. And just then they ran towards my bench and were running around it trying to flee Master Dishum-dishum! So much fun I thought to myself as the kids continued to run around the bench I was seated on. I wish I could join these kids in their fun and games. And as if trying to prod them to let me play along I caught hold of master Dishum as I will call him! Hello there dear, I said to him what are you playing? Can I play as well? I asked him with a beaming ear to ear smile.

Of course master Dishum quickly responded with a blissful innocence on his face. We are playing Terror-terror uncle. I am playing the guy from the TV with a gun and my friends they are all the people trying to run away from the bullets in my gun -dishum dishum. If you want to play you can run too and I will chase you with my gun- come! Suddenly the expression of my faced changed completely; my heart sunk listening to his innocent rhetoric. I let him go with out saying a word. The kids were back at their game with master Dishum chasing and the others running and screaming as they disappeared to the other end of the ground.

I sat there motionless almost frozen in shock. This was the world that we are to give to the generation next. My heart felt the tremors of the big earth quake. We had to change this. My eyes frantically looked for the mater Dishum and his friends; I wanted to tell him that this was a bad game that he would never want to play. This was not how everyday life was supposed to be. We were not senseless barbarians killing under some pretext; preaching and practicing violence and hate. We were about Life. And life was about peace and harmony and love and hope and respect for all of Humanity rich and poor, strong and weak young and old!

Mirror- Mirror on the wall,

Who’s the terrorist of them all?

Mirror-mirror on the wall,

No terror or terrorist be ever at all! ....aam admi

A coincidence??

2009-05-17T03:17:00.000-07:00

I was returning home from office after a hectic day. Thought a ride in rickshaw back home might refresh my mind and help me forget the bad day that I had. I was lost in my thoughts when suddenly I noticed the rickshaw puller had increased his pace and paddling real hard to overcome a bus which seemed unaware of the unknown new competitor it had just by its side. Knowing fully well he cannot overcome the gigantic bus which was not only bigger in size but also in many other aspects (speed, I should say dragon power rather than horse power etc), still then he didn't give up. That amused me. How many times in our life have we had the eagerness and zeal to go for something that seemed like a Herculean task that too to be accomplished within a short span of time in a life so short in itself… most of the time we give up before we start and in turn think of the possible excuses and justifications that would pacify our numerous inner questions and in the end feebly manage to prove that we are not escapists or that we did not try our best just that there wasn’t much we could have done - sort of shoulder-shrugging with a What-Can-I-Do Not-In-My-Hands Destiny-Can’t-be-Changed expression...

Returning back to reality, I was eager to know what would happen in the end… Then came a turn in the road, the bus as usual oblivious of its surroundings or the entities affected by it went on smoothly in its own rhythm. But our over-enthusiastic fighter never stopped trying. Ultimately, the bus went away smoothly in its own way and our relentless worker slowed down his speed to catch some breath…After some time; he carried on leisurely as if he was one happy man with a pleasant paunch who is strolling in the park with his dog in the evening without a single worry in his life…

I smiled … I wondered the same thing could be related to our lives too. The bus, seemingly big and intimidating, is the small/big problems that we face in our lives. I said small or big because it depends on us how we choose to view and categorize our difficult times. And the attitude of our ever-tireless hero to that of a common man’s thinking. Difficulties in life are inevitable and in fact in a way make our lives colourful and worthwhile. We panic when we face any problem in life, and we are so perturbed by its very presence that we don’t bother to calmly think and believe that this shall pass too. We are just in a haste to get rid of it as soon as possible without pausing to think that it doesn’t deserve the attention that it enjoys. The more we try to get rid of it by overtaking it, the more we see it moving in parallel with our lives; kind of a vicious circle. Had we paused and let it pass, or should I say “put the glass down rather than continue holding it high in the air till your arm falls off”, things could have been more relaxed and easily solved.

Whoever said don’t sit idle was perhaps himself paddling away to glory and trying to solve his perpetual problems his entire life. In fact I would say sometimes we should sit idle and enjoy as life passes by. A motion picture is best watched when u are static and relaxed coz the movie will end anyhow. Let time do its job…Let time heal.

Too often, we are so busy building a career/ life by memorizing a book, reading financial magazines or some formulae or doing exactly what the society has been doing for ages or wants us to do, we miss out on assessing and speculating these small aspects of life which gives us a chance to think beyond what we see…go beyond that definite shape and size and colour, perhaps add a new definition or add a new dimension to an entirely seamless entity …sometimes life teaches you more when you are out on the streets or watching a child play or clouds moving subtly in the sky rather than sitting in the stuffy AC rooms in front of a dead computer whose control is in our hands…

Don’t you think so??

by ram..

Weird?

2009-05-16T04:42:00.000-07:00

There was a loud scream, a scream from a female, as I opened the door. With in no time, there were more furious screams, I was shocked and was unable to comprehend why there was a sudden uproar in an otherwise calm floor. It hardly took any time for me to realize that the screams were more of a reaction to my entrance to the room; me, a man of good response to stimuli, started running. It would have been a real bad idea to get into a fight with a group of furious women; I would rather shoot myself than doing that.

It has been a long time since I ran, it was a strange feeling when you have an oscillating kind of feeling in your intestines, though I did not enjoy it, I kept running. I took a u-turn when I realized I have reached a dead end and the whole female group took a u-turn and it all looked as if I were a comet with the tail being a group of females. I always hoped that I were the man in that Axe ad, where a plethora of women chasing me; but I never realized my dream would come true in this furious way, as I retraced the path, I just happened to realize that I fancied my way into a women’s restroom.

I looked back and started running faster as I saw a generous female who did not mind sacrficing her heels to attack a moron that I was. The likes of Ishant Sharma were put to shame when lady threw her sandal at speeds clocking 160 kmph(how did I measure the speed??), Keanu Reaves got into me and I bent back at 90 degrees, at the edge of the floor, to sniff the aroma of the lady’s heel. The first one was a good black-leather one inch heel sandal, it was almost successful is disfiguring my already disfigured nose. A sports shoe, a flat sandal, a leather boot followed as I dodged the last available foot wear with the ladies, my feet went off in air and I started feeling weightless-ness and as I looked down after a few feel good somersaults, there was good four floors of air beneath me. I started falling.

Thud, I landed. It was dark, I checked myself, I was OK. My eyes got accustomed to the darkness, no it was not a hospital, it was rather very familiar. It was my room and I just fell off my cot. I returned to bed cursing myself for thinking about how a ladies’ restroom looks like; and with this experience I slipped into my blanket thinking about Katrina Kaif.
By Anil

Love

2009-05-15T13:19:00.000-07:00

I tried to understand the meaning of love, but failed at it........

I can understand this life, But then why not Love....

I asked myself what is love? did not get any reply....

Then I thought Love is all about care,jealousy, thinking about someone and so on....

No but this is not love...it's just a mere definition of love...

Then what is love?

Love is what I see in his eyes....

Everything he does, shows not care but only love.

Whether he shouts, scolds or makes me cry...it's only love.

He speaks up a lot sometimes and sometimes keeps silent...

He wants me to speak up then ...

He wants me to share with him each and every breath...he just loves me.

He takes care that I wont go far away from him..

He is scared of losing me......

He kept me in place of God..

Whether I am right or wrong listens to me...

His way of loving me is different...

He first loves my tears and then loves me....

He just teases me to make frustrate me....

and then again fights to love me again...

He wants me but doesn't get me always...still he loves me.......

He can come to me anytime...yes, anytime to hold me...with his caring hands....

Now ask me what is love ....

Love is him, He is love......

4m Anuk

Trafficolympics

2009-05-14T11:29:00.000-07:00

The battle chords have begun. He is wearing his battle attire. His helmet glazes in the summer sun, His armour clinks with the heavy air around him. his army swarmes around him ready to strike at will. He mounts his noble steed and off he goes in the Jungle, trodding into the darkness dodging all the stray trees blocking his path and galloping over all the mudholes. Off he goes as the wind, nobody can stop him on his path to victory.

What does he see on the horizon, crimson sheen of something so bright that it outshines the sun. What in the god's noble name is this eminence he has not seen before. Ohh god its growing in radiance. Soon he is engulfed in this reddish glow that streches to infinity.

He does not lose hope and keeps trodding towards the light. After an eternity he cross on to the other side. The reddish light doesn't bother him anymore, and what does he see, a mammoth beast from his right running towards him. He is fast, How can this burly beast catch him on his steed. he is like the wind. He surges ahead. The mighty beast picks up speed and roars towards him.

He is inches away from the beast when he notices the magical inscription on the beast's head. It says in some magical language "Ashok Leyland". Then crash.. boom.. bang... One of his armymen passing by on a luna screams "saala thik se signal tod na, samajhta nahi hai kya".

Sorry for taking your for a ride there. Its a thing I notice every day. People breaking signals as if they are driving in their backyards. Aunties with cellphones stopping in the dead center of the road when they get calls.

Let me tell you there is huge scope of adventure sports in Pune. Some events pune traffic police and RTO sponsors for free in the city are:

1. Signal Hopping event

2. Dirt Biking (almost all roads are under construction)

3. Pothole spotting

4. Cattle dodging (cats / dogs / cows etc etc...)

5. Triathlon event (combo of any three of these above).

After rummaging through all my knowledge I am writing down some fine points to survive in Pune's traffic. These are few pointers:

1. Short Cuts Ain't : There is nothing called a short cut here. There is always a long cut and very long cut here, the later just takes more time. Traversing one way from the wrong side is called short cut here.

2. One ways Aren't : One way is one way only when you have mama(traffic cop with long pockets that is) standing on the other end. Localites usually stop and peep before they cross it.

3. Traffic signals are for non-Color blinds : The commandment in Pune is "Thou shalt stop on a signal only when thou are behind a truck and there aren't footpaths to cross it even". People in pune can sqeeze through 10 mm of a gap to get ahead and zoom off.

4. Potholes are must: This is the motto of the local municipal corporation as it increases human reflexes. You would need a excellent hand to eye coordination to dodge all of these in Pune.

5. Horn is a gift from God : All people in pune think that the louder they honk the better amenitis they will get in Heaven. And they have no qualms doing that. Be a red light, be it near the hospital, school, they will stand on the horn and do their best to get 2 sq inch of space to ram their vehicle through.

I have survived many such experiences and the only thing I can do is to keep mum over it and let the festivities flow.

11th Floor

2009-05-13T09:50:00.000-07:00

Mumbai... The city of dreams, hopes and aspirations... Mumbai, a city that has forever been synonymous with movies, mafia and the rains... It was in this city where I landed one fine, rainy June morning..
I had not come here to act in movies not even to be a model. It was my job that brought me to this big bad city. My first impression of the city was that it stank and it leaked. Somehow, I managed to get to my office and there I was given the keys to my new home(?).
The auto driver took me to the place which was to be my new home from now on. I am a Delhiite. Delhi has row houses, accompanied by a front lawn and a terrace. I have grown up playing on my lawn, flying kites on my terrace, sleeping on the terrace during the power cuts in summers and studying in the lawn during my board exams.
Anyways, coming back on track, here I was standing at the bottom of what looked like a sky scraper. I was astonished, amazed and flabbergasted. I had seen sky scrapers before but they were all offices and commercial complexes and malls. I somehow managed to haul my luggage into the lift and pressed the button for the 11th floor. The lift was small and dingy and I have claustrophobia, to me it seemed to take ages to reach 11 floors. Once there, I retrieved my luggage from the lift and entered the flat. It was a spacious place, a 3 BHK as they say in Mumbai, the hall had a beautiful view of the Powai lake and the flat seemed large and comfortable. I settled myself in a corner room with a huge window and what looked like a small balcony, but it wasn't a balcony I realised later but simply a small parapet.
I was sad and depressed and the only thought to cheer me up was that this building might have a terrace where perhaps I could go and stretch my legs. I climbed three more floors only find myself facing a large, iron door which was bolted and locked. I asked the security (yes, they arent called gatekeepers here) if I could go up and he looked at me suspiciously and said NO!! I was crestflallen, that night as I sat on the window sill, I could see the traffic on the highway. I missed my terrace, the open sky and the constellations that i could see in the night, I missed everything that made my evenings special. It didnt take me long to adjust though, I would spend most of the day, in office and came home to sleep. What did bug me me was that my neighbours didn't even know I existed. No one really cared... back home I remember vividly that there was an aunty who used to stay in the house opposite mine, she used to keep a watch on everyone, she would take note of all who came and knocked on our door and probably gave a daily report to all who would care to listen we. But here, no one cared.
I adjusted with my room-mates, a bunch of six girls with high pitched voices who indulged in partying each time we could spare some time from our busy schedules. I guess this is part and parcel of Mumbai life, and life goes on.
I have no personal interaction with anyone in my building, they are just faceless names hidden behind closed doors, unconcerned about the happenings around them.
Life on the 11th floor is not that bad, I still miss my terrace and my lawn but yes, I do enjoy the feeling of being on top of the world, looking down and watching life go by and I know when it is time to return to Delhi, I shall miss the view of the world from my 11th floor window.

Rainy Moments

2009-05-12T11:45:00.000-07:00

I remember those days how the small lane where I lived as a child used to get flooded up. Me, my brother, my cousins and number of kids in neighborhoods used to tear apart all the papers from our homes make boats and hundreds of meaningless things out of it and just throw them away with water. Just the sight of our boats flowing in the dirty water caused great joy for us. Even billions today cannot buy that for me.

I remember the first ever raincoat my father bought me and how much I treasured it. I waited for rains for hours just so that when it came I could wear it and show it to my friends and become the centre of attention. I remember crying loudly when it was torn a little while getting out of the school Bus. Today, I can afford any branded jerkins, but somehow I have lost my father who would again buy me that simple raincoat with eternal safety and warmth of love.

I remember when in rains I always spoilt my clothes playing Cricket with friends in the mud for hours and invariably got scolded by mom. Went bicycle racing madly with friends on slippery roads falling 10 out of 10 times. The friends are still there today, but no one has time for irritating rains.

In college, rain was again delightful. Apart from the boring routine of lectures and practicals. rain gave birth to many college life love stories which were talked for long may be for years in the college later. And how can I forget, rain always brought the divine taste of bhajjiyas made by street side vendor outside college.

I guess days, months, years will pass by. Rains will come and go. Some will be heavy, some will be moderate, some will be less, but, will my those rainy moments ever come back?

Some interesting facts

2009-05-10T10:55:00.000-07:00

1. Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

2. Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.

3. There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.

4. The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.

5. A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.

6. There are more chickens than people in the world.

7. Two-thirds of the world's eggplant is grown in New Jersey.

8. The longest one-syllable word in the English language is "screeched."

9. On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament building is an American flag.

10. All of the clocks in the movie "Pulp Fiction" are stuck on 4:20.

11. No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple. "Dreamt"

is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".

12. All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.

13. Almonds are a member of the peach family.

14. Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.

15. There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous":tremendous,

horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.

16. Los Angeles' full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula"

17. A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

18. An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

19. Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.

20. Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.

21. The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life."

22. A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours.

23. A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.

24. A dime has 118 ridges around the edge. It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

25. The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.

26. In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.

27. The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate

bar melted in his pocket.

28. The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.

29. There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball.

30. Stewardesses" is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand

Spread your wings in the sky

2009-05-10T10:31:00.000-07:00

I, is the word which has a pervasive use, whose offshoots maintain the equilibrium of a person’s life in this universe. I wonder how many times we use the word 'I' in our day today conversation. The very fact that in its garb is pride, vanity, faith, self respect, self reassurance, complacency, etc., defining it in concrete terms is a Herculean task. All of us are huddling and peddling in the race called life steering the 'I' in us, because all of us want to be nothing but the best and to achieve that we leave behind the treasures which life has to offer.

Me and my friends often complain on a cup of coffee or tea that life leaves us so drained out that besides working so hard we are either not achieving what we thought of and most of the times are not content and have somewhere down the line lost that zest for doing something different. It also occurs to us at times that there is this feeling of competition and a constant comparison with others which surges annoyance and thus sufferings multiply by leaps and bounds on account of the folly of the mind.

‘I’ is the reflection of our own self and if we drill down and look into it, it is the mirror of our soul and conscience. It is an esoteric form which demarcates one individual from the other. A sense of accomplishment can only be tasted by the person who has earned it. There is a unique “I” amongst each one of us which often comes into conflict when one ‘I’ is compared to another. This existential angst brings with itself despair and confusions. It is very human to make comparison of such sorts. In fact we are born with such instincts which help us to save our skin and win the battle of survival of the fittest. We often see little children talking amongst themselves “My toy is better than yours”. It is the social conditioning which teaches them what caring and sharing is all about. There lies a very thin line between self confidence and arrogance. “I am better than the rest because I have that something different, that extra zing which makes me the best in this role” is self confidence and “I am better than the rest because nobody here is any better” is arrogance which can easily turn into self destruction.

A lot of times we also end up comparing ourselves with others which often makes us feel dejected, hopeless and good for nothing. “How much beautiful she is, but I am not”. “I am even not half as intelligent as he is”. I believe that life is no brief candle, it's a splendid torch. The key to it being a ceaseless joy is only when an individual is content. Every person needs to make peace with that ‘I ‘in us which is special in its own way. There is no treasure equal to contentment and virtue equal to fortitude. Just spread your wings in the sky and see the limitless potential and avenues open up in front of you because all of us are born with a purpose. An optimistic outlook and faith in ourselves can only melt up the miseries and give us a direction to win over the impediments of the mind.

A Confidence??

2009-05-09T14:38:00.000-07:00

Don’t you think so??