Spontaneity !!!: 2009

Thursday, September 24, 2009

India vs Pakistan, Champions Trophy, Centurion : 26 September 2009

How many of you last watched the arch rivals India and Pakistan clash in an One Day International Cricket match.
Do you remember when was last India vs Pakistan one day international played?

back on 2 July 2008 at Karachi.....and Pakistan won it by 8 wickets in hand..

Over an year hence, arch rivals meet again at Supersport park in Centurion for Group A match in ICC Champions trophy 2009 in South Africa. This will be 123th Ind v Pak ODI, with Pakistan leading 68 to 45 wins for India and 8 no results.6 September 2009, the day of the clash, is a Saturday, kind of holiday for most reading this.

Here's how you can enjoy the clash of the Titans: -

Match Start time :- is utterly important. Note that this India vs Pakistan champions trophy match will be played as a Day-Night ODI in South Africa = 2.30pm local time = 6pm India time = 6.30pm Pakistan = 10.30pm Sydney/Melbourne in Australia, 8.30am Canada, 8.30pm Malaysia/Singapore, 12.30am New Zealand, 1.30pm UK, 5.30am Los Angeles and 8.30pm New York in USA. For middle east viewers, match will be starting 4.30pm in the afternoon.

TV Telecast Channels :- Starcricket in India and Pakistan, check local listings for more details.

Interesting Facts:- The only previous India vs Pakistan at the venue ~ Centurion, was a cracker. Pakistan put up a healthy 273 batting first (Saeed Anwar 101) but Indians chased down it with 6 wickets in hand and 4.2 overs remaining! Openers Virendra Sehwag (21 off 14) and Sachin Tendulkar (98 off 75) blasted likes of Wasim Akram, Shoaib Akhtar, Shahid Afridi and Waqar Younis to all parts of the ground (specially six over third man) and Yuvraj Singh's half century sealed the game.

Moreover, India has a 100% winning record in World Cup (** touchwood **) against Pakistan.

Interestingly, that World cup 2003 match is the only instance when India and Pakistan played a one day international in South Africa when Openers Virendra Sehwag (21 off 14) and Sachin Tendulkar (98 off 75) blasted likes of Wasim Akram, Shoaib Akhtar, Shahid Afridi and Waqar Younis to all parts of the ground (specially six over third man) and Yuvraj Singh's half century sealed the game.

The six over third man by Sachin on Shoaib Akhtar's bowling got the Moment of the Year award and guess what the award was received by Sachin through Shoaib himself. :P

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

India Launches 7 Satellites from Sriharikota !!!

India has launched seven satellites from a single rocket, demonstrating its growing skills in multi-satellite launches. The success comes nearly a month after India had to end its inaugural Moon mission early.

Within a space of 20 minutes, an Indian rocket placed one big satellite and six small ones into space from the Sriharikota space center in eastern India.

The big remote-sensing satellite will map fishing zones around India, measure ocean surfaces and wind speeds and track monsoons and cyclones.

The six small satellites belong to other countries - four to Germany, one to Switzerland and one to Turkey.

Last year, India put 10 satellites in space in a single launch.

The head of the Indian Space Research organization, G. Madhavan Nair, says the latest launches have reaffirmed India's capabilities in successfully putting satellites in space.

"It is a fantastic achievement," he said. "I think we have once again proven that we can do the job precisely."

In the past decade, India's 46-year space program has focused on developing rocket-launching capabilities to gain a slice of the multi-billion-dollar space-launch market. It has put an Italian satellite and an Israeli spy satellite into orbit. But India is still a relative newcomer in a field dominated by big players such as the United States, Russia and the European Space Agency.

Wednesday's satellite launch also brings a lift to the country's space scientists, who were disappointed last month when the country's first mission to the Moon had to be terminated after contact with the unmanned spacecraft was lost.

That mission was undertaken to map the Moon's surface and search for water. Scientists say the mission was a success, and has yielded very useful data, despite its termination, a year ahead of schedule.

In recent years, India has scaled up its ambitions to explore space, not wanting to be left behind by countries like China. It hopes to send a manned mission into space, in four years time.

India's space program functions on a relatively modest budget of about $1 billion a year.

Jai Ho !!! Great going Indian scientists !!!

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Gate 2010 application form, gate 2010 notification IIT Guhawati !!!

Good news for all GATE aspirants. The important dates for GATE 2010 have been announced.

Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) Exam is held in 8 zones across the country by the GATE Committee. The Committee comprises of deemed faculty from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and the seven notable IITs of India.
Important Dates for GATE 2010 are as below:
GATE 2010 Examination Forms Available from 22^nd Sep ‘09 – 30^th Sep ‘09
Examination Dates
Online GATE Exam (TF Paper)                       7^th Feb ’10,      Time: 09.30 hrs – 12.30 hrs
Online GATE Exam (MN Paper)                     7^th Feb ’10,     Time: 14.30 hrs – 17.30 hrs
Offline GATE Exam (All other papers)           14^th Feb ’10,    Time: 09.30 hrs – 12.30 hrs

Announcement of Results 15^th Mar ‘10
For further information, downloading application form, applying online for the exam and to know about the zone wise distribution, pls visit the link given below:
http://gate.iitg.ernet.in/index.php

Monday, September 21, 2009

Josie's Story !!!

This is the new book on the block that has been making news.

In 2001, 18-month-old Josie King was taken to the nation's best hospital, Johns Hopkins, after she was severely scalded in the bathtub at home. A few weeks later, she was dead of complications from dehydration, due to a series of preventable medical errors.

Now the mother, Sorrel King, who still lives in Baltimore, has written her own account, "Josie's Story."

Josie initially approached Women and Work in order to improve her confidence and self esteem, as she had been out of work for some time and she was fairly new to Milton Keynes. Her learning needs were lack of confidence in communicating and interpersonal skills.

Josie had to overcome her lack of self-confidence due to past experiences that had left her doubting her own abilities. She was afraid of not being accepted for who she was.

since joining the programme Josie has begun studies in communication and training. Josie enthuses: “Woman and work has changed my life. I have gained a lot of confidence and experience. The support and assistance I have received helps me remain focused on my goals and I have made some good friends.”

When the programme finishes Josie is looking towards working in training and development, designing and delivering training

and eventually running her own training company delivering

soft skills and training to the corporate world.

Go grab this book buddies !

Peace of Thought !!!

21st September in the 21st Century, fondly known as International Peace Day !!!

On September 7, 2001, a new resolution was passed by the United Nations General Assembly to give the Day of Peace a fixed date and declare it as a global ceasefire day. That day was set to be September 21st. Just four days later on September 11, 2001, the World Trade Centers were attacked and Peace Days came and went without any ceasefires.

To commemorate this day I first of all Greet you on this occassion.

Coming back to Peace, surely there must be few things ringing in your mind as to what is the significance of following such days, when

we cannot read the newspaper on a single day, without the news of violence in it.
the rest of the world is plagued by other problems such as poverty, health related problems etc.
we have inter and intra country wars for issues that are beyond reach of the common man.
the youth of the country is devoid of jobs and is struck by recession.
many innocent lives are taken away by a certain terrorist attack in some or the other part of the country.

This might seem overtly pessimistic but candidly writing, the common man doesn't even care about these sophisticated observation of days, given his sufferings. So,here lies the big question front of our society "how does one promote peace in the world ? "

World peace is now becoming day by day a major concern for all political leaders and governments due to its growing importance over other alarming factors such as climate change; it is, as it seems, useless to fight climatic changes and its consequences when war and racism prevails everywhere and hundreds of people are dying due to political instability, war and racism, which all form part of the factors acting against world peace. It is futile having a good temperate climate when terrorism, rioting and discrimination are striking in every corner of the globe and thousands of people are being killed. So, the great importance of world peace cannot be stressed enough.

So, it is my earnest request to not only observe peace day on 21st of September each year, but to take necessary steps which would promote Peace within an Individual, City, the Nation and the World.

Happy International Peace Day !!! :)

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Harishchandrachi Factory !!!

Just for the record, the title of this post means "Harishchandra's Factory- The making". Raja Harishchandra (राजा हरिश्चंद्र), is a 1913 silent Indian film directed and produced by Dadasaheb Phalke, and is the first full-length Indian feature film.

Raja Harischandra is a beacon of truth among all the illustrious and renowned kings of India. The Raja stood steadfast in his determination to do his duty in the face of severe obstacles, impediments and difficulties that would have deterred any ordinary mortal.

You must be thinking what all this is doing on my blog. Enough of mystery and I now unveil the Good News,

Marathi film “Harishchandrachi Factory”, Mumbai-based theatre actor-director Paresh Mokashi’s debut movie, will be India’s official entry for the Oscars.

The movie is on the making of “Raja Harishchandra”, India’s first full length feature film made in 1913 by the pioneer of Indian cinema Dadasaheb Phalke.

Mokashi’s low-budget period film was completed in January. It has bagged a series of international awards and honours.

This is the second Marathi film after “Shwaas” to be nominated by India for an Oscar in five years. “Shwaas” was Sandeep Sawant’s directorial debut.

Jai Ho !!! Hope it wins the Oscars !!! :)

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Navratri !!! The 9 Divine Nights !!!

"Nava-ratri" literally means "nine nights." This festival is observed twice a year, once in the beginning of summer and again at the onset of winter.

What's the Significance of Navratri?

During Navaratri, we invoke the energy aspect of God in the form of the universal mother, commonly referred to as "Durga," which literally means the remover of miseries of life. She is also referred to as "Devi" (goddess) or "Shakti" (energy or power). It is this energy, which helps God to proceed with the work of creation, preservation and destruction. In other words, you can say that God is motionless, absolutely changeless, and the Divine Mother Durga, does everything. Truly speaking, our worship of Shakti re-confirms the scientific theory that energy is imperishable. It cannot be created or destroyed. It is always there.

Why Worship the Mother Goddess?

We think this energy is only a form of the Divine Mother, who is the mother of all, and all of us are her children. "Why mother; why not father?", you may ask. Let me just say that we believe that God's glory, his cosmic energy, his greatness and supremacy can best be depicted as the motherhood aspect of God. Just as a child finds all these qualities in his or her mother, similarly, all of us look upon God as mother. In fact, Hinduism is the only religion in the world, which gives so much importance to the mother aspect of God because we believe that mother is the creative aspect of the absolute.

Why Twice a Year?

Every year the beginning of summer and the beginning of winter are two very important junctures of climatic change and solar influence. These two junctions have been chosen as the sacred opportunities for the worship of the divine power because: (1) We believe that it is the divine power that provides energy for the earth to move around the sun, causing the changes in the outer nature and that this divine power must be thanked for maintaining the correct balance of the universe.
(2) Due to the changes in the nature, the bodies and minds of people undergo a considerable change, and hence, we worship the divine power to bestow upon all of us enough potent powers to maintain our physical and mental balance.

Why Nine Nights & Days?

Navaratri is divided into sets of three days to adore different aspects of the supreme goddess. On the first three days, the Mother is invoked as powerful force called Durga in order to destroy all our impurities, vices and defects. The next three days, the Mother is adored as a giver of spiritual wealth, Lakshmi, who is considered to have the power of bestowing on her devotees the inexhaustible wealth. The final set of three days is spent in worshipping the mother as the goddess of wisdom, Saraswati. In order have all-round success in life, we need the blessings of all three aspects of the divine mother; hence, the worship for nine nights.

Why Do You Need the Power?

Thus, I suggest you join your parents in worshipping "Ma Durga" during the Navaratri. She will bestow on you wealth, auspiciousness, prosperity, knowledge, and other potent powers to cross every hurdle of life. Remember, everyone in this world worships power, i.e., Durga, because there is no one who does not love and long for power in some form or the other

So enjoy this Navratri and the Garba Dance, hence enlighten and rejuvenate yourself !!!

Friday, September 18, 2009

Naughty Google !!!

What do U think Google is ?

Of course, you don't need to think what Google is. It is one of the best boons of the 21st century, a search engine that everyone at least once in his/her life must have tried and will continue to use in the near future.

But today I encountered the flip side i.e. the Naughty side of our very own Google Search Engine. Here's how:

If you wanna know just type in this words, in the Google Search box and U will come to know.

1. Why can't I have

Here's the result:

2.I ate

Here's the result

3. Girls like

Here's the result: -

4. Should I

Here's the result: -

And the list endless. Here are few for you to try out. Check them while we continue laughing. :)

Type these words in Google and the rest is history.

5. I Need To

6. I Smell Like

7. What If He

8. Man, I’m

9. What If Your

This one's interesting,

10. Have My

11. Why Don’t
This is one of the best. Take a look

and the list is endless. So continue using Google and have fun on the run !!! Enjoy !!! :)

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Increase backlinks to your blog !!!

Monday, September 14, 2009

Politics Simplified !!!

So time for some fun guys. I have tried to simplify Politics in this post ! :P

FEUDALISM: You have two cows. Your lord takes some of the milk.

PURE SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else's cows. You have to take care of all of the cows. The government gives you as much milk as you need.

BUREAUCRATIC SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and put them in a barn with everyone else's cows. They are cared for by ex-chicken farmers. You have to take care of the chickens the government took from the chicken farmers. The government gives you as much milk and eggs as the regulations say you need.

FASCISM: You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to take care of them and sells you the milk.

PURE COMMUNISM: You have two cows. Your neighbors help you take care of them, and you all share the milk.

RUSSIAN COMMUNISM: You have two cows. You have to take care of them, but the government takes all the milk.

CAMBODIAN COMMUNISM: You have two cows. The government takes both of them and shoots you.

DICTATORSHIP: You have two cows. The government takes both and drafts you.

PURE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. Your neighbors decide who gets the milk.

REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. Your neighbors pick someone to tell you who gets the milk.

BUREAUCRACY: You have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to milk them. Then it takes both, shoots one, milks the other and pours the milk down the drain. Then it requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing cows.

PURE ANARCHY: You have two cows. Either you sell the milk at a fair price or your neighbors try to take the cows and kill you.

LIBERTARIAN/ANARCHO-CAPITALISM: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.

SURREALISM: You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.

Thank U for reading through all these lines !!!

Things Everyone Should Know How To Do !!!

From my personal experience I have figured out a few things a person ( Human Being :P ) ought to know in his life ! :)

In no particular order they are,

1. Build a Fire –

Fire produces heat and light, two basic necessities for living. At some point in your life this knowledge may be vital.

2.O

perate a Computer
Fundamental computer knowledge is essential these days. Please, help those in need.

3. Use Google Effectively Google knows everything. If you’re having trouble finding something with

Google, it’s you that needs help.

4. Do Basic Cooking

If you can’t cook your own steak and eggs, you probably aren’t going to make it.

5. Tell a Story that Captivates People’s Attention-

If you can’t captivate their attention,
you should probably just save your breath.

6. Win or Avoid a Fistfight -

Either way, you win.

7.Handle a Job Interview – I promise, sweating yourself into a nervous panic won’t land you the job.

8.Manage Time – Not doing so is called wasting time, which is okay sometimes, but not all the time.

9.Speed Read – Sometimes you just need the basic gist, and you needed it 5 minutes ago.

10.Remember Names – Do you like when someone tries to get your attention by screaming “hey you”?

11.Perform Basic First Aid – You don’t have to be a doctor, or genius, to properly dress a wound.

And Above ALL

12.Swim – 71% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water. Learning to swim might be a good idea.

Enjoy life !!!

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Ego !!!

I got this as a forward on my email. Read this, maybe there is a lesson for all of us.

A lady in a faded grey dress and her husband, dressed in a home-spun suit walked in timidly without an appointment into the Harvard University President’s outer office. The secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods, country hicks had no business at Harvard and probably didn’t even deserve to be in Harvard.

“We want to see the President “the man said softly.

“He’ll be busy all day “the secretary snapped.

“We’ll wait” the lady replied.

For hours the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would finally become discouraged and go away. They didn’t and the secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to disturb the president..

“Maybe if you see them for a few minutes, they’ll leave” she said to him. The President, stern faced and with dignity, strutted toward the couple.

The lady told him “We had a son who attended Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard. He was happy here. But about a year ago, he was accidentally killed. My husband and I would like to erect a memorial to him, somewhere on campus.”

The president wasn’t touched….He was shocked. “Madam” he said, gruffly, “we can’t put up a statue for every person who attended Harvard and died. If we did, this place would look like a cemetery.”

“Oh, no,” the lady explained quickly ” We don’t want to erect a statue. We thought we would like to give a building to Harvard.”

The president rolled his eyes. He glanced at the gingham dress and homespun suit, and then exclaimed, “A building! Do you have any earthly idea how much a building costs? We have over seven and a half million dollars in the physical buildings here at Harvard.”

For a moment the lady was silent. The president was pleased. Maybe he could get rid of them now. The lady turned to her husband and said quietly, “Is that all it costs to start a university? Why don’t we just start our own?”

Her husband nodded. The president’s face wilted in confusion and bewilderment. Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford got up and walked away, traveling to Palo Alto, California where they established the University that bears their name: - Stanford University , a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared about.

Most of the time we judge people by their outer appearance , which can be misleading. And in this impression, we tend to treat people badly by thinking they can do nothing for us. Thus we tend to lose our potential good friends, employees or customers.

Remember

In our Life, we seldom get people with whom we want to share & grow our thought process. But because of our inner EGO we miss them forever.

It is you who have to decide with whom you are getting associated in day to day life.

Small people talk about others,

Average people talk about things,

Great people talk about ideas

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Locality of Reference !!!

The heading may sound familiar to those who are from the IT sector, but I do not intend to write about this Computer Science concept all over again. It is interesting to note that most of the concepts of the Computer Science have evolved from the day to day life. Be it the Buddy System, pointers, and so on. Today I came across with the importance of the Locality of Reference which all computer geeks study in System Programming.

From past few days, the battery of my bike ( Hero Honda Splendor NxG) had been giving problems and I went to the servicing center of the bike. i.e Hero Honda. As all servicing centers who leave no stone unturned in order to extract as much money from your pocket, a mechanic came to me and said, "Bhaiya, battery change karna padega" ( Brother, the battery has to be changed ) . Tell you what these mechanics are so shrewd and at the same time very loyal to their owners. Having done some R & D on my bike previously, I knew the battery wire only needed to be soldered. So I asked him," Sirf solder hi toh karna hai" (Just solder the battery and it will be ok). Pat came the reply, " Agar battery mein ched ho gaya toh? " ( what if by mistake a hole is created in the battery due to soldering ) :). WHOAAA !!! What a reply ? As if I had not seen soldering in my life.

Scenario 2 :

I went to a local mechanic and asked him " Bhaiya, battery ka soldering karna hai" ( I have to solder the battery wire). The soft spoken mechanic replies, " Thik hai bhaiya, battery mere paas chod do, shaam ko lekar jaana" ( Ok, leave the battery with me and take it back in the evening).

Being an IT professional, I can only relate this to the concept of Locality of Reference !!! ;)

So the gist of the above experience is " No matter how fast the world changes we must not get carried away by the development of these plush malls, shopping centers, and big showrooms. " ,there are umpteen number of local vendors and local talent, which can at times surpass these sophisticated developments in the society.

No wonder they say " When in Rome, do as the Romans do". In India, we call it " JUGAAD TECHNOLOGY". Will certainly update about this technology in the upcoming blogs.

Monday, August 31, 2009

Relationship Rules !!!

These are some of the Relationship Rules, I stumbled upon on the World Wide Web.

Here we go,
1. The FEMALE always makes the rules.
2. The rules are subject to change at any time without prior notification...by the FEMALE.
3. No MALE can possibly know all the rules.
4. If the FEMALE suspects the MALE knows all the rules, she must immediately change some or all of them.
5. The FEMALE is never wrong.
6. If the FEMALE is wrong, it is due to a misunderstanding which was a direct result of something the MALE did or said wrong.
7. The MALE must apologize immediately for causing the misunderstandings.
8. The FEMALE may change her mind at any time.
9. The MALE must never change his mind without the express written consent of the FEMALE.
10. The FEMALE has every right to be angry or upset at any time.
11. The MALE must remain calm at all times, unless the FEMALE wants him to be angry or upset.
12. The FEMALE must, under no circumstances, let the MALE know whether or not she wants him to be angry or upset.
13. The MALE is expected to "mind read" at all times.
14. The MALE who doesn't abide by the rules; can't take the heat, lacks backbone, and is a wimp!
15. Any attempt to document the rules could result in bodily harm.
16. The FEMALE is ready when SHE is ready.
17. The MALE must be ready at ALL times

Disclaimer: -

Person who created these rules can claim them Suo Moto, I would be more than happy to meet the creative person.

Friday, August 28, 2009

Integrated Thoughts !!!

A famous Marathi proverb goes somewhat like this

"जैसा बोले तैसा चाले तोची खरा संत " !!!

which means " The one who walks exactly like the ways he talks ( read preaches ) , is the Saint".

All these days I was wondering why all the mishaps and the accidents in the world take place. And after I got the 7 stitches, I have kind of figured out what it can be.

How many times

We have had hiccups while drinking water ?
Bumped into someone accidently ?
Dashed a vehicle by mistake ?
etc.
etc.

What could be the reason ? What is it ? Let us dig deep in our mind. In this era, everyone is busy doing so many things at a time, that the mind is cluttered all around by thoughts. Multi-Tasking is the word, so while we are doing one thing physically our mind is in some other task. It is like you are giving your autographs to the person in the front of the queue, but looking at someone else in the crowd. :P

The gist of the above lines is that we (read "I" ) must concentrate on only one thing at a time and not have so many things in our mind at the same time.

Happy Blogging !!!

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Timing !!!

They say being at the right place at the right time is the secret of success, in iota, we call it Timing ! For a die hard Indian cricket fan, it only reminds us of one man, the Prince of Kolkata Sourav Ganguly. Sourav was known as " The God of Off side" only because of his exquisite timing.

So what made me write about Timing. These days I am captivated by the importance of timing. The timing of the rains this year went wrong and it managed so, in the worst time of all, to add to the woes of the Recession hit India.

And now that the farmers have had their share of waiting long enough for the rains and almost lost hope Rain Gods are providing with untimely yet pleasant rains. But one wonders whether the rains have come a bit too late. Well, who knows only the time would tell.

Coming back to untimely rains, we are forced to think about the reasons. Without a shadow of a doubt one of the reasons has to be the US. ( It's not US as in United States, It's us the human beings ) . Details are left to the environmentalists, as they only can scrutinize the reasons of such hostile behavior of Mother Nature. Environmentalist can only lighten up US on issues like Global Warming etc...

Timing !!! huh,

well how do U feel when U r driving and enjoying the pleasure, and suddenly rain pours down
when U r looking at U r favorite things ( ;) ) and somebody disturbs U.
when U r concentrating hard, and somebody interrupts U.
when U r sipping a nice cup of coffee, and suddenly the dool bell rings.
when U r reading this post, and U r internet disconnects. ( I hope this wouldn't happen)

It's all about Timing, at last. My time(-ing) for this post is over. Catch U later.

Monday, August 24, 2009

England win back the Ashes !!!

Congratulations to the England team for winning the Ashes after 4 long years again ! They say history repeats itself and my word it has done again.

The last time England took on Australia on this ground four years ago, it was a marathon Andrew Flintoff bowling spell either side of lunch on the fourth day which halted the tourists in their tracks after openers Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden struck hundreds.

Today, when Ponting and Hussey were going along nicely on a pitch which was being seen as one of the toughest pitches and an agricultured one, Freddie Flintoff was back in Action. It took a stupendous run out effort from Flintoff to get Ponting out. Had it not been the case, who knows we might have seen again a great Australian chase.

Ponting had been in ominous form, during more than two and a half hours at the crease, and was intent it seemed on driving the series finale into a fifth day.

But his departure opened up an end for England to attack and euphoric celebrations reminiscent of 2005 began at 5.48pm when Hussey was taken at short leg off Graeme Swann.

All is well that ends well, so has it for Andrew Flintoff. A great farewell match to end with and gift from the colleagues as big as the Ashes series is what he would have wanted.Celebrations would have begun and may be up until the next morning. And I guarantee that Freddie will be undoubtedly be the center of those celebrations.

And at last, who say Test Cricket's days are over. Well I have one thing to say, it is far more intriguing and entertaining as we have seen in the last couple of months. Test Cricket is here to stay as it is the real test of a Cricketer.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Bhuvan !!!

Bhuvan!!! Sounds like the name of the Protagonist ( Aamir Khan) in the Oscar nominated Hindi Film "Lagaan".

Just came across this new invention by Indian scientists. If you are thinking what it is, at the outset I would like you to know that it's an indigenous satellite mapping tool developed by the ISRO ( Indian Space Research Organization). You must wondering what this is doing on my blog, to sum it up it is a matter of pride for all Indians that our very own highly talented and intellectual scientists have developed a tool for India. The entire world knows that most of the scientists in the so called Developed countries are Indians, and when they invent or innovate something, the credit goes to the respective country. But now avoiding the Brain Drain and the so called Intellectual Property Rights, Indian scientists are back with a bang.

It's Jai Ho !!! time once again for Indians as in this era of recession there is a dearth of good news.

The talk of town is " Will Bhuvan replace Google Earth ? " Let's see how Bhuvan lives up to the expectations.

Will keep you updated about Bhuvan in the next post.

For further details you can visit the following link and cherish this Indian achievement : -

http://bhuvan2.nrsc.gov.in/Bhuvan/WebClient/PresentationLayer/home/index.aspx?

Saturday, August 15, 2009

The 7 Stitches !!!

Well U must be wondering where was I after the "Mobile" lecture. In the next lecture, I punished the culprits by calling their Dad's from my mobile. :P

So, Here I am, back again after a minor incident which has left a deep imprint ( read CUT ) on my right hand. As I write this post, there is definite sting in my forehand.

The story goes like this, we had finished up the Independence Day on 15th August and was looking for one of the lecturers since I had to take money from her, which she had kept since ages. The money she was carrying was of the WAD ( Workshop on Aptitude Development), I being the sincere student of Gole Sir was made the WAD Co-ordinator of my college.

They call it the irony of life, few months back I was denied a place in WAD organizing when I was a student, by some shrewd SRKNEC student organizers of WAD .

Moving on, I was moving with only one thing in mind that I had to take the money from her, as she had kept the money till the last date and if I had not taken it from her on that day; 5 students would not have got a place in the WAD. ( of course blame would have been on her ).

So, as I was moving looking at her ( money in the mind :P ) , came the magic moment. I banged on the glass door and the glass broke. Few glass pieces managed to kiss my forehand rather poked it, And hence the stitches.

I wonder how this might have happened,

Did somebody ( read the boy whom I punished for giving missed calls ) curse me ?
My mom said, " Nazar lagali" ( read Evil Eye) as she opined I was looking good on that day.
etc
etc
etc :P

Whatever the reason might be, one thing is sure I have to live with stitches for 7 more days. I had to shell out 1000 bucks for the treatment ( again a long story regarding 1000 bucks ), few more for the material they used for operating on my hand.

I should stop typing now, as my hand ( read stitches ) are stinging again . Next post will definitely be " After Effects of the Independence Day " or " After Effects of the Broken Glass", be it anything one thing is sure, it would be interesting.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Confessions of a Lecturer !!! continued...

Well this is the continued episode of the series Confessions of a Lecturer. In my student life, I never gave a thought to what a professor goes through while doing his job. To sum it up, a lecturer's job is not that easy as it seems. The lectures, DMR's (it's Daily Monitoring Reports), juggling with time table to ensure the lectures are taken in proper order (read improper) as per the Time table. There are some lazy bones out there who do not waste an opportunity to take the first lecture, so that they can relax for the rest of the day, and mind you they can go to any extent to pounce on such an opportunity. Well.... it's an opportunistic world anyways.

Well a pretty monotonous day today, nothing much. But yes, a suggestion for people who wish to take up lecturer-ship as a career. Never give your mobile number to your students, as your so called sincere students might take the opportunity to give you that famous MISSED CALL while you are taking a lecture. Thankfully, I had given my number to only one student. The student seemed sincere enough to me so I gave it to him, but one smart student took it from his notebook, and guess what he did today?? The other student started giving missed calls on my mobile.

I called back but there was no answer, I figured out something was wrong and my guess was right, it was a student from the class. I made sure from the boy whether he shared my mobile number with someone else and gave the received number to him. He has told me it's of the student from my class only. Well the day was over by that time. Will look after that boy in the lecture.

Anyways thank you for reading so much. See U later with updated info. Bye . Take care.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Confessions of a Lecturer !!! Unit III

Chapter 1

As before starting any lecture, you don't know what's going to happen in the lecture ; I don't know what will be the content of this post. Today I took 2 lectures, one on DBMS and another on Visual Basic 6.0.

First one went pretty cool. Here are some excerpts from the first one. Frankly speaking, I didn't prepare for today's lecture as the current chapter is all about SQL ( Structured Query Language) which is in a way my forte. There is one interesting thing that I have encountered while teaching, that you must be careful with your words especially refrain from words which might have a double meaning.

After finishing a topic today, I asked the students "Line maro" ( i.e draw a line) few of them mistook it for something else and started laughing. Before I went into splits, I corrected myself and told them " Line maro NOTEBOOK mein"(i.e draw a line IN THE NOTEBOOK) *** Laughter again***. A lesson for the student who had once asked " Sir where to write"( refer LOLism post).
So nothing more interesting in this lecture.

If you thought first lecture was cool, the second was Cooler. Will cover the second lecture in Chapter 2 of this Unit. Till then Goodbye. It was nice to have U here. Adios !!!

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Confessions of a Lecturer !!! Unit II

LOLism !!!

Hi Guys (and Gals), welcome back. I am sure U must be wondering y this post is called LOLism :D.?

Well the reason is obvious, I will share all the dumbness that I have encountered during my tenure of lecturership in the last month. So here we go,

Chapter 1 :-

One fine lecture, I was dictating some topic, I explained it on the blackboard and asked the students to draw the diagram. After that I said, "Write Down". One smart student asked, "Sir where to write". ( I said to myself ' Write on my head bloody') Then me again, " where else ? in the notebook of course". ** entire class bursts into laughter**

Chapter 2 : -

My college has a OMS ( Outside Maharashtra Seat) quota. So most of the students are from other states and most of them are Bihari. So the other day, I was teaching Creating Table in Oracle to the students. I gave the syntax to the students, and asked them to create a table of their own. Some were able to do it, some couldn't and the latter had their doubts cleared about Creating a Table in Oracle. So after almost all the students had their tables created, one fine student stood up and asked, " Sir mujhe plz batayiye TABLEWAA kaise banate hai", **laughter in the class**.

When I went to his PC to see what he had written, the Create Table statement looked like this, --->
Create Tablewaa Student ( Rollno number(3), Name varchar2(10));

Consequence is left to the readers to guess. ( I couldn't stop smilling, but somehow had enough patience to explain the correct version of Create Tablewaa statement).

Later on came to know that one of his colleagues from Bihar had asked him, "TABLEWAA banana hai". (OMG)

PS: - This post is not intended to offend the sentiments of the Biharis.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

The Hall of Infame !!!

The recent furor about the Indian players not signing the WADA ( World Anti Doping Agency) has compelled us to rethink about the drug scandals in the past, and how WADA is taking preventive measures to curb the practice of taking drugs. However, this does not mean I support any one particular party in this speculation.

Let's take a look back at some of the incidents in the past where cricketers were found guilty of taking drugs for performance enhancement.

In 2003, just when the World Cup was about to start the Legendary leg spinner Shane Warne was sent hom

e from South Africa after the drug test conducted by Cricket Australia. The drug that Warne used is said to be used to mask the presence of other drugs.

In 2008, the Indian Premier League revealed that a player had tested positive for banned substances during the first edition of the tournament and on July 14, it was revealed that the player in question was Asif.On February 11, 2009, the IPL confirmed that Asif had tested positive for steroids and subsequently imposed a one year ban on him, ending on September 21, 2009. Shortly before the IPL's announcement, Asif was released of his contract by the Delhi DareDevils.

Mohammad Asif's teammate Shoaib Akhtar has been also caught guilty of taking drugs umpteen number of times. A former PCB spokesperson had always suspected Shoaib for doping due to his reluctance towards drug test.

If we go on counting such occurences in the history of Cricket, we would have number of them.

Legendary England all-rounder Sir Ian Botham was suspended briefly in 1986 for smoking cannabis.
Asim Butt played three matches in the 2005 season for Scotland, taking three wickets but being expensive, before he tested positive for ecstasy during a match with Somerset.
Former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming survived controversy in 1995 when he was caught and admitted to smoking marijuana with teammates Matthew Hart and Dion Nash while on the tour to South Africa at their hotel. Nash and Hart were suspended following the incident.
In May 2005, former England all-rounder Dermot Reeve revealed that he was addicted to cocaine, and that he had commentated on a Test match the previous year under the influence of the drug. Reeve also admitted to using Marijuana whilst he was an active player for Warwickshire but only out of season.

The above incidents are a few of the incidents which can malign the spirit of cricket. But it certainly does not mean all cricketers undergo such (mal)practices. The fact that whether our Indian cricketers should sign the WADA contract or not, is left to them and WADA. As genuine Cricket fans, all we want to see is PURE cricket.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Microsoft's New Search Engine !!! Bing !!!

So here we are again, the clash of the Titans continues. Microsoft has decided to revamp it's LIVE search ( and take on Google search ) and renamed it as Bing. But it's not that only the name has changed. MS has added a whole lot of features. Here are a few of them ( in fact lot's of them).

When I logged on to Bing for the first time, here's what I got

So let's go deeper into the new LIVE search engine.

According to Microsoft, Bing lets you find Web content fast and excels at refining searches so that you can unearth the lowest airfares, discover reviews of neighborhood boutiques, or track down reliable health information from the Mayo Clinic.

In Bing, Microsoft introduces a Quick Previews feature that provides a text-based synopsis of the pages displayed in your search results. When you drag your mouse cursor over individual search results, a Quick Previews box of data pops up, containing information from the site.

Bing peppers its search results with what Microsoft calls Instant Answers. As the name implies, Instant Answers entries serve up answers to common questions related to currency conversion, weather forecasts, movie times, or whatever you're investigating.

Save & Share lets you save, organize, and share recent searches. You can share searches with Facebook or Windows Live friends, or save them to your Microsoft SkyDrive folder. The Save & Share function not only allows you to save your favorite searches, but also lets you organize them into folders and add notes to them.

According to Microsoft, 50 percent of all searches are repeats; saving your favorite searches offers a shortcut to the results of a search that you might otherwise have to repeat from scratch.

The primary difference between Live Search and Bing is the user interface. Bing Image and Video Search is more intuitive than its predecessor, Microsoft says, and all of the filtering tools are conveniently and consistently grouped in the Explorer Pane.

Microsoft retooled Live Search's Image and Video Search to make it easier for users to find full-length TV shows, music videos, and other video content from leading content providers such as Hulu and YouTube.

Microsoft has updated the search engine's interface so that you can extract what the company calls “sentiment” regarding a particular service or business. This feature works by scanning consumer product ratings from sites such as CitySearch.com and Yelp.com, and mashing those results together with Bing search results.

For example, a search for “Chinese restaurants” brings up a 'Local' tab in the left-hand pane (the Explorer Pane) of the search results page. Select this tab, and you can browse local Chinese restaurants within a geographical area you select. Click on one of the restaurants listed in the search results, and Bing serves up a Score Card containing ratings for several key criteria: 'Atmosphere', 'Food Quality', and 'Return Potential'.

Suppose that you're shopping for a Nikon D90 digital SLR (or some other product). Bing will deliver detailed reports--not search results--for the product in question, pulling images, pricing information, user reviews, expert reviews, and much more from various Web sites and neatly displaying the information on a single page. Search reports include active data that you can sort by various criteria, yielding product details in one click, along with expert reviews from leading tech Web sites.

Using technology that it acquired when it purchased Farecast in 2008, Microsoft brings some uniquely advanced technology to search queries involving travel and buying tickets. Farecast, a tool for comparing airfares, uses a predictive algorithm to recommend when you should purchase your airline ticket. The Farecast technology is tightly integrated with Bing, so you can use advanced pricing tools from within Bing's search results.

Farecast technology enables Microsoft to bring smarts to the task of finding good prices for hotel reservations. When you search for accommodations within a specific region, Bing travel results show you a category of results that it calls Hotel Deals. According to Microsoft, Bing calculates the historical price of a room at a specific hotel, compares that price with the current rate that the hotel is offering, and assesses whether the current price is a good deal or not.

Bing offers a wealth of new content from the Mayo Clinic, allowing it to serve up reliable data on health topics such as diabetes, cancer, and swine flu. A test query for "swine flu" yielded a Mayo Clinic overview of the H1N1 type A influenza strain.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Confessions of a Lecturer !!! Unit I

1st of August 2009, Saturday !!! Fondly known as Weekend, and boy what a weekend it was. Simply no work and all play !!!

Well in my college students don't deliberately visit on Saturday, and frankly speaking all the lecturers (including me) are OK ( actually more than OK) with it. So the day was full of fun with no lectures.

Since there were no lectures me and my colleagues had planned a Card game the whole day, but it didn't turn out to be that ways, as one of the colleagues forgot to bring the cards. :( So as any IT guy would do for a pastime, we decided to have an encounter with a PC. First, we thought we could watch a movie on it, but here comes the sad part again, b'coz we didn't have any movie in our USB drives and no other means to get it. So our next venture as it turned out, was walking into the age old lab and find something interesting. :P.

Interestingly, one of my senior lecturers told us to assemble the PC's rightly. So as in any organization, even if you don't like the job you have to do it, although reluctantly. ( Someone rightly said Work is Worship ). So we did our worshipping and got down to our venture again. i.e finding something interesting which would last the whole day as an entertainment.

And guess what we got, a bunch of Flash enabled games which were supposedly saved on one of the PC's by a student. ( I really wish all students should do this, after all lecturers also need some entertainment when they are not busy ).

Now that we had got our share of pastime, we managed to get a PC into Gents Staff room and installed the games. But by then it was 12:20pm, and it was Lunch time so playing games was abandoned. After the lunch, again the same thought of " How to bide time ? " hovered us. So back to PC again, but as after any afternoon meal we started playing.

Here comes the funny part, firstly we decided to put our head down on the benches and sleep, slowly one of us gathered courage to sleep with his back to the wall and then we all thought " What are we doing? " , no we didn't abandon the thought of sleeping, actually we decided to lock the door from inside and had the audacity to sleep with the whole body on the benches.

Finally we woke up after an hour, when the door creaked and all of us were awake. But still some time was left and as usual routine it was spent in the canteen.

So all & all, a Wonderful first part of the weekend. Bye. See U soon. Have a nice time.

Friday, July 31, 2009

Confessions of a Lecturer !!!

It's been a couple of months having completed my Bachelor's Degree in Engineering (IT). As all engineers of this era, I was rendered as unemployed due to (so called)late joining. Meanwhile, I have decided to join an Engineering College as a Lecturer to bide some (extra) time. (They say Empty mind is a Devil's Workshop :P).

It's been a fascinating experience teaching budding engineers, having had all kinds of experiences filled with some monotonous work to interesting lectures and all the more interesting students. So from tomorrow i.e 01/08/09, I will be blogging the true and yet so funny and hilarious experiences that I've had and will have in the coming days. Till then, keep surfing and check out this place for some interesting updates. Bye and Have a good time.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Unconditional Love

Unconditional Love

When you were 1 year old, she fed you and bathed you.
You thanked her by crying all night long.

When you were 2 years old, she taught you to walk.
You thanked her by running away when she called.

When you were 3 years old, she made all your meals with love.
You thanked her by tossing your plate on the floor.

When you were 4 years old, she gave you some crayons
You thanked her by coloring the dining room table.

When you were 5 years old, she dressed you for the holidays.
You thanked her by plopping into the nearest pile of mud.

When you were 6 years old, she walked you to school.
You thanked her by screaming, "I'M NOT GOING!"

When you were 7 years old, she bought you a Cricket Bat
You thanked her by throwing it through the next-door-neighbor's window.

When you were 8 years old, she handed you an ice cream.
You thanked her by dripping it all over your lap.

When you were 9 years old, she paid for piano lessons.
You thanked her by never even bothering to practice.

When you were 10 years old she drove you all day, from soccer to cricket to one birthday party after another.
You thanked her by jumping out of the vehicle and never looking back.

When you were 11 years old, she took you and your friends to the movies.
You thanked her by asking to sit in a different row.

When you were 12 years old, she warned you not to watch certain TV shows.
You thanked her by waiting until she left the house.

When you were 13, she suggested a haircut that was becoming.
You thanked her by telling her she had no taste.

When you were 14, she paid for a month away at summer camp.
You thanked her by forgetting to write a single letter.

When you were 15, she came home from work, looking for a hug.
You thanked her by having your bedroom door locked.

When you were 16, she taught you how to drive her car.
You thanked her by taking it every chance you could.

When you were 17, she was expecting an important call.
You thanked her by being on the phone all night.

When you were 18, she cried at your high school graduation.
You thanked her by staying out partying until dawn.

When you were 19, she paid for your college tuition, drove you to campus, carried your bags.
You thanked her by saying good-bye outside the dorm.

When you were 20, she asked whether you were seeing anyone.
You thanked her by saying, "It's none of your business

When you were 21, she suggested certain careers for your future.
You thanked her by saying, "I don't want to be like you

When you were 22, she hugged you at your college graduation.
You thanked her by asking whether she could pay for a trip.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Getting Placed in TCS

Hello to all the juniors who wish to get placed in TCS.

To start with,getting placed in TCS is not that easy but it's not that tuff too.

Before I provide you all the do's and don'ts for the TCS placement I would like to elaborate on the TCS recruitment process.

Firstly, TCS conducts an Online Aptitude Test on a software developed by TCS. The test is easy and based on previous years questions only with the numbers altered.

Next, there is a Technical Interview and then the HR. MR ( Mind Reasoning) is also taken along with the HR interview in which they ask to solve puzzles. Not all the puzzles have the answers, they just check your approach to solve the problems.

Best part is that there is no GD in this process, so if you don't want to get rejected for the undue reasons of not speaking in the GD , give it U r best shot.

Coming to the preparation, you need to prepare the previous years papers by TCS available on various sites. (viz. freshersworld.com.

Prepare the chapters on Time and Distance, Time and Work, Trains, Boats and Streams from the book Quantitative Aptitude by R.S Agrawal.

Mug up the high frequency word list from the book GRE Barrons.

Solve all the comprehension passages from the book GRE Barrons.

For the interview, prepare atleast one computer language thoroughly like C, sql etc. Mention only the things U know in the CV ( resume).

Wishing you Best of Luck for getting placed in TCS. U will certainly Experience Certainity like me.

Yours,
Devashish