Jitendra Agrawal's blog

I'm reading again

2010-07-27T12:49:00.003+05:30

That's right. I finally decided to read again. Thanks to a delayed flight, I bought a book and started reading - It was Eragon by Christopher Paolini. I have managed to read Eragon, Eldest (trying to locate the next one) and also picked up Sahara by Clive Cussler. I used to buy a lot of books from Flora Fountain years ago (more than a decade now) and one day someone told me I would like reading Clive Cussler and I should start with Sahara.

I liked the book, the character Dirk Pitt is a funnier version of James Bond; I think I will read move of Cussler before making an opinion.

I also picked up some Michael Chrichton books including Next, The Lost World and Disclosure. It seems MC is really popular with both Landmark and Crossword though he is not really all that good. I liked Lost World a lot but Next and Disclosure were only moderately good, I wonder why they were called bestsellers. I am reading The Andromeda Strain now.

When I couldn't buy books for a couple of days I also picked up Anti-Me-Tull's Rage of Angeles by Sidney Sheldon. I am not a big fan of Sheldon but I must say this one left me thinking. I will recommend it for a read.

Now that I have started reading again, I am wondering if I should join a Library (or LibraryWala) ;) Any recommendations?

Travel Guru - TravelGuru - Cheaters

2010-02-25T15:51:00.003+05:30

Exactly, TravelGuru.com that claims to be India's largest network of hotels are actually scammers and will cheat you without thinking about it even once.

Their sales representatives will promise you something else altogether on phone, in emails and even in your PDF itinerary, but if you were planning to go to point A, don't be surprised to land up in point B. When you call them to ask what's going on, they will promptly reply that their package was actually from point B and not from point A, there was a 'spelling mistake' in the PDF itinerary they had sent (and of course they will refuse to accept that they ever mentioned point A).

I am still surprised how can someone make a spelling mistake and spell Alleppey/Alappuzha as Kumarakom. It takes a genius to make that mistake.

Don't ever book a package with TravelGuru, be sure that your vacation will be spoiled.

If you need proofs of what I am saying, email me. I will send you their 'original itinerary' and the one they sent 'after' my Kumarakom stay was over. They never apologized for the mistake (even for the spelling mistake) and have the guts to call me repeated to take feedback about the hotel I stayed in.

RotoCharger from IdeaForge

2010-02-08T21:23:00.003+05:30

Ordered a RotoCharger from IdeaForge (through ebay) recently. The description of the product was so compelling that I couldn't stop myself from buying one. For Rs. 350/- it promises me that I won't have to worry about cellphone getting discharged.

Here are the things that I would like in this product.

1. The rotating wheel is rather hard, I am sure with some gears they could have easily reduced the resistance in rotation.

2. Handle doesn't 'fold'. If you look at the product on ebay and on their site, the handle is DEFINITELY different from the images shown on ebay and the site. They should update the images at both the places.

3. It makes a LOT of noise when rotating. I sincerely hope it's not a usual for the product and I got a faulty piece. One can't hope to use it while travelling in a bus or train. (that's exactly where I would like to use it).

That said, I will keep the Emergency Mobile Charge (ebay link) in my car / bag and would like to really 'use' it sometime ;-)

I bought another cool product recently and will take some photographs as soon as I use it next time :)

Nautanki

2010-01-11T11:22:00.003+05:30

Exactly what we chose to see this week rather than the regular movies. The only movies being released were PI and some other non-description movie that I don't even remember now.

Save yourself and read this review for Pyaar Impossible

Went to St. Andrews Auditorium, Bandra (which btw is not near St. Andrews Church) to see a play named Broken Images. I was told it's a Shabana Azmi play. I didn't know whether she wrote the play, she produced it, directed or was part of the on-stage ensemble.

This was our second play in recent times, the first one being Moonshine and Skytoffee. A really well written and executed play (probably it wouldn't have worked in a large stage, but it was perfect for Prithvi Theater)

Coming back to Broken Images; it turned out that play was written by Girish Karnad; directed by Alyque Padamsee and Shabana was only an actor. Rather, she was the only actor in the whole play.

Great concept, superb timing through the performance and Shabana Azmi is indeed a good actor.

Planning to shift some of our monthly movie budget to theater now. What do you say?

InkFruit For T-Shirts

2009-10-13T21:09:00.002+05:30

I bought 7 t-shirts from InkFruit today. You can see the designs on my affiliate page - http://www.inkfruit.com/affiliate/jeet ;-)

They got some really cool t-shirts and I like their message t-shirts more than Tantra. Have you bought any InkFruit Tees yet? (highly recommended)

Palm Beach Road

2009-10-13T18:22:00.003+05:30

Drove to Palm Beach Road between Vashi and Belapur today, surprisingly we didn't get any traffic on the way (including in Powai). The road is good but I think it's rather over-hyped, I was expecting a good view of creek but none was available.

The trees and shrubs on the divider looked good but this looked like any other "decent" road in western countries. The road itself was 'pothole-free' for nearly 10 kilometers and that is indeed an achievement for an Indian road. ;-)

Hum jaha pe khade ho jaate hein, line wahi se shuru hoti hai

2009-10-11T12:25:00.003+05:30

Just saw the story about Amitabh's most famous dialogues on BigOye and wished him a happy birthday on his blog.

Waiting to see the videos of Coulthard driving an F1 car on Bandra Worli Sealink. And also planning to go for IIT Bombay Alumni vs. current team's basketball match today. (Anyone wants to come along?)

I went to American Express Bakery (Bandra) yesterday with some friends and saw some 'really' old advertisements from the establishment. They had adverts dating back 1930s, no wonder Amex Bank couldn't get them to change the name.

Firefox, Well, this is embarrassing

2009-08-12T16:02:00.003+05:30

Firefox, put your act together or you will loose whatever market share you have managed to get. Chrome and Safari are already catching up and frequent crashing of latest version forced me to download Chrome last week. I am sure others will do the same and we might even have advertisements from Google mentioning how truly Firefox can now compete with IE by crashing more times in an hour.

Anticipating a hit movie

2009-08-06T21:01:00.002+05:30

I was discussing 'hit movies' with a friend and he mentioned that a movie is release on Friday and in Saturday newspapers we can see ads and articles mentioning movie's earnings and halls being houseful. The ad copy and design should be prepared well in advance in order to make it in newspapers on first Saturday. Or am I wrong in thinking that?

Are movie producers and newspapers flexible and agile (and should I say efficient) enough to calculate or estimate earnings on Friday and declare the movie as a winner or it's an attempt to fool the crowd to watch the movie 'once' because it seems to be a 'hit movie'?

RIP Michael Jackson !

2009-06-26T09:54:00.003+05:30

Another eccentric but talented musician, the only English singer I heard for first few years, rests in peace today.

MJ was probably the only famous 'English' pop singer that children (in India) of my age would know when I was in 10th standard. I liked his songs, dance and hated it when he made one bad decision after another.

Watching his videos on Youtube today.

Why I didn't join LibraryWala

2009-06-08T15:16:00.003+05:30

Well, I registered at the website (Librarywala.com) and was disappointed by a lot of things.

They have a registration fee of Rs. 499 that's more than 3 month's subscription. So if you want to try the service, you have pay a minimum of 4 month's worth money anyway. Are they afraid people won't come back after trying? A security deposit makes some sense but registration fee for an online service where you would anyway be making monthly payments sounds like apne pair pe kulhadi for that online business. I can't understand why they would have a silly registration fee unless their main aim was to keep people away from their business.

You save (INR) 0.00, whoever has written copy for them doesn't really have much experience with sales.

You get no discount if you subscribe to the yearly plan. That's probably one of the silliest part of their pricing plan. Taking one of their plans as an example: Cubic Plan(3 Books per month - 2 Books at a time) - 6 months charges 834 Rs. 12 months charges 1668 Rs. Someone please put some business sense in this website's owners. They would do MUCH better if they increased prices of 6 monthly plans. By using this pricing, they are discouraging people from going for yearly plans.

Copyright dates: They are still living in 2008.

Invite mail doesn't have friend's full name / email address: I got a librarywala invite from a friend. It would have looked like a spam email if the friend had not informed me about it.

Library wala recommends / hot rentals: I would expect to see the book details when I click on these icons. They can have the 'lists' as separate landing page but don't make me search for a book that I already found.

Bad search interface: I don't think people will bother to use advanced search. The default search should let me search titles and author to start with.

I liked the customer service, as soon as I signed up but didn't buy any of the packages, I got a call and my registration charges were waived off but the person still failed to understand that their half-yearly and yearly rates are confusing. I might still try this service for a month or so because presently there are no good alternatives.

Part in Bangalore err.. Bangaluru

2009-05-29T14:23:00.002+05:30

I will be in Bangaluru for a week. A vacation after a long time. Will also meet Steamy Tal and moderate fights between Anti-Me-Tal and Steamy Tal. You know which side I am on.

Plan to go to a sanctuary that I heard is good and may also go to other 'touristy' places that residents rarely go to. Saw this list of 30 things that Zishaan wants to do before he turns 30. I believe he has made really good progress in that and might be able to achieve / overshoot some of the goals he has set.

I don't want to set such goals but do want to find my 'status' on Zishaan30 goal scale.

No reading ! Bolt Browser !

2009-05-27T10:30:00.003+05:30

I am not reading any book nowadays, it's almost 2 years since I stopped my 'regular reading'. I should probably subscribe to library wala or some such service that will compel me to find more interesting books and read them. What do you say? Any of my million readers a librarywala subscriber?

I download bolt on my mobile (Nokia 6275) and had to download unsigned version because others didn't work out. It's strange because even gmail's application doesn't work on this handset. I really liked Bolt and may switch to this one completely for normal browsing from phone.

Blogs I am following nowadays

2009-05-25T10:22:00.004+05:30

Anti-Me-Tal said, I am not blogging nowadays, so here I am ;-) I am still spending a lot of time online and reading loads of blogs but have been ignoring my own blog. I will try to rectify that.

I am reading bigb's blog - http://bigb.bigadda.com, fake IPL player's blog - http://fakeiplplayer.blogspot.com and Akshay Kumar's blog - http://akshay.bigadda.com quite regularly.

Apart from that TechCrunch, Mashable as well as Pluggd.in have become my favorites. I will also recommend 365 tomorrows - http://365tomorrows.com to sci-fi fans. Short stories with possibilities of tomorrow, published everyday.

More later !!

Bachchanophilia

2009-03-31T14:11:00.003+05:30

Some of my friends are saying I got bit by bachchanophilia after he visited BigAdda office recently. That's not entirely true :) But here I am displaying some of it.

He-mail-mod tweeted that BigAdda doesn't let you embed videos on other websites. Well here is an example.

BTW, the video is an invitation message from BigB about a contest. The winner will be lunching with him.

Blindness and AB The Legend

2009-01-11T14:42:00.002+05:30

We went to see the movie blindness yesterday. A different concept. I read 365 tomorrows so I have read similar concepts about future and have seen other movies where only female population is left, but this was a different take on how things can happen.

Overall I liked the movie, I expected to see more 'possibilities' but I guess the filmmakers and only pack so much in 2 hours.

I also borrowed AB : The Legend : A Photographer's Tribute by Pradeep Chandra from my office and liked the overall composition of the book. I was disappointed by the photographs because a photographer's tribute in the title had set high expectations.

Urban Tadka - Mumbai - 7 Bunglows

2009-01-01T16:39:00.002+05:30

We bought the Mumbai Times Food Guide and have been trying different restaurants. Angeethi in Vile Parle was good and so was Curry Twist in Sakinaka. Today we went to Urban Tadka in 7 bunglows, Versova. It's close to Kamdhenu showroom and was not hard to find once we were at Kamdhenu.

I tried Bazra Roti as well as Lucky Singh Da Special Parantha and Paneer butter masala was delicious. Service was very prompt and waiters were smiling. We didn't like the 'bhangra kurties' that they wore on top of shirts (and necktie). There were plenty to articles to look at in the restaurant, including a lot of bangles, khat (bed) a hand pump and other stuff that can be related to Punjab or a Dhaba.

Overall the food was good, I would definitely go there again. We miss Not Just Paranthas :))

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T16:36:00.002+05:30

This was a long break from blogging. The reason primarily was change of location and not being able to get a broadband in my location. I finally managed to get a Sify connection and after using Airtel in Delhi, Sify is Mumbai looks like they have a stone age service.

Finally I am back and wishing a very happy new year to my friends and 'readers' of this blog.

If you haven't already noticed, I have moved to Mumbai.

Kuch Bahut BIG

2008-08-19T22:16:00.002+05:30

Saw an advertisement on Zee TV. All popular Zee TV serial stars talking about not doing 'samjhauta' about your entertainment. And saying that something 'BIG' is coming into the world of TV. I suspect that they are following the Dish TV "don't be santusht" slogan and it's a teaser advertisement for Reliance's Big TV.

Waiting to see a good competition for Tata Sky and Dish TV from Reliance Entertainment group.

Punjab Grill and Singh is Kinng

2008-08-10T10:31:00.003+05:30

We saw Singh is Kinng in PVR yesterday. I enjoyed the movie. The storyline was rather random but the movie was fun overall. After watching a movie full of sardars we went to a newly opened restaurant Punjab Grill in Ambience Gurgaon.

They had two portions in the restaurant- one was open with view of the mall (and McD) and another was covered (in glass). At the first impression it looked like a Mumbai restaurant arrangement where half of the restaurant is AC and rest is non AC with AC section having a small premium on the menu items (that's where fully / 100% AC phrase comes in life). But I was reminded that the whole mall floor is centrally Air Conditioned so that difference won't be there.. It was just about 'view' :) The restaurant had extra table fans and that made the environment a little colder.

Ambience was good, the cutlery was made by WNX and they had oversized (huge) glasses for serving water. Waiters were very friendly, service was fast but the most important thing.. "food" was nothing great.

We ordered a Shahi Paneer RanjitSinghJi from their large menu. It was more like a Paneer Bhurjee ( and menu already said that ). The taste was good. But their butter naan was half-cooked at some places and burnt at others. For the price they were asking, they could have served a better meal :)

My rating:

Overall: * * *
Food: * * 1/2
Service: * * * * 1/2
Ambience: * * * 1/2

Pay us more

2008-07-31T14:34:00.002+05:30

After all the publicity and marketing for reduced SMS costs, cellphone operators have now decided to make some money by 'temporarily' increasing the SMS rates on important days like friendship day and Independence day.

A brilliant idea for making more money but pathetic idea when it comes to keeping customers happy

Jaane Tu and Love Story

2008-07-07T08:04:00.002+05:30

Spent the whole Sunday in my favorite mall (yes, it's true Ambience Mall, Gurgaon is my favorite mall now). Saw the cool movie Jaane Tu Yaa Jaane Naa. I am not a big fan of Genelia (saw her in Mere Baap Pehle App too). She is 'too chirpy' and her eyes move too much to make her a serious actress. The movie itself was very entertaining. Naseeruddeen Shah in his short appearances was one of the best aspects of the movie.

In the morning I was telling EnemyTull that I haven't seen Sohail Khan and Arbaaz Khan in recent movies. Sohail looks like a natural comedian to me. And behold.. both the brothers were in JTYJN. I liked the movie overall and also liked lots of scenes that were really funny.

The other movie we saw was Love Story 2050. Harmaan was too much like Hrithik or too ordinary at times. The only difference between him and Mr. Roshan is the missing sixth finger. The best part of the movie was the cinema hall and the seats. People in Gurgaon and Delhi should definitely checkout the PVR Gold in Ambience Mall. Armed with the lazyboy reclinable chairs it shows you why Joey and Chandler didn't want to get up from those chairs.

Now Reservation in IIT Faculty Positions !

2008-06-28T09:32:00.003+05:30

Got this TimesOfIndia Story from a friend. HRD has now ordered quota in IIT faculty. Infact the total quota required by HRD for SC, ST and OBC in teaching position goes above 50%.

Why is the government so keen on dividing the society in casts? Haven't politicians wracked enough havoc by using the religion and caste division? We should be working towards removing the caste divide and not promote people to distinguish themselves as SC/ST/OBC.

FM Radio 95 | Hit Music Radio

2008-06-25T11:46:00.003+05:30

I have been listening to FM 95 since morning and currently it's playing Policy of sweet dreams.

I think I have found a gem in Delhi's #1 HIT Music Radio. Unlike Jaipur's radio station on this frequency that doesn't have anything else but 'solid frequency' to differentiate itself from others, this radio station plays really cool songs throughout the day and specializes in international numbers. :)

So far none of the RJs are as painful as Sud and Mandy and many others that I hear on other FM stations.

Update: They are playing Pink Floyd - Another Brick in The Wall.. I LOVE this channel :)

My table

2008-06-17T08:24:00.004+05:30

I have been asked to take a photograph of my work table and send to a friend multiple times. I am trying to imitate Mahadevi Varma and will try paint the picture by means of words (don't take it so seriously) :)

Okay.. here we go. These are the assorted items on my table:

2 phones
1 mobile phone
2 clutchers
1 Apple Powerbook
1 LCD monitor
1 spike guard
1 IAD
1 ADSL modem
1 External hard disk
1 wireless router
1 phone charger
1 AC remote
1 Cleaning cloth
1 mosquito repellent machine (all out)
1 pen
1 some envelope
1 Some medicines
1 ear ring (not the complete pair)
1 My company id card
LOTS of wires
LOTS of dust

Okay.. you get the picture

Vividh Bharti

2008-06-15T07:16:00.004+05:30

I heard radio all the time when I was in school. For clarification I didn't hear it when I was 'IN' the school except for one or two times when someone got a radio to listen to cricket commentary.

When DD telecasted songs twice in a week (Wednesday Chitrahar and Sunday Rangoli) Vividh Bharti was the most favorite of music lovers for broadcasting good songs throughout (almost) the day. I remember Binaca Geetmala and Jai Javan. I believe the transistor made radio very popular by making it portable and you could see many people carrying it. I heard a radio in a rickshaw before I heard the thumping music in a Bombay Autorickshaw but I 'think' most people heard the radio for extended duration for the first time at one single place (if they didn't have radio / music fans in their homes).

I think Indian radio industry should give the due credit to barbers for playing radio in their shops while everyone else was waiting to loose some hair. With the advent of beauty saloons and Habib look alike hair dressers the radio trend (atleast Vividh Bharti) has died down. And I have been to 3 places where a live DJ was performing while you get your hair cut (or wait in the queue).

Can we get Aakashvani and Vividh Bharti on FM Radio please? How difficult is it?

Places around Delhi

2008-06-12T10:26:00.001+05:30

While Pune had lots and lots of places for weekend outings and one day outings. Delhi seems to be surrounded by places where you would prefer to go on a long weekend. Pune had lots to offer with 3-4 hours distance (including Bombay) :p But here (Delhi) one has to drive for atleast 6 hours to get to any decent tourist place to spend a relaxing weekend.

I am looking for more weekend outing options and one day outing options around Delhi. Do you have any ideas?

Ambience Mall contd

2008-06-10T17:51:00.002+05:30

So we finally went to Ambience Mall in Gurgaon and were heavily disappointed because most part of the underground parking was not open and there was a huge queue for parking. We manage to park after an hour or so (in open).

The mall itself was superb from inside and the first thing that I like costed 19.5k INR for one cup and one plate. On further inquiry I was informed that the golden lining on the cup and plate was actual gold :)

We spent another hour roaming around and did some shopping. PVR was another disappointment because their self-service kiosks were not working and there were long queues in front of their booking counter.

The movie "sarkar raj" was good and I liked the food court in the mall. Though I would have liked it more if the roof was a bit higher and tables were a bit spaced.

Ambience Mall

2008-06-07T06:56:00.002+05:30

I am planning to visit Ambience Mall this weekend. Everytime I enter Gurgaon I am reminded that I haven't visited the proclaimed "India's biggest mall" yet and I should give it a visit atleast once.

I haven't been able to figure out an entrance when coming from Gurgaon, I won't expect people to cross toll, take a U-turn, cross toll again just to enter the mall so there has to be a secret entrance for the mall that I haven't been able to figure out yet.

I hope that the mall has ample parking because it's a big risk going to Gurgaon on a weekend if I can't get a parking.

Review: www.velnet.com

2008-06-04T15:20:00.003+05:30

Velnet.com has been a premium web solution for those internet users who are looking for building a website or a domain name on internet. In the era of information technology with broadband internet accessible to everyone everyone is looking for own space on internet. Whether one is looking to expand his business or name or fame, internet is the only way to reach to places where one can not reach in a flash. For narrowing that gap traders or businessmen there is only one way that is internet. There are innumerable websites which offer domain spaces and web support but here is the best solution for you "Velnet.com" which provides you free and the cheapest domain names and web support.

It is a complete package for any internet user. Some of its ultra specific features are:

Free Dial- Up Web Hosting Space UK
Internet Access
E-mail
Domain Names
Cpanel Tutorial
Cpanel Tutorial 2
Free POP up Blocker
Web Space
News
Build a Website
Web Design
Free Web Stats
Ecommerce Web Hosting
Other Useful Links

There is a useful corner which shows new offers as well. So all user just go for it.

Review: UK SEO Forum: forums.ukwebmasterworld.com

2008-06-04T15:15:00.003+05:30

UK Webmasters World Forum is a highly appreciated website for all the webmasters or internet users. This websites organises hot discussions on web development, web designing, domain name registration, web hosting, website usability and internet marketing. It shows a golden path to earn via internet such as how to use website platforms such as Google AdWords, YPN and other running websites.

One of its most impressive sections is Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation provides various options for Internet marketing strategy, site architecture, keyword research, link building and link development techniques, website submission and effective use of online marketing websites. Webmaster Marketplace is an ideal place to find new business and partners. Blogging adds an edge to any website and UK SEO Forum helps a user to use Blogs and Blogging as an enhancement tool of a website.

For any trader or businessman or user who is in the process of becoming a webmaster this website has an innumerable idea to develop a mind or honing one's skill. Discussion section is very useful for present webmasters where they interact with webmasters worldwide and discuss there problems and new ideas. This enables them to groom their ability and helps to get overall progress. We are waiting for you. Come, see and gain.

Some Comics I read everyday

2008-06-04T09:48:00.002+05:30

I used to read 'one' Calvin and Hobbes comic strip everyday (almost) and I absolutely love that one. Nowadays I also subscribe to following comics and I also recommend them for my million readers :)

Basic Instructions

I read about this comic from Scott Adam's Dilbert Blog while he was trying to help Scott Meyer (Basic Instructions fellow) and I have got hooked to this one. Most of his comics are good but I can find some 'gems' here and there :)

XKCD

Ultimate geek comic. This is one comic that I send to my colleagues and friends almost every couple of days.

Questionable Content

Recently started subscribing to RSS feed for this one. Very few good ones in this. One of my friends said it's Coupling in comic form. I wouldn't agree with it. I really liked the british version of coupling and QC is not 'that' funny.

www.bosscart.co.uk Review

2008-06-03T22:28:00.003+05:30

Today's business needs vision, execution and lastly achievement of goal. Now-a-days, when life has become so fast and technically sound, internet provides innumerable options of performing a work. For traders it's not different. Everyone is looking for tool which can enable them trading while sitting in their home. Boss cart has become the most impressive e-commerce shopping cart providing the best launch pad for a trader. One can set up his online store in few hours or one can be a member of extensive marketing options with boss cart.

Boss cart comes with many user friendly features and they are:

Search engine friendly web pages.
Produce bulk upload feature.
WYIWG shop design and layout
Easy to use catalogue management tool
Extensive product catalogue, upload up to 30,000 products
Connector to popular payment gateways.
Host it on your own server or we host it for you.
Internet Explorer style drag and drop interface.
Runs on PHP4 or PHP5.
Upload up to sever pictures for each product.
Support digital goods such as MP3 or MP4 files.
Export tool to export your product to Froogle or other engine.
Social Bookmaking function to bookmark your store or your site.
Easy to use store back up tool to back up your store in case of server failure.
Built in product search feature.

Above mentioned features provides a comfortable zone for online traders. Boss Cart has been a unique custom shopping cart and takes good care of its users. Its comprehensive team is regularly keeping a trader updated with all the products and other offers. What is u waiting for? Just click http://www.bosscart.co.uk and enjoy trading.

Another review for www.velnetweb.co.uk

2008-06-03T20:12:00.004+05:30

Here at this site your web hosting needs are fulfilled. All type of web hosting was done here from Linux to windows. Here we offer cheap and unbeatable price for web hosting. We are committed to give you fast, reliable and efficient service. 24/7 technical support available for our costumers and we satisfy you with our services. We mostly offer MySQL database and email address on your domain name. Here you find every thing from web hosting to web designing. www.velnetweb.co.uk also offer free site builder and web deigning templates. Some times you have to build a site but can't find how to start and how to establish your site. Then search no more VelnetWeb do for you all your web hosting to web deigning works at low cost. VelnetWeb also offer same day setup by this if you want same day. This can make you your business fast and efficient. VelnetWeb also offer free installation of Joomla and Mambo Content Management system. On any website hosting package come with PHP and MySQL. That means you make a fabulas deal when u deal with VelnetWeb. So don't go any where come and give VelnetWeb a chance to host you.VelnetWeb assure you with good and reliable service and domain name registration

I will be posting more reviews for my friends here in coming future.

Flights in India, Engineers in Administration

2008-06-03T09:43:00.004+05:30

Fuel surcharge prices in Indian Airline industry have been touching new heights. After promising the common man the skies the airlines have gone back on their words and we can't put the whole blame on them.

Just like everywhere else Indian airports have long queues of passengers. On top of that there is a queue of airplanes when you want to land. In my last 3-4 journeys the plane had to hover for more than half an hour before it was permitted to land. All this because of air traffic congestion.

Why do we see 'bad planning' from our learned administrators and experienced (though literacy not guaranteed) policy makers? I would say that we need more engineers in administration and politics. This is in face of all those people who 'crib' when IITans get into administrative or foreign services.

I will be giving a skip to the airport and would be taking a train for my next journey after a period of nearly 4-5 years. I hope the Indian Railways as improved a little in this interval.

A friend's site and blog :)

2008-06-02T11:18:00.001+05:30

A nice approach to offering internet surfers with loads of information, tips and a wide variety of services, Temi webmaster blogsis quite a handy site. The site, which is updated to the day, is actually a powerhouse for people and businessman into web hosting, search engine optimisation (SEO) and other businesses like internet marketing. Temi has highly informative posts regarding these and with a little browsing and searching on the site, one can effortlessly know the underside of this vast and competitive field.

Not only does Temi offer cartloads of data on webmasters, it also provides useful links to all the popular search engines nowadays such as Google and Yahoo! so one can know more stuff about these racehorses as well. Such features are especially useful for upstarts who want to make their site well known through SEO.

With an extremely simple user interface, browsing around on Temi is also not a mammoth task. All their posts are systematically categorised and are of course search engine friendly. Be it locating ages old news on various policies or the latest posts relating to SEO techniques and tips, Temi has something for everyone making it, undeniably, a highly resourceful website for both, net veterans and newcomers. The web directory section is particularly useful to webmasters looking for information on promoting their websites using directories.

Old vs new conventions

2008-05-31T17:00:00.005+05:30

I was driving from Delhi to Jaipur yesterday night and one of the trucks in front gave right indicator and moved left and gave me side. Reminded me of old highway convention and how half of the Indian drivers are still following it.

In old days many 'highways' in India used to be a one lane road that was supposed to be used for traffic from both sides. There wasn't much automobile traffic and life was cool :) When the traffic increase these highways were upgraded to two lane highways where one lane was available for traffic going in either direction. Some readers will notice that most highways still fall in the two lane category though one can easily see four-laning of all major highways is in progress and some of the highways are already four lane.

Coming back to driving conventions on one or two lane highways. Blow horn and Wait for side were the most common slogans on the back of vehicles (It's a different point that the popularity of these slogans haven't decreased much). On one lane highways 'passing' a vehicle coming from other side meant taking one of your tyre on the shoulder and the other party would do the same. On both one way as well as two way highways overtaking was done with cooperation from the vehicle being overtaken (hence wait for side). Here is the whole process:

1. The vehicle interested in overtaking (Let's call it A) will blow horn (as requested by the vehicle in front; B for.)
2. B (or the driver) will check if another vehicle was coming from the other direction and signal with hand whether overtaking can be done. He would also signal if overtaking can not be done (though it was not mandatory)
3. A will follow B's suggestion and execute the overtaking maneuver.

Vehicle's were still manufactured with indicators that were used for turning and lane changing indications in rest of the world. In India lack of lanes (and hence lane changing) combined with 'cooperative overtaking' fueled the indicators being used as a signal to allow overtaking. As my smart readers will notice this is the exact opposite usage of the one originally intended.

On Indian highways both old Indian convention and the new convention (using indicators to signal lane change) are being used and one can't be sure if a right indicator means vehicle in front will move right or left :)

PS: I found hindi translation for word overtaking in Shimla. It's अभिलंघन :)

Affluent borrowers now struggling with loans and debts

2008-05-30T15:46:00.000+05:30

According to a recent report there has been a turnaround in the type of consumer contacting debt charities and agencies, with more affluent people now contacting these agencies in order to get help with their loans and debts. The global credit crunch has resulted in a huge surge in the number of middle class homeowners who are now struggling with their debts, and are therefore contacting debt advisors for assistance.

According to one debt charity, Transact, the number of people seeking debt related advice in some affluent areas has risen by around 100%, whereas the rises in lower class areas has not been anywhere near as high. In the past most of the people seeking this sort of advice have been unemployed or low income people in less affluent areas, but now it seems that even the fairly well off cannot escape the problems that the credit cards crunch has brought with it.

One official from the debt charity said: "In the past it was almost uniquely people on benefits, people in social housing who went to debt advice agencies. Since the credit crunch started, they are seeing a big increase in professional people and homeowners coming to seek help, who have just been pushed over the edge and now can't cope with their outgoings. These services now with the credit crunch are being overwhelmed by a whole new breed of debtor: middle-class people. But what that means is there is much less debt advice to go round."

One advisor working in an affluent area said: "We've seen probably almost a 100% increase in clients. This time last year we were really quite quiet." She added: "I've had at least two clients sit in front of me and tell me they would have killed themselves if they hadn't found out we were here."

Body Building Desi Shtyle

2008-05-20T21:07:00.002+05:30

I don't know where I heard this concept for the first time. I sincerely hope it was not in my dreams but here is a cool way of body building and increasing weight lifting capacity. Here are the steps:

1. Get a buffalo ( you can earn money by selling milk and you can get a supply of milk for yourself; remember we are talking about body building etc. )

2. Get the buffalo to mate with the male counterpart (you don't have to take active part in this activity, you can outsource it to other experts)

3. Wait till it gives birth to the calf (this takes time so you can use the milk during this time and some exercise won't hurt)

4. When the new calf is born, pick it up.

5. Pick up the calf everyday and as the calf grows bigger and heavier you will find that you can still pick it up.

You are gradually increasing the weight and hence will be able to increase your weight lifting capacity :-)

6. Don't kill me !

Reasons to Pursue a Career in Farming

2008-05-12T07:55:00.002+05:30

I reached office early morning today and found myself free enough to check a few photoblogs that used to visit regularly. I found a very good one at Kathleen Connally's Photoblog. She takes some beautiful pics of her town and her Photoblog is aptly named A Walk Through Durham Township.

The photo I liked most was of a wall that had several reasons to pursue a career in farming. I would like to see a similar campaign in India to highlight farming and agriculture as a career option but government has to make it as good career option first :)

Anyways, you can see the photo here.

Google RSS Reader vs. Safari RSS Reader

2008-04-30T07:56:00.003+05:30

I was an early user of Google Reader, I subscribed to some cool RSS feeds like Slashdot, Boing Boing, TUAW, BBC Hindi News, Rediff News etc. etc. I also added a couple of blogs to this list. Soon after this, I bought my powerbook and with Safari's built-in RSS reader all other options looked lame.

After nearly 3 years of using Safari RSS reader, I went back to google reader and I believe it's a 'better' option than Safari (atleast in my case). These are the following reasons why I spent half an hour today to move my RSS subscriptions to google reader (some more are pending).

1. Unlike before, I don't check my RSS feed everyday and I don't visit my friend's blogs everyday. Vivek can testify to this. I used to be first and last person to comment on many of his posts but it's not like that any more :) Safari is not good for managing large number of pending RSS feeds. It goes berserk sometimes and shows ALL previous posts as new posts. With Google Reader I haven't seen such problems so far.

2. I switch off my laptop sometimes. All the people who think I still remain in front of my laptop 16 hours a day and am online 24 hours. It's not true anymore. I do manage to spend 16 hours in front of the computer but I have started switching off my machines (or putting them to sleep). If my machine is offline for a couple of days (yes that happens too) I loose all posts made in those days if RSS feed is updated. With Google Reader I can all the feeds I missed.

3. I can use other browsers or computers if I use google reader.

4. Google reader has a sleek UI. I simply love AJAX :)

So folks.. subscribe to your friend's blog feeds using google reader and frighten them with a comment "AS" soon as they post an entry !!

Ultimately Secure Firewall

2008-04-29T09:43:00.003+05:30

I was reading about security and stuff. Had heard about the firewalling method described below but the text is hilarious:

Installation Instructions: For best effect install the firewall between
the CPU unit and the wall outlet. Place the jaws of the firewall across the
power cord, and bear down firmly. Be sure to wear rubber gloves while
installing the firewall or assign the task to a junior system manager. If the
firewall is installed properly, all the lights on the CPU will turn dark and
the fans will grow quiet. This indicates that the system has entered a
secure state. For Internet use install the firewall between the demarc of
the T1 to the Internet. Place the jaws of the firewall across the T1 line
lead, and bear down firmly. When your Internet service provider's
network operations center calls to inform you that they have lost
connectivity to your site, the firewall is correctly installed. (© Marcus
Ranum)

(Image courtesy wikipedia)

Buying a cooler in Delhi

2008-04-28T18:10:00.002+05:30

We recently bought a desert cooler for the main hall in our flat. I thought buying a cooler must be easy, you step into a shop, look at a few coolers choose the best one the shop keeper recommends and walk out with a cooler. Make that walk out with a payment receipt, cooler will be delivered later.

As you can see, I had never bought a cooler before. I spent significant part of my last 11 years in Bombay and Pune where I didn't need an air/desert cooler. When I was in Delhi I didn't really have to take care of 'operational issues'.

Let me tell you what all you might need to see while buying a cooler in Delhi. I don't know if the same terminology is applicable everywhere else in India or abroad.

Fan
There are two types of fans available. Kit and Exhaust. The exhaust fans used for cooler was something that I had thought when I was a kid. I don't know whether I thought about it first or cooler manufacturers started using them first.

Exhaust fans are more powerful and are recommended if you are big room.

Fan Manufacturer
You can get 'local' fans or ISI fans or fans from top names like Bajaj, Cropmton & Greaves etc. Needless to say that price for a 'company' fan is more than the cost of whole local cooler.

Guarantee / Warrantee
An interesting aspect was that almost everyone gave one year warrantee on the product. That means it will run this summer and we don't guarantee about the next year.

Water Pump
When I looked inside a cooler last time, they used to have a huge vertical water pump in the center and we were instructed that water should not touch this water pump ;). This has been replaced with "made in china" cute little submersible water pumps.

Well anyway, we did buy a cooler and hopefully it will run this season without any problems.

BRT and Times of India

2008-04-25T07:36:00.004+05:30

It seems T/Slimes of India folks have taken a umbrage to BRT system that's being tried/introduced in Delhi roads. Since there are no other scandals happening right now (actually they might be happening, they are not being uncovered), TOI has been putting photographs of BRT and jams around BRT system on the front page and a story written by some "Specialist Hate Reporter" who bashes BRT system and the planners all the way to glory.

I personally think that the traffic used to be there before BRT and it continues to be there. So BRT has not solved the problem. Though I sincerely believe that BRT is a good system.

All I have to say to TOI folks is: Get over your BRT obsession !!

End of war in HTML

2008-03-17T09:34:00.003+05:30

Saw this cool HTML tag poster to support some "stop war" rally. Daily Dose of Imagery is one of my favorite photoblogs.

Tight clothes

2008-02-19T09:01:00.005+05:30

Yup, my dear friends you are thinking in right direction. Many of my clothes are tight and I used a tailor's services to make some of them usable for me.

It has happened numerous times when people used to see me having pizzas and cheese and a lot of junk food and they used to be envious of my slender looks and made comments like "tu kabhi mota nahin ho sakta" (You can never get fat). I was so happy to hear this. But my happiness was shortlived. Although I was alwasy a food enthusiast (as you can see from my numerous restaurant reviews), I have never gained so much weight :)

For the first time in my life I have "Reduce Weight" as one of the TODOs :-)

Cricket Commentary on FM Radio

2008-02-18T16:15:00.004+05:30

I had not heard cricket commentary on radio until a couple of weeks ago I was driving and the person in passenger seat happened to be a cricket fan. I was told to dial 94.6 FM channel so that he can listen to the commentary. There was a radio channel on that frequency (or very close to it) but it was definitely not interested in satisfying this cricket fans thirst for knowing about happenings in the cricket field. I had not heard the commentary myself in ages and I have limited myself to listening to PJs, advertisements, repeated advertisements and sometimes songs on the radio. Finally after searching the entire FM bandwidth we found that 96.4 FM had the content that we were looking for.

After all these years, I liked hearing the commentary on radio :) Same increased tempo whenever a good shot is played and you can feel the excitement in commentator's voice. It's not going to convert me to a cricket fan but next time I won't have to stop my car and search for the channel. :-)

Things to do

2008-02-06T07:54:00.000+05:30

These are not new year resolutions :-) But I have almost the same list of TODOs and except driving nothing much has changed.

1. Learn swimming - I am waiting for summers
2. Get my ear operated - So that I can learn swimming
3. Learn Spanish - I did a basic course of Spanish in Pune but haven't touched the language after that. It's time I seriously think about paying attention to this.
4. Learn skating / skiing - I am sure I will write it again when I make a similar post next time.
5. Finish reading bible, catch 22 and other books - I haven't been reading at all. I spend most of my free time trying to learn something online or talking to friends. It's time I give an hour everyday to reading.

What are your everlasting TODOs?

Curry Twist, Sakinaka, Mumbai

2008-02-03T00:50:00.001+05:30

I liked food at The Dhaba but the service was not really impressive. But next day another place made up for it. We went to Curry Twist at Sakinaka to meet Anti Me Tull's friend. It is situated opposite the famous Chakras restaurant. I was confused by the entrance because it looked like a place that sells paintings and wall decorations. And I was right, there was a side door to enter the restaurant. I think they should make a separate entrance for the restaurant.

I was impressed by the interiors and comfortable looking seats in the restaurant. Fabulous interiors, spacious seating and different options for seating arrangement made a very good first impression. I was taken aback when the waiter spoke perfect english and knew details about the dishes we wanted to order. He also suggested some modification and we ended up ordering Dal bukhara, Reshami Paneer (we initially opted for Malmali paneer) and some arabi or irani biryani along with naan and paranthas. This guy also knew that their naan has egg and we should order laccha parantha or kulcha if we don't want egg. I couldn't kill my curiosity and asked the guy if he has done an MBA in hotel management. He has not, but he is probably the best waiter I have come across.

The other helpers were also good, we were served quickly and properly. Our empty water glasses were filled quickly. Overall 5 * rating service and delicious food. I have added Curry Twist to my favorite and recommended restaurant list.

My ratings:

Service: * * * * *
Food: * * * * 1/2
Music: * * * * (non-obtrusive)
Ambience: * * * * 1/2
Comfort: * * * *

The Dhaba, Andheri Mumbai

2008-02-03T00:35:00.000+05:30

I have been very irregular in my posting and I think the reason is because we have not been going out a lot lately. We were in Bombay last week to attend a friend's wedding. We went to Lokhandwala area to meet some relatives and we were treated at The Dhaba for lunch. The place is somewhere in Andheri and I don't really know the exact location. I know that it was 5 minutes drive from "The Factory" (Ram Gopal Varma's office).

I really liked the ambience at The Dhaba. The super extra large lanterns at the entrance and over the reception couldn't have been missed. Full sized statue of punjabi dance and balle balle and other stuff written on the walls (in Gurumukhi) made the place stand out.

We sat inside the restaurant and I got the same feeling of being in Not Just Paranthas or Bauji The Dhaba. Assorted items that are used in day to day life were used for decoration. I can recall kites, bangles and lanterns (small ones).

The food was delicious. I have no idea what we ordered but I liked everything :-) We also ordered Mukka Pyaz named thus because it's broken into pieces by a Mukka (blow of fist) rather than cutting with knife. I remember using the Mukka myself in distant past and my dad claims that onion tastes much better that way :-)

I recommend the place for everyone though you might have to wait for an hour or so to get a seat.

My ratings:

Ambience: * * * *
Food: * * * * 1/2
Service: * * 1/2
Music: * * * (punjabi folk songs)

Pune - Places to See / Go - I

2007-12-26T10:23:00.000+05:30

When I was planning to shift to Delhi a friend asked me to compile list of places to see in and around Pune. I had sent a list of eating joint and was expected to make a list of "good" places. I am a bit late in making this list and my friend has already explored many of these places but I will try to make this list here anyway.

There is no particular order, I am just writing about places that I remember.

1. Chokhi Dhani: Yes there is a Chokhi Dhani at Nagar Road, Pune. It's a good place to go to after office (if you come back home at 6). You should be in the resort/village at around 7-7:30 to enjoy the rides and dances in relaxed mood. The food is good it's a good getaway from hectic office life. The drive to Chokhi Dhani is not the best in the world but overall it is a good place to spend and evening.

2. 3D-Destination: If you like arcade games, bowling etc. 3D-Destination near Swar Gate is a good place. I was never able to stay there for more than 2 hours. It gets boring after that.

3. Gold Adlabs, Kalyani Nagar: Gold Adlabs also has a small gaming area and a small bowling alley. A good place to go to while you are waiting for your movie. They also have a house of horrors.

4. Wonder Funkey: I never got a chance to go there but what I hear from people is that it's a bigger version of 3D Destination

5. Khadagwasla Dam/Lake: Khadagwasla Dam/Lake remains a favorite place where we used to go quite frequently. I like sitting on lake side and eating Bhutta (corn). However, I preferred going to the 'other' side of lake where they have small resorts (I went to Lakewood). The resorts charge a small entrance fee and you can sit in one of their huts or hammocks and enjoy the lakeside without getting disturbed by traffic and honking.

6. Lonavala / Khandala: I need not write more about these places. :)

7. Mahabaleshwar/Panchgani: Again a good one day tour or a full weekend tour option.

8. Mulshi Lake / Dam: We wen to Mulshi Lake and Dam once for an overnight stay and a couple of times for a couple of hours on a weekend. They have a couple of hotels/resorts there. We stayed in Lake Residency and booked our accomodation through Residency Club, Pune. A very peaceful place where you can spend entire weekend looking at mountains and bathing in waterfalls. Very beautiful place which has remained hidden from limelight.

I hear that Tamhini Ghat beyond Mulshi is also beautiful, I must go there sometime.

9. Manas Resorts: Best place to spend a lazy afternoon. They have decent indoor as well as lake side restaurants. They have go-karting and different types of boat rides. Best thing about Manas Resort is that it's on the way to Mulshi.

10. Panshet Dam: If you have a couple of hours free on a weekend. Make a quick dash to Panshet Dam.

I haven't tried to give a lot of description, addresses etc. because there are a lot of websites that provide all this information. I just wanted to make a quick list of places that I liked :-)

Blogging because I can

2007-12-09T20:00:00.000+05:30

I was not planning to write this post. But now I am writing it because I can. I mean because my broadband started working. Not that it was not working earlier, it was not working 20 minutes ago. I called an Airtel Broadband representative and within 15 minutes the guy was at my place and replace the faulty adapter.

I am more than happy with Airtel's broadband service. I get good speed, zero downtime since last 3 months. And today's downtime was resolved in 15 minutes on a Sunday night. Rarely I see organizations for Airtel's size responding so fast.

I think a lot of credit goes to their executive who takes personal pride in having satisfied customers in his 'territory' :-). I hope he continues to work with this enthusiasm and does well in his career.

Cracker filled diwali

2007-11-09T01:00:00.000+05:30

I had a cracker filled choti diwali. I haven't burst as many crackers in last ten years combined as I did today. I love to watch fireworks but I am not a fan because of air and noise pollution.

Dad had brought a lot of crackers and I didn't want to dampen his enthusiam. Lot of crackers are still remaining to be used tomorrow. I feel guilty bursting crackers but I need to find a way to shoot the gun from someone else's shoulder now.

Are there any environment friend fire crackers at all?

Repeatation is irritating

2007-11-08T02:41:00.000+05:30

I don't like it when the same ad is shown back to back twice. I don't know what purpose does repeating an ad solve. Only emotion it evokes in me is irritation.

Same way I don't want to see any more Saawariya promos on TV and don't want to hear about Saawariya on radio. These guys have hyped the movie just too much. They have crossed all limits of cross promotional advertising. Sony has gone over the top in promoting the movie.

Another thing that I find rather cheap is Radio Mirchi (98.3) using an RJ's sad (but probably inspiring) story of loosing her voice and getting it back. I never heard about Pallavi before. I might have heard her voice on Radio Mirchi before, but I don't remember the name or don't recall her removal from radio programs. I sympathise with her that she lost her voice and am happy that she got it back. But I won't be interested in listening to radio show because of this history. This is worst form of publicity for the RJ. If she is any good, people would definitely hear her and the program would become a hit.

Radio Mirchi: Please stop repeating this cheap publicity stunt.

Indian Men Vs. Women

2007-11-05T00:39:00.000+05:30

Let me tell you that the title is misleading and I am not going to do a serious analysis on this topic :-) As usual during one of our packing sessions I realised that Enemy Tull has much more number of clothes than me. I think I fall in above average category for cloth count in guys.

This got me thinking... I have almost all types of clothes that are worn by men in India. But that's the catch. Indian men don't wear the traditional indian dresses any more. But the ladies would have traditional indian saarees, salwaar suits, lahngas, laanchas apart from the western dresses.

I am not trying to say that men will be able to beat women in cloth count if they start wearing traditional indian dresses (kurta is the only popular indian dress). But I can't explain why traditional india dresses are not popular in men but they have managed to stay in vogue for women.

P.S.: I plan to introduce another name for Enemy Tull; don't worry if you have read Vivek's blog recently, it's not baby. I think Anti Me Tull is good :-)

Speeding ticket

2007-10-29T13:35:00.000+05:30

We went to see Jab We Met yesterday. I liked the movie for its nonsense-approach. Some parts were really funny and the whole audience was chuckling.

The reason this post is happening is not because I saw a movie for the first time in PVR Sahara Mall, Gurgaon. It is mainly because I was stopped on my way back by 5-6 traffic cops.

I was told that I was speeding. Now this really got me excited and angry. I insisted and explained to the police that I never speed. And I can go 10 kmph over the speed limit but definitely not 12 :-) We were let go without any speeding ticket or chalan.

As we were getting into the car, the cops showed us a car that sure was speeding, the speed was measured at 90 kmph. Now that's surely when the speed limit is 50 kmph :-) I wonder how much the guy was fined.

Agra Trip

2007-10-25T23:39:00.000+05:30

I said in my last post that my Agra trip was cancelled. As soon as I published the post I got a call and the Agra trip was on again.

I started from my home around 11 but a friend failed to judge duration of a 1 hour 30 minutes long meeting and the expected 5 minutes long meeting delayed our departure from Delhi. We reached Agra at 6:30 but the last kilometer to our destination was the most difficult one and the heavy traffic jam near waterworks chowk ensured that we traveled the distance in 1 km.

We were there to attend a friend's marriage and the function went pretty well. :-)

Next day morning I was planning to reach Delhi by 11:30 in morning. I got up at 6:30 and we could have made it to Delhi on time but one thing led to another and after a short trip to Taj Mahal we reached Delhi at 7:30 in the night.

Too many boring details in this post.. I guess I should go to sleep now.

2007-10-22T09:46:00.000+05:30

Random Ramblings

I participated in a play during college days called Parda (curtain). It was a beautiful story about a royal family becoming poor but their izzat (honour) was safe behind a Parda. Curtains don't only save people honour they make a home look much much better than it looked earlier. I learnt that yesterday :-)

In recent past I have gone to Not Just Paranthas, Rajouri Garden twice. I love their Lassi and their Chur Chur Paranthas are a welcome treat for my tastebuds. I didn't like their pocket paranthas, primarily because they don't look or taste like paranthas ;-)

I also went to Pind Baluchi, Raja Garden and the restaurant continues to serve good food at affordable rates.

The best find this week was Wave Cinemas, Raja Garden. Comfortable seats, good ambience and cheaper rates than PVRs in Gurgaon and proximity to Dwarka will make me frequent visitor to these halls.

We saw Laaga Chunri Mein Daag and Bhool Bulaiya and I can't understand why LCMD had nearly empty halls. It is a well made movie with good performances. I agree that the end was a bit too filmy but apart from that the movie was a superhit material.

I was looking forward to visit Agra today, but my plans were thwarted by butterfly effect from a traffic jam in Vashi.

2007-10-19T17:53:00.001+05:30

Curious Me !

I got a mail from MakeMyTrip.com and this was an interesting way to tell me that they have hotels for just about everyone. MMT has been coming out with some really interesting ads in past.

What got me thinking was their choice of keeping 4 smaller heads on Ravan's right hand side and 5 smaller head on his left side.

Is the actual configuration of Ravan's heads document in Ramayana or any other ancient books? Tulsidas's RamcharitManas will not qualify as an authentic account.

2007-10-18T14:17:00.000+05:30

Baby Jessica or Prince, media will be same all over the place. I stumbled upon a Baby Jessica story which was similar to the Prince story that Indian media created.

I thought it was an original idea of make sansanikhej news but I was wrong :) We even copy our news :P

2007-10-18T10:30:00.001+05:30

In a country (India) where two or three generations has grown up reading signs of Horn Ok Please and Blow Horn its not very surprising that people love honking.

Q: Can a blind man standing at a signal tell whether the light have turned green?
A: For sure ! This can be judged by the increase in number of honking sounds in surrouding area. You should note that the judgement is based on increment and not on 'existence' of the sound of horn.

Delhi has "No Horn Please" sign pasted at almost all traffic signals (I don't know about other cities). It is debatable that these signs are not visible many times. Inspite of this, Delhites would surely top the Most Horn(y) City contest by a good margin.

If you are behind a car, the car in front is not moving and you honk as soon as you see the signal turning green. It's probably induced by the fear that people fall asleep on steering while waiting for a 2 minute signal.

Being first in line (by leaving behind the zebra crossing and stop line for loosers) at at traffic signal doesn't marr some people's spirit of celebrating life by honking. These people are so habitual of honking on a green signal that they forget there is no one in front of them.

Are you are compulsive horn blower?

2007-10-16T00:36:00.000+05:30

I want to go for a good Dandiya night in delhi. Can any one of my millions of visitor tell me about them?

2007-10-15T07:59:00.000+05:30

We had dinner at Pind Baluchi, Lajpat Nagar. Experience at this branch of the restaurant chain was not as good as it has been in Rajouri Garden branch.

The restaurant is divided in two sections, one is the main hall and another is an annex with 6-7 tables. Ambience in the hall was probably good but the night sky emulation in the annex (where we sat) was definitely not good. The roof was too low to make it likable.

Food (Laccha parantha, Naan and Paneer Butter Masala) was tasty and it was probably our cheapest dinner (for 170/-) so far. The service was really poor. The waiter did not serve the dish, we had to request them to serve the dish we ordered. Spoons were missing until we asked for spoon after dishes were served. An order of 1+1 laccha parantha was heard as 2 laccha parantha, one needs very creative mind and a defective hearing to achieve the feat of hearing 1+1 as 2 :-)

Water in finger bowl was too hot. I wouldn't say you should avoid the restaurant because I guess it was just one erratic waiter's mistakes that we witnessed.

My ratings for Pind Baluchi, Lajpat Nagar

Food: * * * 1/2
Service: *
Music: * *
Ambience: * *

2007-10-15T07:41:00.000+05:30

Weekend was a shopping bonanza weekend. I drove to Jaipur and spent whole Saturday in and around Purohit Ji ka Katla. The shops were buzzing with crowd due to shopping spurred by Eid and Navratri festivals.

We reached Jaipur at 11 in night on Friday and the Badi Chaupad market was as alive as it is in day time. I had never seen this much activity anywhere in Jaipur at 11 pm.

Shopping agenda for all coming days and weekends is already on the floor.

2007-10-11T08:25:00.000+05:30

A friend was installing Suse Linux on hi PC and I realized that out of the four most popular operating systems(Windows, Linux, Mac and Solaris); Linux is the only one that I don't use on a daily basis.

There was a time when I spent most of the time working on Linux machines. Life has sure changed in last three years. I was thinking I should buy a Linux PC but I don't have space on my desk for another PC/Monitor.

I am eagerly waiting for Leopard release from Apple and am hoping that they would continue to support Powerbook G4s.

2007-10-09T12:04:00.000+05:30

Dinner at revolving restaurant was a novel experience that we had yesterday. The revolving restaurant Parikrama is at the 24th floor of a building near Cannaught Place. The floor rotates 360 degrees in 90 minutes. Unfortunately the service was fast and we finished dinner quickly.

We were facing Laxmi Narayan Mandir when we reached the restaurant, by the time we finished our meals we were facing Purana Quila. Small description of the places in front of viewer was hanging from the wall and made the already superb experience enriching.

I would have preferred if they had kept more sofas instead of the chairs that they had kept in the restaurant. They had sofas but they were too few and reserved. The service was fast but not really good. Waiters kept making mistakes repeatedly.

We ordered a Tamatar ka shorba, a lassi, butter naan and Laccha Parantha with Paneer Butter Masala. Food was excellent and view was superb. The restaurant played instrumental music which is not in fashion anymore.

I must say that the restaurant is not as costly as I expected; meal for two was for less than 600 (including 5% service tax)

My ratings:

Ambience: * * * 1/2
Location and concept of restaurant: * * * * *
Food: * * * *
Music: * * 1/2
Service: * * 1/2

2007-10-08T08:04:00.000+05:30

First trailer of Saawaria was great and music is good but I think there is just too much publicity about the movie.

Every radio station makes it a point to play a song from the movie after every 10 songs, sometimes when they can't control the urge, they do it sooner.

All tv channles have the same promo repeated thousands of times in a day. My first impressions of the actors are not good. Ranbir Kapoor looks more like a joker who is trying to box rather than dance. Hopefully it's part of the script and he would not end up becoming greatest sidekick comedy actor.

Sona Kapoor looks too much like Aishwarya in some shots. It may have been a conscious decision from SLB and makeup artists. But I think indians have already had overdose of Aishwarya.

Overall, I would be happier if TV and radio channels would think of spacing out promos for the movie a bit. It NEVER helps to repeat the same clip / advertisement.

2007-10-07T23:36:00.000+05:30

We revisited Pind Baluchi in Raja Garden. This time we sat on the first floor. They told us that the restaurant will soon add another floor.

The first floor was made to look like a cave. They had used fibre to make the walls and made the room look like a rocky cave. The uneven rocks/fibre was not a good support for the back and they should probably think of putting sofas with comfortable backs instead.

This time also the waiters were wearing traditional punjabi dress and the sat-sri-akal at the entrance was well received. Delhi has huge punjabi influence and in recent past I have gone to a lot of Punjabi theme restaurant and I have found every one of them to be good.

We ordered Sweet Lassi and it was promptly served in a kulhad. For main course we ordered a butter naan, a roomali roti and paneer butter masala. A note for vegetarians: Pind Baluchi uses egg in their naan but roomali roti is free of egg. The service here was excellent and rather exceptionally quick. We finished dinner very quickly.

I guess some famous Pune restaurant like Shiv Sagar and Vaishali can learn some lessons from Pind Baluchi in how to serve the food quickly. I was happy to see a below 200 Rs. bill which included service charges. I highly recommend the place for everyone.

2007-10-07T08:12:00.000+05:30

It's time to tell you about another good restaurant in Raja Garden. We went to The Dhaba a couple of days ago. The restaurant is in the basement and the railing (if it can be called that) had small statues depicting bhangra. I want to buy those statues for my home too, very vibrant colors and jubiliant poses. Happyness and energy oozed out of the statues.

They had put false roof of bamboos but didn't try to hide the A/C vents. A small (probably 1:40) truck was kept in one of the almirahs. Other artifects included an old style radio and lanterns. The lantern were looking quite authentic though they had electric bulbs in them.

All the waiters were wearing bhangra dress consisting of a kurta, dhoti and jacket. The best part in the artifacts was the menu itself. Ever sat in a dhaba or restaurant with no electricity and used a newspaper or menu as a makeshift handfan? Well here they made it simpler for you, the menu was in shape of a handfan.

We ordered for tomoto soup butten naan and laccha parantha along with a Shahi Paneer. We chose the dish only because it was the only one highlighted in the menu. Needless to say that they had done a good job there. The food was good and we were so stuffed that we couldn't try any desserts. I would go to this place again. My ratings:

Food: * * * 1/2
Ambience: * * * *
Service: * * *

2007-10-05T12:25:00.000+05:30

I am very surpised to know that many people don't know that most of the restaurants use eggs while preparing the very famous naan. Whenever I go to a restaurnt I ask the waiter to confirm if their naan and rumaali roti has eggs. Most of the time first answer is "No, sir it doesn't". I have to push the person to go and check with the chef. And that's when most of the people come back and tell me that they use eggs in prepation of naan.

At times many restaurant owners have claimed that is impossible to make naan and rumaali roti without using eggs. But some have claimed that they use curd and/or banana to achieve the same results.

What I don't like about this whole naan episode is the fact that restaurant owners still don't highlight the fact that naan contains eggs. A lot of people consider eggs to be non-vegetarian and they would definitely feel cheated when they are told the truth.

It is mandatory for packed food to have a green or brown sign highlighting whether the contents are veg. or non-veg. I think there is a need for similar standards for restaurant menus. I don't know if anything can be done to remedy this.

2007-10-04T08:02:00.000+05:30

I hate speed breakers. Specially because I don't need them because usually I don't exceed speed limits. The emotion is further intensified by the fact that my car is one of the lowest cars in Indian market.

What I don't understand is 'why' don't we have proper speed limits displayed on the roads. I have seen 4 foreign countries so far and roads had been showing speed limits prominently. Out here, I have to look hard for speed limit board (I would continue to do that untill authorities get it right)

In Dwarka speed limits of 50 kmph are shown on almost all roads. 2 weeks ago lots of speed breakers were put on these roads without reducing the speed limit. I might also mention that no speed breaker ahead signs were put. The speed breakers are pitch black without any zebra crossing on them.

If a new person comes in the area assuming that he/she follows speed limit, I expect him/her to drive at around 40-45 kmph. Invariably the person would face the wrath of speed breakers. Government should change the speed limits near intersections or places where they want to put speed breakers.

Can my readers tell me if I can file a complaint against someone for this misdeed?

2007-10-02T21:33:00.000+05:30

I had another driving weekend this time. I went to my maternal grandpa's place in Seekar. I remember the single lane road for our village but I was pleasantly surprised this time when I was greeted with a two lane (one on each side) road. Earlier if you had to overtake a vehicle, both the vehicles (yours and the one being overtaken) had to go off road with one tyre. Same was the case if two vehicles coming from different sides wanted to pass.

This time we paid toll to get on to the road and the ride was really smooth. Aravalis are not as green as Shayadri mountain range but I was seeing them like this for the first time. It was purely a leisure trip for me. I was driving on a smooth countryside road likes of which are shown in so many movies.

We also passed our ancestral village and it was very tempting to stop and take a look at our old house. But there are no relatives in the village and it was decided that we will pass the opportunity this time.

2007-10-01T21:19:00.000+05:30

I had posted earlier about one my photographs getting selected in Schmap Yosemite Guide. I just got another mail from them and I was delighted to know that another photo got selected for Schmap Lake Tahoe Guide. The photo can be seen here and was taken from my Canon S1 camera that I miss so much :-)

2007-09-26T10:20:00.000+05:30

As promised I am writing about Mangal Ratan, Dwarka here. This is a closeby restaurant that is a defacto choice when we are late for dinner, not feeling like going out and not feeling like cooking either.

Mangal Ratan has really tasty food and service is pretty ok. Many times we get the food delivered but once in a while we also go to the restaurant. Here are my ratings:

Food: * * * *
Service: * * *
Ambience: * *

We went to a good restaurant called Garam Masala in Chanakyapuri for lunch. Initially we were supposed to meet at Defence Colony and this paragraph could have been about Gola's Sizzlers but we were destined to find Garam Masala. I liked the ambience. There was a wedding party decoration just outside the restaurant that made it look more beautiful. Comfortable seats, quick and polite staff and good food would make me go to this restaurant again when I am in that area.

My ratings:

Food: * * * *
Service: * * * 1/2
Ambience: * * * 1/2

Yesterday we decided to go to Raja/Rajouri garden for dinner and the chosen restaurant was Priviledge Punjab. Parking at this restaurant is tricky, we went at a convinient time and got a spot right in front of the restaurant but I think it can be a daunting task otherwise. The food was good, I didn't like the tomoto soup though Tull liked it. Awadhi Shahi Paneer was delicious and their laccha parantha was awesome. It was a average restaurant nothing impressive about it but nothing wrong about it either.

My ratings:

Food: * * * 1/2
Service: * * * 1/2
Ambience: * * * 1/2

2007-09-23T20:16:00.000+05:30

Someone said there are two types of people, "Those who have seen Taj and those who haven't.". Till yesterday I fell in a third and unusual category, I had seen it from backside when I went there last time. I mended that yesterday by going for a day trip to Agra with Enemy Tull and two friends. Now I feel better that I did not get to see Taj last time from front side. :-)

Since we had already planned that we will be coming back the same day, we started at 6 from Enemy Tull's place, picked up friends and were off to Agra. We took the airport, NH8, Badarpur, Firozabad, NH2 route and reached our destination at 10:30 after taking a breakfast halt at a roadside dhaba.

I managed to spill curd on my t-shirt and jeans when trying to break the bubblegumish aaloo-pyaz parantha. It's a miracle that the pickles in the same plate did not make an attempt to dirty my clothes and a disaster was avoided.

Delhi-Agra highway (NH2) is a decent highway but it's very risky to go on prescribed 90 kmph speed. You have to dodge things like, speeding and honking and zig zagging cars, extra slow jugads, auto rickshaws, cycle rickshaws, slow but in first lane trucks, cow herds and buffalo carts (I saw them after a long time). Driving on Mumbai-Pune expressway and U.S. freeways have truly spoiled me. Some people might be happy with the smooth, pothole free highway but I want more from these highways.

We crossed Sikandara and Agra Fort on our way to Taj Mahal and were asked to park our car 700 meters away from Taj. I would have gladly parked it a kilometer away because there were free camel cart rides from parking to Taj entrance. On the way back we took paid cycle rickshaws.

It was an extra sunny and hot day, we stopped at The Taj Restaurant for some cold drinks etc. and got into a queue to get inside the monument of love. As we bought our tickets our cameras were already in action and we kept taking photographs and videos; at the end our camera had nearly 150 photographs and I think our friends had similar number of photos in theirs.

In an unusual event, ladies' queue was extremely slow thanks to food carrying auntyjis and a bad tempter constable. Usually ladies' queues are really fast and relatively empty.

First look at the Taj made us forget about the sun burning on our heads but the sun broke into the magic very quickly. A round of photo click frenzy followed, we crossed the Taj gardens quickly and were baffled to know that we have to remove our shoes. Now burning sun on head was still better than walking on heated marble barefeet. There was a work around of wearing a cover over our shoes and we did just that.

Taj is really huge, it didn't look that large from across Yamuna river, but it really is a wonder. We spent a lot of time clicking photographs and rested in shadow for some time. I have seen Taj and would want to go there again in better weather.

We drove back to Agra Fort and spent an hour there doing nothing. We chose not to hire a guide and just went here and there and didn't really explore the place all that much.

It was time for us to head back. I plan to go there again for a longer and more relaxed trip.

I also plan to revive my photoblog by posting photos taken on this trip.

2007-09-23T12:15:00.000+05:30

We went to Raja Garden on Friday and decided that we would go to this side more often now. Every time we want to watch a movie, we either drive to Gurgaon or towards south delhi Raja Garden has some good malls and a few popular restaurants too.

We went to Pind Baluchi for dinner. Its impressive facade made me think this would be a costly afair, but we wanted to celebrate :-) The ambience was good, a model well in the middle of the restaurant, a tree, broken brick walls and dim light with wall painting.

The waiters were wearing traditional punjabi kurta and dhoti and food was awesome. The cooking was super fast and service impressive. On top of this Pind Baluchi is one of the cheapest restaurants I have mentioned in this blog so far. They have brances all over NCR and we plan to visit more of their branches soon.

Overall ratings:

Food: * * * *
Ambience: * * * *
Service: * * * *Music: * * * (Punjabi folk songs, but the volume was too low)

Coming up ghar ki murgi daal barabar reivew for Mangal Ratan Restaurant and Taj Mahal and Agra trip.

2007-09-19T13:57:00.000+05:30

One of my photographs got selected for Schmap Yosemite Guide. Bridalveil Falls Day Hike was taken by me when I went there with friends on a 2 day trip.

Some people told us that they had been to Yosemite a lot of times but had never seen so much water in the waterfalls. Bridalveil fall is really beautiful and I must have photographed it from all possible angles :p

I miss my Canon S1.

2007-09-17T09:11:00.001+05:30

It was another good weekend in Delhi. Went to Gurgaon on Friday and bought some household goods from Big Bazaar in Sahara Mall. Though we have not seen even a single movie in Sahara Mall, we have probably gone there more times than we have gone to any malls in Gurgaon. MGF comes a close second where we watch a lot of movies :-)

When we had dinner in Salsa at sahara mall last time, we were tempted to go to another restaurant called Punjabi Tadka on the floor above. Well, we went there this time. Good ambience, quick and good service and delicious food made the day for me. Punjabi Tadka has a huge hall and I think they can seat nearly 70 people in the restaurant. Of course they had to do away with restrooms (one of the negative points there) to get this much space. They were playing really unpopular and random songs via worldspace satelite radio. I expected them to play punjabi but they chose to stick to music that drives customers away.

Interestingly, the restaurant was not that costly and still it didn't attact a lot of crowd. Being in the vicinity of crave and odessey deck might be one reason. They had a curtained place for 6-7 people that can be used for private celebrations, I really liked the idea. Here are the ratings:

Food: * * * *
Ambience: * * * *
Service: * * * *
Music: *
Value for Money: * * * * 1/2

On Saturday we chose to go to Janakpuri District Center to watch Dhamaal. I really liked the movie, total timepass movie with no storyline and a stream of PJs. I think they pulled off a winner without any actress in the movie. Javed Jafari kept overdoing stuff, but I guess he was supposed to. I was happy when they had shown Area 51 club from Pune, the place really rocks :-)

We also went to Deilhi Haat (or is it Dilli Haat) and spent an evening browsing through stuff. Bought a little softtoy for my car. I think it's a really good place to find stuff to decorate one's home.

2007-09-13T09:26:00.000+05:30

I am slowly adjusting to Delhi. Now I accept the fact that Delhi can't offer the huge, plush and well maintained fitness clubs that Pune had. Both Endurance and Abs were really good.

Both of them had really friendly instructors, world class machines and enjoyble atmosphere. The fitness club/gym was a cool place to go to everyday with friends. And we did just that.

I have been looking for a similar club in Delhi but my search has only delivered over-priced, cramped 'gyms' that claim to be fully A/C but they run fans all the time and there is a small A/C fitted in one of the windows.

One of the fitness clubs should take and initiative and open some good ones in Delhi.

Going over to another topic, met a couple of friends yesterday at Not Just Paranthas, GK 2. It's a long drive with lots of traffic and we got late by 5 minutes.

It's always fun to get together with old friends. We talked about this and that and time passed very quickly.

Not Just Paranthas was a decent restaurant. I don't know the rates since I didn't look at the rates on their newspaper like menu and I didn't pay the bill either.

Thanks for the treat dood.. and our best wishes for the two of you. :-)

Not Just Paranthas has a good Chandni Chowk theme and waiters are dressed like postmen. Ambience was good. Food was okay. Another place where they were playing old hindi movie songs. I think it has become a fad now. The songs in NJP were not that great though. My ratings below:

Ambience : * * * *
Food : * * *
Service : * * * 1/2 (Don't try the Rangeela's AC joke with these guys, they will switch off the AC)

GK 2 M-block market is another destination added to our list of places to explore.

2007-09-09T16:37:00.000+05:30

Drove to Jaipur and did shaadi ki shopping last weekend. This time I crossed Gurgaon to Gaziabad distance in 2 hours and while going to Jaipur, travelled from Gaziabad to Gurgaon in around 1.5 hours only. Traffic contributed to the 2 extra hours I look last time.

Going to Jaipur on two continuous weekends had taken a toll on my movie going agenda. There are many movie pending to be seen. Even movies like buddha mar gaya can't stop me from going for movies again.

We tried to fill the backlog by watching Heyy Babyy in Mega Mall, Gurgaon. Surprisingly this mall had parking available on Friday evening. I liked the mall (it was less crowded), the movie and the cinema hall.

Now comes Saturday and we decided to make the most of it. First we went to Rajdhani Thali Restaurant in MGF Metro Mall, Gurgaon. I was impressed when one of the waiters came with a jug filled with water so that we can wash our hands on the table. The food was not that great. Service was good but I have seen better service in thali restaurants. Overall ratings:

Ambience : * * * *
Service : * * * *
Food : * * * 1/2

We saw Ratatouille after lunch. Another Disney-Pixar gem. I love all their movies :-)

We had another movie to see in the same screen and same cinema hall. I had an option of choosing the same seats but took the opposite end of the row. We went out from the Audi after Ratatouille, waited till they cleaned up the audi and went in again for Victoria No. 203.

Two friends had accompanied us for lunch at Rajdhani and Ratatouille but they had refused to watch Victoria. There were total 4 people (including 2 or us) watching the movie, after 15 minutes or so another couple joined and I think both the couples left the cinema hall after interval/intermission.

If you are one of those people who likes to dream about buying all the cinema hall tickets so that you can take your girlfriend / wife to cinema hall to watch a movie where just the two of you are watching it, you have your chance right now. Snatch up tickets for this movie and with luck there would be only two of you in the cinema hall.

Well, I think the movie was 'ok' ;-)

For dinner we went to another restaurant. Chor Bizarre. Here's the ratings:

Ambience: * * * * *
Music: * * * * * (Old songs, they were better than old songs at Baujee Ka Dhaba)
Service: * * * * * (Best service I have seen in recent past)
Food: * * * 1/2 (They could definitely try and improve here)

The restaurant was cheaper than Baujee Ka Dhaba and Punjabi by nature. We plan to go their again for Chat and once for buffet. The ambience and service was really superb. It's almost like a museum with different type of lamp shades, tables and chairs. Very amusing :-) If you are in Gurgaon, you should visit this one :-)

2007-08-31T12:23:00.000+05:30

I have finally started understanding some parts of delhi. I can reach Vasant Vihar, Saket, gurgaon etc. without much help. Tull knows the areas broadly and defying the girls reputation of being bad with directions she is pretty okay with directions.

We went to Punjabi by Nature at PVR Priyaon Wednesday. I liked the ambience. I also liked the food. Service was decent. They levy 10% service charge by default. The naan at PBN was so huge that one of them would be sufficient (or more) for a normal adult. Again only the costly side. I would give it 4 stars (* * * *).

2007-08-30T12:11:00.000+05:30

One of the disadvantages of having both of your sisters in the same town is that when you visit one, you have to automatically balance it with a prompt visit to the second sibling. Specially on festivals like Rakhi that are all about brother-sister relation.

I had to take a leave because my Pune company has holidays only in two cases:

1. There is some festival that is not celebrated in my home but almost all of Pune is on roads thus making it more difficult to utilize the holiday in any other way.

2. It is festival totally unknown to me and falls in the middle of the week hence thwarting all hopes of getting a long weekend.

I digress, we got ready early in the morning on this holiday to go to Gurgaon and have chole bhature as breakfast with my sis and her family. We also had my favorite sivaiyon wali kheer. All in all we had a good time.

Now we had the daunting task of crossing delhi and going to Gaziabad on a day when all brothers of the city (and it looked like some of them were from neighbouring states too) are on the road to meet and greet their sisters. Of course there were some brothers sitting at home while their sisters negotiated the unusually heavy traffic.

Nearly 70 kms were covered in three and a half hours. There was a round of laughter when my other sis also prepared chole bhature for us. I actually took a small nap to replenish my energies.

We set out for a nearby colony Ram Prastha where one of Tull's buaji lives. Tull's younger cousin's made sure that I had lots of sweets/namkin and of course there was sivaiyon wali kheer. I can write another post about the jija-sali vibe I felt for the first time, now I understand why there are so many songs and anecdotes about this special chemistry.

Next stop was Mayur Vihar where buaji had also prepared Chole Bhature. Thankfully we were spared this time.

It was nearly 10 when we reached Tull's place. Before I forget, I got the best directions from Tull's fufaji for coming back. Very detailed, very accurate, we didn't have to ask anyone for confirmation. He should probably open an equivalent of google maps.

2007-08-27T17:13:00.000+05:30

Attended my first b'day party on phone today. It was actually GS Lab's 4th anniversary and I was attending it remotely.

Attending meetings, technical lectures and company update meetings on phone has become normal for me now. I certainly miss "the normal" way to attend these events but I definitely like being close to Jaipur.

I drove to Jaipur and back on weekend. I was rather disappointed by the NH 8 highway. Bangalore highway in Pune and Pune-Bombay Express way were much better. Roads in Jaipur were at their worst I have seen in last 10 years. I rememberd a much better NH8 and Jaipur roads when I last travelled on them.

2007-08-23T15:09:00.001+05:30

Eureka !

A long time ago we used small plastic tubs at home. As kids we could fill the tub completely and sit in them.

I have used bath tubs and read about bath tubs in novels (including H2G2) and have seen numerous bath tub scenes in movies or TV serials.

Why I am talking about plastic tubs and bath tubs? I don't know how it happened but just now a thought came to my mind. There was a time when the phrase "bath in tub" would be related to a kid in plastic tub. I was not using these tubs then. But I had not seen the actual tubs either.

Anyway, the thought that came to my mind was that Archimedes was not sitting in a plastic tub when he made the great discovery related to "volume of water displaced". I always imagined a grown (with whiskers) up using the kiddish plastic bathtub and found the whole incident hilarious. Of course others found it hilarious too but they were probably thinking about the guy coming out of the bath tub and running around in that state, I never reached there.

So Archimedes, sorry dood. I agree that you were using a normal bath tub and not plastic one that I had imagined till a couple of minutes ago. Were you using plastic toy ducks by any chance? Because they also featured in my imagination.. infact they were the "object" that displaced water.

2007-08-22T08:03:00.000+05:30

We* saw Chak De India yesterday. National Anthem before the movie.. and in the movie too. Friends had already told me that the full song is not played. Now this put me in a fix. I wanted to stand to pay respect to the anthem but I knew it would get over quickly. Felt good that 3-4 people actually stood up. Felt bad that not many did.

In all this just when I put my feet on the ground to get up, the song got over. I liked the movie. :-)

In our attempt to try all good restaurants in Delhi we have tried 4 mentionable restaurants so far.

1. Moti Mahal - Dwarka - * * *1/2 - Enemy Tull is a big fan of Moti Mahal, Janakpuri, we haven't gone to the Janakpuri outlet but I liked the food an ambience in Dwarka. If not for the long queue, wait and overtly spicey masala papad it would have got better ratings.

2. Swagat, Defence Colony - * * * - We went there for lunch on Enemy Tull's b'day. Again long queue outside the hotel and slight liquor smell. I liked the food. Might go there again.

3. Alka, Connaught Place - 1/2 - It seems the restaurant is very popular. So popular that they had to open and annex in CP. But I would define it as Cramped space, Steel cutlery, slow service, no garlic/onion in dishes and all dishes tasted same. Enemy Tulls's b'day dinner was spoiled thanks to Oonchi dukaan, feeke pakwaan.

I agree with following quote:

"Tomatoes & Oregano make it Italian; Wine & Tarragon make it French. Sour cream makes it Russian; Lemon and Cinnamon make it Greek. Soy sauce makes it Chinese. Garlic makes it good..."

Owners of Alka: If you want to stay in business for long, put garlic or cater to jain community in Gujrat.

4. Baabu ji ka dhaba, Metropolitan Mall, Gurgaon: * * * * 1/2 - We went there yesterday. The food was good, service was super fast. Ambience would make us go there again and again. I liked the pickles too. I guess it was homemade. It was slightly costlier than normal restaurants and they add 10% service charge in the bill by default.

5. Salsa, Sahara Mall, Gurgaon: * * * - Its a good imitation of mexican restaurants. But its an imitation. We tried Nachos, Salsa, Quesadillas and took an extra dip of Salsa but guacomole/avocado were missing.

* Most of the time "We/we" would represent Enemy Tull and me.

2007-08-20T10:27:00.000+05:30

We went to see Buddha mar gaya yesterday. The movie is really gross.

What caught my attention was Indian National Anthem being played in cinema hall. I have seen INA in Pune/Mumbai cinema halls but this was the first time I saw it in Delhi. Beautifully sung by masters of music. Lata mangeshkar started the song and I was surprised to see a locket of national flag on her neck (is it allowed now? I had read that you are now allowed to wear things related to the fla above waist so this should qualify :P). First change of singer took me by surprise and to my surprise second one too :-). But after that I expected singers to change. It was a pleasure to recognize individual 'styles' of vocalists for one single song. I was rather happy to hear it.

We came back home and I did something I don't do very often. I switched on the TV. And there was another version of the INA but sung by one singer. I saw the INA and changed the channel to see INA again (this time the multiple singer edition).

It is sponsered by Airtel and I don't think it's such a good idea to broadcast INA so many times on TV channels. I think that respect for the anthem will go away if I hear it 20 times a day, I wouls stop standing still and I would stop paying attention to the song. I don't know what can be done about it.

PS: I finished reading five point someone. I liked the informal style of writing. Next up is "Great Expectations".

2007-08-14T08:06:00.000+05:30

I liked Deathly Hallows :-), I now plan to watch rest of the Harry Potter movies. At the end of the book I felt that it got over very quickly.

Anyways, weekend was spent in family mode. Both my niece (and their parents :p)came to our place for lunch.

Next up is Five Point Someone.

2007-08-08T10:06:00.000+05:30

I started reading the latest Harry Potter book Deathly Hallows. I like the book so far. I also started reading Chetan Bhagat's Five Point Someone. A friend left a copy with me so I decided to read the book anyway.

I will get my car back today. We plan to go for shopping and I am already thiking of outings :-)

Pune had some really good places where we went again and again without getting bored. Hopefully Delhi will have similar weekend getaways. I should buy a guidebook and map soon.

2007-08-05T21:18:00.000+05:30

I finished reading HBP and will now read the latest Harry Potter book. :-) I and Tull went for dinner at SoMan's place. This is a latest addition in superhero(ine) league. SoMan had hidden her culinary skills from us for long. I must say the dinner was really good and I took two helpings of dessert :-)

After dinner we decided to go to a pub/disc called Buzz in Gurgaon. Wiseguy and SoMan's lightweight friend were also invited for dinner. 5 of us were there till 12 when we decided to call it a day. Buzz had a female DJ who was going mad after every 10 minutes. There was good music for 10 minutes and suddenly the DJ went beserk and played some unrelated track as remix and then got back to normal likeable music. As usual I stood on the dance floor not doing much but looking from Wiseguy to Tull and back. Nobody said anything, I assume they took this as a dance step where I was roating 180% clockwise and counter-clockwise again and again without giving much bhaav to the beats.

I and Tull also went shopping and were very unfortunate to get movie tickets for a recent release. I am glad I didn't pay for the movie in Cash. I have a good capacity to enjoy bad movies, I can make comedies out of worst of the movies but this one gave me a headache. Tull got a headache too. I bet aunty next to us was also feeling heavy in her head.

After the movie we met some people who took more than 45 minutes to find out that PVR Anupam, Saket is different from PVR Priya, Vasant Vihar. They can harldly be blamed, they also had the task of choosing right and wrong between numerous boards saying they are standing in Saket but 2 people telling them they were in Vasant Vihar. I am still trying to figure out the motivation for the 2 people mentioned above, I hope it is not part of an international controversy to misguide youth of India.

At that, I will press the "publish post" button. Hope you had a great weekend too.

2007-07-29T16:46:00.000+05:30

First weekend in Delhi is going quite well. We saw two movies (Partner and Harry Potter, OOTP). I liked both movies. I got a N70M as an advance b'day gift from Tull (thanks tull). We also bought a UPS and a TFT monitor for my home office PC.

Have been playing with my new toy (N70) since morning. Installed the monitor and UPS. My desk is official a jugle of wires now :-)

I plan to start reading HBP today.

2007-07-22T20:35:00.000+05:30

In Delhi

I am in Delhi now. I had planned to drive from Pune to Delhi in a couple of days but my car met an accident shortly after I started. Nothing happened to me thanks to seat belts and Honda's safety cage. But I felt really bad about my car. I don't know how much time they will take to get it back in shape.

This is a new chapter of life for me, I am back in Delhi but I am still working for my Pune company remotely. Hopefully communication issues will not be a big hurdle in my being productive for the company.

First day in Delhi, 35 degrees felt hot and I was sweating. Pune had MUCH MUCH better weather :-)

Now that I am "becar" for some time my mobility has been affected badly. I was never a big fan of Delhi autowallas but I am at their mercy till the time I get my car back. !!

Hope everyone had a fun weekend. :-)

2007-07-20T06:35:00.000+05:30

Bye bye Pune !!

Today is my last day in Pune. Last two have been really hectic. I wanted to meet a lot of people once before leaving (there are still some left).

After the Kivas surprise, I hosted a dinner for the same set of friends in Thousand Oaks. Birju was very keen on an outing the next day. I was interested because that would be my last outing from Pune. In the middle of the dinner we opened 3 full size maps (yes I carry them in my car, and has also given one to Birju) and were looking for a bird sanctuary by the name of Karnala.

Apparently noone could find Karnala on the map and I assumed we had dropped the idea and we would be going to either Mulshi or Lonavala. When I reached Birju's place on Sunday, Karnala was still on. I called a couple of friends who trek frequently and didn't get any info. I called my friend The cultivator and he didn't take the call. Finally I called Steamy Tull and she gave me the directions.

From Pune take expressway till Panvel, join NH 17 to Goa from Panvel. Its around 12 kms on Nh17. Around 125 kms from Pune.

Sometime later The cultivator called back and gave the same directions. We were rolling !!

Karnala looked like a really good place but we didn't want to trek in mud and hence we were limited to seeing birds in cages. Maneka aunty had recently go almost all birds removed from the cages and only a handful were left.

A spark of intelligence from Birju and Kkiju, we decided to go to Bhagat Tara Chand (BTC) in Vashi. We had a heavey lunch and headed back to Pune. We tried to go to Lonavala but traffic was really prohibitive. We reached Pune around 7:30 in evening.

Two of my friends Jaggu and Shutterbug were driving from Bombay, I waited for them, went to Mocha and met some friends. Some of Jaggu's friends joined me in Mocha and we went to SOHO's for dinner.

All in all, I am having a lot of good bye dinners and there is a lunch scheduled today. I had a wonderful time in Pune and I hope I won't be cribbing about Delhi weather a lot. :-)

2007-07-17T06:25:00.000+05:30

Friday evening, my friend Peggie asked me to accompany her to a shopping mall; she wanted to buy a shoe for her dad. We agreed to meet at 8. Enemy Tull insisted that I wear one of the party shirts. I tried to convince her that wearing a club shirt to a shopping mall may not be the brightest idea, I went out wearing a shirt that can be worn at both shopping malls and parties.

Peggie insisted on driving my car, this is not very unusual; she does that on every outing anyway. But she took the car in opposite direction and on inquiry said that a new mall has come up in that direction. Gulible me.

She started parking the car in front of Kivas (a pub), I thought she would park here and we will walk to the mall but suddenly we spotted Birju's car. We went in and met Birju and Kkiju. It seems they just wanted to spend some quality time alone. I told Peggie "let's not be kabab main haddi" but she wanted to stay put.

Now that we were already a gathering, I thought why not call others and 2 minutes later small ghoda was there too. I thought something was fishy but I let it go. Small probably was on a date or with other friends. Another 5 minutes and Romeo also came to Kivas for a date. Small and Romeo were asking each other why the other one had also come to Kivas, doesn't he know any other places in Pune.

I was very happy about the coincidence, I told the same to Enemy Tull and she also played along.

All this coincidence was acceptable but when Deepu walked in I was sure they had planned it as my send off party. Deepu is a patnivrata kind of guy and won't go on a date with anyone else except his wife.

Others joined, I loved the surprise farewell and birthday party given to me by my friends. These guys have been my family in Pune.

Friends: I will miss you a lot !!

PS: She doesn't mind the nick name Enemy Tull

2007-07-15T00:08:00.000+05:30

I am back to blogging :-)

Biggest news of my life: I got engaged. I will call my fiancée Enemy Tull (if she likes it :p) in this blog.

Getting engaged was not the reason for the break. Infact Enemy Tull has been insisting on restarting the blog. So here I am.

I am moving to Delhi very soon and I will be driving from Pune to Delhi with a driver. We will travel approximately 1400 kms in 2 days.

That's it for now, I will keep posting regularly (I hope) :-)

2007-03-08T07:52:00.000+05:30

Welcoming a new blogger and my friend Varun. I almost never call him Varun, but lets not give his nickname to public so soon.

2007-01-20T22:52:00.000+05:30

Life has been good. Spent Xmas in Goa with friends and managed to loose another camera. I have lost a lot of good photographs this year because of lost camera (3 times) and stupid mistake (once). Hoping that this year I won't loose any cameras.

New year was spent with friends but without music, tv or booze. We played cards and had lots of fun in it :-)

Hope all of you had a good bash in new year and xmas celebrations !!

Some of my close friends moved to US recently and I miss them sorely. But thanks to skype, gtalk and VOIP, I get to talk to them often enough. I keep telling my friends, brain drain has started again.. and this time its not just IITans.

2006-12-08T07:18:00.000+05:30

Finally, I made it to India. I was so desperate that I changed my status message on various messengers to "Main vapas aaoonga". When you are given a new ticket every week because of unfinished work you work hard (and on weekends) to finish it. But how does one react when their flight is cancelled because of a strike at the airport. I was saddened to the core.

Admin staff at my company was sure that riots all over Maharashtra are happening only because I am landing in Mumbai.. Someone tried to steal the stereo from my car but all he/she could do was to break the glass and damage the dashboard an AC vent. The person was a novice for sure, otherwise he/she would have atleast stolen the car charger or upholestry :-)

Went to Bhandhardhara (near Nashik) on weekend. 6 months ago Shanks, Goti and I were looking at a newly bought map to locate some weekend getaways, we found two of them to be interesting, B'dhara was one of them. More than 200 kms one way. 10 people, 2 cars, lots of fun, bonfire and new friends. What more can one want from a weekend?

2006-11-25T20:23:00.000+05:30

I am in the middle of running long loads and parallely doing huge builds so I decided to start reading Vivek's blog after a gap of 30+ days. He a lot of interesting posts. I have marked some of them as pending because I have to read other links given in those posts.

This post, reminded me of how I stopped buying and bursting crackers in my first year. I saw a poster on H3 (my hostel) notice board about Diwali, child labour, polution and donating. Another mail followed the poster and I have never bought crackers after that. I did sell fire-crackers in my third/fourth year in my dad's shop.

Whenever I am with my parents on Diwali (4 times in last 9 years) My mom always forces me to burst a few soon (shagun) ke pathakhe.

I love the festival and I enjoy meeting my childhood friends (not really, they are my friends from 11th and 12th class) and relatives in my Diwali vacations but the fun in crackers is gone forever.

2006-11-25T15:20:00.000+05:30

Finally, I managed to steal one day from the weekend yesterday. I walked to Jaffa and roamed around for a while and took some photographs. Then I went to the visitor center and wathced a video documentry on Jaffa. I also went to the famous flea market but didn't like anything there. I don't really know why it is so famous. :-)

I went back to the visitor center and took an audio toor of Jaffa. Jaffa is small ancient city. Most of the streets are very narrow and a lot of them have steps. City is built on a limestone hill and the port was a very port in early days. Nowa days its just a Yatch Marina.

I am back in office today, I still have to visit Tel Aviv Old Port. I might go there today :-)

2006-11-23T15:17:00.000+05:30

Tried falafel and (k)humoos for lunch and dinner. I had falafel in US a couple of times but the one in Israel is much better :-)