Google talk

Its Saturday night here, atleast in India, and almost the right time to get a good night's sleep.
But fortunately, my net connection at home is rocking at the moment, and I am involved in downloading a bit of s/w which seems to take hours here, rather than a quantum of few seconds, if it were office.

Anyways, Google talk was the flavor of the week.
Google Talk is really as lite as promised, and all Google fans will be hooked into this in a few days time.
I already used it across India and it seems to deliver what it promises and I guess, that's what customers really want.
This should definitely have set the warning bells ringing in the Yahoos of the world and also for M/S Bill Gates at Redmond, WA.
Sleepless in Seatle would truely sum up the state of mind of Mr Gates at the moment. The news that's making the rounds is that Google wud soon have their own web browser, and that must have not passed without a chill down the spine.

Today, Hindustan is jubiliant with the Dahi-Handi celebrations
and Mumbai usually leads the honors. Lots of pride and money is at stake and its quite eventful to watch the human pyramid scale great heights. Long live the human spirit

The struggle within

I sometimes think of titles to my blog, without a true reflection of my state of mind, and then start writing abt it, I prefer it that way since it puts no obligations on what and how muhc to write.
I guess it improves the flow and the fluency as well.
More often than not, its a manifestation of the sub-conscious , which is eager to express itself.

I am still to read Hitler's Mein Kampf, which approx translates to 'My Struggle'.
For some occult reason, I don't like to buy books, I wud rather prefer a library which has tons of books that one can borrow, without the onus to maintain them in cupboards ans treasure them for a lifetime....Probably just an iota of the kind of person I think I am, who doesn't want to carry the past baggage around...

My internal struggle is happening incessantly for the past few months, and its all the more difficult to decipher the root cause. Its more like an assorted bunch of niggles that cricketers live with and then sound lacking cent percent fitness.
Its probably got to do with the nature of mankind, to always want welcome change in life. Sometimes, it helps, since we all know that a rolling stone gathereth no moss. Of course, the roller ocaster ride and the ultimate destination are also equally important !

Ramdev Maharaj is doing some fabulous work with his pranayam discourses and truly contributing to a stronger India, by helping ppl get rid of their woes. I admire him quite a lot. And he seems to have that charisma that glues me to his lectures and demos, whenever I see him on TV.

India are beginning another uneventful tour and I guess its no brainer that an India-NZ match is on cards with India scrapping thru to the finals and then losing to NZ. The only way Indian team can surprise its fans is negatively, by failing to qualify for the finals !!! Don't mistake this for pessemism, its more of realism ....

Ta ta

TODAY

Today is a friday, and I am abt to rush home for a nice long weekend.
It has been quite hectic at work , after a long time, and I seem to be enjoying it.
Hoping to contribute some good stuff in the release this time...though that means less time for exercise. Need to watch the weighing scale more closely.

Ajit was at my place yesterday and we chatted for a couple of hours, remembering nostalgic moments and discussing future plans. It was fun in general.
MSN audio has proved to be an excellent voice over IP technology and I am using it regularly to talk to my bro sitting 9 and 1/2 hours behind me.
My parents coming to Pune meant some upbeatness in my mood and good home food , that they brought along :-)

Monday is our holiday and may our country make great strides of progress.
Jai Hind !!

A long week ahead

Its yet another Monday evening, and life is at its monotonous best !
My brother has left for his MS and that leaves me all alone at home for the rest of the week.
I gotta get used to this pretty soon.

While Abhi has left for US for doing Master's, I got my degree this weekend and so I have finally completed graduation...It feels good and gives a sense of personal satisfaction...

Yesterday's Ashes test was simply a beauty and has setup the tone for the next 3 matches.
India, as usual have scrapped thru the finals and will manage nothing more than a drubbing at the hands of Sri Lanka in the finals tomorrow. Its almost habitual for our team to build up false expectations and bring ppl down from cloud no 9 bang on the earth in a jiffy !
But as u might guess, I wud still religiously follow the match till the debacle sounds irreversible.

At work, I am having to look into and work on some networking issues, so I hope it helps add to my domain knowledge there. Let's see !!

I got the VISA power

When Sachin says 'I have got VISA power' I would just tend to overlook that.
After all, was it a great achievement for the master blaster to get a VISA.
Last time, I got VISA power, there was this Pandora's box, rather the drop box, which made things so simple.

But the war against terror has also turned into a game of suspicion, where flawless people are also under the vigilant microscope of the West. And so the elaborate process of personal interview bla-bla.Anyways, all is well that ends well, to summarize on this.
Braving the Mumbai rain, things have reached their good logical conclusion !
Another delight was watching the plus South Mumbai area, and the lovely gilttering , glimmering Queen's necklace at Marine Lines. Wish I had a sea-facing bungalow there.
If wishes were horses...u know what I wanna blabber ....

Being politically incorrect seems to be in vogue for politicians of 2005.
Advani's faux paus on Jinnah was followed by another classic entertainer from the Turbanator himself, well our PM Manmohan Singh. Showering words of praise on our rulers of yester-years was in poor taste. I mean, we all know how advanced the British were, but for a state-head to say so, was quite perturbing.

I have been orkutting a lot these days, trying to get some networking going...
Signing off this Wednesday, since my fingers refuse to type any further :-)

Dhamakas

After the rains stopped lashing Pune and other parts of Maharashtra, something else has come up.
There was an attempt of arson planned at the holy Ayodhya site. And then today even the old man of Europe, England was not spared.
Perhaps London's joy of winning the 2012 Olympic bid was too ephemeral.
At Russell Square, there were a series of blasts by some hooligans.

To me, there is always a delicate balance between the 5 forces of nature. Looked like water had had its time-slice and it was the turn of the 'fire' element to ignite revengful passions in the mind of terrorists.

At work, things have reached a 'nadir' of sorts, but every time I say so, something even darker and murkier seems to crop up. So this time I am putting up a brave front and smiling thru the sea of turbulence. Luckily a protocol called 'NDMP' has been a messiah and I seem to be relishing it in bits and bytes ( Now that sounds like a computer geek, ain't it ? )

Roger Fed-Ex, as he is fondly called nowadays, was an absolute delight to watch last weekend at Center Court. Well, i am sure the Brits wud be unhappy with the way I spelt 'Center', but isn't this spelling much more intuitive than what the conservative Englishmen think it to be !!

Tomorrow our office gang has planned a fun-riot at exotic Splendor Country, but suddenly most of my pals have dropped out, and this Thursday evening, I find myself in a state of ambivalence.
Do be or not to be ? That's the question posed by Shakespeare, and today by Akshay ;-)
Looks like I have started fancing the UK a lot these days. This is surprising, since those who know me well enuff might also remember my obsession with the country down Under, the arch-rivals of Britain. Well, not exactly in an Indo-Pak sense, but more historical.

Crude is already above $61, and I know its going to kill ppl around the globe for sure.
Gives me a reality check of sorts. Nothing is 'Akshay' in this world, and defintiely not natural resources like oil, metals and other goods..

What to say ?

There are days when you have time , but don't know what to do or write.
And there are some others when there is no time to catch up with thoughts and pen them down.
Today, I find myself in the prior situation !!

I have started orkut-ing regularly now. Still haven't really tracked someone who was "bichda hu dost" etc. or Bollywood ishtyle "Kumbh ke mele me bichade the types" folks; but I am losing no heart yet.

One of my friends who quit last month, or perhaps a couple of months ago, is coming over this weekend, and plans have been made in advance to hang-out. So don't be surprised to find me at E-Square on Sunday morning. It's surprising that though I stay so close to the place, it has hardly increased the frequency of my trips there...

When I go home this Friday evening, I would be walking out of VERITAS and when I enter office on Monday, it will be a new company. Well, this is absolutely no magic..nor am I quitting my job. Its just that our company would officially merge into this security giant from California, named Symantec, and so I would become a Symantec employee, by default.
Guess, there is slight emotional turbulence, since VERITAS has been my first job and close to my heart.

Rain has been lashing hard at Punekars and India in general, incessantly for the last week or so, and it's good that the Khadakwasla dam has become 100% full i n June itself.
Its raining hard at the stock market too, with every all-time highs falling like nine-pins.
I don't know whether to become a BullishBear or a BearishBull..
I keep pondering, what does it mean anyways ? What to say............

Monsoon Masti again

I was almost aestivating all summer, atleast as far as blogging is concerned.
Frogs had some company for sure..
Today I had the time and inclination to do some blogging and so here I am again !

It rains 9-10 months a year in Pune.
Ok, hold on before u start firing salvos at me; let me defend this postulate.
In any given calendar year, running Jan thru Dec, I count every single month having even a single drizzle / shower of rain as a 'rainy' month. And the statistics I revealed over the past 18 months of intense research ( I am sure that would bring shame to professors of repute or even the local weathermen) is that, Pune has 9-10 months of rain. I am sure this should go into Ripley's believe it or not !!!!

Well, jokes apart, the real Monsoon showers have made their presence felt and the weather is excellent here, just in case ppl from other places are planning a visit during the season.
We know that Pune is called Oxford of the East, but it is so in more than one way.
Of course for the pedagocial comparison.
But there is another connection which I discovered and wouldn'd mind patenting..its as follows:-
Pune enjoys a West European kind of weather (alike Britain, alike Oxford of the West).
Agree with me, folks ?

Near the real Oxford, sporting fever is peaking in sync with the summer.
The Aussies still seem to be in a deep slumber and are in no mood to trouble even Bangla players, let alone the gentlemen with the white flannels from England !
Our own Sania was playing well at Wimbledon, but unfortunately she lost in a closely fought match.

Few F-1 races were as intriguing as the previous one at Indiana, marred by the Michellin controversy. Anyways, probably , it gave a lease of life to Schumi and Ferrari. But I hope that is it....

This Monday evening

This Monday evening is special, just because I choose to make it that way !
Well, one can really exercise the choice of remaining happy or gloomy, and in this ephemeral life, why not lvie every moment to the fullest....
Recently, an acquaintance of mine advised me to practise some meditation and pranayam, and I have tried to follow suit ever since, as far as possible; I must admit that I am feeling much more relaxed after that...Though some other +ve vibes have also been around, I am taking no credit away from these recommended therapies.
I must feel like watching the movie Godfather, and hopefully, I should be able to catch hold of it pretty soon.
Sometimes, I wonder, can't one progress without a Godfather. And yes, by godfather, I do not mean one who will condone my mistakes or fight a lost cause for me. Its more like one who will be like Lord Shir krisha in Mahabharat, who sided with the dharma against adharma...

We need somebody in life, who empathizes with us and acts as a true friend, philospoher and guide. Most of all, he trusts our ability and is willing to channelize our efforts in the right direction. I feel I have re-discovered such a force in my life, and it's gonna take me miles ahead.

Its the year end , well the financial one this time, and I must mention it in all fairness to pay due respects to my blog , called bullish bear. So finance is at the core of affairs. The crashing stock market is the flavor of ths season.....and India has lost today's match, they have been Bangalored by Pak...

Nice wednesday

It was a nice Wednesday yesterday.
One of my friends and colleagues will be leaving for US soon, and so he threw a party , or gave a treat, wud be more pat. It was at Pizza Hut and that was good fun.
Pitchers of Pepsi and garlic bread added to the aroma of the evening.
As if this was not enuff for the evening, we decided to watch a film at night at E-Square.

Since the show was to begin close to the middle of the night, we made ourselves comfortable at the malls inside. Visited Crossword for the first time at this place, though my previous visit to any crossword store was just 2 months new :-).

Window-shopping for the books was great fun and then we just sat back to watch a game of pool that some guyz were playing.
The film began around 12 midnight and it enthralled us from the first shot itself.
It was great humor, but completely adult stuff. This kind of disappointed me, since I expected "Meet the Fockers" to be inline with "Meet the parents", a family movie.

Nevertheless, the film was paisa vasool. and so I wasn't complaining a bit.

Marchester United !

Don't ask me what the meaning of this title is, for I don't know myself.
Just thought of it and coined the title without bothering about the meaning a lot.
Probably we can treat it as a hybrid of this month and the illustrious football team of the EPL, Manchester United.

Life is not a bed of roses, and this has proved itself time and again for me, more so in the last few months. Being tossed from one project to another hasn't been the best for my career. I should say destiny has taken me for a toss, and any amount of reassuring words do not give solace to my heartburn in this regard.
The equanimous, tranquil person, that I have known myself to be, is facing tremendous pressure. Truely, time is the best healer and so the only thing to do is to let the tough get going.

The work on Linux was looking promising, and would have turned out to be a great learning experience. But nature had something else in store for me, perhaps !! So, bottomline is I am back to the Bill Gates camp. Can't help saying "Ghar ka bhula agar shaam ko laute to use bhoola nahi kehte". :-)

It isn't that things are completely out of place as such. Some positive vibes can also be felt, but the warm hearth of positivity is not heating my spirits enough.

TGI Friday

Ya, I'm tanking God because it's a Friday, and its close to evening.
This simply augurs another weekend is round the corner.
I have been looking fwd to weekends on every week day, for no special reason at all !

The past 3 weekends in a row, I have been out on the B'lore-Mumbai by-pass on Sundays,
and I have completed the trioka last weekend.
Yet it seems that I may be destined to make the quadruple trip on the same road this week on Saturday .....

On the Padwa, day I went to Abhiruchi, and the next SUNDAY, it was time for a mini get-together at my Phoopha's wedding anniversary..
While there was absolutely no reason to step out of doors last Sunday, Abhi and I decided to explore the outside territory. It was almost like we wanted to conquer stamina and display our adventurous spirit. So, we headed off to Sinhagad fort in the chill of the morning.

The drive was quite enjoyable, since the road is very good , if not extremely scenic.
Still it took us almost 1 and 3 quarters of an hour to get to the basement.
Without looking left or right, we started the mission on a high note.
It was 9 am, but we had still put on our gloves, to beat the cold and it really helped.
My allergy or , rather aversion to cold weather was exposed another time
when I got my fingers, especially the thumb swollen.

The first 15 minutes were real fun, and then we started grappling with reality; it was not going to be a cake walk. The climb started getting steeper, and though the Sun was out, it didn't seem to bother us much, due to the chill in the air and the mountain interspersed with few trees and shrubs.....

The initial plan was to get to the top and then have some beverages, but the loss of salts and sugar made us have some buttermilk and nimbu-paani; not that it helped greatly but it was a booster to our pysche !!!!!!

At times, I got so tired and the palpitation of my heart sort of worried me....Was almost like it would breakout any moment, luckily the heart turned out stronger than expected and it would heaved a sigh of relief when I got to the top safely and it got the much needed respite under some shady boughs.

In office, this Thursday we had a party to celebrate the release of BE 10.0, our latest Windows based solution. Our team went to Flags restaurant, near Inox, and it looked like a nice place.
We had a food riot, to say the least, almost idential to the description you would find in an Enid Blytonn novel. We relished the appetizers and the starters, and there wasn't much room to eat the main course after that. We ended the luncheon with a pizza and some ice-cream.
One of the few meals that turned out to be exotic and that would be remembered for some time to come.....

At work, US is still in slumber or so it seemed, things became pretty clear when it was announced that my US manager had opted out of his managerial hat and had decided to go back to basics..to coding.. YES.
Sounds quite surprising that a person at his age and experience still wants to delve into the debugger.........................................So guess what, we have a new US manager now, and lets see how it gets..

The India-SA matches were not that exciting, on the backdrop of a lackluster performance against Aussies.Nevertheless, we merged victorious, with Kumble adding another feather to his cap...
I was expecting Sachin to be dropped for the B'desh tour considering his horrendous form off late, but in India, where cricket is religion, and Scahin is demi-god, saying or even thinking of such a remote possiblity amounts to sacrilegious behavior.

Sensational season

That Diwali is the best among all Indian festivals is beyond doubt, atleast as far as I am concerned. No other festival can match the zeal, enthusiasm, vigor and glee of the festival of lights.
This Diwali was a bit different from others for me, for a handful of reasons...
It was a bigger vacation this time, due to lot many holidays round the year falling on weekends.
Having a 5 day vacation was definitely a delight !

It was a privilege this year to be first of sorts in many respects....
It was the first time I started filing Invention disclosures this year and it has been a fairy tale since...
It was in 2004 that I was asked to set the Question Paper set for the new Autonomous PIET.
It was also the first time that I was called upon to assess the papers..
Doing this has been an enriching experience, and I have had the chance to reform the education society by playing my wee bit .
Doing paper correction in the midst of Diwali sweet-meats and firecrackers didn't sound encouraging at first thought, but that was a golden chance to undo those wrongs which have come to stay with the Engineering Exams in Pune University....
It was good to see that most of the students had fared pretty well, and had taken the new exam format in their stride....

After almost a decade of getting to know 'Abhiruchi' it was the Deepavali Padwa , the first day of the month of Kartik, which finally marked our visit to Bhide Baug.
Now, while i thought we should have gone there much earlier, since I sounded like a misfit among those young toddlers and infants, having a gala time there, it was nevertheless a nice refreshing experience.
The food was delicious and the atmosphere was perfect; the guava gardens added to the scenic beauty of the place. Taking a nice nap under one of those trees and resting on the zhula were truely divine moments....................

Why do I blog ?

If you think that the bug of regular blogging has bitten me, then it is indeed not the case.
For me, it just comes out of the blue and then I have to conjure up something for the heck of writing, every time a background thread telling me that I have all it takes to be a an authoritarian literary figure...
I don't know if this is mind-games or true, but I always have a feeling that I deserve better than I get and I have the potential to do better than what usually manifests itself.
Probably its a shade of ego, or who knows it might be the truth, but the bottom line is that this feeling keeps coming....
Just to cite an example, I have shown strides of improvement in playing TT, and many friends appreciate it. But it has been a tough task crossing that level and getting even better.
Just like electrons need some push, some kinetic energy to move to the higher orbit, I am always on the lookout for the ever-eluding catalyst which will propel me further. I guess, its all in the mind and what is really needed is better application and loads of practice.

Last week was Kojagari Pournima, and it was a treat as usual having the sweet milk interspersed with the gentle, yet enigmatic and seductive rays of the moon....
Also gives us an opportunity to get onto the terrace and take a look at the surroundings...
The season is perfect for outings, parties and travel !
I also had an opportunity to wear some ethnic outfits; the chance provided on the occasion of VxDhoom. Wearing the traditional Gujju/Rajasthani pheta added to the glee of the evening.
The nice delicacies and the ambience added to the rising spirits....A nice evening............

Final Frontier Collapses

I write this blog in an ambivalent state of mind.
The reason for euphoria is that my prediction has turned out to be true till now.
I expected the Aussies to win in B'lore and they did.
I expected India to win in Chennai and they would have, if rain had not played spoilsport..
In Nagpur, it was always a tough call, with +ve bias towards Australia. The moment a green top was offered, the Aussies pounced upon the opportunity and romped home in style.
Victory in the test is not as important as the manner in which India were vanquished.
We looked like a jaded team all along, and resting on past laurels can only do worse for Ganguly and co.
In this process of nemesis, Steve Waugh must be ambivalent too.
Happy because the Kangaroos have conquered the final frontier, and a shade of sorrow since he could not do it leading as Captain. Ricky Ponting must also be cursing his injury, since now the victory credit goes to Adam Gilchrist...:-)
The approach of Aussies this time along was truely commendable.
There was no shade of arrogance this time , nor was there any sledging.
Though I love Aussies at their sledging best, this time there was a more humane touch to the tour. Their eyes were set on the Border-Gavaskar trophy and they have won it like silent killers.
In the process, they have reaffirmed cricket as a game played by gentlemen in white flannels !!

I am veri sure that India will crumble at Wankhede too, and even quicker, without offering much resistance....That would make it a nice 3-0 washout.

Vijayadashmi

Morrow brings in a new hope,
Vigor, zeal and a precursor to bundles of joy !
9 days and 9 nights of bellicose turmoil,
And Mahishasura was finally foiled....

The monsoons have come and gone,
Leaving the earth green and clean...
The oceans have swelled, their waters are pristine
The festive mood has set in, its time to wine and dine.

Some legacy

Well, I am not talking about any fortune here, but more mundane things.
As a child, I read a book called Mr. Pump's Legacy; unfortunately just caught hold of vol 1 , which left the story hanging at a point of delicate balance.
Veri similar to what the viewers of LOTR would have felt after seeing the "Fellowship of the ring".
My legacy was related to a class called LegacyPlugin, in some code.
I was stupified to see this code being called, instead of another Plugin.
The worst thing is to trace the flow of code, jumping from one dll to another, with the NT.dll coming in between, which renders one almost helpless..
Probably I need a revision of assembly code, to understand and unearth what each instruction and opcode means and then do a mental conversion using my super computer to high level C instructions....
It was almost as if the code was desperate to trace its routes or exhume some Legacy, but the amount of heeart-burn it is giving me is remarkable !

Waiting for the Exit polls and then poll results in Maharashtr to see who emerges victorious..
Lets see..Needless to say, I have been a true citizen, reiterating my faith in Goddess Democracy by exercising my ballot.

The 2nd test starts at Fort St George / Fort St. Williams , i.e purana Madras or the modern Chennai at Chepauk. Hoping for a nice duel there, and as per my prediction we can expect to win only here..so the Indian team had better perform here......

Of predications and predicates

The last time I made a prediction, it wasn't on this lovely Blog Spot, but on rediff blogs
and it was around May of 2004, where in the scorching heat, the NDA and what is (un)fondly called as UPA were engaged in a tussle of supremacy.

Well, it was not a battle for land, or was it ?
Though the Englishment came up with this saying 'Uneasy is the head that wears the crown', everyone wanted that cherished crown.
I made a prediction then that the NDA would romp home with an unsurmountable margin of 330 seats in the current Lok Sabha. Elex results were out, and I had to bite my tongue, since I couldn't even say I made a typo; clearly the NDA had refused to garner even 230 seats in all.
Well, polsters do go wrong, so the novice like me need not worry.....

That's why with the cricketing fever gripping the sub-continent again, with our favorite opponents back here, the mates from Down Under, I have gathered enuff courage to prophesize.
They say, failure is the stepping stone to success, so my previous failure makes my resolve even more resolute.
Here it goes, I predict that Aussies will succeed in conquering the Final Frontier, India this time,and that too in style.

Guyz, don't be surprised if they crush us 3-1 this time, because the law of averages suggests that, and more importantly, for the aesthetics, sheer determination, homework, team spirit and talent are difficult to crush even inside a Lion's den. To worsen things, the Indian lion is either aged or in a deep slumber.
Without extending this further, here's a breakup of how I landed the test score above
Bangalore :- Australia
Chennai :- India
Nagpur :- Tough call, could be a draw (but Aus will pull off a victory here)
Mumbai :- Crushing defeat at Mumbai inflicted on India

In office, my current group lead haas resigned and all I can write on this blog is that it was an unexpected move, though I welcome it.

Freaky Friday

Though I titled this blog freaky Friday, it has been a listless day with not much happening in office...
Eagerly awaiting the release of CAICOS so that our next release CRETE can get started.

I recalled and revered Mahatma Gandhi on 2nd October and thought of his autobiography
"My experiments with truth". How veri true he was !
I had to only settle for 'my experiments with blogs'.

I used blogspot 2 years back and was regularly irregular in posting.
One fine day blogspot decided to punish me and wouldn't allow me to login and post again.
The egotist in me said, so what, its not the only place in the world to rite online stuff...
So I switched loyalties unlike a steadfast general and moved to the rediff camp.

This kind of sounds melodramatic like countries switching sides between US and USSR, the erstwhile, during the cold war era !
Things looked fine on rediffblogs, and I was at my blogging best. I thought it was a wise decision to associate my literary work with rediff, probably more desi than others...
But my moment of happiness was ephemeral, and a gap of 60 odd days between my 2 posts had taken its toll.

My trusted lieutenant RediffBlogs ditched me, and I thought at first hand, let me give him the benefit of doubt. I expected it was a server side issue which would get sorted in a few hours, or a couple of days as the worst possible bargain !
My hopes were all dashed when this security guard refused to accept my login credentials and kept me out of the realm of blogging...

When you run out of options, what do you typically do ? Well, just what the mouse called Scabbers did in the Harry Potter book, you run back to the lesser evil.
So though BlogSpot sounded like the one-who-must-not-be-named, I decided to name him and owe allegiance to him again.

And today's blog is precisely an effort at achieving that....

Only after posting will I realize if the attempt was worthwhile or not...

If yes
{
expect lots of blogging from me
}
else
{
// do nothing
}