One "Heart-Touching" Incident

I was walking through the supermarket to pick up a few things when I noticed an old lady following me around. Thinking nothing of it, I ignored her and continued on. Finally I went to the checkout line, but she got in front of me.

"Pardon me," she said, "I'm sorry if my staring at you has made you feel uncomfortable. It's just that you look like my son, who just died recently."

"I'm very sorry," I said to her, "Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Yes," she said, "As I'm leaving, can you say 'Good bye, Mom?' It would make me feel so much better."

"Sure," I said. An odd request, but no harm would come of it.

As the old woman was leaving, I called out, "Good Bye, Mom!"

As I stepped up to the checkout counter, I saw that my total was 1027 Rs!!!

"How can that be?" I asked, "I only purchased a few things!"

"Your mother said that you would pay for her," said the clerk.

Diwali Memoirs

Diwali as everyone knows is a time for grand celebrations in India and whether you are young or old you always get swayed by the euphoria of this festival of light!

As a kid it was always something to look forward to-having bowl with the friends, fun with crackers and ofcourse lots of mithais and sweets...Still remember how my brother and I used to land up on Bhagal area of Surat from where we used to get hold of lots and lots of fire crackers and that too at a very low rates-and we bros preferred sound rather than light-so our arsenal consisted more of bombs rather than fuljharis and rockets!! :)

We maintained the perfect tradition of firing our bombs as early as 4:00 AM in the morning and wake everyone up plus all the delicacies prepared by mom were a treat as always. Going to the temple on the New year day and meeting friends and all to great them on the occassion is now something to look back and cherish when you are away from home..

Afterall home is the one place in all this world where hearts are sure of each other. It is the place of confidence. It is the spot where expressions of tenderness gush out without any sensation of awkwardness and without any dread of ridicule.

And hey this pic is of my bro-celebrating diwali with some fireworks-not sure if he still celebrats it the same way :) he he juss kiddin

Looking forward to it as always here's wishing everyone lots of happiness in the times to come!
Hope everyone has a sparkling time this season!! :)

Leave Me a Loan ;)

Life flows like a river and you move on leaving old paths behind and try to forget what happened in the past-but damn you’ll always be “blessed” with few people who always keep you reminding about old things. Yesterday only one of my old friends told me on phone “You made a big mistake by letting her go…”

Phew!! Well I don’t know if what happened was right or wrong but I do believe that every step you take and every decision you make plays a very important part in where you land up eventually. And I can say I don’t have any complaints regarding where and how I am right now!

The only thing is that i'm looking to do is to reach to the higher skies-Guess what-now I’m again planning to go back to studies-yeah wanna do post grad.-as I wrote here before, I always wanted to do MBA and now I’m planning to do it from the BEST institution abroad. I think I have what it takes to be at the pinnacle and GMAT can’t come in my way…

The only thing I’m skeptical is about finance so it could help if you please LEAVE ME A LOAN!! :) he he [ Pun intended ]

Anyways I’ve started working out things for my dream in the meanwhile here’s something that I found amusing and it’ll surely put a smile on your face.
Its called a Woman’s Poem –not my creation :)


A Woman's Poem


He didn't like the curry
And he didn't like my cake.
He said my biscuits were too hard...
Not like his mother used to make.

I didn't prepare the coffee right
He didn't like the stew,
I didn't mend his socks
The way his mother used to do.

I pondered for an answer
I was looking for a clue.
Isn't there anything I could do
To match his mothers shoe

Then I smiled as I saw light
One thing I could definitely do
I turned around and slapped him tight...
Like his mother used to !!!!!

Adventurous me!

Its been quite a while that i've scribbled anything here-its not that i'm hinding my face or anything-just that i feel like life has become a sort of "routine" offlate..

Travelling has been one of my passions-especially something that involves adventure and risk is always welcome for the punkster! And looking back i do feel i'm missing a lot of it..

Miss the feeling when your heart pounds in the thin air when you are just about to reach the peak that you wanted to conquer for so long to view the early morning sunrise there on top of the world..When you just cant raise your foot for the next inch-when your heart wants to move on amidst the thin clouds but your head says otherwise..

Miss the fear of getting lost in the jungles-the dissy fealing you get while walking on those dry leaves amongst dense
tress that leaves you wondering if your next step could lead you to the hells below..The anxiety of getting out of the place studded with wildlife when you know its gonna get dark soon..

Miss those splashes in the waterfalls-the time when you first leaped into the water only to get sucked up and wonder if anybody will be able to get you out of it!

Miss the cuts and the bruises that you encounter along the way-the last time though was too close for me-was desending on a steep slope when my foot had to land wrongly to have to me slipping down the valley-thank God my hand found a shrub on the edge otherwise you might not be reading this today!! :)

Miss the food and people that you meet along the way..oh yeah i miss a lot-but i'm sure it would'nt be long before i get
back to my adventurous ways-be sure to read it here as and when it happens! :)Adios!

Equation of Life

First of all, here are two axioms of life :
Life + Love = Happy ---(i)
Life – Love = Sad ---(ii)

Adding (i) and (ii),
Life + Love = Happy
Life – Love = Sad
____________________
2Life = Happy + Sad

so,

Life = 1/2Happy + 1/2Sad.

That’s life!
Do i need to elaborate anymore?!! :)

The Yesteryear...

The past one year has brought about a lot of change in my life..I was a mere amatuer wondering about a lot of things in life and now i'm a professional-with atleast some insights into my future..

Infact i've lived in 3 different cities in the past one year-in Bangalore, Mysore and now in Pune-4 months apiece! Living in southern part of India was totally new experience for me; meeting people who didnt knew my language and communicating with them was a nice thing to learn.

Life in Bangalore was kool...i loved the weather and the city was quite peaceful. Brigade road was awesome-felt like being in the metropolitan city in some western country everytime i went there. Life was good but was a little worried about my CAT exams but then the unexpected happened and i landed up being in Infy and was on my way to Mysore-The city of palaces!

Mysore was a more culturally diverse environment as i lived with people from nearly all parts of india and i gained a lot from my experience there..For the first time i saw how people coming from different geographical backgrounds think in different ways..and then it was my time to come to Pune as i got posted here after my training...

On a more personal front i feel a bit sad as now many of my friends have gone to US or Australia for further studies and it feels like myself being alone when i get back home in surat..Feels like a Hole in my Soul...But then again thats how life is...people come in your life and then your ways part and you head alone towards the unknown path which your destiny has shaped for you...

Pune is a kool, young and beautiful city and feels good being here...Its been 4 months that i've been here and its fun being a puneite! Lets see where i land up next year at this time....may be the IIMs are calling me! :)

Nasty Cola

The recent reports of soft drinks containing pesticides has stirred the markets as well as the government - both in India and in US(i'll tell you how).

Many states in India have already banned these aerated drinks from all educational institutions while the government of Kerala has gone as far as to ban the production and disribution of colas in the state!

As these aerated drinks have a huge market share, these steps pose a big threat to the existence of these cold-drink giants in this country and imagine the loss of market and erosion of brand image in the country with the head count of nearly 125 crore!

So obviously Pepsi and Coca Cola are crying foul and bringing on US government to intervene the matter and help them by "blackmailing" India about the consequences if it goes on the "proposed" path.

So it'll be interesting to see what happens next...but for a change it was refreshing to see these all-time fighting cola giants getting united for a single cause-their very own survival! :)

By the way after what i saw on the TV regarding colas, one thing is for sure that i wont be tempted to take a sip next time i see those fancy curvy bottles...Will you still be tempted??

A Rain-bashed Heart!

There's no place like home and Surat is my home-its my city and a place i can call mine.

There has been a severe flood there in surat now for the past two days and the situation is getting bad to worse-infact this is the worst flood condition in the city in past 200 years..

The current stats show that 90% of the city is under water and almost 70% of the people have taken refuge on their house terraces with no where else to go. Some of the areas are filled up with 20-22 feet of water and there you wonder if it can get any worse than that... Electricity has been cut out because of the obvious hazards. There are families stuck with no food or water to settle their hungry stomach. There are people who have no clues as to where their loved ones are with all communication lines including telephones being unavailable.

Today i saw one guy from Surat calling up a private news channel to express his grief and ask for help. He said they had no food or water for their children. He said his mother was dead and there was no place to cremate her dead body. I really felt grieved for this man...dont know how many people like him are fighting the battle for their lives out there...

Tried calling up all my friends but could'nt get connected with any of them. Was able to talk to just one of my friends (Mitul) yesterday and i know they are going through a really tough time..Hope they all are safe and sound and i pray that everything becomes normal soon...

The picture you see above is of one of the bridges built on the river Tapi in Surat and you can imagine how the condition will be now considering that this was yesterday's pic and water level has been constantly rising after that because of a full moon day tide today..

I'm sure we'll get back on our feet bravely as we've always done but the main challenge will be cleaning up the city and prevention of epidemics after the waters go down. I'm hopefull with the good work that the SMC has done in the recent years and hope life gets back to normalcy soon in my heart-SURAT.

25th Anniversary Celebration : 126 Crore moola

Yep you read that right!

That’s the amount of money that will be distributed by Infosys amongst all of us! Well that’s a huge amount all right but we also have to consider that we are currently looking at an employee strength of about 57K. So lets see how much do we get on our hands at the end of it.

It was July 1981 when Infosys was founded. The growth of this company of mine from literally an “in-house” company to a billion dollar organization is truly exemplary. Its unbelievable that Infy started off with only 10,000 rupees as its capital balance! Truly a case study in itself!

Well for now I’m waiting for an official declaration on my share of the moola-lets see how much of it comes my way!

Murphy's laws on girls

1. If u think a girl is beautiful, she'll always have a boyfriend to confirm that

2. The nicer she is...the quicker u will be dumped!!!!!

3. The more the makeup, worse the looks...

4. "95% of the girls in this world are beautiful. Remaining 5% would always be in your college.".................100% true

5. The guy standing next to a beautiful girl can never be her brother.

6. If by any chance the girl you like , likes you too, she will let you know in about 10 years from now ,when you are committed..

7. The more you ignore a girl, the more she'll want to be friends with you.

8. Theory of relativity......

The more u run towards a hot chick....the more she goes away from u...

9. Rule 1:
Even if you got her out alone... just when you are about to let her know about your feelings...she will spot a long lost friend( I guess from Kumbh ka Mela)

Corollary to rule 1:
The more desperate you are to tell your feelings to a girl on a private chat, the more probability the long lost friend she discovered is a handsome superman, who beats you in everything 9:1

Axiom 1:
The more dedicated you are to the girl, the longer it takes before things work out, but ultimately it will (somesmile for the guys)

10. The day the chick you really like comes and speaks to you will be the day when-
1. You are dressed badly
2. You forgot to brush your teeth for the first time in your life
3.Have a bad hair day

11. all the good girls are either nuns or married .the rest go around with u and ruin ur money, health and leave u a total wreck.

12. The more seriously u like a girl...the more seriously her dad will hate u

13. The love you shower a girl with is directly proportional to the number of bullets her dad will be showering at you

10 years ago

1. I was in the 7th standard.

2. Maths and Michael Jackson were my two obsessions.

3. I had a crush on one of my class mates.

4. My Brother and I used to share a bicycle.

5. Surat used to be hit with major power cuts and I crammed for my History test in candlelight.

6. I had never been to a candlelight dinner or a date for that matter.

7. I never had an outing with my friends.

8. I never drank coffee. {Gosh}

9. I drank milk every morning. {Double gosh}

10. I wanted to be an Astronaut.


....and now-well i'm a software engineer waiting for the server error to be resolved so that i can carry on with my work in the middle of the night...so just sneaked out a bit of time and the result is in front of you!

Adieu Blogspot

Mumbai 7/11 was one of the most pathetic things that the terrorist did in recent times. As a result of that now the government of India had to block many popular blog sites and other free servers like geocities in order to cap the literary and visual spitfires of those who want to disrupt the communal harmony of this great nation.
Blogspot is also one of those blocked sites-hence i know no one is reading this blog right now-but i dont mind cos this was not the purpose that i started writing here. All i wanted was to express myself-let my inner self flow out in the form of words in the digital space. As far as i'm concerned, i'm still accessing this blog of mine via. different proxies so the title of this blog is just not what i'm going to do now-i'm gonna carry on blogging for now atleast! :)

Déjà vu

It was a usual Sunday in pune. Surprisingly the sun was out and its temper was hot amidst the thin clouds. We were looking to go in for a good movie but as usual in absence of advance booking, nothing was left behind by the pune public for us to porch at! So after many hectic calls we found a place where tickets were available and when i entered the picture hall of this single screen theatre-after being accustomed to multiplexes for months ; i felt as if i were back to those college times when our attendance in the theatres were equally competitve to that of our college registers! ha ha
It was a kind of déjà vu for me-the hall resembled the ones we had in those theatres where we used to watch movies during our college times...
...and about the movie...well it was a film called Corporate and there's nothing much to say about it-just a one time watch if you wanna spend three hours for the last one hour which is the only thing worth watching in the entire flick.

Nothing Else Matters

I'm a music freak and i enjoy all kind of sounds. But there are times when i feel low and that is when i tune into hard rock and metal in the loudest fashion. It helps remove the frustration to a certain extent and eases my nerves a bit. Aerosmith, Metallica and Linking Park are my favourites when it comes to this genre of music.

But the song i like the most is "Nothing Else Matters" by who else-the Metal Gods-Metallica! The lyrics are awesome and the way it is sung does make a striking impact. So here goes out the lyrics of my favourite song. Hope you enjoy it!
ciao!

So close no matter how far
Couldnt be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
And nothing else matters

Never opened myself this way
Life is ours, we live it our way
All these words I dont just say
And nothing else matters

Trust I seek and I find in you
Every day for us something new
Open mind for a different view
And nothing else matters

Never cared for what they say
Never cared for games they play
Never cared for what they do
Never cared for what they know
And I know

So close no matter how far
Couldnt be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
No nothing else matters

Orkut Trojan Arrives!!

Guys this is for real. I received the scrap mentioned below yesterday i.e 12th July 2006 but luckily I didn’t visit the link mentioned in it. It came from a very good friend of mine who must have clicked on the link when he received the scrap which triggered of from his id to his friends list. So be careful

Yes, I am talking about the orkut worm. I personally saw it in action in my friend’s scrap book and I thought I’ll write about it. So here is the description of the trojan and the steps to disinfect your system in case you are affected.


Trojan Description

Never bother to click on any links that sounds really unfamiliar to you even if it comes from your closest friend.

Here is how the scrap will look like.
“Opa, tudo bom? Eu criei um vídeo com uma seleção de minhas fotos novas, clica aí pra ver - h t t p :// y e p . i t / ? i k s t t v - Estão bem legais!!! “

What should you do?
Simply delete the scrap! As simple as that..

How does it spread?

It spreads through infected contacts. An orkut account gets infected once you click on the link. The Trojan posts a message in your all your friend's scrapbook area of the Orkut system. The message text is chosen by the attacker and can be a random sentence written in Brazilian Portuguese, such as the following:

Message example 1:
Opa, tudo bom? Eu criei um video com uma selecao de minhas fotos novas, clica ai pra ver - [MALICIOUS_LINK] - Esta bem legais!!!

Message example 2:
Oi... tudo bom? Como o orkut limita a quantidade de fotos que podem ser publicadas na minha conta, eu criei um slide com algumas fotos minhas, pra ver e so clicar clicar no link!!! [MALICIOUS_LINK] - Sei que vai gostar

If users click on the link, a malicious file is downloaded, which is a copy of Infostealer.Orcu.

When Inforstealer.Orcu is executed, it performs a series of actions and infects your system.

What does this scrap in Portuguese mean anyway? I tried using a translator and this is what I got…
Opa, all good one? I created a video with an election of my photos new, clica pra to see there - h t t p :// y e p . i t / ? i k s t t v - I am well legal!

Name of the Trojan: Infostealer.Orcu



Norton’s Description: Infostealer.Orcu is a Trojan horse that attempts to steal confidential information, such as bank and Paypal accounts. It may arrive as a message spammed across the Orkut network.



Systems Affected: Windows 2000, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP


Solution :

If you have not yet fixed it.. Herez a solution given by Norton AV
The following instructions pertain to all current and recent Symantec antivirus products, including the Symantec AntiVirus and Norton AntiVirus product lines.

1. Disable System Restore (Windows Me/XP).
2. Update the virus definitions.
3. Run a full system scan.
4. Delete any values added to the registry.
5. Restore the security settings in Internet Explorer modified by the threat.


Article links on Norton...

How to disable or enable Windows Me System Restore
Click here

How to turn off or turn on Windows XP System Restore
Click here

How to make a backup of the Windows registry.
Click here

Mom's Birthday

Yep it was this month that my mom incarnated and the date was 9th of July. Birthdays have always been special in our family and now from where we are, it means even more..
This time it was Rikunj who made it special for her by his wondeful gift. He had been planning about this for a while i know and he did a splendid job in the end. I could see the work was more than worthwhile when mom talked about it on the phone. She was very happy,surprised and impressed!

Here's a piece of what he did... Its a photoframe with my mom in the centre and for a change you can see me in the form of stars along with my brother-courtesy my brother ofcourse! :)
But what was most touching was the things he wrote there in these frames and in other "gift vouchers" that we there alongside it. Great work indeed!

It made her day and i'm sure this gift will be cherished a lot.
We luv you mom!
Kudos Big Bro!!

WorldCup Ends : 'Italian Job' Done!

Well it was the one of the most fascinating sporting tournaments that i've witnessed.There was everything that one could've asked for - passion, pressure, playmakers, tacticians, upsets, surprises and a bit of grief at the end by Zizou's emission. Italians surely played well and they deserved what they got but that one uncalled incident in the extra time of that final hurts a lot everytime i recall it. It was sad to aideu the great man in such a fashion. But anyways he'll always be a hero for millions to look upto.
And as far as i'm concerned...well whichever team i've supported in the knockouts (barring Italy in the finals) has lost-so nothing more to say in that regard!! ha ha
But still i feel Argentina deserved to win-just that the coach made some stupid mistakes that they were kicked out early from the tournament. Lets see who wins it in 2010!!
I'm now eagerly looking forward to Euro 2008 and there's excitement about upcoming EPL as well but i'm worried about my team Manchester United cos we've not got any quality player in and Chelsea has just got stronger with the inclusion of SHEVCHENKO and aka "Chatur" BALLACK :)
May the best team win!

FIFA Fever!!

Being a sport fanatic,there's nothing better than a world cup and if its soccer then it just can't get better than that!! Its like "TV pe tadka" :)
Although i like the english side and support it in this tournament, i dont think that its practically possible to pull it out this time again cos they're not firing on all cylinders whereas teams like Argentina,Spain and Brazil are the ones to look out for...
So letz see who gets the crowning glory this time upon!!

The Story so far..

Well it all started on the 30th of May -bit more than a couple of decades back...
Previledged to be born and brought up in the best environment...My mom is my strength and today whatever i am is because of her..

Did my schooling in New Model High School in Udhna,Surat.Have fond memories of those times and still cherish my Nursery friends who fortunately are still in contact.
Then i moved on to St.Xavier's High School,Surat for my higher studies and opted for a science stream.The environment of Xavier's was definitely more hip but i learnt a lot from my experience there..

Moving on..i joined SVMIT,Bharuch from where i did my Bachelor of Engineering (BE) in Information Technology.Had a fabulous 4 years there and i can say i made relationships for a lifetime there and the memories of the times i had there will be cherished forever..

Then i moved to Bangalore to prepare for my MBA entrance exam called CAT but in the due course landed up in Infosys Technologies Ltd. as a Software Engineer.Its now almost 8 months in this company and i'm proud to be at this place today.Ofcourse the dream of MBA is still there lingering but this stint with one of the world's most respected Fortune 500 company will be there as a milestone in my memory lane for the times to come..

Currently i'm in pune and still with Infy.Have been to lot of places in my journey of life so far and have met a lot of people and it all has been a great experience for me..

Lets see what the future has in store!! :)

Prelude

Welcome to my abode...

Its tough to put all what i am over here...but surely will like to share all thats happening in my ever changing life here...

All i can say at this point is that I could have changed myself but God did'nt release the source code!!

Keep coming here for more....