Just Like That

Photo-Set: Medieval Festival, Zurich

2011-07-04T07:42:00.001-07:00

Few pics from the Medieval Festival in Zurich, an interesting experience to see people dressed up as historical characters to re-enact certain historical events along with authentic music, dance and food.

New Kid On The Block

2011-02-04T09:59:00.000-08:00

Meet the new kid on the block, latest addition to my family. Like any new kid he has got multiple names like Ronnie, Nee, Psyde. I tried doing a photoshoot but it was difficult to keep him at one place. I somehow managed to click some pics after bribing him with biscuits :-)

Leh Ladakh: Photo-Set From The Archives

2011-01-16T05:13:00.000-08:00

Ladakh is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful places to visit in India. Since I am making fresh plans to visit Ladakh, I thought of listing few pics from my last visit.

Its easy to get lost in the beauty, the road trip is painful but its the journey to Leh-Ladakh which is an unforgettable experience.

The clear blue sky and deserted mountains in Ladakh.

Clicked this in the morning from our temporary stay, on the way to Ladakh.

We suddenly found ourself between this deserted road (on the way to Ladakh).

Like a nostalgic state of mind, a wishful desire to return in thoughts or in fact to a former time. These stones represent a similar feeling, silent wishes for the people who are not around, acknowledging their presence silently...

A hill-top monastery in Leh.

Found this inquisitive boy at Leh, he was curious about Cameras flashing around.

Fellow travelers unwinding at Shanti Stupa in Leh.

Beautiful view of the city from Shanti Stupa, Leh.

On our way to Pangong Lake, Leh.

Pangong lake, near India-China border, was the best part of the trip.

This beautiful lake lies in north-east of Leh, at Indo-China border. Blue color water, clear blue sky, mountains with light playing around them, makes it look like a beautiful painting.

Beautiful road on the way to Dras, a small town in Kargil District in Jammu & Kashmir.

A Quick Look Back: 2K10

2010-12-31T03:19:00.000-08:00

Although year 2010 was something that I would like forget but I have listed few pics from the good times I had throughout the year.

During the Bike ride to Papi-Kondalu. Pic by Nagaraj.

There were crazy bike rides to the places I never visited before,

From the North East trip, from left Me, Vignesh, Lovell, Joshua, John and Mukhi

and trips to the places I always wanted to visit.

At Indo-China border, played cricket with Indian Army in -5 C.

We played in extreme conditions,

Pic taken by Joshua

and we still won.

During Matheran trip.

Some unplanned trips,

Raghav and Subhav in Matheran's official Dress :)

that turned to be out be super fun. :)

Some memories to forget,

One random day of work, we decided to thone-strowing. Pic by Lovell

Some to remember.

10 Points for guessing this place.

Few things can never change!

Dussehra celebration in Hyderabad. Uncle with a record book that lists name of the people who attended Dussehra festival that year.

but few legacies are never meant to change.

Diwali decoration at home.

India is about festivals,

A ritual during Diwali.

rituals,

Uncle's family in Hyderabad after pooja.

and culture.

More Diwali decoration.

Danny's Bachelor party at Gokarna

View from my office in SFO

I love my job,

Bellagio fountain in Las Vegas

and I love to travel.

A Casino in Las Vegas

Travelling is fun :).

Golden Gate bridge San Francisco

Hope you had a better 2010, wish you a super awesome 2011.

Remember 2012 is not too far, have fun :).

Why Should You Hook Up Right NOW: Words of Wisdom

2010-12-15T22:12:00.000-08:00

Few words of wisdom from a friend explaining why I should hook up with her friend:

There are very few GOOD girls and boys in this world, basically, in economic terms there are RARE resources, now, if u can't be set up with any, coz of watever reasons (frends, too good frends, can't see as pairing up, or watever) its ur moral responsibility to make sure that that rare resource is set up with another rare resource thats ur way of contributing to the society. : Tulika

PS: Thy Typos Shall Be Ignored

Ganesh Immersion in Hyderabad: A Photo Set

2010-12-13T11:13:00.000-08:00

Its all starts with Ganesha Chaturthi, a Hindu festival, when Ganesha's idols are brought in and decorated pandals are made for 7/9 days.

Ganesha's idol from Wahab Nagar, Secunderabad

People worship these idols for next 7/9 days until Ganesha Visarjan. Visarjan begins with various rituals. One of them includes whispering a wish in Ganesha's ear, people believe that doing so will make it come true before the next visarjan.

The fun part is Utulu, it refers to an object that is tied to a height. People try to break it with a stick while other people around try to distract by throwing water. Seems like a combination of Janmasthami in Mumbai, and Holi in Mathura

The idols are then taken through the streets in a procession accompanied with dancing and singing.

And then the part that I don't understand and dislike the most. These idols are then immersed in the river/sea. Well these are the same idols people have been worshiping from last few days, how can they just throw them away into filthy water.

Well I guess in the end, its all about belief.

Ice Skating @ Union Square SFO : A photo Set

2010-12-11T02:53:00.000-08:00

This is from my recent trip to San Francisco. There was a huge skating ring at the Union Square, couldn't try skating because of the long queue but I managed to click some pics.

Some people were really good.

Few of them had no idea, like this little one :)

He was doing good before he crashed and hurt himself.

She didn't give up, even after falling couple of times.

These guys were struggling

Entire crowd was cheering for him, he somehow managed to stop before he could hit the wall.

Let me know if you like this set, I am gonna add few more photo-stories to this blog very soon.

Opportunity

2010-12-08T04:12:00.000-08:00

December 8, 2010:

Destiny

2010-11-24T12:12:00.001-08:00

Destiny: Its something you will never believe in, until it happens to you.

Time Changes Everything.

2010-11-05T00:23:00.000-07:00

Kid to father:

Kid: Dad, I met with a small accident on the way back from school.
Dad: WTF? must be your mistake, what the hell did you do to my car?
Kid: .....

In few years, the kid finished his college, started working and moved out of his parents house. He visited his parents house for vacation, and one fine day:

Son: Dad, I met with a small accident on the way back from friends house.
Dad: WTF? Are you okay? Morons here dont know how to drive, you should take care.
Son: .....

Well, time changes everything.

Height of Googlism

2010-10-22T11:03:00.001-07:00

The Best April Fool Prank: Topeka by Google.

2010-04-01T06:56:00.000-07:00

On 1st April when Google' blog mentioned that they have officially changed the company's name from Google to Topeka, I couldn't believe it but then I realized the date, it was the April Fool day. It was indeed one of the best April fool prank I came across so far. Google homepage looked like this:

The post on Google's official blog mentioned that they have changed the name as a return favor to the Topeka town in Kansas, whose mayor renamed the city as 'Google Kansas' for the month of March to grab the attention of search giant for its 'Free High Speed Internet Connection' program. As per the Google's official blog:

Early last month the mayor of Topeka, Kansas stunned the world by announcing that his city was changing its name to Google. We’ve been wondering ever since how best to honor that moving gesture. Today we are pleased to announce that as of 1AM (Central Daylight Time) April 1st, Google has officially changed our name to Topeka.

Continue reading at Google's official blog.

UPDATE: Google had 12 April fool pranks, full list can be found at Suhel's blog.

.

Saurav Ganguly: The Night Rider

2010-03-24T08:30:00.000-07:00

Saurav Ganguly, India's most successful captain, one of the best opening batsman ever and blah blah blah. There are no questions about his contribution to the Indian Cricket team however this post is more about his 3rd inning in twenty-twenty version of Cricket, IPL.

As I said he played well, but the reality is that he SUCKS in the shortest format of cricket, twenty-twenty. He was single handedly responsible for Kolkata Knight Rider's defeat in last two matches (IPL) . He was just not able to hit and looks like he is scared to even face the ball.

Well everything in this world comes with an expiry date and its about time he should realize that his cricket career is over, otherwise few more failures will override his golden days from history books.

And I know I will never write a post like this for Sachin Tendulkar, because he will retire the day when he start becoming a reason for the team's defeat.

A Random Quote:

2010-03-23T02:35:00.000-07:00

"Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows." (Keller, Helen)

Delhi Daredevils

2010-03-13T09:26:00.000-08:00

Photo by Lovell

During IPL season 1 at Rajiv Ghandi stadium in Hyderabad, when Virendar Sehwag single handedly thrashed the Hyderabad team. Look at the Hyderabadi supporters around :)

Picasa 3.0 from Google.

2008-10-08T09:05:00.001-07:00

Google recently launched Chrome, web browser by Google. Chrome was in news all over as soon as it was available for download. But behind all the craze for chrome, release of Picasa 3.0 lost somewhere in the news.
Google introduced some really awesome feature in Picasa. Picasa 3 comes with a Photo Viewer, reminds me of ACDSee, but unlike ACDSee you don't have to pay anything to use it. Apart from this you can create movies from you pictures, and the best part is while creating the movie, time-line between the pictures automatically adjust to the length of song. Re-touch option is simply great it is very similar to clone feature in Adobe Photoshop.
These are some of the great features supported by Picasa 3, for a complete list click here
Check out this video as well:

They have made significant change in Picasaweb as well, name tag feature is simply superb. You just have to name one face, and picasaweb will search and found all similar faces. It is so accurate, when I used it, I found more than 95% accuracy.
Check out this video:

Fring: Make free calls from iPhone or any mobile

2008-09-01T04:29:00.001-07:00

Fring is a great application to make free calls for iPhone users and it also works with most of the famous phone models like Nokia E series and N series.

Fring allows a user to configure IM/Chat account from most of the famous chat clients like GTalk, Yahoo, Skype etc and make free calls to friends. You can also use your Skype or SIP account to make free calls to mobile phones as well. Follow these instruction to setup Fring on Your iPhone.

Once you have installed Fring on your Phone, configure with the IM/Voip clients you wants to setup. For e.g. say you wants to call your friends on Gtalk, configure your GTalk account by typing in your Google credentials and you will see a list of friends already added in GTalk account, just tap on the name select if you wants to make a call or chat.

You can also use this app to chat with your Yahoo and AOL friends. This is an amazing application and work even when its not active on screen that is unlike other application on iPhone, you can press home button and start playing games or do anything and if someone pings you, you will get a notification about the same.

New Apple iPhone for 199$ only

2008-06-09T12:50:00.001-07:00

Yes, its true, Today at developer conference in San Francisco Apple launched its new iPhone its a 3G phone. Its half as cheaper then the classic model.
8 GB for 199$ and 16 GB for 299$, and for the first time 16 GB model will be available in white color as well. July 11 is the release date, but in India it would be available around late September.
Check Apple's Website for more detail

Invisible mode in G-talk (Google Talk)

2008-03-24T21:25:00.001-07:00

Have you ever wished if you can chat invisibly through G-talk like you do in Yahoo messenger, here is a news, now you can chat invisibly in Google talk as well. As Invisible mode is not there in Gtalk, but if you wish to chat in Invisible mode, follow these instruction:
1) Sign out from G-Talk, as you can not go invisible if you are using window based G-Talk.
2) log in to you Gmail account, and choose invisible mode from the chat window on the left. You can find invisible option from the list where you change your status message.

You will be online but invisible, alway switch back to online using the same option.

Remember not to sign in to G-talk messenger window, as invisibly mode is not yet supported by Google Talk messenger. And yeah you don't need to upgrade anything to use this feature, this will reflect in you Gmail inbox.

Be the 'I' in 'India' :Lead India

2007-12-26T03:35:00.001-08:00

On 15th of August, Times group launched a never before campaign, Lead India. This initiative is very special in many ways, its a search of a leader who can fearlessly lead this country and think of public interest and also this show is motivating people to change the mindset of blaming others for everything. I think its a great initiative and it will defiantly make people think the way they can help the country.

I like the entire concept of the show, to start with its tag line is DO, its kinda encouraging. If you want to change the world, start changing yourself first. Even small things can make a big difference, like following traffic rules or not throwing any waste on the road or anything that you think that will help in making the place better then ever. Initially people might ignore your efforts or they might make fun of you, but no effort go for a waste, they will realize and will start following your footprints and thats when you will find a leader in you and yeah as I said small things you have ignored so far could make a big difference.

We have a tendency to blame others for every small thing, say blaming government, your society or your manager ( sometimes :-)) but try to make every possible effort from your side and make sure you do what you can do to solve the issue, in short DO.

I was in Pune last weekend, and happened to visit AdLabs, a chain of theaters by Reliance Group. The unique thing about them is they play National anthem before every movie everyday, isn't it awesome. It was lovely to see so many people standing and singing Jana Gana Man. I know thats its a very small thing but it makes a big difference. It makes us think about the country at least for a min.

Lead India is just a beginning, people are taking extra effort to change themselves and people around them. You wont believe but on Sunday when every one wants to take rest and chill out, employees of Dell India Pvt Ltd helps traffic police to educate people about traffic rules and Google employees visit an orphanage on Sunday to spend some time with children out der and they have also made a group to clean up roads here in Hyderabad. Although they are doing different things but the motive is the same. This is just the beginning hope to see you in many of such things. Now its on you to think how you can contribute...

Govinda at his Best...

2007-08-09T02:40:00.001-07:00

Check out the Song "Soni de" from Movie Partner, Full masti Song...:)

Ratan Noora - Bhavnao ko Samjho!!!

2007-07-05T02:50:00.001-07:00

Finally i got Sunil Pals Ratan Noora performance, this is damn funny, watch this

How to Reach Chilkur Balaji Temple Hyderabad

2007-06-22T00:49:00.001-07:00

After i wrote the post about chilkur Balaji temple of Hyderabad, I have got many question about how to reach chilkur Balaji, so I have decided to wrote this post about reaching there:
Chilkuru Balaji temple is around 30 k.m. from Hyderabad , actually Chilkur is a village where the temple is located. Public transport are easily available from MehandiPatnap and from all the major place in the city.

I found this map while searching online, hope it helps!!! (courtsey : some website)

Best Laugh Ever...

2007-03-29T01:16:00.001-07:00

Things that u wont learn at school...

2007-01-16T21:07:00.001-08:00

-> Life is not fair; get used to it.
-> The world won't care about your self esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
-> You will NOT make $40,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice president with a car phone, until you earn both.
-> If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure.
-> Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping; they called it opportunity.
-> If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
-> Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents' generation, try "debugging" the closet in your own room.
-> Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades; they'll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
-> Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.
-> Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Comments pls!!!

The Brick!!!!

2007-01-03T21:48:00.001-08:00

Hi all, it’s a long time since I last blogged, I am back again with a lovely story. I found this one amazingly good,
The Brick!!!

A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag's side door! He slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to the spot where the brick had been thrown The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting, "What was that all about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing? That's a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?" The young boy was apologetic. "Please, mister...please, I'm sorry but I didn't know what else to do," He pleaded. "I threw the brick because no one else would stop...." With tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car. "It's my brother, "he said "He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up." Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, "Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me."

Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took out a linen handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay. "Thank you and may God bless you," the grateful child told the stranger. Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy! Push his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home.

It was a long, slow walk back to the Jaguar. The damage was very noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side door. He kept the dent there to remind him of this message:

"Don't go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!"

God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts. Sometimes when we don't have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at us. It's our choice to listen or not. God didn't promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow, sun without rain, but He did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears, and light for the way.
Always remember :-

"If God brings you "to it, He will bring you through it..............."

Memories of College Life

2006-05-21T07:25:00.001-07:00

Hi,
Continue to my previous post, I found these few lines extremely nice, so read it on n do leave a comment if u really feels this way....

Memories....
I walk back towards the large gates of college,
Breeze rustling leaves across the road,
Fluttering in wind.
Walk past the lifeless canteen,
With no one to shout,
Peep into empty classes, missing the scream of joy.
Stand at the tree,
Where a hundred love was declared and broken...
A Single tear escapes my eyes n fall toward the emptiness of the sands,
As my mind races in thought.
Alone I stand,
As I think it all over,
And only memories remains, dats college life........

[Source: Unknown]

Something to take u in flashback...College Days

2006-05-04T21:37:00.001-07:00

Do leave a comment if u like these lines....

Those Night outs, Those midnight teas,
Those B'day bumps, Old torn jeans
Those late night walks, Long chats,
pinches n slaps,
Crushes on pals n fighting 4 them.....
Faltu jokes, bunking classes
calculating attendence n percentage,
Copying test n assignments,
getting kicked out of class,
Struggle 4 marks, writing on desk,
Samosas of cafeteria n prankz on frnds,
those b grade movies watching with 'em

Just everything ..........Thats College...

Source : Unknown