I O U

Debtors profile as on 14.12.2011: (All figures in INR)
Abhishek Roy: Rs. 25,000
Shilpa More Advocate: Rs. 33,000 (promised to give back 23,000 in about 45 days)
Sheetal Bondre: Rs. 2,000
Bhadresh Trading Corporation Ltd: Rs. 1,620 (550+470 taxi to and fro airport, 600 TA/DA for one day in Kutch)

Update: Profile as on 07.01.2012:
Abhishek Roy: Rs. 0
Shilpa More Advocate: Rs. 23,000 (Rs. 10,000 written off as expenses)
Sheetal Bondre: Rs. 0
Bhadresh Trading Corporation Ltd: Rs. 1,620 (550+470 taxi to and fro airport, 600 TA/DA for one day in Kutch)
Bank of Baroda: LFC (LTC) tour for Rajasthan: Claim amount approximately Rs. 13,000

Ecstasy

Saw this again on best rated comments on a trance video on Youtube. Had thought about spreading the message the first time I saw it, but I forgot. So here it is...I can totally relate to it..especially the part about Justin Bieber and Armin Van Buuren

(Haven't heard a few artists, so will check them out now)

You say Lady Gaga, I say Oceanlab.

You say Hannah Montana, I say Dash Berlin.

You say Ke$ha, I say Above&Beyond.

You say Jonas Brothers, I say Tiesto.

You say Justin Bieber, I say Armin Van Buuren.

You say Taylor Swift, I say Paul Oakenfold.

95% of teens these days listen to the same formulaic,crappy pop over and over again. If you're one of the 5% who listens to real music, thumb this up, then copy and paste it to at least 5 videos Don't let the spirit of trance die

Fact of life

Fact 1: Katrina had a lip job done a few years back
Fact 2: Katrina appeared in a TV ad today, where she is proud of having a Barbie doll named and designed after her
Fact 3: I am not surprised

Friendship Day

Every 1st sunday of August, young people from all over this country celebrate friendship day. Mostly by smss/calls. And almost all of the college goers make their hands a graffiti wall. You can see autographs, symbols and smileys, all sketch-pen drawn, and of course some "coloured" bands on the hands.

What a friendship day I had yesterday. Celebrating it by having homemade food at one of my friend's house, then going on a drive to Marine drive, then cutting a chocolate cake at 2 am in the night outside the gates of our school (the school where we became friends).

Thanks to Priyanka for the initiative, Ambujesh for the execution (and for his car), and thanks to Chitra for being there. One memory forever :)

3d computer game

Since I don't have the money or the personnel or the time to learn and invest (or the geek talent with the electronics background to create it) in creating this product, I would rather write this here and sometime in the future, when I see the product in reality, in the market, I can proudly say "I thought of that first".

What if someone combines the 3d TV with a computer game? Like a first person shooter with 3d depth? Car racing with things flying out the side of the street....Watching a RPG character kick butt in 3d... Imagine the kick a game junkie would get out of it.

I need a hero

The world needs more superheroes. That's why all their movie remakes are superhits.
So presenting, one more creation of my sleepy head (the crystal period just before the brain's logic function temporarily stops and the compartments in the male head melt away to make it a momentary creativity machine):

"Trant"
The superhero with a meditative mind. He can do things with his mind. I leave the details to your imagination. Think about it just before you go to sleep.

not all despair

...and then I see tall women, and I smile to myself, for there's hope :)

Resonance 2

And while being crushed by 2 strangers on the right side and the half "wall" of the autorickshaw on the other, I was trying to move away from the slow moving traffic and the rain in the night by turning on "Chase the sun". And then in another autorickshaw, there sat a little girl in her mother's lap, singing or mumbling something by herself. And just as she was saying "ma ma", Sally Doherty was singing "...circles in My Mind". And that's when the Universe' message rang in, loud and clear...once again

But time

Waking up in the afternoon after 13 hours of non stop sleep
Exercising for 40 minutes in the evening
...followed by a 20 minutes long relaxing hot water bath
...with Musk soap (from Fab India) and Shampoo and Tea Tree hair conditioner (again from Fab India)
...followed by a glass of warm milk with Drinking Chocolate

There are some things that money can buy

Quotes

I hope some day someone uses these quotes somewhere:

1) Perfect Human: An example of Oxymoron
2) Ever wonder why almost all the fairy tales end right as they get married to each other?

To Cricket with love

The majority of Indian sports (err..cricket) viewers fall into 4 categories:
1> I don't know what Football is
2> I know who Beckham and Ronaldo are, but I don't watch football
3> My favourite teams in EPL are Real Madrid, Machester United and AC Milan...What did you say? They are in different Leagues? Ok I confess I don't watch much football
4> I don't understand football, I just don't understand its players' and stadiums' weird names, the "kicks" names, its rules and positions. It's too complicated. Now hand me the remote, I need to see if the third umpire gives Valthaty a run out after the deep cover ran for his square cut, I can't believe that he was trying to play a pallu scoop in the last ball, only Gayle and Uthappa are crazy enough to do that. And he knew the bowler was bowling a doosra, that too on a pitch that had more grass than Feroze Shah Kotla.

So for the benefit of the endangered species of football fanatics in India, I bring to you, what Football has "inspired" into this new breed of slam bam wham Twenty 20 cricket. On the left hand is the Cricket concept and on the right is the original idea from it came from.

IPL :: EPL (Also known as the Barclay's Premier League, where each team plays the other once in a "home ground" and once "away". It was officially confessed by Lalit Modi when he mentioned about the format)

Super Sub :: Substitute

Bowl Out :: Penalty "Shoot out"

Super Over :: Extra time (to decide a knockout match when the scores are still tied after 90 minutes have been played)

Kingfisher Fair Play award :: FIFA Fair Play Award and EPL Fair play table

Net Run Rate :: Goal difference

Srilankan National Team vs IPL Club Debate (first of its kind in 2011) :: Club vs Country debate (going on for decades in Europe now)

But I do have to admit, few concepts like cheerleaders weren't brought from football as we know it, they were brought from...American Football. And few other concepts like DJs, Yearly Auction are totally unique...

Thoughts again

Since I've bought a 4 inch touch screen phone, I've got a new hobby, watching movies while standing in the train. That way my mind is distracted enough to not think about standing and getting stressed while the 50 minute journey goes like a breeze. Apart from that, I get to watch great movies. One good movie that I saw was iRobot. Just loved the positive ending and the general optimistic feel, which was very rare given the nature of the movie (usually technological sci-fi flicks are doom and gloom). But the next movie I saw was a terrible horrible depressing one. The blair witch project. I thought it would be "horror" but it was rather full of despair. So definitely not recommended.

Anyways this post isn't about the movies but about a couple of my original thoughts.
One goes:
The thinking man's sex symbol is probably the same as the thoughtless one's
The other:
Perhaps the truest form of love between the opposites is puppy love. All other forms of love have a little bit of compromise or ulterior motives behind them.

Now!

Ever come across the phrase "delayed gratification"? It is good if you are trying to achieve a goal and you are ready to sacrifice everything for it. But does it make sense if you overdo it? If you say "I am going to make as much money as I can till I retire". And then what? How are you going to spend it then? For whom will you live your remaining years then?

Before I advocate "Living Life for today" anymore let me put in a word to the cynics who will point out to the greedy consumerism in the west and the consequences of it, including an ever increasing pile of debt. Yes you need to find a balance between the two train of thoughts.

I suggest live your life in the present. Do as much as you can while you can. Go see places, hike up to mountains and swim in the ocean while your limbs are working fine. Dance to the music, learn to play a new sport, for it might be too late when you decide to let loose. Find a new hobby. Give time and money to charity. Help a needy, a blind cross the street. Pledge to donate your organs after you die. Donate your blood while you are alive. Hey just one time donation can help 5 people.

Don't spend money on fancy gadgets if you don't really need them. I know of people who wasted their money on an iPad and yet go ahead and buy iPad 2. For what?

And after you spend money and see the savings you have, invest it. If equity is not your cup of tea, put it in bonds or fixed deposits. You can double your money in 9 years if you invest in the bonds that have 8% interest rate.

Express your love for someone you love now. Even if it is your family. Just do it now.

the common man

If there were a new representation of the common man, and I stood for the elections, I will probably win. Because I represent the common man. And here are some facts/statistics to prove it:
1> I am an Indian. We represent more than 1/6th the population of the world. We represent the perfect balance between the old and the new. The ancient and the modern. The poor and the developed.
2> I am a Guy. Majority of the working people comprises of men. At least where I live. There are no reservations for the male, whether for a seat in a public bus or in an educational course, unless one is a "backward category" student, which brings me to the next point.
3> I am a "General Category" person. From my childhood I have learnt that I have to fight for everything. For getting an admission in a college, my marks are all I have. I don't have any special right to study. For working in a public sector undertaking or in a Government institution, I don't have any special "certificate" that will help me get in. My schoolmates who used to stay in the same residential area as me, played the same games as me, studied from the same teachers and the same books as me, get an admission in my college scoring half the marks as me, just because they had a different surname than me.
4> I am a Hindu. In my country it means that I represent more than 80% of the population. My mother tongue is the most commonly understood language in my country. It is understood in all the areas of the world where there are enough migrants from India.
5> I am brown. Again I don't belong to either of the extremes. By that I mean the whites, the blacks or the "asians". My ancestors were probably white aryans who migrated to this part of the world about 2,500 years ago. After so many generations my skin colour is representative of the majority of the world. Including Latins. I will probably face racism if I go to any white region but my people won't throw racism towards any of the "extremists" if they come here.

Of virtual chips and real money

Ok. This is what happens when I don't get an outlet for expressing and the creativity in me is bursting through my veins. So this time the "outlet" is a hacker trying to hack my Zynga Poker account on Facebook and trying to take off with my virtual chips to sell it to someone else for real money. The heights people go for fake money and pseudo-achievements.

I got the standard message that has lead to a lot of my poker friends' accounts being hacked. It pretends to be originating from some real Zynga person and goes something like "Your account will be permanently suspended if you don't click our link". Obviously the link is an application on facebook that will, if given permission, hack your Zynga Texas Hold'em Poker account. So please don't fall prey to any such message or other facebook tricks like "free iPad event". Here goes:

Admln Secuṛițy March 10 at 9:59pm

Hi Abhishek ,

Thanks for playing on Zynga applications.

We have reviewed your account activity, and we get information about possible unauthorized access to your Facebook and Zynga Poker account. We have provided a warning to you via email, but you do not respond to our notification.

“Your Zynga Poker account was accessed from a new location : Anonymous Proxy.”

If you are not signing into your Facebook account from Anonymous Proxy, your Facebook account may have been compromised. We recommend immediately verify your account by carefully on the link below to manage your Zynga Poker account. It may take a few minutes of your time to complete your data.

Verify your account immediately at the link below:
============================
http://apps.facebook.com/(harmless sounding app name)
============================

Note : If within 12 hours, you have not verified your account, then you have ignored our notifications. Therefore, your account is permanently suspended, and will not be reactivated for any reason.

Zynga Poker wants you to have a fun and safe time playing! Good luck at the tables. And thank you for your attention.

Kind regards,
Zynga Game Network Inc.
Texas HoldEm Poker.
Attn: Intellectual Property Agent
444 Deharo St., Suite 132
San Francisco, California 94107
Copyright © 2011 Zynga, Inc. All rights reserved.
█║▌│█│║▌║││█║▌│█║▌│█│║▌║││█║▌│ █║▌│█│║▌║││█║▌│█║▌

(Yup, they even added a California address and a Bar-code)

Abhishek Pandey March 10 at 10:06pm

Dear AdmIn Secuṛițy,

Please don't block my account! What will I do with my life if I am not able to play Zynga applications? I am so sad that someone else has accessed my account. Please don't punish me for someone else's crime. Please. I beg you.

I will do everything I can to confirm to you that it is indeed me who is playing and not some "Anonymous Proxy".

I have just visited your Facebook Page and I am just clicking on "Report/Block This Person" (as soon as I send this reply). Hopefully that will confirm me and verify my account.

And regarding your complaint that I do not respond to your email notifications, I will ensure I do that the next time. I will gladly click "Report Spam" when you send me the email. I hope we can be friends forever and ever and ever :)

Thank you in anticipation.
Abhishek

Progress

I had been sleeping. Like I usually do, when I am getting back home in train. I get off at Masjid and take the return train to ensure that I get a seat, and almost always, a window seat. And then I doze off for the next 40 minutes or so.

So when I woke up, like I usually do just before the train reaches the Vashi Bridge, my mind was still in the hazy zone. The zone when you are awake but not fully awake, not fully aware of the surroundings. When the senses are not yet fully functional and you are somewhat away from reality.

I must have been dreaming something. I saw the vehicles at the road Bridge parallel to us. Their red rear lights and shiny bodies suddenly gave me a feeling that I was in some place modern. Maybe like my earlier visit to Dubai. I began wondering about the progress that my country has made. And is it going away from its roots? Its culture?

Then I suddenly saw the tempo. The 4 wheeler vehicle that is not as big as a truck, but is not as small as a Car either. That quintessential, open from the back, goods carrying vehicle, usually with agricultural produce, dispelled all my meanderings.

I was firmly in India. It was still the India I know, the India I love

Why I hate formals

I hate formals. There, I said it in the open. Err, I think I have already said it publicly, but today I wrote it here.

Why? Because they:

• are artificial.
• seem to be made for hiding deficiencies.
• hide the personality of the wearer.
• are merely there to please others.
• are not comfortable.

Centuries ago some bloke got an idea that imitating penguins is a good thing and the trend stuck. So the western civilisation made it a "mark" of formal occasions. Whether it is a prom night or an important interview, men try to look their best by wearing formal suits. With the British invasion the symbol of the babu-giri spread in India as well. So it became a compulsory "uniform" beyond the schools.

Now it is alright if the sales team is going to make a pitch to the client and has to wear formals. But everyone in the organisation? Take my previous software employers TCS for instance. Their Thane office that was converted from Voltas had several ODCs (Offshore Development Centers). Now with clients sitting in their European and American offices, why were the 100 odd team wearing formals every weekday? For each other? If a client representing, say, Boeing, visits the ODC, obviously they will not visit unannounced. They won't make, say, more than 3 visits a year to the ODC? So why does the team have to wear formals 5 days a week (ok 4)? There is a seperate Offshore Coordinator in the company to take care of such communication for Pete's sake.

While my ex-TCS friend sitting in Seattle working for Microsoft goes to office in T-shirt and Jeans (some of his colleagues even wear shorts). Does Microsoft lose its business? Rather, will TCS lose its businesses if the employees do that? It should be the work of the employee that should matter more than whether he is wearing formal or is clean shaven or if his shoes are shining or not.

It is usually the HR heads that make such policies in any organisation. And the need to "control" and "standardise" grows larger as the organisation becomes larger. And the management tries to "micro manage" in many cases. Of course some organisations don't have the sort of culture in others, but this need to micro-manage is what causes terrible irritation to the employees. And it hurts the organisation more in the long run when it is in the service sector.

It reminds me of the last chapter of the The Dilbert Principle. Scott Adams says that organisations shouldn't try to control decisions over small stuff like what to wear and office supplies. Also that jobs are not supposed to satisfy people. People are supposed to satisfy jobs. People don't like to work. If they liked to work, you wouldn't have to pay them.