The day my city surprised me!!

Usually when it rains, its only when you are about to start to work from home or about to leave work to home. Yesterday I was in the same situation . It stared to rain around 6 PM yesterday, just when I was about to leave work.

I was waiting for the rain to stop chatting with my colleagues and frequently looking through the glass walls to see if the rain god has taken some rest or not. It was 8 PM and when I came to know that there was a Prime Minister's visit to Hyderabad(My office is right opposite to Hyderabad airport) in the evening, I thought that today I will be cooked in the traffic. Because rain enough is a huge traffic stopper and adding fuel to the fire is the VIP visit.

I already mentioned sometime back, how driving can be on Hyderabad Roads when it rains and how the Hyderabad Traffic will be.

Around 8.30 PM the rain God was tired of raining and called it a day. I started of on my bike mentally prepared for a one and a half hour of journey to my home which is at 17 Kms from work. Right opposite to my thoughts, there was no water clogged anywhere on the road(small pools of water hear and there is an exception), the traffic was flowing, I mean regular traffic.

I myself feel that I have a very good judgment about traffic as I am observing the traffic in Hyderabad right from my childhood and most of the times I am right in predicting the traffic in different areas and at different times.

This time my city out ran my predictions and I think that's what Hyderabad is all about!! HyderaBAD.

But, however our city is like, what ever people say and feel about it, its the best! and we all Love it.

Keep dancing Matt!!

I saw this video in my friend Satish's Videos on Orkut and found it very appealing. Somehow I felt that this video had a hidden message of World Peace* and also its funny. Try to identify the famous sites shown in this video and check your geography ;-).

Also, the background song "Sweet Lullaby" by "Deep Forest" is cool and suits best to the video. This brings back my school memories when I bought my first Deep Forest album way back in 1994.

So, pump up the volume and enjoy!!



*I was a bit disappointed for not seeing India, the second largest contributor of humans to the world in this video.

World SysAdmin Day - 27'th July 2007(Today)

System Administrator Appreciation Day, also known as Sysadmin Day or SAAD, was created by Ted Kekatos, a system administrator in Chicago. Kekatos was inspired to create the special day by a Hewlett-Packard magazine advertisement in which a system administrator is presented with flowers and fruit-baskets by grateful co-workers as thanks for installing new printers. The holiday exists to show appreciation for the work of sysadmins and other IT workers. It is celebrated on the last Friday in July. The first System Administrator Appreciation Day was celebrated on July 28, 2000.

A sysadmin unpacks the server for us from its box, installs an operating system, patches it for security, makes sure the power and air conditioning was working in the server room, monitors it for stability, sets up the software, and keeps backups in case anything went wrong. All to save the work we have done

Also, sysadmin installs the routers, puts the cables, configures the networks, sets up the firewalls, and watches and guides the traffic for each hop of the network that runs over copper, fiber optic glass, and even the air itself to bring the Internet to your computer.

Not to forget, a sysadmin makes sure your network connection is safe, secure, open, and working. A sysadmin makes sure your computer is working in a healthy way on a healthy network. A sysadmin takes backups to guard against disaster both human and otherwise, holds the gates against security threats and crackers, and keeps the printers going no matter how many copies of the tax code someone from Accounting prints out.

A sysadmin worries about spam, viruses, spyware, but also power outages, fires and floods.
When the email server goes down at 2 AM on a Sunday, your sysadmin is paged, wakes up, and goes to work.

A sysadmin is a professional, who plans, worries, hacks, fixes, pushes, advocates, protects and creates good computer networks, to get you your data, to help you do work -- to bring the potential of computing ever closer to reality.

So if you can read this, thank your sysadmin -- and know he or she is only one of dozens or possibly hundreds whose work brings you the email from your aunt on the other side of the world, the instant message from your friend onsite, the free phone call from your brother in Australia, and this webpage.

For the God's sake stop dancing!!

Woooha.....hold your horses guys, I am not an "anti-dance guy" or something, what I am referring over here is the feats people do when crossing the roads.

"For the God's sake stop dancing" is the feeling I get when I am riding my bike on the road and people who are tying to cross the road shuffle from their positions front and back confused. I feel most of the people in Hyderabad are not good at crossing the roads. I see educated and well dressed people running and performing other feats while crossing the roads.

One point I do not understand that, we all learn "Not to run while crossing the road" in first standard at school and still I see most of the adults running. When we are running while crossing the road and suddenly see that a vehicle and think that it will run you over if you do not stop running and stop running in the middle of the road, your sudden halt can be in front of another fast moving vehicle......ha ha ha...confusing? read the para again you will get it!

At that point there might be three incidents(in fact accidents) that can happen:

1. You are running and your vision will be focused on the vehicles which are about to cross you in front and some times we miss the vehicles coming exactly perpendicular to us. So when we stop suddenly the vehicle coming perpendicularly might hit you and the incident might turn into an accident.
2. You are running and you suddenly stop, the vehicle coming perpendicularly brakes hard and stops without hitting you. So far so good, but the vehicle behind that vehicle does not know that the vehicle in front will stop suddenly and the incident can turn into an accident.
3. When you stop suddenly in the middle of the road the vehicle coming perpendicular to you might not brake hard but break enough to allow you to take a step further. This is my favourite part...you think the vehicle will pass and and move back, at the same time the driver thinks that you will pass and he also moves in the same direction. And again when you move forward he will also turn in your direction. This shuffling will happen till the you are right in front of the vehicle and both of you are stand still.

Truly speaking, its not the fault of the pedestrians always, the drivers also take their share equally. When driving I see that most of the people are rushing and trying to shove their vehicles into every little place they get. One thing most of us forget is that there are people walking and crossing the roads and we should consider them also.

When the pedestrian is confused and dancing back and forth do not confuse the poor pedestrian further by moving the vehicle accordingly. Just keep braking and drive straight.

So, to all the people out there, lets get back to our first standard basics "Please do not run while crossing the road". Look for the traffic, judge the vehicles and cross the road slowly".

There is nothing we gonna miss which is more precious than out life!

Outstanding Facts !!

· The world's youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.

· Our eyes remain the same size from birth onward, but our nose and ears never stop growing.

· You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching TV.


· A person will die from total lack of sleep sooner than from starvation. Death will occur about 10 days without sleep, while starvation takes a few weeks.

· Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.

· Mona Lisa had no eyebrows.


· When the moon is directly overhead, you weigh slightly less.


· Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, never telephoned his wife or mother because they were both deaf.


· "I Am." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.


·Colgate faced big obstacle marketing toothpaste in Spanish speaking countries because Colgate translates into the command "go hang yourself."

Richest Beggar in Mumbai

"Sholay" remake!...mastered or massacred?

I think the current trend in Bollywood these days is remake. The concept is pretty simple, take a super hit from the past and re shoot it with the present day technology and perspective. But making a remake is not as simple as the concept. The first thing everyone will do is to compare it with the original and weigh its pros and cons. Any little point not justified will be seen through a magnifying glass.

So, the challenge in making a remake is to match to the standards of the original film in all aspects and at the same time deliver something new to the viewers. When I first heard that DON is being remade, I was exited to see how will it be. When I saw the film it was pretty well managed, in the sense the plot was similar at the same time different, it was shot with the SRK's style/image and not to mention using the latest technology and gadgets.

But when I heard that Sholay is being remade...I was out of words and in fact I was a bit scared. I always thought that Sholay is one master piece which has everything a viewer wants and there was no stone left unturned in it.

I am not sure how RGV's Sholay will be, but I hope that if not Mastered, at least it should not be massacred.

Here is a look at the old and new stars in the 1975-Bollywood blockbuster Sholay and Ram Gopal Varma's adaption of the classic*.


While Amjad Khan played big baddie Gabbar Singh in the old version, none other than Amitabh Bachchan plays the new-age villain in the new Sholay.

In place of Amitach Bachchan is newcomer Prashant Raj who plays the small-time crook, good-at-heart Jai.

Ajay Devgan takes on the role of Dharmendra, essaying the character of the flirtatous Veeru.

Sushmita Sen as Durga, slips into the character of the quiet widow Radha that Jaya Bachchan immortalised.

RGV's new take on Sholay turns the gaon ki gori Basanti, played by Hema Malini, into a Mumbaiya tapori called Ghungroo played by Nisha Kothari. Playing Sanjeev Kumar's role as the hardened Thakur, the cop-turned-man-on-a-mission out to get Gabbar, is southern star Mohanlal.

Remember Gabbar Singh saying "Arre o Sambha!" Mac Mohan takes on the role of the main villain's side-kick Sambha as Sushant Singh in the new Sholay.

Jajdeep made Soorma Bhopali a household name in the old Sholay. Now, meet Rajpal Yadav playing Soorma in RGV's adaption of the classic.

*According to the information I got

One small step for man, a giant leap for mankind

Today is the day, man expanded his boundries beyond the planet Earth and landed on the moon 38 years back i.e., on July 20, 1969.

Bootprint of Edwin Aldrin on the Moon

The Apollo 11 mission was the first manned mission to land on the Moon. It was the fifth human spaceflight of the Apollo programs, and the third human voyage to the moon. Launched on July 16, 1969, it carried Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin.

"One small step for man, a giant leap for mankind" are the words spoken by Neil Armstrong, Placing his left foot on the surface of the Moon at 2:56 UTC July 21, 1969. About 15 minutes after the first step, Buzz Aldrin joined Armstrong on the surface saying, "Beautiful. Beautiful. Magnificent desolation", becoming the second human to ever set foot on the moon. Then for two-and-a-half hours, they took notes, photographed what they saw, and drilled core samples.

Then they took a phone call from President Richard Nixon after planting the U.S. flag together on the Moon's surface. The flag planting and subsequent phone call from President Nixon were later given by Aldrin as the reason why out of the entire photographic record of Apollo 11 there are no intentional photographs of Armstrong. There are only five images of Armstrong partly shown or reflected. Aldrin said it was planned to take a photo of Armstrong after the famous image of Aldrin was taken, but they were interrupted by the Nixon communication. There were just over five minutes between these two events. The mission was timelined to the minute, with the majority of photographic tasks to be performed by Armstrong with their single Hasselblad camera.

After more than 2½ hours on the lunar surface, they had left behind scientific instruments such as a retroreflector array used for the Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment. They also left an American flag and a plaque (mounted on the LM Descent Stage ladder) bearing two drawings of Earth (of the Western and Eastern Hemispheres), an inscription, and signatures of the astronauts and Richard Nixon. The inscription read Here Men From The Planet Earth First Set Foot Upon the Moon, July 1969 A.D. We Came in Peace For All Mankind.

The historical plaque on the ladder of Apollo 11's lunar module "Eagle", still remaining on the Moon.

So, what is the next step?

The question I got is, after 38 years of landing on the Moon, where are we now? We have explored beyond the nine planets using the most advanced and powerful satellites and telescopes but to what extent we were able to take man?

Manned Mars exploration by the United States has been explicitly identified as a long-term goal in the Vision for Space Exploration announced in 2004 by US President George W. Bush. NASA and Lockheed Martin have begun work on the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), which is currently scheduled to send a human expedition to Earth's moon by 2020 as a stepping stone to an expedition to Mars thereafter.

The European Space Agency hopes to land humans on Mars between 2030 and 2035.This will be preceded by successively larger probes, starting with the launch of the ExoMars probe and a Mars Sample Return Mission.

So, next destination..........MARS!

Sholay - My choice for best all time Hindi movie

Sholay is one movie which I can watch anytime, anywhere and any number of times(Taking into consideration that I am not that movie buff). I am sure everyone who are reading this has seen this epic movie. If there are anyone who haven't seen it, please rush to a DVD store, buy or rent one and watch it. Believe me, you will regret for watching all the piece of craps coming these days and not seeing Sholay till now.

Do you know that Sholay is taken for example in Management/ Personality Develompent seminars? Also, Sholay is screened in many universities and colleges by the management as it is a perfect blend of action(Gabbar), love(Dharam pa & Hemamalini), sentiment( Jaya Badhuri & others), Comedy(Amithab Bachan, Dharam pa and Asrani), the best and the one I like the most - Friendship( Amithab Bachan, Dharam pa), culture(villate of Ramgadh), values(A.K Hangal and Sachin).

Also, Sholay stands apart from many films at those times and even now. Take it for Cinematography, Dilouges(Tera kya hoga kalia and many many more), Background score, performances, Music(Yeh Dosti, Mehbooba Mehbooba), Choreography( Helen in Mehbooba Mehbooba).

Sholay(Hindi) translates to as "Flames" in English. Read on for some interesting Trivia on this film:

• Sanjeev Kumar wanted to play Gabbar Singh, but the producers insisted that he play the police officer.
• Dharmendra was interested in playing Gabbar Singh, but changed his mind when Ramesh Sippy told him Basanti was to be played by Hema Malini.
• The director's original choice for Jaidev too was different. Shatrughan Sinha was almost signed, when Dharmendra convinced the producers that Amitabh would be the right choice.
• The producers wanted Danny Denzongpa to play the bandit chief, but he was committed to Feroz Khan's "Dharmatma". Amjad Khan was a second choice.
• The scene in which Thakur's family is killed was cut by the censor board; the murder of a small child was deemed too horrific to show.
• The film showcased two real life romances. Amitabh married Jaya Bhaduri, who played the widowed daughter-in-law, in 1973, during the filming. Dharmendra married Hema Malini in 1980, five years after the release of the film.
• Amjad Khan prepared to play a bandit chief by reading a book titled Abhishapth Chambal, which told of the exploits of Chambal dacoits. The book was written by Taroon Bhaduri, who happened to be the father of Jaya Bhaduri.
• The screenwriters, Salim-Javed, named Veeru and Jai after a couple of Salim's college friends.
• According to some sources Sholay has always been the number one grossing film of all time, in the Indian film industry.
• From September 1 through September 5, 2006, the Walter Reade Theater of New York City's Lincoln Center, held screenings of "Sholay." The film is said to be one of the favorite's of the Theater's program director, Richard Peña.
• There is a water tank in the village ( Veeru climbs on the water tank) but no electricity( Thakur's daughter in law lights all candles in the evening).
• MacMohan is most remembered for his role as the dacoit Sambha, though the character had only one dialogue in the edited version of the whole film! The Unedited version saw him had one more dialogue with his collegues while playing cards and just before kidnapping Sachin.

Sholay has two endings?

The film has two known endings. The original ending (shown in the Eros-released DVD) has Thakur Baldev Singh killing Gabbar Singh, trampling him with spike-soled shoes.The Censor Board of India, The C.B.F.C. (Central Board of Film Certification), however, found the ending unacceptable as they thought that Police officers or even ex-police officers, should not be shown to commit murder. A new ending was filmed, in which the police arrest Gabbar Singh in the nick of time. Several other minor changes were made as well.

Inspiration:

• Critics and movie-goers agree that the film was not totally original.
  It drew heavily upon the conventions of Western films, especially Sergio Leone's spaghetti Westerns.
• The massacre of a family near the middle of the film is similar to a scene from Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West as well as a scene from John Ford's The Searchers.
• Sholay's extensive use of slow-motion in shoot-outs was influenced by the westerns of Sam Peckinpah, films such as The Wild Bunch (1969) and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973)
• The first film to show a village hiring mercenaries to protect itself from bandits was the Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai. Hollywood remade Seven Samurai as The Magnificent Seven in 1960, fifteen years before Sholay.
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) featured two appealing outlaws, just like Jai and Veeru.
• Critics also cite the Indian films Mera Gaon Mera Desh (1971) and Khote Sikkay (1973) as possible inspirations.
• Gabbar Singh was modeled on a real-life dacoit of the same name who menaced the villages around Gwalior in the 1950s. He terrorized the local police. Any policeman captured by the real Gabbar Singh had his ears and nose cut off, and was then released as an object lesson to other policemen.
• The music for the song "Mehbooba" was inspired by a Western tune, "Say You Love Me" by Demis Roussos, a singer-songwriter of Greek origin.
• There is a scene in Sergio Leone's For A Few Dollars More (1965) in which an outlaw leader, El Indio, loads a gun and threatens to kill another man. This is said to have inspired the Sholay scene in which Gabbar Singh threatens to kill three of his cowardly followers.
• The protagonist of the western One-Eyed Jacks (1960) played by Marlon Brando has a double-sided coin which he uses to his advantage much like the Jaidev character in Sholay.

Credits

Cast:
Dharmendra as Veeru
Amitabh Bachchan as Jaidev
Hema Malini as Basanti
Sanjeev Kumar as Thakur Baldev Singh
Amjad Khan as Gabbar Singh
Jaya Bhaduri as Radha
Iftekhar as Radha's father
Jagdeep as Soorma Bhopali
Asrani as the comic jailor Viju
Khote as Kalia Mac Mohan as Sambha
A.K. Hangal as the blind imam
Sachin as Ahmed, the imam's son
Leela Mishra as mausi
Basanti's aunt Satyen Kappu as Ramlaal (Thakur's servant)
Helen as a Gypsy dancer
Jalal Agha as a Gypsy singer

Crew:
The film was produced by G.P. Sippy and directed by his son Ramesh Sippy. It was written by scriptwriters Salim-Javed. R. D. Burman contributed the music. Anand Bakshi was the lyricist. It was the first Hindi (and possibly Indian) movie to have a stereophonic soundtrack.

I repeat again, for all those who did not watch Sholay, do see it right away and do not wait for RGV's Sholay. We do not know if this master piece will be massacred or mastered.

Hasselblad H3D - Mother of all Digital Cameras*

When I said mother of all digital cameras, I mean it. Just see the below picture and read the technical specifications of the camera, I am sure you will agree with me.

Hasselblad unveiled its next masterpiece, the Hasselblad H3D, a digital SLR camera to be offered in 22-megapixel and 39-megapixel trim. Inside are some relatively gargantuan image sensors, the largest ones in the world at 48x36mm. But you'd better have plenty of storage on hand—the dimensions of that 39-megapixel frame are 5412x7212 pixels, filling up well over 110MB per pic.

Technical Details:

H3D-22:
Sensor size: 22 Mpixels (4080 x 5440 pixels)
Image size (8/16 bit RGB): RAW 3FR capture 30 MB on average. TIFF 8 bit: 66 MB
Storage capacity: 2 GB CF card holds 66 images on average

H3D-39:
Sensor size: 39 Mpixels (5412 • 7212 pixels)
Image size (8/16 bit RGB): RAW 3FR capture 50 MB on average. TIFF 8 bit: 117 MB
Storage capacity: 2 GB CF card holds 40 images on average

For complete Technical Specifications click here

The Hasselblad H3D is the world’s first 48mm. full-frame, large-sensor, medium-format DSLR camera system. The H3D has been developed around a brand new digital camera engine producing increased lens performance and a new level of image sharpness. By focusing solely on digital camera architecture, Hasselblad is able to offer photographers the full benefits of professional medium-format digital cameras as well as the ease of use of the best 35mm DSLRs

I know what you might be thinking, the price of this camera? Made by the company whose cameras were the first on the moon, will be almost enough to finance your own personal moonshot. The price is somewhere upwards of $30K to $40K (we can own a Mercedes Benz C-class at that price) ;-).

Wondering how the pictures will look like when you are using this camera? Take a look below:

So, what next? Dreaming to own one? I know everyone of us want to have this beauty with brains and at the same time we all know that beauty and brains does not come cheap.

All the best for all our future endeavors. We never know, one day we can own this beauty!!

Till then let's keep giving our best and Happy Clicking :-).

*as per my information.

Bugged up with Sales/Insurance calls*?

Are you bugged up with Sales or Insurance calls like me?

Here are 10 ways to stop(at least cut short) those credit card sales, idea/hutch/airtel, insurance calls etc.

1) After the telemarketer finishes speaking, ask him/her to marry you.

2) Tell the telemarketer you are busy at the moment, and ask him/her if he/she will give you his/her home phone number so you can call him/her back.

3) Ask them to repeat everything they say, several times.

4) Tell them it is dinner time, BUT ask if they would please hold. Put them on your speaker phone while you continue to eat at your leisure. Smack your food loudly and continue with your dinner conversation.

5) Tell them that all business goes through your agent, and hand the phone to your five year old child.

6) Tell them you are hard of hearing and that they need to speak up...louder...louder...louder!

7) Tell them to speak very slowly because you want to write every word down.

8) If they start out with, "How are you today?",say "I'm so glad you asked, because no one these days seems to care, and I have all these problems............"

9) Cry out in surprise, "Mom, is that you? I've been hoping you'd call! How is the family?" When they insist they are not your Mom, tell them to stop joking. This works especially well if the telemarketer is really MALE.

10) Tell the HSBC call center guy to call on your office number - and give him the ICICI call center number.

*This is just for fun. The poor telemarketer is doing his job. But sometimes we should also have some fun in this bugged up world right?

Faith or Fanaticism*?

Last weekend I was at Shirdi with 10 of my family members. I think you all know, what Shirdi is famous for? It the place where Sai Baba lived. Now Shirdi is among the major Hindu places of pilgrimage in India.

One thing which is common to all the pilgrimages in India is People, thousands of people, millions of people, people..people and people. This is because our country is a country which is built on faith, culture and strong bonding. So, most of the Indians make it a point to visit such pilgrimages when ever possible.

So, with many people comes disorder, uncleanliness. As in any other temple in India, to see the God, you have to go through a series of mazes. These mazes are the Q's arranged to have some order and avoid confusion.

As India is a free democratic country, no one can stop us or confine us ....right!! So we see people jumping the Q's at the slightest chance. They do not care for thousand people shouting at their back condemning their behavior. Some people just push and shove their way through. They do not care for who the person in front is or what if the person ahead in injured. They just Puuuuuuush their way through. When asked, cant they wait and move with everyone else? reply we get is, if you stay with the Q and move with it, it will take ages so they ask us also to push our way through.

I saw people just running as if they are in a race. I ask them and my self, if they are in so much haste to finish off the darshan and come out of the Q, why the hell come here?. One goes to God to have peace and tranquility of course of the brain and body as well. But I see people just finish off the darshan in haste and come out happily. They are doing it for namesake not with complete faith.

I had my grandmother with me who crossed 80 years and had a broken back last year. She was very patient and did not complain in the whole process. It took us more than 4 hours to complete the darshan amidst the pushing and shoving. I literally had to fence my grand mom with my hands to stop people from falling on her and pushing her.

And one more thing we observe is lack of cleanliness. People drink coffee, Tea, water, eat snacks and whatever and litter the whole place. They wont even care to look for trash cans to dispose the waste. After consuming they just leave it or throw it on the ground.

When people are coming to God and doing all such things, what's the use of coming to God? If it was at their home, will they behave or do like this? When at Gods place, ones heart should be pure, thinking about God and wish for positive things to happen. But people do all kinds stunts and create nuisance without any peaceful thoughts.

I am not sure how can we educate these people, but something has to be done. Of course there will be notices by the authorities to maintain silence, keep the place clean and maintain Q..etc. but who cares to follow?

I think only God has to do something.

God..........are you listening?.....Ooops....are you reading? :-)

*Extremism

Friday the 13'Th?

Picture courtesy Kiran Kumar PY, my school buddy

When ever I hear "Friday the 13'Th", the things I relate to are Horror , ghosts, death, something bad etc. It not from experience that this thoughts come up from, but they are from the movies I have been seeing since child hood.

So why I or most of the people come up with such assumptions about Friday the 13'Th? Because from the early days of TV and movies, Friday the 13'Th is the day when the ghost rises or the murders start or something evil happens.

A Friday occurring on the 13'Th day of any month is considered to be a day of bad luck in English, German, Polish and Portuguese-speaking cultures around the globe. Similar superstitions exist in some other traditions. In Greece or Spain, for example, Tuesday the 13'Th takes the same role.

The fear of Friday the 13'Th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia (a word that is derived from the concatenation of the Greek words Παρασκευή, δεκατρείς, and φοβία, meaning Friday, thirteen, and phobia respectively; and is a specialized form of triskaidekaphobia, a phobia (fear) of the number thirteen.

However, many popular stories exist about the origin of the concept:

• The popular painting of the Last Supper, with stories that Judas numbered among the thirteen guests (Jesus plus his 12 apostles), and that the Crucifixion of Jesus occurred Friday.


• The Knights Templar
  

Some people are so paralyzed by fear that they are simply unable to get out of bed when Friday the 13'Th rolls around. The Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute estimates that more than 17 million people are affected by a fear of this day. Despite that, representatives for both Delta and Continental Airlines say that their airlines don't suffer from any noticeable drop in travel on those Fridays.

A British Medical Journal study has shown that there is a significant increase in traffic-related accidents on Friday the 13Th's.

I am not sure what others might think, but I am going to enjoy my weekend(Friday).

So, Happy Friday the 13'Th.......Ooops.........Happy Week End!!

Have Fun!!

Insurance calls!!...assurance or assault?

I am sure everyone of us might have received calls from telemarketers trying to sell insurance at some point or the other. Like everyone else, I am not spared either. I have been getting these insurance calls for long time, but the one I received last weekend was an ultimate(baap) of all insurance calls which I got till now.

After many weeks, last weekend I got time to sit with my friends and was having a good time chatting and relaxing. It was a cloudy Sunday afternoon and things were going on slow and relaxed. What else can one expect on a gloomy Sunday? At that point my phone rang.....and the story starts...........

Telemarketer(TM): Hello, I am calling from XYZ bank and are introducing a new insurance scheme especially for you.

Me: Thank you, but I have enough insurances to keep me covered and I am not interested in any more.

TM: Sir, this is not for everyone, its only introduced for certain privileged customers like you.

Me: But I have enough to keep me covered.

TM: The things we offer is not there in any other insurance policies and we are the first to introduce such things.

Me: See boss, I have 3 LIC policies which cover me in case of my death and an accident/Medical policy which will cover for my medical bills and etc. in case of any hospitalization.

TM: Sir, the Accident and Medical policy which you have will not cover you in case of death in an accident.

(Here, I should appreciate the fact that the telemarketer was very professional and was saying "I am sorry" before he says "In case of death". I understood that he is doing this duty.)

Me: No, It covers me in case of death in an accident.

TM: Sir, we also cover you in case of natural death.

(At this point he realized that he forgot to ask me something)

TM: Sir, can I know your age?

Me: 27 years(Almost laughing). Come on man, This is not it, I told you that I have my LIC's that will take care of it.

(He thought for few seconds and came up with his ultimate weapon that he thought might work)

TM: All the policies that you will cover you if a death occurs naturally or by accident....but...

(I was just imagining what offer he might give me as there was no card left unturned)

TM: but....we cover you also in case of a Suicide.

That was it, I could not stop laughing and had no words to say. I laughed so hard that I could not utter a word and even not for laughing my mind was out of words.

I couldn't do anything else but hanging up the phone.

Monsoooooooooooooon's are Cooooool

I got the above click @ Botanical Gardens, Hyderabad last Sunday. More pictures @ Picasa & Flickr

Monsoon is my favorite season. I Love and enjoy everything about it. Starting from Getting drenched in rain(riding the bike in rain, walking in the rain), The way it smells when rain hits the earth, Sitting under the shade and just looking at the rain, hearing the rain lying in the bed, Seeing TV with something hot to drink or eat, wrapped my in my blanket and reading, listening to music, Staring at the sky to see some amazing cloud formations, Standing at the door looking at the rain and getting nostalgic, Looking along the water form/taking random paths and more and more....

Apart from all these feelings, in rainy season we get to see various new forms of life which you will not see in any other season. We will see various types of snails, insects, different kinds of algae, plants and not to mention birds and other reptiles. I can spend hours just walking and looking/appreciating the natures wonders.

And for a shutter bug like me it’s a fortune of subjects out there, as you are never short of subjects in monsoons. Just walk into your portico/ corridor/terrace you will find something or the other to shoot.

After many weeks, I got to go to Photography Expedition and it was to Botanical Gardens at Kondapur, Hyderabad. Though I was here many times for Photography, It was a different experience in monsoon. We (Sajjad and his daughter Afra, Ashok and me) sat for hours just enjoying the breeze and talking. It was fun.

You can get the glimpse of the clicks I got at @ Picasa & Flickr

Haven't you Blackled yet?

Blackle is a new Eco-Friendly search engine on the web. If you are thinking that I am asking you guys to bid adieu to our favorite search engine Google, you are wrong. Blackle is Google dressed in black!

So, why should Google dress in black? What difference does in make to the environment? Read on for the answers...

Blackle saves energy because the screen is predominantly black. "Image displayed is primarily a function of the user's color settings and desktop graphics, as well as the color and size of open application windows; a given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen." For more information on Energy Use and Power Levels in New Monitors and Personal Computers click here.

What made Google to go for Blackle?

In January 2007 a blog post titled Black Google Would Save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year proposed the theory that a black version of the Google search engine would save a fair bit of energy due to the popularity of the search engine. Since then there has been skepticism about the significance of the energy savings that can be achieved and the cost in terms of readability of black web pages.

Google believed that there is value in the concept because even if the energy savings are small, they all add up. Secondly we feel that seeing Blackle every time we load our web browser reminds us that we need to keep taking small steps to save energy.

However, for a CRT display, the difference of amount of power used for black and white is much high, but todays modern LCD displays use the same amount of power whether black or white. But technically there is still a difference for most LCD displays, however small.

How can we help?

Let us set Blackle as your home page. This way every time you load our Internet browser you we save a little bit of energy. Remember every bit counts! We will also be reminded about the need to save energy each time we see the Blackle page load.

Help spread the word about Blackle by telling your friends and family to set it as their home page. If you have a blog then give us a mention. Or put the following text in your email signature: "Blackle.com - Saving energy one search at a time".

Happy Blackling!!!

Taj Mahal in New 7 Wonders of the world...so....what's the deal?

Now that the Taj Mahal made it to the New 7 Wonders of the World, I thought that the media hype it got and the crazy stuff people were doing all these weeks will come to an end. But I felt that my thoughts were gone for a toss. Seeing that the TV Channels and papers ,still talking about the Taj Mahal made me sick. Don't we have better news to hear?

As I mentioned above, all these days we saw people doing various crazy things to promote the Taj and now, they are celebrating the position of Taj in the New 7 Wonders of the World in more crazier ways. People organizing parties, playing with colors, bursting crackers, meetings, setting up hoardings and banners etc. But when I give it a thought, we are the people who built temples for heroes/heroines, do abhishekam's and pujas to heros idols and not to mention celebrate marriage of famous movie personalities (Abhi-Ash) as if the marriage is of someone in our family.

So celebrating the position of Taj Mahal in the New 7 Wonders of the World by us does not come as a shock. But when I think how much valuable time, money and resources are wasted on such things, I cannot accept the fact. Why does the media which created much hype in this scenario hiding the facts? All the Mobile Operators and TV Channels which promoted the campaign not thinking about the facts? Whay are they just thinking about the revenue they get and keeping the facts in the dark?

This is what you will see above the New 7 Wonders of the World list on the so called official website:

"The New7Wonders organization is happy to announce the following 7 candidates have been elected to represent global heritage throughout history."

Here is what he United Nations has to say:

In order to avoid any damaging confusion, UNESCO wishes to reaffirm that there is no link whatsoever between UNESCO’s World Heritage programme, which aims to protect world heritage, and the current campaign concerning “The New 7 Wonders of the World”.

This campaign was launched in 2000 as a private initiative by Bernard Weber, the idea being to encourage citizens around the world to select seven new wonders of the world by popular vote.

Although UNESCO was invited to support this project on several occasions, the Organizaton decided not to collaborate with Mr. Weber.

UNESCO’s objective and mandate is to assist countries in identifying, protecting and preserving World Heritage. Acknowledging the sentimental or emblematic value of sites and inscribing them on a new list is not enough. Scientific criteria must be defined, the quality of candidates evaluated, and legislative and management frameworks set up. The relevant authorities must also demonstrate commitment to these frameworks as well as to permanently monitoring the state of conservation of sites. The task is one of technical conservation and political persuasion. There is also a clear educational role with respect to the sites’ inherent value, the threats they face and what must be done to prevent their loss.

There is no comparison between Mr Weber’s mediatised campaign and the scientific and educational work resulting from the inscription of sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage List*. The list of the “7 New Wonders of the World” will be the result of a private undertaking, reflecting only the opinions of those with access to the internet and not the entire world. This initiative cannot, in any significant and sustainable manner, contribute to the preservation of sites elected by this public.

*New sites will be added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List during the 31st session of the World Heritage Committee in Christchurch, New Zealand, from 23 June to 2 July.

So, what do you think after reading the above statement from UN? Are you feeling cheated by a guy who wanted to make big bucks by hitting on National sentiments. I also feel the same as I also did vote.

As of now the New 7 Wonders of the World campaign came to an end but do you think this guy will stop here? no, not at all. Now they are starting "New 7 Wonders of Nature".

Are you going to fall for this, this time? I am not!!

Everyone says vote for Taj Mahal!!

Picture courtesy Kiran Kumar PY, my school buddy

From past few weeks all across India you can hear only one slogan "Vote fot Taj". This is to make Taj Mahal listed in New 7 Wonders of the World. The "Taj" campain hit India by all possible means, be it meetings, advertisements, hoardings, pamphlets, Hot air balloons to body art, exhibitions, stunts and what not. Not to forget emails, Orkut Scrapes and SMS's.

As far as I know there are two ways to vote. One is via Internet and one is via mobile phone. When media and people are giving Patriotic statements to vote for Taj, why is that the mobile phone operators are charging Rs. 3 to Rs 6 for a single SMS to vote for Taj? Where the cost of normal SMS is 50 paisa or 1 rupee.

Isn't this equation supposed to be reverse? i.e., when we are patriotic and want more people to participate in something which will make entire India proud, shouldn’t the cost of voting be less than the normal or at least equal? So who is making profit here on patriotic sentiment? obviously the mobile operators. Also as I know the Government also not doing anything in this part. I cannot blame the Government in this regard because, it itself has lot of problems to be dealt with. At least some initiative would have been good.

Strikingly smaller countries are doing their best to have their name in the New 7 Wonders of the World. Brazil's President Lula de Silva used a radio address to tell people how to vote for Rio's statue of Christ the Redeemer. The government of Peru has opened computer terminals in public plazas to encourage people to vote for the ancient city of Machu Pichu.

According to BBC:

"India has around 170 million mobile phone users and one person in every 50 has access to a personal computer.

But lacklustre voting over the past few months has seen the Taj Mahal get just enough votes to get at the bottom of the top 10 list.

Although some private television channels are now calling upon people to vote, most people are yet to hear about the campaign.

A special composition by ace musician AR Rahman, 'India Unites for the Taj', to drum up support for the monument has come a little too late in the day.

And worst of all, many say, the Indian government remains completely aloof from the campaign."

I am not sure what this means to the country but I am not going to take chances with the National Pride. So, I casted my vote both via internet and mobile phone. So people if you have not voted, vote today by clicking here or send an SMS to 4567 with TAJ in the text.

Do not forget, today is the last date to vote. The New 7 Wonders of the World will be announced during the Official Declaration ceremony in Lisbon, Portugal on Saturday, July 7, 2007 - 07.07.07.

P.S: If you are voting via internet please check your email and confirm your vote by clicking on the link and providing the information requested. As soon as you do this, your vote will be counted.

Some Interesting Facts about Internet

1991

AUGUST 6 th : www was created by Tim Bernsley.

DEC 12th : First server started in America.

1993

APRIL 23 : Browser mosaic released in market to work on windows operating systems

APRIL 30 : Web was made available to all.

MAY : First magazine on net The Tech was created by Massachussets institute of technology.

JUNE : HTML -Hyper Text Markup Language was released

NOV : Web cam was created

1994

FEB : YAHOO was created by two stanford university students David Filoo and Jerry Yang. first it was called 'Jerrys guide to world wide web'.YAHOO means Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle

OCT 13 : Americal official website http://www.whitehouse.gov/ was started by president Bill Clinton

OCT 25 : Commercial advertisements started on internet.

1995

FEB : First radio station on internet started its 'radioHK'

JULY 1 : Amazon.com ws started for the sale of books online

JULY 4 : Hotmail - Email service started

AUG 24 : Internet Explorer was launched as a part of Windows 95 operating system.

DEC 15 : Multilingual search engine Alta Vista started

1996

AUG : This month world wide websites reached 3,42,081

1997

DEC 17 : Web commentator Jorn Borger created weblog which became Blog later on

1998

SEP : Google was started in a garage in California.

FEB 7 : Eight prominent websites including Yahoo and CNN were closed due to hacking

2001

FEB 15 : Jimmy Wales released online Encyclopedia - Wikipedia.

2003

APR 28 : Apple company 'itunes' started

2004

JUN : Web creator Tim Bernsley was given Britain white hood

NOV 9 : Due to open sourcing revolution, Mozilla Firefox was released

2006

AUG : Total number of websites on net is 9,26,15,362


340,282,366,920,938,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 : can u guess what is this number..................

in next three years there would be this much new websites

What's gone is 60 seconds?

Whenever I ask this question, I get the answer "Nothing" from most of the people. And you and I know that there isn't much we can lose in 60 seconds. Unless we are some Bill Gates or Steve Jobs kind of people. I am talking here about an average man/women in general and I agree that there are always exceptions.

I know you might be thinking where I am leading. Any guesses? hmmmm.........what else than my favorite topic " Hyderabad-Traffic-people" :-).

When ever I am on road the most common sight I get to see is, people jumping traffic signals. What I do not understand is, what is there so important for them to attend, that they cannot wait for 30 or 45 seconds? What they don't understand is they are putting their and some one else's life in danger by doing so.

Some people wait at the signal but they dash off before the light turns green. Can't we wait for 2 or 3 seconds for the light to go from red to orange and to green?

So, all said and done if you are a person who does not jump signals and keep your cool until the light turns to green, there will be some idiot at your back who keeps on honking expecting you to go ahead and jump the signal. Guys please don't let this honking heat you up and make you jump the signal. How much ever noise this idiot makes, stand your ground and do not move until the light turns to green. If need just point him to the red light ahead. Believe me this works!! 'cause I do the same always.

Guys, we all know that life and time are the only things once gone cannot be brought back. So when ever you are in a hurry and feel like rushing in the traffic, ask yourself one question, "What's gone is 60 seconds?". That will take care of all.

One thing that I always follow is, if you have an important appointment and have to make it on time at any cost. Why rush? just start a bit early so that you can reach at your destination on time.

So, when even you are in a hurry and rushing through the traffic ask your self, "What's gone is 60 seconds?". Whenever you see such people or know such people just tell them the same, tell them to ask for themselves one question "What's gone is 60 seconds?".

No power.......No mood....No post

Yesterday morning the Electrical Transformer of my office building broke and from that time the power was from a generator. Yesterday while I was leaving home there was no lights in the corridors, Stairs were dark without lights and the lifts were also not working. One thing I was glad that at least the A/C was working.

Today when I came to work, I realized that the A/C was not working. When I checked on it with security, I found that the Transformer was not fixed yet and they cannot run A/C any longer on Generator as they had brought in additional mobile generator to support the load on standard generator.

It's evening and still the Transformer is in the process of getting fixed and all of us at work are sweating inside as there aren't any windows that can be opened. It's very uneasy so sit in the middle of all the computers and servers which generate lot of heat. Adding to that, today only the sun is bright and strong.

So it was a dull, sweaty day at work today. I hope this power thing is fixed by tomorrow.

Some of the Best Moments in Life:

I got the above click @ Botanical Gardens, Hyderabad

* To fall in love.

* To laugh until it hurts your stomach.

* To find mails by the thousands when you return from a vacation.

* To go for a vacation to some pretty place.

* To listen to your favorite song in the radio.

* To go to bed and to listen while it rains outside.

* To leave the! shower and find that the towel is warm.

* To clear your last exam.

* To find money in a pant that you haven't used since last year .

* To laugh at yourself looking at mirror, making faces.

* Calls at midnight that last for hours.

* To laugh without a reason.

* To accidentally hear somebody say something good about you.

* To wake up and realize it is still possible to sleep for a couple of hours.

* To hear a song that makes you remember a special person.

* To be part of a team.

* To watch the sunset from the hill top.

* To make new friends.

* To feel butterflies! in the stomach every time that you see that person.

* To pass time with your best friends.

* To see people that you like, feeling happy.

* To use a sweater of the person that you like and find that it still smells of their perfume.

* See an old friend again and to feel that the things have not changed.

* To take an evening walk along the beach.

* To have somebody tell you that he/she loves you.

* To laugh .......laugh........and laugh ...... remembering stupid things done with stupid friends.

These are the best moments of life....Let us learn to cherish them.

"Life is not a problem to be solved, but a gift to be enjoyed"