Ask a Stupid Question Day!

Yes, can you believe it, there is even a day for asking a "Stupid Question" and that is today! Huh...

I always thought, who the hell comes up with all such 'Stupid days'?, haha, I guess this might be my stupid question for the day. The hype for such days started with Valentines Day and later came Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Grandparents Day and what not.

Taken our culture, I think that there is no need for all such days. Its because we do not need a specific day to thank/to show love to our parents or the person whom we love. We always do it and we can always spend some time for them when needed or when ever we can.

Coming to my initial question, Who the hell creates such 'days'?

These "Days" are created by companies, special interest groups, sports teams, and not to forget the major contributor the greeting card companies(including Ecards) by simply declaring it so.

It seems some of these "days" are created because there isn't anything going on a particular day, and the card companies need something for every day of the year to keep their business running. The vast majority of these are local, one-time events that do not capture much attention and are soon forgotten. Official or not, a number of these take hold, and show up year after year.
At least one individual or company has created a number of humorous "days". They created the day, copyrighted it (believe it or not, it's true), and then wrote a book describing them. These "days" were created simply for profit.

Let us have some insight on, Origin of Ask a Stupid Question Day:

The roots of this special day goes back to the 1980's. At the time, there was a movement by teachers to try to get kids to ask more questions in the classroom. Kids sometimes hold back, fearing their question is stupid, and asking it will result in ridicule.Teachers created this day on September 28, If it fell on a weekend, they would celebrate it on the last day of the month.

Check out some weirdest days that are celebrated:

Chocolate Cake Day (Who needs a day for this, I eat it when ever I like)
Beer Can Appreciation Day (Same thig goes here also, I can drink when ever I like)
National Inane Answering Message Day (Who cares!!)
Clean out Your Computer Day (one in a year, come on)
Walking the Dog Day (If you dont walk, you have to clean its S&^%)
National Potato Chip Day ($$%^*&* &*&* &*%&^)
National Indian Pudding Day (No comments)
I Forgot Day (Holycow)
Father-in-Law Day (Hmmmm.....)
Walk Around Things Day (we do that daily, what crap)
Tell a Lie Day (It should be the other way, tell a truth)
Draw a Picture of a Bird Day (Who wants to draw a picture of a bird)
Rubber Eraser Day (Can some one erase this one)
Richter Scale Day (Wow....that shakes me off my feet!!)
Hairstyle Appreciation Day (hair today gone tomorrow)
Bad Poetry Day (Wanna try mine? he he he)

For the complete list of such days, click here. Now that all the days are over people have started celebrating months.........God save me.........Keep us away from such crap!!

Important FYI's:

FYI 1:

The Supreme Court has ruled that all injured persons especially in the case of road traffic accidents, assaults, etc., when brought to a hospital / medical centre, have to be offered first aid, stabilized and shifted to a higher centre / government centre if required.

It is only after this that the hospital can demand payment or complete police formalities.
In case you are a bystander and wish to help someone in an accident, please go ahead and do so.
Your responsibility ends as soon as you leave the person at the hospital. The hospital bears the responsibility of informing the police, first aid, etc.

Please do inform your family and friends about these basic rights so that we all know what to expect and what to do in the hour of need.

So Folks …..Here after don’t hesitate to help the victims of an accident in case if u encounter…raise Ur helping hands …..

FYI 2:

Heart surgery - free of cost. It could help someone.

Here are more details:

Website: http://www.sssihms.org.in/

Contact:
Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences,
E.P.I.P. Area, WhiteField,
Bangalore. 560 066, Karnataka,
INDIA .

Telephone: +91- 080- 28411500
Fax: +91 - 080- 28411502

Employment related: +91- 080- 28411500 Ext. 415

Email General Queries: adminblr@sssihms.org.in

Here is the institute's healthcare mission.

FYI 3:

Have u ever heard about LPG cylinder's expire date.

How to find LPG cylinder's expiry date?
Do you know that there is an expiry date (physical life) for LPG Cylinders?

Expired Cylinders are not safe for use and may cause accidents. In this regard please be cautious at the time of accepting any LPG cylinder from the vendor.

Here is how we can check the expiry of LPG cylinders:
On one of three side stems of the cylinder, the expiry date is coded
alpha numerically as follows A or B or C or D and some two digit number following this e.g. D06.

The alphabets stand for quarters -
A for March (First Qtr)
B for June (Second Qtr)
C for Sept (Third Qtr)
D for December (Fourth Qtr)

The digits stand for the year till it is valid.
Hence D06 would mean December qtr of 2006.

Please do not accept the cylinder if the date has already expired.
"A" stands for the first quarter i.e. January to March and
"07" stands for the present year 2007.

We all were still confused with the terms used above.

A-07 indicates the expiry life of cylinder and not the GAS filled in it. This cylinder should not be used and returned to the gas dealer. Expired Cylinders are not safe for use and may cause accidents. ALL concerned should take necessary steps.

If you have any other important FYI's that can help us in our daily life, please do email me @ bharani.surineni@gmail.com, I will be glad to post them to share it with everyone.

Safe farewell to lord Ganesha

Amidst thousands of Cops and para military forces, we bid adieu to Lord Ganesha yesterday. People who were on the roads yesterday has to say that there were more cops on the roads than devotees. All this due to the bomb threat during this period and few unsocial activities happening in the recent past.

As the saying goes, all is good that ends good. The fare well to Ganesha went on peacefully without any discord. Also, the rain god showering his blessings in the evening brought in fresh and extra enthusiasm in the devotees.

Coming to me, office declared holiday for Ganesh Visarjan as roads will be blocked due to the processions on the roads and might be also due to the bomb scare. So, having no were to go I stuck to my routine - eat, sleep, watch movies, music and sleep.

At last, one thing that went on without any problems in this Government......Phew!!

Nerve wrecking...Nail biting ...Spine chilling

What else can happen and what more can a cricket fan want? Its a dream come true for all the cricket fans on the planet when arch rivals India and Pakistan play for the World T20 cup!!

Match was to start at 5.30 PM India time and by 5 PM most of the seats in our office were empty, including mine ;-). I am sure its the same case in most of the work places. I rushed home through the Traffic and crashed on the couch in front of the TV with a big bowl of pop corn in my hands.

The innings started with India batting, which was slow in the initial stages with couple of wickets down. But towards the end of 20 overs India pooled up a decent score and it was up to the Indian bowlers to bowl out Pakistan within the target.

Pakistan at midway lost half the wickets and the match was almost in the favour of India. But with few sixes Pakistan was back in the game and the target looked easier to reach. The only option for India was to pick wickets and at this point every Indian was praying for a fall of wicket siting at the edge of their seats. With the decreasing number of balls and runs to win the pulse of every Indian rose to the peak.

And at the end, India lifted the T20 World Cup playing against none other than Pakistan.

Congratulations to the Team India and every Indian.....Way to Go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rocking weekend!!

When I say "Rocking Weekend", it literally was a Rocking one. This Sunday morning, our gang(Vivek, Srikanth, Sajjad, his son(Saif) daughter(Afra), his friend Raghu and me) drove into the rocky hills which come up few kilometers after Bachpally for our weekly Photography Expedition.

This time my equipment was missing as my Sony H2 had problem with auto focusing for the third time in past 6 months, and I had to give it for servicing. Event without my camera I had a blast "on the rocks" and enjoyed my Sunday morning to the max.

With Sajjad in our gang we get to see some amazing jumps from him and sometimes we also get inspired from him. These jumps pumped enough adrenaline into my body which I can relish for the entire week. This was a bit milder than our decent in, The Day I Lived Again but unique in its own way. Any slip on our trek would have surely resulted in some broken bones. But no casualties, except for some regular bruises and we are ready for the next weekend.

As I said, my camera was missing and it was a good reason for me to spend much time with the rocks. All the photographs below are clicked by Vivek.

Me preparing mentally for the jump:

Aaaaand there I go........................:


Me Doing Superman on top of the hill:

Sajjad doing his usual Spider Man stuff:


Afra, Saif and Raghu trying the Mission Impossible climb:


Passing on the equipment:

One more jump where I trashed my fear to death:

Pondering on the climb - Me, Vivek and Sajjad(L to R):

It was a tiresome climb and decent:

Orange --> Pink --> Red

These are not the colors to which my face changed, travelling daily in Hyderabad Traffic nor the colors of my new dress(FYI: I never wore these colours). These are the colors changed by a company represented by a cute Pug. If you are still wondering about what I am talking, its Hutch.

Hutch entered the mobile market with bright Orange color, changed to Pink couple of months back and with Vodafone acquiring the company, the color now changed to Red.

If you are a regular follower of business news, in recent past we might have noticed many mergers and takeovers. Kanbay Taken over by CapGemini, Arcelor taken over by Mittal Steel and Corus taken over by Tata Steel being the major ones. There has been a rumor in the industry that Infosys is going to take over CapGemini few weeks back and news that Tata is bidding to take over Jaguar and Land Rover.So, out there its always bigger fish eating the smaller ones. Many big companies grew bigger and bigger through acquisitions, for example: Google, Microsoft, AOL, CA, EarthLink, Motorala, General Motors, Ford and many more. Almost Every company big and small did it in the past and many are still doing it, to be ahead in the race called business.

Sometimes these mergers do not go as planned as in the case of VisualSoft and AppLabs and sometimes not so employee friendly, for example Oracle fired thousands of employees during their merger with PeopleSoft. So, a merger can be good or bad - depends on what perspective you are looking at.

As far as I know, one thumb rule always rules in this cut throat competition , "Only the best of the best survive"!

My new set of photographs!

Afra and Snoopy. Complete set of photographs @ Flickr and Picassa

Its been a while I posted a set of photographs taken by me. Today I got some time to post the complete set of photographs from our Photography Expedition, More encounters with class reptelia.

If you read the post before looking at the photographs, you will get to know the mood that we were in while clicking these photographs.

Datura flower- up close

Complete set of photographs @ Flickr and Picassa