"Come to the edge."
"We can't. We're afraid."
"Come to the edge."
"We can't. We will fall!"
"Come to the edge."
And they came.
And he pushed them.
And they flew.


Family and friends are the driving forces for any person. They are there in every season of life, to encourage, promote, push, prop, cox. These are the people who are responsible for your smiles
and they are they ones, who turn your tears into bundles of laughter. Blessed is the person who has
these wonderful people in their lives.

Blessed is me for having a wonderful family and a great bunch of friends. Thanks guys for making my
day the most memorable one. Each Birthday has its own charm, and its difficult to rate them on any scale. What matters most is the wishes and the thots that it carries. Any amount of thanks is not going to make up for the love i receive from all. But still...thanks everyone.

As another New Year begins...

I seek from the Almighty
Peace, Serenity, Happiness, Love for my family, friends, near and dear ones. May All their wishes come true!

I seek to be a
Better human being, and not fall on my duty towards my people.

I seek thy blessings My Lord,
Help me be a person of substance and be of utilitarian value to everyone as and when they need me.

I seek not
To loose the child in me and live not for tomorrow but for today.

I thank thee for
Giving me the wonderful family, friends and making me what I am today.
Give me to strength to live up to their expectations.

Everyday year on this day, I remind myself and thank God and Parents, especially on this day, for bring me to this world and letting me know what a beautiful place it is to live in. Thanks a ton everyone :)

Get to know more about Her Majesty's Agent

The best medicine of life....laughter...it sure can do wonders to any person. Read this news report

This is one story which has time and again made me smile, here's getting u also do it :

Once upon a time the colors of the world started to quarrel. All claimed that they were the best. The most important.The most useful The favorite.

GREEN said: "Clearly I am the most important. I am the sign of life and of hope. I Was chosen for grass, trees and leaves. Without me, all animals would die. Look over the countryside and you will see that I am in the majority."

BLUE interrupted: "You only think about the earth, but consider the sky and the sea. It is the water that is the basis of life and drawn up by the clouds from the deep sea. The sky gives space and peace and serenity. Without my peace, you would all be nothing."

ORANGE started next to blow her trumpet: "I am the color of health and strength. I may be scarce, but I am precious for I serve the needs of human life. I carry the most important vitamins. Think of carrots, pumpkins, oranges, mangoes, and pawpaws. I don't hang around all the time, but when I fill the sky at sunrise or sunset, my beauty is so striking that no one gives another thought to any of you."

YELLOW chuckled: "You are all so serious. I bring laughter, gaiety, and warmth into the world. The sun is yellow, the moon is yellow, and the stars are yellow. Every time you look at a sunflower, the whole world starts to smile. Without me there would be no fun."

RED could stand it no longer he shouted out: "I am the ruler of all of you. I am blood - life's blood! I am the color of danger and of bravery. I am willing to fight for a cause. I bring fire into the blood. Without me, the earth would be as empty as the moon. I am the color of passion and of love, the red rose, the poinsettia and the poppy."

PURPLE rose up to his full height: He was very tall and spoke with great pomp: "I am the color of royalty and power. Kings, chiefs, and bishops have always chosen me for I am the sign of authority and wisdom. People do not question me! They listen and obey."

Finally INDIGO spoke, much more quietly than all the others, but with just as much determination: "Think of me. I am the color of silence. You hardly notice me, but without me you all become superficial. I represent thought and reflection, twilight and deep water. You need me for balance and contrast, for prayer and inner peace."

And so the colors went on boasting, each convinced of his or her own superiority. Their quarreling became louder and louder. Suddenly there was a startling flash of bright lightening thunder rolled and boomed. Rain started to pour down relentlessly. The colors crouched down in fear, drawing close to one another for comfort. In the midst of the clamor, rain began to speak: "You foolish colors, fighting amongst yourselves, each trying to dominate the rest. Don't you know that you were each made for a special purpose, Unique and different? Join hands with one another and come to me."

Doing as they were told, the colors united and joined hands. The rain continued: "From now on, when it rains, each of you will stretch across the sky in a great bow of color as a reminder that you can all live in peace. The Rainbow is a sign of hope for tomorrow." And so, whenever a good rain-washes the world, and a Rainbow appears in the sky, let us remember to appreciate one another. In my search for the Rainbows end, I found, not GOLD, but you my friend.

The weekend was one of the memorable ones in the recent past. Friday i was the perfect example of "If things have to go wrong, they will". There was no way i could stop the fury of nature on me. Nothing was going as per the plans or in my favour. I was totally stressed and was looking forward for the Stress Management training for which i was nominated. All of us have to attend 8 days training and this was my last day at learning experience for the year.

I reach home after indulging into some shopping, famished to death. I relax and was served a big bowl of kheer (i got a real sweet tooth), when i get a call asking me if i am game to watch Kaante, with the warning that a NO will not be taken as a answer. I generally don't go for late night shows, but this was close to home and my sister was more excited than me. so there i land, with a growling tummy, since the movie was to start in the next 10 mins. The movie was good, the best character was Mahesh Manjrekar, he deserves a big applaud and a award, is what we all concluded at. Also, the best profession to be in is that of a Software Professional is what my buddies told me.

I had to sacrifice my Saturday sleep and be at office by 7:30 a.m. Too much of an ordeal since it is pretty chill early in the day. We were a group of 23 people, all land at a resort in town to get de-stressed. After a good breakfast, we made ourselves comfortable for the entire days proceedings. Our tutor was Dr. Thimappa Hegde, a accomplished Neuro Surgeon from NIMHANS. He reiterated the fact that, we need to have an Attitide of Gratitude, the thot of being lucky, which is very important in life. Focus in life should not be on what we don't have. Reverse the stamen and work from that altitude and it will make a great difference in life. The entire session was intercepted with games, exercises and how the entire day went is still a big question mark. I can go on and on about the session, but let me hold my horses here.

Sunday i was at the Maruti Women Power Drive, organized exclusively for the ladies of Bangalore. The driver and navigator had to be women. Thanks to Arun, who forwarded the mail, my sister was more excited than me about the entire treasure hunt kinds drive. The prizes were lucrative as well. First prize Rs. 20K, 2nd, Kenwood Stereo system, 3rd Nippon car lock system. i enjoyed the entire drive, but did not win any of the mentioned prizes. It was fun to be driving at a slow speed and one thing i got to know was the different roads of Bangalore. Am a total alien at South Bangalore, i got to know, quite a huge stretch of this town.

An eventful weekend right? Here i am all set for a tight end of the year week and looking forward for next Monday. ;)

Happy Weekend!!

A typical conversation between my brother and me:

Me: Is marriage really necessary...why can I not live life just the way I want...like a loner, doing what I like?
Brother: U will feel the need for a partner at some point of time, someone u can fall back on....and more over we are bound by norms of the Society...duniya ki reet hai...
Me: Aww damn the society, they only know to pin point fingers at us and say, this is right, this is wrong...damn them
Brother: Baby, we cannot rule out stuff....u know we got to follow the social cycle. Marriage is an integral part of life.
Me:Ok, but why this exhibition ceremony, u know, its so stupid to be sitting there, when some n-number of eyes are staring at, u as though u r a UFO, I don't like it brother?
Brother: I understand dear, but that's the way it is.
Me: Damn the system...wish I could change the system...humph!

And this argument, happens each time there is a proposal and the Groom hunt intensifies...life goes on...whether u like it or not!

Was at the British Library on Monday, on the occasion of they shifting to new premises. Entry was on invitation and there were, not to mention, loads and loads of press members, who were there to witness the new setup. It was a nice little gathering; the new set up is a neat one, which has quite a number of terminals to check the various services on the net. Laptop users have a chance to rejoice they can plug in and use their laptops. Another attraction is the Young Learner's Club, which is an entire section devoted to kids, the future of the country.

A few members were offered honorary membership. One amongst them was Michael Victor, the very first member of the Young Learner's Club. This little boy, who must be aged between 10-12, was seated at the last row with his Ma. I was observing him since he was the only kid around and he had this huge grin on his face, which said, Am Special in my own way. And when his name was called out, very shyly, with his head bent, suppressing the grin which was becoming wider by the minute he walks up, takes the memento and walks back. The grin, the shyness and the yes I have done it contentment look on his face. And like the biggest trophy he had won, he shows it off to his Mom and she also looked so thrilled at the achievements of her little one.

For an adult, this must be just another thing in his successful life, but am sure Michael is going to cherish that moment all his life. How small things in life mean so much while we are kids? How easily we just let the adulthood take over us...

A new tangent to the blogging..just read a news article which says Blogging for eBusiness

So folks, lets talk eBusiness ;)

Every language has its own beauty, the way feelings are expressed through words is marvellous. Urdu is known for its flow and sweetness, especially when u r a shayari freak. Mirza Ghalib, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Kaifi Azmi, Iqbal(one who penned Sare Jahan se acha), Gulzar, Javeed Akhtar and lots lots more have been wonderful writers.

The couplet below penned by Gulzar are my favourite ones. They are etched in memory and i feel so really good on reading it.

Quran haatho.n me.n leke naabiinaa ek namaazii labo.n pe rakhataa thaa
dono.n aa.Nkho.n se chuumataa thaa jhukaake peshaanii yuu.N aqiidat se chhuu rahaa thaa
jo aayat.n pa.Dh nahii.n sakaa un ke lams mahasuus kar rahaa ho
Gulzar
(lams - touch, naabiina - blind man)

What it means is, "A blindman takes the Holy Koran in his hands, and keeps on his lips. He kissed the holy books with his eyes and with respect he touched it.
Whatever verses he could not read, he was trying to feel them through the touch!"

Maybe one day i shall post some more of these writing...:)

Sundays are time to just lazy around, with some good music and a nice book to read. Sundays have been redefined with the onslaught of FM Radio. For people like me who love to listen to old Hindi numbers, its a wonderful day. Listeners gets treated to some great old numbers, which will transport u to a different world alltogether. Now not all like to listen to the radio, there is the idiot box to be viewed as well...*humph*...God Bless Akio Morita for have created the walkman...what bliss. :)

Some lovely songs of Shalinder are being played, good old numbers from Raj kappor movies. Song right now is "tu pyaar ka sagar hai" from movie "Seema"...wish we had these meaningful songs made again for these days, instead of remixes...:(

As i wait for my group to come together for lunch, i loaf around the web and take some tests. Ofcourse i get to these links through some blogs.



Morning, day, or night? quiz by maikamariel

This one takes the cake, says "You're pretty smart, maybe even smarter than average. If you work hard you could be a rocket scientist or a chemical engineer, but you might just relax a bit and be okay with whatever your best is, too.

Quite a few times i just feel like going on a long drive, and guess where, to the stars, to the moon and to the other celestial bodies. Mars would be my first stop.

Four finalists for Mars exploration (sad am not one amongst them...i tell myself, better luck next time),
Mysterious Trails Found on Mars (are those my footprints...??? look closely again...:-D)

Now, now, am i not drifting into a different world...yes i am. And before i start my expedition, lemme come back to mother earth.

Happy weekend fellas.

Imagination...a attribute which each and every human being is born with. But why don't all of us use it?

Why don't we just let our mind run wild and come up with something great and exquisite....think think and think louder

My heights of forgetfulness or do u call it absent-mindedness...Read and then let me know if its foolishness, absent-mindedness or plain forgetfulness. These are the samples; they can get worse at times.

Put the key in the ignition and hunt all across the world saying, where the hell are my keys?
Prop the sun glass on ur head and ask for where are my glasses, I just left them here.
Fire printouts and just forget to pick them from the printer.
Get so engrossed in reading a book, that u forget that there is milk boiling all over the kitchen (I do this time and again)
Safely keep the papers in the Locker and hunt for it in all possible places, except the locker.

Will update the list as and when i remember. ;)

Its not that I have a real bad memory, but then I miss small thing at times when I am deep in thot or when my mind is engrossed in deep activity. Guess it part of the learning process.

There are so many things, which I want to write and say, but somehow am yet to get back my concentration and devotion towards blog writing. Some thing or the other dithers me from coming back to blogging. And to make things work, am in such lousy mood from afternoon. A few follow up jobs had to be done, which I had left on the responsible shoulders of my fellow-workers, but each one of them decided to take it easy, and I am facing the same tasks which were left unfinished by me. What they say is right, do ur own job, delegation is not right?

Wish we could make our clones at the snap of our finger...just like that. Would things be easy, Guess they would have been more complicated. ;)

Holidays have come to an end and back to work. After the initial rounds of reading mails, now is the time to reply back. And i have so much of reading to do on the previous 10 days blog. Guess i will have to stop writing and start reading now :)

Guys,

Thanks just seems to be a very small word. Am really really touched, by reading all ur messages for my Dad to get well soon Good news is Dad is back home and we all hope to have a great Eid. Someone told me am a Dodo, becoz the message really brought tears to my eyes. Dad would be equally thrilled to hear about the addition prayers he has got. Maybe that's what helped him in his speedy recovery.

Heres wishing all u Happy Eid. May the Almighty bless each one of us with good health, cheer and happiness.

So long folks!

A Beautiful Prayer

I asked God to take away my habit.God said, No.It is not for me to take away,but for you to give it up.
I asked God to make ay handicapped child whole.God said, No.His spirit is whole, his body is only temporary
I asked God to grant me patience.God said, No.Patience is a byproduct of tribulations; it isn't granted, it is learned.
I asked God to give me happiness.God said, No.I give you blessings; Happiness is up to you.
I asked God to spare me pain.God said, No.Suffering draws you apart from worldly cares and brings you closer to me.
I asked God to make my spirit grow.God said, No.You must grow on your own! ,but I will prune you to make you fruitful.
I asked God for all things that I might enjoy life.God said, No.I will give you life, so that you may enjoy all things.
I ask God to help me LOVE others, as much as He loves me. God said...Ahhhh, finally you have the idea.

Seven Guys and One Gal

It was Sunday and I was waiting for the clock to strike 6 p.m. to be there at the Blogger's meet. But there was a hitch, I had to break my fast and go, and that would take sometime. Had anyway told Arun about it. So at 6:20, I zoom out in my Maruti (and still some people think it’s a Toy car). On a day when u want to reach early, all trouble comes ur way. A huge traffic jam, at that very moment, Arun calls to ask, where am I? In the next 10 minutes, there I was at Bombay Stores.

The first person I see is Arun, knew that it was him right away, he had the Camera dangling in his hand. And the rest of the gang sitting there. First thing Harry questions is the color of my bag. I had lead these guys on a wild goose chase by telling them that I shall walk in with a beige bag. There was a lot of discussion as to the color of my bag, but I still say its beige. :) All said and done, the entire crowd, Arun, Harris, Suresh (God), Satish, Anand, Indra and ofcourse, me the great, walked over to the cafe inside Bombay Store. The conversation just picked up, what made u blog, who was responsible for ur start blah blah. There was our Harris asking each one of us questions like, do u like big comments or something small and funny. Also the question of do big blogs interest u were debated. And suddenly, the parent in Satish, took over, and he walked away into the fading sunlight, promising to stay in touch. After all, duty calls. The photographer in Arun, was waiting to lay his hands on the gadget and before Satish could say Good Bye.

After the first round at Coffee Day, we decided to take a walk down MG Road and see if there was something to eat. We stopped in front of Lakeview. But God said No! No one had the nerve to tell God come on, we can go here. God said ICH (India Coffee House) and the crowd moved on. Meanwhile talking and exploring each other's views and tastes. We walk into ICH, unwelcome guests, that guy has about half an hour to close shop. He bangs the menu card and says, Quick order! Now that was a Tall Order. God immediately decided and the rest of the group followed suit, minus Harris and Me. Harris had a Cadmium battery to charge himself, (please check with him for further details.). We requested the guy next table to please click a snap of ours, to which he obliged. Guess Arun feels that this may not be a good one, right Arun?

The blogger community of Bangalore, has come to the following conclusion

1. Create a community blog, which will be the first of its kind(I suppose)
2. 8 are a good number for the first blogger’s meet. We hope more people join us soon. Are u listening floatingcreeper/Kartik?
3. His Highness Maltesh would be there at the next Bangalore Blogger's meet.
4. Princess Suku comes back to blogging ASAP
5. Arun would post the photographs ASAP, maybe even use Anand’s site for hosting the pics.
6. Everyone agreed that Tania’s blog on the Groom hunt was the best one in the past few days.

Slowly the group drifted into their own world. It was time to say Good Bye and till we meet again, here's three cheers to the Bangalore Bloggers. Thanks Guys for being there and making it possible. It was great meeting u and I hope we meet again very soon.

Cya later Alligator :)

P.S:U could also read another report on the same meet on Harris's Blog.

No post for today, very busy with work. Life should be back to normal, once i return from my vacation. Yes, am taking a 10 day break to stay at home for the last few days of Ramadan. Am i looking forward to it...u bet i am :)

Have a great weekend people!

Looks like this weekend is gonna be great. After all its the Bangalore Bloggers meet. 7 confirmations till now. Hope there are more and more people.
Just cannot wait for the weekend to begin.

No long posts today, got loads to do at work, and there is the cricket match to follow as well. Lets hope our boys do a good job. After all 202 is not a big score...Hers wishing them luck :)

Guess each one has certain phobia, but I have a real strange phobia. Am shit scared of dolls, be they teddies, stuffed toys, etc etc. Wonder how I caught up with it, but the sight of a Teddy Bear or a Doll or a stuffed doll, makes me run at the speed of light. Everyone ridicules me for this strange fear. My cousins love to tease me, with the n-number of stuffed toys they have. Friends always threaten to buy me a teddy bear, so on and so forth. So very unlike a girl is what they say. But I HATE those stupid toys.

Now this uncanny fear that has been growing with me from ages, has always put me in embarrassing situations. Once, a big gang, about 15-20 of my cousins and me (age group of 7 to mid 20's) walked into this big store on Brigade Road (Bangalore). Since I was the leader of the whole pack, I told me to go their way and very cautiously (as always), avoiding the stuff toys section, I go to the place where u have some books etc. Now these fellas, headed by eldest male, decided play trick with me. Me as busy as every, reading a fairytale, when suddenly I see there is darkness in front of me, thinking the lights might have gone, I look up to see, a big black Doberman, and lo! I scream at the top of my voice. Everyone in the store started wondering what the hell is happening; least they expect a girl to scream at the sight of stuffed toys. All eyes to the section from where the scream originated. Now this backfired on my dear cousins, and they did not know how to react to the sudden attention that was on bestowed on us. All we did was gather all our folks and march out of the store. Phew! It was a stupid situation and then these little ones, apologizing for what they did.

Once we all landed at the famous Kemp fort, this place is full of guys, who dress up as cartoon characters. Now how do I get into that damn place, without these characters noticing? They love to shake hands with people entering the store. Somehow I sneaked in, hiding myself behind my brother-in-law. Once inside I thot I would not have to worry about these pesty characters bothering me. No, that was not the case. One fella dressed as Mickey Mouse, starts walking with us, since we had about 2-3 kids along with us. And me trying to dodge was another scene. Another character dressed as an animal or so, started chasing me and reluctantly I had to let our another scream. I jumped into the lift and was out of the store, waiting for my folks to finish their shopping without having to worry about me scream at the sight at these characters.

Strange it may sound, but I just cannot stand the sight of the toys. After these episodes, I have atleast decided not to put people with me in a bad position. But then they somehow invite trouble by teasing me and there is no way I can control my shrieking. :)

Hear Hear Hear, fellow bloggers of Bangalore. Lets give some competition to the mumbaiya's...Don't u think we should all meet, after having read each other's blog's and comments. Do get in touch with Arun or me to get the ball rolling.

Noteable quotes which were gracefully dumped to my mail box today. Thanks to the person who sent it, has been a eye-opener. Read on...

Three things of life once gone never comes back - Time, words & opportunity - Use them rightfully.
Three things of life must not be lost - Peace, hope & honesty - Preserve them carefully.
Three things of life are most valuable - Love, self-confidence & friends - Never loose them.
Three things of life are never sure - Dreams, success & fortune - Dont Take them for granted.
Three things make a man - Hard work, sincerity & success - Accept them.
Three things of life that destroy a man - Wine, pride & anger - Wean from them.
Failure doesn't mean - You are a failure, It means - You have not succeeded
Failure doesn't mean - You accomplished nothing, It means - You have learned something
Failure doesn't mean - That you have been a fool, It means - You had a lot of faith.
Failure doesn't mean - You've been disgraced., It means you were willing to try
Failure doesn't mean - You don't have it, It means - You have to do something in a different way.
Failure doesn't mean - You are inferior, It means - You are not perfect.
Failure doesn't mean - You've wasted your life, It means - You have a reason to start afresh
Failure doesn't mean - You should give up, It means - You must try harder
Failure doesn't mean - You'll never make it, It means - It will take a little longer.

A man kissed 11 king cobra's and created a world record. AXN and its frightening shows. Phew! This happened on Guinness book of world records. As soon as this guy, Cordon Cates (I hope I am right?), picks a snake, it goes hiss hiss hiss. Some how he bends down and plants a lovely kiss and the snake is all subdued, wondering what the heck is happening. Ultimately he picks a 15-foot long snake and with great difficulty, seals a kiss on to the dangerous King Cobra. Phew! The entire crowds, on the set and off the set, were aghast at this strange show. Strange are the ways of people, they just come up with stuff, u would not even have dreamt about. And perform these stunts as though they have been born to do it. Sheer courage.

Now u know how my weekend went by. TV, TV and TV. After a long time, i spent my valuable time in front of the idiot box. Another thing i did was, sleep. Slept like a log. And its effect on me today, i am dozing at work. Wake up lady is what i tell myself, time and again. :)

Was reading a Professional Journal and jumped out of my chair when i see this huge write up on Blog by Greg Notess in Online Magazine. Which goes on to say that the blog regin will be a very good sharing of information. Well Mr. Notess, we are already doing that, is what i intend to tell him, in a mail which i am sending very soon. (How soon don't ask?) ;-)

Happy Weekend to all of u!...ciao

They say, God created the world in seven days, and this is my 7th attempt at a proper blog today. Am not comparing myself to the Creator, but i am just testing the theory, since this is my seventh try at writing a blog today. Here i go.

This morning was a pleasant sight, little kidos, walking to school, brightly attired, happy and gay. Enjoying the burden-less walk, smile on the face and a hope that they are not going to be burdened with home work. Guess most of the schools today, would just have games and such things for kid.

On seeing these kidos, the kid in me did a somersault. I have been ignoring her from a long time. Trying to put up an image of am an adult now....nope, very much a kid at heart...heee...is what i suddenly realized and then an immediate pledge, i shall never let the kid in me die a slow death.

How very easily, we let Childhood slip away from us? When we are kids we want to be teenagers and then the aspiration to be a adult. Then we keep wondering what days better than that of a kid. No worry under the sun. The greatest worry is of doing home-work and tests.....Memories and memories.

Guys, lets let the child in us, never over take the adult.
HAPPPPPYYY CHILDRENS' DAY...........

Strange are the ways we get involved into conversation. Today we suddenly started talking about death. A hard reality of life. It all started with the story of a colleagues Dad passing away in sleep. We started thinking aloud. One said, sleep is equivalent to death. How very true. When you sleep there is no guarantee that you will wake up to see the rising sun. But the optimist that a human being is, plans for so many things. How innocent you say, yes he is, but a very hopeful being.

Maybe one day i will make a check list of my bank accounts, my dues, my debts(including treats i owe to so many people), things which belong to me, what is where etc etc. People around should not curse me after death, saying, Where the hell are her drawer keys, where is her ATM pin number, etc etc. But before all that i wish and pray that i have a peaceful death, without worry to anyone.

But the thought of death most of the times, sends a cold shiver down the spine. God Bless all of us.

There are many many lessons which we learn in life. Through good times and bad, but we come out of this, better equipped with great experiences in life. Life is a School from cradle to grave and Time the best teacher anyone can have. Lessons in life just keep happening if u r a good student or bad. Something which i read today and so very relevant.

I've learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it may be better tomorrow.
I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles a rainy day and lost luggage.
I've learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you'll miss them when they're gone from your life.
I've learned that making a"living"is not the same thing as making a "life."
I've learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance.
I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands. You need to be able to throw something back.
I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.
I've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one.
I've learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone.
People love that human touch - holding hands, a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.
I've learned that I still have a lot to learn

May all of us be better students of life!

Am feeling pretty elated at this moment, Nilesh just wrote in to say he has started his own blog and that he has been inspired by my blog. Feels great ek dum great.

Welcome to the blogger land Nilesh :))

The weekend came and went, and it just does not feel like there was a weekend, guess the negative effect of having worked on a Saturday. Let me tell u it was such a lazy day and there was absolutely nil productivity from each one of us. The weather complimented our lazy moods. It has been raining at regular intervals from Saturday and the rain gods didn’t spare Sunday too. Its sucha boring weather, all u feel like doing is, curl up in bed with eateries all around u and read to ur heart's content.... But it is fasting time and no such thots to reach the head...

And its Monday, time to start a new week and loads and loads of work pending...Have a nice week ahead fella's.

Day 1 of Ramadan went on very well. Peace, calmness and serenity seem to be slowly increasing by the second. The entire idea of keeping away from bad thots really works fine. Its Friday, but the TGIF feeling has not set, maybe because we are working tomorrow, yes since we were given a holiday on Monday...sad but not bad.

Today at precisely 1300 Eastern Time, I was supposed to be in Czech Republic for a seminar. My junior at IISc and me wrote a paper on the publishing trends in India for a seminar on Electronic Publications. We wrote the abstract and sent it sometime in March/April 02 and lo! Our paper was shortlisted. We were beaming and sat to do our homework to make the paper a good one. We did put in our hardwork, but the catch was, either one of the authors has to be present at the seminar. Tragedy is that neither of us could make it. Cost of the conference is quite high and we could not find a sponsor as well. Bad that we lost a chance of representing our country. For a while, the thot has been lingering in my mind, saying wish I could go there. But at the end of the day, it’s an ok feeling. After all whatever happens, happens for the good of it.

Last year one of my papers was selected at an International Conference, but for a poster session, but the conference happened in Bangalore, so it was not much problem to be attending the same. This was my first full paper for an International conference, and it went like a flop show. The organizers have refused to include it in the seminar proceedings. The thot of it makes me sad.........

From yesterday Muslim all over the world have started observing fast which is done during Ramadan(Ramadan and Ramazan both mean the same, just the "da", in Arabic script and "za" in Urdu script which differentiate it!), the 9th month of the lunar calendar followed by the Islamic world. Each month begins with a sighting of the moon’s crescent and lasts 29 or 30 days until a sighting of the next month’s crescent. Due to a difference of interpretation, some Muslims may begin and end Ramadan a day before the others. There are various interpretations as for the sighting of the moon. Since neither interpretation rejects the Islamic sources, Muslims remain one international community despite this interpretive variety.

Ramadan is that time of year when Muslims recharge their spiritual batteries. For a whole month they fast from dawn to sunset, and offer additional prayers at night. After the end of Ramadan comes one of the two Muslim festivals, a day of Eid. On this day Muslims thank God for his guidance and grace in helping them to control their baser desires and fulfill their spiritual needs.

Ramadan is the month in which the Qur’an was revealed as a guidance for all mankind. It is a criterion by which to distinguish truth from falsehood. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), said that on each day of Ramadan God frees many souls from the fire of Hell. Fasting is a major feature of Ramadan. Many religions recognize the benefits of fasting, but only Islam institutes a month of it to secure its benefits for all its adherents. God prescribes in His book that all able-bodied Muslims must fast. This will develop in them a consciousness that will help them towards right conduct and prevent them from wrongdoing.

Fasting is deemed as one of the pillars of Islam. The 5 pillars of Islam are
1. Declaration of the oness of the Creator, 2. Establishing of Prayers,
3. The Zakath, which is Is devoting worship to Allaah by offering the obligatory prescribed amount of charity deducted from the wealth upon which Zakkat is due. Some of its Benefits are: purifying the self from immoral characteristics like misery, and fulfilling the needs of Islaam and Muslims. 4. Fasting and 5. Pilgrimage

Fasting is not just refraining from food. There are formal and informal aspects of the fast, both the aspects which are of great importance. The formal aspects include abstaining from food, drink, and sexual intercourse. The informal aspects of the fast are just as important. The fasting person must abstain from lying, cheating, argumentation, fighting, foul language and every sort of evil. In this month one has to cultivate a lasting awareness of God, and a keen sense to observe his commandments throughout the year. Another one important preaching of Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) is that if someone does not give up falsehood in speech and actions, God has no need for such a one to give up his food and drink.

Benefits of fasting can be listed as Spiritual, Medical and Psychological benefits

Spiritual and medical benefits of fasting : Fasting is a special act of worship that is between a human and God only, since no one else can know for sure whether or not we are actually fasting. It is our experience that the temptations and ways of the world tend to spoil our purity and austerity. But let me tell u we don't fast to benefit from these issues. though this is a good chance for people to reduce weight, giving rest to the digestive tract, and lowering lipids.

Ramadan is a month of self-regulation and training that carries the hope that its benefits. The basic difference between days when Muslims are fasting and when they are not fasting is the timing of our meals; during Ramadan, we have an early breakfast and then we do not eat or drink again until dusk (basically, we skip lunch).

The physiological effects of fasting include a lowering of blood sugar, cholesterol levels, and the systolic blood pressure. In fact, Ramadan fasting would be an ideal recommendation for the treatment of mild to moderate, stable, non-insulin diabetes; obesity; and essential hypertension.
There is a physical benefit from increased prayer at night as well. It not only facilitates better utilization of food, but it also increases energy output. An extra 10 calories are expended for each unit of prayer. Again, we do not perform our prayers for the exercise; however, a mild movement of the joints accompanied by additional caloric utilization is beneficial.

Psychological benefits : There are also psychological effects of fasting. Those who fast during the month of Ramadan gain peace and tranquility. Hostility is at a minimum, and the soul is at peace. Muslims take advice from the Prophet (SAW) who said, “If one slanders you or aggresses against you, say I am fasting."

A prayer on everyone's lips is Peace and proseprity to the entire world. Lets hope the Almighty, accepts our prayers and bestows his mercy on us, Amin!

Helllooo.... Am back after the holidays and it was so hectic all the four days...but I enzoied it to the T :)

Okai, before we move further, I have added links of the blogs of the people who regularly visit my humble abode. If by mistake, any names missed please let me know, and not to mention, this is a very small way of saying Danka She (my German is quite bad, this is the only word I know) I mean Thank u, Thank u and Thank u. I was almost rapped on my knuckles for not having done this from a long time. Of late i have become a lazy bug and today I just wanted to get over with this. :)

October has come to an end. As time marches towards November. I am reminded of the same day 4 years back. This was the day I left semi-migrated to Bangalore. Yes, semi-migrated, and I shall explain why. After my Masters in Library and Information Science from Mysore University, i applied for the One year diploma course at National Center for Science Information, a center in the prestigious Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Its a national level exam where 6 students are selected for the Advanced IT course after a test and interview. I had failed at the first attempt, but the second attempt was a determined attempt and there was no stopping from me getting in there. My boss at Central Food Technological Research Institute was thrilled when he heard that i had got through this course. On the 30th of October 1998, i was accorded a warm send off where everyone wished me well and that touched my heart. Its when the feeling that i am going to a land where i don't know many people started arising. After all i am at a distance of 140 kms which can be covered in 3 hours.

Bangalore has not been a total alien land, but not been home as well. I have lived with my maternal parents and was moving to stay with my parents. There was excitement, tension, happiness, sadness. All emotions rolled into one, which said, Phew! whats going to happen to me? My brother, scheduled his departure to 2nd of November, so that we both could leave home together. From the 28th friends started calling to wish luck. The regular, do stay in touch, our prayers are with you etc etc. kept flowing in and so did my adrenaline started flowing more and more. I thot more than once if this was a right move by me?

Its has been 4 eventful years and i still feel that i have just come a few days back to Bangalore. My trips to Mysore, have not stopped. There were a few people who thot, that the initial enthu she will come every week, later that will die down. But nopes, i have proved all of them wrong. I have been there every weekend. I am at Bangalore, only when i have my alumni meetings, else the slightest pretext i am off to Mysore and even if it is a 2-3 weeks break, i get so home sick. I keep waiting for Saturday to run away. Maybe its the people back there who pull me and my best days were spent there.

Career wise i have grown. I was recruited by a company while i was still at the center and now i am at a MNC. Life has been going steady, pieces of puzzles falling in place at God's will. I have made loads and loads of friends, learnt very many things, but never forgotten the people who made me what i am today. A mere thank u would just sound so damn stupid. But Still THANKS A TON PEOPLE.

So here i am at the threshold of another eventful year of life. To commemorate my eventful years, i am going back to Mysore tomorrow for a 4 day holiday, yess....4 days. So all u people, have fun, take care and HAPPY DIWALI

I wrote a long blog and the duffer that I am didn’t save it. Suddenly my system decided to restart and I lost it...sob sob sob. But hey, I can RECALL my thots and scribble them again and hope that this dumb system does not give away again.

Time they say is a great healer. Wounds, which are a direct impact of the good or the bad times we have, may subside but the scar remains. The possible reason why it remains maybe to remind us of how silly we were at not accepting the fact then or to remind us not to tread on the path which lead to a negative thot. There could be very many reasons. It is not easy to shut ourselves and say, oh gone and dead; it’s a whole new beginning. No doubt it is, but with it comes loads and loads of experience and expertise, which makes u an ace to face the time and tide of life.

Memory is another facet, which really is wonderful. It is so easy to remember to forget a few things in life. But so very difficult to erase out certain memories. The good the bad and the ugly. How very true it is when they say "Memory is the cabinet of the imagination, the treasury of reason, the registry of conscience, and, the council chamber of thought". Another superb quote is "We retain: 10 percent of what we read; 20 percent of what we hear; 30 percent of what we see •50 percent of what we hear and see; 70 percent of what we say; 90 percent of what we say and do". Few of us cling on to memories like they were our support systems. The good old school days, the carefree college days, the initial days of new job, the hard work we pour in at our jobs to makes our organization and ourselves proud. So on and so forth.

Of late I have been speaking a lot to my old buddies and meeting quite a few of them and those lovely days we spent together are like a dream. We always used to remind ourselves that, come what may we shall be as we are now. But then, life took us to different destinations and paths. And the days can just never come back. What is gone is gone and nothing can get it back. All that remains are memories, how very true!

Ever heard the song by Ali Hyder, the Purani Jeans aur Guitar one. One line is "Bas yaden rehjati hain (all that remains are memories)", That is life!

Read this cute little thing on the net today..... real good one

Talk Awhile

Hello God, I called tonight
To talk a little while
I need a friend who'll listen
To my anxiety and trial.

You see, I can't quite make it
Through a day just on my own...
I need your love to guide me,
So I'll never feel alone.

I want to ask you please to keep,
My family safe and sound.
Come and fill their lives with confidence
For whatever fate they're bound.

Give me faith, dear God, to face
Each hour throughout the day,
And not to worry over things
I can't change in any way.

I thank you God, for being home
And listening to my call,
For giving me such good advice
When I stumble and fall.

Your number, God, is the only one
That answers every time.
I never get a busy signal,
Never had to pay a dime.

So thank you, God, for listening
To my troubles and my sorrow.
Good night, God, I love You, too,
And I'll call again tomorrow!

Friday evening we had a Medical Check up at Office. This was not to check the health status of the employees. This was a different kind of medical check up, where the patients, I mean the employees were asked to deposit their cribs, their grievances and their complaints against the organizations. We have a communications group, who went around checking these patients and patiently picking their cribs. It was a good drive where lots and lots of cribs were deposited. Today we had a kinda postmortem session over the mails, where we discussed these ailments. Most of them were simple things in life, which matter most. Good food, better facility...blah blah.

What I would like to underline is the great ability of human being to CRIB. We are so good at pointing out mistakes and making a noise about small things in life. We crib about things over which we have no control, things, which are under our control and something, which we don't relate to. Nothing will happen to this world, is a funny crib to me. I mean we don't have it within our hands to change the entire world. If it does not rain, we cannot do anything but pray for rains. We crib when it does not rain and crib when it rains. God sure knows that it is not easy to satisfy man.

Cribbing is good I feel, but not to an extent that it becomes a habit. A resolution I took early this year was to crib less. It has not stopped completely, but then it sure has lessened down. When I start thinking about cribbing also, I remind myself come on, that's life why do u crib? But the moment I crib, I start doing a kind of soul searching and see where things are going wrong. I feel really refreshed after such sessions with myself and I encourage all my friends to do self-soul-searching. It really helps when u are down in the dumps. But then, after all resolutions are made to break i start cribbing at times ;-)

I changed my blog template yesterday and I guess I goofed with the comments link. From morning I was under the impression that the comment site is down or some crap. But then suddenly during the training I realised that it was a goof up on my side. Goofus the rufus is what a friend of mine calls me. Anyways, the loss has been mine I have lost all the comments which may have been posted on my blog. These small notes, which are left are of great importance. Yes, when u see there are 0 comments, u do frown for a while, but then hey! life's beautiful and smile, that's not the end of it is a constant reminder.

This morning I was walking across office and saw our receptionist, Annie, the best front desk executive any company can have, standing with a lost look. The look was a typical, "The Sky is about to fall and I cannot do anything" kinds. I walked across and woke her from her dream and asked her what's up and she gave a tired smile (at about 11 a.m. not very early in the day as well). I told her hey! Smile, life is beautiful and its not the end of the world. And there she was her beaming self. Small things matter in life I guess and she was gushing saying Thanks buddy! What really touched me was her instant smile. My one wish in life is to spread happiness to people and see that no one is sad and gloomy. Live life as it comes and see how beautiful things are.

How really nice it is when we are having a bad day and some one tries to make us smile? Its a real effort though to get people out of gloomy state of mind. There are people who instantly smile, like our dear Annie, who didn't spare even an second to smile back. And there are people, who just don't want to get out of their troubles and enjoy the expanse of life. There are another set of people who smile even though they go through bad patch in life. It's all in ur hands as to how u face life is what i have learnt.

I keep passing through all these phases and most of the time, i hear my inner self telling me, looks this is not done, come on. U got to face it. Many people in my life have always made me smile. My brothers are the one's who take the honour for nursing me like a kid of their own. I just cannot imagine life without them. I shall wait for them to give me a go ahead and then proceed with things i need to do. They are the best things that could happen to me. Thanks dear Brothers.

Friends of mine are also people who show that they love and care. Maltesh is one person, who has always made me smile, when i am passing through a bad patch. Though we have only communicated through mails, but we are good buddies and we, atleast i fall back on him for advice...though I am 5 days elder to him. A bone of contention with us is this five days. We always fight about who is mentally more matured and he loves to call me Ms.Tantrum,

On one particular day, i was at my best low mood, i had a major fight with my family and i carried my mood to work. I was not my regular happy self and it was pretty evident. That day, there was this someone who did all possible things to get me out of my lousy mood and make me smile. Come to think of it, I had just got to know him, and here was this guy cheering me up. I shall forever remember that day, both for my fight with the family and for the effort which was done to make me smile. I hope u are reading this Bala, becoz that's u, who i was mentioning about.

And there are Poornima, Shyvon who have always been such great buddies and i guess they need a award for having tolerated me and my cribs. There are so many other people i can go on thanking, and i have decided that i shall write a daily blog on various friends i have. Will make them happy na?

Am pretty excited over the weekend, because Poornima is coming to India after 15 months from UK. I just cannot stop gushing over the next few days when i can sit with her and chat to my heart's content. Ofcourse she will not be happy upon hearing that i have made many more new friends. She hates it when i tell her that i got new friends, but then she joins the band wagon and there we are a new team again. She is a darling. She is on a short trip, but i am sure we will have a nice time together.

I started writing this blogs, on some topic and as always i have drifted. Me and my habits will never be mended. Heres signing off for the week, wishing all those who read a happy weekend

I have been attending training all through this week; hence the blogs have been missing. After a sumptuous meal, its time to get to the classroom and concentrate on the web designing training. First two days were kinda boring, but as the going is getting tuff, the training is getting interesting. It’s late evening when this class gets over.

While driving back home last evening, I was as usual listening to Radio City, the FM Radio Channel. It is the best thing that could happen at reviving the dying creation of Marconi. I have stopped using the tape-recorder and all the while I am hooked onto FM. Everyday at 8 p.m., top 8 songs on a particular theme are played. Yesterday was Friendship. Some lovely old Hindi numbers were played. One listener paged in asking, " Why can a Man and Woman not be just friends?” The RJ replied saying man and woman can be friends, and it’s only our Bollywood, which brings in the love twist. But in real life, there are very many men and woman who are friends and best friends to it. I am sure, many people will agree to this thot.

These conversations on the radio, made me think about the theory of attraction. This was a topic of discussion with an old pal on Sunday as well. And as u can think, we never came to a conclusion. Because both of us were right in our own way we felt. Now how do we make friends or get pally with other human beings? Its some quality of theirs which attracts us towards the other person. The physical appearance of the person is something, which is of prime importance. I don’t think that’s it always. Physical, according to me does not mean, drop dead looks. Some one could be very simple looking, but there would be something, which would attract them to one another. It is the way the person presents herself/himself. My brothers always tell me that, half the battle is won by immaculate dressing. Just as the way to a man's heart is through his stomach (how many times is it true?), I guess the road to put upon an impression is your poise, confidence and grace with which u present urself.

Attraction also does not mean u end up having an affair or getting married. You are attracted either by the intellectual level of a person or there habits and lots many attributes of a person. Each person is unique by himself or herself and they have their own way of attracting people to themselves. Just as Maltesh told us about Farzana and Amar, they were attracted towards each other by some force which wanted to get them together, and remember, they interacted through a emotionless media. The only way they could be indicate their emotions or feelings is or was through proper usage of semicolon, colons, dash, fullstops and bracket. I mean the smiley.

Gone are the days when the friendship of a guy and a girl would raise eyebrows. It’s all in our mindset, how we take the entire issue into place. Friendship is the base for any relationship. If u cannot be a good listener, then u cannot be a good life-mate is what I think. Each one of us has our share of bad habits. We are not born saints and we don’t lead a saintly life as well.

I am totally lost with this concept of Attraction. I could go on and on. But as always, there shall never be an end to it. And before I end, whatever I have mentioned are MY views and I am sure many people would differ and I would love to listen to all.

Chow!

Am back to work after a long weekend. Not to mention, there is no mood to work after the short little holiday, which was so damn hectic, the usual monday blues. During these three days i just could not get myself to blog....

Am again in a state of confusion as to what do i write on the blog. There are so many things which seem to make a line in my mind. Where do i start is the question?

Maybe will post another message laters, abhi nothing seems to be striking this empty first floor.

If you were to proclaim ur love to someone how would u do it? Write a sweet little poem or send a bunch or roses, go on ur knees? Sounds too filmy and mushy. I wonder if people really do all such crazy stuff in life. hilarious are the way people express their feelings to one another, but it is serious business for them.

Am sure, many of u would have read this before, a love letter by software professional. ...what actually takes the cake is the tapori proclaiming his love...will post that one day. Meanwhile ensoi this.....

Dear Ms.

Miss, I saw you yesterday while surfing on the local train platform and realized that you are the only site I was browsing for. For a long time, I've been lonely, trying to find a bug in my life and you can be a real debugger for me now. My life is just an uncompiled program without you that never produces an executable code and hence is useless.

You not only have a beautiful face, but all your ActiveX controls are attractive as well. Your smile is so delightful that it encourages me and gives me power equal to thousands of mainframes processing power.

When you looked at me last evening, I felt all my program modules running smoothly and giving expected results, which I have never experienced before.
With this letter, I just want to convey that, if we linked together, I’ll provide you with all the objects and libraries necessary for a human being to live an error free life.

Also don't bother about the firewall, which may be created by our parents as I've strong hacking capabilities by which I'll ultimately break their security passwords and make them accept our linking (marriage).

I anticipate that nobody is already logged into your database so that my connect script would fail. And it's all certain that if this happened to me, I will crash my system beyond recovery.

Kindly interpret this letter properly and grant me all privileges of your inbox.

Only yours,
Software Professional

Does this inspire u to write a love letter....lemme know

Procrastination....that is what am excelling at today. Have been busy with work...not neck deep actually...but there is no time to really sit and think or even read other blogs, which I love to. But today, there doesn’t seem to be the required time at all. Already thrice I have started and left it mid way.

And as the day draws to an end, the dimag ki bati seems to be totally fused out.......And here I am listening to Sting and Enigma……..Mera din ban gaya……….:-D

I shall be back....tomorrow!!!!! :-))))

Its monday and there is no sign of the regular monday blues. As compared to the last 2-3 mondays, today has been peaceful and no major incidents. The mood is upbeat because of the holiday season and the holiday tomorrow.....yipppeee. Can sleep till late hours and the weather too is complimenting the sleepy mood. Yeah its been raining and its looks wonderful. The entire city has been cleaned by mother nature. And with the rains peace has been restored in the two states. Enuf of voilence between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Time they say is a great healer, after the rains both the states and their residents are happy.

Am off to enjoy a long drive in the rain...watch the sunset and the city basking in the evening glory. ;-)

The lethary syndrome continues.....but yipppppppppppeeeeeeeeeeee its Frrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiidddddddddddddaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyy.
Am just waiting for the weekend and maybe i shall have a long one too! Tuesday being a holiday i can enjoy 4 days of doing nothing.

Happy Navrathri and a happy weekend fella's.
Enjoy!

Lazy, lethargic, sluggish, idle....that defines my mood today. It began from the minute I woke up. It has been raining all through the night and u can as well understand what great mood u would be in to walk up. I just wanted to coil deep inside the mattress and sleep to my heart's content. But duty calls said the inner me and I relented.

Came to work and as always, finished the Crossword (easy one...hee hee...) as is the habit every morning. After that it has been work as always. Had to burn a few CD's and I did that in no time. Went out for lunch, had a sumptuous meal (chicken biryani and prawn manchurian), man don't ask me how I feel after eating the heavy and spicy food. I could feel the fumes out of my ear. Hey tell me, don't we have a blog dedicated to food and food lovers....a la Jughead.

Everyone in office seem to have this lazy bug bite them, I can see one guy sitting on two chairs, like Jug head snoring on his hammock.....:) and guess what he is doing, busy sending SMS. That's such a bug I tell u, SMS can eat your half your cell bills.

Best part of today was this Best Pal poll which is doing rounds in the company. I saw that my name has been nominated, among a bunch of some 15 names (we are close to 650 people across the globe). One person from these 15 shall be conferred the "Best Pal" Award, which is a citation and Dinner for two. I could see myself smiling; wow I got loads of friends across the company. And guess what, about 10-15 of them came and told me that they have voted for me. Gee I am feeling so happy. For a while the lazy feeling has gone to the land of no return. And yes the TGIF feeling has already sunk in. Rather has been there from yesterday. :)

The days seem to be moving rather slowly this week. Its still Wednesday and three full days away from the weekend. Next Tuesday is holiday and i plan to bunk work on Monday...gee the feeling itself is so great. I hope i don't get a call from office and am to get back to work..No God No...don't let this happen please.

Past two weeks have been reunion week, have been receiving mails from old pals, the not really remembered, and not really forgotten type. But its a great feeling when a mail pops in and says, Hey how r u doing.....long time no hear? General trend is the mails keep coming in for a week or two or three and then, screeeccchhhhh! again a grinding halt. Why does this happen at times? But we have promised that we shall not do that this time. I have become pretty bad in replying to mails these days, but i hope to get back to my good old days of sending a prompt reply as soon as i read the mail. :)

I remember the days when i used to write letters every day to each one of my friends, all the chaps at the post office were my pals as well. The postman used to tell me, "Even if ur dad does not have any letters, u got one everyday", and when i never had a letter, he used to give me a villanous smile and say no letter for u today. The impatient bum i am, could never wait till 11 a.m for the postman to coem home, during vacations, i used to run across to the post office and collect my mail. I still have all those letters with me, one box full of them and the day i open my Pandora's box, i shut myself from the entire world. The smell and the yellowness of the paper, the fading ink, makes it even more worthy to be stored. Then came the e-mails, but i still love to write letter and post them and wait for the postman to deliver them at my mail box.

Memories and memories, that's what life is full off....sweet and bitter.

The Birthday party yesterday was such a saviour after the bad day at work. Kids all across the place. There was this cute little girl aged about 2 years, who would go and hug all kids around, some of the boys..kids ofcourse, were stunned by her action. But our lady would not be miffed by their behaviour. She was enjoying herself. Imagine her doing the same thing after about 2 decades. The gossip mongers would have a field day and elders would leave no stone unturned in telling her parents that this is not a accepted behaviour.

So far so good, for the Tuesday seems to be less disastrous than the BLACK MONDAY. My cold and cough has still not left me and has made me quite drowsy and lazy and to top it, I get this mail which tells me the 10 "commandments" of laziness......Read them

01. Thou shall love your bed, as you love yourself.
02. Thou shall rest throughout the day, to able to enjoy your sleeping at night.
03. When you see someone having a rest, go to join him.
04. Thou shall avoid working because it's tiring.
05. Thou shall not do today what thou can do tomorrow.
06. Thou shall exercise yourself as less as possible.
07. Thou shall let somebody else do what you have to.
08. Nobody died because of excess relaxation. You are not in danger.
09. If you feel desire to study, work or even move, lay in your bed; you will feel ok in a bit.
10. Remember: we live to rest!

Wish i could just go home and sleep.....tring tring goes my phone and there is a visitor and I go grrr.

Its Monday morning and I put up my brightest smile to face the blues, agreed I didn’t get up with the yippee feeling, but then, as Bryan Adam says " Its a new day...". As I walk into office, I see happy and bright faces. Some important customers are coming in, so there are extra special flowers and all that crap happening with the Admin dept. My cup of owes begins with my PC crashing, The systems guy, just like a tight lipped doctors, asks me, I am a Doctor and u the patient, tell me the truth, what happened to your PC? I very meekly tell him. Nothing, I shut down the terminal, in the proper way and started to go home on Friday, when I suddenly realized that I had to take a file, when I came back the damn thing would not start. He says, was the shut down properly or some illegal way. Now pray tell me what illegal ways are there to shut down the system. And with a head master kind of look he says, tell me just the truth. I loose my patience and say, what the hell, I am telling u the truth and only the truth. He tried to reboot the system a couple of times and then with a resigned look says it has to be re-formatted. Just the C drive he says, I take a sign of relief and say, thank god all my files are in the other partition.

A boy comes and takes the patient away and within no time my PC is restored back. When I log in, I am welcomed with a shock...I suddenly realized that I had enough stuff on the desktop which have all gone for a toss, my bookmark file was in the c drive and there I lost it again. With a dejected look I start making the necessary changes and updations. I had to get some applications resorted, asked for the CD which for all u know was not available, but after a while the boy comes, "Ma’am ur CD's" and am all smiles again. I happily start installing the same, when up pops a message saying, u are not authorized to install any software...grr goes me and I cannot find the damn system guys.

I just walk out for a stroll, rather end up at the pantry to gulp my anger with a glass of water and someone says, hey u look beautiful today, a tired smile and that makes a me a little happy for a while. Back to the terminal, call by boss. Here we discuss a few issues and my temper is flaring. I suddenly decide, chuck the entire thing and walk out of this damn place. Nothing has gone right from the start of the day...Murphy's law at its full implementation. Does he need some one to experiment with?

After a while I get into an argument with the systems head, what the hell u think u r upto. And then we are friends again. He tells me his wife loves Shahrukh Khan and there is this ting of jealousy in his eyes. Men and women he adds are tuff to understand...

A mail pops in which says, there is a birthday party today, first birthday party and I light up, my birthday is also coming very close.... Yippee I go. We all decide that we will go together and here I am waiting for my fellow mates to come and till then I fill up my blog. After all life is beautiful.

I am off to the party and I hope my Tuesday would be much better than this BLACK MONDAY....

Hear this......Starting from today, MIT has started putting all the course material on-line for free. In the course of next 10 years, every subject taught at MIT will be available ONLINE for FREE.

MIT has expressed that the TRUE value of an MIT ON-THE-CAMPUS course is obtained by the teacher-student and student-student interaction and can not be obtained from this ONLINE course material. MIT also says that other Universities can use this model and bring out the materials for courses where they are better than MIT. Check it out at ocw.mit.edu

I have developed a sudden interest in reading about Maslow's Need theory. As i was hunting for some info on this, i got to read about Murphy's laws as well. And this again took my entire interest. And here i share one of the stories of Murphy.

As Murphy's Law states that whatever can go wrong, will. Murphy was Ed Murphy, an engineer in the 1940s working on experiments involving the rocket sled. People were strapped into this gizmo, which ran on rails, and then quickly accelerated from a standing start to enormous speeds to see how much they could take. You may have seen films of someone riding in one, their face turning into silly putty under the force of the acceleration. Anyway, one day Murphy commented about a nincompoop of a technician who had miswired some equipment, that "if there's any way to do things wrong, he will." And it caught on.

By the way, the nincompoop, asked to write an apology, broke his pencil, accidentally tore the paper, got up to get another piece, and tripped and broke his leg.

So very true na, if something has to go wrong, it will. These are the times, u really wish there was an UNDO in life....;-)

Its such a orderal to go through a bout of cold and cough. I spent the entire day sleeping yesterday, something which i have not done for quite sometime and today at office i just don't feel like working. Does this feeling not overcome us more than often?

Imagine when u are driving to office and the weather is just out of this world, cool and drizzling, some lovely numbers being played on your fav radio station, Don't u feel like just driving down to a nice little picnic spot and enjoy the expanse of nature? But no, immediately we get are back into the world of reality where we list down the things to do at office and home and get down to work. Why do we hold ourselves from doing what we want? Why why why?

Strange are the ways of life, we are so unsure about whats going to happen the next minute/day, but we still plan about what we intend to do 10 years from now. At an interview i was asked, what are your long-term plans, what do u intend to do 10 years from now? I was for a second dumb-stuck. this is something i have never planned. Live life a it comes has been my motto. I have never planned things, because the day i planned to spend my day doing something, they have gone hay-way. Bad time management you say, maybe at times...:)

Live this moment, live this day, who knows whats going to happen the next moment and the next day. Have a wonderful day. Am off to have an ice cream to beat the cold ;-)

I picked up a Bookmark yesterday which says "I can resist anything except TEMPTATION". I just could not resist picking this cute little piece yesterday. And since i want to show it off to the entire world, i have stuck it on my pin board...:)

Talking about resistance and temptations, There are rare occasions when i have had controlled myself. For instance getting drenched, during college days, i used to make a point to drive in the rain, the rain coat happily tucked in the safety box of the bike. The thrill of the rain is best in summer, especially the first summer shower. What a feeling it used to be, driving and enjoying the rain. Come home and hear the screams of what was the need to get wet (Many a times i used to ask them, did u not do anything like this in your younger days, which used to be followed by long silence), then curl up with a book, of course some hot chocolate to accompany on the window sill. Have always enjoyed the rains.

I studied at all Girls school, and there were quite many restrictions, not to mention. We were a jolly good group, some 20-25 of us. We used to sit in a big circle and share our lunch. While we were in Standard 7, One day we decided to cricket, just to enjoy the game and experience it as well. We were afraid of our High School PT teacher, she was a terror. We planned to play after 4 p.m. by when the entire school would be as silent as a graveyard. Each of us offered to contribute to the game one got the wicket, another bat, another ball etc etc. We very shabbily wrapped them with newspaper and hid it under the bench, but the sharp eye of our Class teacher, noticed the trash under the bench, immediately, she pounced on the Class Leader (another member of our bunch), asking her why the classroom is so dirty. She very diplomatically replied sayingd, its newspapers and she will get that cleaned ASAP. We could not wait for our group studies to get over after school+. Barely resisting the temptation to play Cricket. All around were wondering what wrong, since we were scattered and were frantically signaling to each other. At 4 p.m. we were given permission to go home, we said we shall stay a little longer and study more. The class teacher left us and said, ok. As soon as we saw her get out of the school gates, we went, grabbed our stuff and divided ourselves into two teams and started off. The ball would go above the shoulder and we bent the rules as much as possible. We could hardly swing the heavy bat. We player to our hearts delight, which was about half an hour. Went home, rejuvenated, yes we played cricket today. But the storm was to come the next day, when a few of us were summoned by the Terror and given a long speech on how girls should not try what boys do blah blah. We were well informed bunch, we replied back saying, we got a National team etc and then why not a school team. She shoved us saying never again would u girls do something of this sort. But the pleasure we had in breaking the rules is still afresh in our memory. In fact i can see the entire picture as i write this blog today.

Much as i would like to write more on temptations and me, luck does not favor it. My boss has called for a meeting and if i don't go ahead, he would not resist the temptation of blasting me....chow!

George Bush says Saddam tried to kill his dad, Senior Bush, and thus he says that revenge needs to be taken with this Bad Man of Middle East. Looks like the Dubyaman has been watching lots of Hindi Masala Movies, where revenge is the only thing our Protagonist can think of.

Ever thought of the people in the Gaza Strip, who would want to take revenge with every second person in the world? Kids there wake up to the sounds of bombing and firing. Every news channel yesterday showed scren shots of innocent kids who were killed in the shoot out, the sad part was they were returning from school and will never reached home.

As Sir Francis Bacon said " In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior." Would some one please tell this to the Prez, and also tell him to think of all those innocent people before you get set in implementing the "revenge" feeling.

Left office early yesterday to watch the ICC Semi-finals between India And South Africa. And what a match it was, boy! Wonderful, delightful and i could go on. Am not the kinds who watches the match ball to ball. But then after the 35th over yesterday, i didnot budge an inch. And at the end of the match, had to let out a huge scream much to the agony of people around me.

With so much of voilence, confusion, hatred and malice around, it was such a wonderful change to see the Indian's fighting for a win. They got together to show that Unity in Diversity is the motto of the country and we believe in what we say. Surely the young new team has got a long way to go.

Lets hope and pray that the ICC cup shall be ours. Just like SRK says in the pepsi ad, "Kab see mein keh raha hoon, cup laoge....."

Come on Ganguly and boys, u can do it :)

Every news paper is screaming out the incident which happened yesterday in Gujarath. Innocent people were killed for no reason at all. And the responsible has been shifted from one group to the other every single minute.

Every part of India is facing problem. Take our own state Karnataka, from the past 3-4 weeks, life has come to a stand-stil. First the kidnapping by Verrapan and then the Cavery riots. Let me tell u the situation is worse than what is reported in the newspapers. Life just comes to a grinding halt and this causes so much of unnecessary tension to every one. People who commute between Mysore and Bangalore, they cring to their safety, while passing by Mandya. I myself was a witness to a couple of incidents last week. Today, there is a silent march. And how silent this will be, we got to see.

Am sure, Mahatma Gandhi, would have said "Hey Ram" once again when this episode happened. This was not an India they had fought for? Does this not make u think, where the hell is our country going to? Every part of the nation is engulfed in some fued or the other.

At one end we talk about modernisation and globalisation, at the other end we let such events happen every second day? I felt ashamed to read the newspaper today. Google has started a new "News" section and they keep splashing the news about the Temple massacre every 12 seconds. There should be some way to stop this nonsense and we lead a peaceful life. A better today and a better tomorrow. Is that not possible?

Busy day today. Got a few minutes to spare and when i log in i see that the Blog spot is down for maintenance...humph!
Don't they know Capri's are very impatient people......?????

Few things in life are best said as tales...no wonder Aesop came up with so many of them. Its through these small incidents that we get to know the true facts of life. They surely leave an lasting impression on a person. One such tale (not an Aesopean fable) which has hit me is this one....

One day a father and his rich family took his young son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose to show him how poor people can be.They spent a day and a night in the farm of a very poor family. When they got back from their trip the father asked his son, "How was the trip?"

Very good, Dad!" "Did you see how poor people can be?" the father asked. "Yeah!" "And what did you learn?"

The son answered, "I saw that we have a dog at home, and they have four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of the garden, they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lamps in the garden, they have the stars. Our patio reaches to the front yard, they have a whole horizon. When the little boy was finishing, his father was speechless. His son added, "Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are!"

Isn't it true that it all depends on the way you look at things? If you have love, friends, family, health, good humor and a positive attitude toward life, you've got everything! You can't buy any of these things. You can have all the material possessions you can imagine, provisions for the future, etc., but if you are poor of spirit, you have nothing!

It's a total TGIF feeling today and i am in no mood to write anything. Moreso, i got a presentation to make at my Alumni Center, so am all set to do that. Wish me luck!!
And all of you have a great weekend....:)

Some interesting read which is worth sharing.
Always Remember……………..

"May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, superficial relationships, so that you will live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people so that you will work for justice, equality and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that you will reach out your hand to comfort them and change their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with the foolishness to think that you can make a difference in the world, so that you will do the things which others tell you cannot be done."

Day 3 at the blog and the plot is getting thicker and thicker. Whenever there is this little time to think, what do i write next. This....nah...that and no...not that. But then, everything cannot go on the NO list. Apparently, am sure, everything will come on the YES can go list :)

Today i plan to pay a tribute to all my dear pals....A tribute to all those who have made a mark in my life.

God has been very merciful to me. Apart from having giving me wonderful family I have been blessed with a great bunch of friends, and have always made a point to keep in touch with them, so what if that means a call a year. I make it a point to surprize them on their b'days/wedding anniversaries. Its such a great feeling when u meet ur dear pals, cry your heart out and then breathe easy. Atleast for me, my heart would be lighter by many many tones. Friends are your life line they say and they sure are. The foot prints of friendship are left at every person's heart is what i believe in. People come in ur life for a reason or season they say and am happy for having landed up with some lovely friends through the journey of my life.

I can go on and on and on.......but i shall hold my horses here and say. Thanks everyone, for being there in my life, for helping me at every step. I hope we go a long long long way...Till death do u apart (has this become my punch line?). And i hope to get a few more friends with this blog stuff. You can call me Friend-sick person :)

We have been pals for almost a decade and half. We hit it off right from the day we were introduced to each other. And our partnership has stood through various climates of life. The ups and downs, the good, the sad and the bad times. We decided not to part way till "death do us apart". Again those were the adolescent days, when everything was important in this world. It was not a day's promise, the most important days of life were spent together, always in sync with each other. During the time of studies and strategies as to how best the exams can be faced, the pep talk and those come on u can do it feeling. But then, promises are made to break they say, and surely we did break our promise.

Life went through major changes. From the carefree adolescent, with dreamy eyes to the youth with goals and ambitions to achieve the unachievable. Through this journey of life, there were lots of passengers with whom the roads crises crossed and somewhere during this period. The friends, who had decided to live life together, lost touch. All promised were thrown to the wind. Forgotten somewhere down the memory lane. Though the touch remained, but there was a certain distance between these "best friends". I always took for granted that, come what may, i always have this friend to fall back on. Until last week when i suddenly realized that this friend of mine, did not like my way-ward attitude in life. That's when i realized that a promise is a promise and has to be adhered to.

Now, if you are wondering whom i am talking about, its my dear old ink pen. Mera apna Sheaffer. I have faced all my exams with this one pen. Which i started using from Class 9. All my board exams. My graduation degree was possible through this friend of mine. I topped the university in my Master's all thanks due to this friend. It is through this medium that i have let out all my thots and feelings on paper. And how very easily i let the other pens take over me?

I have been a fanatic as far as this pen is considered. Never shared it with anyone. kept it close to my heart like it is the most priceless possession of the world. And it is, for me, its nothing less than the Kohinoor...My own "Kohinoor". Because whatever i am today, its because of the ability of my pen to let me express what i feel like. Strange as it may sound, i just happened to go to British Library over the week for some digging work for my research. and while arranging the pens in my bag.....that's when i landed over this pal of mine and decided to fill the pen with the best ink. For reasons, known to my pal, it started acting weird. That's when i realized that this pal is irked by my behavior and decided to give its due.

Aren't these abstract things of great value in our life and how we tend to ignore them?

I had decided to write a blog on my dreams today. And before i could actually key in my thoughts, i decided to scribble them. Seriously, the pen and paper are still the best way to express your thoughts, don't u think so? There i was digging in my bag for a pen. I always have had about 5 pens in my bag. For some strange reasons, this has been a habit with me from my school days. I used to be the 'stationery" shop for all my friends. :)

As i start off with the blogging business, n-number of things cross my mind, what do i want to write, what do i want to share. So many things, but then, do i really want all to read? I am yet to decide. Let your mind free and see how wild it can go, is what a close friend of mine says, but i have this habit of holding it tight, crawling back into my shell and not allowing anyone to peep in. Do i sound like an introvert...? nah am not one. But then, i love to be kepe some stuff to myself many a times.

Life came to a stand still yesterday at the silicon valley of karnataka. Yes, life was not at all normal at Bangalore yesterday, because of the bundh called in wake of the ruling given by the Supreme Court of India on the Cavery Water issue. Bngalore is a pretty noisy city, just like any metropolitian city. But yesterday, everyone decided to be at home. Sleep the extra wink, watch an extra hour of TV. Favourite cartoon and God knows what else.

At office, we were told, u can either come to work, if it is ok to come over, else u work on saturday. Now, pray, tell me, who would want to work on a saturday? Much against the wishes of my family, i drove down to office. And what pleasure i had in driving yesterday. Boy! a stretch of 8 kms takes about 20-15 minutes (or even more) with normal traffic, generally everyone is in a tearing hurry, as though their homes are on fire. Each one of us wants to go first. But yesterday, the same distance could be covered in 10 flat minutes. All the main roads were empty. The only sould u could see where the cops with thick batons. I am sure, even they would not love to hit people black and blue, but that's their job right. And ofcourse the rumour mongers had a field day. People taking the opportunity to say, hey! u know what, tension in x road, don't go to y area. We love to scare the shit out of people na? The in-thing about Bangalore, Radio City, went on helping people with their regular feeds of whats happening where. Am sure they might not have got even one jam bustter to mail in yesterday. Wish traffic in Bangalore is always like that. Hardly a vehicle on road. Except for the stray Ambulance, with anxious relatives and the patient, hoping that nobody will stop them midway. But as the sun set, with its prismatic glory, the city got back to its normal pace of life. It was a 12 hour hartal u see...dawn to dusk.

Everyone was very cautious yesterday. No one ventured out. Generally we all love to voice out our opinions. But when the real time comes, all of us follow the KMS (keep ur mouth shut) policy. So much of tension and voilence happening around us, but do we tend to raise our voice at the right time and at the right place? If there is a fight somewhere, we don't want to involve ourselfe, why get into unnecessary trouble is what we say? Are we doing the right thing? Are we creating a safe and secure future for our kids? these are just a few questions which are playing hide and seek in my mind. Can u think of any more? don't u think we need to do something about it?

Hi there, a new blogger online......