Nishal Joseph's Web Log.

(on of) my best frined's wedding

2011-12-11T20:30:00.001+05:30

really happy for one of my friends.she has found a life partner.

love marriage it is.have had long discussions with her regarding love v/s arranged marriage (ok i was the audience most of the time but still)
n its not just a love marriage but also a inter-cast one the girl is hindu n the boy roman catholic. they will have marriage ceremony both in christian and hindu rites. another first for any of my friends.

Will pray to God for everything to go as plan.

two love stories..

2011-10-13T23:06:00.000+05:30

today i came to know about the final episode of two love stories, the male protagonists being my friends in both the cases.

both relationships started in pg college one story 5 year old and the other 3. both stories had a seasoned approach.

the 5 year old had a happy ending, marriage due early next year.

the 3 year old one ending in the protagonists bidding bidding adieu to each other. one of the families did not agree and the relationship had to be ended.

intezaar aur sahi...

2011-09-21T00:58:00.002+05:30

was reminded of this song by gulzar, performed by jagjit singh

Meri ankhon ke sabhi khwab pyase hain abhi
Pyay ki koi ghata ghir ke aayegi kabhi
Intezaar aur sahi, intezar aur sahi.......

Paas rehkar bhi koi dil se kyun duur lage
Main bhi majboor sa hoon
who bhi majboor lage
apna gham keh na sakun meri uljhan hai yahi
intezar aur sahi intezar aur sahi......

yeh udasi yeh thakan band kamre ki ghutan
dil me kya hone laga dard hai yak ke chubhan
aaj bhi mujhse kahe aag seene me dabi
intezar aur sahi intezar aur sahi.........

MBE Alumni Meet 2011

2011-09-11T22:54:00.000+05:30

attended the mbe alumni meet on saturday, 10 september 2011at the park hotel, cp. quite a change of venue from the past pragati maidan. the venue was good. so were the games ice breaker and all. 12 people from our batch turned up. Amit Agrawal, Anshu Kalra, Dev Kumar, Manas Mahajan, Neha Gupta, Neha Sharma, Nishal Joseph, Sharad Nagpal, Shivendra Singh, Shveta Mahajan, Sonia Bhalla,Vani Arora Kalra.was meeting some of the 4 straight years after our pg.

was good fun getting in touch with them again. lot of chit-chats, leg pulling, singing n fun. reliving some old memories.

the juniors did a good job organizing it.

overall a good alumni meet

dawn of a new era in comparative advertising in the offing?

2011-09-09T22:59:00.000+05:30

ford hits hard on toyota this time.
haven't seen such an ad in the past barring may be the dumb cola wars.

wud be an interesting trend to follow..

Vogon Poetry Generator

2011-09-04T17:47:00.001+05:30

my Vogon Poetry for Today using BBC Vogon Poetry Generator

See, see the kind sky
Marvel at its big pink depths.
Tell me, gaurav do you
Wonder why the skunk ignores you?
Why its foobly stare
makes you feel energetic.
I can tell you, it is
Worried by your tiss facial growth
That looks like
A milk.
What's more, it knows
Your blah potting shed
Smells of olives.
Everything under the big kind sky
Asks why, why do you even bother?
You only charm rotten eggs.--

sudo achievement!!

2011-08-05T23:48:00.003+05:30

thanks to MS, i get an intel today that my blog post about our trip to kasauli is appearing on the first result page for the keyword 'kasauli'

yippie...

here is the post

http://nishaljoseph.blogspot.com/2009/07/weekend-getaway-kasauli-chail-shimla.html

interesting weekends still contiues

2011-07-04T00:33:00.000+05:30

another interesting weekend. had amit for night stay at my place on sat. long chat before the sleep.

woke up late on sunday. in the evening went to meet school time. were expecting around 15.8 turned up finally. shubham, nitish,dinesh, saurabh b,gaurav a, ruhi, sonali.
had long chats recollecting school days - those punishments, discipline, teachers, jokes et al.
then went on for dinner.

felt really gald. was meeting many of them after 9 long years.

interesting weekends contiue

2011-06-26T22:45:00.005+05:30

another weekend. another interesting weekend.

- friday night sis n niece were at our place. had good fun with the niece.

- got to knw gaurav, one of my best friends from school time is to get married. details awaited.

- weekend plan for the woulfgang - nishal joseph, amit k agrawal, vikas kumar.

- stared with visit to howzaat sports bar in ggn. interesting concept of a beer factory. u can see the brewing process for your self. the interiors+menue+tv was intelligently themed on cricket.

- we hit ambiance mall for the 'ambiance' and movie. we lock on cars 2 3D 10pm show. the movie was nice. better for me as had seen the first part. we also had some incredible wada pavs at the food court. though insanely priced at 60bucks + tax for 2, was fun.

- woulfgang decides to rest at vikas's place for the night.chit chat for some more time. downloaded some good english movies from amit's disk drive. slept at 2

- woke up at 9 in the morning. leave for home at 11. stop over at trident guest house at sarvpriya vihar guest house to drop off amit. met pramod mishar from projects after long.

- unsuccessful attempt to fix a leaking tap at home. 'i will be back' #terminator

- power nap from 4.30-5.00. time for church

- got a hair cut. clean bald. mom had a good time laughing.

interesting weekend

2011-06-19T23:31:00.003+05:30

the weekend that was

saturday morning - learnt that u r not supposed to take a u-turn when the traffic signal shows red - cost of lesson rs. 100 a.ka chllan by a thulla. n thats when i cud have avoided all the jazz by straightaway hitting the parking lot instead of scouting for some space to park for free.
saturday evening - went for sports climbing at IMF. second attempt at that, cud climb the wall twice this time as compare to once for my first attempt last year. n then it rains, time to windup the climbing taamjhaam. any ways, was not in a position to climb any more. forearm, biceps n thigh all in a bad shape now.
sunday morning - some wiki / youtube search about TBBT
sunday morning - some guitar practice, have not named my guitar blue moon for no reason.
sunday afternoon to evening- went to see X-Men First Class with Rajat Sharma SPS @ PVR Plaza. nice hall, nice movie. folllowed by CP gaeda n south indian at sarvana bhavan, window shopping @ chorma, drooling over latest gadgets n gizmos. irritated the couple sitting next to us at the movie hall with satirical comments like the child screeming being a childhood version of sunny deol from the movie gadhar, 'do u knw what they say about people with big feet' - big feet - big shoes #notting hill classic. the couple did laugh but seemed miffed. who cares #CheapThrills.
sunday night - X Men series ka torrent download karna toh banta hai boss!!

an evening well spent

2011-04-17T23:32:00.002+05:30

spent the evening doing some creative stuff... supw stuff..good ol' school days

made a face mask, carry bag fancy dress and paper mache bowl for vanshu, my neighbor's kid for green week..

was good fun

they they have been asked to get green vegetables for lunch for one of these days :D

a week well spent

2011-04-10T23:34:00.005+05:30

thus an eventful week comes to an end

highlights of the week(feeling lazy to write it out in full, may be i can edit it sometime later)

monday - plan to meet sachin, rajat from school. plan aborted at 11th hour

tuesday - finally met sachin n rajat. had a good time catching up with them. my first mug of beer as well - kingfisher lager - must admit didn't much liked it though. but wanted to try it once.

wednesday - my entries for artree get published for voting.

thursday - the video - mere do bachhon ki maa - amazing puns - addictive stuff..was humming it till sunday on last count

friday -

got a chance to be on air with sarthka for nsnb - asked my pet question- color of cross used by chemist shops sarthak answered it but like a bazigar , i won a nescafe hamper even after loosing the game.
Delhi Jazz Festival - A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. music - first genuine experience of live music - amazing atmosphere - amazing crowd - met sarthak at the concert n the recognized me from the chat we had that morning - recency effect works

saturday - the vmc nat - had my share of close shave experiences during the test

sunday -

the parish retreat - cooked food for about 80 people with dias uncle, anoop n the team - rice n dal n pickle - awesome experience - also the message during the serom there is no 'point of no return' for sinners, so straighten up n start a new when u can
the new keyboard at church was buzzing for some strange reason. my jugaad worked and cud find the reason for the problem.
a friend's b'day
a friend hopefully has been able to zero-in on the guy who could be the would be groom
amazing maggi for dinner

a weekend well spent

2011-03-27T23:26:00.003+05:30

the weekend went on quite eventfully this time. a welcome respite from the normal and hugely unproductive facebooking.

technically the good parts about the weekend started on friday night with the good news that one of my very dear friend sauarabh mundar (bada saurabh) was getting married. had a chat with him on friday night. was really happy for him

office on saturday was quite eventful. was busy almost all the times. abhishek was in town from tokyo and mbe folks had planned to meet for lunch. but sadly cud not make it, it was work as usual for me. 'char baj gaye lekin office abhi baki hai' status update was received well in the social network circle. saturday evening was deepa's wedding reception. a chance to meet some of college time acquaintance. reached the venue by taking a new unexplored route, thanks to amit sharma. what a beauty it was. very good road and minimal traffic. was a pleasant drive.

met neha for a brief while. the quassi 'price' i paid to ask her the direction to the venue for deepa's reception. was glad that i met her. things were looking up in her life, even though at some fronts, were tumultuous. but over all she was taking it well. was a good sign.

then i proceeded to the reception venue. but soon i realized that i had forgot to get the flowers. quickly arranged for a bouquet from the nearby market and tadaa.. i was ready for the show.

at the wedding, was somewhat early, met he bride and the groom. they were looking good as a couple. they were busy with the ritualistic photo session with guest and the occasional 'solo poses'. met varun n rikita, the latest couple. their's was a wedding i wanted to attend.. culmination of a five year old friendship into marriage would have been momentous. but missed there wedding due to office engagement. saw a couple of other familiar faces at the reception - ankur periwal from cbs. he had completed his mib and had joined pec. shambhavi ratnam again from cbs was next. though i was in touch with them thanks to social networking, was meeting them in person for the first time since college ended in 2005. felt good to meet them after so long. some more people like namit jain, meenu saldhi were expected but unfortunately they could not make it.

left the venue at around 10. had offered to drop shambhavi, her mom n her friend back home. the drive was pleasant, most of the time the talk centred around the fact that i had changed a lot since college w.r.t the amount of talking i did now with no tinge of shyness or introvert-ism. felt good that i had changed for the better.

after dropping them off, decided to take the old trusted 221 + 247 route to get back home. things had changed by a huge margin - underpass at dilshad garden, mall at apsara border, 8 lane roads, metro stations, carrefour at seelampur..thanks to the CWG, this was deifinitley not the east delhi i knew of during my college days, i saw the bus stop form where i used to take the bus back home - was like a trip back to those college days - the walk from college to the bus stand through the factories of friends colony, the motivation and calculations to wait for the dtc instead of the blue line to save money on travel, the schemes n plans for new innovative products i used to make while walking to the bus stand, reviewing the interesting concepts i studied in college that day et al.

sunday was simple n relaxing. went to church as usual, some office followup being done on phone. there was a meeting for the holy week preparations. sat for the meeting with mom. as we got late at church, got some food from outside and some left over from yesterday. had aloo jeera for lunch,was sumptuous indeed.had a good 3 hour nap after lunch, with the occasional office calls during the nap. finally woke up at 5. it was some time for 'home' work. had to pack the quilts and store the woolen clothes..was a pending assignment for the past couple of weeks now. later got a call form rajat sharma from sps that he was planning to buy a phone n wanted some 'advice'. we went to cp - chroma and the mobile store. had keventer's pineapple shake for dinner..

blog entry for rishikesh still pending and cleaning up my room still pending in my to do list.

two contradictory comments i got on saturday sort of stand out of all the weekend memories..

at office, ishneet commented over lunch- kuch log toh sirf fb pe hi bolte hain. n shambhavi commented in the evening - lunch main kavva (crow) kha ke aaya hai kya? kitna bolta hai tu ab... symptoms of split personality or am i still the old introvert at heart.

surprise of the day - bada saurabh got htiched

2011-03-26T11:36:00.002+05:30

got an updated about bada saurabh. he was tagged in an image.

in the first image he was giving a bouquet to lady. i though might me some office function.

next pic he and that very lady sitting besides each other in traditional indian dress and a mala in their neck!!

yippe.. saurabh ke shaadi pakki ho gayi.. those were pics from his roka ceremony.

bhabi's name is pooja. nice couple.

my heartfelt wishes with the couple to be..

ghar ki kheti.. my mom's garaden

2011-03-06T22:40:00.005+05:30

after a brief interval, the dormant photographer within me woke up to today's bright n sunny morning an decided to let the camera do the talking.

clicked 'sitting ducks'...flowers from my mom's kitchen garden for my subject. the bright sun coupled with the bright colors of the flowers were a good incentive to shoot.

some of the shots were tough. the camera wud keep focusing the background instead of the flower. some of the flowers were growing at an odd angle. the lilies in specific.the flowers normally face the ground owing to their weight and weak stem. had to virtually lay on the ground to get this one right..

got good reviews on fb for my efforts

https://picasaweb.google.com/nishaljoseph/GharKiKehti#

four fundamental facts

2011-01-02T19:47:00.000+05:30

a beautiful parable our parish priest shared with us yesterday.

the inventor of pencil, told it four fundamental facts
1. your value lies in your core, thats what you actually are.
2. you will experience pain when you are sharpened but it will bring out the best in you.
3. you will be most effective when you leave yourself in the hands of others.
4. you are expected to leave beautiful marks, but be humble enough to accept being erased,if you create somethng wrong.

guess, all these are applicable to us humans as well :)

Airtel Great Delhi Run - 21 November 2010

2010-11-21T23:32:00.002+05:30

participated in the airtel great delhi run today.

was a good experience, clicked some good pics n gave them some interesting captions ( i think)

for me though it was airtel great delhi walk. ardently walked the whole distance. thats what my preparation ( if any) and stamina permits.

reached in a little late. the shuttle service form the metro station was a bit let down. but every cloud has a silver lining ;)

ADHM 21 November 2010

Office Gyan

2010-10-30T22:18:00.000+05:30

Got some really good office gyan yesterday. In a way got two sets of gyan and both on my way back home from office.

The first one came from a very experienced superior of mine, someone i respect alot.
1. He said that no matter what job you are doing or what position you are working at, you always need to be a human being first.
2. Always remain grounded tm the earth. It hurts least if you fall and fewer people see you fall. If you are too high up in the air, you can pretty well guess the consequences.
This was on my way from office to the metro station, i had got a lift.

The second set of gyan was in the metro, close to my destination. As always, two people were talking at a volume audible to me. And you know, hearing is involuntary. One of the more experienced guys from among the two was sharing anecdotes from his professional life. By the time the metro reached the destination, he beautifully summarised the entire conversation into three points:
1. Obedience to superiors
2. Respect towards superiors, peers and subordinates.
3. Initiative to learn more.
The first two make your life easier at work (sort of hygiene factor). The third one helps you grow(sort of motivating factor).

I getting all this gyan at this juncture seemed ominous.

weather with you..

2010-10-27T23:27:00.003+05:30

this song has been ringing in my mind for some time now. fell in love with the lyrics

weather with you by crowded house.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIb6I8gtgtw

first shot at stop motion videos

2010-10-02T15:27:00.008+05:30

inspired by a video called corporate life for emids (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuOTM0o6ToE) , decided to take a shot at stop motion videos. didn't have to go far to find a subject. my very dear transformer bumble bee toy came in handy.help was just clicks away, ample 'literature' available on how to make quick stop motion vids.

the principle used in stop motion videos is that normal motion pictures use approx 24 frames per second. i.e if we flip 24 or more frames of photoshots in a a second it would look like a movie instead of a photograph

i took over 150 shots for my vid, finllay used some 90 odd frames for the vid. it laste for some 25 seconds. playing around 3.5 fps. taking the pics was real challenging. had to make small transformations for each successive shot, the point o be kept in mind that the bumble bee does not move too much at base else the vid wud not be coherent. the difficult bit was to make it stand on its feet. has to use the 'rope trick' to lift it up. used white thread on a white background to make it sort of invisible.

used windows movie maker to make the vid and add the bg score - new divide by aerosmith and the titles.

was a satisfying experience

my vid

why does this happen with friends

2010-09-26T22:56:00.002+05:30

last week i got a friend request and message on facebook, asking for my contact number. It was from sg. technically we were talking after 8 years since we left school but actually it was far longer than that. We were the closest of friends during our school days – far back in time, during class four n five. but something happened and it fell apart, we parted ways n we stopped taking. our class sections changed, our friendhip got reduced to a little smile just to acknowledge each other's presnece n then, that too faded away i don't knw when, we got other friends n we moved on. we were togeher in class x but that made no much difference. then he took science in class xi and i took commerce. then we pretty much lost contact. random badminton games were all we had in common. after school the relation got deteriorated to 'wiped off' from 'faded'.

i was over-whelmed to see the message. yes, probably thats the word that is closes to describing the state of my mind. i gave my number and started waiting for the call. i was so lost that i forgot to ask for his number. may be i was so sure that he wud call back soon, after all we had been so good friends once upon a time. n yes, i was right. he did call. we had a small chit chat, decide to meet over the weekend. he still remembered my b'day and surprisingly i too remembered his, 26 december.

n then came the weekend. saturday evening was consumed in some household chore. we decide to meet on sunday evening, thought its a working day for him and that to a busy one. but still he agreed, guess he too was overwhelmed to meet me after such a long time. n then we meet. had a long chat - discussing what had happened in our lives over these years, he did his engg in e&c n then joined his father's property business. he got married some time back. then we took a stroll down the memory lane, the good times we had spent together, our rendezvous point during school days - the windows behind the basket ball pole interestingly both of us remembered it, our academic performances (he was always a notch better than me, no points for guessing that) etc

then came the important part, trying to figure out why we parted ways. n surprisingly both of us cud not put a finger on why our friendship fell apart. there was no reason for us to part ways, but it happened, don't knw why. but i guess its the hallmark of true friendship that it transcends physical spaces, time, et al. we met today after so long n it never felt that we had not been in touch. it didn't matter that i forgot to take his number coz i knw that he wud call for sure and that i wud meet him, sooner or later.

had a really good time with him. glad to have rediscovered my friend again, not a mere addition to the friends count in facebook.

this inspires me to reconnect with some old friends i have lost touch. hope i will be able to do it soon.

make sentences

2010-08-15T22:16:00.004+05:30

today i spent 2 hours helping my neighbour's son with his school homework. he was learning new words and had two words with the letter 'h', the words being 'hawker' and 'hurry'.

and it took me a whooping two hours to be through with the sentences. i tried my best that he understood the meaning and usage of the words and also had to ensure that the sentence was of the level for a grade 2 kid. some observations

- is 'hawker' a word fit for a grade 2 kid to learn.

- how is the kid going to make sentences when he is not aware things called noun / tenses /verb / articles etc.

- the kid had absolutely no motivation to study. he just wanted to be through with his homework. he also knows that students cannot be made to repeat classes in primary section i.e. no student would fail till class five. you cannot tell him that you will fail if you don't study.

- he was not interested in concentrating on learning, his mind kept on wandering.

after the 'class' i wondered how i cleared my school in straight 12 years. may be thats what you call Grace of God.

the walrus and the carpenter

2010-07-11T22:44:00.002+05:30

read the lewis caroll poem the walrus and the carpenter.

memories of old school days...

the poem

http://www.jabberwocky.com/carroll/walrus.html

the wikipedia info

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walrus_and_the_Carpenter

LOTD - origin of the song waka waka

2010-06-20T00:13:00.005+05:30

explored the origins of the song waka waka.. which has been chosen as the theme song for FIFA 2010

The chorus of the song is borrowed from a huge 1986 hit called "Zangaléwa" by amakossa group called Golden Sounds.

The original song has these lyrics:

Zaminamina oh oh

Waka waka eh eh

Zaminamina zangalewa

Anawam ah ah

detailed article at

http://hubpages.com/hub/The-History-of-the-Official-World-Cup-Song-Waka-Waka

LOTD - AED

2010-05-17T22:33:00.001+05:30

AED- Automatic External Defibrillator

also see CPR - Cardiopulmonary resuscitation

back on the yahoo answers circuit

2010-04-24T13:14:00.002+05:30

am back on the yahoo answers circuit..

feels good :)

LOTD - ivy league collges

2010-04-16T22:42:00.002+05:30

one of friends got into cornell university today. i knew it was an ivy league college. had checked that earlier when mridu had got thru cornell.

took out some time to further knw about the coveted ivy league

there are 8 colleges in the ivy leauge

Harvard University
Yale University
University of Pennsylvania
Princeton University
Columbia University
Brown University
Dartmouth College
Cornell University

it initially it started for excellence in sports but later on it was for all round performance of these universities....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_League

LOTD - 70 mm

2010-04-15T22:46:00.002+05:30

learned why the movies we see in hall are called 70 mm.

its coz the film strip is 70 mm wide.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/70_mm_film

LOTD- Aurora

2010-04-07T22:51:00.001+05:30

Learning of the day

Aurora - are natural light displays in the sky, usually observed atnight, particularly in the polar regions. They typically occur in the ionosphere. They are also referred to as polar auroras.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_(astronomy)

summer time.....

2010-02-28T22:02:00.002+05:30

the title wud invariably remind u of the rascal flatts song - summer time, everybody's feeling 'saxy'....

but here the reference is to the great summer vacations i used to have during my childhood.

the post originated as a comment on one of my friend's blogpost. but then given its length, it seemed more like a blogpost than a comment. so i thought that i shud be putting it down on my blog as well. vaise bhi, its been long since i posted anything. partially coz i was busy n partially coz i was feigning to be busy. god knows whom am i fooling...

so here is the post -

reminds me of my summer vacation. though never thought of penning it down. but now that ur post has sent me down the memory lane, i have to do it...

the most memorable bit of our vacations in kerala cud probably be raw mangoes soaked in brine solution.all 7 of us wud relish them equally. my daadi wud prepare it in such a way that it wud be ready by the time we wud reach for our vacations. n we wud have them at the terrace stealthily during afternoons when everyone was fast asleep. it used to be too concentrated a brine solutin, not fit for direct consumption. it used to be so tempting that we cud not wait for the day a gravy wud be made form it. we wud just cut it, add red chilly powder, salt and coconut oil and there it was - ready to be eaten, the smallest of the pieces worth being fought for.

- then there were sessions of palying cards - bluff being our favourite game. 4 sets of playing cards n still the game wud not go beyond half an hour. at times it wud come to a natural end or else more often it wud end up in an argument followed by sulking and silent treatments. patchup wud happen mostly at times of meals - all the kids first, on the floor, with the super cool n convenient banana leaves as plates. i used to be the odd one out with nothing non vegetarian in my plate. my daadi wud then fry eggs exclusively of the 'brahmin child' of the clan, which made me feel special. she always wondered how cud a child grow 'strong and big' without eating non veg. guess we have no other option but to grow - with or sans non veg food.

- next, our evening strolls down the lane. we wud collect henna leave which people wud grow as hedges along the boundary walls of their houses. then all of us wud help our girl cousins in applying the henna on their hands in odd geometric and abstract designs. alternatively we wud go for a walk in the fields, careful enough not to spoil the standing crop, collecting snail shell ( i dont knw how they found their way to the paddy fields)

- i remember the swing our grandfather wud tie on the mango tree for us to play. as a beta test my one of my heathiest cousin wud be made to try out whether is was good for the lighter version of his grandchildren.

- each of us had a coconut trees of our own in the backyard garden ,which we wud take care during our annual trips, comparing who's was the tallest / strongest.

- the visits to our small pineapple farm, plucking a couple of them n see our grandfather skin it and cut it for us. more often then not, we wud finish it by the time the last slice of the pineapple was cut. something similar used to be case with ripe jackfruit, fruit of cashew nut, things i had never seen in delhi.

- making toys with coconut leaves. just loved them. equally interesting were the attempts by us to climb the coconut tree.

- during evening tea time we wud be treated to kerala speical snacks - numerous varieties of appams, tapioca / banana / jackfruit chips et al. cooked in coconut oil, we wud relish them till the last bit left in the bowl.

- other things, for which i am at a loss of memory.

i guess memories of visiting our grand parents always have a special place in the human mind. my dad still recollects his childhood stays at his grandparents.

chota reunion

2009-12-13T23:13:00.002+05:30

me gaurav aggarwal, shaliy gupta and deepika ghai from school today. was good fun. for once i did not feel that i was meeting them after 7 years since school. got in touch with them through facebook. got a call from shaliy yesterday about meeting today. we were expecting hitesh and molshree to join as well, but they could not. had a good long chat with them all- what they had been doing since we left school, matrimonial plans, friends still in touch with, jobs, hobbies et al.

met them at city square, rajouri garden. its a nice mall. went there for the first time.

had a sumptuous lunch at punjabi by nature. good food and good ambiance it has.

lunch was followed by 2 rounds of 'fussball'. interesting game, popularized by the sitcom FRIENDS

best pics of the day:

based on a true incident

2009-11-14T15:40:00.005+05:30

filmy title for a filmy incedent....

one evening (late evening to be more precise) NS gets a phone on her land line. as fate wud have it, no one else but NS is there to pick up the phone. NS picks up the phone nonchalantly n says 'hello'. from the other side, an old forgotten boyish voice asks 'is that NS'. NS is shell shocked. its been years.....

since she got a call on landline phone

n that too a boy!! (how intriguing. lets move on...)

'yes' replies NS in a tone with overtones of anxiety and excitement. 'Hi this is ASR, remember we were together in XYZ school, Class XY ?? ' NS virtually falls off the chair out of excitement. how cud she believe her ears? how cud she be talking to this guy after over 7 long years?? was this a joke or some freaking rj playing a prank?? doesn't seem so...

the conversation proceeds..this is infact mr ASR, form NS's school days.

the background (no this is not a reference to the story by saki)

its believe that ASR had had a BIG crush on NS during school time and had once gathered all the courage under this sun and confessed it before NS. but NS as we knw she is - focussed and pdhaai oriented shot down the offer with blunt 'no'. our poor guy then settled with a 'friends' status with NS. at the core, ASR was a nice guy, intelligent, hardworking friendly. so NS didnot shoo him away and would talk to him at times. he even tried to be intouch with NS once they were in college but all attempts were brutally shot down by NS.

cut to - present

the call seemed to be a bolt from the blue - truly filmy in all respects. quasi 'long lost love'..naah just kiddin. ASR had called for a reason. he was getting married and wanted that his school time friends must be there. quasi reunion for their batch. reliving old memories of the glorious past. he was presently in dubai and wud be coming to india as the wedding was in dehradun sometime in december. the conversation was mostly drenched in nostalgia - they sharing numerous small incidents they had during school time -

how he used to call her 'tashni' for her characteristic attitude and style;

how once he got a friend of his click a photograph of both of them studying together - NS got pissed off and the fury was captured in the 'kodak moment' pic (which NS later tore into a zillion pieces);

how he dreaded her caller id phone way back in school days which wud show before taking a call that our dude had called (ASR still vividly remembers the caller id phone) - worse still, most of the times NS's mother or brother wud pick the phone and our guy wud be at a loss of courage and volume to speak any further;

the 'casual dress' for teacher's day celebration and how charming she was looking that day (used to be a day of reckoning for all school going teens)

many more such incidents - am at loss of memory - sorry NS - old age you see

NS had a real good time chatting with ASR, reliving old tension free days of schooling, the pranks, the gossips et al.

NS is all charged up to meet ASR now for his wedding and other batchmates. lets see how this pans out - dekhnnge Hum Log

gave a good patient hearing to the entire thing. she sounded eleated and excited like a kid who just got a sweet candy out of nowhere. it was a plesure to hear that tone in her voice. more so coz for a long time off late had, not found her in such a good mood, given what she has on her personal and professional plates at the moment :)

{p.s. - this entry has been included on request made by NS ;)}

airtel great delhi run 1 november 2009

2009-11-08T23:40:00.005+05:30

ok...this post has been due for over a week now. sincere apologies {as if some was waiting to ready it ;) , but still kehne main kya harz hai :)}

this year it was my first tryst with airtel great delhi run. first time ever i signed up for an event like this. i was hugely apprehensive about signing up for it. though i saw about it way back in sep beginning on the airtel website, n did think about signing up for it {was too idealistic - 2 months shud be sufficient to train n develop strength n all} but as life moved on n i realized that waking up in the morning n going for a jog was not my cup of tea. i thought its wise t0 decide other wise and stay off the event. neither were a couple of my other friends, whom i had asked

but then AK, NS n SM were game for it ans strongly recommended that we all shud be attending it as it wud be a good experience. they strongly suggested that the goodie bag was a good enough incentive to signup {implying that it wud help me break even with the registration fee ;) - bounded rationality of an economist mind i say} so we all sign up with a couple of their friends from office n all.

race day -

with just 2 morning walks to back me up, i decide to walk through the event {walk through as in the literal sense, the two morning walks which were supposed to be jogs made it clear that i cud not run beyond a couple of meters}. better incentive to attend the great delhi run - cud get opportunity to click some pics n pacify the amateur photographer within me.

on race day, we all met - a group of about 10 people, exchanged pleasantries with the new people n there we were all set for the great delhi run.

things went as per plan - i was comfortably walking, cliking pics of people {moslty 'backs n bums' as i wud like to put it- no offences meant - i was focusing of the messages people had on their shirts.} was good to see people come to gather for some cause. many of the runners belong to my category - here for photographic pleasure - click or be clicked whichever.

i soon got seperated form my gang as would stop every now n then to click a pic n then i wud loose track of where they r. so there i was alone n in bliss, clicking pics n all, thinking about captions for them et al. but was fun, really enjoyed it.

one sad sight was the litter we participants had created the holding area. that was a sorry sight, a real dampener :(

event pics

http://picasaweb.google.com/joseph.nishal /AirtelGreatDelhiRun1November2009#

i did post the link for the pics on the various communities. did get some good reviews as well :)

interesting phrases from chetan bhagat novels

2009-11-08T23:15:00.003+05:30

my compilation of interesting phrases from chetan bhagat noves - moslty - one night at call center and three mistakes {was too lazy while reading five point someone to jot these phrases down ;. but will skim it once again someday for the phrases. pakka :)}

we were talking but there was no conversations
'xyz' look
blind snake - feel sorry of it is blind but still it is a poisonous snake.
i dont knw whats awful - a shouting girl or a crying one. i am bad at handling either
she stopped crying after 70 seconds, around the same time any girl would stop crying if you ignore her.
'xyz' poof as in bullet proof - indifferent to something
female telepathic network
something sizzles inside the way they fry french fries at McDs
eyetalk
for breakup, location takes priority over ambiance
larger scheme & normal scheme
rounding error
pause for effect
inner voice had lost its volume
life is an optimization problem with tons of variables and constraints
ranked x among the top 10 y
one of the decent things happened to me in the past one month.

once in a blue moon

2009-10-25T22:04:00.003+05:30

today after church we were discussing about names given to our music instruments. it all started with ashish askin shruti about her recently acquired keyboard christened micheal. ashish's guitar is named job. all the instruments we have have some name

that set me thinking what name shud i give to my guitar, which is almost a year old now but is just 1 song old yet.

BLUE MOON - it striked me. what better name can i give it, given the fact that i play it once in a blue moon.

need to change the situation ASAP...

diwali in long exposure shots

2009-10-18T22:46:00.004+05:30

sights of diwali in long exposure shots. have not come out that great, but they do qualify for my first attempt at long exposure shots. interesting realm of photography. worth some more efforts.

a road less travel

2009-10-17T22:33:00.002+05:30

feels like going on a roadless travel

boarding a bus n travel far n wide.

enjoy the journey with no specifics for the destination.

click pics and write for my blog.

travel alone, my inner self - my wayfarer

parable of the two rings

2009-10-04T23:31:00.000+05:30

heard this parable today on TV. liked it very much

once there was a king. he went to his teacher and asked for something that would stay with him forever - joys n sorrows, good times n bad times. his teacher gave him 2 rings to be worn on his fingers, one on his right hand and the other on his left. each of the ring had a small inscription on them, beneath a cover. he instructed the king to open the cover and read the inscription on the right hand ring when he finds himself in the best situation, when there is nothing more he can ask from god. the inscription on the left ring was to be read when he felt rock bottom n hopeless, with no rays of hope left in his life.

it once happened that a neighboring king declared war on our king and our king was on the verge of defeat. he escaped and was being followed by the soldiers of the enemy king, when he reached the edge of a cliff. he felt that this was his end n rather than surrendering it would be better to kill himself. he was then reminded of the teacher and the ring with the inscription. with not much left to be lost,he thought of giving it a shot. he opened the ring and read the insciption.

it read -

'this shall also pass'

the king was inspired to fight back. he hid himself below a ledge of the cliff and was able to escape from the eyes of the soldiers.

he later on went back to some of his loyal men and together they vowed to regain what had been lost. over the years they rebuilt the army and were ready to declare war on the enemy king. they fought the war and this time they won it. he was crowned the king and prosperity returned to his kingdom. having regained what had been lost and in more than full, it was definitely the best day of his life. he was again reminded of the second ring his teacher had given to be read in time of utmost joy.

the inscription read -

'this shall also pass'

often it happens in our live that we are so shattered by sorrow or so elated in joy that we forget about the cycle of life, which has both joys n sorrows in equal parts. we should not be so engrossed in our joys or sorrows that we fail to see beyond them...

mumbo jumbo eco jargons that can be used in day to day life

2009-09-24T23:11:00.004+05:30

compiled over the years, during study of economics :)

optimal allocation / allocative efficiency / pareto efficiency - rec. put to most efficient used

transaction cost - cost of providing for some good or service through the market rather than having it provided from within the firm

moral hazard - i maybe careless if i knw my car is insured

asymmetric information - propounded by akerlof - incomplete information

opportunity cost

dead weight loss - pure loss. not received by any party in negotiation

asset specificity

adverse selection - insurance is needed by people with high risk

absolute advantage

comparative advantage

derived demand

crowding out- activity a reducing the impact of activity b. so a crowds out b

creative destruction - schumpeter - in order to continue to maintain excellence and remain competitive, they must adopt the dynamic strategies of discontinuity and creative destruction

nash equilibrium - sort of best alternative, nothing much else to loose or gain

zero sum game - a's loss = b's gain. win - loose situation

internalization -

externalities

bounded rationality - rationality of individuals is limited by the information they have, the cognitive limitations of their minds, and the finite amount of time they have to make decisions

theory of learning by arrow - learning by doing

foreclosure - a little short of confiscation

market power -ability of a firm to alter the market price of a good or service

external factor endowment - in FDI

market seeking behaviour

strategic asset acquiring

mutual forbearance - edwards - u scratch my back, i scratch urs/ symbiosis

market myopia

jensen's free cash flow theorm - cash flow in excess of that required to fund all positive net present value projects, free cash flow must be paid to shareholders if the firm is to maximize value.

lemons & plums

signalling effect

managerial entrenchment - when managers gain so much power that they are able to use the firm to further their own interests rather than the interests of shareholders

imitation effect - person’s demographic behaviour may be influenced by that among other people in the community, for example because of an inclination to imitate

dominant logic - dominant general management logic -conceptual framework for thinking about process and result of cognitive simplification in top management

arms's length price - market transaction

productive efficiency - how close actual prodn cost is to lowest cost achievable

post contractual opportunism - bargain after contact finalized

tapered integration - get input from vertical integration as well as external vendors

keiretsu - long term informal contract in japan

tacit knowledge -developed through knowledge / experience - cannot be expressed easily

hold up problem - specific asset + post contractual opportunism

monopoly power

regulatory capture - rent seeking behaviour - extra income by unfair means

spatial product differentiation - hotelling model - product which might seem to be same, may have some unintentional intangible feature added to them due to market situation.

reputation effect - in-predation - herd mentality

my latest acqusitions

2009-09-23T22:17:00.008+05:30

'NISHAL WHEN WILL U GROW UP?'. was the comment i got from mom when i showed her my latest acqusitons.

1. a hasbro / funskool - transformer toy - bumble bee.

2. a 150 piece CKD apache ah 64 which might take weeks to assemble.

guess i am still an impulsive buyer for these things ;)

a few glimpse of my bumble bee.

bumble bee

transformation 1

transformation 2

transformation 3

chevy camaro

it was also my first shot at product photography. had to wrack my brain to get that white back ground.

the apache ah 64 CKD 'scale model'. 1/48 of the original beast. through with the cockpit.

where the hell is matt

2009-08-30T23:37:00.004+05:30

searched for a visa card commerical which often plays in movie halls featuring a guy dancing across the globe. and what i found was just amazing. the guy featured in the commercial is matt harding. amazing stuff hez doing, globe trotting with a cause...

further details

http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/

Charge of the Light Brigade - Lord Alfred Tennyson

2009-08-23T22:26:00.002+05:30

Half a league, half a league,

Half a league onward,

All in the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

`Forward, the Light Brigade!

Charge for the guns!' he said:

Into the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

`Forward, the Light Brigade!'
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldier knew
ome one had blunder'd:
Their's not to make reply,
Their's not to reason why,
Their's but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.

Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel'd from the sabre-stroke
Shatter'd and sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder'd.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!

Daffodils - Willaim Wordswoth

2009-08-23T22:20:00.002+05:30

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

Solitray Reaper - William Wordsworth

2009-08-21T23:38:00.005+05:30

BEHOLD her, single in the field,

Yon solitary Highland Lass!

Reaping and singing by herself;

Stop here, or gently pass!

Alone she cuts and binds the grain,

And sings a melancholy strain;

O listen! for the Vale profound

Is overflowing with the sound.

No Nightingale did ever chaunt

More welcome notes to weary bands

Of travellers in some shady haunt,

Among Arabian sands:

A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard

In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird,

Breaking the silence of the seas

Among the farthest Hebrides.

Will no one tell me what she sings?—

Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow

For old, unhappy, far-off things,

And battles long ago:

Or is it some more humble lay,

Familiar matter of to-day?

Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,

That has been, and may be again?

Whate'er the theme, the Maiden sang

As if her song could have no ending;

I saw her singing at her work,

And o'er the sickle bending;—

I listen'd, motionless and still;

And, as I mounted up the hill,

The music in my heart I bore,

Long after it was heard no more.

the serenity prayer

2009-08-20T22:36:00.005+05:30

sunday, 16 august 2009

met AJ for lunch today. we were meeting after a span of over a year and a half. as usual, we had a long desultroy chat - ranging from going thru her civils prep notes to what next, how was ur trip back home, how is ur accommodation turning out to be, how was the wedding she attended at manali, what her friends were doing etc etc.

i too faced some conversations like howz my job going?, whats ur profile, howz ur family doing, discussion about my recent wall climbing experience et al.

some questions on spirituality as well poped up. one question that did give me a jolt was does God mean to me. dont remember what answer i had babbled, but the question did leave me thinking, what exactly does God mean to me. have i started taking him for granted that he is there n will always be there for us? dont knw. probably need some more time to figure it out.

she also gave me a writeup they had discussed in their church that morning. it had reflections on a verse form the prayer - our father in heaven "thy kingdom come, thy will be done". Also was this beautiful prayer, excerpts of which we all wud have come across, some point of time.

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.
--Reinhold Niebuhr

Guitar @ Church after long

2009-08-15T11:03:00.003+05:30

turned out to be a good morning for the musician within me.

With our lead guitarists and other musicians of the choir off for Illuminate 2009, got a chance to play the guitar in the morning mass. played the second guitarist. was easy was just playing one chord thru out the hymn on low volume, tryin to get the strum pattern correct. but was a good confidence booster...

new resolution for me... 15 min guitar practice DAILY. no matter what crap i strum but need to strum.

Mending Wall by Robert Frost

2009-08-14T19:08:00.005+05:30

Somehow had this flash of a poems i had studied during my school days. In restrospect, i think i did like them, though during school it wud have felt otherwise. Else how wud i still remember so vividly 'walling in and walling out', 'Elves', 'old stone savage' et al

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,

No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.

And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:

There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors'.
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows?
But here there are no cows.

Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather

He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me~
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."

Artificial Rock Climbing

2009-08-09T23:31:00.004+05:30

finally after a wait of over 2 years, yesterday i cud go to IMF n try my hands at sports climbing / wall climbing / artificial rock climbing as it is called.

standing at the base of the wall gives u a high.n then u utter the magical words 'climbing' n the ecstasy begins. it felt so good. but 3/4th way up the wall n my body seemed to be giving up. was becoming increasingly difficult to climb n inch further. told the instructor that i want to come down. but he insisted that i complete that leg, the top wasn't too far off n i cud do it. i decided to continue n in the end i did reach the top. phew..

then i came down with the rappling type descend. didn't have the courage to climb the way down the way it shud have been done.by the time i reached down, i was virtually trembling - more so out of excitement i suppose, i cud not even remove the carabiner n the harness properly. was so overjoyed. took me some time to get back to my normal sense.

others present did 2 sets of 2ascends and descends. was motivating. probably some day i'll also be able to do it..

for me its was not that important that i did it only once while others did it so easily... for me it was overcoming the inertia and pushing of the self set boundaries that was important.. also had waited for it for so long..over 2 years since in last year of MBE i came to know about it...

only sad part was that had to lie about it to my parents. i knw they wud not have agreed to it n even if they did, it wud have been a half hearted one. i dont want to hurt them u see, so its better to keep SHUT.

wud love to do it again, properly this time though. both ascend n descend. n multiple sets at that.

i have been quoted on orkut....WOW!!

2009-08-03T01:06:00.003+05:30

sounds boastful but cud not belive that someone just quoted my statement somewhere on the web

"we learn more thing when we help others - expands ur horizon of problems, which u dont have but u might have some time later "

was this statement that interesting??

i wonder...

Friendship Day - 2 August

2009-08-02T23:57:00.007+05:30

an eventful day

started off with church n the marathon Samanvaya Youth Group meeting. many promising proposal for passive people. Lets hope these work. need to change thing big time. the sports meet sounded interesting. looking forward to the badminton part 0f it.

that was followed by meeting up with 2 of my college friends and one more friend of theirs. was good fun, while we were waiting for them brought 2 LP shirts at 30% disc. what an ego booster it was. but it took some time. badi bheed thi. saari duniya shopping ke liye aaj hi CP aayi si lagti thi aur kyon na ho, voh bhi meri tarah end of season sale ka wait kar rahe honge + kal pehli tareekh thi. even the eating joints were overflowing. we then went to an archie's shop. i picked up 2 clipper lighters - one with marlboro and the other one with 555 insignia. the store had a decent looking black zippo for some 1500 bucks. too tempting it was. i also got 2 friendship bands form my friends there. how dumb of me i forgot to buy bands for them. n e way, they understand me i suppose and wud have been expecting this form me. we parted ways at 6.15.

was time to meet next set of friends from school - GA, MG n SS. it was sort of unexpected meeting, fixed up in a real short time but there lay the charm of the matter, cud it work out? i decided to give it a good shot. i wud be meeting MG after 2 years n SS after 7 years. i wondered how it had turned out to be. during school we were just acquaitences, cud probably count the number of times we intereacted on the fingers of my hand n my feet. but some how caught up with SS on gtalk and it didn't feel like we had not interacted during school or the 7 years that ensued. i wondered why did we not interact in school, or more so why did i interact with so few people at school (and fewer of them being girls... what was the whole point of being in co-ed school??). n e ways, the original plan was to meet at m2k pitampura but then GA cud not turn up there n it was decided that all 3 wud reach CP as i was there already n it had better options to eat out. this left me with some more time for window shopping + actual shopping. got hold of a blackberry shirt at 50% disc. it was a plain vanila shirt but what matters at that time was the 50% discount. so materialistic i have become - mujhe apni antar aatma ko tatolna hoga...maine bhi moh maya ke peeche bhagna shuru kar diya hai...aisa kyon ho raha hai... (sounds filmy, will think about it later, abhi toh visa power - go get it) also brought a small toy steam boat.had my eye on it since long. amazing piece of science it is. still have not been able to figure it out how it works. will paint it properly with the shark tooth design (akin the one on the zippo lighter used by pyro in xmen) in the front n a good name at the rear.

7.45 n MG n SS arrive, sans GA. GA had to be somewhere else n said he wud try to join us but in the end cud not make it. the 3 of us decided to have dinner ASAP n head back home for the desert - reprimand from our parents for being out, late through the evening. we explored some options but the regular eating joints where still overflowing with people. we decided to try tao at e-8 connaught place. fine place for oriental cuisine, nice ambience it had. it was more of experimental oriental experience. we ordered won ton (a derivative of dim sum or the more desi version - momo), noodles in mandarin sauce, n beverages (including cranberry juice - its sounded really exotic)

the food was good. we chatted through the dinner on a variety of topics - school days, present status of classmates, matrimony, expected family reaction when we wud reach home beyond our cutoff times etc. we finally left the place at 9.45 to take metro back to our homes.

the interesting part of it was that we 3 actually met. to my surprise it was quite comfortable talking to them and it never seemed that we didn't know each other that well during school or that so many years had passed by since we left schoool. i was feeling a bit funny initially - meeting three classmates (including 2 womenfolk), at such a short notice, with whom i had interacted so little when i had ample opportunity - 12 years at school but now for some strange reason i was looking forward to meet them - tried my best to wrap up my previous meeting in time so that i cud attend the intended meeting at m2k pitampura, waited till the time they arrived at CP. though it was sort of late n all but i thought it wud be worth the effort and actually turned out to be more. may be its never to late to start something good. n what a better day cud it be than friendship day!!

Super Saturday

2009-07-25T22:52:00.007+05:30

Had a good day today - met Gaurav Sharma, one of my oldest friends form school after a long time. Had been planing to me for the past fortnight, but it didnot work out, were waiting for one more friend of ours who was out of town, but he cud not make it, so we decided to meet.

We decided to go to Ambiance Mall in Guragon- A mall that is said to be over 1 Km long and was at one point of time the biggest mall in Delhi. But we went the for other reason - Bowling at the blue -O. was looking forward to it for the past 10 days but never thought it wud actually materialize.

We were joined in by one of Gaurav's cousins - Himanshu who has just joined Adidas. We picked him and went for a reconnaissance mission for an engineering college for Ankit, another of Gaurav's cousin. it institue was some 25-30 kms form ambiance mall, but was a pleasant road trip.

We came back form there to ambiance mall and pro ceded to our agenda for the day - bowling. We were then joined by Prateek - Gaurav's brother and Jatin, his friend. We 5 proceeded to bowl. Bowling had a waiting time of some 2 odd hours which we whiled away in shopping (more of the window kind) Bowling was great fun. Was doing it after some 2 years, enjoyed it a lot. worth a visit every quarter at least.

This was followed by food time. I relished a good 12" aloo patty sub for 100 bucks. but on second thoughts, think the chicken salami sub wud have been a better bet. n e ways had never tried aloo patty sub, it was just fine.

Also met Nitesh Hira form my school days. He is working with Fitness First at Ambiance Mall as a fitness instructor an man!! what an amazing physique he has... has inspire me to work on my resolution to start jogging.

Was a good day altogather started at 10 in the morning and ended at 10 in the night.

Day In Pics

for more pics, click here

Poems by "Rosesh" (Sarabhai v/s Sarabhai fame)

2009-07-21T22:16:00.000+05:30

"momaa ka purse jaise hospital ki pyaari si koi nurse
purse mein rakha tissue paper karta hai paseene ka ilaaj
aur lipstick ho jaise bhookhe honton ka anaaj
momaa ke purse ka hai makhmali sa sparsh
momaa ka purse
momaa ka purse "

"Khatar khun khatar khun khatar khun
Sun mere dil ki dhun
(Apparently Rosesh is comparing his heart to a car which has broken down)
Tere pyaar ki oiling mil gayi isey
Toh khatar khun ka ho jaayega gun gun "

"In the living room of Sarabhai's.........
Hogi Saahil Bhai ki sagaai...........
Agley mahiney...........
Priya Bhabhi phuli na samaai
Yeah Yeah Yeah............... "

"Tum bin jaise mai raaste ka andha bhikhari
thodi blessings daan me de do
thodi mamta tumhari
momma ho momma ho... "

"Ek Common Man Ko Mili He Pari
Jese Chiku Ke saath Ho Strawberry
Aage Aage Mummy Aur Piche Piche Daddy
Jaise Ho Tom And Jerry "

"ghanan ghanan ghanan ghanan
badalo se aaye pehla soorya kiran
datton ke liye danta manjan
aur pet ke liye kaayam chooran "

"hawa mein hain khushi ki aroma
jeet gayi momma, jeet gayi momma
say hi to happiness n tata to trauma
jeet gayi momma, jeet gayi momma "

"lagul lagul lagul lagul
laal laal lagul lagul JELLY
jelly ke cabre dancer jaise shareer mein chhupi hai
anjaani ankahee paheli

jelly hai moma ka mann
narm mulayam meetha
pasand hai ise har koi
sangeeta rita mita aneeta

jelly giri zameen par
to awaaz aayi PLUP PLUP!
baccha usme haath maare
to sunai deti hai THUP THUP!

jelly par kabhi fungus na lage
uska swaad kabhi bhankas na lage
agar bachani hai hume hamari
country...
TO JELLY KO BANANA HOGA HAMARA PRADHAN MANTRI!!"

"tumhe samjhe toh mujhe bhi samjhana,
kyu hai mera jeevan itna khokla,
jaise koi basi aur sada hua khaman dhokla.... "

"asman mein uud raha hai kabutar ....
Aasman mein uud raha hai kabutar ....
FLUTTER ..... FLUTTER..... FLUTTER...... "

"Popat Kaka ki atma ka Popat ud gaya ud gaya ud gaya rey...
Shristey k sajjan haath se popat jud gaya jud gaya jud gaya rey...
(Popat is name of his kaka who had expired)"

"humpty dumpty sat on the 'gadi'
gadi pe betha tabhi aa gayi dadi
dadi ne kaha aaja mere paas
kyuki gadi pe bethna is just so middle class."

Source: http://onlinekachra.blogspot.com/2008/02/poems-by-rosesh-sarabhai-vs-sarabhai.html

Weekend Getaway - Kasauli - Chail - Shimla: July 11-2, 2009

2009-07-18T14:13:00.007+05:30

It all started on June 14, 2009, when Mumbai se aaya apna dost - Abhishek. some of us form MBE met at DLF Saket, on this occasion - Abhishek, Arunabha, Manas, Me n Sharad. Someone casually suggested that we all should go out for a day or two to the hill to beat the Dilli Ki Garmi. We all agreed that it was a good idea n 2nd weekend of next month could be a probable date - we would have ample time to arrange for leave, peak holiday season wud be over, book tickets etc. We decided to pursue it further once we went back home work towards planning the same.

I so wished to go out for a weekend, but statistics revealed other wise - planning period of a month was too long a period for Murhpy to play havoc. Personal experience suggested that JIT was a better technique for such outings but he logistics involved made that difficult. Still we continued with our efforts

First Step - Mail by Arunabha kick starts our planing phase of the project.The mail had the subject - 'Dekho Kutto Dekho'. Don't know why Arunabaha named it so - maybe he wanted us to work with the vigour n enthusiasm of dogs especially sniffer dogs with the narcotics dept - when sniffing for drugs. Any which ways, i found it sort of inspiring. Ab initio Nainital was selected as the destination for a 3 day trip. Sort of FGDs on where to go, how to go, where to stay n what not. What ensued was a parley mainly through mails to work out the nitigrities of big adventure, spanning over 60 mail threads ans we zeroed on Going to kasauli - by train (till kalka n then by taxi) - stay at a govt guest house (coutsey Arunabaha's Dad) - 2 nights and 3 day (for me it was a one night stand ;), 1 night and 2 days - had some work back in office on Monday :( )

Day 1

Never the less, all logistics were in place, and we woke up on Saturday morning all set for the trip. I had a very strong feeling that some thing somewhere was wrong, it all seemed to be too good to be true. I took a metro to the railway station. Got at call from Arunabha, told him about my coordinates, they too were on their way. And then we finally reached the railway station, boarded the train n off we went. Kalka Shatabdi - reached Kalak at 11.40 AM

Then we took a taxi that was waiting for us at the station, with the driver Lalit holding a placard for Arunabaha - It seemed like a trailer to the royal treatment we were to get. Was exciting,

We were now heading towards the guesthouse at Kasauli.

http://picasaweb.google.com/nishaljoseph/Shimla#5358359970918963186

Once at the guesthouse, we rested for some time and then started off for Kasauli - we had too little time to waste. Main attractions for Kasauli were - Man-ki Point, Mall Road, Sunset point. Man-ki point was more like an air force observation point which had a Hanuman Ji Temple. We had a pit stop at Hot Millions for a 'light lunch' and then moved on to Manki point, where the cutoff time for entry was 4 PM. and had to make a mad rush to reach the place. Thanks to Lalit, we were JIT for it. We were probably the last onece to gain access to the temple. The temple was atop a hill and had a fairly steep ascent. Unfortunately as it was a military area, no camera or cell phones were allowed inside the premises. From there on we went to Mall Road, our second stop. We visited a churh there first and then moved on to the hike towards sunset point, our agla padaav. We went upto an altitude of some 6150 feet above MSL. We were a bit earlly for the sunset and also it was too cloudy. None the less, it was fun. Probably saw clouds form such close quarters.

http://picasaweb.google.com/nishaljoseph/Shimla#5358371228601075202

Then we went around the mall road, that wasn't that exiciting for us shehri kids.

We returned back to the guesthouse after having a pitstop at Hot Millions from where we got some grub packed for the long night ahead.

What ensued was desultory talks - reminisiczing our college days, batchmates, teachers, Second year trips et al. Music played in the background - thanks to Manas's N 76 - mostlly kishore kumar songs - Typical Manas mahajan Type Playlist. On interesting acitivity we did was that we called up one of our friend and arunabha told her that i was drunk and totally our of my mind an puking and while i was high, i had confessed about my love life - a girl with whom i had been going around for the past one year. It was a tough bluff to pull through but Arunabha did it so well, aided by Sharad Manas that she was convinced about each n evey word they said. I was virtually ROFL, cud not even talk to her coz of that, it also helped in the bluff.

Day 2

We woke up lazily and got ready for today's excursion. got on to the car n off we went for our trip. planned for a breakfast en route. the plan was to go to to chail, kufri n then shimla, which wud have been the last stop for me n i wud take a bus for delhi form shimla. we had a stopover at dhaba n had yummy maggi for breakfast. the day was mostly a roadtrip. had some pit stops to admire the nature's beauty. we reached chail. we saw the hotel where we had stayed when we had come with our class mates to chail in 2006, those roads through which we had long walks, a handpump which shivender, dev, himani n richahad used a prop for a pic n all. the trip seemed so fresh in my memory. we reached the chail palace, now a heritage resort. was a nice place. we had not visited it when we had come here previously due to obvious financial constraints. the palace was grand. to lot many pictures there n had some snacks to fill our tummies. i also booked for a bus ticket from shimla to delhi through himachal tourism. ticket was to be collected form shimla. got a ticket for the volvo bus service. from there we went on to chail stadium, which is considered to be the highest cricket ground in the world. unfortunately it was closed.we took some pics an moved on to kufri, we were palnning to visit wild flowerhall, an oberoi resort, which is considered to be one among the best. we planned to visit its coffee shop n then explore the resort, we reached to resort but to our dismay, the coffee house was now only open for the people staying there. hard luck we moved forward to shimla.

it wasn't cold that cold but i insisted on putting on my jacket, atleast pics main toh lage ki it was cold, after all we came to shimla to beat delhi heat ;). we finally reached shmila n headed towards mall road. we took the lift n reached mall road. we decided to take a break for late lunch n then proceed for the mall road visit. as we waited for our food at the restaurant, it started rain n raining heavily. we had our food n waited for some more time. once the rain stopped,we proceeded to mall road. the mall road was similar to to all the mall roads in all other hill stations n just did some window shopping. i also collected a ticket for my onwards journey to delhi. we also explored the opportunity of ice skating as i insisted that we chk it out. we had to take a down hill pagdandi sort of thing to reach the venue - a school ground with puddles of water fresh from today's rains. n then we are informed that it happens only in winters :(. we went back n on our way back saw that the bill board did mention that it happens only in winters. i felt like running for cover, made them all go down that pagdandi for no avail. n e ways, its all a part of the learning curve. then for me its was the end of my weekend getaway n time to get ready for my journey to delhi, while the rest wud move back to the guest house at kasauli. the boys dropped me at the bus stand and went for their onward journey.

it started raining again n i had to wait for some 1-1.5 hours before my bus came. i took shelter at the bus stand and kept on inquiring form where i cud board my volvo. i was guided to all sorts of place at the bus stand but to no avail. the rain added to the troubles. finally i made out that the bus stand was a himachal transport corp one n i had a ticket for a bus operated by himachal tourism, n that they were separate entities.finally reached victory tunnel from where i was to board the bus. at 7.30pm. the bus came n i boarded it. it was just amzing, what comfortable seats, n foot rests it had (no point for guessing that it was the first time i was travelling by a volvo). we had a noisy bunch of young girls as our co-passengers n their constant chatter kept us awake n made a lot of noise about the movie to be played during the journey. also the bus had sealed windows n to add to our woes, many people started feeling nauseated due to the hill drive. we had to take some stops to help them. we took a final stop a himachal tourism hotel for dinner. i didn't have any thing to avoid sickness during the travel, thanks to my extensive bus travel experience. there i chatted with an elderly couple and also with a swiss lady who had come to india on a vacation with her mother. we resumed out journey n i fell asleep.

next morning i wake up in delhi, when the bus had reached its last stop. n off i go back to home so that i can reach office on time.

some hight points (apart form the ones coz of high altitude) we shared mostly courtsey sharad.

how we were 'destined' to visit manki point - we made it just in the nick of time, probably the last ones for the day, allowed to enter the gates.
the different pronunciations of the word 'pleasure'
siberian tiger. did it growl at you? - arunabha
yeh sadak kahan jaati hai? - on our way to manki point.
there was a small drawing near the helipad at manki point of the nearby cities. sharad wondered how the pilot could see such a small map while landing the copter.
imitations of cigarette smoking king - pardon n all
a k seth - yeh bachhi batayegi..... padha hai n all.
'kitna dena hai' n then we all wud hurriedly start doing the math as we initially went dutch for our expenses. maths being my strong point (ahem ahem) i wud leave the calculations half way most of the times. then we decided that manas should be our SPOC - single point of contact for all payments n we cud square off the balances later on.
the song 'aaoge jab tum sajana' from jab we met played exactly at the time when we reached shimla. coincidently the song was also filmed at shimla
'sehra main tu jungle main tu' part of the song durr by strings. baki sab toh theek hai, yeh jungle kyon hain yahan, yeh nahn samajh aaya - sharad
warranty card n glass - dont remember this exactly but i have noted it somehow.

Little Manhatten (2005)

2009-07-06T12:33:00.000+05:30

Gabe: Dad, what's the deal with girls? I mean, why are they the way they are?
Adam: You're talking to the wrong man.
Gabe: Well, how come all love has to end?
Adam: Let me tell you something about me and your mom. Once upon a time, we really loved each other, but as time went by, there just got to be all these things, little things, stupid things, that were left unsaid. And all these things that were left unsaid piled up, like the clutter in our storage room. And after awhile, there was so much that was left unsaid, that we barely said anything at all.
Gabe: Well, why didn't you just say them then, dad?
Adam: I don't know, Gabe. I kind of wish I had.

The Sixth Sense

2009-05-31T19:40:00.000+05:30

Definitely worth a watch!!

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/pattie_maes_demos_the_sixth_sense.html

my current chart toppers

2009-05-09T17:15:00.009+05:30

Magnificent - U2

Magnificent
Magnificent

I was born
I was born to be with you
In this space and time
After that and ever after I haven't had a clue
Only to break rhyme
This foolishness can leave a heart black and blue

Only love, only love can leave such a mark
But only love, only love can heal such a scar

I was born
I was born to sing for you
I didn’t have a choice but to lift you up
And sing whatever song you wanted me to
I give you back my voice
From the womb my first cry, it was a joyful noise…

Only love, only love can leave such a mark
But only love, only love can heal such a scar

Justified till we die, you and I will magnify
The Magnificent
Magnificent

Only love, only love can leave such a mark
But only love, only love unites our hearts

Justified till we die, you and I will magnify
The Magnificent
Magnificent
Magnificent

Barry Louis Polisar - All I Want Is You Lyrics

If I was a flower growing wild and free
All I'd want is you to be my sweet honey bee.
And if I was a tree growing tall and greeen
All I'd want is you to shade me and be my leaves

If I was a flower growing wild and free
All I'd want is you to be my sweet honey bee.
And if I was a tree growing tall and greeen
All I'd want is you to shade me and be my leaves

All I want is you, will you be my bride
Take me by the hand and stand by my side
All I want is you, will you stay with me?
Hold me in your arms and sway me like the sea.

If you were a river in the mountains tall,
The rumble of your water would be my call.
If you were the winter, I know I'd be the snow
Just as long as you were with me, when the cold winds blow.

All I want is you, will you be my bride
Take me by the hand and stand by my side
All I want is you, will you stay with me?
Hold me in your arms and sway me like the sea.

If you were a wink, I'd be a nod
If you were a seed, well I'd be a pod.
If you were the floor, I'd wanna be the rug
And if you were a kiss, I know I'd be a hug

All I want is you, will you be my bride
Take me by the hand and stand by my side
All I want is you, will you stay with me?
Hold me in your arms and sway me like the sea.

If you were the wood, I'd be the fire.
If you were the love, I'd be the desire.
If you were a castle, I'd be your moat,
And if you were an ocean, I'd learn to float.

All I want is you, will you be my bride
Take me by the hand and stand by my side
All I want is you, will you stay with me?
Hold me in your arms and sway me like the sea.

Anyone Else but You - Moldy Peaches

Your part time lover and a full time friend,
The monkey on the back is the latest trend,
Don't see what anyone can see,
In anyone else,
But you

Here is a church and here is a steeple,
We sure are cute for two ugly people,
Don't see what anyone can see,
In anyone else,
But you

We both have shiny happy fits of rage,
I want more fans, you want more stage,
Don't see what anyone can see,
In anyone else,
But you

I'm always tryin to keep it real,
Now I'm in love with how you feel,
I don't see what anyone can see,
In anyone else,
But you

I kiss you on the brain in the shadow of the train,
I kiss you all starry eyed,
My body swings from side to side,
I don't see what anyone can see,
In anyone else,
But you

The pebbles forgive me,
The trees forgive me,
So why can't,
You forgive me?
I don't see what anyone can see,
In anyone else,
But you

Du du du du du du dudu
Du du du du du du dudu
I don't see what anyone can see,
In anyone else,
But you.

Cup of Coffee

2009-04-27T16:55:00.000+05:30

Got this as an email forward...nice one.

A group of alumni, all highly established in their respective careers, got together for a visit with their old university professor.
The conversation soon turned to complaints about the endless stress of work and life in general...

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went into the kitchen and soon returned with a large pot of coffee and an eclectic assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal - some plain, some expensive, some quite exquisite. Quietly he told them to help themselves to some fresh coffee.

When each of his former students had a cup of coffee in hand, the old professor quietly cleared his throat and began to patiently address the small gathering... ''You may have noticed that all of the nicer looking cups were taken up first, leaving behind the plainer and cheaper ones. While it is only natural for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is actually the source of much of your stress-related problems! "

He continued... ''Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In fact, the cup merely disguises or dresses up what we drink. What each of you really wanted was coffee, not a cup, but you instinctively went for the best cups... Then you began eyeing each other's cups....''

''Now consider this: Life is coffee. Jobs, money, and position in society are merely cups. They are just tools to shape and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not truly define nor change the quality of the Life we live. Often, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee. Enjoy your coffee!''

The happiest people don't have the best of everything - they just make the best of everything they have... So please remember: Live simply. Love generously. Care Deeply. Speak Kindly.

And remember - the richest person is not the one who has the most, but the one who needs the least.

lighter moments

2009-04-25T18:31:00.002+05:30

tum kya jaano

ki gum kya hota hai

tum kya jaano

ki gum kaisa lagta hai

tum kya jaano

ki gum kaisa lagta hai

tumne to zindagi bhar

thook se hi lifafa chipkaya hai

- nazakat ali

one more:

manzilain hain

toh hosle hain

chidiya hai

toh gohnsle hain

aasha hai

toh bhonsle hai

- un known, recited by pawanjot singh.

wah wah!! wah wah!!

Tycoons 2009 TV Coverage

2009-04-23T18:11:00.004+05:30

The TV coverage of Tycoons 2009 on Zee Business.

5 months of hard work compress in to 1 hour....

Episode 1

Episode 2

WOW

2009-04-21T23:09:00.003+05:30

WOW I came across Garima Singh's Facebook profile

life does not give you people you want...rather the ones you need...to help you, to hurt you, to leave you, to love you and to make you into the person you were meant to be...

Nishal likes that!!

WOW

2009-04-21T23:09:00.002+05:30

WOW I came across Garima Singh's Facebook profile

'life does not give you people you want...rather the ones you need...to help you, to hurt you, to leave you, to love you and to make you into the person you were meant to be...'

Nishal likes that!!

2009-04-19T13:02:00.001+05:30

testing how to embed albums

From Nishal Joseph's Web Llog

Reunion Weekend

2009-04-12T22:28:00.008+05:30

This was a great weekend

met a lot of friends form previous years. some planned and some unplanned

1. UDSC - hostel

had a word with Achu John after a real long time.

Good Friday was a good day to call her.

she was tied up with her civils prep. exam is on may 17

she told that she had her convocation and that she got her gold medal for being first in the university. her father was also there for the ceremony.

what an achievement.

2. MBE

it all started with a phone call - like the matrix - but it was manas on the line. friends at MBE were planning to meet up, given the fact that 'bumbai se aaya apne dost' - nidhi chawla had come to delhi for a brief stint. also i later came to know that manas was giving a birthday treat

we got the mail for the venue date and time were fixed - pizza hut, cp, 12 march 2009, 1.30 pm.also attached was a map for the same courtesy foodybay. it could not have been more formal than this

was good fun. there were 8 of us for the lunch - in seating order

aurnabha
deepika
vartika
sharad
kawalpreet
manas
nidhi

had a good chat, remembering our college days, rounds of PJs, imitating our teachers, 'who all got married' talke n so on....

(P.S. manas had his birthday in jan )

3. CBS

then i went on to meet arti verma, my friend from CBS. she had come down to cp to attend her classes of actuaries. was meeting her after real long after some 3 years i suppose.

but the flip side of the meeting was that we had alrady had a half an hour long chat in the morning n were not left with much to talk, i being perennially short of topics to talk to anyone.

but one good thing, rati called up when we were there. had a word with her. it has been long since we had a chat.

missed saurabhs, chanchal, rati n others

we dispersed with a resolution to meet soon, soon after arti's exams were over

4 CBS again

met this gang of friends from CBS again meeting them after some 4 odd years.

they all had met on the ocassion of 'bumbai se aaya apna dost'- nidhi chawla, chicago se aaya apna dost' - pramod menon dubai ko jayega apna dost himanshu wardhan, great lakes ko jayegi apni dost - saloni shegal, n some more gneral reasons

members present - in seatin gorder

bahvna sharma
kunal pant
pramod menon
ashish
saloni sehgal
himanshu wardhan
ankur gulati
nidhi chawla
shubhra sachdeva

remebered good old college days - kp talked about taking notes form me n bahvna, responding to attendance to col pandey from outside the window etc etc

i was an unexpected guest, hope it was not a problem to them. felt really good to have met them.

thanks nidhi for inviting me to join :)

5. SPS

had an online chat with rajat sharma

he had a good news to share

he had got thru IIM lucknow, n w/l in IIM Indore and IIM Kohzikode

great work my dear frinend.

all the best for your future my friend.

6. MBE again

Met neha sharma n anshu at cp.

was good to meet them. occassion - it was anshu's birthday on april 10

presented her with some chocolates form wengers. thank God it striked me to get some present for her. else i wud have turned up there like a dud. i am learning chivalry...slow but steady

Had desultory talks like always...

7. Trident

Met sarvesh at cp. he was there for his wedding shopping. the day is coming closer - april 27. he give a good reminder tending to a stern reminder to be there for the engagement and wedding. was in a hurry, i understand, it was 7.15 already on a sunday eveningn - hehad to go to vasant kunj n come back to this part or delhi by 11 for the customary dli uhp spl.

meanwhle over the weekend - firday was a day of fast and abstinence, attended the midnight mass at church for easter, had good lavish easter breakfast and lunch.

Friends at church

Eatster weekend has always been a good time for me to catchup with old friends. 2 years ago, same time i had met my school batchmates, after a duration of 5 long years.

unfortunately, the week ended on a sad note. came to know that one of my friends - SR had lost her father on Good Friday. Will pray, for his soul to rest in peace.

WARM EASTER WISHES TO ALL

Randy Pausch - Last Lecture

2009-04-03T00:28:00.007+05:30

Good piece to read

http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/Randy/pauschlastlecturetranscript.pdf

or watch

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

2009-04-03T00:24:00.002+05:30

Good piece to read

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

or watch

WOW from Rohit Nair's Orkut profile

2009-04-03T00:17:00.000+05:30

Being a Mallu is the easiest thing.. You always find another one- anywhere, everywhere!! " - Well.. Bad Personal Experience!!

" The problem with communication is the misconception that it has been conveyed" - Globally Agreed, Personally Endorsed!!

"There's a lot of commitment in being single"- Personal experience

"Champions take chances, and pressure is a privilege" - Billie Jean King (via sms) to Maria Sharapova before the Australian Open 2008 final

“Science tells me god must exist. My mind tells me I will never understand God. And my heart tells me I am not meant to” – Vittoria Vectra in A & D

* WOW stand for Words Of Wisdom

Sports Day @ CL

2009-03-07T00:35:00.004+05:30

It was the much awaited sports day at CL.

Reached the venue at 9.30 AM
I was planning to try my hands at badminton and anything else that might come my way, and apart form sports it was photography.

objective 1 was completed. played badminton, not the tournament but good enjoyable knocks with the network team and some students from IWSB. It was refreshing. Also played vollyball. I think it was the first time I played it since i left school. To my surprize, the upperhand serves were coming out well, something I used to struggle with in school.
objective 2 was also fullfilled, clicke some 180 0dd photographs. Sports photography is real tough. you need a lot of practice to be able to spot the right moment and click at he right time. will work on that. Tried new angles today, taking photographs from the ground level / a few centimeters above the ground. Its tough but comes out well.Was good fun

My body is aching. would be worse tomorrow. Probably its a hint that i need to start taking my 'i will go for jogging' resolution seriously. that might help

A Christmas Carol

2008-12-16T00:14:00.003+05:30

Sunday December 14

Third Sunday of Advent.

Its Christmas tide!!

Time for celebration and festivities.

It was announce yesterday that we could expect the carols in our part of rohini on Monday...

Time for action - make crib, decorate the Christmas tree, clean the housed etc. etc.

Yesterday morning was spent in church and in the afternoon we had to go for a lunch at Uncle George's place for his son had come from the states and his house was being blessed.

Reached back home at 5 and mom said that we would quickly make a small crib. This would be the first time we would be making a crib at our home. Both me and mom had got the miniature statues for making the crib but cud not use it as last year i was in ludhiana and may parents had gone to Kerala during Christmas.

I had left some office work to be done for Sunday which i could see was going to be pushed for Sunday night because of the crib making.

me n mom changed the setting of the sitting room downstairs a little to make way for the crib.

then with very little material we prepared the crib and decorated it with lights.

the crib alone seemed incomplete so we decided to decorate the tree as well. another quick work and the tree was ready to in a matter of minutes. i wud not say they were the best looking crib and Christmas tree but given the fact that all the work was done in a matter of 3 hours, it was a neat job.

mom really felt happy as she had thought that we would be able to make the crib this time as well. it was rewarding the see the joy on her face.

Monday, December 15

Bunked my guitar class and reached home by 9.15.

fortunately, the carol singers had not yet reached our home.

had my dinner quickly and waited along with my parents for the carol singers.

they team came at 9.45 pm.

i switched on the decorative lights of the crib and the Christmas tree. they looked beautiful

the carol party sang 3 beautiful carols..it reminded me of the times when i too used to go for carols..used to have real good fun..

people did appreciate the crib and Christmas tree, they were simple but looked beautiful.

felt really good!!

Good talking to you friend....

2008-12-13T18:44:00.003+05:30

Had good long chat with a good friend on Gtalk yesterday. A good late night - long talk while i was doing some office work earely in the morinig at 2ish inthe morining.

Was after a long time has a chat with him, and the first time since he left India.

like always the talk was desultory - ranged over severarl topics - life in genral, life away form family, love life of our frineds, our life and matrimony, my blog (our mussorie trip in specific) , lives of our friend and so on...

such chats are always refreshing...though they are quite serious i do but enjoy them.

LOTD- Learning of the day - Excel charts with 2 x axis

2008-12-10T00:37:00.003+05:30

How to make excel charts with 2 different x axis

quite helpfult in life.....

http://blogs.msdn.com/excel/archive/2007/08/24/combining-chart-types-adding-a-second-axis.aspx

"Agony Uncle'

2008-12-03T00:41:00.003+05:30

Of late, i have been getting opportunities to be agony uncle to friends of mine.

its not that difficult to lend a patient ear to your friends problems. gives your Friend a lot of respite. they feel good as they get an opportunity to express, verbalize, share their problem with someone they think will listen to them, understand their situation and offer a solution. at times it gives them an independent third part view which they might have overlooked or might have thought was a biased solution. most importantly, it sh0ws that you are trustworthy and that your friend can confide in you.

But at times i wonder how 'qualified' i am to play this 'role' to my beloved frieds. am i experienced enough... no, i don't think so...24 years of existence on this earth is nor sufficient for that. but so long as my friends feel relieved, i think its ok. i try my best only to give a different perspective to the problem and not a solution, for solutions to problems need to be found by oneself!!

Finally a proud owner of a Hobner 285.

2008-11-30T22:49:00.000+05:30

I am finally a proud owner of a Hobner 285, my new guitar.

witht this i plan to start my voyage on the ocean of music.

hope i am able to do justic to it and it does not end up being another piece of furniture in my room

got this idea of christining my gutar from someone's blog, one ms. ranjita i suppose. She had nme it lenny. Lemme think of a good name...After all it too has the 5 senses of see(red and black finsh), touch(the fretboad n the strings), smell (the sweet smell of the wood), hear (the pleasant sounds i aspire to produce) and taste (of good music to was made to play)

The mirror

2008-07-05T00:06:00.000+05:30

WOW (Words of Wisdom) by Rajneesh Bahtia (our dear RB)
1. Life is perception. There is no such thing as fact. Facts are accepted percptions. e.g the direction East is east because we accepted someone's perception that sun rose from east and that direction should not be called by some other name.
2. Team work, adaptability, passion for what u do... all it take to be successful.
3. Only those people are succesful who do the wrok before it becomes due

Viva – April 13, Friday

2007-04-14T00:20:00.000+05:30

Had my ‘comprehensive’ viva today. I was 4^th in turn in my batch. The sight of Prof. A K Seth was an ill omen…rigorous grilling was a sure event now in the group in which b present n unfortunately it was mine.. :(

My panel comprised of Kaul Sir, Ananya Mam, Nair Sir, Seth Sir n one External Member.

When I came in Kaul Sir introduced e as a ‘good student’ of the department..i was feeling happy n sad simultaneously ..happy for the confidence sir showed in me, n sad for I knew that Seth Sir wud grill me n all their expectations wud b shattered.

A expected Seth Sir asked for my favourite subject..marketing came the prompt reply…he asked 2 very simple questions define brand & market. both the questions I cud not answer completely an Seth Sir added vital points to my answers. The expression he had on his face when talking to ananya mam made me feel all the more miserable.

The external asked me some question pertaining to my dissertation. Again I gave some BHAG answers.

Nxt nair sir asked me about my placement.

Nxt was a question on my contribution towards the department. I highlighted my role as an alumni coordinator & alos as the one responsible for uploading ppts, take care of LCD, laptop etc etc . Ananya mam came to my rescue n called me her ‘Man Friday’ for tech works related to her Seminars n all

--End of viva--

Overall it was a big disappointment for me on a personal front..i was the one who made all the mistakes..the confidence my teachers had in me was badly shattered by now

Farewell - April 9, 2006

2007-04-14T00:18:00.000+05:30

Had our farewell today both the official and the unofficial one. Though I was looking forward to it for the title I would get, but at the back of my mind I knew that it was to signal the end of a beautiful chapter of my life, my 2 years @ MBE filled with experiences, joys, mistakes, friends, learnings, vella marroing, PPTs n Reports (most of the times Just In Time J), the faculty n much more.

Got the title of DEXTER for love of tech things ranging form laptops, LCD, MP3 Player, IT helpdesk….n the list goes on. It was also supposed to symbolize that I am always buzy with something or the other…Kaul Sir commented that the title was apt form me…consider it to be an important compliment in my life…

It was followed by snacks n photo session. Got many snaps clicked..to my surprise there was a lineup of girls (atleast 4) waiting for a photo clicked with me

The informal party at RPM GK II was also great….though people came in late we had sufficient time to enjoy. Initially the DJ was playing soft music but most of the students felt that he did it for too long…but once he started playing the ‘disc like tracks’, it was good.

Enjoyed the dancing..i did my usual PT exercise like dance steps. But I enjoyed shouting the songs out n the music being played a that high volume…was feelin as if I were in a state of trance

To my surprise I was nominated as one of the 6 candidates for the title of ‘Mr. MBE’. I was paired opposite Deepika Sharma. was feelin good that juniors at least though me worthy of being nominated as a candidate. I knew I had no chance of winning. As expected, Sharad was chosen as Mr. MBE a good choice. Had a round of dance with our partners. Was fellin really awkward dancing in pair….towards the end of the dance, the fun was spoiled coz a ‘jerk’ takin too may pictures ….

It all ended by 11.30

It was followed by a hitch back home with Nitin Taank on his Karizma..was a NDE of sorts for me…

Good Friday & School Reunion - April 6, 2007.

2007-04-14T00:17:00.000+05:30

Attended the morning Malayalam mass so that I cud attend the school reunion in the afternoon. The mass was a bit long as compared to my expectation and had The Way of The Cross in the form of a long procession. Chatted with Jitin, an MBA from IMTGhaziabad, for some time. He got placed with Satyam.

Came back all excited about the reunion, as even I had played a role in coordinating it over orkut. It was bit difficult to believe that we could plan out the reunion in just a week n by the responses on orkut, it seemed that there was a fair probability that attendance wud b good. But the real test of our efforts could be known only when we all met.

Had my lunch at home just to hedge the risk of people turning up late as I had fast that day. Also it cud help me reduce my expense(..though it turned out to be wrong, everyone had a sumptuous meal for 100 bucks!!)

Left by 12.45 in DTC 971. reached school by 1.30.

Deepika Ghai was the first person to turn up by 1.40, followed by Dimple Garg, Jyoti Jain & Gaurav Aggarwal.

By 2 there was a good strength n by 2.15 we decide to go to Metro Walk for lunch.

Siddharth Goel joined us for a short while at the school….was buzy but took some time out to meet us. He also called up Shubahm Gupta & Neha Jain and I had a talk with them. I was happy for his kind gesture. Dikshith Malhotra & Ayush Sharma also joined us for some moments.

We reached Metro Walk for our lunch. Some of the students had snacks at the food court n then we proceeded to Yo!

China

for our lunch n the talking part of the meet. People complimented me that I had changed for the better as now I was taking quite a lot as compared to the Nishal they knew 5 years ago.

Had a round of intro about our past present n future.

The final turnout was follows:

1. Gaurav Aggarwal - First year MBA @IMT, wud be joing Reliance Retail for summers

2. Nishal Joseph

3. Deepak Gupta-completed Engg. Wud be joining Iflex (I think)

4. Sachin Mohan Gupta – Engg NSIT, placed with Amdox

5. Nitish Garg – first year IIMC, internship with ITC

6. Vicky kalra- business

7. Nikhil Singahal – pursuing CA

8. Vikram Gosain- Workin with IBM Daksh

9. Abhinav – joined his father in business

10. Saurabh Aggarwal – pursuing CA

11. Manish Jain – Business

12. Manish Kumar – Business

13. Saurabh Bansal – first year MBA @ NIMS

14. Nikhil Sehgal - Sapient

15. Molshree Gupta – Sapient

16. Sanchika Jain – Pursuing Actuarial sciences

17. Dimple Garg – MBA @ FSM, placed with Grail Research

18. Deepika Ghai – MSc Maths @ IIT D, placed with market Rx

19. Jyoti Jain – MBA thru DLP

Joined for a short while – Siddharth Goel, Ayush Sharma, Dikshith Malhotra

Hope I have not missed any one

Had a real good time recollecting school memories, our teaches, the classes etc..

Most importantly was feeling good that out efforts had borne fruits, 20 odd people at first attempt didn’t seem bad at all…..

Maundy Thursday - April 5, 2007

2007-04-14T00:14:00.000+05:30

For the first time drove the car in absence of my instructor, Kumar. Was a real test of my learning so far. Besides me there was mom, baby aunty, neema n neeti in the car. Though the car stalled at a few places coz I removed my foot form the clutch bit too early, they said that I drove the car pretty well given the fact that it was dark. They complimented me that my driving was smooth like Tony Acchhan. Don’t know whether it was true or they were just trying to boost my moral. Overall it was a good experience, I first solo drive….

when burying a used car....

2007-03-31T23:33:00.000+05:30

always insist on the insurance history of the car. ask for 'no claim bonus' availed previously
take a good mechanic along with u.
check for visible signs of dents / paint rework / rusting.
insist on a test drive.
check the approximate price of car by using the estimates used by insurance companies. either ask a company by posing as a customer else check the insurance co's website for calculating the value of the car n the premium amount

Industrial Tripp March 2007

2007-03-29T01:09:00.000+05:30

23 March 2007

I leave home for college with plans to stay at Aravali Boys’ Hostel at night. Had to leave early morning at 6 next day for Havell’s, Haridwar as a part of the ‘Industrial Trip’. Left home with my backpack for my regular 658 at 8:30 which never came. Was it an ill omen, given the fact that the trip had already been postponed once earlier at the eleventh hour the previous week?? I hoped not. Reached college in 984 for CSK Singh’s class. We had a ‘rally extended’ class that day, one pre-lunch and one post lunch. The post lunch session was really tiring with the class divided into 3 quasi groups - those who were going for the trip n wanted to leave early to pack their stuff, the ones who did not have to pack bags as they were not planning to go for the trip n the third group of people like me – indifferent n undecided. Well the class got over by 4. Spent some time with the MA Psychology girls chatting with them n being a meek witness to plans of phasaoing one of my friend who had planed to stay overnight at the hostel that night like me.

Then went to the hostel with Kawal to arrange for the room. Another problem seemed to loom before me, the hostel people wanted to put me in the guest room instead of the dormitory which implied and additional expense of Rs. 75 over n above the rent of the dorm. Enter Amitji… who used his ‘links’ to arrange for the dorm. At the hostel’s visitor’s room met pragya n anu. Chatted for sometime with them, tea n snacks with them. Then we decide to go for a stroll, but we met a few friends form IIC at the hostel lawn: pushkar, ashish, priyanka, amrit, who had just returned for their jaipur trip. They shared their experiences with us n I was hoping to have more fun than them, after all I had waited so anxiously for over an year since my last industrial trip, for this day. But at the back of my mind there always loomed a fear that this time as well the trip would be called off for some reason n all my hope would go for a toss. I tried to somehow overcome the fear n concentrate on whatever I was doing.

At 7 in the evening, the very crucial India-Sri Lanka match started. We watched it for some time, was a tight situation. At around 8:30 went for dinner in the mess. The dinner was followed by a stroll down the campus – me, amit, kawal, amrit, pushkar. Shortly we were joined by arunabha, day scholars who like me planned to stay at the hostel. we walked towards the girls’ hostel (as a part of the plan to which I was a meek spectator). Though unlikely, met a 2 girls form MA Psychology but the plan did not proceed as planed as one of my friend manas, the scapegoat for the plan was yet to reach the hostel. Chatted for sometime n then proceeded to FMS lawns for the next round of chat. the walk till FMS lawn was characterized by a statement by amitji “UDSC main mehnat toh sirf maali hi karte hain”. The chat at FMS lawns was dominated by “what ” n “pardon” by kawal. Had a real good time laughing. While returning back we were joined by manas. The walk was followed by some more cricket. Then we proceeded to amit’s room. After some time one of my friends came in, boiling with anger on a mail that had been sent on the group. The entire atmosphere changed jokes to heated discussions. A reply for the mail was written. Then by 2 I went to sleep. I was happy that at least no message about the cancellation of the trip had come till now. As we had to wake by 5 n just 3 hours were left, I decide to sleep in amit’s room on a chair coz if I slept properly the probability of I getting up on time wud be low n that was something I could not afford.

24 March 2007

Woke up at 5 n got ready for the trip. reached the bus just in time 5:59 AM for the departure time of 6 AM. By 6:15 we 38 students prayed n left for our journey. Everyone was feeling sleepy till we halted at Grand Cheetal for breakfast. Had dosa n tea that was the most economical yet filling combination I cud find. Post breakfast, we had some pics n once in the bus it was time for fun. As in the previous trip the onus was on me to conduct some fun game which wud involve all the students. We decide to randomly pic up students n ask them to sign a song. Some were ready to sing while others had to be pestered hard. I took the responsibility to ensure that everyone was made to sing. Most of the students this time round preferred serious n slow songs as compared to last year’s trip which had a mix of all kinds of songs. Some of the slow song became bit difficult to digest as their length kept on increasing. It was a good feeling, people knew that they did not have a great voice but still they participated n enjoyed. I sang the song ‘aye kaasha ke hum hosh main ab’ from the movie kabhi haan kabhi naa. That was followed by a round of ‘farmaishi karyakram’ or just request. We were also entertained by the songs played by the bus drive viz – ia m thirsty give me water & ek aankh maroon toh ladka pat jaye or something like that

At around 1 we reached Havell’s, Haridwar. The best part of it was that we were to call gaurav as ‘gaurav sir’ our faculty coordinator n OB teacher. We were shown the CFL n Fan plants. It was a well organized by the company officials as they meticulously showed us all the processes involved. One of the over-enthusiastic officials kept on asking questions n kept us at our toes. The visit was followed by a sumptuous meal at Havell’s followed by a Q&A session. By 4 we left the plant n started our journey towards mussorie.

The journey towards mussourie was spent part sleeping, part leg pulling (my favourite target being Neha Sharma for her threatening / witty replies n the issue of red n yellow card to me when I cracked some joke on her) n part playing dumb charades. Jr. KP (Kamalpreet) was really good at it n I was supposed to b among the good form my team. Jr KP’s trump card Dr. Kotnis ki amar kahani, was guessed right away by me n that left people admiring my dumb charade playing skills, something very strange for my juniors who though I was a very serious n studious type of person. My batch mates had seen or at least heard about this fun loving side of mine coz of last year’s trip. As we were about to reach mussorie, people started feeling mountain sickness. Gaurav, divya raheja, sachin, aruanabha anu were badly affected, amit n sachin had started feeling uneasy. For me it was the usual blocked ears. We reached Gandhi chowk in mussorie at about 9. form there on we had to walk for some 20 min with our luggage to reach our hotel- hotel green castle. Dinner was served by 10. we had our dinner which was followed by a walk. On returning we n some friends decided to retire to our beds. Some others had planned for a short drinking binge and conversation. i shared room with manas n abhishek. we watched cricket match aus v/s SA for sometime n then I slept by 1 o clock.

25 March 2007

Woke up at 8:30 for breakfast at 9:30. the fantastic 4 (anshu, neha, shruti n shveta.) n some other students had already gone for a ‘genuine’ morning walk. I also had offered my consent to accompany them on the morning walk but all their efforts to wake me up in the morning went in vane. we all were free to go on our own for site seeing that day. I n amit went for a walk down the mall road had to buy some memorabilia for my sister unlike last time when I had returned empty handed. Did some window shopping n zeroed on a stole as a present to my sister. Also brought some aam papad n imli ke laddu for my sister. Some of us decided to go on the other side of mall road for exploring it we had heard about a skating ring n I was determined to go there as a part of ‘adventure sports during the trip’. amit purchase sun shade form a shop for 45 bucks. They looked good on him. Half way towards the mall road we received a call that some students had decided to hire taxi n go for site seeing. Me, amit n some other deiced to opt for it as it was our first trip to mussuorie. Rest decided to continue the exploration. After some time we were joined by the explorers as well as there was nothing much in mall road worth our attention.

Our next stop was kepmty taxi stand. There the group of approx 25 students got divided into 2 groups – one for kempty falls n the other for dhanaulti n sarkanda devi temple. I being conservative n economical opted for kempty fall (Rs. 102 / head) moreover kempty was a more traditional site for mussorie n I cud discuss about it back home as my sister had been here earlier. But I must confess that the other trip seemed to be more exciting with 1.5 hours of drive n 1 hour of arduous trek another catch was that they wud reach back late in the evening, all tired for the dj n campfire .11 of us left for kempty. I was to sit in a van with 4 other girls. As usual the girls kept on chattering throughout the drive n the boys in the other van were buzy sharing jokes. We reached kempty falls by 2.30 n were supposed to be back at the taxi by 4. we took a ropeway to the waterfalls. It was the first time I sat in a ropeway. At the falls it was mostly photo session in different poses n at different places. On n off we wud enjoy seeing couples getting pics clicked. The photo session was followed by a round of maggi for lunch. Also a vedio made by sharad on hi n72 was a hit with KP’s whats n pardons.

By 4 we left kempty n reached mall road by 5.30. we had some snacks n started a walk back to the hotel. On the way I bought a stole for my sister, under the expert guidance of the girlz accompanying us. The stole for 75 bucks seemed to be a good bargain. When we reached the hotel some of us continued our walk while others retired to rest n recharge themselves for the dj which was to start at 7. I was among those who decided to keep walking. I purchased a small wooden jewellery box for my cousin. We reached back the hotel by 6.30. sadly manas had not left the room keys at the reception so had to spend some time with anu, divya n jaya. By 7.15 we went down excitedly for the dj with whatever strength (physical n number wise) was present. To our horror we found that the dj had just 1 cd with him n most of the time he left the console with entire song to be played. We decided not to spend much time at the djn wait for our friends for dinner n the subsequent bonfire. As per our estimates the sarkanda devi temple group cud not have reached the hotel back before 9 but to our surprise, they made it by 8.15. they rested for some time n came down for the dj. We dropped the bombshell on them about the no. of cds he had n the length of the songs n we all bursted out into laughter.

We all had a sumptuous dinner n gathered in the place en-marked for the bonfire. The fire was lit n we sat in a circle around it. Ashish had planed for a game of tambola. We decide in favour of first having few rounds of dumb charades n songs before moving on to tambola. In dumb charades made a mistake in gave the same movie ‘Dr. Kotnis ki amar kahani’ to neha sharma, it slipped out of my mind that Jr KP was in neha’s team. The disgusted expression on neha’s face n the action of doctor were sufficient for him to guess the movie. I was made to enact the movie provoked which sharad somehow managed to guess. Dumb charades was followed by song session. Meanwhile some students had left to play ‘dark room’ in which u have to identify the people in the dark by feeling their hair, clothes n other accessories. some others had decided in favour of a walk down the mall road n we cud hear their hearty laughs. In the song session I again took some initiative in coordinating n ensuring that all were made to sing. Cannot recollect which song I sang but for sure it was a slow number. The songs were followed by a game of tambola. We cud not reach on a consensus about the price of each ticket & accordingly the prize money. Meanwhile a small skirmish broke between gaurav n Jr. KP on a matter which seemed trivial to many of us, but hey must have had their reasons for the arguments. Then we carried on with the game of tambola which went on peacefully. Manas was drawing the numbers. dont remember now who the final winner was but sdaurabh pant had missed out on a number so was late to claim the full house. After the tambola we had a few rounds of desultory talk. Then some of us retired for sleep while some continued with the talks n some went to keep their spirits high. By now it was close to 2 in the morning. I retired to bed. We were asked to be ready to vacate our rooms by 11 in the morning.

26 March 2007

It was the last day of the trip. The sad feeling of ‘end of enjoyment’ had started to sink in by the time I woke up at 8.30, freshened up n got ready breakfast. Meanwhile one of my friends had puked in our bathroom due to high spirits. Went for breakfast by 10. at the table was invited by the fantastic 4 to join them. Had some casual rounds of leg pulling at breakfast n reviewed their game of ‘dark room’ trying to understand the nuances of the game form them. Neha n anshu was elaborating on shveta’s performance in the game, how she was trying to doge the seeker by pretending as ‘chipi‘ (shilpi) n how hopeless players sachin n arpit were.they also elaborated on their other exploits about pulling others legs. Breakfast was followed by another round of pics in the balcony n packing our bags for our journey towards sahesra dhara n haridwar as it was the holy period of navratra and the students felt that a religious pit stop toh banta hai’. Befor leaving, I ensued to get a pic clicked with my famous backpack,fully loaded. We got the food packed for lunch. We could leave only by 12, a full 1 hour late form schedule.

Some of us took a rickshaw till Gandhi chowk while other walked down to the place. Then began the hunt for the bus. We did not know exactly where the bus was parked n kept on walking, trying to with others on cell phones. Somehow we all made it to the buses.

We started our journey but had to stop after some time coz of deteriorating condition of some of the students due to mountain sickness. Amitji was not spared this time. There were some other victims as well. We had to take a break for sometime. This also made us to delete sahasra dhara from the itinerary so the next stop was har ki pauri at haridwar. We resumed our journey. I settled in for a game of bluff with the terrific 3 -himani, richa, divya; shilpi, menu n arpit. Came 4^th in the game. Arpit n himani started with tutoring the uninitiated about how to play 3-2-5 & tote but I cud not control the temptation to join dumb charades being played at the back. We reached haridwar by 4.30 had our lunch in the bus n went for the holy dip in the river ganga. I decided not to take a dip n decide to hold the belongings of those who had gone for the dip. Some took proper dip in the river while some others went just knee deep in the water. We got back to the bus n resumed the journey by 6.30.

In the bus we had another round of dumb charades. Contributions by the ‘sleeping partners’ arunabha n divya raheja was just awesome – don knw how they both managed to guess such difficult movies like astitva while paying just half the attention. Memorable among the movies was ‘ghatothkuch’ given by manas, who expected me to do the obvious actions. but I had a plan, I first enacted ghat (less) n then tried to portray bheem from mahabahratha, ghatothkuch’s father. Jr KP came to my rescue n guessed bheem n subsequently ghatothkuch. This was followed by dumb charades for movie songs. Meanwhile the students in the front of the bus had started singing songs at a sufficiently high volume. By the time we finished song dumb charades, we also started with songs, singing all songs from the movies n some even sequentially (thanks to manas). It all started to sound like a mess with the students in the front n back singing different song at the top of their voices. I felt bad that was not he way things shud have moved. Worse I cud not even see any apparent reason for such an act. But cud not do much about it. Songs were followed by dance performances by the boys on ‘chavanna’ songs. That was a great fun. Most of us did dance, remarkable among the performances being that of abhishek, arunabha, sharad n manas. I scrapped through with my usual limited repository of PT like dance steps without much objection. Just before reaching the eating joint Reliance A1, the fantastic 4 invited me for chat n complainth at ‘maza nahin aa raha’ which culminated in spontaneous dance performance by me n neha on the Punjabi song ‘dil chori sadda ho gaya‘ by Hans raj hans. by the time the next performance was due, we had reached A1 in muzzaffarnagar. We had our dinner there at around 9.30 . I had stufferd parantha for dinner.

Post dinner, continuing from where me n neha had left, it was time for couple performances. I had thought in my mind of involving all the students in the game so I again took the initiative to coordinate the game. My throat had started to give up by now but still I continued. I started on with the students at eh back who wud surely have performed. Shveta thought that I was not bale to involve all the students & kept on requesting me to try n involve all the students. I told her that I had the same intention n once the game started rolling all wud automatically get involved. My strategy worked. We had many fun filled performance. Some of the couple which I remember r – arunabha n neha (kajra mohabbat wala - for neha had applied kajra that evening) , gaurav n nidhi, anu n amit, sachin n nitasha, saurab n vartika, kawal n himani, richa n manas, sharad n shveta, nitin n jaya, nitin n archana, Nishal n divya bhasin, Nishal n shruti, Jr KP n shilpi, Abhishek n menu. Don’t remember the songs I danced on. Anshu appreciated the way I conducted the event, especially my acting skill when I was to invite couples as I was largely picking couples as suggested by the students but I never let anyone knw who suggested their name as called out the name much after I received the suggestions. Also motivating people like shilpy menu, archana, nitin sharad took a lot of time n effort. with the end of the couple dance round, we all went to rest, counting the moments back to campus as the trip was near its end. Reached campus at around 1.30 after dropping himain n neha at vikas marg. We all appreciated the organizers for the way the trip was organized n started to walk back to campus as I had decide to stay back at hostel for nidhi had to cancel the plans of going back home.

Overall it was a great trip, enjoyed a lot, though missed adventure sport n cud not find may occasions to pull people’s legs especially neha sharma – missed her red yellow n green warning cards [;)]

at the horns of delima

2006-07-25T11:05:00.000+05:30

my second post.
my summer internship is over now and my classes have commenced.
i am in a bit of a delima... what specialzations to take up...
i was almost certain that i would takeup mareting and econometics .... but i think that there is something else is instored for me.
now i am considering another option of taking up finance and marketing. its a decision that would have an important bearing on my future.
then yesterday i had a chat with a learned person who strongly suggested me to pursue education abrod. a good idea i think...
till now i have not been able to decide what to do.. the delima continues..
but i'll have to end it soon.
hopefull i'll be able to end it soon... in the right way

my first post

2006-07-17T11:31:00.000+05:30

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my first post