Personal life; well - nothing's left of it. The year had started without Ria by my side. Didn't get her call on my B'day either. My wallet was stolen on 4th Jan. So, had a terrible start of the year. Which continued. Had patched up with Ria when I was coming back from Pune. But broken glass is a broken glass. You can't hold it together with duct-tape forever. There were some heated words exchanged and we parted ways. For the nth time. I guess she's better off me. Wish her all the happiness in life.

Well, life is like this now -> Wake up in the morning, run to office, spend 10-12 hours there, come back to home, take dinner outside, watch some TV, sleep. And the loop continues. Oh, did I tell you that I bought a new TV? My 1st TV to be precise. It's a LG 22" LCD. More on this in my next post. Watch this space.

Transport : I'm not feeling that I'm working in a reputed MNC Software company, due to the cab service that ADP is providing. 7 people are packed into a single cab and ferried like cattles. I feel like a call center employee. [nothing against them.] The return cabs are worse. All the employees struggle with the co-ordinator. "Which cab should I board. Give me a cab" etc... It's utter chaos.

Investment Proof : ADP is trying to be a govt. agency on its own. Invetment proof submission procedures are very strict. You can declare your investments only twice a year and can't make any changes in between or thereafter. Moreover, you need to give solid proof, which are not readily available most of the time. For example, for medical expenses, you need to submit the medical bills every month, along with the doctor's prescription. There's no such rule from the Indian Govt. Just the medical bills should suffice. That too, all the bills can be submitted together towards the end of the financial year. But nope, ADP is implementing its own rules.

HR : Another shocking thing here is the unavailability of HR for concerns. In every company, HR doors are always open for all employees. But here, they show up only when they need something from you. The HR department is located in a 'hidden' and 'restricted' room. Only HRs can enter. If you want to talk to an HR, you have to knock on the small glass pane on the door. If someone is in the vicinity and hears your knock, they will answer the door, ask 'what u want' and tell you to wait outside. The 3-4 times I did that, no one came out of that door and I was kept waiting. I had to come back without getting a HR Darshan.

Misc : There's a strict print-out policy. There are three types of print papers. Blue colored, blue stripped and normal white paper. The 1st two are available on the work area only and they can't be taken outside. Similarly, normal white papers are available in Kiosk, which is outside the work area and can't be brought inside. Well, this is not much of my concern. Just wanted to mention it here.

I've already written about the 'No-mobile-phones-inside' policy and unhygenic condition of the washrooms. All in all, I wonder how can an ADPer say 'We enjoy coming to work everyday'. :(

Moving onto the next topic. Pune. New city. Had heard in Bangalore itself that it's a much smaller city. I guess that should be a +ve point only. When I first saw Pune from sky, it appeared to be a well planned city. Then there was a large chunk of hilly area, with houses scattered here & there. So, I thought it's kinda mixed breed city. Once on land, the perception kept changing. The airport was very basic and no-frills airport. Had to walk from the plane to the luggage claim area. There was no ferry bus. There were only two conveyor belts. The whole airport was very small. Once I came out, the autos looked good. Specially the well-covered roofs and nicely colored body. It was apparent that they take care of their vehicles. Once the auto was running towards my destination, the city seemed like any other developing town. It did appear lesser than Bangalore; but not to the level of disappointment.

Once I entered Magarpatta City, I started liking it. The whole area is very well developed and well taken care of. The room allocated to me for two weeks is also very good. I'm wondering if this is the standard room in Pune. i.e. if this is a high end room or is this very common here. Went to a shopping complex near-by in the evening. Things were a little haphazard here. Didn't know or understood where to go to get something to eat or to get a new prepaid connection. Getting familiar to the place will take time. Anyway, somehow located two shops where prepaid connections can be bought. But surprisingly, neither of them knew what the current plan features are.

I came back home and searched the internet. Sadly, none of the operators provide free national SMSs in Pune. :( Reliance probably does but couldn't get a confirmation from anywhere. So, right now, I'm using my Bangalore docomo SIM only; whose tariffs are weird right now. For example, I'm charged 1 paise/sec for the incoming calls but also for outgoing as well. And after the 1st msg of the day is charged 1.50 rs, I'm still getting the 100 free msgs per day. Well, I guess - good for me. If I don't get a SIM with free national SMS, I'll keep the Bangalore DOCOMO active and use it for SMS.

Anyway, it's now been two days in Pune. So far, didn't find anything too great about this city, apart from the 4 FM channels that play hindi music all day long; as against just Radio One in Bangalore. Will have wait and watch. Have lots, lots and lots of things to take care of in these two weeks. Will have to write a whole separate post of that. Watch this space.

Anyway, right after that, both those crooks took off and were lost in the crowd on road. By this time, some onlookers had gathered. One of them told me that nothing could be done from there now. 'Just go home. Report to police'. I was just reluctunt. I was in a shock. My mind was working overtime or had it stopped working completely? I couldn't figure out what to do now. That 'samaritan' took me to an auto, paid the fair and I was on my way to home.

Note to that Samaritan: Thanks a lot. Your act goes on to prove that humanity still exists. Am I sounding too cheesy and filmy? Anyway, thanks again.

The late evening breeze blowing on my face brought me to my senses. Got over the state of shock and took out my cell. Dialled all the banks one by one and blocked all the Credit & ATM cards. Had reached home by now. Just one card was left. I didn't have the bank's phone number. It was already 1 hour since the theft. I figured I must lodge the FIR now. So, I headed for the Mico Layout police station which is closest to the incident spot. My 1st time in a police station. Was wondering how many '1st time' s were in store for the day. Anyway, we were directed to the room of the inspector who was already with someone. He anyway called us in [I was with my room-mate now] and asked 'what do u want'. When we told him the incident and wanted to lodge an FIR, he said "You want to lodge FIR for Rs 400? Govt will have to spend 5000-6000 bucks for that". Told him about the various cards and he said "That's your responsibility to block the cards". Long story short, he didn't want to lodge the FIR at all. At one point, he even said Jayadeva Circle doesn't come under his jurisdiction and I should go to TilakNagar Police Station. There were questions from him like "Where are you from? Which state?", but let's not get into that. Morale: Cops are the biggest criminals worldover.

I anyway found out the number of the last bank left and blocked that card. Thankfully there wasn't any transaction made yet. Just when I thought the primary damage control is done, I remembered that my PAN card was also in that wallet....!! Fuck. Didn't know what to do about that. Had a friend search the internet [it was past 10:30 PM now] but he didn't find anything substancial. Called up the number given on the back side of the PAN card but the route was constantly busy. Hmmmfffff. Will have to take care of that today. Called up dad and sis to update them with the happenings and inquire about the possible damages and further steps for the PAN card. And then went off to sleep.

But it seemed impossible to catch a sleep. I was fuming, was angry, irritated, still in a state of shock. Started tweeting to vent off my frustration. What did that thief gain from this? Rs. 300...!!? He obviously couldn't use the cards and I guess all thieves are smart enough now a days to know better. But for his mere gain, I have to go through all these troubles. Right now, I have no easy means to withdraw cash from my account, nor do I have any active credit cards left. I have no widely accepted ID proof. Its like I'm robbed off my identity. I am feeling like a part of me is lost. I'll have to rebuild everything. Re-create my identity.

Ahh, that reminds me that in this new year, everything is going to be new. I'm moving to Pune this Sunday. Permanently. Got a job there at ADP. So, New year - New Job, new city, new ID cards, new Credit cards, new phone number, new everything. Will probably blog next from Pune. Ciao.

Well, I wasn't given a choice actually. We had no other options but to go traditional. One of my long time 'net buddy' closed down her Orkut profile yesterday. Atta-Girl. :) And as I'm indispensable in her daily life [well, I'd like to believe that. ;) ], we exchanged our cell numbers. FINALLY. :P Though I'd miss leaving msgs on her scrapbook, talking to her in real time would more than compensate for that.

Talked to her for the 1st time this morning. They say - a person's character can be judged my his/her voice. Judging by that - I'd say she's ....!! Ohhh, forget that. She forbid me to write anything nasty about her. HeHe. Just kidding. She's got a good voice. Not the 'ohh, so melodious' type - but surely better than what I experienced last time when I talked to a long lost friend. Buddy, take this as a compliment, ok. Speaking of voices, I didn't know my own voice sounds so bad over the phone. I had actually recorded part of our conversation. [*before you start thinking of it as a romantic idea - I did that just to test how it works. Haven't tried that before]. So, I was listening to the recording on the road - on my way to the office. And, I was grinning/smiling at the little jokes of the conversations. I might have appeared a crack-head to the passerby.

Received another call from her on my way to office. Now, that felt romantic. :$ I always feel awkward talking on the go, that too in hands-free mode. 'Coz it may appear that I'm talking to myself. Am I nuts? Anyways, this time I just loved it, even though I was laughing a lot n stuff. 'Coz there weren't many people on the road. :D Well, embarrassment was in store anyway. I was at desk by this time and was talking to her - maybe too loudly. Colleagues weren't saying anything but were making faces. And, before I could take the clue, someone said - "get a room". :# I ran for a secluded space. But, then there was connectivity issue. Call was getting disturbed - so I was running here n there. finally settled at the stairway. God, y r so many people taking the stairs ....!! What r lifts for?

Returned to my desk after the call was finished. And ever since, there's this grin on my face. Even though she's abusive at times [me being so accommodative :P ], today she wasn't. She always makes my day. In fact, with her around, I can be just myself. Really. I could never speak with a girl as effortlessly, as I do with her. Everything with her is just so spontaneous. Guess that's how companions should be. And guess we'd make a great couple. What say, buddy? ;)

Games

Before this, the last time I played hi-def games in computer was back in 3rd yr of college. At that time, I was completely drowned in Prince of Persia - 'Warrior Within' and 'Two Thrones'. What I really liked about this game is - 'free form fighting', appealing storyline and great puzzles. It was unlike any other game. We two friends would play this whole day. But later on, my PC got old and it won't support the new breed of resource hungry games. So, I couldn't play the new games on my PC. Even a light-weight game like Max Payne 2 was running like a slug. So, I thought my gaming days are over.

But ever since I got my new laptop, the dream has come alive again. Already installed some 3 games - NFS Carbon, Cold Fear and Quake 4. None of them are new. But still, for me, they are as I haven't played them. Am not playing much of NFS carbon as all u do there is race cars and evade cops. Only plus point is - the pursuits are tougher in this version than 'Most Wanted'. Cold Fear is boring after a certain amount of time due to its repeatative gameplay and non-linear structure. Am presently stuck at one level and don't know where to go to complete the current objective. The whole gameplay area is open and I may end-up in south end when I need to be on north end. Even walkthrough guides available are not helping. Installed Quake4 very recently. But am hugely disappointed. There's just no challenge in this game. Every enemy dies very easily. And if you don't wanna bother yourself, your co-marines will finish off them for you. Except for some areas, you can finish the game simply by moving from one place to another, while the co-marines clear the ground. Too boring.

Another couple of games that I have, but haven't installed yet - FEAR and Call of Duty 2, both again similarly old games. I have high expectations from F.E.A.R. The trailers were promising. I concluded Vista REALLY sucks while trying to install this game. Downloaded 'Virtual CD' today. Let's see if this works on Vista. Another game that I'm eagerly waiting for is Assassin's Creed. When it was launched, the PC version wasn't available. Only yesterday I got to know that now it is available. So, I'm gonna get myself the DVD this weekend.

Serials

Noooo, not the boring Sans-Bahu family sagas. What I'm talking about is - Prison Break. It is a great adventure / drama series. The story revolves around a man who was sentenced to death for murdering the brother of US Vice-President, a crime he did not commit and his brother's elaborate plan to help him escape his death sentence. The story is really fast-paced and gripping. Finished the 1st season just yesterday. Complete 2nd season is in my possession, while friends are still downloading the 3rd season. 4th season is in the making. The last US sitcom that I liked was FRIENDS. Some other sitcoms that I'd like to watch are OC, Lost, 24, Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Internet

After getting my laptop, I've been desperately looking for a good ISP. Okies speed won't work for me. I need at least 256 kbps working speed. But that's quite a rarity here. Add to that, there's a lot of confusion, what with so many available plans. I'm also juggling between a fixed Broadband connection and a wireless connection for laptop. Even after month-long brain storming, I haven't zeroed in on what I want to have. Totally confused. If you can provide me any guidance here, please do.

Okay. That's enough for the day. Let me get back to my obsessions. U have a great day. And, leave your views, suggestions, tips as comments.

I didn't want to think about what we already talked about. Past broken loves are always painful. I was already senti after listening to the story. So, I was skipping 'love' part of my past. Let's think about some silly stuff.

Ok, here's one. I remember the monitoring system in my school. Some students were given the duty to maintain order in class in the absence of teachers. That is, in between different periods. The selection was held once every month democratically. I was always a good boy in class and was never interested in monitoring. Once I was named among the miscreants who were making noise in class. The teacher had said "I've got a complain for the following students'. That elated me. Back then, I didn't know the meaning of 'complain'. It sounded to me like 'complan'. That was the most favorite energy drink [like horlicks, boost etc] those days. So, I thought I'm gonna receive some appreciation. :D silly me. I was given extra home-work that day.

After that incident, I wanted to be a monitor myself. So, on next election - I stood up. A new rule was enacted. If a candidate doesn't secure atleast 10 votes, he'll have to attend PT classes on weekends. PT classes were soooo tiring, everybody would do anything to skip them on weekdays. Attending PT on weekend was morethan punishment. Anyways, I still stood my ground. By the end of the polling - I had secured almost 65% votes. And, girls side had a large contribution in it. I was the 'hot favorite' there. :$

No kiddin. I was a bit shy of girls those days. I really didn't understand what is it between boys and girls. Love, crush all those words were not known to me. In fact, I used to hate girls. The way they were always given special treatment used to piss me off. And there was this girl who was always following me like a shadow. Friends used to tell me 'She wants to marry U. Her parents met your parents last that day'. Now, U might now that kids feel humiliated and get cocooned when they are jokingly told about their marriage. So was I. I used to freak out on her sight. Every time she smiled at me, it felt devilish. As if she's one of those bad witches from the stories.

Then, one fine day while playing 'con n cop', she collided with me. Heads bumped, blood on knees; moreover, she cramped her ankle. I was red faced. First of all, all others were laughing. Humiliating. Add to that, she said 'sorry'. She had tears in her eyes but was still smiling a bit. I still remember her face at that moment very clearly. I thought she is crying to gather some sympathy from bystanders and blame it on me. That's why she's smiling under her breath. What the hell?? I lost my cool, completely. Scolded her black n blue in front of everybody. Told her to stop following me around and leave me alone. There was pin drop silence. And then her eyes burst into tears. She ran. Now all were really blaming me, for making a girl cry. Her 'plan' had succeeded. 'Ohhh, I hate girls'. I went to the principal and made a complain against her. How she always 'tortured me' and how she collided with me on purpose, to hurt me. Both of our parents were called in. Her parents were burning me with their gaze. As if they were gonna roast me alive for hurting their little angel. 'Good. Now they won't try to marry us off'. Victory. :D

That's what I thought then. Guess I missed onto the greatest thing. By the time I had understood the 'love' n 'crush' formula - it was too late. She had never forgotten that day's humiliation. Never talked to me ever since. Later on, she grew up to be the hottest chick in town. Guess she had cursed me that day. I never landed a steady relationship. My Bad.

Anyways, let's call it a wrap here. I've been watching 'Prison Break' lately. Seen some 6 - 7 episodes of season 1. I have complete Season 1 and 2. Can't wait to finish them. So, lemme get back to it. U have a great weekend. And pray for me, so that we get back water tomorrow. Ciao.

Yesterday was my busiest weekend in recent times. The whole day was dedicated to my PC and entertainment pile-ups. Had brought couple dozen movies and games from a friend's PC. The day went by in subtitle matching, sorting, installing, testing n stuff. Then there was the game 'FEAR'. That is one game that I always wanted to play. But my desktop PC configuration wasn't able to support its requirement. But now, the laptop was. So, it was grand installation time. But the installer I brought is an .mdf file - DVD image. I need a DVD-drive emulator for this. Alchohol 120% was my first choice as it served me great purpose in my XP machine. So, ran the installer of Alchohol. And that's when all hell broke loose.

There was BSoD. There was this loud 'Ta Tu, Ta Tu' noise - as if the laptop is gonna explode. I was perplexed for a moment. 'Wha..... what just happened?' After recovering from the initial 'shock', I knew I had to restart the system. But how the hell do I do that? Where the hell do they place the 'restart' button on laptop? Nowhere. So....?? Power press the power button? That is, keep the power button pressed for 5+ seconds to force a system shutdown. That's what I did as there was no other option. Calm. But a storm was coming. Upon restart - the Vista won't go past the login screen. After feeding in the password and pressing enter, the BSoD was reappearing. Vista was Dead.

'Okkkkie... it's just BSoD. I've seen worse. I can fix this. Let's do it'. Went to Vista start-up menu for boot type options. But surprisingly, there wasn't any 'Last known good configuration' option there - which was always a life-saver in XP. STRIKE 1. Safe mode. That was my next bet. But when I clicked that, all I got was screen full of slow moving 'loaded' this and that driver text. This was really frustrating. For every new line of 'loaded \windows\system32\....' , all the previous lines were refreshed sequentially word by word. This was like writing 1st line, then writing 1st and 2nd line; then writing 1st, 2nd & 3rd line and so on. And the safe boot was going on like forever. Once the 'loading' finished, I was hoping - 'atlast'. But - alas. Once again - BSoD made a hysterical appearance. What ...!!! BSoD in safe mode. That was first for me. XP safe mode beat the s**t out of every BSoD and its siblings. STRIKE 2. Okay, there's system recovery. F11. That got me to the factory installed 'HP Recovery Console'. Ahhhh, 'Windows System Restore'. Now I'll just restore Vista to a date prior to the Alchohol installation and it'll be a happy ending to this mess. But, that wasn't meant to be - thanks to crappy Vista. Turns out - System restore was turned off by default. There were no restore points available. Salt to wound was - it was asking 'Do you want to create a restore point now. STRIKE3. That was the last nail in the coffin.

The last option I had was reseting the system, in the sense - reseting to factory default condition. That is, all that is added to the laptop after its purchase will be kapoot, as if it wasn't there ever. All my MP3, Video, Softwares, Games. * GAMES ...!!!. My 'Cold Fear'. 'Nahhiiiiii.' All those sleepless nights that I spent on crossing its levels and unlocking 'bonus' will become useless. 75% through the game, and now I'll have to play it AGGAIN.....!!! With no other option in hand, I bid a painful adieu to all my data and clicked on the 'Next' button. There were two check-boxes. 'Repartition hard drive' and 'Restore System'. 1st option itself sent my alarm bells ringing. All the hell I went through to partition my disk will come to naught. NOOoooo. Tried to uncheck this 'option'. But that wasn't an option. That was a task completed. Progress Bar was in progress. All other buttons were disabled. I was trapped.

After the brutal operation, the system rebooted and I kept my fingers crossed. Thankfully, this time the system logged me in and all was going just as it was when I had first opened the laptop out of its casing. Factory reset. I hoped against all possibilities and opened 'Computer'. And jumped couple of times out of sheer joy. There were 4 partitions, all those partitions that I had made. And all my files were also there. Not formatted. THANK GOD. I heaved a huge sigh of relief. But still, all installed softwares were useless now. They were nothing more than just folders. It was late night already. But who cares? My baby is just out of a trauma and I needed to take care of it immediately. So, I spent the whole night in re-installing all that was there before the crash. Slept at 5 AM atlast.

And woke up at 9AM. Not that I had set an alarm or something. Woke up due to noise all around and then didn't feel like going back to sleep. A lot more was still to be done. So, back to basics. But what the heck. Power is off. Why the heck they cut the power on weekends !! So, did a very little restorations before the battery cried for some juice. After that, am writing here. On room-mate's laptop. Something to do with computer until power comes back.

So, I was saying ke Vista sucks in more ways than already mentioned. A lot has been written about it all over the web space. As I said, I didn't pay them much attention. Seeing is believing. I used it myself and checked its pros and cons. Here are a few little things that seem pretty insignificant to start with, but add up to a mild headache when summed up. A quick list follows -

• Both Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer are stripped of their Menu Bar. It's now very inconvenient to navigate. Tip - Pressing F10 key gets them back on for one time.


• There's no 'Up' button in the explorer toolbar. :@ There's bread-crumb in place of address bar, which is good. But still, doing away with 'Up' button was uncalled for. Tip - Press Alt+Up Arrow to perform same action of 'Up' button, i.e., to go to parent directory.


• There's no Window Text on the title bar of the window. In earlier versions, the name of the open window is always displayed on the titlebar. That really helps when working with multiple windows. But the genius people at Microsoft thought that was unnecessary.


• File copying [or move/delete for that matter] is another pain. The name of the current file being copied is never displayed. When copying multiple files, knowing which file is done is very important for me. But, no way now.


• It doesn't support some popular softwares - like Alchohol, Norton Partition Magic etc. That's how I had a hard time re-partitioning my factory made partitions. Windows Disk Manager now have partitioning options as well. But they have a mind of their own. Sometimes they work, sometime they don't. I couldn't shrink my 140GB C: partition beyond 70 GB due to 'lack of space', even though I had whole 120 GB free on that drive. After much R&D, I zeroed in on Paragon Partition Manager, which did a somewhat okies job.

But all's not bad with Vista. It's got the looks. Flip 3D is cool. Bread-Crumb navigation bar is nice. Start Menu search is mind-blowing. And I haven't really faced the 'slow' Vista. It works pretty moderately for me. I hope Microsoft fixes its errors [like, single point crash vulnerability] pretty soon.

Not that I'd have 'LOST' all my files and data. All these files are also present in my desktop. So, there's no data loss nightmare in this for me [this instance]. But even the file transfer from PC to laptop is quite hectic. Tires me out. That's what I was worried about.

Update : Turns out I didn't loss my 'Cold Fear' progress. When I ran the executable, the game launched and guess what? The load saved game option was available. All my past saved levels were available. That is magical. Anyway, I lost NFS Carbon progress. But that's not such a big deal, considering I had installed it just yesterday. :)

This external HDD reminds me of the USB port of my system. I’ve been neglecting this for a long time; even though it was staring me in the eyes. I thought nothing could be wrong with my PC. After all, when I had bought it, it was the latest. Everything in it was the latest. But, in this fast [I mean, really fast] changing world of IT, my system became back-dated and I didn’t want to admit it. The fact that made me realize this was the USB port. It was taking too much time to copy data from my pen drive. E.g., 45 - 60 mins to copy the 2 GB. That’s one hell of a time. That’s when I unearthed that it’s a USB 1.1 port and not the USB 2.0 which I thought it was ever since I knew the term. Heart-breaking. Now that half of my PC disk-space is external, feeding on the USB power, this can’t be neglected. So, I got myself a PCI USB 2.0 hub with 4 external ports. There you go. Data transfer is pretty fast now.

Oh, I believe that you’re aware of the other upgrades that I did on my PC some weekends back. If not, check this. Oh, you’re gonna love the speakers. So, my PC is back on track with the times. And, oh; I’m having another baby. I’ve ordered a new HP pavilion Entertainment notebook. The specs are -

• Intel Core 2 Duo
• 160 GB SATA HDD
• SuperMulti Double layer DVD writer
• 14.1 widescreen [wxga]
• Bluetooth / WiFi / USB 2.0 / Modem
• Altec Lansing speakers
• Webcam / Mic

Not quite a gaming rig, but good for me. Looking eagerly forward to lay my hands on this beauty.

And finally, the fact that made me seat and write this post. 89% of my 40GB ‘Movies only’ partition is already full. That is, 34.6 GB of movies only [oh, including srt subtitle files, if u wanna count ‘em as well]. There are a total of 51 movies in that sucker. And that’s not all. This 51 is just a part of a huge collection, though off the hard-drive. I’ve got some 82 DVDs and 44 CDs with a total of 214 movies + the 51 on HDD. Do the math. Wow. Now that’s some dream come true; one hell lot of movies at my disposal. You know what’s the icing on the cake? That I didn’t have to pay a single penny for the 51 movies on my drive, though all of them are latest movies, in DVD print. Now try to beat that.

For the record - my current 'must-watch-movie' list includes - 'Beowulf, Hitman and Jab We Met.


Hmmmm. I'm getting a bit creative these days. Used the 'Music DJ' on my w810i handset for the 1st time and created two ring-tones or melody [as they call it]. I'm quite liking them and am, in fact, quite proud and excited that I created 'em. :) But sadly, those midi files are not playing in any PC, atleast not with existing codecs on my PC. But it's working on all mobile handsets. Download them from links below, transfer them to your handset, listen to them and drop me a comment here - how do you like 'em.

Melody 1
Melody 2


And ohhh.... I've been interviewed. By none other than cuty Ria, who's also the co-author of one of my other blogs - vicky @ work. The interview was a bit of a surprise, as well as shock to me. It was like being grilled by girlfriend's dad. ;) Actually, her idea was to publish the interview here with the title 'Rendezvous with Bikram!'. This is what she wrote for it -

Since Bikram has not posted anything fascinating for long, I thought let me do it on his behalf! It's funny, entertaining and if you're keen on knowing any of vicky's secrets, this is the right place to be!

Well, let's not discourage her totally. Lemme give you a short glimpse of my 'interview' -

Ria:	Let's get started with your interview Most important thing for you on earth??
Bikram:	Companionship
Ria:	least important?
Bikram:	sleep - I guess :D
Ria:	U love most?
Bikram:	myself. :p 4 d time being
Ria:	You love to spend your time with??
Bikram:	Not anyone in particular. Anyone who doesn't invade my personal space
Ria:	What do you think of girls??
Bikram:	Better half ....!!! In general, gals are - cute, adorable.
Ria:	Outfit that looks pretty on a woman?
Bikram:	Depends. In general, I like casual T's
Ria:	What u think of me? ;) Plzz kuch accha bolna :D
Bikram:	Next best thing. 1st is myself. :)
Ria:	You fall in love too easily..dont you??
Bikram:	I don't fall in love that quickly. But, I do trust people quickly and let them come near me.
Ria:	What kinda gal do u want in your life?
Bikram:	Someone who's cute, innocent, independent and energetic; but should be a ltl bit dependent on me for ltl love n care.

This is just an edited part of what she asked me. There's been lot more. It was somewhat fun. I've turned the table now and asked her to answer the same questions. But she bailed out for the time being, saying 'gtg'. Well, will catch her soon. Let's see.

And, before I end this one, check out the snapshot of 'My Computer'.

I am currently using the default XP theme as the custom MacOSX theme used to slow down my PC. The drive icons are really kool, aren't they? Wanna know how to do this? U don't need any software for that. It's damn easy. Check it here.

And, it's B'day of couple of my friends. Well, technically, I can call 'em just acquaintance; 'coz I haven't met them personally. Just SMS, chat, mails and lunch time darshans. Well, guess I'll meet them someday. For the time being, wishing them a wonderful life ahead. Many many happy returns of the day Sunitha. Happy B'day Garima. :)

And ohhhh.... in all these gung-ho, I forgot to tell you about my special day. That was this Sunday. I went out on a shopping after a long time. That's technically correct, 'coz we guys don't consider cloth purchase as shopping. It's shopping only if it's got something to do with gadgets. So, this Sunday I went to SP road to buy upgrades for my 1st Love - my PC. ;) After a hell lot of running around in that mohalla, I finally had to settle for less than what I had in mind. Anyway, at the end of the day, these were in my possession -

• 80GB Segate Baracuda HDD
  I actually had 300 GB in mind, but was told that my AMD board won't support more than 160GB. :( As I already had a 80GB HDD, got myself the remaining half.


• 512MB DDR RAM
  Here too, had 2 GB in mind, but again, board won't support more than 1GB. Again, took the remaining half.

• Creative Inspire 4.1
  Ahhhh. This is the koolest stuff that I laid my hands on. Awesome looks and mind-blowing sound. You gotta have atleast this if you're a music enthusiastic.


• Logitech MM Keyboard
  My last KBD [iKey] was in ruins and no one other than me could type using it. So, had to find a replacement for it.


• Sony 20x DVD writer
  I was long pining for a DVD writer. so, finally got myself one. Complement for not fulfilling the 300GB HDD desire. :)


• 2GB Memory Stick Pro duo
  Another thing that I wanted to have for a long time. The 512MB card bundled with my w810i wasn't enough. It was already brimming with data. So, bought some extra space for it.

Well, all that's left now is a PC table. Really need to arrange all these things in a nice manner. Just made all the connection last night and fired the 4.1 in the highest volume I can manage at 2100 hrs. Ahhhh, the sound of muzix....

But when I reached office at evening and pinged her after finishing with my login rituals, she was already in a meeting. There goes my pastry.... :( There wasn't any 'congratulation' mail from HRD or manager. And even my manager didn't say anything after I told him that it's our anniversary. :( Maybe he was busy with some pressing issue. Anyways, our team-lead did congratulate us. And, my fresher days' mentor Ajay, whom we fondly call Guruji, mailed us. That felt nice.

And then, at around 10:30 PM, when I wasn't expecting it at all, I received one call from Su..... That was shockingly pleasant. You know, when you crib for something whole day, but you don't get it; and then suddenly it is given to you when you were least expecting it; it takes you to the 7th heaven. That's how I was feeling. Chalo, at least someone cared about this day, not just to do away with a duty. That itself made my day.

Had gone home for Diwali. Just before leaving, we were given a huge box of crackers from office as Diwali gift. Sadly, can't take it home, as they can't be carried in flight. Indigo flight from B'lore to Calcutta was a breeze. Had plans to meet a friend there. But seems that friend wasn't that interested in meeting a 'stranger'. ;) Thereafter, reaching RPH was hell lot of a problem. The train which usually takes 4 hours to reach RPH, took 7 hours; and I reached home at 10 PM. :@

Stay at home wasn't that great though. Had nothing to do and school friends were not there at RPH at that time. So, was pretty much locked up at home. Diwali day was fun. Lighting up the Diya s felt so good, just like the childhood days. Meeting up uncles and aunties after so many days was thrilling. So much so that, I just didn't feel like coming back to B'lore. But I had to.

Return journey was another case. It's quite complicated. I took a train from RPH to Burdwan, then from there to New Delhi. Allahabad, Kanpur, Aligarh, cities I've heard of but never been to, were en route. Reached Delhi at 10PM. Now, I needed to go to domestic airport. But I was kind of scared about night life of Delhi; I mean life on road. I was told that it's quite dangerous to travel in Delhi at nights because of loots, robbery, murder et al. So, I was unsure how to reach Airport. Anyway, I took a prepaid auto. And for the first time, tested the cold in Delhi. I was shaking from head to toe in the auto. When it stopped for refilling at a gas station, I drew out some warm pull-overs from my trolley and saved myself. :D

My flight from Delhi was at 0520 hrs. So, had to wait for 6 hrs at the airport. And, the GoAir flight wasn't good either. Though their ground staff is best in the industry [ in the sense, good looking ;) ], on-board staff is total turn-off. Anyways, I took some snaps from my window. But they didn't come out well. :( Reached B'lore at 11. Headed straight to office after freshening up at home. But didn't get a warm welcome. Rather, I was thrashed by manager for not informing him of my late arrival.

Since that day, I'm in a soup; am under constant watch. Blogger, Orkut, GTalk - everything is barred for me; eventhough everyone else is using them. Anyways, I guess I need to prove myself first here. Bring it on.

This morning, I just hit upon the idea of browsing my site of interests on my mobile. So, downloaded Opera mini and hit the small highway of www. Browsed all of 'em on my w810i. Using GTalk application of ebuddy. Interface is not that good, but is working for me for the time being. Checked my own blog. It doesn't look this good there, but yep, it's not bad either. Felt good about that. Opened Orkut also. But sadly, can't read scraps there. :( When I closed my browser, my account was down by 10bucks. Hmmm. Will be careful from the next time.

And, finally - the big event is here again. BarCamp Bangalore 5 [BCB5] - winter edition. It's happening this weekend. And, I'll surely be there. Can't afford to miss it after being there on BCB4. So, see you there.

After thorough search of the kitchen - all I found was onions and tomato. What the hell...!! What do I do with these? But with nothing else at hand, that's what I used. Made something like a stew / soup of tomato and onion. Though it didn't look good - it tasted great. :$ Maybe because I was damn hungry. Learnt my lesson - always keep some provisions in kitchen - atleast one Maggie pack.

So, 1st thing on Sunday - I did some kitchen shopping, primarily some 'emergency' eatables; Maggie, Biscuits, chips. They could've lasted for a week. But, when the food is in kitchen - who's stopping me...?? :$ Half the provision is already consumed. It's still depleting as I write this. Go figure.

Ok, some more laughing stock for you. Last week we had a friendly mini 20-20 match with live commentary, own press coverage et al. :D The photographer was a little ameture and thanks to that, we got some really funny snaps. See two of them below. Click them to open in full size. Now, which one do you find more funny? Cast your opinion in the poll box.




Oh, another high point of last week was the free color photo prints from ZoomIn. That really made my week. Every now and then I'm taking out the snaps from my closet and peering at them. I'm like a child who's got his 1st B'day gift. :) When everything is going digital, there are some things that are better in the conventional way. Just as a handwritten mail delivered to your doorstep is better than an email; a hardcopy photograph is better than a digital photo on your computer screen. And when you get it for free, what more can you ask for? So, if you want your digital photos to be printed for free, drop your email id as comment here [Click 'Leave a Reply' below]. I'll send you a referral link asap. You'll get 30 free prints for Rs28 [courier charges] if you use my referral link.

When I first met this gal 'D' November last year, she appeared to be a cute innocent bubbly gal. She was a bit apprehensive, thus unapproachable at times. I took it to be a girly cautious attitude. To be honest, at one point of time, I was all smitten by her and used to think about her all day long. But that was short-lived. Slowly her darker side was surfacing. She is among those kind of gals who use their charm to manipulate others and get own work done. If you are of some use to her, she'll nicely flirt with you and cajole you into doing her work. Otherwise, she'll bitch about you on your back. Even that is quite a common attitude among gals. Where she outruns all other is - she's the most snobbish person I've ever seen. Once she doesn't have any use of you in near future, she'll publicly humiliate you for no reason. Or maybe, just to please own superior ego. :@

Know what .... I am just unable to describe her. Words fail to justify her image. She's the worst kind of creature deceiving everyone under cover of a gals soft skin. I came to know of her real side once we were out shopping for a gift. And later on, during a group-movie-outing. After those couple of bad experiences with her, I've been just neglecting her, as if she doesn't exist. Still, every site of her gets me enraged beyond means. So, avoiding her was the only thing I could do. That wasn't that difficult. Until now ...

Whole of this week I had to withstand her. Had to travel twice a day with her, stay late-nights with her and remain calm. That was hard. I just can't tell you how hard it is for me not to reach across and punch her on the face. With her around, I just suffocate. I feel like throwing and breaking things, shouting my lungs out, tearing things apart. So much so that I can even hurt / bleed myself. Ohhh, I'll give anything to see her writhing in pain. But I can't do it myself. I can't be a witch like her. She's a pro.

I know this all is giving her too much importance. But I really can't help it. She has this 'black-magic' effect on me. I loose all my sane senses and start boiling with anger and disgust. I wish she gets married soon and moves to some other city and lets me rest in peace. BtW, my heart felt consolation for the poor groom to be. He's doomed.

The first blow took me completely off-guard. Won't write about it here in detail as he/she forbed me to do so. The crux is - One of my closest friend is miffed by something I did but won't tell me what it is. He/She made it clear that he/she is dead angry but won't let me know "about what?" - leave alone letting me clear the air. With this grudge between us - I wonder how long 'WE' is gonna survive. Do I feel something being torn away from me.....??? :k

Towards the eve - this grief almost doubled up. I forgot to lock my PC before going for a coffee. One friend of mine pinged me on GTalk and my colleague took advantage of the situation. When I was back at the desk, he was just setting up to respond something to him/her which surely wasn't nice. As I ran to stop him, all other colleagues around there caught hold of me and pulled me back. Only pinning me down to the ground was left. Meanwhile, that 1st colleague sent his msg to my friend on GTalk. Others left me as the 'damage was done'. All people around me had this devilish smirk on their faces. They were basking on the cheap pleasure achieved out of this. I immediately pinged him/her back that it wasn't me but my colleague who sent the last msg. But he/she refused to believe.

Great, now even he/she doesn't trust me. I was already heavy with existing loads. Already had lost the closest friend this morning [well - almost]. This one was the last nail on the coffin. I felt like tearing apart everyone around me. :@ When they were holding me back, I had this terrible urge to punch one of them [within my fist's reach] hard on the face. I was gonna curse them in worst possible language. MC BC et al. But then no one would have seen that they are at the wrong end. They would've reacted as if I've done something unsocial. :o All will say that I don't have manners, am a foul mouth, not a team-player, high-handed, blah blah blah. I was so damn irritated that I was gonna log-out and head home that very moment. But then, this friend of mine [who had pinged me on GTalk] mellowed down a bit and continued chatting. Even though he/she didn't fully trust my clarification, guess he/she didn't give the incident undue attention. Thanks for that.

Nonetheless, this last experience was so damn frustrating. There's always a certain limit in every relation that should never be crossed. And my colleagues come friends did just that this evening. You're pulling my leg - that's ok. But if you are abusing my close-ones by impersonating me - that is just not tolerable. Think about it. U r not just pulling out a joke. U r ruining a relationship. And you have no right to do that.

He was supposed to be back in 2 weeks; 3 at max. But even after 50 days - there was neither a sign of him or the money. My fears were taking shape. Only silver lining was that his cellphone was still active. He kept assuring me that he'll be back soon. But he was just bull-shitting us. Later he tweaked it a bit and started saying that he'll be back soon or will transfer the money to my account. Another bull-shit. It's been 4 months now - no money.

People fear cops more than they fear criminals

Been trying hard to bring him to docs. But there are some dampeners. I don't have his Mumbai home address, home phone number, photo, employee id number - nothing. :# So, there's no way to track him on my own. His cellphone is the only connection - which he can turn-off any moment. Only thing that could help me here are the cops. But the kind of reputation they've got - I doubt whether they'll even listen to me. I had pondered on the idea of lodging a FIR against him. But friends told me that they won't put even a single word of mine on record and will shoo me away. People fear cops more than they fear criminals. What world we are living in...!!! :x

In ideal situation, Vishal can be nabbed in no more than 2 days. His details can be obtained from his Mphasis office, and he can be traced down by his active mobile and caught. But all these needs cop action. Neither will the Mphasis give me its employee's details nor will vodafone engage a mobile trace on him on my request. Cops can do all these pretty fast and easily. But will they work on my case? I doubt it. Seen a Bangalore City Police website this morning. Thought of submitting my case there. But then again .... involving cops .... I've got to think it over. BTW, does that site have any weightage?

Guess I'm in a hopeless situation and the return of my money is at total mercy of this jerk. Thought of selling off his bike. But with no key and no paper and the bike under land-lords 'protection' - things are a bit gloomy. All these 'coz I trusted a friend. Who do you trust then? All the world's an enemy...

Have you got any ideas for me? What do I do? If you've got any bright ideas that can bring Vishal to docs - I'd be delighted to know it. If you are a cop reading this - would u please see to it that I get justice? And cop uncle, please don't try to teach me a lesson instead. I'm too afraid of that.

Had enough...?? This is just one of the things that I tackled today. There are couple of other things that pained me today. Check 'em here.

Booked my flights yesterday. That's another exciting story. For my round trip journey - I'm going through Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai - in addition to B'lore and Calcutta of course. There's this offer on ezeego1 that gives you one free flight ticket for every flight booked through them. Another Buy 1 Get 1 free offer. It's raining offers, Man. So, I booked my flight for B'lore to Calcutta scheduled 1st Nov. 0745 hrs. That's via Hyderabad. Got one free ticket voucher in return. But alas, flight from Calcutta wasn't in this offer. I had options to pick Hyderabad, Chennai or Delhi as my flight origin. After much debate, I chose the capital, Delhi, as that is nearest to Calcutta. So flight from Delhi to B'lore it is, via Mumbai. And know what....!! This flight was priced @ some 10k [inclusive of all taxes] but I got it booked for just 1.5k. I had to pay just the taxes n surcharge, thanks to the free flight offer. Amazing thing is - the cost of my full pay flight [B'lore to Cal] was just Rs. 3874 [there too I'll get assured 25% cash back]. And I got a flight worth 10k free. In effect, free stuff is worth more than the purchased product....!! What can be better than that? Oh, I forgot to mention that I'll get a Future Bazaar shopping voucher worth Rs. 500 free from ezeego1 for this flight booking. Hurry. Whole offer till 23rd Sep only. :D

One disturbing issue in this whole journey planning was the journey between Calcutta and Delhi on my way back. I opted for a train journey for this, as I've never been to home n back without being in train. All 4 years of college - I've ferried between college and home in train. Approx 45 hours of train journey with friends, building a temporary family with unknown people, train meals or rush for a better food at some big station, 'Chai-Chai', long Godavari Bridge, fast blowing air on face, the train whistle - everything is so much part of my college days' memory. So, it's just obvious that I pick a little train journey this time also. But the timings weren't satisfactory. Picked the best option available. Howrah Delhi Kalka mail that'll reach Delhi @ 2100 hrs. My onward flight is @ 0745hrs next day. So, will have to spend the whole night @ d airport. Have some relatives and friends in Delhi, but not decided yet to bother them regarding this. Guess I'll be catching a Metro for airport. Haven't boarded metro in Calcutta since 5 years, and haven't ever seen Delhi metro. So, another high. :)

Hey, if you have any better idea for my delhi stay - please please let me know. i.e., if you can suggest me any better mode of transportation or if there's any safety concern in traveling in Delhi @ night or any other issue/info you're aware of, please let me know. I'll really appreciate that.

Well, that'll be all for now. Guess most of you are also planning a trip to home for Deewali. Wish you a happy journey and memorable holidays at home. In the meantime, U can catch the excitement at my office through the snaps I've put up on my photoblog. Currently, our office is decorated as a Village. Catch all the action in pics here.