Number game

Let me tell you upfront ... I am not a voracious reader, in fact I hate reading to the core. It makes me lousy, sleepy, boring & what not. Books for me act faster than the sleep inducing pills :P everyone in my family has this dirty habit of not reading much stuff. May be I have inherited his habit :P The only novel I remember completing till date is Dan Brown's 'Angels & Demons'.

After hearing a lot from my office colleagues about Chetan Bhagat's new novel '2 states' I thought of giving it a try. Downloaded the ebook as I my track record of reading the books is very bad. Never finished what I have bought so far in my life :-( Many of you might be aware of Chetan's earlier works - Five Point Someone, One night at call center, Three mistakes of my life.... & now two states. If you observe closely, Interestingly, all these titles have a 'number' in them. Guess Chetan is very fond of numbers - an IITian, then an IIMA passout... So, I guess the probability of odds in favour of my earlier guess is 0.9 :P & his fondness for numbers reflect in his novels as well. Trust me, each page contains at least half a dozen numbers and in my opinion it adds essence to the book, makes it funny at times, makes it even more interesting to read. I will not be surprised if Chetan's 5th book has 'four' in the title :P

I am half way now. The first half of the first half (i.e., the first quarter of the book) is really really interesting, then the sheen is out after the characters pass out of IIMA....still it is a decent read so far. Would like to finish this book by this weekend & yeah... I feel very embarrassed looking at my reading speed. People in my office finished this book in few hours , a day or two !! can you believe it ? huh... and I am talking about taking a week :-( That shows how lazy I am when it comes to reading.

Racing God is back !

I have been itching to pen down my thoughts on the mega/super/block-buster/ultimate comeback of Michael Schumacher aka Schumi :-) & finally here I am !

I was first introduced to this sport by one of my (now) old buddies :P Srinu way back in the year 2002 during the summer break. Though I haven't followed it much for the next 2years, it got on to my head in past 3-4 seasons. Having watched Schumi rule the world's most glamorous sport for few successive years, I couldn't digest the fact that he retired so early (early for me... as it was just 2 or hardly 3 seasons of Schumi for me).

His much hyped comeback this season as a replacement for injured Massa has put a smile on my face and I was on cloud 9. Believe me I was driving my bike like never before for the next 2days :P. But unfortunately his comeback hit the road block as Schumi was not able to get himself fully fit to race in such a short duration. Heart break for fans like me :-(

Never mind... I hope this time the plan will definitely materialize and I can see him on race track again ! But yeah... he will not be in REDS.. still... WHITES are not really bad. Once again ROSS - SCHUMI will spill their magic all around the world :-) It will be a cut throat competition next season as there are 13 teams and more than half a dozen prospective champions !! Alonso, Massa, Hamilton, Button, Rubens & of course the baby Schumi (Vettel).... Its going to be a cracker of a season. I just wish to see Schumi on podium at least once :-) If he manages to win the drivers championship(the chances are very unlikely), then, then there is nothing like it !! this come back would be considered next only to Lance Armstrong's.

The sadness of KIMI's absence this season is overshadowed by SCHUMI's come back !!

Hit the Top gear.... Go all guns ... Go Full throttle... :-) GO Schumi :-)


Just in case if any one of you is wondering why I am a crazy Schumi maniac :P Here is a factfile -> courtesy - ESPNSTAR.COM

25 !!

Time moves so swiftly :(

I still remember those college days... catching the bus early in the morning, classroom noise, bunking classes, cafeteria graffiti, sports & of course exams..... memories are still fresh. Today when I look back, I just cant believe that its been 3 and a half years that i graduated.

I cant think of even a single thing that hasn't changed in these 3.5 yrs, so am I. Transformation from a young college grad to a professional (may not be a 'through' prof) hasn't been easy. Thats what u call 'LIFE'... may be way of LIFE, may be experiences in LIFE or may be lessons in LIFE ;)

Y'day when I turned 25, I've suddenly started feeling old!!!! I wish LIFE has something like 'backspace' :P 'Move on' with TIME =>

To Akki - u suck

Posting this with a lot of frustration & disappointment.

De Dana Dan sucks, so is Akshay. The less I talk about it, the better it is. I thought this movie will be 'bad' ... but after watching the movie I felt the word 'bad' doesn't justify its quality. It needs something of higher degree :P worse, pathetic, ridiculous, stupid, absurd,ludicrous, farce, idiotic etc... are the correct words for this f***ing movie. The only good 'parts' of the movie are white doggy & Katrina, Cute & Sexy respectively :P.

Trust me, u've got something better to do than waste 3hrs on this. If u still want to watch this stinking movie, I advice you to take a Zandu Balm or some Asprin along.

Akki... get a life. Its high time... do something different. Learn from Aamir.

Best way to get out of boredom ?

I've got a question for you... specially for people who are still single(with no GFs) --- What is the best way to get out of boredom when you are alone?

Well... each one of us probably have our own way of dealing with boredom. For example... my old & best friend Ajay 'dances' or rather say a mixture of aerobics and dance whenever he gets bored!! Vinay starts reading stuff online or watches youtube videos, more than half of my colleagues... (say friends at work!) spend time sleeping :P, the rest are addicted to Farming in Facebook (farmville) !! Mom spends half of her time watching TV serials :P etc... etc...

The known fact to most of you is that... I am single with absolutely no track record of having a girl friend(now, before you get me wrong, let me clarify - I AM STRAIGHT)... my only passion(s) in life so far are - Stock Markets(where 95/100 times I end up loosing money!) and sports.

I now have hardly any old friends at home :( all dispersed!! We managed to rope in 12-14 guys in office and play cricket every saturday morning at a ground that is 12kms away from my home!! As 8 out of 10 people say "My work sucks" and I am among those 8!! Below is my daily routine and I hardly deviate from this fixed schedule (MON-FRI):

Step in to office @ 11am
Login & read Online News, check stock quotes etc...
T Break @ 11.45 which most often than not ends up longer than a lunch break!
Check mails and surf for an hour or two
Lunch Break @ 2 PM
Pretend to be busy! for another hour or two....
T Break @ 4PM
Log out & Step out @ 5PM followed by gaming activities and swimming at club !!

Apart from this... I have got a lot of time to kill. So... I resumed my movie marathon! With Airtel broadband at home I can download a movie over night & with Vibhor in office - I dont give a damn even if my internet doesnt work for ages :P!! So... here I go "a movie a day keeps the boredom at bay" :P Last week I've watched at least a dozen movies.... I would have visited IMDB not less than 200 times!! Never slept before midnight!!

With my external hard drive full of movies, it is assured that I am going to get bored anytime in the near future :P LOL.... As I write this post, 'GOOD WILL HUNTING' is 70% done!! :P

& finally, this time on a serious note..... I genuinely feel all this needs to be changed for the betterment of my future. But, u know 'Old habits die hard' ;)

17K in HYDERABAD ?? !!

As I write this post India is crawling towards the target of 251 set by Australia. Match is nicely poised at this stage with India at 134/4 in 29overs, needing 117 more in 21overs... thats close to 5.5RPO.

Sachin was out at 40 sometime back... which means he is just short of 7runs to cross 17k !! another feather in his cap. Next ODI is in HYDERABAD... this is where Sachin made his highest ODI score of 186* few years back against NZ. Hopefully he will cross 17k in his next match... HYD crowd will go crazy when he does that.

Back to LIFE !!

Ever since Mahindra tookover our company, the focus is more on cost cutting & in that process the top management has decided to close few centers. So the good news is .... we moved out of the bhoot bunglow a couple of months back to a temporary location in Sec'bad and then now to ... probably the biggest and the best location - STC, Bhahadurpally!! STC is heavenly beautiful, peaceful & most importantly it gives a college kind-of feel :) very unlike the earlier 2 locations. So... finally I have reached the place where it all began 3yrs back!!

The only problem for most of them operating from STC is commutation, else... it is near perfect. My home is equidistant from all 3 locations I have operated so far (gud for me). Past 2 weeks have been simply awesome. Reason - we have a club in here! with lot of indoor games - Snooker, Billiards, Carrom, TT........... Tennis, Basket Ball.... club is the motivation for we guys to come to office every single day!!! Add to that a nice swimming pool!!! I wanted to learn swimming for a long time... :) so... we all jump into the pool at sharp 5pm!!!!!!!! ....... U must be wondering when we actually work :P The thing is we prioritize our tasks & play comes ahead of work in this list !!! Thumb rule -> "work less... play more" he he he he he & yeah... so far it worked fine :P

The only thing thats missing is my favorite sport Badminton :( ..... seriously wish we should have one. But never mind... STC still rocks!

3 cheers :) :) :)

Back from hibernation !

Hey guys!!!! Long time ........... no see ?? :P

Ok ok ok... I am back in blogosphere again after a long gap (call it Hibernation). My last post was way back in Apr'09, that's approx 6 months back! Please don't ask me the reason for such a long break coz even I don't know! Believe it or not.... "I DON'T KNOW" (as most lazy bugs say) .

Got lots of stuff to share with you guys. So... keep visiting every now and then :)

Whom r u going to VOTE ?

With elections in the visible distance the campaigning process is in the full swing. Roads are filled with traffic Jams as our so called 'Leaders' are delivering 'hate' speeches at every nook and corner of the city. Every junction has a check point with a police legion to check if huge sums of money and liquor kind of things are moved. News channels are telecasting LIVE speeches ! Half a dozen bizzare debates at least each day and these debates most often than not turn out to be a disaster. Political parties are spending monstrous money on canvasing. Actors are acting as the catalysts in this movement ! Billions of rupees are being spent in these months time.....

I am 24 & this is the first time I am going to vote ! I have applied for the voter card last time around but I guess no one cared to gimme one :-( My name in the current voter card is filled with blunders which I cannot even explain. So I suspect even this time It might get a little difficult for me to VOTE. But lets try :-) I am not so excited ;) several reasons.... I dont think anyone who is going to reign for the next 5 years(hopefully) is going to make much of a difference in our lives(I hope I am wrong).

I have made up my mind that I will vote for Jai Prakash Narayan's Lok Satta party(Not a huge fan of his) At least they are not spending money as other parties do :-) and more than anything else the degree of non-sense talks is low.

Rise of the Phoenix

F1 season has begun! 

If at all you are a follower of F1, you might be aware that Honda has opted out of F1 because of slowdown. The axe was hanging on the necks of almost all its employees specially the two drivers of Honda F1 20

08 season - Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button. Ever since this news was officially out way back in Nov 08 it was a huge suspense whether someone is going to buy this team. There were few rumors of takeover by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim and the Virgin head Richard Branson. Finally late february or so it was announced that Ross Brawn (former Ferrari principal also Ho

nda F1's 2008) has 

bought it and the team will be renamed Brawn GP ! Finally a sigh of relief for Button and Barri

chello. A new team was formed overnight with the old management..... remember there are hardly any changes in the team except its name. Ross Brawn is an innate talent in F1 history. Having worked with teams like Benneton, Ferrari he has a huge experience 

in racing. He is also considered to be the brain behind the 7 time world champion Schummi ! 

Till y'day morning the fate of Brawn GP was still unclear. No one even knew whether they are participating in this season. Brawn has made an official statement y'day before Friday' practise that 

they WILL race this season ! But they dont have an

y sponsors yet :-( They had real tough times and even tough times ahead.... hey wait .... here comes the flamboyant Richard Branson. Virgin became the major sponsor for Brawn and even the label of Virgin was imprinte

d on the car y'day night !! and today morning it was the Aus GP qualifying session ! 

Guess what made me write all this stuff ? Today's qualifying was dominated by BRAWN drivers - Button and Rubens ! In what was amazing qualifying BRAWN made it up 1, 2 wh

ich means they are going to race tomorrow from the start of the grid. Button took the pole. Seldom you get to see this kind of stuff. It was aweful ! Whr are these giant teams? the so called front runners for constructors ? Ferrari, Mclaren, BMW, Renault etc.. ? these 4 teams were reigning the world of F1 for the past few decades. Looks like change has come to F1 too... small teams making it count. But F1 by itself is highly unpredicable... things change overnight ! Nevertheless ....this was an amazing start by Brawn and I hope(Massa hopes !) that they continue doing so to kick the a***s of Ferrari and Mclaren. 

Brawn has already set the pace in qualifying. It would be interesting to watch if they can continue the same in tomorrow's race! Looks like they are the strongest contenders this season unless the Ferraris and Mclarens work seriously on their engines and the car aerodynamics for the forthcoming races. Cheers Ross Brawn..... 

FZ Vs A Star

A couple of days back, in Times of India there was a small snippet about the newly launched Maruti Suzuki A-Star. There were few rallies held in cities like Chennai and Bangalore. According to TOI, A Star gave a record mileage of 37+ Kmpl !!!!!!!! can u believe it ? when Ford Fiesta gave an average of 31Kmpl .... my jaws have dropped! and this news has certainly made me think of my decision of buying an FZ 16. My bike is literally drinking feul .... at times it gives just around 30Kmpl :-( Common its just a 153 CC bike with just around 14 BHP... it should give not less than 45 no matter how u ride. Then I keep saying to myself... time and again... this is one heck of a Yamaha product ! & I am one heck of a crazy creature who respects this brand name from the core of my heart.

Now imagine feeding two(dont get me wrong... i am talking about me and my bike) with my miniscule salary !

But the fun of riding a bike is amazing and it will be even more when keep ride at 107Kmph on a national speedway. Yesss.... yesterday i was testing my machine on NH9 Medchal highway and it hit 107 with ease ... for a moment I felt someone was pulling me from behind ... then i slowed down a lil bit as there were heavy vehicles ahead of me. It was fun... my heart was beating at double the normal speed... adrenaline kept pumping ! :-) Next time i will make sure that my tacho shows at least 111 kmph !

Anyone can cook !

Did this title remind u of something? In case you are still struggling to recollect where u have come aross 'Anyone can cook', it is the jist of the Oscar winning movie 'RATATOUILLE'. I can never forget the characters in this movie. Rats look cute after watching this masterpiece from PIXAR !! Such is the brilliance of this flick. One movie which has truly inspired and motivated me to get my hands on cooking.

Anyways... coming back... this weekend my cousin Harish was at my home and we both thought of cooking Veg Munchurian! We got some Carrots, a Cabbage, a Capsicum(many Cs ... lol), few Onions etc... and of course the ready made Knorr's veg manchurain pack. Then trimmed these veggie stuff and mixed it with maida and made into Veg balls....fried them in oil and then mixed these fried balls with the remains of vegtables and Knorr's pack and boiled it for another 5mins and here we goooooooooooo! our yummy veg manchurian was ready...! never felt so happy about cooking !!! :P

oh yeah... we also tried our hands on Palak Paneer which was also quite tasty. But Veg Manchurian was so aweful that it truly deserves the dish of the weekend award ! Hey... just got another !DEA :-) 'Satyam' is already in troubled waters... how about getting ready for next job? a chef in a fast food centre or something like that? food is one of those sectors which will be last to be hit by recession .... so no slowdown worries... no pink slips... my job will be safe as long as I cook well !! lol

Next week I will try some new stuff... got to explore Reliance Fresh(the one beside my office) tomorrow for more ready made recipes! else I need to take some timeout for Googling with key word 'recipes' :P

Freedom,Independence,Republic & Democracy ....where are these ??

I have learnt ages ago that India is a truly Republic & Democratic nation & India is a developing country. India being the 2nd fastest growing economy in the world, we are talking about becoming one of the super powers in the world ! Future definitely looks promising.

But there are few gray areas which are definitely pulling us back. Forget major things like corruption & Terrorism. In the era of globalization few senseless acts by brainless creatures are making me think if we have really achieved freedom. I don't know how many of you have given a thought on this earlier. Things like attacking women in Pubs and Discs, Anti V-Day protests, Attacks on Churches are few classic examples from the recent past.

Men going to Pubs in ok with them... then why not women? after all its their life. Many people have already debated on this. But in my opinion any such taboo is a pure senseless act. According to a research report apparently V-Day has created a Rs.600crores market in India alone ! courtesy... Archies & Hallmark ! Even in these recessionary times, this V-Day Archies sales has grown by 4%. You know what it means ? It has indirectly contributed to lot of employment & to the growth of Indian economy. I agree that celebrating these kind of days is purely an individuals choice but it is pure non sense and stupidity if someone else has the trigger. Look at this.... "Couples seen on the streets on Feb 14th will be forcefully made to marry !" what the f***. May be terrorists have a better reason for their senseless acts ! This is heights of making a mockery of LOVE.

What bothers me even more is that the fact all of the above mentioned things have occurred in major Metros ! cosmopolitan cities like Bangalore and a city like Mumbai which never sleeps ! Solution for rediculous acts like these is not so tough to find if you are willing to look for. But who cares these things make headlines only once in an year. India would have already become a much better place to live for if we our acts made some sense... but unfortunately the most uncommon thing in humans is commonsense !

No offenses please... this disgust and hatred is only on the protests which cause huge traffic jams and interrupt the dialy courses of many of our lives.

Luck By Chance

With Farhan in the lead I couldn't miss this movie ! As Ajay was in India on a vacation, I took him along. He knows I am a crazy fan of FA :-)

The other day I saw an old episode of 'Oye, its Friday' on Youtube of course hosted by Farhan. Guest in that show was his childhood friend Duggu(Hrithik). Hrithik played a small cameo in this movie. He said Luck by Chance will easily be one of the biggest bollywood hits of 2009! amazing... I am a crazy Hrithik fan too. Hence I had huge expectations on this movie but I must say at the end of the day I am a lil disappointed. Luck by chance is yet another average movie. Very much similar to Fashion which also projects the real life scenario. Even in terms of story line this movie is quite predictable and there is no real juice in it. Prior to Rock On release I thought its going to be a trendsetter... even Rock On turned to be yet another average bollywood movie. But Rock On scores high(5/5) for its music. Same is not the case with Luck By Chance.

Every scene is quite predicable but I must appreciate those bits and pieces in the movie which are hilarious. There are few scenes which will have a rib tickling impact on you. The great thing about these scenes is that there are very few dialogues... mostly done with expressions and acts. I thoroughly enjoyed this dialogueless humor. Zafar Khan's(Hrithik) role was even more amazing. You need to watch this to appreciate the humor in it. & of course Rishi Kapoor's role is no less. I must say his role has life in it ! Delete Rishi Kapoor & his role from this movie... and you wont have anything much to watchout for!! apart from the sexy, curvy & drop dead gorgeous Isha Sherwani who also delivered her part quite successfully. Note: She has become my desktop wallpaper :P lol

Its worth giving a watch for those bits and pieces.

On the right track ?

Part III

Finally there is a sigh of relief among all of us with govt stepping in & taking swift measures to get Satyam back to normalcy and Jan salaries being paid off ! We lost few major clients as reported by media but managed to retain most of them. Now we can find the light at the end of tunnel as many prominent players are showing interest to takeover Satyam. They include L & T, iGate, Hindalco & Spice Group !

Even if some other company buys Satyam layoff will be inevitable. The first thing any new management focuses on will be increasing the Bottom line of their balance sheets (Operating margins) by cutting cost. And in any IT company chunk of the expenses are on its associates. Axe will definitely fall sooner or later but the good news here is that jobs of thousands of other associates will be protected.

I personally believe, initially when this crisis broke out govt acted promptly and taken few very good decisions. But things now are now very sluggish. For the past one month, the headlines of very news channel and paper is Satyam. With elections in the sight of visibility news on Satyam might be sidelined & can be found only in the middle pages! Slowly, steadily but surely they are bringing it back on track. It might take another couple of months to unfold the future of this company and 2 more quarters it should be business as usual ! We might also see a change in the name, another CEO, CFO etc.,

Sector Destruction Ceremony

Part II

Continuing from where I left in my earlier post....

This post deserves to be called the sequel of 'Self destruction ceremony' which focussed on how it all started and the immediate consequences. But I guess, that was just the beginning. 07.01.2009 is the date when the next part was released, roof broke down & things went upside down. This time it was more like the 'Indian IT sector destruction ceremony'.

'Satyam' has gone truly global this time. Of course for bad reasons. We kept saying that we have clients from 6 Continents and we operate in 66 Nations. I am pretty sure, the rest of the world too must have heard 'Satyam' by now! Generally movies of SRK, Aamir or Hrithik are released with huge hype & the movie becomes a blockbuster hit even before it gets released. This time its the turn of 'Satyam', starring Raju Brothers. The only difference is marketing & publicity for any theatrical movie happens before the release & here in Satyam's case it was the otherway around. Media has come together to project the 'Satyam Fiasco'. on the small screen. Trust me, I have never seen such a mass media coverage till date filled with hype & hoopla. 5 Days & still the coverage in full-fledgedly ON ! May be coz the budget of this movie is a whopping Rs. 7000 Crores !

It was an absolute shocker as things like these are quite unnatural in India. Not so shocking in the west as they have witnessed fiascos of several manfolds like Enron, World Com, Lehman etc., Many say Satyam's situation is very similar to that of Enron which has gone bankrupt in 2001. At that time Enron was the 8th biggest company in the world with over $102 Bn. But lemme tell u... Satyam's case is not as deep as Enron's was(atleast for now). Yes... Raju confessed that he inflated topline and bottom line numbers along with liquid assets. But that is not the end of all... we are in troubled waters, we are in quick sand but remember one thing we still have sizable revenues which are not fake. The issue was purely created by the top management & things hopefully be alright once some kind of takeover or strategic tie-up happens. Ofcourse, there are several other factors to be considered. Gaining new projects and more revenues seem to be quite an uphill task atleast for now. They might need to sack a portion of non-revenue generating workforce, focus more on cost cutting, bring something completely out of box etc.,

To be very frank its very exicting to be associated with this company, now more than ever. As my cousin rightly said, its a life time experience which many few people get. Every crisis has an opportunity if u are bold enough to look for it. I am lucky in one way that I am with Satyam(though at this point in time I cant proudly say) just because it makes all of us stronger. So much has happened in so less time. I am not really sure if a day will come when I can be proud of being a part of a dramatic turnaround(if any), as many things are not in my control. Satyam as a brand has gone for a toss... absolutely no doubt in it. But a Merger with some other well managed company might help clear the scars that were left by Raju's stupidity.

Next couple of weeks are going to be very crucial for us. A lot depends of the investigation, Q3 Results, cash reserves that company hold, Board Meetings, M or A. and ofcosurse Government. What I can do meanwhile is just wait and watch and may be.... be a lil proactive & start making a lil bit of preparation for my next job !