Thursday, November 02, 2006

Talk to the Customer

Recently in my ex-team while attending a presentation made by a Senior Person who regularly interacts with the clients, I asked if we as solution providers ever made an effort to observe how the end-user is using the system and what kind of feedback does the solution get from them...

The response I got was that the size of user base is just too big for them to actually go and do that. So they relied on design folks who would/should know about user experience as well.

I came across this article today...
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/107/business-at-its-best.html

Companies differentiate between the User and the Costumer. The User being the person who uses the solution and the Costumer being the people who Pays for the Solution. Chances are... in most cases the Costumer is listened to and the solution is implemented as per their liking. And the likelihood of the needs of the user and the customer being radically different are quite high. The Priorities and the Perspective of the customer will be radically different. The solution thus built when exposed to the end-user faces rejection. Throughout my career I have felt the need to gather feelers from the end users time and again.

The example given here in the article is specific to banking whose costumer base is large but can apply to any other type of business.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

My friend's flickr collection

Most of these are really good...

Especially since they are clicked by an amateur.

Slide Show :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/85163435@N00/show/

With Dewscriptions:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/85163435@N00/

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

The Road less travelled

I came across this quote by Robert Frost :

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."

Robert Frost


I think this quote is quite applicable to my current situation. My current role is basically to be; in some ways; responsible for a whole lot of people's actions. Coordination is a key component. At heart I am a developer. A person who will be happy writing code. Give me a complex design problem or a difficult API to master and I will be happy. This current role is therefore quite different from what I have been doing till now.

From what I have gathered from people all over, this role isn't the most coveted one. Traditionally people at manager level play this role in most companies and so I have a good opportunity to get a first hand experience into how the next level operates...

I encountered another quote by James M. Barrie.

"Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else."

James M. Barrie

So this is work then... After so many years...

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Personal Investing

Scott Adams' secret nine-point formula for "everything you need to know about personal investing.". Revealed in "Dilbert and the Way of the Weasels." Notice its simple brilliance in the exact reproduction of his formula:

1. Make a will
2. Pay off your credit cards
3. Get term life insurance if you have a family to support
4. Fund your 401k to the maximum
5. Fund your IRA to the maximum
6. Buy a house if you want to live in a house and can afford it
7. Put six months worth of expenses in a money-market account
8. Take whatever money is left over and invest 70% in a stock index fund and 30% in a bond fund through any discount broker and never touch it until retirement
9. If any of this confuses you, or you have something special going on (retirement, college planning, tax issues), hire a fee-based financial planner, not one who charges a percentage of your portfolio

These are targeted at the American audince but can easily be adapted for your own country specific needs....


Links

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Saturday, September 16, 2006

The best method for sorting resumes:

When I get a pile of resumes, I pick half of them at random and throw them away - I don't want any unlucky people to work for me!

Monday, September 11, 2006

Anecdote

Yesterday I thought I will catch up with a colleague of mine who was working on another project and we hadn’t had a chance to sync up for a long time.

I sent a message asking if we could have some coffee together. I did this around 3 pm thinking that we would be able to meet around 4:30 or so. No reply came till 6 and I had to leave anyways.

While boarding the bus transport (the company has provided a bus facility for regular timings. Saves a lot of hassles), I had a talk with my bus buddies where we devised an evil conspiracy to try and get rid of the bus and go back to the cabs that we used to get earlier. Had a lot of fun while doing that. Today we have a meeting with the transport function to raise all the issues that we have with the facility.

I have seen this happening a number of times. And in my older organization also. There are millions of people out there who use either self transport or public transport which to my mind is the worst. They travel anywhere between 10 to a 100 kilometers every day and they do it because their organizations haven’t made provisions for any such facilities. But we who have this facility are always complaining about the standard of the facility that we get. It seems the more you give, the more “they” will ask. It seems nothing ever is enough.

So today, when I came in, I saw a message which was posted at around 40 minutes after I had left. It said a simple “Hello”, maybe checking if I was at my seat at the time before engaging any further.

I replied back :

“too late for me I am not like those people who take faltu(unnecessary) breaks and then work late to show off. I am like those who take faltu breaks and still leave on time .“

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

A bus ride to Dehradun

I had to go to Dehradun again this Sunday. We took the afternoon bus at 3pm and were scheduled to reach around 9:30pm. I intended to fully utilise this time; which I had at my disposal; by having a good nap which was long needed. As soon as the bus started, I was fast asleep. There was some stopage at around 4 and I was disturbed from my deep slumber and for some reason I couldn't go back to sleep.

So with nothing to do except gaze at the distant fields, my mind began running all over the place. There have been times where I just couldnt find topics to write on this blog and I have written blog entries just on the fact that I am not able to get ideas. Talk about being lame.

But today was just opposite of those days. With so many ideas running up and down in my mind, this was the first time when I felt the need for a laptop or a palm device so that I could jot down my musings.

It was suprising how short periods of inactivity or some time off from your usual daily routine can activate areas of your brain which normally wont respond.

Maybe there are some yoga or meditation based techniques which can help me tap into the vast reserves of the brain.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

One in Six billion

I always say a PJ (Poor Joke) about how unique I am, so I say that I am 1 in six billion. This basically a version of the One in a Million phrase, where you say that, this person is a such a gem, he is a One in a Million kind of a person.

The problem with that is that even if you are a One in a Million kind of a person, there still would be 6000 people (Six billion being the world population count) exactly like you which makes you think that your are not so unique.

So I started saying that I am One in six billion. And as I said before, it is a PJ thats Poor Joke for the uninitiated.

Throughout my growing years I have had classmates, friends and collegues who have shared complete names, Amit being a pretty common name among Indians especially since Mr. Amitabh Bachchan was quite popular in the decade when I was born. Surnames like Jain, Gupta, Sharma etc were also quite popular. So any combination of these would have lots of people named. My surname George, is also quite popular however the Christian community being in minority and also christian names being the preffered choice among us made Amit George quite unique as a name.

I did this name search on the internet on my name a couple of years ago but couldnt find anybody else holding this name.

Then I came across this link. The person who is listed there at the time of this posting isn't me.

This will be a space which I will watch out for. And I hope there will be more Mr. Amit George out there.

Sunday, August 13, 2006

PEOPLE OF COLOR

I came across this poem which if you know the context of the racial situation in America makes a lot of sense,

    My best friend said that he
    Was now a "person of color,"
    Whereas I was simply "white."
    He used to call himself "black,"
    Which to me was perfectly all right.
    But my art teacher pointed out to us
    That black is the absence of color.
    Which shouldn't really get him down,
    Since he really isn't black, but rather
    A beautiful shade of brown.
    Which is a color.
    As are those with yellow, red or golden skin.
    Whereas white, (my color),
    Has all the other colors within.
    Which I suppose through and through
    Makes me colored too!
    So it appears my best friend was simply in error,
    We all seem to be "persons of color."

Friday, August 11, 2006

Perils of Positive thinking

I was reading through the new entries in some of my favorite BLOGs and I came across this post:
     http://hodu.com/perils.shtml

A couple of snippets :
A young accountant approached her retired mentor one day and asked very expectantly how she managed such a successful career.

This answer was surprisingly brief: "Good decisions". In anticipation she launched the next question: "But how can I learn to make good decisions?" The wise mentor paused for a moment and replied: "Through experience!"

Again the eager accountant asked: "But how do I gain experience?" Her mentor smiled understandingly: "Through bad decisions!"

And

The second scenario involves the friend or colleague that is a single-minded positive thinker.

The more that you try to verbalize the problem in order to feel better, the more you get interrupted with "positive solutions". The more you crave empathy, the more they inject you with the importance of positive thinking. It leaves you feeling even more dejected and riddled with guilt about your inability to think positively during this trying time.


I have been guilty of this second situation when although my intentions have been sincere, but now in retrospective, it seems that some situations demand understanding and compassion rather than solutions to the problem.

Monday, August 07, 2006

Why GOD Gave Us Friends

GOD knew that everyone needs
Companionship and cheer,
He knew that people need someone
Whose thoughts are always near.

He knew they need someone kind
To lend a helping hand.
Someone to gladly take the time
To care and understand.

GOD knew that we all need someone
To share each happy day,
To be a source of courage
When troubles come our way.

Someone to be true to us,
Whether near or far apart.
Someone whose love we'll always
Hold and treasure in our hearts.

That's Why GOD Gave Us Friends!
Happy Friendship Day !!!

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Working on other’s code

No matter how good your code is, how well commented it is, how normalized, how well structured it is. Almost always when a new person comes across your code he will curse the programmer who wrote it and reserve the choicest of unmentionable verbs.

I generally have been able to just look at codes and pretty easily decipher them and haven’t had much of problems in this area. And I attached a lot of pride to this.

Now I have begun to face this problem.

So generally you will find tones of people posting about how this programmer’s code sucks and how it should be done instead and so on.

But I find here that I have not been able to fully understand the process or maybe I am just too much in awe of the entire thing. At times my mind just seems to stop working and there are times when I feel that there is no further option or approach which I could use in the particular issue.

This is not a very good situation for me to be in. But I guess I should give myself more time to settle myself in. I have been on the project for less than 3 weeks now and am making so-so progress.

Just thinking aloud

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

So funny, I had to link up LOL

http://whyihatemyhusband.com/blog/

Sample this :
    It's Tuesday and John has a toothache.

    Whaa whaa, f***ing whaa.

    Yeah, I know, harsh but I find it hard to have sympathy for his plight when floss hasn't touched his gums in over two decades.

Simply hilarious !!!

Monday, July 17, 2006

Dehradun

Mom and I had planned to go to Dehradun for the weekend. She has decided to buy a house there... and she needed me as a joint applicant for the loan application.

So Friday night, after I came home from Office, she and I packed our bags and took off. The plan was to take the train and reach there by morning. But the train had a waiting of 130. This is the season of kanwarias. Roads in July-August are dotted with thousands of water-carrying, orange-clad kanwarias, devotees of Shiva.






We decided to take one of the private buses. We reached the ISBT and found an agent who was selling the tickets. So we bought 2 for Dehradun and went to board the bus. On reaching there, when we asked to be seated, we suddenly discovered that everybody else had been assigned seat numbers and we had not been. And now suddenly there was no seat in the bus for us also. I harrowed with the bus conductor and with the ticket counter shop they had. Soon it appears that they had actually sold tickets to 6-7 extra people. So I wrangled with them for a good 10 mins.

They tried getting another bus but since it was the kanwaria season so all the buses were directed towards Haridwar and there wasn’t any bus available for Dehradun. So they offered to pay back the money. I was relieved that at least we were not duped by a crook. The bus to Haridwar had a few seats left and we decided to take that one. Dehradun is about an hour’s drive from Haridwar and they tell me that there is a good bus service also from Haridwar to Dehradun.

The bus ride was a nice one and I had a chance to observe closely the mannerisms of kanwarias. Not a very elegant impression, however these guys know how to have fun. They sang and dance till wee hours of the night and we had a hard time trying to sleep. Mom was a bit tired and wanted to sleep but wasn’t able to. However I took my chance to doze off whenever I could.

After a rickety ride, we reached Haridwar and took a Marshal to Dehradun. Beware of these guys as they will smell your naivety and overcharge you at every step. We reached Dehradun around 7 in the morning and were treated to some very refreshing weather.







This trip has left quite a few impressions and I will be writing about them...

Monday, July 03, 2006

I turned 26 yesterday.

The entire morning was filled with birthday wish calls.

Had a small party with my extended family. Nothing special… Just some cake and dinner. Was really hot in the evening and so had a little hard time, otherwise had a lot of fun.

My brother gave me the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mein_Kampf by Adolf Hitler. I will read it in the next few days. He commented that 30% of the people who read it turn Nazi.

Anyways it will provide good insight into the mind of a great leader (whose motives are no doubt in question, but a great leader nevertheless).

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Think before you Speak

I am gonna post a list of the feedback I received at the Induction later

I thought I will start working on my delta's and try and improve on them.

One of the delta's was "Think before you Speak"

Well... by nature, I like to keep making funny comments which are fairly well received. However the thing with funny is that different perople have different humour sensivities and what might be funny to one person may be irritating to another and outright offensive to some.

I did some research on Google. Most of the links were bad but I found some which had mentioned the Impact of not "Thinking before Speaking"


One humorous situation also came up.


Then I found this


43things.com is basically a site where people list things they wish to do or have done and they share their experiences in trying to achieve these goals.

One commendable quote from one of the users :

If you just take 5 seconds to think before reacting or speaking, you can save yourself a lot of headaches. Too many people act right away on gut instinct, which is not always smart. You can come off as immature, whiny, selfish, or just plain ignorant, if you just immediately speak or act without thinking about the way you sound or the consequences of what you’re doing and saying (immediately and later on) or even if what you’re saying or doing makes any sense or if you’re just reacting to react. If you would just take 5 seconds to breathe and remember that you’re a civilized human being and not an animal scrapping around in the dirt, you’ll elevate yourself and that’ll be noticed by others who’ll seek to emulate that kind of behavior for themselves. And you’ll eventually learn it as a habit, and remove a lot of stress from your life, and you’ll learn how to talk to and gingerly persuade people to be kinder and nicer to you. You’ll find more peace around you. You’ll make the world a better place.

Makes ya happy. Do it.

I think I have work to do

Saturday, June 24, 2006

The Top 10 Top 10 lists

There are so many top 10 lists out there that I needed a top 10 for myself.


  1. Top 10 Strangest Lego Creations
    Talk about imagination. This one just shook me from my seat.
    http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/top-10-strangest-lego-creations

  2. Top 10 Free Email Services
    If you are looking for a free email service, you can be picky. I didn’t know about half of them…
    http://email.about.com/cs/freeemailreviews/tp/free_email.htm

  3. Bill Gates' Legacy: Microsoft's Top 10 Flops
    Gates will be remembered as a visionary and PC industry leader. But even Microsoft's Chairman hasn't been right in all of his bets.
    http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,2180,1977870,00.asp

  4. Top 10 Deadliest Animals
    Creatures that scare the socks off everybody
    http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/top10_deadliestanimals.html

  5. Top 10 Celebrity Entrepreneurs
    Magic Johnson, Sean Combs, Oprah Winfrey they are all in there.
    http://www.inc.com/slideshow_INC/slideviewer.cgi?list=celebrityentrepreneurs

  6. The Top Ten US Killer Tornadoes
    The United States gets about 1000 recorded tornadoes every year. Today, only a few are killers, but that has not always been so. About 200 US tornadoes have killed 18 or more people. Devastating.
    http://www.tornadoproject.com/toptens/toptens.htm

  7. Crabby's Top 10 spam-fighting tips
    If you have an e-mail address, it's just about impossible for you to eliminate spam completely. However, there are steps you can take to reduce that pesky, unsolicited commercial e-mail. Here are Crabby's 10 favorite methods for hitting spam where it hurts. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA010701261033.aspx

  8. Top 10 Strangest Computer Setups
    Which ones are your favorites?
    http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/top-10-strangest-computer-setups

  9. Top 10 Ways to Destroy Earth
    Destroying the Earth is harder than you may have been led to believe.
    http://www.livescience.com/technology/destroy_earth_mp.html

  10. Top Ten Tips on how to Save on Legal Fees
    When it becomes clear that your marriage is over, and no amount of pretense or counseling can fix what is broken... you'll add one more worry to your ample list of stresses - the high cost of divorce!
    http://www.divorcenet.com/states/nationwide/how_to_save_on_legal_fees


Others worth the mention :

  • Top 10 Mistakes in Web Design :
    The ten most egregious offenses against users. Web design disasters and HTML horrors are legion, though many usability atrocities are less common than they used to be. This one comes up top on Google.
    http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9605.html

  • Top 10 Places to Find Free Images For Your Blogs
    If you're not a camera buff or you simply wish to use other people's images in your blog, then you might want to look in to free stock photography sites and services.
    http://weblogs.about.com/od/writingandcontent/tp/FreeStockPhotos.htm

  • Science's 10 Most Beautiful Physics Experiments
    Nominated by physicists, the most beautiful experiment of all time. 10 winners of polling and accompanied by short explanations with computer animations.
    http://physics.nad.ru/Physics/English/top_ref.htm


And Finally



Friday, June 16, 2006

Induction

Oh my God they make you sit in a classroom for 2 weeks !!!

Come on !!! I am a programmer !!!

This whole week went through like lightning. Sapient has this fantastic induction program in which they tell you a lot about Sapient and its people and core values.

The first day was all about Logistics like transportation, documentation and stuff.. Pretty much standard boring stuff… And a little tight in terms of time.

Then all through the week we went through a series of presentations by... fantastic speakers... from people really high up... like the MD of a big business unit... the manager of another function... The really noticeable feature of all of them was the way they held their audiences attention. Some of them were dominating, some were really soft spoken... and if was anybody else the crowd would have just started dozing off...

The crowd was about 50 strong with 2 batches of experienced and trainees...

I have not come across such a cross section of really intelligent people. People on whom you can depend on and would like to lead and be lead by the same people... The fact that such a concentration of high IQ brains would have made the life of the induction assistance team hell but they too are sooo good that we had a great fun time... A lot of this credit goes to the lead facilitator Divya whose energy and enthusiasm has already made my decision to shift to Sapient a good one.

In the past I have had a hard time finding topic for this blog but I swear I could have written a blog entry for each hour these five days...

The team… We named it Team Salvo

I had the hardest time remembering all the names of my batch mates.

Debleena, Amit, Rachit, Sumit, Naveen, Rachna (Very Soft spoken), Suman, Suhail, Nitin, Prashant and all the others whose names I can’t remember. I will always remember them and hope we continue in our friendship.

We had an individual feedback round yesterday and I got I guess the maximum feedback both positive and negative… Sohail called me a future CEO in the making... I have to start working on that now…

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

The End - The Beginning

They are giving me a farewell today...

Even though tommorow is my official last working day but for some reason they have decided to do it today.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

New Job

I have been looking for a change for quite some time. Now that’s difficult because I am very picky.

I finally got an offer from a really good company. It wasn’t easy but was definitely worth the wait. The “wasn’t easy” part will be good conversation material when I am in a mood to brag. I put in my papers roughly 2 weeks back and have to stay here for 2 more.

I am anxious to join the new job. The new organization is a huge company with over 30000 people in it. I would have considered myself lucky to get an associate level job but they gave me a senior team manager post and that’s one level up from my current profile.

So basically now I am an official guest here. I am giving trainings and handover to my colleagues. A typical day begins with login and checking my mails and forwarding them to the colleagues for action. Then a game of Table Tennis. Then back to the system and reading all the junk mails… Today I am also writing this blog entry. Then I go for lunch and play some more TT. Then some meetings if any and more TT and then back home.

The team has planned a weeklong party for my farewell and I will let you form your own inferences from this.

Friday, May 12, 2006

Thank God its FRIDAY

Its been a pretty rough week these past 5 days.

Lots of meetings and Lots of work.... But I guess it hasnt killed me...

My brother and my cousin sister had their birthdays yesterday and I have to buy gifts for them
Cant think of any yet.

Saturday, May 06, 2006

Funny Incident

Our team at the office is a clever lot. We handle development of custom applications for our company and the group is a mixed bag of programmers and database specialists. We have a lot of fun on the job, with jokes and humor flowing around keeping everyone’s spirits high and the work is smooth. No one feels Monday blues or tiredness.

So yesterday one of the guys called me from my desk and asked me for my help. He said that since I am good at SQL, I should be able to help at this difficult SQL problem. So I walked over and he asks me to configure a printer at his system. Man am I flabbergasted / pissed / amused at the same time. I asked him what the relation of SQL and configuring a Printer is. He says that they are both to be installed on the same machine.

So anyways we are all laughing and then I help him to setup the printer and he opens word and types “Hello” and gives a print. Some problem with the security and so I configure the second network printer and when we are about to test this one, another co-worker (who was watching and laughing) says it wont work. We ask why and he says that you should write “Hello World” and then it will work.

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Long Delay

Havn't had a lot of time or inclination to update this blog for past few days...

today I got an invite from google analytics and thought that i would shift this blog (which has some readers) from www.statcounter.com to www.google-analytics.com

Lets see how this turns out...

I will update my month gone by in a couple of days.

Friday, April 28, 2006

Bullshit bingo

This just popped up in my inbox...
___

Do you keep falling asleep in meetings and seminars? What about those long and boring conference calls? Here's a way to change all of that.

1. Before (or during) the next meeting, seminar, or conference call, prepare yourself by drawing a square. I find that 5" x 5" is a good size. Divide the card into columns-five across and five down. That will give you 25 one-inch blocks.

2. Write one of the following words/phrases in each block:
Synergy, strategic fit, core competencies, best practice, bottom line, revisit, expeditious, to tell you the truth (or "the truth is), 24/7, out of the loop, benchmark, value-added, proactive, win-win, think outside the box, fast track, result-driven, knowledge base, at the end of the day, touch base, mindset, client focus(ed), paradigm, game plan, leverage.

3. Now check off the appropriate block when you hear one of those words/phrases.

4. When you get five blocks horizontally, vertically, or diagonally stand up and shout "BULLSHIT!"
___

"Real Testimonials" from satisfied players, after the jump...

"I had been in the meeting for only five minutes when I won." - Adam W., Atlanta

"My attention span at meetings has improved dramatically." - David T., Orlando

"What a gas! Meetings will never be the same for me after my first win." - Dan J., New York City

"The atmosphere was tense in the last process meeting as 14 of us waited for the fifth box." - Ben G., Denver

"The speaker was stunned as eight of us screamed 'BULLSHIT!' for the third time in two hours. The Bullshit Bingo Championship will be played at the next meeting." - Rod H

Thursday, April 06, 2006

My heart will go on

Some people give up
after they have done so much;
Some people give up
even before they really start.

So should I also give up
like some people do?
Should my heart be 'dead'
when my heart feels hurting too?

No, my heart will go on
to sing that beautiful song;
A song of love and faithfulness
that lasts so long

- Bee

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Swimming

I have joined swimming classes today. It was a horrifying and enjoyable at the same time.

The first exercise they ask you to do is walk through the pool to and fro for 20 laps. Which was ok, not much sweat. A little tiring though. Then they teach you to float in the water. You have to hold the edge of the pool for balance and stretch out so that your body is completely leveled with the water surface. Easier said than done, I couldn’t hold my breath long enough. Whole hour went pass and I haven’t been able to do it. Though I came close to success a couple of times.

My skin was dry later and I think I need to get some suntan lotion; maybe something specialized for swimming pools.

Meanwhile I am doing some reading arround for some tips related to swimming and precautions also.

The instructor said that it takes 15-20 sessions to learn. Lets hope for the best.

Monday, March 27, 2006

Not so distant future : TV and Internet are going to be the same.

I was reading this article "Commercial Success" on FastCompany :
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/99/getting-ahead.html?partner=rss

When by reading a short comment made me realize something :

They want a visionary--someone who can see not only what's happening now but what's possible in the next 15 to 20 years. Someone who understands participative media and that TV and the Internet are going to be the same thing.

This made me realise that I havent had this notion yet. Sure I knew about Internet based television and interactive tv, but I didnt realise how soon these two independant peices of technologies are due for a... a... merger; for lack of a better word;

Almost every channel worth its salt has its presence on the internet and we have score of tv programs which whose content is based solely on the internet.

Basic problem with video on dialup and the 128 kb lines is that the video play rate is faster than the download rate and you have so many jerks and stoppages in the playback. With internet access geting cheaper and cheaper by the day and a T1 or a T3 line being not so rare, It is not long before we have TV channels being delivered via the Internet.

A typical situation would be when a user could simple change the language of the tv program to suit his needs or even better just record the program on to his harddisk. You could also access content from any corner of the globe and have at your disposal hundreds of channels.

Podcasting will take care of the limited content the tv channels seem to have these days which could mean the death of reruns.

I am starting to like this scenario...

Thursday, March 16, 2006

What motivates Me

There is a lot that can be said here, I will try to keep it short. As a software developer, the prime motivator about my job are those occasions where I get to take a complex set of ideas and "translate" them into a simple designs realizing that I can fulfill those requirements with a few simple concepts and interfaces.

To get a brand new idea off the ground and then show that not only can you reduce it to practice but that people will actually take it up and use it and that their lives are made that much simpler.

Here at my office, I can sum up my motivational factors in : Altruism, Intellectual Challenge (in patches, though I am still waiting for the first genuine challenge from a developer perspective), Variety, Autonomy, the fact that Vertex allows ample time to pursue other important aspects of my lifestyle -- family, leisure activities, further education, etc, and access to people and opportunities that will position me well for my next career move.

I'm constantly amazed to find that there are people who do not share this motivation. I can't imagine how horrible life would be if the only thing I wanted for my efforts was a paycheck. I regard financial reward as a measurement of success, essential, even crucial, but not an end in itself.

Monday, March 06, 2006

Chandigarh : The Chicken Saga

During the Chandigarh trip I was quite eager on dining Authentic Punjabi food. In any city or place when you visit, the place has to offer something for each of your 5 senses. Food that tickles your taste buds and leaves a lasting impression on your memory is what you are looking for.

I specially wanted to taste the Chicken Tikka, Butter Chicken, Tandoori Chicken... basically NON veg. And I hoped to get lots of it in Chandigarh. Dhaba style.

So at lunch time, we all got in the car and drove out to the markets... At first There was no restaurant in sight. Sector after sector after sector, we drove and asked people and drove some more. Yet no respite.. In the meanwhile the rumbling in our tummies grew larger than the Shamur and Sona Family audio cassetes that we were playing..

One thing that I really liked about Chandigarh is how well the city has been planned. The streets are really wide and ample space for gardens and separate lanes for cycles and rickshaws.. tough the city needs maintenance. I could see dead leaves everywhere and piled up mud and it looked like the streets haven't been cleaned for ages. Though If I compare it with some of the prime locations in Delhi or even Gurgaon, I think Chandigarh is lagging behind. But it scores way ahead with its planning. No doubt.

Back to the Chicken Saga, finally we encountered a restaurant but it was "Vegetarian Only". Then another restaurant came up and It was labeled "Pure Veg". Then suddenly there was a sprout in the availability of restaurants and all of them were Vegetarian.

Have the Chandigarh folks turned grass eaters ? I know that vegetarian lifestyle has its benefits but... guys... come on... we have to do what we can to combat the Bird Flu menace.

So anyways I noticed a Sher - e - Punjab restaurant and we all heaved a sigh of relief and jumped with joy at the same time. This restaurant will have what we need. After all it is a Sher (Tiger) - e - Punjab. As we cam closer, under the big bold "Sher - e - Punjab", was written "Pure Vaishno Vegetarian". Arrrrggggghhhhh.. @#$##$%#%$#@@.

We then reached Sector 17 Market which is one of the the posh markets of Chandigarh and found Subways and McDonalds and saw a Hot Millions at which we out of desparation. Food was ok and the chicken wasnt too good.

At night we tried our luck once more and found Tihal Singh's Chicken corner and food there was at best mediocre.

Next day on the way back dad and mom suggested that we Puran Singh's dhaba at Ambala bus stand. They said that whoever passes by there makes it a point to eat there. Be adviced though there are atleast 8-10 dhabas there in a single line by the names of :
Puran singh ka Asli Dhaba
Puran singh ka Mashoor Dhaba
Puran singh da Dhaba
Puran singh ka Asli Mashoor Dhaba

There were more but I think you get the point.

Anyways we asked arround and people told us that the one adjoining the bus stand is the original. The guy prepares big containers of chicken and mutton at a time and replaces them as they get empty. We had our fill of Chicken and Mutton Curry.

And oh dont forget to take a sip of the heavenly Keenu Juice they serve at the roadside.

Friday, March 03, 2006

The Chandigarh trip

Past whole week has been "eventful" to say the least.

I have been trying to buy a flat for investment for the past whole year. I got myself a loan approval last year from ICICI bank and since then all my efforts have been futile. There are options available in Vaishali and even further but I dont wish to buy any thing there... Gurgaon as you all know is way overpriced with the cheapest options available for nothing less than 30 Lakhs. And that is about 10 more than my budget.

My uncle once commented that for investment purposes, you can buy property in the outskirts of any new/developing city and within few years you will get benefits

So that drove me towards Chandigarh. I already knew that property prices in Chandigarh are quite high, but I thought that at least in the outskirts there will be lesser prices options and there were reports that some new IT and ITES companies are planning to setup base in Chandigarh and nearby Zirakpur and Panchkula...

HUDA has launched some new sectors in panchkula and other haryana cities. So some 200 small to large sized plots were up for the draw. Me and my mom were very interested in the same... I figured that I will apply for the highest priced plot and so I will have a good chance of getting that as lesser people will be applying for that. As it turns out 2 Lakh applications had been filed by the time we had gone there and the authority extended the date as well. So CRAP.

Then we decided to checkout the other places of interest like Omaxe and Silver city.. Pretty good but again high priced. We have better facilities here in Gurgaon.

So we did some shopping and went to Church at the Cathedral for the Ash Wednesday Mass. I think I like to visit new Churches. There is something about them, peace and tranquility, its like you can leave everything else aside and forget about them and just sit there...

The next day we did some more sight seeing and shopping Mom go into this shop which had punjabi style ladies suits and in about 10-15 minutes she bought 5 of them totalling 1800 bucks. so thats shopping at about Rs 120 per minute. Amazing !!!

Then we basically ate which has an entire story around it but I will tell about it later. We drove back... I forced papa to part with the keys to the car and drove back home... He was pretty concerned initially and kept commenting about driving slow which I was already doing I mean who in his sane mind drives slower than 100 kph on a national highway ? I did about 115 kph only as the car didn't go much faster than that... next time I home to get my hands on something faster.

We reached home at 6:30 in the evening and that was the end of the Chandigarh trip

PS. Bhiwadi's Kajaria Greens looks like the only option available for me right now.

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Public Toilet Facility in Switzerland

Switzerland is known for its cleanliness.

Here's a picture of a public toilet in Switzerland which came in my mail today.






You have seen the outside view of the Toilet,

Just spend some more time scrolling down to see how it looks from inside ..!!


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That's made entirely out of one-way glass. No one can see you in there, but when you are inside, it looks like you're sitting in a clear glass box.

Would you use it?

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

IPO scam: CBI mounts searches


    How they did it

    The accused came out with an advertisement asking people to get one photograph clicked and get two copies free

    A large number of people availed of the free service

    The accused kept photographs for fictitious bank, DMAT accounts

    An application was made for share allotment to account holders

    Once the allotment was made, the shares were transferred to Panchal's account, who passed them to financers

    Financers offloaded the shares on the opening day of the listing and made illegal gains as list price was higher then allotment price






Full Story (From Hindustimes.com)
THE CBI conducted searches at 21 places of officials and brokers in three cities on Wednesday, as a follow-up to the investigation into the initial public offer (IPO) scam in Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation (IDFC) and YES Bank.
This comes close on the heels of Finance Minister P. Chidambaram's commitment in the Lok Sabha last week on taking "severe action" against the accused in the scam.

The searches were being conducted at 15 places in Ahmedabad, five places in Mumbai and one place in Delhi against certain individuals, bank managers and lead managers. The searches will provide leads in the investigation against the case registered by the Bank Fraud and Securities Cell of the CBI on a complaint by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) which resulted in loss of Rs 32 crore to the exchequer.

Among the premises searched by the CBI were that of the applicants, managers of several bank branches, brokers and depository partners. According to the CBI FIR, certain irregularities were found in the IPO of the two banks which included opening up of 14,807 dematerialised (DMAT) accounts by four investors with IDFC whereas they had their DMAT accounts with Bharat Overseas Bank.

According to CBI, there were 6,315 fictitious DMAT accounts opened for procurement of YES Bank shares out of which 6,221 had the same address of "402-403 Shashwat Building, Opposite Gujarat College, Ahmedabad".

In the IDFC case, there were 27,064 fake bank accounts out of which 4,990 had the address of "406 Shashwat Building", 4,971 had common address of "403Shashwat Building" and 4,946 had an address of "307-Shashwat Building".

The searches have revealed that one financer who cornered Rs. 1.5 lakh shares of IDFC and 30,000 shares of YBL made a profit of Rs 4.6 crore.

Similarly, another financer has made a profit of Rs 3.88 crore. A third financer in a likewise manner has sold 40,000 shares of YBL and 1,60,000 shares of IDFC.

Evidence has been gathered that one financer has given approximately Rs 30 crore to Roopalben N. Panchal for investing in IPOs.

The searches have also yielded about Rs 1 crore in cash and substantial investment by these investors in other assets. In case of one financer, the recoveries include details of 1,100 bank accounts in HDFC, 4,000 bank accounts in ING Vysya Bank and 6,000 D-mat accounts in M/S Karvy Stock Broking Ltd. The same financer has invested Rs 21 crore in these two shares.

Quite intriguing

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Volatile Gurgaon

Amidst the news of demolitions on the MG road and then the buildings being actually demolished; which I thought should have inserted a semi colon in the astonishing rise of property prices in Gurgaon; there came along a couple of news items in my mail which have given me a nice jolt.

Having subscribed to Google news alerts, I get on an average one mail per day which contain 2-3 links to news items which mention Gurgaon anywhere in the text. So ranging from new BPO setting up business, to the recent labor unrest to property news to cookery and bomb scare I get a lot of stuff. With close to 300 mails left unread, I usually skip these to read about other more interesting stuff.

So today I thought I will make some use of these alerts and decided to open up some links.

I reached this:

I mean… Oh come on!! Is there an end to this madness? Nobody talks below crores these days.

And I am on the lookout for a place of my own in 20 lakhs.

Thursday, February 16, 2006

My Current Playlist

112 - Dance With Me
50 Cent - Outta Control
Bluffmaster - Right Here Right Now Hip Hop Mix
Ek Ajnabee (Mama Told Me)
Everlast - I've Seen Better Days
Everlast - What It's Like
Everlast - White Trash Beautiful
Gwen Stefani - Rich Girl
Jack Johnson - Wasting Time
Jazzy B-Ni Tun Romeo Bana ke Munde Rakh te
Neo - So Sick Of Love Songs
POD - Goodbye for now
POD - This Time
Santana & Everlast - Put Your Lights On.mp3
Shamur - Let The Music Play (rmx).mp3
Shamur Vs Dj Zeus
SonaFamily Ft. HardKaur - Glassy
Soul Kid - We Got More Bounce (In California)
The Soggy Bottom Boys - I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow
Timbal and Magoo - Indian Flute

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Looking After Your Back

A really nice article this:

Back pain affects all industries, not just a small number of high-risk sectors. An estimated 4.9 million working days were lost in 2003/04 due to back pain caused or made worse by work.

The exact cause is often not clear, but back pain can arise in many work situations and is more common in tasks that involve:

  • sitting at a workstation for a long period of time if the workstation is not correctly arranged or adjusted to fit the person, eg working with computers;
  • heavy manual labour, and handling tasks in heavy industry;
  • manual handling in awkward places, like delivery work;
  • repetitive tasks, such as manual packing of goods;
  • driving long distances or driving over rough ground, particularly if the seat is not, or cannot be, properly adjusted or adequately sprung.
  • Operating heavy equipment, such as an excavator, can lead to excessive jolting and jarring.

Physical activities that can aggravate back pain include:

  • stooping, bending over or crouching, including work at PCs (poor posture);
  • lifting objects which are too heavy or bulky, carrying objects awkwardly;
  • pushing, pulling or dragging excessive loads;
  • working beyond normal abilities and limits, and when physically overtired;
  • using poor lifting techniques (or where you are unable to use lifting aids due to the working environment);
  • stretching, twisting, reaching and repetitive movements;
  • prolonged periods in one position, leading to postural strain;
  • uncomfortable working position
  • exerting too much force
  • situations where the whole body is subjected to vibration, jolting and jarring.

As with many ill health conditions, some people are more susceptible to back pain than others.

It is not possible to say if a load is safe to lift or to set general weight limits for manual handling.

All of the following have an effect on the risk:

  • individual capability;
  • the nature of the load;
  • environmental conditions;
  • training; and
  • work organisation

Preventing Manual Handling Injuries

First and foremost, does the load need to be moved at all? If so then can it be moved mechanically? If manual lifting is the only option the risks may be reduced using the following:

  • make the load smaller or easier to lift?
  • reduce the carrying distances, twisting movements, or avoid lifting things from floor level or above shoulder height?
  • improve the environment - eg better lighting, flooring, or air temperature can sometimes make manual handling easier and safer;
  • use correct liftin techniques and ensure training has been given to lift as safely as possible?

"Back" for the Future

Almost half the adult population of the United Kingdom report lower back pain lasting for at least 24 hours. It is estimated that up to 4 out of 5 people will experience back pain lasting more than a day at some time during their life. Therefore, thinking about your back is a must for anyone involved in manual handling, whether that be as part of your work, hobby or general day to day activities with the kids, at the shops in the car or even in bed. Run through your daily routine and examine the amount of strain put on your back. It is a must for everyone to consider and minimise excess stresses and strains on their back.

To preserve the health of your back there are a variety of measures that can be adopted such as:

Maintain a good posture. Avoid standing or walking in a bent-forward position. Whenever possible walk or stand with your shoulders and head slightly back. Sleeping on a bed with a firm mattress is thought to be best
Exercise. The aim is to get supporting back muscles strong and supple.
Lifting. Do not bend your back when you lift, bend at the knees and keep your back straight. Do not lift with your back in an awkward position.
If you are overweight, there is extra stress on the back and losing some weight will help
Be Back Aware. It may not be heavy work that causes most bouts of back pain. More commonly back pain is due to bad posture or bad manual handling techniques at home or work.

Getting "Back" to Normal

Our bodies are designed to be active and our backs are well suited to performing a whole range of activities and exercises. Many people who experience back pain believe that they should avoid exercise in case it makes the pain worse, this is a misconception. Research suggests that most back pain is not due to any serious disease and most chronic disability should be preventable. Over the last 5-10 years there has been a revolution in medical understanding of back pain and how it should be managed. This evidence promotes that the best treatment for back pain is to stay active and to continue ordinary activities as normally as possible despite the pain, doing this has been shown to reduce the risk of chronic pain and disability.

If you have injured your back:

  • Try applying ice or heat to the affected area. Wrap an ice pack or hot water bottle in a towel to help muscles relax. Some people find that alternating the heat and ice produces most relief.
  • Change your position often. If you stay in one position for too long, your back may stiffen up.
  • Try extension exercises working within you own limitations. Stretching or bending backwards is helpful in preventing pain and helps your back to heal.
  • Don't take to your bed and wait for the pain to go away - the sooner you get back to normal activity the better.
  • Take mediation. If you need painkillers it is best to take them regularly as recommended on the packet, always read the instructions and make sure the medication is suitable for you. Your local pharmacist will be happy to advise you if you are unsure. Medication should not be a long-term solution for most people.

When to See Your Doctor

Many people with back pain never need to see their doctor, but you should feel able to call or visit your GP if your worried about your back or feel unable to cope with the pain. As a general guide people with back pain are advised to contact their doctor if the pain is no better after about a week. You should certainly see you GP as soon as possible if you have any of the following symptoms:

  • Difficulty passing urine.
  • Numbness in part or parts of your buttock, leg or foot
  • Numbness, pins and needles or weakness in your legs
  • Pain running down both legs
  • Unsteadiness on your feet
  • Pain that develops gradually, and slowly gets worse
  • These are symptoms that need treatment immediately and are associated with uncommon conditions.

You can check out these sites also:

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Crackpot Invention

Some of my closest allies have been privy to my certain burst of genius from my brain cooked into an astounding invention or a neat plan for a inspired money spinning business proposal. Some of them have seen the light of the day as other like minded; and “brilliant” may I add; people have actually implemented them successfully not with any help from me though.

For example; back in the old days of dial up connections when broadband was unheard of and you had to wait ages for the page to load up and the WWW was made acronym for World Wide Wait, I had commented to my boss that if we could buy up some bandwidth from the satellite and use the Cable TV wire, to hook up a network, we could sell premium connectivity at premium prices. My boss demurely passed off the idea with some explanation that I don’t remember now. We anyways were in the software development business and not in IT / Network Support business. Anyways a few months later somebody opened up this service right in our office neighborhood and soon we were one of their customers. Sometime later during a casual tea break, when we were chatting up about something, I reminded him of my idea and the fact that the vendor was following almost the exact business model which I had suggested to him. All he gave back was a nod and a smile. There are quite a few like this one. (Ceiling fan that breezes up the whole room, travel agency based on multi level marketing, doors, furniture and storage made of plastic and many others)

But this claim of mine hasn’t got much validity since what was said was verbal and no record of it was made. Which brings me to what I wanted to write in this blog today.

I have had this idea with me for quite some time. So I decided to look up Google before venturing out to write about it. I didn’t get very good results. I got a lot of results on The Invisible Man motion picture, Hollow Man motion picture, about snipers using camouflage uniforms.

Some forums had people discussing (after watching Hollow Man) ways to be invisible. They mentioned the fact that jelly fish, a certain kind of frog and many deep sea aquatic animals are in fact translucent and they use this characteristic of theirs as a neat survival tactic to avoid being eaten up by bigger fishes. So the idea was to basically try and turn your skin by some method into transparent tissue. I don’t really see much practicality in that unless you wanna turn man like the Hollow Man ;). Some discussed chameleon like features others discussed magicians and their tricks but that’s venturing out of topic.

Then I came up with this link:

And then this:

Pretty amazing I would say and my idea is along the same lines. Maybe I should stop calling it “my” idea as a matter of respect for these gentlemen who seem to be genuine scientists. The articles came in 2003 and nothing much has been reported since then. I say 2-3 years that have passed since then should be enough for them to make more news. I hope they do succeed.

I will explain how I have approached this invisibility suit. What we see is basically light in different wavelengths being reflected from any surface. How we are able to comprehend the existence of anything is processing the reflected light coming from that surface.

So a sofa reflects light in a certain way and the reflected light when it reaches our eyes, makes us aware of its presence. A glass on the other hand just passes the light through it and we are able to see on the other side and that is what it makes it transparent and almost invisible.

So all we need to do to make an invisible suit is to make a fabric which will capture the light from one side and emit it from the other side and in effect make the object inside invisible. Simple isn’t it?

We have light sensors which accurately convert light into data as we can see in scanners. We have diodes or crystals which emit light as seen in LCD monitors the world over. All we need to do is make a super fast scanner and a very big LCD screen and that should do. Except that it is not a suit yet. So to do that, we will need to make miniature crystals and sensors and line them up side by side into a fabric. Then we will need software which will calculate which crystal should emit light from which sensor. And presto, we are done.

Except alas that software will be a lot longer than the line which I used to describe it and will take a hell lot of time to develop. Also if someone manages to make all this and also somehow manages to put all that into one single suit along with the computer which will run that software, you have two more problems.

One, the person who will wear that suit will have to be still for the program to work properly. I think the computing power which will be able to process all that “light” will take up some rooms for years to come though its amazing how capable desktops these days are.

Two, even if the future succeeds in incorporating that much processing power into a single chip, we still have external forces like dust, mud etc factoring into making the person visible.

But I guess if the gentlemen are able to reach the level which we are discussing here, it will be quite amazing.

Quite a crackpot invention I’d say !!

I would like to close this with a quote by Frank Wilczek who has been awarded with the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction," to quote the citation by the Nobel Committee.

"In physics, you don't have to go around making trouble for yourself - nature does it for you." - Frank Wilczek

Thursday, February 09, 2006

No Work to do

Today is the 3rd day. I have had notingh to do for the past 2 days and today also its been the same.

Its my fault also. The project timeline which I was given has an end date of 15th and I had finshed it last month. So

I decided to complete the work of the next phase and that finished a 3 days ago. So basically I am a victim my own

succeess or performance. Generally when this happens, I start thinking of switching Jobs.

On the plus side this gives me an opportunity to write this blog entry.

14th Feb is arround the corner and there's a lot of excitement arround. My team mates have started asking for leaves and half days but my manager is saying no. Lets hope this time the festival of love will have something better in store for me.

I called up my friend Gabriel... He has become a father. He is not a proud dad of a brand new boy. The baptism is on 19th and he has invited me. But the problem is that he lives in Bombay. I'll have to take the Rajhdhani. or I will be spending the week in trains.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

A Healthy New Lifestyle

Do you need to make some healthy changes to your lifestyle? If you haven't made any New Year resolutions yet, then it's not too late!

Some tips to help all think about a healthier lifestyle and maybe make some positive changes that will benefit your health. By taking on board healthy eating advice and physical activity tips you'll soon see yourself on the way to a healthier lifestyle.

Poor nutrition, inactivity, smoking and excessive alcohol consumption are major causes of premature death in this country. However, over the long term even small changes can lead to benefits to your health.

There are five areas where making changes will benefit you greatly and lead to a healthier lifestyle:

A healthy diet
Eating well can improve your general health
Test your knowledge regarding food related issues by clicking on the following link: www.eatwell.gov.uk/info/quizzes

Be more active
Regular physical activity benefits many aspects of health
To find out how many calories you are using click on this link: www.eatwell.gov.uk/healthydiet/healthyweight/caloriecalculator

Trim excess weight
Being overweight is not just a cosmetic problem - reducing any excess weight or maintaining a normal body weight will prevent many health problems
To find out if you are overweight calculate your body mass index (BMI) by clicking on the link below: www.eatwell.gov.uk/healthydiet/healthyweight/bmicalculator

Don't smoke
Stopping smoking is the single best thing you can do to improve your health and life expectancy
To find out how much smoking is costing you click below:
cost_of_smoking_calculator @ www.givingupsmoking.co.uk

Reduce Alcohol Intake
The benefits of reducing your alcohol intake are enormous
To calculate the number of units you are drinking, click on this link:
www.portmangroup.org.uk/alcohol/214.asp


For further information contact:

This article caught my attention so I am posting it here...

Monday, January 02, 2006

Happy New Year

I am in a somber mood today. It’s been 4 days since I touched a computer and that’s a rarity considering my profession. And my sadness has nothing to do with any pc-detachment that you might think.

Oh!!! I miss you all already. No I am not talking about my emails and this blog. I am talking about my family. My cousins were here in Gurgaon to visit us for holidays and they have just left. It hasn’t been 15 minutes and already I am feeling sad. And its all the fault of Krystal my cousin sister. We call her Kittu. She cries herself and then slowly *forces* everyone else to cry also.

We had a great time these 4-5 days. They arrived on 28th. My uncle and aunt celebrated the 25th anniversary of their marriage. They live in Muscat and could have had the most extravagant party there but they chose to celebrate here in India.

Time flew by like lightning and now it seems like it was an age that we spent together... Our house is sufficient for the eleven people who currently live in it. Add to that seven from overseas and three from my aunt and one more aunt who is the sister of an aunt and the total comes to 22. Now put all these people in the same living room and put in some music and food and wine and when you get tired, some guitar and some Antakshari and you are in for some rocking time for the new year and Christmas. Then of course you have the wedding anniversary complete with the mass and retaking of the marriage wows and the party later with its share of fights and drunk people.

Since there wasn’t enough space, bedding is made on the floor and all the kids are thrown onto it (Including me, although I am 25 as of now) But this opens up opportunities for a lot of fun. So now we are about 12 kids in a room *told* to be quiet and go to sleep immediately. And instead we are playing stupid games all through the night and into the wee hours of the morning. That would include dumb charades and an unnamed game where we all sit in a circle and the *it* asks a question to someone and the person on the left is to reply while not answering the question asked. We slept at 6 in the morning last night.

I was able to enjoy all this while as I had known about this visit for quite some time and had planned my leaves accordingly. I am to join office from tomorrow. My brother wasn’t so lucky. His office gave him a leave on 25th but wouldn’t consider any more leaves and the boss told him that he would have to take disciplinary actions against him my brother if he chose to take any unscheduled leave he wouldn’t even consider a half day on the day of the anniversary. But with constant pestering (which included my inputs on how to) Rohit was able to arrive just in time for the mass.

There are so many stories I could recount and keep going on and on about them for the days to come.

The flip side of it all was that I got cut off from the rest of the world. This included something which I am not particularly proud of. My friend’s grand father died and I didn’t even call him let alone visit him. He has joined back office. I know because I see a lot of mails from him in my inbox. In my defense I have only one excuse and it is just what it is an excuse. My phone was with my uncle the whole time and he was using it for his communication needs. Also I don’t handle deaths very well. I just don’t know how to react and in such times the simplest of stupid behavior could backfire and turn relations sour. I hope the haven’t already.

That said, I will probably remember this magical year end for quite some time to come as I remember the earlier ones when my cousins had come back then. Right now Al Green is singing “Ain't no sunshine” in my ears.

Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
It's not warm when she's away
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
And she's always gone too long
Anytime she goes away...


Happy New Year !!!