Dhakchi Baheri... one more memorable trip :-)

Old buddies reunited… @ Singhad

My first trip to Singhad could not have been better timed; the Rain Gods have just smiled on Pune after a prolonged dry spell casting fears of water scarcity. We started for Singhad at around 7:30 am and sited a wonderful Rainbow by the side of Khadakwasla dam. I could also notice the change in water levels as I have been at Khadakwasla a fortnight ago.

Our sense of being very early to start the trek was short lived when we reached the Singhad village; people were on their way back after a trek. At this time Ajay shared that he remembers someone helding a record of completing the trek in flat 15 minutes. I wonder we could do that even in 1 hour after several rehearsals ;-). We took our first halt straight away for breakfast at the foothill itself, yes you got it right without starting the trek :-D. It was my not so favorite Poha and hot Chai. The ascend started after this break and it continued uninterrupted for another 15-20 minutes after which the group couldn’t resist the enticing smell of roasted sweet corn with salt and lemon rubbed on it and took one more halt J. Immediately after the break Sandeep and myself, more adventurous amongst other group members started taking not so risky shortcuts to reach the top. There were a couple of more strategic breaks to enjoy the breathtaking beauty of Sahyadri hills and also to capture the view for buddies who missed the trip.

After reaching the top, we stopped once again to enjoy Kairi (Raw Mango), boiled nuts and a few jokes from our little mascot Snigdha and our own Ajay. Everyone chipped in with their ideas to add spice to Ajay’s jokes; had a great time laughing at those jokes. We entered the fort from Pune Darwaza stopping briefly to look at the fort map and Sham explaining me some facts about the fort. Sham choose to wait in a hut while other members went on to explore the fort, Sanjay taking the lead to guide us (specifically me) to various spots and explaining the history associated with those places. We covered Dev Taaka (a fresh water tank, which serves most of the water requirements of the fort), Tanaji Samadhi and the steep cliff which was used by Tanaji to reach the top to fight Udaybhan Rathod and his army. Sanjay also told us about how Tanaji used a ghorpad (also known as monitor lizard) to climb the steep cliff.

From L to R: Sandeep Nemade, Sagar, Ajay Kale, Gurmeet Singh, Sanjay Karadkar , Meghasham Joshi & the little mascot Snighdha in the centre.

Our brief excursion at the hill top came to an end when we reached the hut where Sham was waiting for us. For the lunch we ordered Kanda Bhajia, Pithla Bhakri and Vangyacha Bharit (Baingan Bharta, hope I managed that well in Marathi). We started the descend immediately after the post lunch tea. It was at this point when we regained our sense of achievement of being early for the trek ;-) as there was a huge crowd in the evening for the trek.

A collection of few good quotes

1. Mankind must remember that peace is not God's gift to his creatures; peace is our gift to each other.
2. Life is a sum of all your choices.
3. Making peace is much harder than making war.
4. I can disapprove what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
5. Don't indulge yourself in anger; it is whetting a sword to wound your own breast.
6. The present contains nothing more than the past, and what is found in the effect is already in the cause.
7. A little thing is a little thing, but faithfulness in little things is a great thing.
8. A very small degree of hope is sufficient to cause the birth of love.
9. Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.
10. The question is not whether we will die, but how we will live.
11. The only alternative to coexistence is co-destruction.
12. If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.
13. People can be more forgiving than you can imagine. But you have to forgive yourself. Let go of what's bitter and move on.
14. People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.
15. You can't shake hands with a clenched fist.
16. If you judge people, you don't have the time to love them.
17. Live as you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
18. In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.
19. Nothing is permanent in this world; not even our troubles
20. The only people who fail are those who don't try.
21. Self-respect is the cornerstone of all virtue.
22. Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.
23. It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life, that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself
24. Everyone wants to be appreciated, so if you appreciate someone, don't keep it a secret
25. Love lights more fires than hate extinguishes
26. How you think when you lose determines how long it will be until you win.
27. If you would be loved, love and be lovable
28. Laws alone cannot secure freedom of expression;in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population
29. You can't have a better tomorrow if you are thinking about yesterday all the time
30. The part can never be well unless the whole is well.
31. Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we're here we should dance.
32. Seeing death as the end of life is like seeing the horizon as the end of the ocean.
33. We improve ourselves by victories over ourself.
34. Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.
35. Peace cannot be achieved through violence; it can only be attained through understanding.
36. An eye for an eye only leads to more blindness in the world.
37. A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame somebody else for it.
38. We are here to add what we can to life, not to get what we can from it
39. To help is not a virtue, but a pulse of existence.
40. The art of living lies less in eliminating our troubles than in growing with them.
41. If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want.
42. It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.
43. Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.
44. I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.
45. The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.
46. The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have
47. Time, whose tooth gnaws away at everything else, is powerless against truth.
48. To be trusted is a greater complement than to be loved.

Kambakht Ishq

Well, first of all I feel the name of the movie should not be what it is, it should be changed. Some of the options I can think of are,

1. Ghamandi Ladki (Won't sell, not a good name to market the movie)
2. Doctor ki ghadi (Sounds like a thriller ;-) )
3. Om Mangalam (This looks better, goes well with one of the song and the central theme)
4. Egoistic Girl ( Haha... Hollywood can do a better job with this name)
5. A hot doctor & an angry stuntman (Again, a nice title for a Hollywood flick)

The list could go on and on, however the point is I couldn't connect the movie with its name.

The movie started of with Aftab (Stuntman) & Amrita (Model) getting married, and their respective friends Akshay (Stuntman) & Kareena (Medical Student) landing up fighting in the wedding party. The party was completely ruined by Akshay and one of his associates. Incidentally Kareena was not too happy with the idea of her friend marrying a stuntman, as she believes that they are good for nothing. As the movie progresses, the egoistic Kareena with her negative preconceived notions about guys ruins her friend's married life, Amrita on the other hand needs Kareena for almost all her decisions. Kareena & Akhsay are almost always involved in a tug of war, meanwhile Kareena gets a break of her life for to start her career as a surgeon and she had to operate the unfortunate Akshay. She leaves her watch in Akshay's abdomen, which sings Om Mangalam with every passing hour, this puts her career at stake. Now, Kareena tries to lure Akshay back to the operation theatre, so she could re-operate him and save her career, on the other hand Aftab (with an intention that Kareena will go away from Amrita's life) throws a challenge to Akshay to get Kareena. Both started playing love game and Akshay who has till now been portayed as a Casanova without any feelings, falls in love with Kareena but she just gets her watch and stops the love game.

As always in Hindi movies, Kareena realizes her mistake gives up her ego and save her friends marriage and then herself falls for Akshay.

The only consolation for the movie buffs is to see Sylvester Stallone in Bollywood doing some Sunny Deol stuff (inspired by Gadar) and Denise Richard doing some romance with our own Akshay.

Manane ruthne ke khel main bichad jayenge socha nahin tha...

Socha Jab Beete Palon Ke Baare Mein Dhundhle Chehre Nazar Aate Hai

Pal Do Pal Bitaye Aapke Saath Aayine Ki Tarah Saaf Nazar Aate Hain

Maana Ke Ye Dastoor Hai Duniya Ka Beeta Hua Pal Dobara Nahi Aayega

Par Na Jaane Kyun Is Dil Ke Raaste Unhi Palon Ki Manzil Ki Aur Jaate Nazar Aate Hain

PS: This is not my own writing...

Love quote

I can let go,
I can forgive,
I can move on,
but i WILL never stop loving you...

Just came across a funny pic...

A poem by Robert Frost

Just found and liked a nice poem by Robert Frost...

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

- Robert Frost.

Words going techie way...!

Since my childhood I have heard and read about the word "Blackout" which I vaguely remember to be associated with Indo-Pak wars. It meant total power outs to avoid the risk of air attacks in those times. However, in simple terms it is referred to as total loss of power due to some kind of failures. What kind of a blackout (or strategies) countries would have to devise now when thermal cameras are available which can detect people with their body heat aswell? Ah... ! God knows... Well I didn't sit here to write about this...

Well, today I read about a very similar word called "Brownout", which means a drop in voltage in the electrial power supply, or in short a dim bulb signifies brownout. I read this word in a completely different flavour which means "The loss of creative energy experienced by people when they have been working in high pressure scenarios for long durations", this is being used in high tech industry. Coincidentally today my boss was explaining his condition after a long days work. Boss, its just brownout...! well then I wonder what blackout would mean if it goes the same way...

Height of Ctrl C- Ctrl V

One fine day Ashish Kaul tried Ctrl - C on laptop no. 1 and the Ctrl - V to laptop no. 2 in an attempt to copy things from one laptop to another... and when it didn't happen he furiously said that all laptops are dabba...[:D]... no doubt it left C-7 in outburst of laughter...

Will you still be doing what you are doing if you had all the money in this world?

In one of the sessions Mr. T T Rangarajan of Frozen Thoughts said that "Just imagine for a minute that you have all the money in life and then think will you be still doing what you are doing today". A profound statement was made, do I know what would I be doing? People would ideally pick up things about which they are really passionate. The point TTR was trying to make was do things which are close to your heart and not just because someone else want you to do.

After this question I realized that many of us don't have the answer for this question. Some might have the answer but for others it's just a dream and they don't have the courage to live it. Am I becoming too philosophical... nah... that's a bitter truth...!

For quite some time now I have been trying to answer this very question for myself but unfortunately don't have till now, still pondering and longing to get some answers... my childhood dream was to become a pilot, but then elders say "Jo hota hai ache ke liye hota hai (whatever happens, happens for good)". Here I am an MBA with a engineering degree, back to the corporate world which is still reeling under the pressure of global recession. That's enough funda for today... :D

Writing a B-plan

During b-school life one gets various opportunities to go for a B-plan competition. It is also a ideal platform to show case your business ideas. Some competitions go to the extent of getting seed funding for your projects and thereby giving you an opportunity to implement your ideas.

What should be the highlight of a winning b-plan? Well I am still figuring out, but penning down some of my thoughts. First of all it should have a new concept, this will act as your USP. An idea is just a starting point, but is the centerpiece of a b-plan.

The b-plan should satisfy the needs of marketers and investors, in terms of evident customer interest and a viable market. Investors are interested in future cash flows and how good the financial projections are. A B-plan should most importantly reflect the viewpoints of the following audience,

1. The Market: A detailed analysis for the services/products which you are proposing to offer in terms of why the potential customer would buy it and what kind of profits you are expecting. Market research should be carried out to assess the number of customers

2. The investors: What’s in for me? Investors want to put their money into market-driven rather than technology-driven or service-driven companies. The potential of the product’s market, sales, and profit is far more important than its attractiveness or technical features.

Celebrating Women's Success

We at Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai hosted an exclusive event - SWIM (Successful Women in Management) to identify and promote Women who have the traits to assume leadership roles in management. It enables and empowers women to be effective, ethical and socially conscious members of society.

Ms. Anu Aga releasing (with Ms. Sudha Radhunathan & Uncle Bala) the SWIM magazine.

Key note speaker for the event was Ms. Anu Aga of Thermax, eminent personalities like Padmasri Sudha Raghunathan, Noted Carnatic Vocalist and Ms. Hemu Ramaiah, Founder of Landmark shared their experiences with students. Mr. T. N. Sheshan, former Chief Election Commissioner, moderated the panel discussion on the topic "Educated, Intelligent, Energetic and just in her 40's - Can she still pursue her career dreams?" Post lunch a corporate quiz was conducted which saw participation from the top B-Schools from across the country and Corporates like Infosys, Wipro, TCS, CTS, Satyam.

Click on the links below to read about what media has to say about the event

• The Hindu
• Business World
• Pagal guy
• Ergo

Doll or Babe

Cute or Hot, which image girls like?

My perception about cute girls was that they enjoy the attention they get from everyone... people cuddle with their cheeks, pamper them and at times end up making sounds like choooo schweet... :-) but of late I realized that these cute ladies rather prefer to have a more hotter image in a way making them more desirable in other ways.

There is this lady friend of mine who is seen as the sweet little mascot for us. Her smile makes your day, but then she is not happy with this image of hers. Recently one of our lady professors told her that she is looking like a doll, but I am sure she must have been happier had the prof. addressed her differently...

Doll or Babe...!

MSD vs a term at Great Lakes

Its over a month and half since I have landed in Chennai. Looking back I realize that MBA makes you do lot of things together, it forces you to learn multi-tasking, time management blah blah... It's a very small time to claim that I have perfected even some of these management arts, in fact I am far from it. It was proved from the fact that I messed up with the exams badly (i hope not very badly :-) ). I scheduled most of the stuff till the very last week, which was a bad idea... I always do the realization late... well last minute Macro Economics assignments kept most of us engaged for many nights, as the submission time use to be 9am the next day... and the lucky ones or rather the hard working ones who were abreast with the class proceedings in other subjects found it easy to handle...

Well coming back to the thought behind writing this piece was an idea to compare my work as a DBA and my first one month in Great Lakes... I actually dreamt about this idea in the class... confused ?? one gotta sleep to dream... how do you expect people to be awake after the assignments... gotcha... :-)

As a DBA we use to have deliverable for every MSD (Monthly software drops), and here at Great Lakes we do the deliveries in form of End term tests... Obviously you can't do the deliveries at the month end until you prepare for it... and there were low level designs as compared to pre-reads, planning as to classes, running test scripts as to surprise tests, daily update calls as to assignment submission, customer interaction as to attending guest lectures... and finally the delivery as to End term tests...

This idea of comparing MSD to an MBA term applies to a one year course, you do a delivery approximately in a month and here you complete a term in around one and a half month. You might miss a MSD as a DBA if you don't have enough customer requirements but there is no dearth of courses in an MBA term to give you a sigh...

After doing all this you wait eagerly for the customer feedback and here you sit back and don't wait for the result especially if you have bungled up your exams...

The Saravana experience

Today in the evening we reached T Nagar passing through the busy Usman road. We entered Saravana stores and the store was as crowded as the street outside. Each floor had just enough place left for people to walk and get past. Being my first experience at these stores I was surprised to see such a wide variety of goods, be it furniture, general house hold items, interiors, beds, you name it and you will get it here.

After sometime I started telling my friend about Kishore Biyani's book "It Happened in India" were he mentioned about the shopping environment in India. In his book he mentions about Saravana stores and concludes that in India people prefer shopping not in peace but in full rush, rubbing shoulders and waiting at the billing counters. It was at this time when it became very clear to me about what Kishore Biyani meant.

During our shopping here we bought 3 tables from one place, 3 chairs from other and then went back within 5 minutes to buy 1 of each from the same places. Meanwhile the earlier 3 had disappeared probably for delivery which was supposed to happen the next day. After this we also went on to buy some expendable FMCG products :-) bought a few things from 3 different places... no computer, no bar codes... just hand written notes from everywhere... and then went to the counter to make the payment, wondering where would the deliveries be made... miraculously all the things appeared at the delivery counter in one carry bag... that too in just 5 minutes... checked the packet because we were a bit skeptical about the process... you see lack of technology made us think twice... I was stunned to see their delivery method, even in today's technology age this store uses hand receipts!

Initially it looked like all the shops on Usman road are as busy as the streets or the Saravana store but again to my surprise the shop next to it, as big as this one with as many varieties as this one, had not even a single customer until we got in. Such is the brand Saravana in Chennai.!

We incidentally entered in one of the Saravana dinning halls and in the menu card read about their presence in UK, US, UAE etc. Post dinner as soon as we reached home I googled on Saravana and was baffled to see the list of things they are involved in.

Law of Calculating Rents...!

It was more than 3-4 days since we were searching for a house near our college in Srinagar colony. Till this time we were frustrated and with each passing day our desperation level increased, add to it the surmounting pressure of study backlogs we had. We were standing by our modus operandi of not paying brokerage. One fine day me and Mohit seperated from the group and started moving from door to door in search of a roof, during this pursuit I saw a watchman(usually they have all the information) of a building, expecting that I will have to use my newly acquired skill of sign language along with broken english and a line of Tamil, "Tamil Tariadu, means I don't know Tamil :-)". To my surprise this old man was very good at english. Once the initial conversation get going, I asked him about any vacant flat in the building.

For the next 5-7 minutes I heard something (with little resistant and high astonishment) which I call the law of calculating rents...

He replied tersely "How much rent can you pay? (Rent doesn't depend on the house, it depends on the depth of your pocket)" to which I replied 7000-8000 (the usual asking rate in this area varies from 13k to 30k for a 3 BHK house, this is more than double the amount our senior to senior batch paid). The old man turned red and some how managed to contain his anger and moved to the next question "How much brokerage will you pay?" to which I replied around 1000. By now he was fuming with anger and said "You have paid 6 lakhs fee to Great Lakes Institute of Management (Oh! he knew the complete name of the college) for a 1 year course (he knew this too)". After passing out you will earn a minimum of 45K per month per head (as I earlier mentioned that 4 of us looking for a house). So, why can't you pay a rent of 15k for a 2 BHK house and a brokerage equal to 1 months rent(which is a norm here). All of which is going to be shared equally within 4 guys. Phew!!! I was dumbstruck and could just mummer "Anna 12000 rent and 5000 brokerage" to which he replied "No house vacant for Bachelors".

Finally we got a house without brokerage but it took persistent efforts for around a week but the law was established and would continue to work as long as GLIM is located in this colony, hopefully next batch will enjoy the hostel life....

It's Business after all !

Yesterday I got a call from a recruitment firm for an opening with one of their client Tech Mahindra. When I informed that I am already working with Tech Mahindra, the lady on the other side candidly asked if I was willing to change as they have openings with other clients as well. The recruitment agencies are actually creating the vacancies and then they earn money by helping those clients to fill these vacant positions. A few days back I received a similar mail from another recruitment firm about a vacancy in my firm. I declined saying I am already working with Tech Mahindra and jocosely replied saying can he get me re-recruited in TechM with a better salary. The next day I received a terse reply asking for my resume...!

Today's Indian Cricket Team

Indian cricket has taken a nosedive since Saurav Ganguly's departure from the top post. Its very hard to believe that this team was last world cup's finalist. Those were the times when we use to proudly say that India is the only team who can beat the Australians. With world class batting line up including Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly, Yuvraj, Sehwag & Laxman, India use to be a threat for any team. What's the reason for dismal performances if we still have same set of players who have won many battles for India, who have made their presence felt in the international arena with their record breaking performances.

It has been often claimed by many that the excessive experimentation is responsible for the team's dismal performances, experimentation has been done with certain key positions like no.3 , where Dravid has proved himself many times. Sehwag has been retained in the squad despite his piteous performances in the last 4-5 series. The inform youngsters like Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthapa, Wasim Jaffer have been ignored to keep an unreliable Sehwag. The dispensable experimenting in 2nd innings of the 3rd test match caused India the test match and the series, it was a gift on a platter given to the Porteas.

Indian team has been very consistent during the last 2-3 seasons in constantly slipping down the various ranking charts. The problem with Indian team is lack of consistency and an attitude of players of taking their positions for granted. The Indian team management rightly sent back Pathan to play Ranji to regain his form rather than just warming the bench in SA, but then same should have been the fate of Sehwag who had a very pity SA tour. Selectors should make it difficult for any player to remain in the team without performing. Domestic cricket should be made more competitive by allowing foreign players in domestic cricket, as Indians go to play county cricket in England. Every player has bad phase in his career, it should be seen as an opportunity to build bench strength and make way for other youngsters, its serving dual purpose. There is no dearth of talent in a country with population of over a billion.

This is a long term plan but the question is can the present Indian team be a threat to the mighty Australians and stop them to win there third consecutive world cup the way Kapil Dev's team did to the then mighty West Indians. Its very difficult to say because cricket is known to be a game of uncertainties. India have quality players with the likes of Sachin, Ganguly, Dravid, Laxman, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Karthik and the bowling department led by Zaheer Khan, Sreesant, Munaf, Harbhajan, Irfan(hoping he makes a good come back). If they all click together as a team India can beat any team and claim the world cup, am I being too optimistic, who knows, lets wait and watch.

Direct dil se...

tujhse milne ki tamna kahin tamna hi naa reh jaye, dil ke ye ehasas kahin dil main hi naa reh jaye... kab aayegi wo haseen rut jab hum milegne tum se, kabhi to dil ki dastan jahir karnege tum par....


Tumhe chahne ke baad kissi aur ko chah naa paye hum, tumhari bewafi ke baad wafa kar naa paye kissi aur ke saath...
Doston ne bahut samjahi thi tumahri bewafi, par hum aaj bhi waafa ke umeed lagae bethe hain tumhare saath...


unhe dekh kar dekhta hi reh gaya, unki ek tasveer lena bhi yaad naa raha..
ab ehsaas hua ki tasveer ki zarurat hi nahin, aankhe band kar hi ke dekh lunga use...

pheli nazar ke pyar mein hume yakin na tha, unhe dekha to malum hua ki hai ye bhi mumkin,
yaad aayega hume koi is tarah kabhi socha na tha, unhe dekha to malum hua ki koi ho sakta hai itna bhi haseen...


bahut baaten kar gayee unki nigaahe, hum juban se kuch keh naa paye...
ab umeed mein ek aur mulakat ki kahin hum sayar to nahin ban gaye...

wo hume dekh kar muskurae, humne bhi muskura diya,
wo to muskura kar chale gaye aur hume pata bhi na laga ki kab pyar ho gaya...

A fruitful day...

I woke up at 5:30am in the morning, my usual time is at 9:00am, courtesy Babajee of Gurudwara. I woke up 30 mins late and had to leave for Gurudwara without(duh) taking bath, reached Gurudwara by 6:00am. Along side the Akhand path they follow a custom to do Japji Sahib paths as well, so was in the Gurudwara to do Japji sahib path Sewa for 2 hours.

Reached home by 8:35 and had a well deserved breakfast and then left for Woughton for my weekly Roller skating classes, it had been a 3 week long gap since the last class in lieu of Christmas and new year celebrations. Had a very terrific session, even contributed to a basic change in the training strategy. One needs to have a good balance on left or right foot to make turns at the edges of the training hall while going clock or anti-clock wise respectively. Since we use to go only clock wise during all the training sessions, I developed a very good balance on left foot leaving my right foot comparatively weaker. I shared my views with one of the instructors and within next 2-3mins we were doing anti-clock wise turns:-). Reached home at 11:00 with a great sense of achievement. Then came the second round of delicious breakfast, over the breakfast made plans for weekly shopping.

Me and Naveen left for shopping at around 1:30pm, in the market we started cursing our luck for not having a single blonde friend, missing the fun:-(. I am going to miss, every one does, these sexy babes when back in India its a treat for your eyes. We did the weekly shopping with the same sense of peevishness and occasional Ah's and went on to made the payments at counter no. 8 occupied by a beautiful Asian salesgirl behind the counter.

Reached home at 3:15, relaxed for a while, had our lunch while enjoying the latest bollywood flick Aparhan and left for office. In the office I did some project related study and started writing this.

I rarely do these many things in a day including writing this.

Hope to write more often now onwards.

GS

Cricket Talks on the eve of 4th ODI in SA.

This is how cricket talks are going on between Indian Fans.

Before the Match:

A: Hey lets bet on what will be the victory margin for the Porteas.
B: India will loose by 85 runs.
A: Why, 85 runs?
B: Last 2 matches it was 157,106 and 85 is a less number than 106, just a random
number below 85.
A: Well, I think it depends on who bat first.
B: Porteas are batting.
A: Oh, is it, then probably you are right.
B: Jaffar is playing today, so probably Sachin would be batting at no. 4.
A: It makes sense, but only if India gets a opening stand of around 30-35 runs and if India looses 2 wickets in the very first over, then it doesn’t make sense whether Sachin bats at 4 or he opens, he would better be opening the inning.
B: Yeah mate you are right.

Ok, well lets guess on what will be the opening partner ship today for India.
B: Not sure but I think the total opening partnership for India will add up to 50 runs for the entire series.


In office, during South African innings:

C: Score is 156/5.
A: Oh God!! Above 150, India lost the match again, they won’t be able to chase above
150.

After SA innings:
C: SA scored 243/8 in 50 Overs.
D: Well, let’s bet on what margin India will loose.
A: India will score 150.
D: What range, let’s keep a range of 20 runs.
C: 150- 170.
A: Same, 150-170.
D: 180-200.
B: I will go with D.
A: Well, I think Sehwag will score 22-25 runs, and Jaffar probably 12- 15 runs.
D: Hey come!! Today Sehwag has an added pressure of captaincy, I don’t think, he would be able to improve on last match’s score. Moreover that will become 30 runs opening partnership. NO WAY!!
A: Yeah, you are right.
B: Well, I think India would reach 180-200.
A: We will leave by 5 O’clock , atleast we would be able to see an hours match by then India would be all down.

Oh no not again…

It was late in the Friday evening, with the thundering sky giving a hint of impending rain shower. I peeped out from the window of my living room and noticed the minute rain droplets in the dim streetlight. The pitch-dark sky suddenly reminded me of the time, it was just 8:30 PM, surprisingly just a month ago the sunset use to happen at around 10:00 PM. Anticipatively, the irritating ring tone of my on-call mobile went alive, and it was my college friend, Soumitra, he reached Luton and then we planned to meet up at 9 AM the next day at Euston. He is employed with TCS and is put up in the sex capital of world, Amsterdam.

Every thing was set for a perfect weekend, setting the alarm for 7:15 am, I slept at around 4 am: I had been a nocturnal since my school days and add to it the Friday night fever. The irritating ring tone of my mobile woke me up at 7:00 am and very annoyingly it was a call-out. Every time I forget that people on support should not plan for any outings especially on weekends, seems that the probability of getting a call-out is inversely proportional to your availability. One following the other, one more fault was reported and finally it was already 11am when I left Milton Keynes.

The Da Vinci Code

Da Vinci Code is a pulse-quickening, brain teasing fictitious adventure. The very fact that it has been in the limelight, being the centre stage of lot of controversies, proclaims that it has some connection with our lives. It talks about the times of Jesus, about Mary Magdalene how they are related, what is the Holy Grail, what significance it has in the history and much more. This book is about how this confidential historic information has been conveyed by a dying old man to his grand daughter in forms of puzzles and verses, how she deciphers the hidden messages with the help of a well know symbologist. On the quest to solve the puzzles she unravels lot of true facts, which are hard to believe.

In the Louver museum, Paris its curator Jacques Sauniere has been assassinated and the curator leaves some cryptographic message seemingly for the investigating agencies to trace the murderer, but he indirectly involved his grand daughter Sophie Neveu, who happens to a cryptographist with the French police. The message was pointing to a symbologist, Robert Langdon, police believed to be the murderer but Sophie deciphered part of the message and in an attempt to solve rest of the puzzle, took Robert away from the police. They started on a quest to solve one of the biggest mysteries of all times. Sophie comes to know about the life of Jesus, the truth that he was married to Mary Magdalene, the romance between them conceived a daughter and their bloodline still exists. She also learns about how the church has been trying for centuries to hide this and destroy all the documents, which proves this fact. At times church also tried to destroy their bloodline. Apparently, the church was trying to destroy these facts because they feared that the Church would be feminised if Mary Magdalene took over the reins of Church after the crucification of Jesus and they considered it to be devilish.

Every attempt was made to defame Mary Magdalene, a lady from a royal family, as a poor whore. But the followers of Mary Magdalene tried to protect her identity and her history, this history is now been protected by a secret society called Priory; the sole purpose of this society was to protect the documents and the Holy Grail (the grave of Mary Magdalene), which proves these facts. At any time there are four members from the Priory who have the information about the Holy Grail and the documents, Jacques Sauniere happened to be the grand master of this society and he passed on the message to her granddaughter because the other three members have died recently, protecting this information.

Sophie and Robert unravel the history by deciphering the hidden message and during this they also come to know about the person behind these killings. She comes to know that she is one of the living offsprings of Jesus and to protect this bloodline her grandmother was living in hiding with her brother, who were declared dead with her parents in an accident. The priory thought that it was a murder disguised to be an accident and hence the family was living separately to protect the bloodline.