The land of dhoklas,khandwis and of course dandia

As I started off from Delhi, I felt strangely excited and sad. Sad because I would be leaving my family and it almost broke my heart bidding them goodbye. Excited because I was going to a place which is the least known amongst Punjabis.

My knowledge about Gujarat, I must confess is frightfully limited. For me, it meant a state where there is a lot of sweet food, lot of dhoklas and dandia with colourful clothes. Hence, I was strangely curious about this state.

As I landed, I was surprised to see such a silent airport. Being a Delhiite , this was a strange contrast. As I moved towards my destination, I was equally astonished to see the advancement that Gujarat has made. Compare this with a state such as UP, this state is progressing by leaps and bounds.

My entry won’t be complete without a mention on Gujarati folks. In the northern side, one is more used to language that may be a bid strong at time. But the folks, their hospitality and politeness has left me impressed.

I’ll close my entry here. I’ll write about my visit to Sabarmati Ashram in the next post. Till then cya…

devzz

Virtualization

I explored this concept recently. The term virtualization was coined in 1960s and this refers to a virtual machine. Recently, you will more often see it being referred as platform virtualization.
In this particular thing, the host operating system shares its physical resources such as RAM, HDD with its guest operating system. The environment that is then created appears as if the guest operating system is independent of the host system.Thus, what you get in the end are two personal computers sharing common physical resources but very different from one another.
You may be wondering why I brought this topic up. It has been a common concern these days about the compatibility of vista with several programmes. To get rid of these problems, one can either use the compatibility wizard which may not have 100% success rate or reinstall xp. Reinstalling xp can be a bit of a problem as certain systems may not have the drivers readily available. Besides, even if the drivers are available, it would take ages to reinstall and often result in unforeseen issues. Virtualization is thus the answer.

The image that you see above shows you the real life implementation of virtualization. I had vista installed and using a virtual machine I could install xp without disturbing my vista. More importantly, I did not have to reinstall any of the drivers or fiddle with any bios settings. Sony Vaios could be a bit of doubt here as they do not have virtualization settings available.
This aspect is very useful for developers or students who face compatibility issues and don’t wish to do anything extreme to run their legacy applications.

Recommended software for windows: Microsoft Windows Virtual PC
Recommended software in general : VMWare, VMBox etc

Love AajKal and other things

Well, this movie seems to have been a lot in the news. I recently had a chance to see it and much to the annoyance of others, I would give it a 2. Well, the movie started off at a lovely note, such as a break up party, which triggered off expectations. But, as it unfolded it had a sense of deja vu as it summarized old and new love stories. I feel lucky in a way. I saved 200+ bucks on a movie that I was about to spend on.

My Advice: Guys watch Luck instead. That is an underhyped movie butt deserves more respect, atleast more than love aajkal. Girls plz have a second thought. There is nothing in the movie to die for (quoting one of my friends).

Some new music has come up: For headbangers like me, there is this : Dhan Te Nan from the movie Kaminey. The wordings are something like this

Aaja Aaja dil nichode

raat ki matki tode

Koi good luck nikaale

Aaj Gullack tode……

Dhan Te Nan Te Nan

The music rocks

 

Being a Salman Khan Fan , I would also advice listening to this song : Love Me Love Me from the film Wanted

The IT worker

Disclaimer: The following post is based on real life experiences of male IT developers. It is aimed at all the managers and female coworkers who often show disrespect to their feelings. Any coincidence with any of the Program Managers of female developers is not at all regretted. You are also expected to forward this post to as many program managers and female coworkers as you can.

Just in case, you have wanted to know how the IT worker works, here is an insight:

7:00 am: Gets up rather grudgingly

7:30 am:Dresses up , sprays deo all over to impress females inspite of knowing that there are none too worthy of the expense so incurred

7:45 am Gets onto the bus or cab depending upon how miser the company is. Tries to get in some conversation with some girls especially some HR girls, realizes that there is no chance as most of them are committed or married. Ends up sleeping the rest of the time

8:30 am: The villainous building comes in sight. Oh yet another mountain. Yet another day to tackle. Swipes his card and enters

9:00 am: After the toilet breaks, coffee breaks he finally opens his system. Greets his fellow workers rather disinterestedly , managers er no comments

9:30 am: Starts checking his outlook mails. Spends greater time forwarding the good morning messages rather than the official ones

10:00 am: The first interaction with the managers, monsters inc. Time to make big promises and convey er not so big deeds. Get some worthless advice from the program manager who starts outsourcing his work to developers.

10:30 am: First chance on your female co workers. Invite them for coffee. Invitation politely declined due to some PERSONAL REASONS. Gather some male colleagues preferably your manager to fund your coffee

11:00 am: Finally the work commences. Ah 10 minutes of outlook checking first.Then stare blankly at the piece of code in front of you which stares back in an annoying manner. You start execution and out pops a black screen full of errors. Stare at them for 30 minutes and then outsource the work to your TL.

1:30 pm: Lunch time folks. Second chance on your female co workers. Invitation politely declined as they need to go with their friends. Depressed, you go to cafeteria alone or sit in front of your system eating and dreaming. If you are a composed person, male friends still available

3:00 pm: Time to dream. Well, status update time in front of the managers. Try to make a mountain of a small issue. The more complexity described, the better. Show him great dreams great things.

5:30 pm: Time to get ready to leave inspite of being fully aware that someone would stop you. If you are lucky, you may miss the eyes of ppl or convince them, If you are unlucky, well then the temperature starts rising

7:00 pm: Last chance on your female colleagues: INVITATION ACCEPTED!!! You realize your importance there, that of a coffee financer. But wait, what’s this? You are joined by your male colleagues and other ready made guests. WELCOME TO THE PARTY

:(

8:30 pm: Time for managers to get their personal calls and prepare departure. Time to flee to the loo, to avoid outsourcing

9:00 pm: Managers DEPART!!!!Good riddance!!! Start packing hurriedly. Call the cabbie frantically hoping he would stop and wait

9:10 pm: Flee to the cab. End of another eventful day!!

Windows live writer

This is the first time I am using the live writer. My motivation: A friend’s blog. But, I must admit, I am liking the experience as I type my current entry. Good Work Microsoft!! For a change, you have been a little less greedy and a little more innovative.

 

On my personal front, I am about to finish my internship. I really enjoyed my experience, although it was an unpaid one. Researching deeply into renewables, I for the first time felt how blessed my country is as compared to other nations. There is a lot to realize and still we are scratching the surface. I hope I can make a significant difference on this front.

 

I had a great time making pizzas this weekend. Well, it is a great achievement for me. Something to fluff up my resume when I go matrimonial hunting isn’t it. Based on my cousins’ experience, you are more likely to find a better spouse if you know cooking. Long way to go devzz.

 

Till next time goodbye.

My sensational soccer gaming skills

A sensational steal!!!




A kool corner

The Great Train Robbery and the IPL

The Great Train Robbery!! What a great piece of work to overcome the short sabbatical I had taken from reading. I believe it is one of the finest novels started by crichton. The story no prizes for guessing is of a train robbery organized by a certain guy called Pierce a k a John Simms right from the preparation stage to its execution and a mindblowing climax. Crichton has efectively conveyed the meticulous preparations and there is a lot of realism attached to this audacious act. More importantly, this Pierce guy effectively uses the Victorian society's weaknesses to achieve his ends. All these weaknesses have been elaborately potrayed.

Rating 5/5 Must read

The IPL is the other great thing that is happening in my life other that EPL. Although, I am torn between Sachin and Sehwag, I still have a weak spot for Delhi Daredevils. The start has been fantastic. The CSK vs DD was a match went down to the wire and Delhi eventually emerged victorious. Lets hope the daredevils lift the title this time...

Networking: A thought

Gosh!! This is one word that I have been coming across lately. A lot of people especially friends from business schools have stressed on the essence of this skill. Lot of social networking sites have also come up. Although people have claimed high rates of success, I still feel that this is one skill where Indians mastered once upon a time and the Indian way of networking had higher success rates any day.

The networking system that I am talking about is the family system. I feel that this system actually produced the best results because of greater involvement , accountability as well better expression to one's career goals in addition to career related advice. I believe that what was termed सिफारिश which was looked down upon by quite a few people has taken a more polished form called referrals. In fact some organization only accept referrals.

I strongly feel that the Indian way of networking is something that should be renewed and built upon. It is easier to connect blood relations rather than build new ones.

Oye!! It's me

I started writing a blog!! Just Imagine!!

Many people would scratch their heads or find the above start absurd. But, then they are my actual thoughts as I write my first post. I have been debating for a while about the worthwhileness of a blog over a diary. And for a change technology won. The reason being: If you feel your life worthwhile, a person has the responsibility of sharing it with the rest who have made it happen.

The pensieve would thus comprise of my fond memories and my thoughts associated, of course, in a brutally random fashion.

And so it begins.......