Life Reloaded!!!

"Laughing at our mistakes can lengthen our own life. Laughing at someone else's can shorten it."                                                                                     - Cullen Hightower

Toh Phir Aao Mujhko Sataao                                             Toh phir aao mujhko sataao                                               Toh phir aao mujhko rulaao   Dil baadal bane hai, aankhein behne lage hai Aahein aise uthein hai jaise aandhi chalein hai Toh phir aao mujhko sataao Toh phir aao mujhko rulaao Aa bhi jaao                                  ...

I cant believe it. For the first time in my life I got a whole DI set wrong. Shit, shit, shit. I cant lose marks like this. DI is my strength. I got just 43 out of 150 where actually I should have got 75 as I lost 32 marks in that set. Come on Sid you can do better than this...

"It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech." -Mark Twain

Aditya is one person whom you should never count on for keeping secrets. I told him that i had left Webaroo, so that afterwards he should be angry with me that I didn't inform him about my resignation. After all as I took such an extreme step of resigning, I should have asked my dearest friends for advise. But then he was the first person to whom I told the news. And as always Mr. Aajtak did his job of telling the whole thing to his "buddies" . I came to know about this only yesterday, when Shashikant called me to tell me that he got a job and will be joining on 1st of September (Congrats to him as he finally silenced his critics, Aditya being one of them).  He asked me whether I was really thinking of leaving my job. He also told me that Nishigandh told him my "whole story". I was completely baffled... How did Nishigandh come to know about this? Any guesses? Yes it was Aditya who did it again. I mean why the hell do you need to tell the that I left some compan...

In its 60th year as an independent nation, India has just elected its first woman president. Yet the ascent of the demure Pratibha Patil - with her covered head and long career in "women's issues" - may not necessarily be a victory for Indian women. Today, in India, "women's empowerment" is a government slogan; it is a feature of every party manifesto. There is a ministry for women and child development. There are laws against female foeticide, domestic violence and sexual harassment in the workplace. The number of working women is exploding: businesswomen such as Kiran Majumdar Shaw and sportswomen such as Sania Mirza show that talented, determined women are making it in every corner of this traditional society - a society that was entirely male-dominated in 1947. Yet, in the first decade of the 21st century, Indian women - seemingly protected by law, celebrated by the media and nursed by activists - remain second-class citizens, most obviously in rural are...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc said on Sunday it was giving its e-mail users more ways to reach friends and online contacts by allowing them to trade messages with mobile phone users. The new e-mail-to-phone connection is one of the features the Internet media giant plans to add as it makes available to the more than 250 million Yahoo Mail users a new version of the world's most popular e-mail program in coming weeks. The Yahoo Mail overhaul is part of a drive to transform its e-mail franchise into more of a social activity that blends the convenience of instant communication with the implicit network of relationships found in one's online address book.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007 11:00 AM PDT Symantec Tuesday unveiled the 2008 editions of its Norton AntiVirus and Internet Security desktop protection products, adding what it calls "threat interceptor" defense to prevent execution of malicious code enabled through a drive-by download . Used by consumers and small businesses, Norton AntiVirus 2008 and Norton Internet Security , which includes the antivirus capability plus a desktop firewall and host-based intrusion prevention, will now be able to block drive-by downloads from Web sites where visitors with unpatched computers can easily be infected and their machines compromised. Symantec 's 2008 edition security products are designed to run on Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows Vista . "There are multiple infection vectors for drive-by downloads, both Web sites where malicious code is deliberately posted and legitimate Web sites that have been compromised," noted Ed Kim , director of product management at ...

To fight a War you need a definite game plan. Almost every company has a "mission" towards which its goals are addressed.  I am facing a situation of war in my own life with the objective of making it to the IIM. Its not going to be easy, but who said it will be?  So from today onwards its "Mission Impossible" for me. This mission doesnt just include CAT but also my fight ahead of it, like GD and PI. CAT is just one of the battles which i must win to win the war. I request you all to please help me in this fight of survival. If you see any good material on CAT or a good news article, opinions of thinkers like Karan Thapar, Barakha Dutt, Rajdeep Saradesai. I need to keep myself updated with latest technology. Suggest good books that I must read to improve my English. And say these words whenever you meet me: "Come on Sid you can do it. ......."

Well, I have started my studies for CAT. I have already given 1 SimCAT and 1 FCT. I have decided to keep track of my progress in each of the 3 sections. I have made a Google Spreadsheet, which contains 2 sheets 1 with marks and other with accuracy. I hope my accuracy and marks both keep rising. Most importantly it should reach its peak at the time of CAT '07. Here is the link to it: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pubkey=po4HIlJMb1OUM8foksJz1Nw

PC World - Beta Watch   SpaceTime: Better 3D Browsing Most approaches to three-dimensional browsing have been seriously disappointing. SpaceTime , a free public beta download, has some good ideas, though it's still too buggy to use regularly. SpaceTime arranges large thumbnails of sites in a line stretching out into a blue sky. To interact with a page, you double-click the thumbnail. SpaceTime lets you quickly flip through the top five results of a Web search, and seeing images of the pages instead of a snippet of text sometimes makes it easier to figure out whether you want to visit them. On my system, though, generating the thumbnails took a noticeable amount of time--10 seconds or so. PC World - Beta Watch

I was wondering that as I am always in search of better and better software on the net, I could list down some of them which could be helpful to others. So following is the list of software which I am currently using along with a small description of most of them: 1. Zip-Unzip Software 7-zip 4.42 WinZIP 11 WinRAR 3.61 Out of these 7-zip is the freeware and other 2 are Shareware. I mostly use WinZIP and WinRAR. Earlier I also had ZipGenius which is also good but it is a little slower than WinZIP. 2. Audio and Video Windows Media Player 11 VLC Player 0.86a Winamp 5.32 QuickTime 7.2 K-Lite codec Pack 1.66 iTunes 7.3.2 Audacity 1.0 Well if you are wondering what "Audacity" is, then let me clear that its not used for media playing. Its a audio authoring tool, means you can edit the audio. I think WMP 11, VLC Player, K-Lite codec pack are must. Try to avoid iTunes and Quick time. I have to use them for my iPod shuffle. 3. Appearance RoketDock 1.3.1 Yahoo! Widgets 1.2.6 UberIcon ...

I have done it. Finally I am an Engineer. It doesn't feel like that though. I got 530 out of 700 which turns out to be 75.71%. In my final year in VJTI I scored 1137 out of 1500. Its 75.8 per cent. I was in top 15 in my class in both the semesters which brings me to top ten in the final year, surprising isnt it? My aggregate for all 4 years is 4469/5900. That makes it 75.75%. Hehe... I guess my hard work did pay off. After all I was able to keep the same percentage in both the semester. I hope I better my success in future and don't repeat the mistakes made in the past.

My results were declared on last Friday. I got distinction in 8th sem which also gives me an overall distinction in my BE. Marks will be displayed on Tuesday. Congrats to me and all my classmates.....

I took my 1st SimCAT to begin my 2nd campaign to crack CAT. The maths section was the most difficult followed by verbal and DI in levels of difficulty. After assessing my paper, I found that I have got around 100 marks out of 300.Not a bad start man!!! After all, I decided to take SimCAT just the other day and did not study at all before the test. I am sure  I will improve upon this. Hope for the best...

So its final now. At least for the moment!!! I am going to give CAT this year.well, its been a difficult decision for me as well as my family. I had a many discussions with my family. We concluded that it would be really difficult for me to pursue MS in US. Reasons are many ranging from fees to my staying alone. I guess the biggest reason for backing out of "MS theory" was the unavailability of any guide. For years, its been like this.We never had the emotional support we needed. When I look back for last 8 yrs or so, its been my friends who have stood by me in my difficult phases other than my parents and bro. If it wasn't for Vishwajeet, I am seriously not sure whether I would have come to merit by any chance. HE was the one who guided me to my success in 10th and 12th. Same has been Sidscope's role during my engineering. We hardly have any relatives. Whatever relatives we have, are mostly useless.So sometimes it feels sad, after watching your friends and their rela...

I am not a midnight's child or a child of partition. Actually, I was born the year after Nehru died. In a sense, I represent the post-Nehruvian generation, those for whom the freedom struggle was confined to Amar Chitra Katha comics and history textbooks that valorised our national icons. And yet, i must confesss there is something about 60 years of Indian independence that fills me with a sense of pride and nostalgia.Pride in being an Indian, nostalgia for what it must have been like in those heady days ahead of August 15th 1947. Looking at sepia-tinted images of Rajpath on the day India achieved freedom, one can imagine the frenzied crowds, the sense of utter joy at being a free nation. We take freedom for granted today.We couldn't have been quite so bindaas 60 years ago. That perhaps is our greatest achievement, creating a sense of uninhibited freedom among millions (spit where you want, vote for whom you wish!).Few gave this country a chance of survival 60 years ago. The pr...

Its been a tough time for the last 4 to 5 weeks. I resigned from Webaroo. Since I had forfeited Lehman Brothers offer, I am left with IBM now. Though its not entirely difficult for me to stay in Pune, I am going to make some attempts in companies in Mumbai. Lets see what happens...

What is life? How can you succeed in it? Its certainly not as easy as ABC. For some life is as ugly as Scarecrow & for others its as beautiful as their Girlfriend. Some say its as bright as day while others say it's as dark as midnight. Well, I am not as wise as Solomon, but certainly not as dumb as a statue. To begin with, I must admit life can be as brittle as glass. Our one mistake could ruin our entire life. Hence you need to be as brave as a Lion, as cunning as a Fox, as watchful as a Hawk. When doing a work, try to be as busy as an Ant & as sharp as a razor. Be careful of those who are as greedy as Wolf. If your are as innocent as Dove, then these people will always badger your way. If you are as silly as a Goose then people who are as hungry as a Hawk will eat you up. Be as firm as a Rock. Firmness doesn't mean silence. So don't be as silent as the dead. Express yourself whenever required, in a voice as sweet as honey. If you think as quick as lightning then ...