Valentine's Day Gift

Well aaj kal Internet ka zamaana hai so I thought why not dedicate a Valentine's Day post as gift for my wife ;)

1. Random Item relocation

When I wanted to shift some stuff from my wardrobe to the suitcase it was done as she wanted. It looks very organised but if I want to find something I need to ask her. "where is my blue check shirt and the tie?" she " it is in the grey suitcase and in the left side, below your sweater" now is she hiding things from me or she is organising them so that I can find it easily?

2. She’s Late for Everything

Well not everything but she is sometimes late. If being on time is what I like then being relaxed, then taking it easy is what she likes. She isn't late for movies but late for my hockey matches, parties, grocery shopping, clothes shopping, & other normal stuff.

These days she asks me 24 hours before, "What time are we leaving home? Tell me the exact time, I dont want you to put pressure on myself in the last moment" & the new strategy is "you get ready 2 hrs before schedule and that adds pressure, so get ready on time & not early !!" can't argue to this!

3. The Amount of Stuff She Has In Her Bag

Face wash, hand wash, cream for face, cream for lips, cream for hands, etc.... Then hair brush, make up touch up kit (no it's not a make up kit), perfume, Keys (millions of them), office entrance card..

Me "hey can you please keep my wallet in your bag?"

She "sorry I have space only to keep my hair straightener, cant keep your wallet!"

4. She’s Always Attached to Her iPhone

I have no comments please see the video.

Having 30 games on an iPhone may be addictive but she might have very strong wrists very soon.

5. Perfect Memory (Selective)

• I still remember what you did in the summer of 2004.
• You were not nice to me when we were living in that house.
• Think of how you treated me in 2006.
• Remember how you treated me in front of my friends?

6. All Things Technical Are Unimportant

INSTANCE1

• She "so this is your new hockey bat?"
• Me "it's not a bat but a hockey stick"
• She "OK Mr. Perfect whatever, hockey stick, how much did it cost?"
• Me "£150"
• She "WHAT??? to hit the ball with a stick on the ground you spent £150?"
• Me "it's a grays 6000 stick, one of the best in the world, got a nice bow, helps me in putting in aerial balls"
• She "don't give me technical terms! I can't believe it cost that much"
• Me "GULP!!!"

INSTANCE 2

• She "the brakes on my bike don't work"
• Me "they r disc brakes and they need to be replaced with normal brakes"
• She "no need to get too technical, please make my brakes work"
• Me "need to find what is the size of your wheels, then remove your old brakes, find if there is some space to attach the new brakes and then I can say that your bike's brakes are fixed"
• she "I can never rely on you to do my stuff. you wont even make my bike's brakes work"
• me "forget the brakes, buy a new bike !"
• she "disc brakes one or a normal brakes one?"
• me "GULP !!! GULP !!!"

Well all said and done. she makes my heart beat (and sometimes even skip a beat), she is the best cook, she cracks the best jokes, she is a good athlete, she is good swimmer & she is my wife.

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Burj Khalifa - do we need it?

The world's tallest building, 7 star hotel, world in the sea, palm hotel, etcetera. Do we really need these infrastructure projects in Dubai? In fact does Dubai need it?

There was this spectacular ceremony for the opening of a 900 meter tall building (I call it a purposeless monument) and the opening ceremony was attended by special guests from the Western world & royals of middle east Asia but don't they understand that other than them, no one else can afford to live in that building.

Checkout the opening ceremony video done on money borrowed from cousins.

Dubai is all desert & some oil. I really don't understand why do they keep building these 7 star hotels, huge malls, huge buildings & ice skating arenas in the desert? These things attract only the rich, but the middle class junta want jobs & decent food.

Dubai today is based on the perception that "what could ever go wrong here?" but my question to the royals of Dubai is "What are the assumptions or perceptions under which Dubai might or might not fall down?" No I don't want Dubai to fall, but "do the rulers of Dubai know if their planning about the future of Dubai is correct or wrong?".

It is a city giving employment to many Indians & Pakistanis who send a lot of money back home. If Dubai falls their dreams fall and may be in some cases even families back home might have to take severe actions.

Another issue I want to bring forward is that the Sheikhs & rulers of Dubai need to see that for the survival of Dubai they need more capital everyday & they need source of constant revenue generation. But where will they get the money from? No one is buying any property in Dubai. Dubai doesn't have any oil. There are no new investors (except cousins Abu Dhabi). And on top of all there is no real asset being created which will help in the growth of the nation. In simple words a long term vision is missing for a stable economic survival of a nation.

What about setting up industry there? Why haven't the royals of UAE thought about that? It's totally their view & idea what they want Dubai to become "a tourist destination", "a hotel", "a financial capital of middle east Asia" or "a developed and stable economy". Israel sends fruits and vegetables to Europe and is in the same climate as UAE, can't the government of UAE develop its agriculture industry like that? Can't they develop some date fruit farms for some other industry other than tourism & construction?

It is time that they start thinking differently before they world start taking them differently....

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How to stay motivated while job hunting

Many people have said “If you are unemployed then getting a job is a job in itself”, so very true. In 2005 – 2006 (ah those were the times!), for an IT professional shifting from one job to another was very easy and opportunities were standing at your door step (if you were good enough!). But today being just good doesn’t help getting a new job.

Keep looking for the right job

People need to understand that getting the job which you love and have passion for is very important, so do not get tired of searching for it. If you were a programmer or Business Analyst in the Healthcare sector then getting a job in Healthcare would be much easier than getting a job in the Travel & Tourism industry. But currently there are far less new projects being started by companies and it means that if you are an IT worker & out of job, then getting a new job is difficult.

Please don’t apply to a job because it is advertised, you saw it in your inbox. Ask yourself, “If by chance I do get an interview call, how will I answer the questions from a sector in which I have zero experience?” If you have the answer for that, go ahead and apply, otherwise it is probably best to move on and keep looking.

Keep working on your skills

Don’t just Google & apply for jobs, use this precious time as an opportunity to sharpen your skills or work on those skills which you were planning to learn when you were employed. IT skills can be given a boost by doing a certification course or a project management course or even a soft skills course like time management or public speaking. Or even something completely different like wind surfing or learning the guitar! If you are in the finance sector look at the FSA website everyday & try to find out, “What would I, as a Business Analyst in a financial institution, do with this new FSA Consulting Paper?”. Finance consultants can also use this time to learn statistical tools like MATLAB or SAS. Once you are in a job you would have to do the work your boss asks you to do and then work pressure never allows you to enhance your skills. And never forget that the ultimate goal is to get the right job, which you can make a career out of.

Quickly make yourself busy after you hear a bad news

With so many people being unemployed, the competition for the same job has gone up & the employer has a choice of choosing from a much larger pool of candidates. Attending a 3rd or 4th round of interview is becoming common now. Also, there are more rejections for a single post. So after hearing application rejection news you can:

1. go to YouTube and see a kid laughing or a kid’s funny dance
2. watch the news
3. watch Slumdog Millionaire or Shawshank Redemption (or similar uplifting movie)
4. watch the football match

The idea is to divert your mind from the bad news & just move ahead. Ask yourself “Do I have any choice other than looking ahead?”

Make personal contacts

Recruitment consultants always try to place those candidates whom they find would get placed pretty quickly. After all everyone’s got a mortgage to pay!

You can look at those companies whom you think might require your expertise, contact the HR directly and pitch yourself; maybe they might like your ideas and skill strengths. Ask your club mates if they know someone who can help you find a job. Meet new people and discuss your CV with them, you never know someone might say “Hey you know what I have a friend who owns/works in XYZ company, would you be interested to meet him?” There is no harm in telling someone “I am not employed and I need your help”. Most people understand the current economic climate & are ready to help.

The most important thing is that you must have faith in yourself. If you were good enough earlier, it means you are good enough now; it’s just the time that is bad. Maybe 6 months after getting a job you would laugh at those unemployed days and say “Blimey! I caught up on a lot of movies; as many as I have seen in all my life!”

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No I am not dead...

been just too too too busy with work, hockey & masti marofying with my wife... :-)

Trupti was travelling back from London today and she clicked some photos... They all look nice, bright, happy...

photo1

photo 2

photo 3

photo 4

Now the photos from my camera... They are dark, gloomy & torturous...

I bike from home to the rail station everyday and this is what I found on my bike when I came back in the evening...

There was 6 inches of snow on my bike and

a thought "why can't we have a roof for the bike stand at Cambridge station?! "

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Norway in June & December

UK being away from the equator faces quick changes in the seasons. Like there is a change in 2 minutes of sun light everyday. When the season changes from winter to summer there is a drastic shift of sun setting at 4PM to 10PM.

Now this was new for me and I wanted to see what is the difference between sunlight light time period in Norway. They call Norway "the land of mid night sun", but it can also be called "the land of noon darkness" (or something like that)

These are two videos of North of Norway.



In the month of June 2008, you can see that there is so less darkness. Hence the name "land of mid night sun"



And in the month of December 2008, we can see that the sunlight is out there for hardly 2 or 3 hours. Interesting isn't it?

I never felt this sudden "total sunlight time period" issue staying in India, but then that was India.

I also love the way the trees change from "no leaves in winter" to "new leaves in spring" to "green leaves in summer" to "red leaves in autumn" and back to no leaves in winter.

In India we generally have ever green trees & forests, pretty different here. :-)

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Crouchy's Ballet & the Idiot Dancer

Every time Peter Crouch comes on the football field he has something hilarious to do. It may be his bad header or his after goal scoring robot acts or his bad foul or his geek look towards his team mate after missing an open goal.

Yesterday's game against Belarus showed us why he is a clown of great talents. He can "Ballet" & also to assit him he can ask people from Belarus to join in. Check these photos.

Crouchy and his pals from Belarus doing Ballet

Professionals doing Ballet. See the resemblance??

I just couldn't stop laughing after I saw the photo on Telegraph. It was hilarious and must be nominated for the "best dance action to score a goal of the century" category !!! :D

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Lalit Modi is typical Gujju

His best friend is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, not in real sense but just the Gandhi photo on the 1000 rupees note.

I can now live in peace!!!

See see even Gandhi's smiling & smiling "Yes he loves me & he will let me live for ever". Lalit Modi the IPL CEO and BCCI top notch executive will do anything for money and will even make the Indian Cricket players play on the moon if that pays him & BCCI.

The main moto of a sports governing body is promote sports in youngsters, help the sports people when in need (or injury), bring up new talent from the corners of the country & help build glory to the country.

Lalit Modi is now organizing a 20-20 champions tournament & "ONLY THE BEST" are playing in it.

Oh really?

• Sir I have a question : What about the champions of World 20-20 cup, the country called Pakistan? They also won the ICL tournament, didn't they? The IPL -1 champion team had Kamran Akmal & Sohail Tanvir, why were they not allowed to play in IPL -2?
• Modi is angered by this question and barks back: INDIAN GOVERNMENT DOESN'T WANT TO HAVE ANY TIES WITH PAKISTAN, SO NO TEAM CAN COME FROM PAKISTAN. ALSO RAJASTHAN DIDN'T QUALIFY FOR THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
• Question 2: Sir Afridi is part of Deccan Chargers why isn't he playing?
• Modi barks back louder : "YOU WANT INDIA TO WIN OR PAKISTAN TO WIN?"

Lalit Modi doesn't care about cricket, for him IPL is a profit making company and it should give him profit. He doesn't give a shit if any youngster comes from IPL to the Indian team or not. He just doesn't care !!! All he cares about is his 8 franchisers and how can I make more from them.

SRK "This guy to my right is an inspiration to the world & to all who don't care about anything & find out a way to make money"

Modi "please SRK you are embarrassing me, I am just a humble servant of BCCI"

I remember there was one young guy Manish Pandey who made a century in IPL -2 and since then hasn't done anything to come to the Indian team level.

IPL doesn't help domestic cricket, it is just spoiling the cricket scene in India. Half the players are injured when India plays an ICC tournament. India hasn't done great at the test level in the world until recently; now that our team has been doing well lets not kill the best 11 by forcing too much cricket on them.

Sehwag was injured for the ICC ODI Championship and now he is fit to play for Delhi Dare Devils. What if he get injured in Champions Trophy tournament and can't play against Australia?

Does Modi care about that? I am sure he doesn't. Infact even BCCI doesn't care, its now become a company & they want to make profit year on year. I don't know what great work are they doing after making so much money. The stadiums in India are bad and don't have good toilets or good seats. There are no good coaches at district level.

Modi stop being a typical Gujju and please give back to the people what you have got from them.

And I am totally against 20-20 cricket as a launch pad for cricketers to come to the national scene.

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