Personal

I've received a x% raise at work and a x%+y% job offer in Pune. I need to decide.

A Thought for Today

Courage

Courage stands halfway between cowardice and rashness, one of which is a lack, the other an excess of courage.
~ Plutarch

Lunch: Bhutta and Kokum Sherbet

It is an overcast afternoon with a hint of drizzle in the air.

I had Kokum Sherbet and garma-garam Bhutta with namak-mirchi (hot roasted corn sprinkled with a dash of lemon and salted chilly powder) for lunch.

Poem: Swami Vivekananda's 'A Blessing'

A Blessing

The Mother's heart, the hero's will,
The softest flowers' sweetest feel;
The charm and force that ever sway
The altar-fire's flaming play;
The strength that leads, in love obeys;
Far-reaching dreams, and patient ways,
Eternal faith in Self, in all,
The light Divine in great, in small;
All these and more than I could see,
Today may "Mother" grant to thee!
~ Swami Vivekananda

Bajaj's New TV Commercial

Bajaj's new TV commercial, "I feel like God," promoting its Avenger DTS-i brand of bikes pitches on the feel good and forgiveness factor.

Ride the Bajaj Avenger DTS-i cruiser bike and forget all the worries of the world.

The ad is shot on what seems like the Leh highway in Kashmir and shows a guy riding the Bajaj Avenger DTS-i cruiser bike with flashbacks to incidents in life and a voice over that says,
"I forgive my father...I forgive women...I forgive my boss...I forgive the government...I forgive my barber...I forgive my past...I forgive them all...I feel like...I feel like God...Bajaj Avenger DTS-i...Feel like God!"

The guy on the bike passes a farmer stretching in the fields and stretches himself on the bike and says, "I feel like God," after having forgiven so many people.

Ride the Bajaj Avenger DTS-i. It makes you forget all the worries of the world and what more you really feel like God.

Good concept. Fantastic location. Right scenery. Cool music. Good voiceover.
A different advertisement. An ad, and a rare one at that, which doesn't make you switch channels.

Watch the Bajaj Avenger DTS-i TV commercial. (Requires Windows media player).

Cricket: India v. Zimbabwe

Update: 8:00 p.m. IST
India has won the match by 161 runs. Irfan took 5 wickets for 27 runs off his 10 overs and Agarkar took 4 for 18 with Harbhajan chipping in with a wicket as Zimbabwe were all out for only 65 runs giving India a convincing 161-run victory. The bowling is in place, now its time for the batting to click, Sehwag to come back in the team and smash Shane Bond all over the park for India to win against New Zealand.

Posted at 06:46 p.m. IST
Latest Score: Tri-series in Zimbabwe
India...226-6 in 50 overs
Zimbabwe...43-9 in 18 overs

Irfan has taken five wickets with Agarkar bagging the other four wickets to fall.
This is a fantastic bowling performance by Irfan and Agarkar, even though it comes against a weak Zimbabwe side still this performance will give India the confidence to win against New Zealand in the next match.

Earlier in the day, Dhoni and Yuvraj scored half centuries and shared a 103-run 5th wicket partnership and helped India post a fair enough score of 226-6 in 50 overs. The batsmen would look for a better performance versus the Kiwis in the next match.

Humour: Theorem of Pune's Roads

Theorem of Pune's roads from Harshal's blog.

1. A collection of potholes is called a road
2. The depth of a pothole is inversely proportional to its visibility.
3. If matters get worse, one pothole is always smaller than the other.
4. No matter what you wear (jacket, windcheater, helmet and jacket, raincoat, cap and jacket, helmet jacket and rainy trouser, etc) you will always get wet.
5. No matter what you do, potholes cannot be avoided, as that's what makes a Pune road. (see 1 above). :-)

Evening Quote

Sundown, yellow moon, I replay the past
I know every scene by heart, they all went by so fast
If she's passin' back this way, I'm not that hard to find
Tell her she can look me up if she's got the time.
~ Bob Dylan's If You See Her, Say Hello

Via Harshal's blog.

Personal: Raah pakad tu ek chala chal...

1. Madiraalay jaane ko ghar se chalta hai peenewala
Kis path se jaoon asamanjas mai hai woh bhola bhala
Alag alag path batlaate sab, par mai yeh batlaata hu
Raah pakad tu ek chala chal paa jaayega madhushala
~ Harivanshrai Bachchan's Madhushala

- par kaunsi raah?

2. Kabhi kabhi yun bhi hamne apne dil ko behlaaya hai
Jin baaton ko khud na samjhe auron ko samjhaya hai

The virtues of stability, settling down in life, taking loans to buy a car and then a house, arranged marriage, and so on... I need to follow them.

Personal: Thoughts

1. It's a slow and dull Monday afternoon like any other weekday that passes in office.

2. Being a writer is about learning on the job, and in a way everyone is a writer.
Just as philosophy beings in love and love makes one a philosopher, writing starts from childhood and continues for a lifetime.

Would it be a right move to go from Pune to Bangalore for a writing opportunity?

3. I want to explore a business development opportunity in the software industry.

4. I need a MBA to increase my chances of exploring business development opportunities in software. I'm going to join ICFAI's 2-year distance learning MBA program.

5. I need work that keeps me busy for 10 hours.

Humour: KBC 2 - IT Parody: Umeed Se Aadha

Yeh hai Mr Vijay Nazaare
IT ki duniya ke ubharte sitare

Life mein bahot sikhi thi Java
Waited for a good project, par lagi na hawa

Inke na koi project me tha naam
Ek project mein aaye to mila bug fixing ka kaam

Cubical mein baith ke Onsite posting ki dekh rahe the raah
Inke bhi dil mein kuch aisi hi thi chaah

One day while doing code ka jhadoo pochha
PM ne puchha, "Kabhi Onsite co-ordinator banne ka socha!"

Bas Onsite jaaneka sunke isne khaya bada carrot
Ek saal rukne ke baad laga bahot bada hua parrot

Bahot ho gaya kehke chodi hai isne umeed ki dori
Switch the Job is the moral of the story

Received the above as an email forward.
Read the actual lyrics of KBC 2 ads.

Personal: This or That

This or that on a Sunday evening. Posted on Monday morning.

Playing Cricket or Watching Cricket: Playing Cricket
Google or Yahoo!: Google
Aamir Khan or Shahrukh Khan: Shahrukh Khan
Email or Telephone: Email
Cell phone or Landline: Cell phone

Rediff or Indiatimes: Rediff
Technorati or BlogPulse: Technorati
Reading or Internet Surfing: Internet Surfing
Risk or Stability: Risk
Writing or Research: Writing and Research - Both

2005 Ashes for England or Australia: England
Saurav Ganguly or Rahul Dravid: Rahul Dravid
Amitabh Bachchan or Abhishek Bachchan: Amitabh Bachchan
Preity or Rani: Preity
BJP or Congress: None

Jeans or Cotton Trouser: Jeans
Red shirt or Black shirt: Black shirt
Punjabi or Chinese: Punjabi
Vada Pav or Burger: Vada Pav
Softdrink or Nariyal paani: Nariyal paani

Juice or Water: Water
Firefox or Explorer: Firefox
GMail or Yahoomail: GMail
IM Chat or SMS: IM chat
Walk in the rains or Candlelight dinner: Walk in the rains

TV or Computer: Computer
Hindi or English: Both
Hindi or Marathi: Hindi
Tea or Coffee: Tea
Gift a Book or Gift a CD: Gift a Book

Old Songs or Remixes: Old Songs
Swear in Hindi or Swear in English: Swear in Hindi
Dal Chawal or Roti Sabzi: Roti Sabzi
Rajma Chawal or Palak Paneer: Rajma Chawal
Panipuri or Bhelpuri: Bhelpuri

Samosa or Kachori: Samosa
Sambar Rice or Biryani: Sambar Rice
Veg. Spring Roll or Garlic Bread: Veg. Spring Roll
Brazilian Gals or Spanish Gals: Brazilian
Fullsleeves or Folded sleeves: Folded sleeves (always)

Blazer or Suit: Blazer
Shirt or T-shirt: Shirt
Sports shoes or Formal Shoes: Sports shoes
Long hair or Short hair: Short hair
Jovan Musk or Brut: Jovan Musk

Stairs or Elevator: Stairs
Sachin or Sehwag: (Still) Sachin
Zaheer or Irfan: Zaheer
Harbhajan or Kumble: Kumble
Afridi or Jayasuriya: Afridi

Sri Lanka or South Africa: Sri Lanka
Bombay or Delhi: Bombay
Idli Sambar or Alu Paratha: Alu Paratha
Lassi or Jal Jeera: Lassi
Rose Sherbet or Kokum Sherbet: Kokum Sherbet

Masala Dosa or Kanda Pohe: Masala Dosa
Varan Bhat or Khichdi: Khichdi
Chana Masala or Navratan Korma: Chana Masala
Darshini Coffee or Irani Chai: Irani Chai
Vada Sambar or Idli Chutney: Vada Sambar

Spicy or Sweet: Spicy
Gulab Jamun or Barfi: Gulab Jamun
Dhokla or Paatra: Patra
Save a Gift Wrapper or Tear It: Tear it
Newspaper or Magazine: Newspaper

Fast or Slow: Fast
Wait or Go: Go
Dustbin or Street: Dustbin
Patient or Restless: Restless
Serious or Joking: Serious

Optimistic or Pessimistic: Optimistic
Satisfied or Bored: Bored
Pav Bhaji or Maska Pav: Maska Pav
Office tea or Roadside tea: Roadside tapri tea
Irani Cafe or Barista: Irani Cafe

Kayani Bread or Chitale Bhakarwadi: Kayani Bread
Bakery or Farsan Mart: Bakery
Pizza Hut or Smokin Joes: Pizza Hut
Writing or Business Development: Business Development
Straightforward or Businesslike: Straightforward

One Man Army or Teamwork: One Man Army
Talking or Doing: Doing
Love Marriage or Arranged Marriage: Don't know
Truth or Lie: Truth
Money or Friends: Friends

Camp or Deccan: Camp
Better Roads or No Power cuts: No Power Cuts
Follow or Break Traffic Rules: Follow Traffic Rules
Summer or Winter: Summer
Crossword or Cafe Coffee Day: Crossword

Harsha Bhogle or Navjot Sidhu: Harsha Bhogle
Pune or Poona: Poona
Mumbai or Bombay: Bombay
CST or VT: VT

Paragraph or Points: Points
Web Writing or Newspaper Writing: Web Writing
Cricket or Google: Both
Prayer or Work: Work

Cricket: Ashes: 4th Test: End of 3rd Day's Play

--
Update: 11:04 p.m. IST
England wins the 4th Test by 3 wickets to go 2-1 up in the series.
England made a mess of their 129-run chase and finally scampered to a 3-wicket victory.
Final Score:
England...1st Innings...477 all out
Australia...1st Innings...218 all out
Australia...2nd Innings...(f-o)..387 all out
England...2nd Innings...129/7
--

Big battles are won by small soldiers and Gary Pratt's run out of Ricky Ponting may well be the turning point of this Ashes series.

Australia, following-on after being bowled out for 218 in their first innings, were 222 for 4 at stumps on the 3rd day of the 4th Ashes test at Trent Bridge in Nottingham.

The Australians need an 'Adam Gilchrist' special to set England a competitive total to chase.

Scores:
England....1st Innings...477 all out
Australia...1st Innings...218 all out
Australia...2nd Innings...222/4 - Sat., 3rd Day, 4th Test

Update: 08:41 p.m. IST
England need 129 to win the 4th Test.
Australia....2nd Innings...387 all out
England....2nd Innings...32/1

One of the worst roads in Pune

Note in my diary:

The 5-km stretch from Ramwadi octroi post to Chandannagar on the Pune-Nagar road highway is one of the worst roads in Pune. Not even 10 metres of the road is pothole free.

Just because they're going to start building a concrete road is no reason for not filling up the multitude of potholes that join together to form a National Highway.

Get GMail Invites on U.S. Cell Phones

1. For those of you reading this page from the U.S.

You can get a GMail invitation on your cell phone. Enter your U.S. cell phone number and click on the Send code button to receive a SMS with an invitation code to create a GMail account that offers more than 2.5 GB of storage space.

Note: Only for U.S. cell phone numbers. Requires entering cell phone number that will be stored by Google.

Related:
- Use Google on the move. Try Google SMS in U.S.A.
SMS your search query to 46645.
Remember 46645 as GOOGL.

Examples of Google SMS:
weather New York NY, stock GOOG,
movie: Four Brothers boston ma,
movie: showtimes Richmond CA,
florists 10022,
define chlorophyll (or) d chlorophyll,
miami beach fl to miami airport fl,
who wrote On the Road,
mountain view ca to sunnyvale ca,
87 F in C, and many more uses of Google SMS.

2. Read Tips on using Google Talk from Google Blogoscoped.

- Use an asterix before and after a word to make it bold. *word*
- Use an underscore before and after a word to show it in italics. _word_
- Customise your status by showing your Blog or Web site link

Cricket: India plays New Zealand today

Videocon Triangular One Day Series in Zimbabwe
Watch India v. New Zealand live on ESPN from 12:45 IST this afternoon.
Follow the match on Cricinfo.

Update: New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming wins the toss and elects to bat first.

Magazine Cover of Footsteps on Clouds

Make your own Magazine Cover from a Flickr photograph with the Flickr Magazine Cover Maker. Picture: June 2004, Chirayu - Standing on top of the wall of Golconda Fort, Hyderabad.

Flickr Magazine Cover Maker

Make your own Magazine Cover from a Flickr photograph with the Flickr Magazine Cover Maker.

Thanks for the information, Satish.

Cricket: Ashes: 4th Test starts today

Through all the land her tale she tells;
She spins, she tosses, she compels
The kites, the clouds, the windmill sails
And all the trees in all the dales.
~ R.L. Stevenson's An English Breeze

Will the breeze aid Jones and Flintoff's reverse swing v/s. the Aussies?
Will Steve Harmison turn Robin Hood for England at Trent Bridge?
The 4th Ashes Test starts today at Trent Bridge in Nottingham.

Update: 5:15 p.m. IST
England’s score is 129/1 at lunch on the 1st day of the 4th Ashes test.

Cricket: New Zealand makes 2nd highest ODI score

New Zealand's total of 397 for 5 in 44 overs vs. Zimbabwe in the opening match of the Videocon Triangular Series being played in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe is the 2nd highest score in the history of One Day International Cricket.

Sri Lanka had scored 398-5 in 50 overs vs. Kenya in Kandy during the 1996 World Cup.

New Zealand scored 397 runs in their stipulated 44 overs (RR: 9.02), as a damp pitch delayed start of play for the umpires to shorten the innings by six overs. If New Zealand would've played 50 overs, they'd have easily scored more than 450 runs.

Related:
- View a list of Highest team totals in One Day International Cricket.

Cricket: Schedule of ODI Tri Series in Zimbabwe

For my reference.
- Schedule of triangular series in Zimbabwe featuring Zimbabwe, New Zealand, and India from Aug. 24 to Sept. 6, 2005.

Download Google Talk - Google's Instant Messenger

Posted on Wed., Aug 24, 2005 09:23 a.m. IST

Google's Instant Messenger Google Talk (Beta) goes live.
Download Google Talk. Size: 0.9 MB
Requires Windows XP or Windows 2000 operating system and a GMail username and password to log in. Mac and Linux users can also connect to Google Talk using other IM clients.

URL of Google Talk: http://www.google.com/talk/

More later, once I add friends and chat with them on Google Talk.

First impressions:
- Google talk logo should have the letter k in blue and not green as per Google's BRYBGR logo.
- Once a user signs in, the Sign out link should be shown on the top with Inbox, Settings, and Help links.

All the best, Google. Way to go. One small step for IM users, one major step for Google toward organizing the world's information and making it universally accessible.

Technorati Tags: Google, Google Talk, Search, Search Engines, and Instant Messenger.

Google to launch Instant Messenger tomorrow - is it true?

Update: Wed., Aug 24, 2005 09:07 a.m. IST

Google's Instant Messenger Google Talk (Beta) goes live.
Download Google Talk. Size: 0.9 MB
Requires Windows XP or Windows 2000 operating system and a GMail username and password to log in. Mac and Linux users can also connect to Google Talk using other IM clients.

URL of Google Talk: http://www.google.com/talk/


Posted on Tue., Aug. 23 at 11:56 p.m. IST.

The NYTimes mentions about Google's plans to unveil a communications tool on Wednesday, which will go beyond the company's search-related business focus.

Google plans to launch an instant messaging service from tomorrow.

Get ready for Google Chat/Google Instant Messenger (GIM)/Google Talk as it is likely to be called.

Keep an eye on Google Labs for more information on the rumoured release of Google Talk, Google's IM client with text chat and VoIP service.

- Get Google News Results for Google Instant Messenger

Cricket: Good reads

1. From BBC Cricket: What is Reverse Swing?
When an old ball swings sharply in a direction opposite to that of regular swing it is called as reverse swing.

Interesting anecdote.
During Pakistan's 1992 tour of England, Wasim and Waqar defeated England with reverse swing, which was made to be ball tampering by a section of the British media.

Cricket followers would remember Geoffrey Boycott's famous quote supporting the two Ws. "Wasim and Waqar would have bowled England out with oranges."

2. Peter Roebuck, through his column in the SMH, tells Ricky Ponting to adopt a fighting approach for the 4th test match that starts this Thursday.

Thought for Today

May the warm winds of heaven
Blow softly upon your house
May the great spirit
Bless all who enter here
May your moccasins
Make happy tracks in many snows
And may the rainbow
Always touch your shoulder
~ Cherokee (Native American) Prayer Blessing

Read more sayings

Who's visiting Pune today?

Is some politician going to visit Pune today? Why were the traffic policemen doing their duty on all roads? Yes, you read it right. Doing their duty. It's a surprise, and it only happens when some so called 'public servant' / 'dignitary' visits the city.

Request to Pune's Member of Parliament.

Don't spend money on the Pune Festival during Ganeshutsav next month. Instead of that spare some amount from the MP's fund to fill up Pune's potholed roads.

Step down from your ivory tower, and take a tour of the city; not with thousands of chamchas cohorts/supporters, but as an ordinary citizen. See the state of Pune.

Pune is as bad or even worse than other major cities of India, just because Bangalore has even worse troubles with traffic jams and infrastructure, comparatively Pune appears to hold promise.

I can say from experience.
- Hyderabad has good roads, more flyovers, and a better infrastructure than Pune
- Bangalore, as compared to Pune, has better public transport

An example of PMC's callousness.
COEP signal, which is the junction of traffic from Sangam bridge, Bombay-Pune road, and Sancheti hospital is full of potholes.
The potholes, near COEP's electrical section, going toward Bombay-Pune road are so bad that instead of repairing them, barricades have been put by PMC to *warn* people (hehe..drive/ride at your own risk, is it?) to navigate the potholes.

Still the situation is not as bad as it was in the first two weeks of August. Most of the roads have been repaired, but it's a stop-gap arrangement, and Pune awaits the next round of moderate showers for the city's surface to turn lunar.

Politics is the bane of India and it will remain so till the middle class wakes up from its slumber and votes or else decides not to vote at all.

So long as politicians take development decisions, India won't be anywhere near China. Not in the next 100 years.

Take this simple example. Just because some politician, I don't know and don't care, is going to visit the city, these policemen are working today. Why can't they do so daily?

Today's front page headline in the ToI states, "Pune is the 13th most polluted city in India." Soon it will be the first and any one who rides a bike in Pune, even with a helmet on, will vouch for that.

Nice Wallpaper: Dal Lake, Srinagar

A shade of blue silhouettes the boatmen, as the majestic mountains cast their reflection on the calm waters of Dal Lake in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir.

Picture taken from National Geographic's Photo of the Day archives.

Download wallpaper of Dal Lake - File size: 99 KB

A song to go with the mood of the picture.
Listen online to Naam Ada Likhna from the film Yahaan.

Shayari and Humour

Dil hee to hai na sang-o-Khisht dard se bhar na aaye kyun?
Royenge hum hazaar baar, koi hamein sataaye kyun?
~ Ghalib

It is after all a heart, not a stone or brick, why shouldn't it be filled with pain?
I will cry a thousand times, why should someone (she) antagonize me?

Humour:

Email server hi to hai na leaking ceiling data bhar jaaye na kyun?
Shift-Delete karenge hum har bar, koi hamein spam se sataaye kyun?

It is after all an email server, not a leaking ceiling, why shouldn't it be filled with data?
I will use Shift-Delete always, why should someone trouble me with spam?

Meaning of Sabudana in English

A couple of guys in office are keeping a fast on the occasion of Sankasht Chaturthi. During lunchtime Ashish asked me the meaning of Sabudana in English.

Sabudana vada and sabudana khichdi are popular eatables during fasts.

Sabudana means Sago in English. Sago is a starchy and granular substance, similar to tapioca pellets, and is used in cooking.

Google updates Desktop Search

Google updates desktop search with new features that include, among others, a movable and resizeable panel, Sidebar, which provides customised information, and a desktop search toolbar that enables convenient searching of emails from MS Outlook.

- Download GDS version 2 Beta. File size: 1.3 MB
Requires Windows XP or Windows 2000 with SP3+

Musical Birthday Greeting Cards

Musical Birthday Greeting Cards from RiverSongs.com.

Requires Flash.

- Birthday Chocolate cake

- Plane says happy birthday

- Best wishes on Birthday

- Birthday greeting for Sweetheart

- Fairy sings birthday wishes on a ship

- Birthday wishes by motorcycle stunts

- Birdie sings Happy Birthday to you - This is cute.

- Birthday Wishes with balloons in the sky

- Birthday card

- Birthday scenery

- Birthday cake with friends

- Birthday prayer

- Birthday with friends

These cards are good for sending to kids.

Thoughts for Today

If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.
~ Henry Ford

Einstein on imagination.
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited; imagination encircles the world.

Lovely Dia Mirza

John Denver's You fill up my senses is the perfect song to describe Dia Mirza's beauty that oozes from the flaming crimson dress.
Picture taken from sawf.org, found via Google image search.

Cricket: Afro-Asian Cup: Zaheer wins Man of the Series award

Rain played spoilsport as the third and final one day match of the Afro-Asian Cup, played in Durban, had to be abandoned with Asia XI on 8/2 needing 107 to win in a rain delayed and interrupted game that was dominated by the fast bowlers on a Kingsmead wicket, which assisted seam and swing bowling.

Africa XI won the first match by two runs. Asia XI won the second by seventeen runs and today's match was abandoned with the series level at 1-1.

Zaheer Khan, who was earlier dropped by the Indian selectors for the tri-series to be played later this month against New Zealand and Zim. in Zimbabwe, gave a fine performance in the Afro-Asian series and picked 9 wickets for Asia XI at an average of 11.2 apiece to be the deserving winner of the Man of the Series award. His best bowling figures were 3/21 off 10 overs in today's game. Well played, Zaheer.

As these are official one day international matches, then Zaheer deserves a recall to the Indian side based on his performance and being in form.

Nice Shayari

Palkon main qaid kuch sapne hai,
Kuch begaane, kuch apne hai;

Na jaane kya Kashish hai in khayalon main,
Woh humse duur hoke bhi kitne apne hai.

Thanks for the SMS, Ashish.

Personal: Mood

We work our jobs
Collect our pay
Believe we’re gliding down the highway
When in fact we’re slip slidin’ away...

Read the lyrics of Slip Slidin' Away.

Kal shaam aur thi, aaj shaam aur hai...
Last evening was different, this evening is (different)...

Book Excerpt: The Search

Read an excerpt from the final chapter of John Battelle's book, The Search - How Google and its rivals rewrote the rules of business and transformed our culture.

What's New in Blogger?

1. Blogger introduces Word Verification for Comments to prevent spamming of Comments section.

Follow these steps to enable Word Verification for Blogger Comments.

- Log in to Blogger
- Select your Blog from the Dashboard
- Click on the Settings tab
- Select the Comments link
- Choose the Show radio button for Comments
- Choose the Yes radio button for Show Word verification for Comments
- Click on the Save Settings button, at the end of the page, to save your settings and enable Word verification for comments from the next post onwards.

2. A Flag button appears on the Blog Navigation bar at the top of the page. This allows users to monitor web pages they surf and alert Blogger for spam, illegal, objectionable content they come across.

3. Download Blogger for Word and add a Blogger toolbar, which enables blogging from Word. Size: 2 MB, requires Windows XP or 2000 and Word 2000 or higher.

Note: The Comment link on this blog is from Haloscan.

Personal

Terrible backache. Bad roads or tension or boredom?

Personal

Hindi poem from schooldays.

Kshan kshan kaal ikhatta hokar lamba yug ban jaata hai
Kshan ko shudra na samjho bhia yeh jag ka nirmaata hai

Chhoti chhoti si hi bhulein humko bura banaati hai
Nij sudhar ke path se humko koso duur hataati hai...

Time is passing fast, very fast.

There's no progress.

My interest in my current job is like a dewdrop resting at the tip of a long, sharp, and pointed leaf; ready to drop any moment, just waiting for a slight caress of the breeze, or a raindrop to disturb its agonizing moment that seems like an eternity.

Cricket Photo Galleries

- A good collection of images from recent cricket matches in BBC's photo galleries.

- View Rediff's photo feature on Sachin at the nets.

- For my ready reference.
# Links to follow the Ashes.

KBC 2

If only Saif and Preity had Google by their side to answer, Which British architect designed the Jinnah House in Bombay, in this evening's Kaun Banega Crorepati Dwitiya (KBC 2) they would have easily chosen the right option.
Here's the right answer from Google. Time taken: 11 seconds.

I like the way Amitabh Bachchan says Dwitiya in shuddh Hindi.
Bilkul sahi jawaab :-)

Watch KBC 2 on Star Plus at 9 p.m. IST Fri-Sun.

chirayu.blogspot.com is protected by CopyScape and Licensed Under Creative Commons Deed

Update: Fri., Aug. 19, 2005 04:17 p.m. IST
The plagiarised site has been deleted.
See Copyscape's cached version of Web pages plagiarised from my blog.

 This blog is licensed under a Creative Commons License.


Creative Commons Deed - Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0

You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author and you may not use this work for Commercial purposes like copying the entire site and hosting under a different domain to earn GoogleAdSense revenue.

Someone's been copying my site for the past two months and earning money by showing Google AdSense ads on the copied Web site, which is illegal.

http://chirayu.blogspot.com/ - Original since February 2004

Plagiarised Site:
http://chirayu.txthub.com/ - Copied Content since July 2005.

txtHub's Abuse Department please note and delete the copied blog http://chirayu.txthub.com/
I've already sent an email to support (at) txthub (dot) com and abuse (at) txthub (dot) com

Thanks for informing me about this, Mark.

Technorati Tags: TxtHub, Blog, Blogger, Blogging, Blogosphere, CopyScape, Creative Commons, and Plagiarism.

Update: Fri., Aug. 19, 2005 04:17 p.m. IST
The plagiarised site has been deleted.
See Copyscape's cached version of Web pages plagiarised from my blog.

Scenery

A solitary tree covers the expanse of a wide open sky, with an old well for company that welcomes the rains, as greyish-brown fields fade toward the silvery clouds.




Location: Near the temple town of Bhimashankar, 160 kms. from Pune.
Picture taken in July 2005. Thanks for the photograph, Bhavesh.

Google offers a part of the Golden 'Search' Pi(e) for Sale

Google plans to sell up to 14.8 million shares in a secondary public offering that is likely to generate US $4 billion, and provide an impetus for the company's new acquisitions and (I feel) also its proposed major entry in China.

Read Google's SEC filing dt. Aug. 18, 2005.

What's with the Pi(e) - pun intended - and where does it come from?
Trust Google to be different!

Pi* is the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle, which is 3.14759265 and 14,759,265 is the number of Class A shares offered by Google for sale.
Way to go Google. All the best!

Find out what's GOOG trading on Nasdaq? $279.15 03:15 p.m. ET Aug. 18, 2005.

* This will make for an interesting Business Quiz question. Relate GOOG and Pi.

Cricket: Asia XI v. Africa XI

Update 1: 11:40 p.m. IST
Africa XI beat Asia XI by 2 runs in a close match. At one stage Asia XI's score was 96/6 but Razzaq and Kumble, and then Zaheer and Shoaib Akhtar shared partnerships to take the score within winning distance before last man Ashish Nehra was bowled by Dale Steyn.

Zaheer gave a good all-round performance after being dropped from India's ODI team for the triangular series in Zimbabwe.

Scores:
Africa XI...198 all out in 44.3 overs
Asia XI.....196 all out in 48.1 overs

Update: 07:55 p.m. IST
Virender Sehwag has opened the innings with Sri Lanka's Kumara Sangakkara, and not Shahid Afridi. Asia XI chasing 199 for a win is 13/0 in 3 overs.

Posted at 06:24 p.m. IST

There's an Africa XI v/s. Asia XI one-day match in progress at Centurion, South Africa.

Asia XI's innings will offer cricket fans the opportunity to watch the special combination of two of the most attacking batsmen in one-day cricket, India's Virender Sehwag and Pakistan's Shahid Afridi, opening the batting.
Worth a watch for it. Abhijeet tells me the match is live on Zee TV.
Is this an official match?

Africa XI is 153/7 in 37 overs.

Follow the match on Cricinfo.

A Thought on Usability

A thought on matching offline and online Usability in software recruitments.

If a company gives a recruitment ad in the newspapers, they should mirror the same ad on their Web site as a separate Web page, (and not as an image), with a link to either submit an application form with the CV or provide a list of email addresses to send the CV.

It so happens that an ad is placed in the newspapers, while the Web site still has last year's information in the Careers section.

Consider these questions:

- How will people apply for a software job? Through the Internet.
- Why? Most of them are at work and will be applying through email.
- What is more accessible at work? The newspaper or an Internet connection?
# An Internet connection.

So why don't companies that want to recruit potential candidates display their latest newspaper ads on their Web sites?

Read today's Ascent and then view the Careers section of some of these companies. They have immediate requirements, as mentioned in their newspaper ads, and their Careers section hasn't been updated since the last six months.

List of Magazines

Yahoo! Buzz log provides a daily and weekly update on what the world is searching for on Yahoo!, and always makes for interesting reading.

See a list of magazines the world is searching for on Yahoo!.

Google Adsense Blog

What's New at Google?

- Google starts an AdSense blog.

AdSense is Google's contextual advertising service for Web site publishers that enables them to show ads related to the content of their web pages, and earn money from each qualified click on the contextual ads displayed.

Related:
- Google AdWords Blog started in May 2005.
- Google Blog started in April 2004.

Cricket: Links to follow the Ashes 2005

- England: BBC Cricket, Guardian, and Independent

- Australia: News, The Age, and SMH.

And, of course, Cricinfo.

Poems of Neruda and Books to Read

Anytime is the right time to read Neruda.

Happy, sad, good, bad, pleasant, angry, right, wrong, easy, difficult, white, black, moody, emotionless, bored, enthusiastic, frustrated, optimistic, cool, cynical, listless, energetic, or whatever be your mood, anytime is the right time to read Neruda.

I don’t love her, that’s certain, but perhaps I love her.
Love is brief: forgetting lasts so long.

Since, on these nights, I held her in my arms,
My soul is not content to have lost her.

Though this is the last pain she will make me suffer,
And these are the last lines I will write for her.
~ From Pablo Neruda's Twenty Poems of Love

Read Pablo Neruda's poems.
PDF, Size: 410 KB

Books I want to read:
Gabriel Garcia Marquez'
- One Hundred Years of Solitude
- No One Writes to the Colonel
- Love in the Time of Cholera

Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese languages fascinate me.

Senorita, por favor me ensena espanol.
Senorita, please teach me Spanish.

Nice Wallpaper

Download wallpaper of Sunset at Florida Keys, FL, USA.

Picture taken from National Geographic's Photo Archive.

Cricket Quiz Question

This makes for an interesting quiz question.

Q: Name a cricketer with the number series given below.

1. 29, 40, 58, 117, 13, 91, 80, 54, 116

2. 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0

Hint: This player had a peculiar on field habit like Steve Waugh.
Can you identify this cricketer?

Answer tomorrow.

Cricket: Ashes: 3rd Test - Ponting saves Australia from defeat, Match drawn

Mon., Aug. 15, 11:20 p.m. IST
3rd Test ends in a draw.

Ricky Ponting played an innings that would have made Steve Waugh proud.
His heroic, leading from the front by example, captain's innings of 156 runs helped Australia save the 3rd Ashes test v. England on the 5th and final day at Old Trafford, Manchester.

Although he was out with four overs remaining for the end of the day's play, Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath played the four overs for Australia to draw the match. Australia, chasing 423 for victory, ended the day at 371/9, with only a wicket separating England from victory.

Well played, Ricky Ponting!

Final Scores: 3rd Test. Old Trafford, Manchester.
England...1st Innings...444 all out
Australia...1st Innings...302 all out
England...2nd Innings...280/6 decl.
Australia...2nd Innings...371/9
Match Drawn.

Read the full scorecard.

View images of the fifth day's play.

The 4th Ashes test starts on Aug. 25 at Trent Bridge, Nottingham.

Cricket: Ashes: 3rd Test, Final Day - Can Ponting save the match?

England need to take 5 more wickets in 42 overs to go 2-1 up in the Ashes series for the first time in 18 years. England's last Ashes win was in 1986-87.

Australia were 216/5 at tea on the final day with captain Ricky Ponting unbeaten on 91, with Michael Clarke, the last recognised batsman, for company. Australia needs to play out the remaining overs to hold on for what looks a difficult draw to achieve.

However, Shane Warne who played well in the first innings and Brett Lee who can hold an end will be tough wickets to take. Michael Clarke is unbeaten on 20 and is capable of batting out the last session to help Australia hold on for a draw.

Langer was out early in the day, Hayden was bowled by Flintoff, Martyn and Katich didn't last long; and Adam Gilchrist who never plays a defensive game, hung around for 30 balls before getting out for 4 runs.

A defensive strategy seems to have backfired. Playing for a draw on the final day is as good as going toward a certain defeat.

It will be an interesting final session on the last day.
Five wickets to take for England to win.
42 overs to play for Australia to draw.

Australia should hold on, but then this has been England's test match. Let's wait and watch.

Scores: 3rd Test, 5th Day.
Old Trafford, Manchester.
England....1st Innings...444 all out
Australia...1st Innings...302 all out
England...2nd Innings...280/6 decl.
Australia...2nd Innings...216/5 in 65 overs
Match in progress.

To Read

The latest issue of BusinessWeek carries a special report on China and India.

Google's 'India Independence Day' Logo

Google India celebrates India's Independence Day with a special India Independence Day logo.

Independence Day

Where the Mind is Without Fear

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action—
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
~ From Rabindranath Tagore's Gitanjali.

Rabindranath Tagore's Where The Mind is Without Fear holds as much relevance today as it did when it was written 95 years ago. This is one of my favourite poems.
Read Rabindranath Tagore's Gitanjali.

Cricket: Ashes: 3rd Test, 4th Day

Scores: Old Trafford, Manchester. End of 4th Day's play.
England....1st Innings....444 all out
Australia...1st Innings...302 all out
England....2nd Innings....280/6 decl.
Australia...2nd Innings...24/0

Australia needs to score 399 more runs in 98 overs for a win, else play out the stipulated overs for a draw. Australia has been on the backfoot in this test and most probably they would be happy with a draw, but if Adam Gilchrist takes charge, anything's possible.

Cricket in rain and shine

Pic. taken from Rediff's photo feature.

Rainbow above the cricket ground
Aug 13 - A rainbow breaks the monotony of spectators during the rain-delayed 3rd day's play of the 3rd Ashes test at Old Trafford in Manchester. Australia managed to save the follow-on helped by Shane Warne's batting and Gillespie's support. Shane Warne is unbeaten on 74 with Gillespie for company with the score 264/7 in reply to England's 444 all out.

Follow the match on BBC Cricket

Indiafm has a new look

Bollywood Web site Indiafm.com sports a new look with red headings on white, shades of sky blue to show titles, and easy links to rate, print, and send pictures.

Usability suggestions for Indiafm:

1. Please provide A to Z links ( A | B | ...) at the top for movie wallpapers and celebrity wallpapers. This makes for faster and easier browsing and enables users to find the content they're searching for. Don't forget to give a Top link at the end of each sub-section.

2. Change the color of the search box from yellow to azure on white. The yellow search box doesn't match the look and feel of the Web site and appears to be an advertisement, as it is shown above Ads by Google.

3. Make the search box a part of the Web page content by displaying it on the right-hand side above the horizontal links to movies, celebrities, and music.

Nice Song: Dire Straits - Romeo and Juliet

A lovestruck romeo sings a streetsus serenade
Laying everybody low with a lovesong that he made
Finds a convenient streetlight steps out of the shade
Says something like you and me babe how about it?

Read the lyrics. Download MP3 - Size: 5.8 MB

Cricket: Ashes: 3rd Test, 2nd Day - England in command

Australia is struggling at 142/5 in reply to England's first innings score of 444 all out.

Update: 3rd Test, End of 2nd Day's play.
Old Trafford, Manchester
England....1st Innings...444 all out
Australia...1st Innings...210/7

Update 1: Aug. 13 - Rain delays start of 3rd day's play.
Update 2: Aug. 13 - Play resumes.

Cricket: Who will be the Captain of India? My choice is Rahul Dravid and here's why...

Update: Aug. 12, 2005 5:20 p.m. IST
Saurav Ganguly has been named as the captain of the Indian cricket team to tour Zimbabwe later this month.

Posted on Aug. 12 at 2:58 p.m. IST
There are speculations that Saurav Ganguly might be given back the captaincy of the Indian cricket team, when the selectors meet today for choosing the team to tour Zimbabwe.

My question to the selectors.

Q: Does Saurav Ganguly merit a place in the team based on his recent Test and ODI performances, leave alone being made the captain of India?
A: No he doesn't, and anyone who follows cricket in India can answer that.

And these wise men think he's good enough to be the Captain.

A captain doesn't only have to be passionate, motivated, and encouraging, along with these qualities, a captain has to walk the talk and lead from the front by example, which Saurav Ganguly has never done in the recent past.

What wrong did Rahul Dravid do? He played well and led from the front and so he is to be kicked out just because he doesn't swear or show outward aggression, and because India has lost six of the last eight ODIs played under his captainship? Is that the reason?

The selectors will be making a big mistake if they select Ganguly to captain India.
Think of the 2007 World Cup. Who do you think will last, Dravid or Ganguly?
Select Ganguly in the team and let him perform to keep his place in the side.
If Ganguly is selected again as the captain, it will send wrong signals of 'once a captain always a captain.'

Selectors, please define your parameters of leadership then choose a captain.

Saurav Ganguly
Pros:
- Shows passion, that is outward emotion
- Aggressive body language
- Encourages and motivates players
- Supports youngsters
- Sticks for players

Cons:
- Never performs
- Cannot lead from the front by example
- Doesn't walk the talk
- Bad fielder
- Doesn't play when the team needs it the most
- Only talks and shows outward aggression
- Doesn't have the performances to deserve a place in the team, except as only a captain
What good is this?
When was the last time Saurav Ganguly played a captain's knock to lead India to victory? One fails to recollect.

Now lets's take Rahul Dravid

Cons:
- India has lost six of the last eight ODI matches played under his captainship.
- Doesn't appear to be aggressive
- Doesn't show outward emotions
- Doesn't swear on the field

I say, So what!
That doesn't make him a bad captain.

Rahul Dravid's strengths
- Leads from the front by example
- Always performs
- Performs when the team needs it the most
- Doesn't talk for the press, let's his bat do the talking on the cricket field
- Is a tough cricketer who plays when it matters
- Consistent performer from the last so many years
- His time will come and he will lead India to great victories.

For all those people who say Ganguly is a better tactician and understands the game better, my answer is, did he know that when he became captain of India in 2001? Give Dravid an extended spell of captainship, put confidence in him and make him the captain of India for a season and see the results.

For all the great wins that Ganguly has led India to, look at his individual performance. In the epic Kolkata test of March 2001 v/s. the Australians it was VVS Laxman and Dravid who batted through the day and then Harbhajan who took the wickets.
In India's test match victories versus Pakistan in Pakistan it was the bowling of Irfan, Balaji, and others, and the batting of Sehwag and Dravid that helped India beat Pakistan in March-April 2004. The last test match century that Saurav Ganguly had scored was way back in December 2003 in Brisbane during the 2003-04 tour down under. It was Rahul Dravid who scored a double century and Agarkar's five wickets that helped India win the Adelaide test match in Dec. 2003.

Selectors, if captaining a Cricket team is about showmanship and outward aggression, make Ganguly the captain. If you think cricket captaincy is about leadership that has the ability to walk the talk, Sirf Bolneka nahin boss, dum hai to karke dikhaneka, then Rahul Dravid is my captain of India for the next series and till the 2007 Cricket World Cup.

That's my definition of leadership, and it doesn't apply only to the cricket field.

If you expect your employees to be in office at 9:30 a.m. you've got to be in office at 9:25 a.m. If you expect them to work fast, you've got to work faster and show it to them. Good leadership is not about pointing toward a mountain, but running uphill, passing obstacles, and reaching the summit, then encouraging others to reach there by saying, "I did it so fast, you too can it's that easy!"

Rahul Dravid has the ability to say, "The buck stops here!" Does Saurav Ganguly have that ability? Ganguly ne kiya kya hai jo usko vapas captain banayenge? If he'd have scored a match-winning century and helped India win the Triangular series then it would have been a commendable comeback. What did he do? Pottered around to score a half century, exposed his inability to play the short ball by getting injured, and then didn't perform in the final, as all cricket fans already knew, he wouldn't. Ganguly doesn't deserve to be the captain of India.

"Even actor Abhishek Bachchan has started giving multiple hit films after 18 consecutive flops. His time has come and now he's counted among India's top Bollywood actors."

How many more chances does Saurav Ganguly need, or is Saurav Ganguly waiting for a divine intervention for his time to come?

Selectors need to send across a signal to all cricketers aspiring to play for India.
First deserve and then desire.

Any team can win against Zimbabwe, New Zealand recently gave them a battering by bowling them out for less than a hundred runs in both innings of a test, and if the selectors choose Ganguly over Dravid, and India wins in Zimbabwe, it won't be a big achievement.

Keep the faith, Rahul. Good guys don't always finish last.

Update: Aug. 12, 2005 5:20 p.m. IST

Saurav Ganguly has been named as the captain of the Indian cricket team to tour Zimbabwe later this month. Rahul Dravid has been named as the vice-captain.

Related:
- Schedule of India's cricket tour of Zimbabwe in Aug-Sept. 2005.


Technorati Tags: Cricket, India, Cricket India

Yahoo! partners with China's Alibaba.com

Yahoo! buys 40% of Alibaba.com by investing $1 billion in China's leading e-commerce site for small and medium enterprises.

Cricket: Warne takes 600th Test Wicket

Australia's Shane Warne became the first bowler in the history of Test Match cricket to take 600 wickets. Warne reached this milestone on the first day of the third Ashes test match being played at Old Trafford in Manchester.

Shane Warne had England's opening batsman Marcus Trescothick, who was earlier dropped by Gilchrist on 13 off the bowling of McGrath, caught behind of a mistimed sweep shot, to take his 600th test wicket.

Shane Warne's achievement couldn't stop England from taking the upper hand on the first day of the third Ashes test. England are going strong at 220/2 with captain Michael Vaughan, who shared a 2nd wicket parnership of 137 runs with Trescothick, unbeaten on 113 runs, his first century of the series.

England went into the third test with the same team that defeated Australia in the second test at Edgbaston by a narrow margin of two runs. Australia made one change to their lineup with ace strike bowler Glenn McGrath, coming back from injury, in place of Michael Kasprowicz.

Latest Score: Ashes - Match in progress.
3rd Test: 1st Day
Old Trafford, Manchester
England.....1st Innings....220/2 in 62 overs

Update: End of 1st Day's play - 3rd Test
England....1st Innings.....341/5 in 89 overs

Technorati Tag: Cricket

Spot Quiz:
1. Which player was Shane Warne's first test match wicket?
2. Who took the catch to give Warne his first test wicket?

Cricket: Yesterday's Triangular Series Final v. Sri Lanka

Been there, lost that
India's performance in the finals brings a sense of deja vu. It's a story of been there and lost that. This is the umpteenth time India has lost after reaching the final.

Sri Lanka's batting in the middle overs
Our bowling and fielding let us down. Dropped catches and the inability of the spinners to get the Sri Lankan middle order out after having them 4 down for 122 in 26 overs. The fifth wicket partnership of 125 runs between Jayawardena and Arnold helped Sri Lanka to put up a commanding score of 281 in their 50 overs.

Sri Lanka's spinners bowled well
Sri Lankan spinners Muralitharan and Chandana snapped four wickets between them giving less than four runs per over while Kumble had a bad day and went for 64 runs of his 10 overs and Harbhajan bowled tight to concede only 40 runs in his stipulated 10 overs, but was unable to take a wicket and force a breakthrough in the Sri Lankan middle order.

Tale of dropped catches and run outs
Wicket-keeper Dhoni dropped two crucial catches, while the Sri Lankans grabbed two wickets as run outs. Rahul Dravid was unlucky to be run out, it was misjudgement on his part and Kaif cannot be blamed. Harbhajan's was a comical run-out. He kept on looking at the ball going toward the short third man fielder behind the wicket-keeper, and also ran half-way down the pitch instead of waiting for Kaif's call. Murali's spin got the better of Irfan's rush of blood to clobber a six after getting beaten for three balls. Yuvraj played well for his 42 before throwing away his wicket of the first lofted sweep shot that he played against Chandana.

Saurav Ganguly fails again, so what's new?
Saurav Ganguly was expected to fail, which he did.
The selectors need to decide on how many more chances do they want to give Saurav Ganguly to fail before dropping him? He did reach a personal milestone of completing 10,000 ODI runs in one of the earlier matches, and that was a laboured effort of 51 runs in 100 balls. Ganguly is no longer the God of off-side batting or for that matter of any type of batting. The selectors need to decide about Ganguly's position in the team. On the basis of his performance does he deserve a chance? It's a question to be answered by the selectors.

VVS needs to perform or become a 'test match' only player
VVS Laxman fails time and again and that is a waste of opportunity for a player of great class. Laxman needs to be given a few more chances or else needs to be told that he's a specialist test batsman and won't be considered for ODI matches.

Start of the season - Good luck, India
It's the beginning of the season and let India prove that Team India is not only about Sehwag and Rahul Dravid. There are nine other guys and all of them can play together and win together. Good luck India.

Pros for India:
- Rahul Dravid leading for the front by example.
Well played, Rahul.
He should be persisted as the Captain of India.

Cons for India:
- Inability of our players to give all-round performances.
Batting comes good, the bowling fails.
Bowling clicks and the fielders drop catches.

Note for Selectors: Please retain Rahul Dravid as the captain of India.
Even though India lost, Rahul Dravid led from the front by example, scoring three half centuries in five matches and fighting hard. Not like Ganguly who has rarely played to put up even an average score when the team needs it.

Scores
India lost to a better team on the day and Sri Lanka having defeated India thrice in as many matches were deserving winners of the Indian Oil Cup.

Read the complete scorecard of the India v. Sri Lanka Indian Oil Triangular Series ODI (d/n) final played at the R. Premadasa stadium in Colombo, Sri Lanka on Tue., Aug. 09, 2005.

Technorati Tag: Cricket

Search Indexes

According to information provided on the Yahoo Search Blog, its search index now provides access to over 20 billion items, which includes more than 19.2 billion web documents, 1.6 billion images, and over 50 million audio and video files.

Yahoo!'s Web search index of 19.2 billion documents makes it larger than Google's Web search index, which officially, as shown on its home page, searches 8.16 billion documents.

Yahoo! Web search index: 19.2 billion
Google Web search index: 8.16 billion

- To draw an analogy, 8.16 billion is eight times the population of India.

Yahoo! Image search index: 1.6 billion
Google Image search index: 2.18 billion

Links

1. Search for podcasts on Podscope, the podcast search engine.

2. To make ChinaKnowledge a part of my weekly reads.

3. China's Google, Baidu.com, is trading at $136 on Nasdaq (BIDU).

Bixee Job Search Engine for India

Bixee is a meta job search engine for India that searches popular job sites like Naukri, Jobsahead, etc. and provides relevant results from multiple Web sites.

Bixee.com is India's Indeed.com.

Pune's Potholed Roads

Pune's roads are in a bad condition is an Euphemism and good roads in Pune is an Oxymoron.

Copy of email sent to Pune Times this morning.

Please show pictures of the beauty of Pune's roads instead of beautiful girls on Page 3 of Pune Times.

Take pictures of Ganeshkhind road going from Shimla Office signal toward Rahul Theatre signal. The stretch of about 750 metres consists of a series of craters in assorted shapes.

Pune Times should keep on highlighting information on lack of civic facilities, as it reminds the authorities to keep on working. Why can't they construct sturdy roads that last a monsoon?

It rains for a week, then the potholes are filled, again it rains, and the craters appear again.

Please spend an afternoon and take pictures of Pune's potholed roads, the above location is near your office, and for a change instead of phases of Koel Purie's face, maybe Page 3 can carry the phases of Pune's potholed roads.

Technorati Tag: Pune

KBC 2 starts tomorrow

KBC 2 premieres tomorrow at 9 p.m. IST on Star Plus.
Humour: Do something with your life. Don't sit in front of the television set watching others make money.

Yahoo! Audio Search (Beta)

Yahoo! introduces Audio Search (Beta), which finds audio files across the Web.
Note: To try different searches.

General Thoughts at Work

- At Work: No one had emptied and cleaned rainwater that had accumulated from the last four days in the waste paper basket near my desk. So this morning I removed the waste papers and threw the stagnant water. Bolneka nahin boss, karke dikhaneka.

- This morning I received an email from an acquaintance with an interesting quote as the email signature. Passion makes the world go round, and Love just makes it a safer place.

My email signature used to be, In dreams and in love there are no impossibilities.
However, I don't use a signature now, seems I don't have a visible/realistic dream to achieve, and the time for Love went by a long time back. Now it is about going to office and coming back home.

Infy goes to China

Infosys to invest $10 million over the next two years to build a software development centre in Shanghai, China.

Update: Infosys plans to invest $65 million over the next five years in software development facilities in Shanghai and Hangzhou in China.

Yahoo!'s Contextual Advertising Network

Yahoo! plans to offer Contextual Advertising services like Google AdSense.

Yahoo! Publisher Network (Beta) will enable Publishers to generate additional revenue from their web site by showing ads related to the content of their site, and earn revenue from qualified clicks.

Publishers can submit an application to join Yahoo! Publisher Network (Beta) program. Note: Participants must be U.S. residents.

Technorati Tag: Yahoo

Google Total

1. Google Total provides all Google search options like web, images, groups, news, Froogle, video, print, glossary, scholar, catalogs, and answers in a dropdown box.

Directory search and Google Suggest are missing with the News option being repeated.

This is a good link for reference.
Got this link via Anil's blog. Thanks, Anil.

2. Get Google Groups Alerts by email.

Interesting Reads

1. If advertising revenue is the bottomline for News Channels then their
growth is slowing down, as new players take advertising rates southwards.

2. FE's edit says any other city in India would have been in the same situation as Mumbai was during the torrential rains last week, and it's time for the civic administration of all our major towns and cities to start work in earnest.

Above links taken from The Financial Express.

Facts and Figures on the Blogosphere

Blogosphere Statistics:

Technorati, the blog search engine, tracks over 14.2 million blogs and over 1.3 billion links.
# To draw an analogy, 14.2 million ~ equals the population of Bombay and 1.3 billion ~ equals the population of India.

- The blogosphere continues to double approx. every five-and-a-half months.
- A new blog is created about every second and there are over 80,000 created daily.
- About 55% of all blogs are active and that has remained a consistent statistic for at least a year.
- About 13% of all blogs are updated at least weekly.

Read Technorati founder and CEO David Sifry's complete report on the state of the blogosphere. Information via John Battelle's Searchblog.

Wishlist for Google

My wishlist for services and products from Google.

- Google Desktop Search for Windows 98
- Google Local Search for India
- Google Phonebook search for India
- Google's Froogle Shopping for India
- Google India Zeitgeist with more categories
- Google Maps and Local Search for India
- GMail with links to Google Maps and Local Search for India
- Google Blog Search
- Google Instant Messenger (GIM)

Yahaan

To watch Yahaan.

On reading the movie review it seems like a different love story with fantastic cinematography, which shows the splendour of Kashmir valley, and an above average screenplay that isn't jingoistic nor does it trivialise reality.

Read a photo feature on Yahaan, a Guns n' Roses love story starring Jimmy Shergill and Minissha Lamba, set in beautiful Kashmir against the backdrop of militancy.

Listen to Naam Adaa Likhna, a soft and melodious song from Yahaan.