Oye Punjabi kudi..

I know you can’t read this, but I know that my writing this convey’s my feelings to you, wherever you are.  I know you for a short period, but those trifle moments at your Pepsi Building, with Kunal, Kesi and rest are moments I hold dear of my visit to Vrndavan.  Talking to you in hindi was a pleasure, and your company cherished by many.

I am glad that I met you atleast once, that too during my only trip to Vrndavan, my good karma probably. I hope this little note finds you in best of health, at the Lotus Feet of Krsna, the one you loved soo dearly.

Radhe Radhe,

A.S.

Will miss you.

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As for any of you out there, reading this, please do check out these links:

http://youth.rupa.com/gdc/news/#_0

Lila’s Orkut Profile 

To send your condolences please mail : Kunal Singh at oneknoteight [at] gmail.com

If you wish to send a video, please upload the same on You tube, preferably of low quality (by legible) and send the link to the above mentioned email. Also, if you can text message Madhu (her elder brother) who’s presently in Vrndavan at her bedside.

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Ratan Tata has come out with his car, the Nano. Design’wise it looks like a Maruti Zen Estilo ( my cousin corrected this mistake :P Daewoo Matiz, and features-wise, I have no clue. But this post isn’t about the car. Its about what has been happening around the car. Yes, this post is based on my own opinion and those ‘facts’ printed in the dailies that you read every morning you get up.

It’s amazing how much resistance one faces when he/she is trying to achieve something which was considered impossible, or unsurmountable! When Tata first released the Project to the Media the world scoffed that this was utterly impossible keeping in mind the standards required to manufacture the car. Hell, even now just before the launch, S. Nakanishi, the MD of Maruti Suzuki has this to say :

We cannot make a cheaper car. We don’t know how to make a 1 lakh car unless we sacrifice something. We won’t go below the 9– in our product line-up

I myself had become a critique commenting as to what will happen to Bombay when the car comes out? Our already clogged road would just get worse! Pollution factors would go through the sky! yada yada yak yak. But Ratan Tata sees it from a different prespective, which I admire now that I’ve read it. May be lies, but as long as its proved lies, I’ll admire the man and the values.
As to what got him to think of a affordable cheap car? He says :

I observed families riding on two-wheelers- the father driving, his kid standing in front, his wife seated behind him holding a baby. It let me to wonder whether one could conceive a safe, affordable, all-weather form of transport..Today, we are happy to present the people’s car to India and we hope it brings the joy, pride and utility of owning a car to many families

As he launched the car, he had something to add :

They said we couldn’t make the car, then they said we should no make it. Now they are saying it shouldn’t come out

Well this is the world. We try, try real hard to bring down someone who’s doing well, who’s doing better than you. A dog eats dog world like the call it. The amount of effort that goes into pulling someone down, or setting up road blocks, were it to be directed somewhere else, we may have a better world to live in. No I’m not saying, I’m not guilty of this, I am, and I’m ashamed to say this. But times are there and you’ll wake up one morning, and a new realization dawns on you. Probably today was my day, and I required a paper and a man who achieved something others thought impossible to wake up.
Nope, I’m not saying, I’ll be come a desh-bhakt ( a possibility! ) starting now, or turn out to be SRK in Swades (another possibility!), but I know that there are things you can achieve. I don’t know what my purpose of life is. I don’t know what my long term goals are, hell, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do today! But then when you know what you don’t have, you can start looking at what you have.

Well as of now, I have a paper, a pen and an open mind. Starting today, I won’t be perfect, but I’ll try to get there. Hopefully some of Ratan Tata’s stubbornness and determination rubs off me. Kudos to that man, and kudos to you and me. Hopefully you’ll find your calling, and you’ll get down to business, and reach that destination! And if you’ve already found your ultimate goal, i wish you the best, and I present an open invitation to you, to ask me for any sort of help, and I’ll do everything that I’m capable of to support you in your purpose of life.

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Wishing Everyone a Happy New Years and a belated Merry Christmas

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Well, I was talking to RichieRich, and I realized something: this blog has kinda lost its human touch. With all the technical, newb-friendly posts about Ubuntu (Linux for Human Beings, ironic isn’t it?), I’m simply forgotten to post anything with the slightest touch of emotions.

Well, with my Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon setup ( no i’m not getting technical again!) I had this little applet which shows me comic strips, a new one everyday. Today’s comic strip ( of the xkcd‘ series ) showed the following :

As I was reading this, I was also speaking to someone ( someone who matters a lot to me ), and that person being busy, I was just about to sign off ( yeah, its more of a ego issue with me, I can’t stand being ignored), and I was about to say *hugs*. Like this strip says, some nights, *hugs* just doesn’t cut it .

Oh well, its off to books for me. Loads to read, loads to do. And thanks to moti for this realization. I guess this must be happening to all bloggers out there on WWW.

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oh no, not Christmas!

More along lines of my HDD being finally replaced by the crazy people at Samsung Service Centre (Andheri)! And I’m back on Ubuntu. I’m still on a 800×600 resolution. But already have Envy installed! Only need to run it, and install the stuff. That’ll take some time, since it has quite a few dependencies, although small, they amount to about 200 files!

The pain is, since the last time I installed Gutsy, the number of updates and patches have increased to a bloody 200 odd mb’s! 122 files to be downloaded.

The other good news is that the download speed is sticking constantly to 11.3kbs! Odd, I know, but no matter what I’m surfing and all, the download speed for the updates remains constant, even if I’m downloading something on firefox ( which downloads at about 4kbps - 6kbps!).

Well, will post as things move on.

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The Book of Your Life
by Earl Vickers

Introduction:
How to Write the Book of Your Life

Now I don’t know but I been told
It’s hard to run with the weight of gold
Other hand I heard it said,
It’s just as hard with a weight of lead.
— Robert Hunter

The Book of Your Life is not a blank book, a tabula rasa. Nor is it already completed, filled with someone else’s words, leaving nothing but narrow margins in which to scribble. Instead, the book, like the proverbial glass, is half empty and half full; the achievements of others are interleaved with those of your own.

The Book of Your Life is shorter than you might think, and longer. You can read it in a day, but it will take a lifetime to write. There are an infinite number of phantom pages before the first page and after the last, pages on which you will never write a single word. You must color between the lines labeled ‘birth’ and ‘death.’

This book is intended to allow you to chronicle your achievements over an entire lifetime, giving you a broader perspective than you would get from a day-to-day diary. It also puts your achievements into context by juxtaposing them against those of the great and not-so-great figures of history, lining up everyone at the same starting gate. The book can be used as a yardstick by which to measure your performance in life, or as a series of signposts pointing out the paths other people have taken.

Life is not a foot race, but looking over your left shoulder at the competition can give you that extra push towards excellence. The examples of those who met untimely ends remind us that the finish line can be anywhere. There is no deadline quite like death, so you may as well go ahead and become who you really are, while you still can.

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This book can be used for setting goals and monitoring your progress. Simply skip ahead to future years and pencil in things you wish to achieve. Then sit back and watch as milestones are met, setbacks are encountered, and goals are reached or abandoned.

If you are a pompous and conceited person, you can use this book as a lesson in humility. Simply compare your pathetic, meaningless accomplishments with those of the randomly selected individuals on the opposite page and realize that, compared to them, you’re nothing. You’ll never amount to squat.

On the other hand, if you are an under-achieving late bloomer, you can take comfort from the many examples of accomplishment late in life. Instead of being intimidated by all the great things other people have done, you can be inspired by their progress. Stand on the shoulders of giants; build on their achievements as if they were your own. One of the best shortcuts to success is to learn from the successes and failures of others.

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The human drama has a seemingly infinite number of twists and turns, plots and subplots, but some common themes recur throughout the book. Virtue is rewarded, or punished, or ignored. Some dreams are realized; others are dashed on the rocks of reality. Some people seem to be born knowing what they want to do with their lives; others have to make it up as they go. Prodigies die young, accomplish little, or achieve greatness. Problems elude years of determined effort, only to be solved by an accidental blunder. Great artists die penniless, leaving works that later sell for millions. Success is attained despite overwhelming odds; failure is snatched from the jaws of victory. And some people’s lives are useful mainly as examples of how not to live.

Whatever the pattern of your life turns out to be, honor your achievements, whether or not they fit the (traditionally male) discovery/invention/exploration categories that predominate in this book. This is an exciting time, with new fields of endeavor opening up to women as well as men. But don’t be ashamed of the softer types of achievement, the small personal victories of everyday life. The future success of the human race may depend as much upon the type of creativity and dedication needed in raising a child as it does upon the achievements that bring home prizes and glory.

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Many words of advice have been written for those embarking upon life’s journey: know thyself, seek moderation in all things, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, to thine own self be true, follow your bliss, get a life, be… all that you can be. Whatever path you choose, be aware that a life of achievement may take you right off the edge of the map.

While there is no such thing as the typical road to success, it typically looks like this: set a goal, try something, fail, try something else, fail, and repeat over and over until you find something that works. Once you find a successful method, keep using it until it doesn’t work any more, or until everyone else starts doing it, or until it’s not fun any more. Then try something new. If you get stuck, hang in there and give random chance a chance to send you that unexpected left turn.

Ultimately, all you need to do is figure out who you really are and just be the hell out of that person. Don’t waste time making yourself into a pale imitation of the person others expect you to be. Why live someone else’s stupid miserable life when you can go live your own stupid miserable life! Be yourself or die trying!

Your life is an open book, and this is it. Start writing.

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    Well, since I haven’t been on Ubuntu for a while ( and may take quite some time more, damn those Samsung jackasses!) I thought, I’ll post up on what I’ve been doing lately with respect to software. I’ve been a user of MOrange for quite sometime now, and my liking for it has stuck.

Now that a pal of mine has also picked up the Motorola E6, I thought, why not post the new stuff about MOrange. Since the 3.3.3has been out, they’ve pumped in some features. From what I’ve heard, they’re still fine-tuning it, but the forums are abuzz with people using it.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Well, I hate to give account of my day to anyone, but for the sake of bragging, here goes :
9th November: 185 kms to Pune from Bombay
10th November: 885 kms to Banglore from Pune

17th November: 885 kms to Pune from Banglore
18th November: 185 kms to Bombay from Pune

24th November: 860 kms to Hampi from Bombay ( Bumpy ride to Hampi, BN Annual Meet )
25th November: 860 kms to Bombay from Hampi ( sorry can’t think of a one liner here! )

The total adds to 3850 kms. And these are distances calculating from Panvel to Katraj (Pune) or Neelmangala (Banglore) or the town just outside Hampi.

Muhaha, that means approx 4k kms done over a span of 3 weekend days!!!!!

I shall post the events* and photos** soon.

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* by Events, I mean, worth mentioning events, not the boring ride from Pune to Banglore on a plain straight road

** I didn’t click any photographs, as I dodn’t have a camera. i shall post other people’s ‘clicks’ with due references.

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Well, someone told my dad, and he advised me :

Every situation in your life can be faced in three ways :

1. Headon

2.Bare Chested

3. Backbone Bent

All the options are not what they mean literally.

1. Headon : means you face the situation using your intellect. Use your brains.

2. Bare Chested : means, to use your heat, your emotions rule the moment

3. Backbone Bent: means , that some situtations, you should know that you have to bow down, accept.

And when using any of the above way, the other shouldn’t come into the picture. When you’re dealing with a situation with your head, don’t bring emotions into the picture.

Well, some months ago, I dealt with a situation with my head, and today my hear repents for it! Is there any solution for this?

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