My journey of life...

If there is one thing which is really precious to me apart from all the gaming stuff and more than my Manchester United Jersey is my bright red original Michael Schumacher World Champion 2002 Ferrari Jacket. This was a time when Ferrari demolished the opposition and although I bought this probably in the 2004 season (during another Ferrari steamroller) I am in love with it. Being a Schumi fan (and a Ferrari loyalist) it is the best sporting merchandise ever. It's been more than 7 years since I have that jacket and it's served me well. I wore it around wherever I went. It was very common to see me wearing it at INKC dog shows all around. Some of my friends even called me junior schumacher. Some teased me that the judges would give me prizes by not looking at the dog but looking at the jacket. My first US trip, I complete immigration and move into US customs. Believe me I was scared. The cop takes my customs declaration takes one look at me and asks me - 'You a Ferrari fan?...

A Touching Poem...... by Anonymous I went to a party Mom, I remembered what you said. You told me not to drink, Mom, So I drank soda instead. I really felt proud inside, Mom, The way you said I would. I didn't drink and drive, Mom, Even though the others said I should. I know I did the right thing, Mom, I know you are always right. Now the party is finally ending, Mom, As everyone is driving out of sight. As I got into my car, Mom, I knew I'd get home in one piece. Because of the way you raised me, So responsible and sweet.. I started to drive away, Mom, But as I pulled out into the road, The other car didn't see me, Mom, And hit me like a load. As I lay there on the pavement, Mom, I hear the policeman say, "The other guy is drunk," Mom, And now I'm the one who will pay. I'm lying here dying, Mom.... I wish you'd get here soon. How could this happen to me, Mom? My life just burst like a balloon.. There is blood all around me, Mom, And most of it is m...

How to Take a Great Photo for Your Social Media Avatar : " I’d be lying if I said I had a flying clue what “avatar” meant even a year ago. Now, with the absolute explosion of all things social networking, you’d have to be living under a clod of dirt in some remote corner of the galaxy not to have heard the word and it’s likely you actually have an avatar of your very own. . . or at the very least a profile picture or two or three adorning all the social networks you frequent. Now with that big, fat (and hopefully PHAT), fancy shmancy camera stuffing your stocking this Christmas, you’ll likely be asked to photograph one for someone in the not too distant future. Twitter users left to right: @imageisfound, @amelialyon, @rachelwonders Here are some tips so you’re sure not to disappoint. **PLEASE NOTE: I understand that different profile pics are appropriate for different situations and that ultimately it’s all a matter of preference. As a general rule of thumb however, I maintain ...

Yes it's been a long time since I have posted but I have been busy with fitness and work. A few months back, Google Wave hit the web. It's supposed to be an HTML5 application. Well I was really apprehensive about something new from Google. Agreed Google makes the most coolest of products but what I was really thinking was - Do we need another communication medium on the web? I mean we have discussion boards, forums, email, voice chat, social networking and more.. Do we really need this 'Google Wave' ? There was a lot of buzz happening with this being an invitation only account and everything. But for those of us without invitation, there was just a long one hour video. So this Sunday I decided what the heck lets watch it. It's a pretty long video but trust me its worth watching every second of it. Here's my take on what Google Wave is: Google Wave as they have said is a 'communication object' . It's pretty much like a combination of an email and a d...

Remember the add of Titan watches ...yes... the one with Amir Khan in it? Makes me really ponder... It states the cold and hard reality of life. When we were children we really thought of becoming something. At least for me I wanted to be an Air force pilot one day, a cricketer sometime, a professional wrestler and what not. Finally I ended up being a software developer. I am not cribbing about what I am. In fact I actually loved working with computers and I still enjoy my job. Although I wish I would innovate something but then I guess the world is not ready for me yet ;) It's just that where has our imagination gone now? Sometimes I feel we are living what I call 'routine lives'. We hardly do any innovation. Most of our thinking is critical- What is happening to this country? Why am I not paid well? When will I be financially secure and what not . We do get emails from our friends (forwards) that sometimes show us the beauty of life. We don't have time to admire anyth...

Microsoft Windows - Every person who has ever used a PC in their life has used this operating system. Whether or not he has stuck with it is a different story. William Gates' dream of ruling over the world of computers came true with Windows. But now looking back at windows - does it still have what it takes to be a great operating system? Without doubt no one can beat the popularity of Windows in todays PC market. It was so difficult to beat it that even Apple has now started allowing dual boot on Mac's a feature which I was previously unaware of. So who can compete with this Goliath of Operating Systems? In my opinion no one. The market share of Microsoft Windows beats any operating system hands down. Windows has more desktop users than any other OS. I have been using Windows since it's 3.11 release. I remember we had to run win.exe to start windows on MS DOS then. It wasn't an operating system in the real sense. I then upgraded to Windows 95 which in my opinion revol...

Well this is something which I just imagined and made today after I went berserk shopping at Reliance Fresh and Reliance Delight stores for ingredients. What you need: Chicken Cut into cubes (or on the bone whatever you prefer) Vinegar(I used Chilli Vinegar which I like more) Ginger Garlic Paste Whole garam masala Cummin(Jeera) Powder Coriander(Dhania) Powder Chilli and Turmeric Salt and Pepper for seasoning Oil for frying Onions Tomato Puree Garam Masala powder Lots of fresh coriander. For starters chop the onions finely as you would for a curry. In a bowl add the chicken, vinegar, salt, pepper, ginger garlic paste,dhania jeera powder and finely chopped coriander (sounds weird right? Believe me tastes good). Mix well and let it marinate for at least 10-15 mins. Make sure you do not over power the marinade with Vinegar or else the taste of the fresh coriander will be lost. Alternatively you could make a green paste in the blender if you have one and apply it to the chicken. Heat the oi...

One evening an old Cherokee Indian told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.    He said, “My son, the battle is between two ‘wolves’ inside us all.   One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego.   The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.”   The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf wins?”    The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

The rumours have been silenced. It's Official now. 7 time World Champion comes out of retirement for Ferrari. Michael Schumacher returns to F1 There have been many returns in different sports. But this is different. Schumi as he is affectionately called brings high hopes to his fans around the world that finally we might just see a Ferrari victory. The question is will he be at his best and will we be able to see Michael Magic again? May be, May be not. One thing is for sure F1 is going to be exciting again with the return of the Red Baron. With SPA and Suzuka as upcoming races one can only imagine the feeling among his loyal fans. They know deep down that he is going to set the track on fire. And I can only think of what the Italian GP is going to be with MSC behind the wheel again. Can Ferrari manage a 1-2 finish in front of the Tifosi at Monza? After the Hungarian GP one would think that Mclaren and Ferrai have got stronger. Both these teams now will have a say in the world ch...

We rely on my mobile phonebook for majority of my contacts. If we accidentally erase my contacts - we send an email to everyone I know to get the contacts back We spend more time on social networking sites than talking to people. People know us more from our Facebook or twitter posts our orkut photos than our conversations Music means an Ipod or something similar. Gone are the days when you would actually learn music. MSPaint and photoshop is replacing our drawing. Whatever happened to Elementary and Intermediate Drawing exams. You just watch Travel and Living and wish you could be there. Friday is the day when you stop posting on Facebook and Orkut for two days. Wishing advance Happy Birthday to all your social networking friends and exclaim TGIF even if you had very little work in the week. Monday is when you come to office grumpy most of the while thinking why the weekend got over even if it was a boring one. You look back at articles photos and keep thinking 'how nostalgic'...

Everyone remembers what happened to Aryton Senna at Imola. I wasn't hooked on to F1 then but still hear people saying it was one of the darkest days of F1. Formula 1 has missed Senna ever since. Within 2 weeks of the Hungarian GP we had the news of one of the young GP2 drivers succumbing to injuries sustained by a loose wheel of the race leader. At the Hungarian GP we had Felippe Massa who was hit by a spring which came loose of the Brawn GP car of Barichello. Massa needed to be operated on and looks like he might miss the remainder of the season. I really liked Massa for fighting back all the time and trying to overshadow Kimi who now looks hopeless in the Scarlet Car although he did manage 2nd on the podium. Apart from all this happening we had the Renault team who messed up big time for race leader Alonso. After all that had happened in qualifying how could they not put the bolt on right. And if the did know it wasn't right they should have told Alonso to either stay in the ...

How did one survive growing up in the 80's and 90's? We had no seatbelts, no airbags.. Cycling was like a breath of fresh air… No safety helmets, knee pads or elbow pads, with plenty of cardboards between spokes to make it sound like a motorbike… When thirsty we only drank tap water, bottled water was still a mystery… We kept busy collecting bits & pieces so we could build all sort of things … and we were fearless on our bicycles even when the brakes failed going downhill… We were showing off how tough we are, by how high we could climb trees & then jumping down….It was great fun…. We could stay out to play for hours, as long as we got back before dark, in time for dinner… We walked to school, or sometimes we even rode our bicycle. We had no mobile phones, but we always managed to find each other…. How? We lost teeth, broke arms & legs, we got cuts and bruises and bloody noses…. nobody complained as we had so much fun, it wasn't anybody's fault, only ours W...

It's been a while since I posted anything. I was out in the US for a month and lost my touch with writing. Rahul suggested that I should start blogging again in my free time so thanks to him for reminding me about my blog! The first thing I come back to see is F1! With three GP's out of the way the surprising part is Brawn GP is leading the pack with Toyota following in hot pursuit. I always knew Ross Brawn was one of the most intelligent guys out there and he built a car with double diffusers which has created a lot of controversy. What I find surprising is why couldn't last years title challengers come up with this idea (read Ferrari, McLaren and BMW). Ferrari's pace has been slow and I don't remember seeing them struggle so much in the past years. The worst season was 2005 and 2003 but they weren't that slow. After 3 races the Scuderia is 9th placed in the constructors championship. Barcelona is going to see major upgrades for Ferrari and I am hoping they get...

This post has been in my drafts since the Italian GP. First of all treacherous conditions for the drivers. The star of Monza Sebastian Vettel became the youngest ever driver to win a Formula 1 race. It also brought about the first victory for Torro Rosso formerly Minardi. I remember watching Minardi in the 2002 season when Ferrari was unstoppable and wondered - Will they ever be able to match the front runners? I guess they have answered their critics. After a long time I saw a German Driver winning for an Italian team and at the presentation ceremony hearing the same sequence of national anthems when Schumi used to win for Ferrari. I hope Vettel will one day drive for Scuderia after all it is said that Schumi discovered him. Vettel still want's everyone not to compare him with Schumi. Ferrari though could not match the pace in their home GP and Massa who should have taken advantage of Hamilton's situation just managed to finish one place ahead. Then came the Singapore GP. F1...

"The web gets better with more options and innovation. Google Chrome is another option, and we hope it contributes to making the web even better." - Google Well being a fan of google for quite some time now so I decided to try out Google Chrome. I did try Apple Safari to Windows and fell in love with it. The only problem with Safari was that it was unstable and sometimes a real memory hog. So I switched back to old faithful Firefox 2. I was quite impressed by IE 7 but due to some office applications not supporting IE 7 I had to stay on IE 6 as my back up browser. Damn... Then came in Firefox 3... Wicked! The Address bar acting as your history search is the most amazing feature. I normally don't use add- ons on FF much except for PDF Downloader and Download Them All.. FF3 made my browsing experience far better than any of the browsers I tried. The neat bookmarking feature cut out my time to add bookmarks and I could sit and organize them at a later point in time. Eno...

Well we started badminton consistently now and looks like finally I'll be getting good at it. My last post about badminton told everyone as to how 'athletic' and super I was :P Well not anymore. Since we started mid last week I have been sluggish failing to serve right and hit the smashes to finish the rally. Looks like I need to go back to the basics again before our office champs return to smack me out :) We'll my 'Partner' and me are doing quite well in doubles and seem to be a formidable team but I feel I have lost my earlier stamina. Time to get back on Court and get my game right! Adios

Now this one's the most simple of them all! I come home late from office and I find that I have a lot of veggies lying at home some rice n dal. So I decided to make something with rice but was too lazy to cook a separate vegetable and dal to go along with it. So time I experimented. :) Here's what you'll need Rice soaked in water for around 20 mins Your favorite veggies ( Paneer, cauliflower, carrots etc...) A few onions vertically chopped 2 green chillies Some cloves of garlic and some ginger (you can use ginger garlic paste if you want) oil Water Some jeera Seasonings(Chilli Powder, Turmeric, Garam Masala Pwd, Dhania Jeera Pwd) A Pressure cooker! Fry the onions till light brown in the pressure cooker. Add the jeera, ginger, garlic, green chillies. Saute till you get the jeera's aroma. Add in the vegetables and cook till they are glazed. Add the rice and some water to cook the rice. Add in the seasonings and salt. Pressure cook for max two whistles. Now it might not co...

This isn't as easy as the others. I was watching Hell's Kitchen and some other shows where these guys make some lovely pasta. I just felt the need for cooking non-veg pasta. All these years Mum n I have only tried vegetarian Pasta. So here it goes. Disclaimer: This is a Bachelor's Kitchen and the pasta was cooked out of sheer desire. The pasta presented here is an 'desi' version. I highly recommend using fresh herbs, celery and parsley along with some oregano seasoning to get the best out. Firstly choose your favorite pasta. Mine's Penne but I didn't have it at home so I used fuscili instead. Mind you don't try Spaghetti I have a gut feeling that won't go well. Read the instructions on the pasta packet and cook the pasta. Here's what you need for the sauce Two Large tomatoes Half a packet of tomato puree Chilli Powder A pinch of garam masala (use some other seasoning please- I didn't have anything else) fresh herbs here would be the best salt...

Everyone knows there is nothing like a perfect man or woman. So what exactly is a perfect couple anyway? This is what I would think:- "I know I am not a perfect man. I also know the woman that I would love might not be the perfect woman. But you know what we can be perfect for each other. It would be like god has sent you an angel to rid off all the troubles that lie before you and you would be an angel for her". A part of this is from the movie Good Will Hunting . Robin Williams plays a very good role of a professor/ shrink who has lost his wife to cancer. When asked if he would have been better off without meeting his wife to save him from the pain he's facing now he replied "No. Whatever time we spent together will always be remembered by me. I do not regret loving her or the time we spent together. I do not regret the time when she was in the hospital and I do not regret the time I spent with her in her last days at the hospital. The term visiting hours in the h...

If you are a sports fan then the 6th of July 2008 can be affectionately called Super Sunday! Three different sports going on in parallel - The Asia Cup Final, Formula 1 in Silverstone and The Gentlemen's single's final at Wimbledon. It was a horrendous show by Team India at the Asia Cup Final. Although they managed to restrict the lankans to a modest total. As per the indians 'superior' batting lineup it should have been a walk in the park but the lankans had other plans. So much for a fight. Then came the Grand Prix of Britain. Dark clouds loomed over the Silverstone circuit as everyone started on intermediate tyres. Lewis got a great start and went on to win the race in treacherous conditions. He really proved he was the no 1 Mclaren driver. A mistake of not changing tyres during the first pit stops for Alonso and Raikonen caused them to lose the podium. Alonso was driving the wheels of his car. There were a lot of spins and a lot of excitement because of the wet rac...