I Wish….

Portrait of a girl holding a parasolI wish I could go back to the time
When,
“Getting High” meant “On a Swing”
When,
“Drinking” meant “Lemonade”
When,
Dad was the only “HERO”
When,
“Love” was “Mom’s Hug”
When,
Dad’s shoulder was “the Highest place on Earth”
When,
Our Worst Enemies were “our Siblings”
When,
The only thing that could “Hurt” was a “Skinned Knee”
When,
The only things “Broken” were our “Toys” and
When,
“Goodbyes” only meant “Till Tomorrow”
As a child always used to wonder that when I grow up, everything will be as per my wishes and under my control! What an illusion!  I cherish my childhood.  😦

Solar Eclipse 2010 in India on January 15th

The solar eclipse of January 15, 2010 is an annular eclipse of the Sun with a magnitude of 0.9190. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partially obscuring Earth’s view of the Sun. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon’s apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun, causing the sun to look like an annulus (ring), blocking most of the Sun’s light. An annular eclipse will appear as partial eclipse over a region thousands of miles wide.
Solar Eclipse 2010It will be visible as a partial eclipse in much of Africa, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Asia. It will be seen as annular within a narrow stretch of 300 km (190 mi) width across Central Africa, Maldives, South Kerala(India), South Tamil Nadu(India), North Sri Lanka, parts of Burma and parts of China.
At approx 13.20 hrs IST, the annular solar eclips enters India at Thiruvananthapuram(Trivandrum), Kerala and exits India at Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu. The eclipse is viewable for 10.4 minutes in India. The best place from India is Dhanushkodi in Pamban Island off Tamil Nadu coast. Dhanushkodi is about 18 km South east from Rameshwaram and 18 Km West of Mannar Island in Sri Lanka.
Note: The total eclipse will begin at about 5:13 GMT and ends at 8:59 GMT – The greatest eclipse view is expected at 7:07 GMT.

My Name is Khan – Trailer

Catch the  first glimpses of  the much widely anticipated film featuring Shahrukh Khan and Kajol, whose great on-screen chemistry have helped deliver several hits in the past.

Movie: My Name is Khan

Director: Karan Johar

Actors: Shahrukh Khan, Kajol, Zarina Wahab, Jimmy Shergill

Music: Shankar Ehsan Loy

My Favorite Chrome Extensions

Just as you can with Firefox,  you can now power up Chrome by installing add-ons that improve the functionality of the app and boost your productivity. The best thing is that it is so very easy to do, not even requiring a restart to add, deactivate or uninstall new extensions. Best of all, they don’t seem to impact the performance of Chrome. Sorry FF,  I changed my loyalty.

My fave 5 are:
1. Chromed Bird – best twitter extension for Chrome. It’s fast, light and relatively powerful. You can access home, mentions and direct messages. Plus it give you flexibility to reply, retweet and direct message users.
2. Google Mail Checker Plus – Earlier I was using Google Mail Checker, but with plus version available, this is a hot fave. You can preview, delete, archive or spam your unread mail without going into your inbox. You need a bit of work in the options to get going. But at least now I can have one tab less on my browser. 🙂
3. Chrome Muse – simple, effective and lets you use a dozen URL shortening services – bit.ly, tinyurl, goo.gl. Only drawback – no Twitter integration. For that you can use Goo.gl. It lets you shorten the links that can be shared with your friends on Twitter and other places.
4. Adthwart – this extension blocks unwanted ads.  Simple and it’s very easy to switch the ads on and off.
5. Facebook for Google Chrome – lets you read your Facebook news feed and wall. You can also update your status by clicking on your profile picture.

As I was completing this post, I discovered one great extension, so this list now becomes my Top 6 Chrome Extensions:
6. Google Quick Scroll – While doing a Google Search, when you navigate to a site, a clickable popup at the bottom of the screen shows you how many times the searched keyword shows up on the page with its locations. Neat!

Chrome Extensions Are Now Live

Google Chrome Extensions, which were earlier just for developers, are now live for everybody! Google chrome was launched with around 300 extensions.

I have been waiting for Chrome extensions for long and the only reason I stuck to using Firefox is of the huge galore of extensions available. Now..I am shifting ful time to Google Chrome! However, the extensions only work on Windows and Linux (in beta) for now. To install extensions you need to have Beta Channel of Google Chrome. The launch of Chrome extensions coincided with the launch of Chrome browser for Mac users, (finally they too got lucky :P). Let me checkout the extensions gallery if they have come up with my Firefox favorite add-ons or their equivalents!

2 states – the story of my marriage

Chetan Bhagat‘s last book 3 mistakes of my life had left me totally disappointed. I couldn’t even go through 2 chapters of “3 mistakes”. The book still lies in my book rack, half-read begging to be completed. But I don’t think I am in any mood to do so in the near future. One Night @ the Call Centre also was not so great compared to five point someone, the best we have had from the author till date.  It was the built up of Five point that kept me going and complete the second one.  However, thanks God, he is back in form after these two disasters.

2 states: the story of my marriage

Next to five point someone, it is absolutely hilarious and fun going through the book – fast paced, no time to blink here. ‘2 states: the story of my marriage’ picks up where ‘five point someone’ left off. It’s an against-all-odds love story about commitment and resolve. The story is told through protagonist Krish, a Punjabi boy after he falls for a Tamil girl, Ananya. The colloquial humor of Chetan’s writing is the highlight of the book.  The wit and sarcasm stand out and are worth quite a few LOL moments. 2 states is an easy read. Every Indian who watches Bollywood knows the twist in this story. Yet you must read this book once, if only to know what lovers from different communities go through at the hands of their families. How love is at mercy of societal, familial norms. How love can drive you crazy. I could totally identify with Krish’s condition when he uses another person’s cellphone to call up Ananya as she ignores all his calls  or when he can’t take Ananya’s silence any more and flies to her for a day! When the person you love rejects you it makes you do things insane! Though many have  issue  that the endings are predictable, and that the premise seems similar every time. But c’mon guys don’t you want your life to be happy…I like stories which end with happily ever after.
In short, a nice and entertaining book. Not all books are meant to be literary works with complicated plots with twisted sentences. Perfect when you want to read something light and get amused.

Coffee Cup Analogy

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university lecturer. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.
Offering his guests coffee, the lecturer went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, some plain-looking and some expensive and exquisite, telling them to help themselves to hot coffee.
When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the lecturer said: “If you noticed, all the nice-looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the better cups and are eyeing each other’s cups.”
“Now, if Life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn’t change. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it.”
So please, don’t let the cups drive you…enjoy the coffee instead. Being happy does not mean everything is perfect.
It means you have decided to see beyond the imperfection

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university lecturer. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the lecturer went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, some plain-looking and some expensive and exquisite, telling them to help themselves to hot coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the lecturer said: “If you noticed, all the nice-looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the better cups and are eyeing each other’s cups.”

“Now, if Life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn’t change. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it.”

So please, don’t let the cups drive you…enjoy the coffee instead.

Being happy does not mean everything is perfect.  It means you have decided to see beyond the imperfection.

Truth About Software Engineers

10% of Software Professionals are predicted to be affected by major diseases like Carpal tunnel syndrome, heart diseases etc
20% of Software Professionals marry their co-workers
30% of Software Professionals are interested in Live in relationship because they tend to hate the responsibility both in office and house
40% of Software Professionals are confused about settling down (India or abroad)
50% of Software Professionals has No savings in their Bank Account
60% of Software Professionals are not satisfied with their current wages
70% of Software Professionals work more than 8 hours across globe
80% of Software Professionals live away from their Parents
90% of Software Professionals are NOT HAPPY about their Life, meeting deadlines, client satisfaction, incentives, promotions, increment, onsite trips, wife, children, visa status, and commitments
100% of Software professionals wish they had a choice other than computers in their life at least once in their lifetime
  • 10% of Software Professionals are predicted to be affected by major diseases like Carpal tunnel syndrome, heart diseases etc
  • 20% of Software Professionals marry their co-workers
  • 30% of Software Professionals are interested in Live in relationship because they tend to hate the responsibility both in office and house
  • 40% of Software Professionals are confused about settling down (India or abroad)
  • 50% of Software Professionals has No savings in their Bank Account
  • 60% of Software Professionals are not satisfied with their current wages
  • 70% of Software Professionals work more than 8 hours across globe
  • 80% of Software Professionals live away from their Parents
  • 90% of Software Professionals are NOT HAPPY about their Life, meeting deadlines, client satisfaction, incentives, promotions, increment, onsite trips, wife, children, visa status, and commitments
  • 100% of Software professionals wish they had a choice other than computers in their life at least once in their lifetime