How often do you take a shower?

This is a short and funny conversation among my friends. I hope you enjoy this conversation.

Puppy : Thanks to the climate in Visakhapatnam. I take bath thrice a day.

Jayanth : Thanks to the climate in Bangalore. I take bath once in three days.

Rajesh : Thanks to the climate in Noida. I don’t remember when I took bath last time.

Chinna : Thanks to the climate in Netherlands. I don’t know what does ‘bath’ mean?

They made my day...

I went to bed at 2am after receiving B’day wishes from some of my close pals. Early in the morning, Chow, Bhaav and my Mom disturbed my sleep and nagged me to take bath. While taking bath, I thought I would make today, someone’s day. In no time, I went, on behalf of Aashayein Foundation, to a small government school in Koramangala to teach kids. When I entered the class, all the forty students stood up and sang the Birthday song. I was moved and quite overwhelmed. I took some time to thank all the students, as I was left with no words. Thanks to Rithvika and Shashi for arranging this. Later I served breakfast to the students. I wanted to make their day but they made my day. On my way back, I went to temple to please Gods (and my Mom).

After having lunch, I saw Angels and Demons movie. ‘Angels and Demons’ is one of my favorite books. I enjoyed even the movie, a lot. I celebrated my birthday with my friends Kiran, Kirti and Suresh by cutting a mouthwatering cake. Later we went to ‘Magnolia’ for dinner. Now, on my friends' request, it was Magnolia restaurant’s turn to overwhelm me with a Birthday song and a Birthday cake. Once again, Suresh, Kiran and Kirti made my day. I thank my family, friends, friends’ families and relatives for their warm Birthday wishes.

Check the following link to see pics:

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/jet706/BDay2009#

Exploring STARTUP CITY

Today I attended an event, “STARTUP CITY”. As the event is really happening, I want to share some details of the event. More than 100 startups from Bangalore and other cities came under one roof to exchange their ideas and to market their products and services. Some entrepreneurs (Naukri, Rediff, etc) gave a few seminars on their success stories and on what to look for while you are setting a startup. Many startups have set up the stalls at the venue. I got a chance to visit those stalls. Each startup has come up with a different idea. I came to know about the different products and services, and familiarized myself with the latest cutting edge technologies used. Till date, we saw how internet changed our lives, now it’s time we experience how mobile technology is going to revolutionize the way we live. Some startups have come up with really exciting ideas.

You can pay the bills (mobile [any service provider], electricity, etc) with the help of just an SMS even if we don’t have internet connection on our mobile .

mChek

If you want to locate a place, simple SMS can help you out.

Latlong

And yaa… there is one website on wedding also.

Web Vivah

There are many more ideas, which I’m unable to recollect right now. You can visit the following site to find those out:

http://siliconindia.com/startupcity_09/index.php

(MELO)Drama in Examination Hall

Strongly determined to make 10 out of 10 in the second semester of Engineering, I entered the college campus in Ishtyle. As the saying goes that all good things come to an end, this determination also came to an end on the very same day. At that instant, little did I know that this scene keeps repeating at the beginning of every semester? That’s the beauty of student life. Isn’t it?

    Most of the time, I gave my best shot to pose as if I am really determined to make a mark in studies. In the third semester of Engineering, I did a course, Mechanics of Solids (Mech Sol). I felt I’m not prepared enough to crack the test. So, I studiously consulted a doctor. Wondering why??? Doctor would give a medical prescription, which would help me in applying for a Make-up (If you don’t appear for regular test, BITS curriculum offers you a re-test called make-up test).

    After two weeks, I appeared for Mech Sol Make-up test. I had to sweat to mug up all the 30 lengthy formulas in the textbook. I kept on cramming the formulas till I reached the examination hall. As soon as I reached the hall, I carefully placed the book on the podium. In the first 10 minutes, I read each question in the paper for more than 10 times. I racked my brains hard but hardly found any clue to solve even a single question. Suddenly, the instructor approached me and said “Ah! Man, what are you doing?” I checked my pockets for slips and found none. He exclaimed “Ah! Man, This is OB(Open Book)!!!”. Hearing this, I saw almost a billion stars at one glance in that examination hall. How stupid am I? I spent two days cramming the formulas from the text book. In an open book test we can refer to all the text books and note books. I thought this is a closed book test and took only a text book, which I carefully placed on the podium. The instructor was staring at my face and curiously waiting for my answer. I replied “I don’t need a book”. Now, it is instructor’s turn to see a billion stars in the examination hall. He was shocked to hear such a reply and stared at me for more than ten minutes. To perplex him, I scribbled all those 30 lengthy formulas, which I mugged up, on the answer sheet. In those ten minutes, only one thought ran in my mind for countless times. Once the instructor went out of the room, I implemented that thought. I ran to the podium, picked up the text book and came back to my seat. But it did not take me much time to realize that picking the text book is of no use. I was lucky enough to survive a zuk(0) shock in that scary test in which 75% of the students made 0/45.

Maturity

Are you a matured soul?
When do you call someone a matured soul?
Does maturity come with age or with experience?

People say that our decision making ability reflects our maturity.

What factors do you take into consideration while making a decision?

· What makes me happy?

· Who are the actors affected by my decision?

· How do I face the society after taking the call?

In my opinion, if you have to take a call in your life or if you have to take a decision of your life time, you should think alone considering the factors mentioned above. 99% of the time, the first question takes a back seat and the second and third questions take priority in your decision making.

What will my parents think?

What will my siblings think?

What will my friends think?

How do I face the society?

You get confused thinking much about this and get tempted to involve your friends, brothers, sisters, parents, etc while making such a decision. You should definitely take the suggestion but you should define a clear line between suggesting and intruding. Here, you fail utterly because the moment you involve another person, most of the time, he/she trespasses the fence (brain) and interrupts your decision making. Thus, the outcome is not your decision.

You might rationalize saying that this person knows much about me, what I like and what I want in my life. That is foolishness. Such kind of reasoning implies that you have not given a serious thought about yourself. You are the best person in this world who knows what you like and who knows what you want. Who is someone else to dictate how you should live? After all, it is your life… If the decision you have taken is not yours, then how can you live your life to the fullest?

Think independently and take a decision. If you think that taking decisions makes you a matured soul, you are wrong. It is the effects of your decisions on you that make you, a matured individual. If your decision does not affect you, it is just any other irrelevant incident in your life. In our day to day life, you have to make many decisions. But a few decisions affect you a lot. Experiencing these effects makes you a matured soul. As years pass by, you make many decisions and experience the effects of these decisions. In this process you get matured with your age through your experience.

PS:

Dear Friends,

Give a serious thought before you take any decision. Try your best not to let your parents and loved ones down because of the decision you take.

Butterflies in the belly...:)

In last week's Toastmasters session, I played the role of Table Topics Master. In Table Topics session, I read a topic. I select a person at random and ask him/her to speak for atleast a minute and atmost two minutes. At the end of the session, all the members are asked to vote for the "Best Table Topics Speaker". I thought some of the topics are really funny and wanted to post those on my blog.

The topics are as below:

I love my neighbour, because she looks more beautiful than my wife...
Till now I proposed 49... Looking forward to cross half-century on this valentine's day...
Investing in chicken biryani is better than investing in Stock market
Attending Salsa classes is one way of catching a female/male...
I am desperate to get married... but recession stops me...
Failures in love affairs are the stepping stones to handle wives succesfully...
I know guys always lie, but I still believe them...
Everytime I think she is gorgeous, she has a boy friend... or Everytime I think he is handsome, he has a girl friend...
I attend receptions only to have snacks

The members who attended the session and the speakers who spoke on these topics enjoyed a lot... Hope even you would enjoy imagining how the session would have gone...:)

Welcoming 2009 with an Unforgettable Trip

2009 was fast approaching... There wasn’t even two weeks left for the count down. Once again, Chillaxguys were planning to celebrate the New Year in style. But then, how to make it memorable? Yes, a trip to DANDELI. This trip stands apart as an undisputed champion among all the trips I have been to, till date.

    The trip started with a train journey from Bangalore to Alnavar Jn. A cruiser, waiting outside the station, took us swiftly through the deciduous forests to the farm house, which was 10kms from Dandeli. The Stanley’s farm house, surrounded by a sunflower garden and a dense forest, is a real treat to watch. Rappelling atop the list was the first activity to exhaust our energy, which we gained from our breakfast. It was really exciting to stand parallel to the earth and trek down the cliff with the help of ropes. Coracle ride took us to the rocks in between the river where we had the Jacuzzi Bath. Nothing can buy us the fun we had during the Jacuzzi bath. Energy bars and lunch invigorated us to move ahead for rafting. Rafting was definitely, once in a life time experience. It taught us the art of teamwork and gave us an unlimited fun and indelible memories to store. In order to relax ourselves, we played cards while having snacks. Night Trekking, rather say walking, in the eerie jungle with a torch in our hand in quest of an animal was indeed adventurous. Even though we ended up finding only a wild cat, a wild frog and a wild ant, it was altogether a novel experience for many of us. We had our dinner and put latcha at Campfire with a wide variety of topics. The discussion did not last long as the sleep made us crawl into the tents nearby.

We gave the river crossing activity a skip in Dandeli and made our way to Karvar. We visited Karvar beach but were asked to wait for five hours to visit Devbagh island. We changed our plans and visited Gokarna, which boasts of a famous temple and a beautiful beach. After visiting OM beach, we took a boat ride to reach Paradise beach. We went into the sea to around 100 meters and played with the waves. We trekked through a densely vegetated hill around an hour and reached Half-moon beach. A motorboat fetched us back to OM beach. The picturesque beaches and visitors around still weave my eyesight. We had our lunch at 3pm at a beach resort and returned to Alnavar Jn. Again the drowsiness that aroused out of latcha made me sneak into a berth in the train. The train raced to Bangalore keeping the pace with time but our memories of the trip are still afresh.

Thanks to Devi and Swetha for visiting Dandeli earlier and providing us the info needed. Three cheers to Puppy for proposing, getting information and organizing the trip successfully. Not to forget the efforts of each and everyone in the group, for taking the reigns, wherever necessary, in organizing the trip.

Vinod, Chow, Sisa, Rana, Gora, Chinna, Jet and Puppy…

Hip Hip… HURRAH!!!

Please check the following link to see the pics:

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/jet706/DandeliGokarnaTrip#

What kind of LOVE do you beLIeVE?

Love at first sight

People say that they love a person at first sight. Some people say it is the smile / physique / sharp features / style / height / color / voice / expressions in the face, etc that make their hearts flutter for a person. Some even say, “For an unknown reason my heart beats for that person from the very first sight. I feel, that person is born for me”
What makes a person love someone at the very first sight?
Is it the outer beauty, which will not last long?
Is it the sixth sense, which turns on only when you look at handsome guys and beautiful girls?

Love goes with friendship

I heard junta saying “Good friendship is a strong foundation for love” Some say that it is the trust and mutual respect that unites friends to love each other. I believe that if you engage yourself in frequent conversation with someone from your opposite sex, there is a high probability that you might fall in love with that person. I really wonder how long this trust and mutual respect takes the friends forward in the life once they tie a knot. I believe that all the problems begin after marriage, once they start living together.

What makes a person love a friend?
Is it the momentary caring and support that a friend shows?
Is it the temporary “feel comfortable” link that pulls a person into love?

Love after marriage

People, in this section, are strongly tied up with family customs, traditions and paternal love. Some people who are involved in break-ups or one-sided affairs and some, who are losing hectares on the scalp at a good pace or building assets in the form of huge tummies also fall in this category. In fact, that’s why some people call it a “Losers Heaven”. People have high expectations on their spouse before getting married. Post marriage, many of them get bogged down after witnessing the ground realities. Later they adjust themselves with the Hobson’s choice.

What makes a person love his/her spouse after marriage?
Is it because that he/she is left with no option?
Is it because that one has to be hypocritical to face the society?

What is your take on this?

:)
I am trying to be at my critical best.