To do..........

With the wake of 2009 my list of new year resolutions is taking some shape. Thought of putting down some of my initial to do things for 2009.

1. To read more and more books
2. To reduce my weight drastically
3. To do a great job at my work
4. To regularly go to the Gym and swim more
5. To visit more forts
6. To save money and buy a telescope (since 2009 is the International Astronomy Year)
7. To save money and more money

365 days gone by....

The year 2008 is nearing an end with barley a few hours remaining thought of summarizing the list of things that i did in this year. With just 4 months into a new company a new city started my new years eve rather alone in my room. Took a parcel of chines food from a road side joint went home had it and went off to sleep. Not such a pleasant start to my new year. Following which in the new year did some good work in the test case executions for one of the project for which i was allocated. On 26th Jan2008 went for a picnic to the fort Raigad. This was the first trip with my new set of friends from Persistent. Had great fun. This marked the beginning of the "fort" year for me. (My friends coined a term fort lover).

Towards the end of Feb i moved into a new career track within Persistent i.e. Business Development. There was one major relief here and that was "I will not have to code here". It was here that I thought apne so called MBA degree ka kuch to use karu. With full enthusiasm started working on proposals and presentations. This is very much continuing till date.

And to keep my motivations high i received a SPOT award from Persistent.

There was one great thing happening in 2008 and that was we were going for trips to many places. And mostly in every trip atleast one fort was covered as part of our visit. We went to Raigad ,sinhgad, Korigad, Murud Janjira, Korlia, Chopora.

It's better in GOA

3 nights and 4 days of non stop fun and masti. Living across the beaches of Goa. A lifestyle that just pulls you towards it. The break that we got from our daily schedules during these days was just too good. Away from every office work, the sales calls, the proposals, presentations client visits this vacation brought a great amount of relaxation in our minds.

The beach sports, the swim in the waters in the middle of the sea with dolphins was just too good of an experience. We also took the banana ride which was by far the best water ride that we had. For the first time in my life i saw dolphins. Then we went to this Chopara Fort (the place where Dil Chahata Hai was shot) How can a trip happen without me going to a fort. :)

Every day we use to call up my sis Jui, ask her roads and places to go and we use to start our journey. The best part was that we drove over 1600 KM in 4 days. Driving was always a pleasure. Its a new year resolution that I have made to come to Goa atleast once a year from now on. And since I had come to Goa for the first time for a vacation the thrill was very different this time around.

Book Review: that thing called LOVE

A good mix of possible love stories around the city of Mumbai. The book starts of very well but as the story nears its end one feels that it is getting complicated unnecessarily. The end in fact could have been better. Only one possible big mismatch is the sub title of the book "the Mumbai rains". Frankly speaking the rain gods do not have a significant role to play except a couple of drizzles and a shower here and there.

The story flows well but sees some characters bothering for no reason in between. Its mostly revolving around Mayank, Revathi, and Pranav that's it. Others I feel are extras.

All and all a decent read but you would not miss much even if you don't read it.

India on Top

It was yet another day packed with some great cricketing shots played by the batting mastero Sachin Tendulkar and the rocking Yuvraj Singh. On the fifth and the final day it was a do or die situation for England where they had to take about 9 wickets to clinch the test match. The visitors could only manage to grab a couple of wickets and India won the match convincingly with 6 wickets to spare. The best part of all was the sparkling knock of 103 by Sachin and an equally brillant play of 85 by Yuvraj. The duo guided India to a convincing win over England.

Its just a matter of time before India emerges as the number one team in the game of cricket.

Three full days of fear...

The world famous terrorist attacks that rocked the city of Mumbai brought a never before feel of tension and fear. For all the people that were very closely affected by the attacks were the people trapped and the defense and personnel's who were fighting those terrorists. Among these hundreds of fighters one was my Father, who is with the Mumbai Police.

Every minute that was passing was a tensed moment. We were glued to our TV sets watching the whole drama. Very less communication was possible with him since he was on the field. Only when we got to know that these terrorists were killed that we took a breather of relief. Things were quite tensed even then since no one knew or could predict how much more ammunition was stored, or if any terrorist was waiting there for the security people to come and then he would launch an attack. But fortunately nothing of that sort happened.

And dad returned home after 4 days of facing the terror.

We all are proud of you dad......

Past one year...

It's been almost a year and three months that I have spent at Persistent Systems. A year full of great, good so so and sad moments.

It was in July 2007, when I had got an offer from Persistent. With as much enthusiasm that I could gather I joined Persistent on 6th Sep 2007. Started my work in the Testing Center of Excellence (CoE). After spending about six months with testing, there came an opportunity to join the Business Development team of Persistent. Without taking a lot of time to decide I applied for a track change. It's been over 9 months that I have spent in Business Development (popularly known as BD team). I am enjoying this new role. Getting to learn a lot of new things almost daily. Most importantly I got chance to understand how difficult it is to crack a deal in sales. BD has helped me to brodern my view and has helped to really understand things from an organizational perspective. BD also helped me to interact with people all across the globe. This is a very interesting task that we have here. The best part is that when we talk to these people we really come to know a lot of things that otherwise we would not have known about other geographies.

With my life goals becoming clear day by day I feel BD is the right place or the right track that will help me march towards my goals.

Just 100 KM remaining

Today Chandrayaan-1 has successfully reached its final destination the operational orbit at a height of about 100 km from the moon's surface. It is from here that the space craft will examine the moon. Series of experiments will be carried out to better understand the moon. In this orbit Chandrayaan will take 2 hours to go around moon once.

The next major event of Chandrayaan-1 mission planned in the coming days is the release of Moon Impact Probe (MIP) from the spacecraft and its eventual hitting of the moon’s surface.

All the best ISRO for all your future missions.

In the future missions, I am sure ISRO will cross this distance of 100 Km and place humans on the Moon and bring them back saftely.

Book Review: The Inscrutable Americans

Today morning, I finished reading "The inscrutable Americans". A good book to read, and specially if you have never been to the U.S. and plan to go soon, then a must read for you. The best part about this book is that its a perfect mix of what life is for a teenager in the U.S. The book also highlights some other key aspects of America that might not come to our mind first.

The character "Gopal", I would say the hero messes up big time with everything that comes to his hand except studies. His friend Randy, and the countless number of girls Gopal meets.

A must read for all.

India's journey to the moon.....

After years of dominance in the field of astronomy, the world sees a new entrant named India. India's space odyssey started years ago, but with Chandrayaan-1 we have made our presence felt in the global space program. On 22nd Oct 2008 Chandrayaan-1 zoomed out of the earth's atmosphere, towards its destination: the moons orbit. It was a proud moment for every Indian. On 4th Nov Chandrayaan-1 entered into moons orbit, it's from here that Chandrayaan-1 will examine our very own moon for the next two full years.

Congrats ISRO for this finominal accomplishment.

With a sucessful launch to its credit and still going strong ISRO has already started planning their next mission. Taking humans to the moon and bringing them back saftely to earth. This goes onto prove that Indians rock......

Swimming though these tough times

The current economic crises is not hidden from any one, and this has brought everyone on their toes. With no option but to out perform in our respective fields, this crises has left us with fewer choices. The best bet today is to be clam do our daily work efficiently and look for ways in which we can contribute towards saving or profits for our company. Please do not switch jobs unless very sure of where you are going. Some key points to look at:

1. Keep a very close watch at the economies.
2. Reduce your spending significantly
3. Avoid buying anything on credit cards
4. If you have a home loan better be careful about the interest rates.
5. Unless absolutely necessary do not take leaves
6. If possible do not switch jobs

My past experience with the economic crises that had come in the wake of 9/11 and the dot com burst is that this crises is not permanent. This tough time will surely pass and bring a very bright day for all of us. Its just that how well you swim through this. Generally once in about six to seven years there always comes a slowdown for about a year max.

Just be a little watchful and alert....

A great saying by the cricketing legend

Today Sachin Tendulkar reached yet another world record for making the most runs in Test Cricket. Proud moment for every Indian. :) There's this one saying that i really like from Sachin

"Sometimes there are stones thrown at you, and you convert them into milestones" - Sachin Tendulkar

My first trade

First trade of my life that I did today on the BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange) where i purchased 2 shares. :)
In my college days for an additional income I use to sell demat accounts for ICICI bank and use to explain people the benefits of trading online. Today after 8 full years I have done my first trade.

I am still trying to find out whether those shares have been allocated to me or not? :)

My only regret till now...

Today when I look back at my life and almost the 27 years that I have enjoyed on this earth, there's only one regret that I have. Its my unachievable dream of joining the Indian Army.

Had I been a little serious in my HSC, I believe it would have been a different place where I would have been. Every time I see a defense person, this thought of not being there runs deeply though my veins with a commitment of joining the Indian Army in my next birth. :)

I am crazy for....

This mammoth currently is the largest commercial aircraft in the world. Ever since I came to know about the Airbus A380, my love for it has always been on the rise. Last weekend we had gone for shopping (for a change) i wanted to buy a dustbin, a plastic container.

Guess what!!! we landed in Shoppers Stop. :) and after a good one hour of window shopping we were crossing the toys section and my foot landed on a small plastic base. I picked it up and it read "AIRBUS A380". After searching for a long time with help of the shoppers stop person, i got a small miniature of my A380. :)

Yahooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo .!!!! Objective achieved :)

I have kept it on my desk and just cant stop looking at it.

Remembering Kalpana Chawla

There is this one Poem, written by Kalpana Chawla, the Indo American Astronaut who perished along with other 6 crew members during their shuttles re-entry into the earths atmosphere in 2003.They where aboard the space shuttle Columbia for the NASA STS-107 mission to the International Space Station. This poem inspires me like anything. Read it carefully and you will realize what we can do if we just commit ourselves to our goal in life. It says that whatever thing we do in life, there is one goal that we always want to achieve.

The poem goes something like this....

"Dive deep down
An aim awaits
Pearls peep
For your hands to reach
Just yours
For years, decades and ages
A door lies locked
A pearl in the shell
A secret in the brain
Open it
Break it
Reveal it

Fly high"

Written by Kalpana Chawla

We all need time alone...

When was the last time you spent time alone some where undisturbed from every thing to think, to dream, to wonder. We are so busy with our life that we just do not have any time for our self. How many times you wanted to watch a movie but could not get a company to watch and missed watching it.

Friends, we all need some dear ones around us, but we as an individual also have a presence. It's fun to do something just because you like doing it all alone. Believe me there is so much satisfaction that we get at the end when we do something that we like.

We should regularly spend time alone away from everyone, just to look into our selves, to dream for a better future, and plan our actions accordingly.

The YTT (Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow) Cycle

Living life completly..........

Many times in our every day life we bother so much about what has happened with us in the past, and what will happen with us in the future. Most importantly we forget that we are thinking about this "Today". A day which is wasted for some thing which has already happend or something which may or may not happen.

We all have memories good and bad, and we all will face good and bad times in future. On past and the future we have no control, but yes "Today" is still there and its in our hand to make our today a good or a bad memory for tomorrow.