Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Golden...words.

It hardly matters when you start...All that matters is when you end.

By: Me of course..!!

Last-minute

Many of my friends and relatives have condemned me of my attitude for being excessively inconsiderate towards my work(which I obviously do not like) and leaving it to be done in last few minutes. Be it my exams or anything important...I've sort of developed it as habit of doing things in last few days or minutes but It's done before it meets its doom.
Here's an answer to you all which I got to know through a book: People like me(though there are hardly any....) who do wake up late to their work but still do it completely till it's all over ,have an unrivaled mastery of managing their time. None can manage things as impeccably as we do in those last few minutes. This is an indication of the fact that people who have the inherent talent of managing their time are best suited for management and It is they who have the power to make it big 'coz None understands the importance of those last few minutes as we do.
So It hardly matters when you start...all that matters is when you end.

Change is All we need..!!

I don't have much to say on this as there has been lot said and done. November 2008..Attack on Mumbai...has shaken me and the whole world. I PAY MY KIND TRIBUTE & HOMAGE TO ALL CIVILIANS, POLICE, ATF & NSG HEROS WHO SACRIFICED THEIR LIVES DURING TERRORIST ATTACK ON HOTEL TAJ, OBEROI TRIDENT & NARIMAN HOUSE IN MUMBAI.
I can't say much on how we are gonna fight it off or put an end to all this...but yes..This is the time we need "Change". We need to change the whole political scenario currently existing in our country,we need to change the mindset of today's youth who do not see much future prospects in politics and urge them to step in. We need to change the whole working system that rule over us. We have been constantly changing ourselves and would continue to do so forever but now we need to change everything that is all around us and most importantly that affects us.
Change is the only way we can put an end to all such things.
Change yourself to a better you and change the system around you to a better world.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Conversation...with a "maniac"

It's late at night...1 o'clock or thereabouts. I was all engrossed watching "saw" on my PC and my friend who is a complete maniac and a severe pain in arse was wandering around me looking all grave and solemn. I just couldn't take much of his fretting,logged off my PC and thought of going for a conversation with this complete madman.
Here's a glimpse of the things we discussed....

me: What happened what are you so worried bout dude..!!
him: beep beep beep....nothing.

I wondered.. If there is zilch why the fuck didn't he let me get on with my movie?? why the fuck did he have to just hang around me giving me this "I wanna talk bout something" look.

me: as you wish dude..!!
him: no..I really have something to talk bout. I have few things on my mind that I wanted to discuss with someone.I hope you would be a bit considerate,listen to me...and not give me that derisive look of yours. And for god's sake no use of sarcasm.

Quite a good fielding indeed..!!

me: okay..buddy go ahead...!!
him: know what...I have sort of a crush on a gal.(And then comes a pause of a lifetime...)
me: Blimey...what on earth is wrong with you..it shows you are all normal.
him: No..nothin is all normal. It's about the gal I came across yesterday in college.
me: so...what's wrong with her?
him:No...there is nothing wrong with her...It's rather with me. I sort of like her but have not been able to work up enough courage to reveal it to her. Tell me how should I do it? You have been quite an expert at such stuffs.
me:Expert?? anyway..!!
Come on..!! Be a man ..!!
him: Why??
me: uff...I mean it's simple...go and propose her. If it's a yes...good for you..and if no...good for the gal. Anyhow...It would be good either for you or for her.
him: beep beep beep...Don't you say that. I guess you are right ..I would all do it tomorrow.
God knows what got into him ,he sort of got all excited and got to his bed and I wonder if I had really done something magical or what or my words were so efficacious that they acted the moment they were out.
Anyway...I switched back to my movie and said nothing much as per the conditions laid down in the beginning and thought what a prat he is..!!
Next day ,late in the night..this very friend of mine was all sort of smiling,grinning...and was busy with his cellphone...and It didn't take me much to fathom out...he's off again.
God save the gal.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Google chrome


It has always been rhapsodic whenever Google has made a scientific and industrial progress in the field of technology. Everything that they do is not only par excellence or peerless, it's just way beyond words.
So far we have been using Internet Explorer,Mozilla's Firefox,Apple's webkit and Netscape navigator as browser but finally the Google has stepped in with a new browser of its own and has again added to ongoing fight between Microsoft, Apple etc.
Yeah..!! An Internet Browser from Google : "Google Chrome".
Google chrome is an internet browser which has been developed by Google itself and can be downloaded free of cost. For how much the web has evolved,browser as a platform haven't evolved that much. This is an attempt to evolve browser in order to provide next level for the development of web. Google has always been unique in its various products and this time too they have come up with a complete new browser to provide a whole new experience of internet browsing and developing or using application therein.

Google chrome is simple,streamlined and a whole lot of fun to use. With new features,interesting look and amazing speed this is indeed going to a big one. Trust me..It's more than fun or browsing using Google chrome as you come across a whole new invention and experience.
To download it..Kindly follow the link:
http://http://tools.google.com/chrome/intl/en-US/features.html#
or click on the title of the post.
The web gets better with more options and innovation. Google Chrome is another innovation.
Download and Experience "Excellence"

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Q & A by Vikas Swarup


Speechless,spellbound and totally entranced...is what you experience once you cross your path with an impeccable debut of that of an author like Vikas Swarup for his classic work "Question and Answer". Yeah..! I m in all praise for Vikas's book "Q And A".
It was indeed a pleasure to go through this very exciting, page-turning romp which will oblige you to think and question ... and a book which is already being filmed.

First let me discuss the plot. An ill-educated, 18 year old orphan, working as a waiter in Jimmy's Bar in Mumbai, appears on the latest show in town called W3B - "Who Will Win A Billion" and correctly answers all 12 questions to win the jackpot of one billion rupees. The unscrupulous producers of the show are stunned. How can an illierate waiter, who has never been to a school or has never read a newspaper in his life,answer all these tough questions. So they promptly bribe the police and ask them to frame Ram Mohammad Thomas for cheating. A young lawyer called Smita Shah suddenly appears in the police station where Thomas is being tortured, reads out the law to the Inspector and takes him away to her house. Then, over the course of that night - the longest night of Thomas's life - she gets him to recount the story of his life and how it enabled him to answer the 12 questions on the quiz show, question by question. So, as can guess, the novel has exactly 12 chapters. Every single course of the Ram's life leaves an indelible mark onto your mind and you finally end up in all applause for the author.

Vikas Swarup writes a well-paced novel. Although the action moves back and forth through our anti-hero's young life, the pace of the novel is such that the various strands remain imprinted on your mind. Indeed, the author twists and manipulates your reading, holding back little surprises for you.

This is an exceptional read. It's, and I do not exxagerate, one of the finest debut novels I have ever read. It is the finest novel from an Indian Author I have ever read, because it doesn't pretend to be anything, it doesn't try to be poetic, or flowery. I usually prefer a book by an Indian author to be able to relate my self with the plot.
I finished the book, and aside from an appreciative content smile on my face, only one thing came to mind, "Damn, I wish I could meet in person with this guy". The ending has the kind of twist you expect at the end of a great story and I couldn't help but appreciate the thought and sentiment that goes into coming up with something like that.
What is it?
Read it and find out.
Oh, I'll leave you with the last line though.
"Because luck comes from within."

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Work smart and hard

"We need to work smart, not hard." I'm sure you've heard that expression or a variation of it, and perhaps you use it yourself.

It's one of those expressions that's rooted in truth, and it can come in handy. But be careful how you use it.

Obviously, working smart makes good sense. Our efforts should go toward high-priority tasks, the tasks that contribute to important goals. Successful people have learned how to manage their efforts. They work hard to complete the important tasks and they ignore the petty stuff that clamors for attention but leads nowhere.

Figuring out how to work smart is one of life's most worthwhile achievements. If you feel that you're spinning your wheels, as though you have to run a marathon to get from first to second base, there might be a smarter way. Take a step back and think about changing your approach. Use your head, analyze and get creative with your solutions. Incidentally, it's a lifelong process, there's no "one size fits all" solution to working smart.

The problem with the expression "work smart, not hard" is that people who use it seem to be implying that there is a back door to success. Once the secret key to the door leading to the hidden stairway is found, it will no longer be necessary to work hard. Just open the door, climb the stairway, and - voila - no more hard work.

That simply is not true. The hidden stairway leads nowhere.

Working smart is required. Trying to "work smart, not hard" is extremely dangerous. Change the "not" to "and," and you have a priceless gem of truth. Work smart AND hard. Now that's powerful. That will take you as far as you want to go. "Smart and hard" is the key to building businesses, industries, empires and your successful career.

Career Goals

Plan and Execute Your Career in a Proactive Manner
It is not enough to work, or to decide that you want a career. Set your career goals and determine the steps you should take to realize your goals. Don’t approach your career in an unplanned manner, by simply hoping for the best. Ask yourself these questions:
Where are you?
What are your goals?
How are you progressing?
and how do you want to progress?
Take an honest look at your situation and take control. Review trends in the industry and your needs. The plan should be based on information gathered from credible sources. Be realistic by setting attainable (reasonable) goals. And make sure you execute the plan.
If you follow these basic steps with full dedication,nothing in the world can stop you from attaining your goals.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

TCS+ONGC

TCS : Tata Consultancy Services Limited (TCS) is an Indian software services and consulting company. It is one of the world's largest providers of information technology and business process outsourcing services. As of 2008, it is Asia's largest information technology firm and has the largest number of employees among Indian IT companies.

ONGC: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited . It is a Fortune Global 500 company ranked 335th, and contributes 77% of India's crude oil production and 81% of India's natural gas production. It is the highest profit making corporation in India.


Do not be mistaken by the title of the post. There is no collaboration going on between these two giants , they still work independently but there is definitely something that has brought these two to share a common platform . It is a project of ONGC being handled by none other than TCS itself.(I ll get into the details later.)

I feel extremely proud of the fact that I got an opportunity to showcase my talent and inherent capabilities while working through my summer internship with TCS and ONGC. Since the very beginning of this year,life has been really rocking and quite fruitful for me. This very year has been impossibly brilliant till now(touch wood..!!!).
After I got into TCS,I decided to do my summer internship with the same and luckily got myself approved by the TCS to carry out my training.
The very first day I was asked to report at TCS office in CP,Delhi. Afterwards, I was asked to report at ONGC office,Scope Minar in Laxmi Nagar. I could not believe my luck when I came to know that I have been given a lifetime opportunity to work on a live project of ONGC viz Corporate Intranet being handled by TCS. I was to work as an employee of TCS for ONGC.

Honestly speaking these two months have been the best learning experience so far in my life. My words can not contain the essence of my feelings for the experience that I ve had during my summer internship. Though I have had my own ups and downs (My Attitude was again my worst enemy there but I seriously learnt from the mistakes that I made.) but overall this whole jaunt turned out be quite fruitful for me.
The training proided me to have an insight into the corporate world, the way they work,the infrastructure they follow,the rules and regulations one goes through,the overall management and workflow process,the professionalism being followed yet enjoying every moment of work. The training enhanced my technical skills ,provided me a clear and deep understanding of complex situation in technical fields and taught me various technological and non-technological stuffs as well.
But this could have not been possible,had it not been the people who helped me through my internship.
I,sincerely,express my thanks to member of TCS as follows:

Mrs. Harpreet Kaur Sawhney : My Project Leader: A thorough Professional yet Funloving.

Mr. Sachin Bhatia : TCS Employee: A man of inordinate Technical skills

Mr. Mallikaarjuna : TCS Emplyoee: A man with the kindest of heart of all of them,a great help and always there when needed.

Though My Attitude kinda turned out to be a tad annoying to first two but I got along well with the third one( Both of us were from NOIDA itself).

But the person who I end up idolising the most was the Head of Corporate Communication of ONGC : Mr. M.S.Tonk : A man of intelligence,power and had the aura of that of an undisputed HEAD of a group of persons.
I succeeded in giving one good impression of me or of my eccentricities to him and I believe that this is goiing to be indelibly stamped onto his memory as well.

Last but not the least, I thank my friends who were also a trainee like me and they were the ones who put up with me the most , tolerated my incessant thoughts and nonsense,were always a great help and fun to be with.
1. Garima Tewani (never wore a sherwani): The most serious,industrious and dedicated one...a diligent student and a staunch friend.
2. Bhoomika Prabhakar(nowhere related to Manoj Prabhakar): The most frivolous next to me but being a girl was a tad more sincere than me.
3. Hardika Bhasin(never committed a sin): A teacher and a friend to me. Hardworking,sincere and always bustling with energy.
4. Vidhi Vig (never wore a wig): Next Harpreet Sawhney in the making but with a change that She was good to me.

Thank you all for always there for me. It was indeed the best days spent with you all. I am gonna cherish every bit of moment spent with you all for the rest of my life.
Kisi intelligent bande ne kaha : Life is indeed colorful, has various shapes,sizes and colors to it.
I guess I m the one.
:)

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Attitude..!!

Attitude !...Attitude !...Attitude...!
The word echoes in my mind for more than hundred times in a day. This particular auditory effect is either produced by me or by those who happen to cross paths with me. I have been confronting the word since the days when I was just a mere kid in my school. It seems as if I lost something called "Attitude" and rest of the world has taken it as their sole responsibility to remind me of it. But what baffles me is the way the word is said over million times.
There are people who throw the word over me with an inch of smile on their face or there are those who ,I guess,donot find a better way to abuse me than just say the word.
Now the time has come when I need to sit down and figure out what does the word actually mean from their point of view and from my point of view as well.

If I get into the literal meaning as laid down in Oxford Dictionary
" Attitude" means "a complex mental state involving beliefs and feelings and values and dispositions to act in certain ways".
But how does one decide whether your Attitude is your best friend or your worst enemy.

Attitude is the one factor that is universally acknowledged to be capable of overcoming every possible disadvantage.

Attitude is also the one factor the can destroy the benefits of every possible advantage.

But, why is that?

What I found is that there are two kinds of people..one who survive tragedies and serious accidents of all kinds and there are those who do not. But where do I fit??
What I found is that regardless of schooling, net worth, role in society, or any other demographic feature, those who survive have access to particular states of mind even under the most trying of circumstances.
It is their approach to the world or their way of thinking about the world or the ways that they manage their thoughts and feelings when the world presents them with unexpected situations, that distinguished survivors from those who died under similar circumstances. No one can ever take away from anyone else the ability to choose their state of mind in the face of any circumstance that befalls them.
In other words, no one can take away your ability to choose your attitude.

Of course, there are a variety of dispositional factors (genetic and otherwise) that influence your ability to control your attitude and there are also a variety of social factors that influence the opportunities to develop the skills for conscious control of your own attitude, but there is nothing in either the realms within you or the realms outside of you that can ever make your choice of attitude totally predictable.


In short, what distinguishes those who handle crisis well is what we call, in common everyday parlance, their attitude.

As far as my case is concerned I believe that like everyone I have my own approach to the world or my way of thinking about the world or the ways that I manage my thoughts and feelings when the world presents me with unexpected situations.In short No one can ever take away from me the ability to choose my state of mind in the face of any circumstance that befalls me.
In other words, no one can take away my ability to choose my attitude. Now that in itself is an "Attitude".

But the most important aspect of the overall thing is that one should always be careful enough to carry out one's own behaviour or attitude esp in corporate world as that determines your career and level to which you can survive. The best way is to make yourself acclimatize to the situation and finally emerge out as winner.
A congenial disposition results in one congenial atmosphere and that marks the beginning of right Attitude to make further changes as per your requirement.
Now that too in itself is an attitude..!!

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Best B'day Bash...!!!

.

Sameer(in red),Saurabh(one with the bottle) and Rahul and
tat is sam busy as always..!!!
Check out the expression on Sam's face.
Before gathering booze
and afterwards




This is all real and involves no work of fiction. All characters are real and still alive and doing well in their respective fields.
Neway here I start with.....
It was 18th of september 2005, B'day of most sophisticated yet crazy and a dipsomaniac.. high on life, the person I m talkin bout is my best buddy Sameer Dev( I call him SAM).
Sam...though parties everyday and even if he doesn't ,makes sure people around him do that though reluctantly. This day was not like another day 'coz this day it is only he who pays for everything :). Like every b'day ,this day too was planned in its own way. I joined Sam early in the morning at his place to party with a common friend. Everything went mellifluously and then came the arrival of another carouser Archit Sharma , always there for his friends but only when the "bottle" is included.
Neverthless , we bid bye to our common friend and it was 4o'clock in the evening when all three of us got together with other bunch of morons to party late till night. I ll like to name all of us...Sameer,Raj,Saurabh,Archit,Ankit manchanda and Rahul(these are the imp characters ).We missed teji bachhann(teja).
Now, Sam tells his parents that all of us gonna ve dinner and wud be goin for a movie to gurgaon..I guess at DT cinemas.(That was all true till we moved out of sam's place. It took a different turn altogethr that very day..wud cum to it...wait.!!!)
we ve had our dinner at ganga shopping complex here in noida , sec 29 by 10 in the night and that was the place where Sam in his most persuasive nature convinced me to stay all night out with them , and I in my most unyielding nature complied.
Then we headed toward sec 18 and now I disclose the real plan..No gurgaon..nothing like movie...that night gurgaon shifted its base to a house jus next to sam's place on the ground floor and it was dere where the whole movie was shot that day.
yeah...u read that right. We can go to any limit to celebrate despite of d fact that once we are caught we ll be runnin for our lives.
Neway all of us got into house..soundlessly and closed the door. Now They..(I abstain from such stuffs..though I don't mind a rich wine or champagne) took the bottles out of the bag and the party began.
Archit goes high the moment he sees a bottle of vodka and high on booze..was leaving no chance left to appease his "biwi" who was going through a verbal scuffle with him.
Sam got busy serving everyone esp me 'coz it was first time for me..so he was being scrupulous but not with me... wth d bottle.Everyone except me gatherd booze and got high(bittu in his own way...)and then by and by everyone started with their part of story and other were deeply grossed into it though reluctanly. Archit is still busy with his biwi.
keep reading......there is more to it :)
by 2 in the night we were unaware of everythin goin around us but one thing tat i still remember is that Archit was still busy falling out with his "biwi".
At 5 in the morning, I got up and saw archit busy again but sam was lying on the floor and was completely unconscious. We made him stand and he fell to the ground. I left the place at 6 in the morning and while goin back to my place ,saw my dad jogging in the park. I got off the rickshaw and started jogging behind him on our way to my place. Soundlessly i made my way to my room and took a shower for an about one n half hour.
later tat evening called up Sam on his no. and got to kno by Sam's mom tat they wer all caught by Sam's parents after i left. The landlord of the house informed Sam's parents.
Now you can guess...what must ve happend.
No no no ....we are all alive and doin well .
But that day is indelibly stamped onto our memory...it was all so mch of fun that despite of the fact that we were caught , we still cherish the day.
thanks Sam...you made it happen like you always do.
Archit patched up things later with his"biwi" and they are happy together.
All I wanna say in the end is tat "Go ahead and live your life without bothering of the outcome. You learn from your mistakes but the days spent with your friends wud always be alive fresh in you heart".
thank you for goin through this.

moments..forever.

Comparison of the brain and a computer


I found this topic available over the internet and found it worth posting even if I was not the original source. Hope you find it worth reading..!!
Much interest has been focused on comparing the brain with computer. A variety of obvious analogies exist: for example, individual neurons can be compared with a microchip, and the specialized parts of the brain can be compared with graphics cards and other system components. However, such comparisons are fraught with difficulties. Perhaps the most fundamental difference between brains and computers is that today's computers operate by performing often sequential instructions from an input program, while no clear analogy of a program appears in human brains. The closest equivalent would be the idea of a logical process, but the nature and existence of such entities are subjects of philosophical debate. Given Turing's model of computation, the Turing machine, this may be a functional, not fundamental, distinction. However, Maass and Markram have recently argued that "in contrast to Turing machines, generic computations by neural circuits are not digital, and are not carried out on static inputs, but rather on functions of time" (the Turing machine computes computable functions). Ultimately, computers were not designed to be models of the brain, though constructs like neural networks attempt to abstract the behavior of the brain in a way that can be simulated computationally.
In addition to the technical differences, other key differences exist. The brain is massively parallel and interwoven, whereas programming of this kind is extremely difficult for computer software writers (most parallel systems run semi-independently, for example each working on a small separate 'chunk' of a problem). The human brain is also mediated by chemicals and analog processes, many of which are only understood at a basic level and others of which may not yet have been discovered, so that a full description is not yet available in science. Finally, and perhaps most significantly, the human brain appears hard-wired with certain abilities, such as the ability to learn language (cf. Broca's area), to interact with experience and unchosen emotions, and usually develops within a culture. This is different from a computer in that a computer needs software to perform many of its functions beyond its basic computational capabilities.
Human beings are capable of not only giving non-random answers to questions such as, "What color is November?", but also of providing reasons in support of their answer. Human beings can also make "intuitive" sense of statements such as, "If I were you, I would hate myself", which computers cannot do without specific programming instruction.
There have been numerous attempts to quantify differences in capability between the human brain and computers. According to Hans Moravec, by extrapolating from known capabilities of the retina to process image inputs, a brain has a processing capacity of 100 trillion instructions per second (100 million MIPS). In comparison, the fastest supercomputer in the world, the IBM Blue Gene/l at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is capable of handling 478.2 trillion instructions per second, and an average 4-function calculator is capable of handling 10 instructions per second. It is possible the brain may be surpassed by normal personal computers (in terms of Instructions Per Second, at least) by 2030.
The computational power of the human brain is difficult to ascertain, as the human brain is not easily paralleled to the binary number processing of today's computers. For instance, multiplying two large numbers can be accomplished in a fraction of a second with a typical calculator or desktop computer, while the average human may require a pen-and-paper approach to keep track of each stage of the calculation over a period of five or more seconds. Yet, while the human brain is calculating a math problem in an attentive state, it is subconsciously processing data from millions of nerve cells that handle the visual input of the paper and surrounding area, the aural input from both ears, and the sensory input of millions of cells throughout the body. The brain is regulating the heartbeat, monitoring oxygen levels, hunger and thirst requirements, breathing patterns and hundreds of other essential factors throughout the body. It is simultaneously comparing data from the eyes and the sensory cells in the arms and hands to keep track of the position of the pen and paper as the calculation is being performed. It quickly traverses a vast, interconnected network of cells for relevant information on how to solve the problem it is presented, what symbols to write and what their functions are, as it graphs their shape and communicates to the hand how to make accurate and controlled strokes to draw recognizable shapes and numbers onto a page.

I never thought if I wud also "experience certainity"

All of us elated.....at nothing..!!! This pic was clicked when we were called by JIMS in rohini,delhi for recruitment in persisitent systems.
This pic was taken soon after all of us got placed in TCS .
down from left: shweta garg,hardika bhasin,richa dubey,me..ashutosh(green shirt),shashank and nikhil(we call him daddu..)

Answer this..!!!

If you try to fail, and succeed,which ve you done?

Experiencing Certainity at TCS

Life has been really exciting for the past few days. Since the very beginning of this year,life has been rocking and quite fruitful for me. This very year has been impossibly brilliant till now(touch wood..!!!).
Finally , god bestowed success at my disposal but as they say that "Victory belongs to the most persevering" so even I had to go through various ups and downs before experiencing the success. After having experienced failures at every step , I got to taste success err better if I say "experience certainity". Now , since I ve been emphasizing a lot on the term "experience certainity"..so let me disclose this..one experiences certainity at TCS..viz TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES. Yes you guessed it right I am placed in Asia's largest and world's 12th(soon to be 10th) largest information technology firm.
But the very reason to post this blog here is to motivate those who still ve to make it big in life.
To make our way, we must have firm resolve, persistence, tenacity. We must gear ourselves to work hard all the way. We can never let up. This is what propels one to live life to the hilt.
So all you guys don't lose your confidence ,have faith in yourself and work hard with full sincerity.."coz if you do this,nothing can ever stop you to go high on the pinnacle of your carrer.
Remember there are no failures only mistakes and once you start to learn from your mistakes ,you would never have to confront failure ever in you life.
Good luck!!