Archive for January, 2008

Retail therapy

Published on January 22, 2008 in books. 6 Comments

I indulged in a modified version of retail therapy yesterday. I went to the Crossword bookstore in InOrbit and bought 4 books. A clearance sale was going on in Crossword and lots of books especially classics were heavily discounted. Moreover I had a Rs 250 gift voucher I recently won in an office contest that I wanted to spend so I just headed out to Crossword with the intention of passing some time and grabbing whatever was good and not so expensive. The bookstore was too crowded so could not leisurely browse through the books… but you don’t really need to check out classics so that’s what I mostly bought.

Books are:

  • The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde – Pulkit recommends this highly so am looking forward to reading this. We had Oscar Wilde’s hilarious play The Importance of Being Earnest in 10th standard that I immensely enjoyed and I am sure I am going to enjoy this one too.
  • Great Expectations by Charles Dickens – I read this novel long long back but I hardly remember any of it now, though I do remember that I had liked it. Another good book for my collection.
  • 1984 by George Orwell – “Orwellian Society” is a term I frequently come across in security literature especially in this era of increased mass surveillance. I have been looking for this book for quite some time but only recently happened to find a copy.
  • The Portable Atheist by Christopher Hitchens – I picked up the book and read a few randomly selected pages. I liked the contents and the style of writing so bought it. Looking forward to reading this one too.

By the way if you are ever confused on what to gift me there are 2 very safe items – books and chocolates ;-)

The complete collections of Calvin and Hobbes, Tintin and Asterix are on my books wishlist and will be bought as soon as I “settle” down.

Offline for around a month

Published on January 4, 2008 in miscellaneous. 3 Comments

Net was down at my place for around 25-30 days. And since I cannot check personal email or sites such as Orkut from work my apologies to friends who had sent emails, scraps etc. I am working my way through all the email that has accumulated; should be back to normal in a couple of days.

Email Jail

Published on January 4, 2008 in miscellaneous. 0 Comments

A place where the no. of emails coming into your inbox is greater than the speed at which you can read them or respond to them. Sigh.

New year resolutions

Published on January 4, 2008 in miscellaneous and thoughts. 3 Comments

Short and simple:

  • Sleep less.
  • Exercise more.
  • Read more.

Score right now is 0 out of 3. Thus it can only get better ;-)

Meaningful change

Published on January 4, 2008 in miscellaneous and thoughts. 0 Comments

I just found something philosophical and quite true in a very unexpected place. Read this para from the technical blogpost (rant actually) titled “Rails Is A Ghetto” -

I believe that in order for anyone to create meaningful change in their life they must take personal responsibility for their own actions and start with themselves. This is difficult at times since it’s human nature to not want to look at yourself and say, “Damn I suck”. That’s usually the first step though.

Aptly put, isn’t it?

Back!

Published on January 3, 2008 in daily diary, family, friends and fun. 1 Comment

I just had a very hectic 30-40 days.

Trip to Bangalore was fun. Worked hard for a couple of days and then freaked out with Moin, Subodh and Sallu for a day. Pics coming up shortly.

Went home for Mom’s birthday. Had a nice time hogging on home food and spending time with family.

Suman and Sanket got engaged in Bharuch. Had gone there to attend the function and had a nice time. Bharuch is a nice small place. Enjoyed with Suman’s gang and with Sanket’s family. Had good dabeli, pani puri and lots of ice cream even though I had an upset stomach. Return train journey was fun. Photos coming up as soon as Sanket/Suman send them to me.

Murthy finally managed to send my new digicam over from the US. Technically not mine since I gifted the camera to Mom but I have taken most of pics till now. It is a Canon PowerShot A570 IS, a decent point-and-click camera though I am yet to take great shots with it – many snaps are simply overexposed.

Tons of work at office. Team is growing so lots of things to do. Extremely busy at work nowadays.

Went to Ahmedabad for Christmas holidays. Sanket, Subodh and Sallu were in town. Bharat (who is in Ahmedabad only) played host most of the time. Also met Pankit. Had a blast with these guys. Had lots of coffee, went bowling but mostly it was talking. Also had a party at a friend’s place. Enjoyed a hell lot. Photos coming up shortly.

Also went to Moin’s home on Bakra Id – had amazing chicken biryani! Moin was also flying to Riyadh the same day so said bye to him. Photos coming up shortly.

My friend Mona got married to Sanjay Nair (so now technically she is also a Nair!). They hosted a reception at the City Lake Restaurant in Vastrapur, met Ushma there (she is as much the prankster today as she ever was) and also met Sanjay for the first time. Nice chap though could not talk much with him since there were many people vying for his attention. Was really difficult for me (and for Sanket) to drag ourselves to the reception after the party the previous night but I am glad we did. Photos coming up for this too.

My friend Pratik is also getting married in January. To Pulkit – I know I know it’s a guy’s name… I am still thinking of a good nickname for her. They make a nice couple. Am still getting to know Pulkit. She is my new best friends for reasons that will not be disclosed on this blog :-) Pratik and I are sort of the founding members of the Devdas chapter of the Prakash gang so am both happy and sad that he is changing boats. But I still have enough people for company so am not too worried :-)

Suman and I went down to Ahmedabad for New Year’s eve too. Sanket came down from Bharuch. Pratik, Pulkit, Mona, Pravin and Bharat. Ushered in the new year with lots of food, phone calls, dancing, singing and masti. Photos coming up in a few days.

Saw Taare Zameen Par with family (Dad, Mom and Nani). Liked the movie but was really happy because my family also loved it. Dad very rarely likes Hindi movies but even he loved this one! Mom and Nani also loved it… I wonder if it was because they had seen Om Shanti Om just a couple of days back? Hmmm.

That’s all for now. Hopefully I will blog more regularly this year. Happy New 2008!