Bye Bye 2007! Welcome 2008!

So, how was the year 2007 to me personally, professionally, miscellaneously ? No major stuffs happened, though its always nice to recap a few of them, isn't it ?

• Well, few more of my college friends poured in to Hyderabad, which just added up to the fun and enjoyment we were having. We went on a trip to Manali, and I had a great time having fun with the group. Had some small fights and reunions ;)
• I got my N73! :P Suddenly got some interest in photography, and tried taking some funny shots now and then.
• I got my new bike, and even did some somersaulting ;)
• Woow, It was a big year for the Harry Potter maniacs (7th book, 5th movie). With the tension and expectations for the 7th Book. I just finished the day after the book got released, and felt happy one side about the book end and everything. Though felt sad that it has come to an end. Long live Harry Potter!
• In the office environment, we shifted our office to a new bigger building, though I miss the old one, very much. And I had some nice, fun moments with my team-mates, team-outing, parties, etc Not to forget the try-outs for caterers, and the free snacks scheme which lasted for few months ;)
• Just got a bit bored with Orkut (though they kept on releasing new stuffs), and got introduced to Facebook, and may be I can say that I got addicted to few of the apps there. I love them all.
  

I couldn't remember much though, except that I started looking at things a bit more seriously than the way I've been looking. I even started feeling like being more independent is always better. Lets see, how things are going to change my life in 2008.

Wish you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year 2008!
Have fun.

Nostalgia

The memories are fresh as the morning dew.
Retrospecting life has always felt nice,
As those pleasant experiences get persisted
And the trauma, bad moments get flushed away.

So do the people in those memories.
Some of them just get faded away,
A few others stay back in our mind and thoughts
No matter how far they go beyond our reach.

For distance can't separate friendship!

Fun with etymology!

Can you guess the etymology for trivia or trivial ? I was just laughing and everything for around 5 minutes, when I read something like..

trivia = tri (three) + via (road), and when three roads meet, there'll be a junction and traffic signal, and that the people standing there in that traffic wouldn't utter any secret stuffs, but only trivial stuffs..

I guess, whenever I got struck up in a traffic, trivia is going to flash in front of me :) And Its always fun to know more about the etymology of words, and for what they've been used in those original days, and how they've got transformed to what they mean today.. Isn't it ?

And, Norman Lewis just rocks! :)

Really really cute!

I kept on hitting the "Replay" button, for quite sometime by now!

Huh!

  X : And you are a ... :?
Me : Software Professional.. :-)
  X : And for how many months you've been working ?
Me : (Oh I look so young ?) No, actually for more than 2 and a half years!
  X : 2-and-a-half-years ??
Me : Ahem, Say almost 2 years.
  X : What the hell ? You've been a Cyber Slave, for more than 2 years by now ???
Me : (Cyber Slave ??!!%$^&#) Huh! Huh! :'(

Busy being Vetti!

Was that a contradictory title ? May be, but I've been extremely busy being and doing the most silly and vetti (jobless?) things for the past few days, and now I'm here writing a post about those ? Because, I couldn't control myself from doing so!

Well to start with, the first and the most funniest thing that we started discussing/planning was to trick one of our dearest gang-mate, G in the creative-just-for-laugh-gags way. We used to watch this program everyday, as it is one of our favorite. And we have been discussing quite for sometime about a well and nicely planned trick, to be tried on G. I can't explain even a bit of the so-called-plan over here, probably for the reason that, then my blog space would come under porn-related search results :P

But OMG, those lengthiest/funny gmail threads could be one of the most vetti-est of all the vetti things, I am doing these days. Everyday someone or other just starts a mail thread, and it keeps on getting appended to some 20 or more replies in few minutes. And how very modest all our dear gang-mates are, to put a busy status in gtalk, with additional status messages reading `Really Really Busy' ;-), For that matter, even I remember in a thread discussing exactly about being busy/and setting busy status in gtalk. Ooof. And I looove those gmail threads and appends, with different colors for each person, etc etc. Long live gmail! :)

And coming to another most interesting and vetti thing, I'm doing for the past 2 days - Gossips! What else would be more interesting for somebody who is vetti, other than chewing about and peeping into other's personal matters, and that too about my dear room-mate's, and that too if that's D. Is that because, I have never even dreamed of Gossips-and-D, that I paid more interest than normally I'd do, I don't know. But I thoroughly enjoyed doing a bit research work on that front, and even starting a discussion in our Orkut community :-)

But, I did even some useful stuffs during weekend, doing loads more of shopping for Diwali, getting stuffs for everybody (Buying sarees on my own was a big nightmare. But did it with an ease this time, and thanks to U). Did watch 2 wonderful movies :P, `Happy Days' and `No Smoking'. I clapped heavily, as soon as this `No Smoking' got over, without even realizing myself, for the first time after any movie. Is that probably because, I'm sooo happy that the movie got over :'(

Okiee, And enough of writing a vetti post about all the vetti businesses!
My advanced Diwali wishes to you all! :)

2nd Season & 2nd Sensation

For those of you who missed to watch, here is the video clip of those dramatic final moments of the sensational episode of Jodi No.1 (Season 2) in Vijay TV, with hot and sensational talks between Simbhu, Prithvi and Venkat too which finally ended up in getting the rocking Riyaz-Prithvi pair to be eliminated themselves!

@ times & @ other times

I've always felt that soothing experience while scribbling something here in my blogspace, when i feel or think that i am in a somewhat bad state of mind. But, can the layout/template change of my space alienate me from writing whatever that i wished to ? I am afraid i don't know, except that i decided just to cry out!

At times, I have felt that everybody around me are trying to put up a big nice play and that i should go far beyond the reach of any human touch or smell, and sit alone, and enjoy that loneliness.
At other times, I have enjoyed being with my dear and near ones, being missed and missing people.

At times, I have felt extremely sad even amidst sitting a bunch of enjoying people.
At other times, I have enjoyed beyond the limit by spending time with those, and even when i was alone.

At times, I have felt extremely disappointed and felt extremely sad that people didn't even try to reach my expectations, my feelings and sensations.
At other times, I have happily accepted the way they are and enjoyed even those particular behaviors of them.

At times, I have felt jealous of other's work, intelligence and successes.
At other times, I have felt the joy from deep inside my heart about my dear and near one's milestones and talents.

I've always wondered time and again, how much ratio of the weight i have given for these @times and @other times in my life, has it been 50~50 or 70~30 or .. ?? I am not sure though, but I could have made things better, or can make things better if i can march towards a 30~70 or 10~90 ratio ?!

On a completely unrelated note,
I've bought a new bike, owing to the following facts :

• Our office has been shifted to a new bigger and better building, not only that but also at a faraway distance from where we live.
• We didn't even imagine about searching for a new house near our office, as we didn't wish to end up paying the rent which we give for our 3BH, for a single BH in that posh Jubliee hills area.
• Last but not the least, I can never more beg for more than 20 or 30 autowallahs, in various languages and with various facial expressions before i get one. I've even come across certain guys, who just shook their heads, before even i start opening my mouth. Oooof!

On an other unrelated note,
I was extremely touched seeing for the 2nd time, but for a puccah censored version of 7G Rainbow Colony on Oct 2nd, thanks to Sun TV. But, don't ask me whether Gandhiji would have been touched seeing all those colorful and nice special programs being relayed amidst tight competitions, on his birthday, from heaven! ;-)

How safe are we ?

Before entering a Shopping mall, breathing hard and thinking whether this place might be one amongst those possible bomb-blast spots..
After leaving the mall, and when you come outside, thinking hard to stand or walk under a bridge as its raining heavily !!

How safe are we in this world ??

Love

You are able to read it ! Aren't you ?

Gardening

I was around 4, when we moved to our newly built house. These such similar conversations or fights or whatever, even happens now in our house.

Mom : I always shouted, asking you to leave some extra space in the front of the house !
Dad : I actually wanted more space to be left behind in the backyard.
Mom : See, we can't even park two vehicles next to each other comfortably, then how can we park a car, probably in the future. Nobody hears to me in this house. Huh !

These such conversations, might not end in such a smooth manner at times though. But yeah, as we have some what of a free space at the backyard, we wanted to maintain a garden. Out of greediness, we planted all those trees and plants; like coconut, mango, papaya, lemon, pomegranate, some two varieties of guava (one is called china-guava, it will be very small and reddish, i love that one) etc etc. And all those roses, different types of jasmines, henna etc. (I still remember fighting with my sis, as i did some ugly mehendi in her hand and spoiled it)

And out of those 5 coconut trees, we got each one of them assigned by dad to me, my sis, bro and mom. Its our responsibility to take care of them. And there always used to be competition between me and my sis, in watering or manuring.. But one person who doesn't even care about these is my bro. We have got rounds for watering every evening, though i don't much remember seeing my bro in the backyard.

Before the rainy season starts, we used to grow vegetables every year. Dad used to do some magic with the soil, prepares well spaced areas individually for different kinds of plants. And one nice evening, we all used to sow seeds (for brinjal, pumpkin, tomato, ladies-finger, gourds etc etc). I used to wake up early for some next 3 or 4 days, to check if the seeds which i have sowed has grown up. It was all fun to watch them grow, and giving vegetables. Gardening was the only good hobby for me during my childhood, as i won't get out of house much, for playing games, etc (Though i did, i hardly remember those memories, than these). And as years rolled on, and as each of us moved to various places for studies and things, we stopped doing all those nice gardening things.

And, why all of sudden I got back to those old memories. Its probably because, a week back I came to know that there was a Nursery Mela happening near Eat Street, over here in Hyd. Though my roomies showed some interest initially, they weren't able to accompany me. Is it because of that, or that I didn't want to kill too many lives, I just got a single rose plant in a pot. And here is the first [and the only one so far :(] rose of it.

[I got it uploaded using http://m.flickr.com/ ;)]

I should probably try getting few more added to the balcony in our apartment. Wouldn't it be nice and peaceful to see them growing up, before you go for work every morning ?

My everyday sites list.

The flash movie didn't get loaded ? Click here

Oh no, I am sad. Anyways here is the same list in text format.
5. iGoogle
4. IBNLive
3. Reddit
2. Bloglines
1. Orkut

PS : I basically wanted to try and create a sample flash using the Flex framework. ;)

The Orkut Doodle

Orkut, one of the popular community sites has always been close to our hearts. Is it because the indian traffic has been constantly increasing, I am not sure but came across this doodle today, linked to their official blog post explaining how Orkut is celebrating our Independence day.

And here is that doodle, which will be removed tomorrow and so just thought of archiving it here :)

200 Secrets.

Quite sometimes back, when i started blogging, and i was in a kind-of a bad state, i remember writing a post about Meaning of Life. I am not very sure whether that post was a crap or made any sense at all to people .

Though things in my life has changed a quite better from those final days of my College, and particularly for the last one year or so [new people, better environment, etc], I still feel that i am not upto anything good or great. I feel, i am not putting any of my efforts at all for some greater good or for achieving something. :(

At times saying, Life is boring, Life has become a routine, looking at my everyday work and if weekend starts, going for movies and tasting various restaurants around, worrying frequently with friends about not having gal friends.. Is this all that i can do or i can worry about ?

Ahem ahem.. Coming to the point for which i started typing this post.
I got this nice stuff from my best, which i wanted to share with everyone.
Please do try reading this one.

The Top 200 Secrets of Success and the Pillars of Self-Mastery
- By Robin S Sharma

And let me see, if i can find any change in the way i look at things and doing stuffs.

In 2 years.

How much changes can you see in persons in 2 years ?
Here are 2 snaps, of me and my roomies.. Check that out.. :)

2 years before



A recent snap

Top 10 keywords bringing users to my Blogspace

After a long time, I logged into Google analytics where i have created an account for tracking my blog space. And i was surprised to see its new version, with damn cool features like interactive flash charts, generate reports etc. User interaction design has been made perfect, allowing to filter the period for viewing the reports, allowing to drill down into the flash charts for finer details. For eg. To get to know the Visitors traffic, you can keep on digging from World-> Asia-> South Asia-> India-> South India-> ..

I just wanted to look at the keywords traffic from search engines, thats bringing people to my blog. So here is a screen shot of the same. :)

A Storm coming..

I got this pic, somewhere from a reddit link.
And i was just kept on looking at it, May be it resembled to some extent the state currently i am with. I feel like exploding now, but i should calm down and think deeply to plan what should i do next.. Lets wait and see..

Should i be the storm or Should i be the one who runs away seeing the storm coming ?? I am afraid, i dont know !!

OotP - First day first show

We made it for the first day first show, of the much awaited 5th film in the HP series, and that too in IMAX 3D. Fully packed magical treat running for around 2 hrs 20 mins, the movie has got such a momentum, and blind cuts in story line, which every ardent fan of harry potter wud feel about. I am not sure, how non harry fans would appreciate the movie, due to the pace in which the movie goes.

Umbridge rocks, Luna rocks, the 20 mins of explosive finale in 3D is not extremely awesome or something, but it was good. Sirius have been given more scenes with some touchy dialogues too to make all of us feel when he dies in the end. And I liked the Grawp scenes too, and when ever Ron and Hermoine are in the scene, the director made sure that they do silly things, being possessive on each other, etc etc building a strong base for Ron-Hermoine love affairs in the 7th book. It would have been nice if some few more minutes are spent on the final action scenes in the Ministry, though the wizards duel was awesome.

The Order rocks !!!

Expecto Patronum

Check out this link for an exclusive clip from the much awaited 5th film of the Harry Potter series. I just enjoyed watching the clip, where in Harry teaches the DA members, how to conjure a patronus. Its sooo cool :-)

And after the premiere in Tokyo, there has been reviews stating the movie to be the darkest and the best so far. And i just can't wait to watch it.

Some of the reviews after Tokyo premiere:

• Telegraph
• The Guardian

UPDATE : Here is another exclusive clip of the Escape of Bella from Azkaban which surfaced online.

Whats coming next ?

From my childhood days i have this [bad or whatever] practice of just checking the Calendar for 'What is coming next ?? Which makes me feel happy/better/something !!'. May be many others might also be doing the same.. Does that mean, that we are failing to live and enjoy each and every moment.. Might be, but thats not always possible rite.. [When your boss is sitting next asking u to do something, when u r attending an interview, when u r writing a board exam...etc etc.. am just trying to go backwards in time.. :D]

Ok.. Thats all set aside, but what sort of this 'Whats next?' thing that used to make me drive and push my present time.. Well, it kept on varying from time to time.. During school days, i just wait for the forthcoming quarterly, half-yearly or summer holidays there by pushing hard my hectic working days :P.. When it came to my college days, as i was away from my home, whenever i was able to note/plan in my calendar for my next trip to my hometown, i will just try push those in between days.. :)

But as the days are passing, my preferences/type of 'Whats next?' might be changing, though my attitude as such of 'Whats next?' can't be removed ?? Is it good to remove that mentality ?? I have got no idea.. But i used to love the quote, 'Enjoy every moments of life' :) Though am failing to do the same.

And BTW, why am i making such a post now.
May be, am nearing some event in my Calendar.. :)