The Mind Factory

You wish for something.
You don't get it.
So you fight.
By the time you end your fight, you no longer want it.
and then you get it.
long after you wished for it.
Excitement comes and leaves.
In few moments.
Life moves on.weird weird way how the mind and emotions work.

2010 - The Year It Was

Quick recap of the year that went by.
-The past year was little less exciting as its predecessor but glad that year went well with more smiles and joy than cries and depressing moments.
-Went on stage to perform as stand-up. It’s not easy to stand on stage and it’s not easy to make people laugh. When you do both and step down with people clapping for you, it’s a different high. In this busy life, if you make anyone smile or laugh, you have done one good deed of theday. It has been memorable experience, and would definitely give more shots at stand-up.
-Got an opportunity to write an article which eventually got published in ‘education times’ by times of india. My friends have said that its’ not a big deal and all which is somewhat right but when other people read the article and appreciate it, it’s certainly a good feeling. From one article last year, lets target few more articles in more publications in this year. :)
-In Professional life, Received SAPEX Reward which came as surprise but a very good one.
Also missed my promotion last year. Was very disappointed and felt bad as well. Well I never wanted my appraisal or money to be the reason to leave my company. So am here, still with the same company. Completed another year with it. And being in IT,it definitely is a big deal :P
-Talking of travel, I travelled to Bangalore and Mumbai this year. Mumbai twice, Bangalore
thrice. Chennai got planned and canned once. Bangalore trips were fun but Mumbai trips were amazing. First trip in April and Second in Aug-Sep during rains and ganpati, I’ve had memorable times there.
-Another year of social networking with twitter and facebook. Met so many twitter handles :p ,made few new friends. Some amazing amazing meet-ups and tweet-ups happened. Will try to add faces to some more twitter handles this year as well. If you use twitter well, nothing beats it.
- First half of year dedicated to emails and writing letters. Absolutely amazing thoughts
exchanged through emails with friend and some great times came along.
-Only one person thought to send me a diwali gift this year. a box full of home-made
Chocolates.So cool. And no thanks to Courier Company which failed to deliver it and also did not return it back to sender. So not cool.
- Had absolutely amazing times every time I went back home. Every.Single.Time. Amritsar
totally rocks.


For Arrivals and Departures – This ratio of new people arriving and old mates moving away has been very uneven and disturbing at times as well but then that’s how life is and three words sum it. Life Moves On. Started the year as ‘single’ and ended as ‘single’ and let’s not talk about the time between. ;) Some wonderful arrivals happened this year. No names to be written here but glad we became friends. Actually a book can be written on this. Also, I can go on and on to write about JA’s maiden trip to India but for now...moving on to next point.


Shaadi Viah and all – arrey yar... everyone decided to get married last year. Attended four
weddings last year and missed wedding of a very good friend. I wrote about the case of
invitations as well. Chalo.. Tussi vi viah karao hun !!

2011. Press Rewind. 2010. Check. Forward.

2011 is already 11 12 days old.


Made any resolutions? Actually I don’t get this funda of making new year resolutions on first day of every year. So that you follow them for whole year and then make some new resolutions on your birthday as well so that you follow them till your next birthday. What if resolutions you make on Jan 1 are completely opposite to ones you make on your birthday?


Anyway, Instead of resolutions,I made a ‘things to do’ list last year and this post is just to update the progress bar :


1. To get interviewed- oh well... does job interview count? did not happen in twenty ten.Setting the same for this year as well ;)


2. Shot at dream companies – Oh I did I did. In feb. made shot at one of my dream companies. All went well till the decision. :p but am glad I made a shot and had one of the best interview experiences. So this point is ‘Check’


3. Read and Write – Reading..if you know me and I say I have read more than 10 books, you will actually laugh but to my surprise I actually read few books this year which is big thumbs up to me.Winning, Stay Hungry Stay Foolish, Such a Long Journey, Second Degree, Connect the Dots, Of Course I love You, Dork and Open: Autobiography of Andre Agassi and few more. I think the best read this year was ‘Open’. So Big Cheers to that. Writing...well this blog is still up and running and getting updated quite often  once a month, one of big things that happened last year was an article coming in Times of India. So this point is also ‘Check’


4. New Wardrobe – Abbey Yaar.. got so many new shirts, trousers, t-shirts, shoes, sweaters and now I think I need a new wardrobe again. So the wishlist remains the same for this year.also Check .


5. Bring AmritSarovar back – Almost back. Working on it whenever getting time. Managed to get all the content from archives, site will hopefully be back very soon. Uncheck.


6. Travel Show – Did not happen. Mainly because I was not in one city for long time. Koi na. this year again, it remains on ‘things to do in 2011’.


7. Less of Crying and More of Laughter – Definitely. May be. I did not count so theek theek laga lo. ;)


8. Travel Travel Travel – I did.I did.I did. Three trips to Bangalore, Two to Mumbai, Two to Ludhiana and So many to Amritsar :p .


9. Gain Knowledge – Lets mark this as ‘Check’ and continue learning.


10. Learn a dance form – Did not even make an effort to do this. Hopeful to do something about it this year.


12. Talk Less- Are you kidding me??? :D


New Year. New Hopes. So far So good. Hope its going good for you as well.

Happy Reading

I am quite regular on google reader since most of the sites are blocked in office and am dependent on RSS feeds to read stuff.So sharing few blog links which are on my Google reader :


On my regular reading list are Exalted Soul, Outlandish Musings, Youth Curry, Ujjwal's Blog & PostSecret for the funs and Gursimran & Shantanu for the puns.


I also follow blogs of Michelle, Shoe-Girl, Kristopher, Sumantics, Supreet, Sakhi, Anubha, Pari,Sagar, Anaggh, Sunaina, Gul and Preeti.


Technology front,I follow Digital Inspirations, Pluggd.in, Medianama and Quick Online Tips

On Creative Side, it’s fun to follow Mansi, Nithin, Anshul , Meera and Jasmeet

On Photography, I follow Tarun Chandel, Ashu Mittal, Big Picture and RSS Feed of 'Recent uploads from my Flickr Contacts'.


Happy Reading!!

The Curious Case of Marriage Invitations

Am I the only one who gets marriage invitations by Email or Facebook event invitations? I know your answer. but i have something to say. 

Clearly I am not able to understand this new fashion of marriage invitations the electronic way. During my school and college times, I never received marriage invites e-way. we used to get a card and mithai ka dabba with it to share the happiness and getting a proper invite for the wedding. Then trend changed. Those sweets got replaced by chocolates and dry fruits. But still one would get a wedding card with it.

What is my problem with invite?

No problem certainly. BUT, where is the personal touch? Where is the feel of getting an invite? How will I get into the mood that it’s your wedding and I have to alter my plans and make it to your BIG day? I get the point that now we both are in different cities and you can come and give me the invite but a phone-call? One two-three minute call inviting for a marriage or sharing the plans would add so much value to your email or even face book invite. If I am available as helping hand, trust me, I will ask you for that as well.

Another thing, in last one month, except for checking on mobile, I have hardly been to face book and commented on your status messages or pictures. There if you send me your wedding invite, chances are that I see that invite even after I comment on your honeymoon album pictures. Yes. Quite Possible.

Same goes for email. I check my mail mostly on mobile and all the attachments don’t open. And at times, if you send me the invite on one email address I hardly check, there goes my chance of attending the wedding too.

For the record, I have attended only ONE wedding out of family this year. That of my friend’s sister. And I would have gone to that wedding even without a mail or face book invite. :D

So In short invitation is not compulsory, personal affection is. And if you think its acting pricey and ego issues and all. Aisa hi hoon main !! :P

P.S – Don’t take this post to your heart especially if you sent me an invite and I could not make it to your wedding. You know about corporate life. It’s a bitch. Call me when you have new entry in your family and we will celebrate it then. Lohri. Diwali. Birthdays. Anniversary. :)

BTW What do you feel about such e-invitations ?? :P

IT Insights - A First

This post is just to share a first. first article that got published in a newspaper.written by me :) . Its certainly a very nice feeling when you know something you wrote has reached masses and been received well by them. 

Some Facts before i share the article.

Paper - Education Times (Mumbai Edition.Dnt know if it came in another editions as well but the below pic is from Mumbai edition)

Date - July 12, 2010

Day - Monday

Title - IT Insights :) [Career in IT Industry]

Online Link to Article - Click Here

Here is the article pic : 

Read it. Share it. Tweet it if you like it. Share the feedback.Much appreciated. 

Super busy in life?

Ever wondered how busy everybody is in life and at times miss out in contacting friends because of one or the other reason.many a times excuse is that other person can also contact,why should i make a move? I say why not? The other person might be thinking the same thing. Write a note. Write an email or a letter. Call. Just few minutes of conversation can charge you up and renew the bonds. If you can breathe,eat and sleep, you can definitely take some time to talk to your mates who you spent talking all night or chatting on messenger windows and have shared your sms jokes and random pondering.connect offline coz virtual world is no replacement to human bonding.I have experienced friendships turning from very good friend to good friend to friend and eventually just being facebook friends.and this mini post is just an alert so that you don't lose any diamonds in your life.

p.s this is first post written entirely on mobile. Expect more mini posts now. Will try to get back here and write something.