Kabhi Kabhi Aditi Zindagi Mein Koi……

There goes my alarm, and it’s put off even before a line of the beautiful song is completed.With one eye open , I check out the time its 6.30 am. I roll on my bed for a few minutes before deciding that half an hour of more sleep ain’t going to hurt anybody. The half hour somehow ends up into a 3 hour long slumber.

Damn it, it’s 9.30 am. Had promised I would sweat it out at the gym today. Have been skipping the gym religiously for sometime now, and my ever increasing waistline would soon be the inspiration for setting up a few jogging tracks in my area. But there’s no time now, have to reach office by 11 am.That too seems an impossibility. Dadar to SEEPZ in an hour, that too on a rainy day, would be the height of optimism.

I curse my self for being lazy, curse office for starting at 11am and not 2pm, curse my servant for not coming on time, curse my clothes for not being ironed, curse my mobile for not having being charged. It’s 10 am by the time I manage to leave home. It has started pouring cats and dogs, monkeys and elephants, and I send a last curse to the skies for starting my day in such a miserable manner.

If you haven’t understood by now, I hate rains. Speeding cars splashing water all over you and turning your formal wear into designer stuff, buses being jam packed, auto-rickshaw drivers doing nakhras to take you in, and the Mumbai traffic and pathetic drainage do not help either.

Finally manage to get a taxi, and that’s a pretty difficult task, specially if its a rainy day and if you wish to visit a traffic prone area like SEEPZ. I flung my office bag at the side and decide to catch some sleep in the taxi until the rather long journey to office is completed. Hardly have I slept for a few minutes, that I am woken up by persistent thumping on the windows of the taxi. A little girl in tattered clothes is knocking on my window begging for some money.

I’m a total disapprover of giving money to beggars as I believe you are aiding some one to be reliant on others mercy rather than one’s own hard work. So as usual, I tell the girl to move ahead, without even looking at her. But she stills pleads, saying that she is in real hunger.

Continue reading this post…

Back to Grandmom’s world class food…. back to pampering parents…. back to irritating and troubling moi sister…… back to sipping coffee on the beach side CCD…. back to clean beaches…..back to laughing on silly jokes with friends ….. back to nite outs….. back to open roads…. back to breathing …back to living…back to heaven…back to Goa.

Panaji’s Most Busiest SideWalk At Peaktime

Miramar Highway

The Camera Just Went Click

After Hogging At Hotel Orion With Friends

Trying To Be Innovative

Check out some more of my pathetic photography skills inside

Continue reading this post…

15 th April , 1912 : The Titanic Sinks

3rd December 1984 : Bhopal Gas Tragedy

23rd July 1973 : Himesh Reshammiya is born

29th June 2007 : Himesh Reshammiya debuts as an actor with Aap Ka Surrooor.

9th May 2008 : Mimoh debuts as an actor with Jimmy

And now its time to update this list of all time disasters.

11th May 2008 : Me and my room-mates decide to wake up the Sanjeev Kapoor sleeping within us and decide to exploit our culinary skills.

To all the ladies and a few men, who have ever managed to cook anything eatable in their entire lifetime, hats off to you all. One attempt at cooking and I have realised cracking CAT or I.I.T. JEE seems a lot more easier. And no kidding here.

Equipped with a lot of enthusiasm and optimistic of giving the Sanjeev Kapoors and the Tarla Dalal’s of the world a run for their money, I and my room mates decided to don the chef’s hat.

My grand-mom is the world’s best cook, mom cooks pretty well, and dad also does manage to cook well when he does decide to cook. So guess genetically ( if there are cooking genes) I was pretty much equipped to be a fine cook. So no more waitin, Sanjeev Kapoor was all set to wakeup from his slumber.

Bhendi ki Sabji, Soya beans Masala Gravy, Bundi Raita was what we intended to cook but ask my digestive system and you are sure to get way different answers. I really love spicy food but after having a bit of what we cooked yesterday, it will be good bye to spicy and masaledar food for a while(like for some centuries). Not paying heed to my friend who claimed to have some previous cooking experience, I went on adding scoops of chilli powder to every dish that was burning (cann’t use the term cooking here) on the gas stove. While she prayed for me to stop my experimentation and rest and watch IPL instead, I insisted on being innovative. Something in me said that adding Dominos chilli flakes and Dominos organic seasonings would surely give the food a different taste. It gave it a different taste alright, but it no longer remained food. And the moment I added Tropicana Apple Juice to the soya bean gravy, she gave up providing help with the food. So it was just the food at the mercy of me and my room mates innovation and experimentation.

After about two hours of experimentation with the food. The “so called food” was ready. Cooking reminded me of my Chemistry practical sessions where we mindlessly used to mix up chemicals just to see what combination would be produced. The only difference was the experimentations at the laboratory resulted in me almost losing one of my eyes and the expire - mentations in the kitchen resulted in all of us getting a bad stomach ache and losing the desire of ever having or cooking food again.

Here’s a look at what we prepared. It might look alright, but ask our angry bowels who are right now firing all kinds of expletives (arreey no need of opening up the dictionary : it just a nice way of saying maa behen ki gaaliyaan) at me and my room mates and you shall get pretty much disgusting answers.

Continue reading this post…

Fitness and health have suddenly become a top priority in my life. Have lost more than 10 kgs in the past 6-7 months but still a long way to go till I achieve my goal of achieving a great body. Riding in my 23rd year right now, want a perfect body as soon as I turn 23. So will I achieve my goal? Definitely I Will.

What’s In My Favor

• My dedication and motivation.

• This blog post, that will continuously remind me of my GOAL.

• A room mate who is equally health conscious.

The Odd’s Against Me

• A sedentary ten hours job.

• A metabolism rate that pretty much SUCKS.

• Time , that always seems so less.

• As I am away from home, have to rely on hotel food and the chefs in the restaurants I frequent aren’t particularly health conscious.

That’s Me , One Year From Now

If you need to say something, Just Say It.

There is no point pondering over things like is this the right time to say this or should I wait for a more appropriate situation. For take it from me, there is no such thing as RIGHT TIME.

I personally used to ponder over a lot over the after effects of what I wanted to say and wait for the right time to come. A wait that would never end. But have resolved to never do so in future and just express my feelings than hiding them deep inside.

So whenever you’ve got to say something, Just Say It.

If you’ve got to say Sorry. Just Say It.

If you’ve got to say Thank You. Just Say It.

If you’ve got to say I Love You. Just Say It.

If you’ve got to say F$%& Off. Just Say It.

Expectations were definitely nonexistent when I entered the multiplex, to catch some sleep. Oops to watch Shaurya. Last week’s release One Two Three had prepared me to take on any movie and leave the theater mentally sound. So I said to myself,” Bring on what you have Samar Khan(director of Shaurya) and I am ready to face it”.

Five minutes into Shaurya : “Ok, another of those patriotic army movies. Get ready for some preaching, Amit”

Ten minutes into Shaurya : ” Oh! So they are aping A Few Good Men, this time round. Time to find some sleep.”

Fifteen minutes into Shaurya : “Is it really getting interesting? Or am I hallucinating”

Twenty Minutes Into Shaurya : “The movie has me hooked.”

Shaurya Movie Story

Officer Javed Khan has been accused of killing his senior officer, Major Rathore. The lethargic fun loving officer Major Siddhant(Rahul Bose) has been entrusted with defending Javed. What Siddhant thought would just be a sight seeing and para gliding experience in the valleys of Srinagar turns out to be a life changing experience.

Shaurya Movie Poster

Continue reading this post…

Always wanted to be a part of what they call bar camps, and see whether they actually are as much fun as they promise to be or should I say as others claim them to be. And finally the opportunity did come knocking on the door with Bar Camp 3 organised at IIT Powai SOM Institute.

So here is my quick take on Bar Camp3. Quick but not short . Dividing this post into two parts, this being the first.

Organisers Of Bar Camp 3

Event was organized decently but could have been carried out in a better manner. The timing schedules were not put up properly. There were rather dramatic mismatches with the timings put on the “White Board” and the actual timing of the sessions being conducted in the seminar halls. In all other ways though the organisation was perfecly carried out. And must say over here, the blog t-shirts are pretty cool.

All sessions mentoned out here are the one’s attended by me. There were many sessions running in parallel and these were the ones I got an opportunity to attend.

Rashmi Bansal

Really wanted to be a part of this session. But due to display of improper schedule by the organizers, I missed it. Of the one minute that I did bother to catch , the session seemed like a light talk on blogging and how one shouldn’t get too involved in it. Plain and simple, without even a dash of tech in it.

How To Secure Your Blogs Session

A very very basic talk on security like why you should upgrade your wordpress blogs. Pretty much toddler stuff. Three musketeers from the audience interrupted, reinterrupted and re-reinterrupted the speaker recursively to make sure that the speaker got screwed and the impeccant audience couldn’t figure out what was going on.

Continue reading this post…

If you are a pro-blogger then these few days must have been like waiting for your exam results to come out. Tense moments, bad dreams and miserable thoughts. And why not? Google’s PR (Page Rank) Update was on it’s way.

Google had warned various publishers that selling text links ads on their web pages and hence tampering Google’s algorithm would adversely affect their sites PR. And the warning wasn’t just an empty one.

The recent Google PR update toppled various famous sites PR and there were cries of dismay all around the blogosphere. Some problogger’s like Johntp suffered a major PR drop from PR 6 to a measly PR 3. Other PR 5 entertainment sites like Ourbollywood and Naachgaana slumped to a docile PR 3 from a healthy PR 5.

My Advice To Bloggers

Crying too much about the loss of PR wouldn’t do any good. I strongly recommend bloggers not to purchase links. Create a better blog to get quality traffic to your site and create a larger reader base. That’s the only mantra for a successful blog.

Now moving to the point of should you continue selling Text Link Ads? I guess if you think your major source of revenue is through selling text link ads, then it makes no sense removing them. Ask yourself , why you want a high PR . Is it just too command respect on the internet or is it too make a lot of money? If the answer is the latter then removing text link ads would be nonsensical. As if you want a good PR to sell links and if Google will decrease your PR if you sell links. Then you are in a real catch 22 situation. So do not care about Google and just go ahead and sell those links.

But if you observe a drop in the SERPs of your site or if google ( search ) traffic to your site has greatly reduced. Then the best option would be to ditch text link ads. Most of my blogs receive around 70% of their traffic through Google, so if selling text links are going to affect my SERP than I would prefer to stay away from them.

But John Chow whose site suffered a PR blow from 6 to 4 is in no mood to bow down to Google’s dictatorship. He has no plans of removing his text link nds and wants to take the Google bull by its horns. He has also stated that Google traffic is only 2% of his total traffic ( a big exaggeration , I feel) . Anyways, check out his post : “Turning A Negative To A Positive” : a real inspiration if you want to wage a war against Google

Here’s a great cartoon of this PR update: I found on the net. Cannot recollect though from which site

Continue reading this post…

Just heard about this new site WidgetBucks that helps you make some great money by adding some cool widgets to your site. The widgets generally show shopping items available on different sites like newegg.com, amazon.com, etc.

Widgets come in a range of sizes( 468*60, 728*90, 660*330, 300*250, 160*600) and can be customized to different colors, so as to gel in with the colors of your site. By choosing the Merchsense option ( that is patented by Widget Bucks ) you can have ads relevant to your site content. Check the bottom of this post to see how the widgets appear.

How To Apply For WidgetBucks

As Widget Bucks is a relatively new venture, they do not have restrictions for publishers to join. No minimum traffic requirements or minimum PR guidelines. All you have to have is a site for which you must apply. In a few minutes you will receive confirmation by Widgetbucks to jadd the widgets to your site. I got thw widgetbucks confirmation mail in my bulk account, so please do check your bulk mail. Once you receive the confirmation, you are on your way making money with this widget.

Signup by clicking on this link : Earn $$ with WidgetBucks.

Get $25 Just For Sign Up At Widget Bucks

Auction ads too has this incentive to attract publishers to join their site. But it is rather difficult to make money with auction ads because you get paid only when some one clicks on the ads and then buys a product. So you get a commission only on converted sales.

But Widget Bucks isn’t that way. With Widget Bucks you make money on a ‘per click’ (CPC) basis and WidgetBucks claim that those who’ve tested them are getting $3-$6 CPM. Payment is via Check or paypal, but you need to hit $50 before you trigger your first payment. So to get your first pay check you just have to wait for another $25. This $50 payout is definitely attractive as other sites ( adsense, kontera) generally have a payout of $100.

Have A Big Bite When The Cake Has Just Been Baked

Widget Bucks has just launched ( it has an alexa rank of 1,000,000 +) and popular sites have already started blogging about it. So hit the hammer when the iron is still hot and cash on the opportunity to make some great money with Widget Bucks. I have just applied for Widgetbucks, for one of my sites and shall report about how much earningsI make in a week’s time. Also shall review any downsides if any on Widgetbucks.

Read articles about a few bloggers who have written about Widget Bucks :

Earn $$ with WidgetBucks

JohnChow’s Review on Widget bucks

Probloggers Review On Widget Bucks

How The Widgets Look Like ?

WidgetBucks - Trend Watch - WidgetBucks.com

WidgetBucks - Trend Watch - WidgetBucks.com

Rj Nitin must have never imagined that one of his many PJ’s on his Red FM show, Khurafati Nitin would cause riots in West Bengal. Ok so you all are interested in listening to the so called PJ? Then here it is : “shopkeepers will now have to make their own security arrangements as Gorkhas have taken to singing.” The reference being made to Indian Idol 3, Prashant Tamang.

Like me many of you might pull your hair off at the silly material passed off as jokes by these FM channels. But this so called joke, was not taken well by the fans of Indian Idol Prashant Tamang, leading to violence and strikes in the serene Darjeeling.

Now what surprises me is that “People In India Have Way Too Much Time To Waste”. First of all they have so much leisure time to listen to a rather stupid show on FM, then they have the time to protest and carry of dharnas against stupid jokes carried on that stupid show. And also get involved in fights for a man, who oblivious to all this is busy relishing his new found success.

First of all I do not feel there was anything racist about that PJ, cracked by RJ Nitin. If this joke is a racist attack, then what about the Santa Banta joke fodder that we have been feeding upon? Do those jokes mean, all the Sardar’s all over start engaging in fights and create widespread violence? Ridiculous!!!

Rj Nitin : Joke Bhaari Pad Gaya Bidu Continue reading this post…