Replacing the string..

Today, finally i ventured out to search for a musical instruments shop to replace a broken guitar string. And phew! they need better musical instruments shop in Noida. The only ones i could search were in Indira market, sector 27, Noida. Man, the shops [and the people] looked so bad, i was vary of handing over my guitar to them.

Somehow i had to get the string changed, so i give it at this place called some “Jhankar music shop” and one old man their tries to fix the string for me. What was the scary part is, one end of the string [base with that rivet] is not going easily in to the hole, so this guy picks up a screwdriver, and a hammer and tries to push it accross forcibly.. Awww… hold it sir, hold it, thats my guitar, its precious for me. Finally i tell him to not push it forcibly and instead put string of another make, [which he didn’t have]. But somehow the string finally went in, and it was fixed. Phew !!! thank god. I felt like running from that place as soon as i could. He charged me 30/- bucks, for fixing it, although the pain i felt while he was using a hammer was much more of the price i paid for.

Although fixed now, i want to know if there are any better music instruments shops in Noida ?
Google search gave me “Gopal the music shop” in indira market, sector 27, noida. However i couldn’t find them and nor do they pick up the phone.

Any idea guys?

CommonCraft…

I saw this link of a video on Twitter and wow ! How simple but awesome videos.. Run by a couple, CommonCraft allows you to either view their free videos OR you could get a paid account and have a custom made video/presentation videos for you/your org etc..

I would call it fabulous.. a different type of animation .. to see what am talking about check this video:
http://www.commoncraft.com/twitter

I would recommend looking www.commoncraft/shows set of free videos.

Oracle buys Sun

Its official, Oracle is buying Sun Microsystems for $7.4 billion.

Here are the links to the official announcements on Sun and Oracle’s site:

http://www.sun.com/third-party/global/oracle/
http://www.oracle.com/sun/index.html

What next ? Microsoft ? He he 🙂

Dev D continues..

Yes am still listening to Dev D soundtrack for most of my time..

but this time its the lyrics which have caught on me, in particularly of the song “ye duniya”

“duniyaaaaaaaaa
yeh duniya badi gol haiiiiii
hai.. duniya…
hai isme kitne jhol”

and ofcourse the wisdom in the following lines:

“phusla ke bulaye
phir thainga dikhaye
kaise choona lagaye
raama hoo…
pehle loori sunaye
phir horn bajaye <<< lol, i love this line
kaise choona lagaye
raama hoo…”

Keep listening 🙂

BTW my most favourites songs: Ye duniya, Nayan tarse, Emotional Attyachar [rock version], pardesi, saali khushi

Awesome soundtrack ..

Okay , so i have been listening to Dev D songs for almost 3 days now, and now am just hooked to it all the time..
So its some awesome music after a loooong time that am listening…
And one great thing about its music is, the album has got almost all genres of music in it, be it Rock, the new “shaadi band” type music, indi pop, soft classical music, regular bollywood type and lots more….

Amit trived, Tochi.. brilliant work !

Am just stuck with it and force ppl to listen to it .. 😀

So if you wanna check it out online, search for Dev D in in.com music section.

Okay here it is to make more convenient for you : http://www.in.com/music/album-dev-d-49121.html

Listen to ALL songs.. you would luv it ..

Embellish

Ok, so today i hit upon a new word today while surfing the web, and i feel like how did i miss this word till now ! i mean i can think of hundreds of occasions when i had been searching for such a word in my aggressive discussions… Aah!

So, todays word is ’embellish’
meaning:

1. To make beautiful, as by ornamentation; decorate.
2. To add ornamental or fictitious details to: a fanciful account that embellishes the true story.

Taken from dictionary.com
Here is the link to it: embellish on dictionary.com

New mail client "Postbox"

Today i happened to install postbox mail client and after using it for a few hours i think its better than Thunderbird.

I thought i would put down the reasons here on why its better to switch to Postbox:

(1) Firstly, it has been developed by those developers who were once a part of the team responsible for creating Mozilla Thunderbird. So most of the options/clicks are same as in thunderbird, which makes it a breeze to become familiar with Postbox in a couple of hours.

(2) It allows you to assign “Topics” to emails which makes it easier to consolidate numerous related mail all in to one topic. This is a great enhancement to the mail clients in general.

(3) A new sidebar in the client shows you the list of the links present in the email. So for example your mail content has a website link like http://www.google.com etc. , you would have it listed in the sidebar and so you do not need to search for links in a message. This is particulary good for a long mail chain where you need to look for a link to a document somebody sent a week before.

(4) One great feature is to select any word/phrase in the message and what you get in the right click is a list of the things to do with that word/phrase like search it on Google or Wikipedia Or even share that as a Twitter feed. Awesome !
Not only this you have a number of options to share this information with the world on just a right click, which includes, Facebook, friend feed etc etc.

(5) Searching a message Or a mail is better with a new drop down menu which lists quite a few options in a new and better GUI.

(6) Another wonderful feature is to quickly mark a message as a TODO, so you have this button which shows up with every message instead of the right menu as in thunderbird.

Weekend visit to Akshardham, New Delhi

After hearing a bit about Akshardham in Delhi, i finally picked up my bike on a fine saturday afternoon and there i was.. in a place full of people and beautifully carved structures all around.

It was a bit frustrating to stand in queue to deposit any items which are not allowed like camera, cell-phone, bags etc. for which you had to stand in queue at least twice, once for collecting a form and filling it up with your details and the details of the item you have to deposit, and second time to actually deposit the stuff.

Its spread across quite a large area and i was tired having seen most of it in a two hours window.

The good part is, its very well managed, be it the parking, or security checks or the cafeteria’s inside.

Was a good trip overall, and i would want to put down a few points i would like to share:

(1) You can not carry a Helmet inside the campus, so you have to lock it along the bike with a helmet lock. If you don’t have one, than same can be got from counter near parking for a deposit of Rs. 50.

(2) The only photography you can do is from the parking area i.e. before depositing the camera etc.

(3) Once inside, do remember to buy the Akshardham guide for Rs. 5, which has summary on all the places/ spots inside the campus be it the muscial fountain in the evening Or the details on cafeteria’s etc.

(4) There are quite a few helpers/ volunteers to help, Ask them when in doubt about the locations OR exit ways etc. Otherwise you might end up walking quite a distance and coming back to the same spot for finding the exit.

I would say its a nicely made structure, and worth a visit once, but at the same time its still under construction and somehow it did not click me too much for multiple visits.

Spastics Society Of India

I remember visiting Mindtree consulting office in Bangalore once, and was moved to see the wonderful idea of employing receptionists in companies from spastics society of India. Yes the people at reception at Mindtree consulting Bangalore office are from Spastic society of India.

I was wondering why can’t we do the same at other places? IMO its very important to bring people with challenges in to the mainstream. Now on, i am on the look out for any such opportunities where this could be done, starting from my own company.

And urge people to support in any manner they can with such a great initiative.

Spastics society’s india website can be found here: http://www.nrcissi.org/home.html

Karnataka division has its own website http://www.spasticssocietyofkarnataka.org. They have been doing a wonderful job there.

SlumDog…

Attracted by the hype around it.. i did see the movie a few days back..
Yes indeed a nice movie to watch, however am not drooling over it.

First the positives:
Its directed very well, i love the way they show Jamal being interrogated and then go back in to flashback on how did he know the answers to all questions.. The constant switch between his past and present did appeal me.

Music is Okay but not great, however the timing of MIA Flying planes in the movie is just perfect.. It couldn’t have been better, it perfectly suits the way the life of the brothers was shaping..
“All I wanna do is (BANG BANG BANG BANG!)
And (KKKAAAA CHING!)
And take your money”

And lastly its not a bollywood sing, dance, romance, kill villain, action types.. More of a realistic movie.. and ofcourse nicely shot..

However what i don’t agree is with the hype around it… and that it deserves to the best movie for golden globe and guess what now expectations on “Oscar”..
Come’on there are quite a lot movies which are better than Slumdog be it script wise, or direction ..

It is indeed a good movie but not the best.. And yes the media is like “omeegosh we have a best ever indian movie, ppl are talking about”..
Argh..

Just my 2 paisa 😉