Harry Potter!! It all ends!!

Harry Potter! The boy who lived. The Chosen One. Seven books of magic. Books that enchanted the world. And then movies. Not all of them are as good as books, but nonetheless, they have their effect.

For so many years, this little kid named Harry and his friends have been my friends. I did not read HP as a kid, I read them a lot late. I saw a friend of mine reading a book without leaving his room for 2 days straight until he finished it, I got curious. Until then, I had only heard about people being crazy about HP. So I decided to rent the movies. And there it was. I fell for the magical world immediately. Then I had to get the books somehow and read them. I became die-hard fan of HP. And been the same for years now.

For me, Harry Potter books are not just entertainment. They are much more. There were times when I was alone, sad and blah blah (read my posts in sad category LoL).. HP world was my solace. Whenever loneliness or any other unwelcome feeling overwhelmed me, I used to dive in the world of wizards.. I still do. Reading these books again and again, sometimes fully, sometimes just my favorite parts was my way of keeping every other feeling at the bay. Some may think this is crazy but you have to be there to understand it. 🙂

I don’t really understand why exactly HP is something that puts me at peace. I am not a blind follower of things. There are HP books I do not like much. But I still like reading them because they take me in the world not seen by other people. Its been same feeling for all Narnia books, but they are more like kids stories than HP.

There are people who reject HP as kids stories before even giving it a look. Well, to each his own. But I disagree to the claim that these are only kid’s stories. No, they are not just kid’s stories. Certainly J K Rowling wrote these books keeping kids in mind mostly but they are deeper than people think. These books deal with things like friendship, love, loyalty, bravery etc. It’s not the plot that makes you like the books, it is the things that are unraveled as the story progresses.

A lot has been written about HP in so many years and a lot will be written. This is my bit. The reason to bring all this up is because they are releasing the last movie in the series. Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows Part II.
Its tagline is “It All Ends”. And it really does for us, fans. There will be nothing to look forward to anymore. It kinda ended when last book was launched, but last movie sorta seals the deal.

Anyway, I hope the movie is good. And I will always have HP with me if I need him.

Cheers.

A Happy Birthday post :-)

Today I turned 25. Twenty five!! I have a tradition of writing happy birthday posts every year. This time I am writing this post from my android mobile.. something I planned on my last birthday.

Right now I am sitting at my home in Karad, writing this post. It’s cloudy out there with occasional rain. Mom is planning about cooking somethingi like but I am going to tell her to make something simple.

As usual I have made some resolutions. They hance been on my mind for long time so they are not really birthday resolutions. But today is good day to get started.

Life has been good so far. There were some ups and downs and setbacks. But it really doesn’t matter. Because everything works out fine in the end. I don’t really have a solid goal for my life yet. I know a lot of idealistic people do insist on having a goal set and all that. But I am gonna play it my own way and not the way books tell us.

Anyway, got a surprise gift from my best friend y’day… Also had a great lunch with friends at famous hotel Jagat Bhari Kolhapuri (again). Came home early, spent time with dad, just me and him…it’s been nice birthday weekend so far.

Happy birthday to me. 🙂

save the children….

One fine day, I was taking my usual after-lunch-stroll-around-the-building with my daily colleague lunch group. It was around 1.45 PM. This is the most probable time when people get calls offering Pre-approved personal loans, credit cards, investment schemes and a lot of other things. I have devised my own tactics for turning down such calls without actually using bad words. After all, the people calling you with these ads n promotions are just doing their job, trying to earn their share of bread-butter for the day. So I talk politely and give all kinds of stupid reasons for not taking whatever they are offering. Some of the reasons I come up with sound almost genuine to most of the people.

Enter the android

This is my first post from the new and awesome android phone I got  few days back. There is whole world of new possibilities to explore now. But I am already tired of the delicate touch screen. No worries though as slowly I am getting hang of it. Surely in no time I will be typing as fast as I used to on normal phones.
Did I forget to mention the name of my new phone? Its LG Optimus one P500. It has android 2.2 froyo. There are a lot of preinstalled applications from manufacturer. Most of apps are useful and fun except few stupid ones you can’t remove. So far, apart from irritating touch keyboard, I am very happy with my new purchase. One word of caution for people planning to buy this phone, battery is not good. If you like to keep your gps and wifi on all day long, well, you can’t do that with this phone. I don’t think it will last whole day that way. Simply put , the battery is as bad as any other android phone in this (cheap) range. So be ready for frequent charging.

I wanted to write more on this but my patience with this keypad is running out. 😉

Cheers,
Sudarshan

Posted from WordPress for Android

:) A Happy Birthday Post :)

I can never understand why do we need something like a new year or a birthday to make ourselves serious enough to have look at the life seriously?

Seriously, why? 😀

Last year, on same day, I wrote this post. And a year before that I wrote this post.

This time, I actually do not have anything to write. Yesterday, in the evening, I was suddenly feeling like running away to someplace where people do not know its my birthday. Or some place where people will never bother any birthdays. May be it has something to do with recent changes in my life. 😛 Or may be it was just a plain burst of stupidity…  😀

So I overcame the stupid feeling of running away and ran away from my office instead. 😀 I went home, sat, ate and slept only to be woken at 12 AM to face a perfectly aimed kick at my ass. I was spared of any pain by help of the cushioning effect…….

Anyways, birthday bumps were supplied in numbers and next moment I found myself trying to blow out the so-called stupid stubborn magic candles. They gave me a hard time.  🙄  I finally pulled them off the cake and literally crushed them. Still one of it ignited itself again. 😀 After cutting, the Cake was smeared at all possible places and nobody bothered to feed me some of it in the end (I had to help myself,  don’t know why 😉 ).

And finally the gift. My roomies gave me the laptop cooling pad. It’s a perfect gift for me. 🙂

And this is me in my cousin brother’s  marriage. And why this photo is here? Well, its my blog, isn’t it? (and some people wanted to see a recent pic of mine 😉 )

Ohh I forgot one thing….. Happy Birthday to ME  🙂  🙂  🙂  😀  😀  😀

Why everyone in the world needs something like

Redefining my life…

I am kinda thinking of redefining most of things in my life. But first I need to make a list of things to change. And I have been postponing this making-list task from many days (and believe me, this post was supposed to be written two months ago). So first thing I need to change is laziness in personal life. As I am writing this post and as I have accepted my fault of being lazy, its time to start the list.

1. Find a cure for laziness (again 😉 )

2. Change the daily routine. (Less late nights, More early morning and more)

3. Find out postponed work and issues (and fix them too).

4. Be in touch with some more people.

5. Go home frequently (or mom will come here 😛 )

6. Stop thinking of things you can’t have, focus on realistic things like career instead (yeah right).

7. Keep track of money (at least approximate).

8. Find more things to add to this list.

9. Go and book RE Thunderbird (forget that it costs Rs. 40k more than other bikes)

10. Do something about that fat stomach of yours (“You are not fat”, Says Reema, always!! You are such sweetie dear 😉 )

11. Change the look (as suggested by Dilli ki Mehak )

12. Buy a wardrobe full of new clothes (not possible and suggested by Dilli ki Mehak)

Waiting for more suggestions, especially from Sakhi. (Don’t ask why. If I hadn’t mentioned her, I would be dead by now 😉 ). And after this comment in bracket, I will be dead for sure 😀

Cheers to new me!!! Any more suggestions?

New New New

From many days I had been telling myself, “Write next post with your new laptop dude, what is the hurry?”
The arrival of laptop got very much delayed and I ended up torn between my resolutions and urge to write something somewhere. But somehow I kept my promise to myself. I waited patiently for this dude lappy to come. And here he is, finally, HP dv4 1414tx something. Paying a major part of my savings for this dude was no easy decision for me. But now having him in my hands sitting in my lap, I feel it’s worth the money.

All these days I was planning for a new laptop, my roomies tried very hard to change my mind about it. In their opinion, I should have opted for a bike instead. That was a good option but it more cons than pros. For example, my GF has moved to Mumbai with her family so main purpose of bike fails here ;). Also my hometown is too far to go on bike every other weekend (around 210Km). My office is just 1Km from my room which I walk to everyday. So a bike would have been a waste of money on me these days. So bike got postponed to next year and lappy came in.
Here are few things on my agenda for use of new laptop:
1. Frequent blogging
2. Study

a. Certifications

b. General (some ‘interesting topics’)

c. Programming practice

d. Some stupid research

3. Web/Graphic Design (Most probably web)
4. More blogging and writing
Why study? A thorough analysis of job market (aka jobs for me) told me that just practical experience does not take you up the career ladder, you need few addons. Addons like certifications in the technology you are working in, some domain knowledge around the technical work you do and openness towards new technologies. Some relevant additional knowledge would not hurt either. If an interviewer asks you, “Do you know what is new in the recently launched Dot Net 4.0?” you better not reply, “Ohh, there is a 4.0 too?” 😀
Now, most of above things can be done without any expensive computer but what if I felt tired of study and wanted to play a game or two? So I specially got with nVIDIA GeForce Graphics card too. 😀 😀
Anyway, now I have got this dude up and running, I should probably start with the study……

:) A Happy Birthday Post!!! :)

Its my birthday today!!!

23 years ago, it was raining cats and dogs (and even elephants 😀 ) and my dad was standing with his friends at a small hospital in a small village, drinking tea and discussing Raj Kapoor and his movies. His face was bright with a great smile. A few moments later, a women, a nurse probably, came out of the operation room and informed him of my birth. 🙂 Birth of a great personality, a boy who will do something that will make him proud. Someday. I was crying and crying and everyone was rejoicing out there. 😀 Poor me, had I known everybody was going to rush IN to *see* me, I would have stopped crying instantly. 😛 😀

Few years later, when I was old enough to kick my elder brother down from the bed (he was 2.5yrs old then), my first birthday was celebrated. And you can see that how troubled I was because of people trying to kiss me, pull my cheeks, trying to make me laugh, trying to lift me 😀 or simply trying to shake my tiny hand!! 😀

Last year, I wrote this post on my birthday.

5 things for which I love myself

Aaj ki taaza khabar. Suda is doing a tag!!! 😀 😀
Yes, stop slapping yourself, this is not a dream!!! I am really doing a tag (actually stealing it from Reema) 😀
The tag requires me to write 5 things for which I love myself 😉
So here we go:

1. Helping Others: I have habit of helping (or at least trying to help) everyone (read: anyone) no matter who he/she is. Even a stranger can not discourage me.
I know this is a common habit (at least in India, I don’t know about others) but I love myself for it because many other people love me for same reason. I help many people without realizing how much I am doing for them. And I guess that is what makes me special. Whenever someone asks me, “Why are you doing this much for me?” I get surprised. I have heard same question hundred times before but still it surprises me. Friend or not friend, a person who needs help should get it without hesitation.

Help Everyone Everywhere in Everything!!!

Now, I don’t claim to be some great personality or something like that. I help others when I can, when it is possible for me and (recently, only) when it does not create trouble for me.

2. Forgiveness: I don’t believe in holding grudge. I hate some people but that does not make me to hold any grudge for them. The moment my anger melts, I forgive every offender in my mind and let the person know what I feel if possible. I do not expect everyone to be saint. It’s a choice a person has to make for him/herself.
Believe me; I really do not have any enemies. Or may be I should say that I do not consider anyone enemy. I may be distant and rude and dry towards some people but I really don’t see any reason to call them enemies. The guy whom I called “my best friend ever” actually plotted behind me and got the girl I loved when we were in college. You would think I must be looking for a chance to get back to him. But I am not!!! I was stupid back then, because I just liked that girl but never tried to tell her. And I was stupid enough to tell everything I felt to my best friend. May be I was not stupid in telling him. May be they fell in love with each other and the girl (she used to love me, her roommates still claim this even after so many years) thought him better choice. Now, I have no contact with him or her. My friends consider us enemies or something more. But I don’t!!! I just don’t want them back in my life and I am not sure I can bear them together. I am better off without them. And anyway I have found someone *who truly loves me* beyond my imagination. ☺ ☺ So, I have forgiven both of my friends for everything. But still he should better take care of remaining out of my sight!!!!

Forgiveness is Divine Quality

So, I love myself for this forgiveness saintly quality. Now I forgive myself for bringing up stupid hurting memories for very stupid reason of praising myself in a stupid self praising tag post. 😐

3. Flexibility: Now here is something I share with Reema. Put me anywhere, I will match myself to the context!!! (or match the context to me 😛 ). I can live in some extreme rural area with no connection with modern world and will not complain at all. I am living in a Metro city Pune (where I don’t like many modern things) and have adjusted myself to match Punekars. I can live with very less water 😀 and I am adjusting with my current roommates (that is a miracle in itself). In technical field, I have no objections in working across different technologies and different people.
Again, same as Reema, I show nakhras only when I have choices 😀

4. Fakology/Creativity/Making things up/Playing with words: Sometimes, you need to change a few details and twist some tales to tweak the situation for your good or for greater good of the universe……this is the field where I have attained a fair level of expertise. I usually manage to slip through tight situations by using my word-games and a little presence if mind.

Presense of Mind

I will share a secret which is formula I use in most of the critical situations. That secret is *simple logic*. Not just commonsense, but the right application of commonsense. I will explain with simple example (keeping non technical people in mind):

For my project, I was supposed to make a document about a banking product NRI accounts using information provided by my onsite colleague. I was supposed to write “pain areas and problems” in one section. But my onsite friend did not get much information for that particular section properly and the banker he interviewed gave very vague answers. All he got out of the banker was there are no specific pain areas and he does not bother to explain why. So it was my responsibility to convince my Project Manager that there is really no need for that section in document. Here is what I told him:
“Sir, Mr Onsite-Colleague interviewed Mr ******* for this product. As we know the NRI account product is uses Foreign Exchange (FOREX) Dept for currency exchange rates, blah-blah system for customer records and Miss. Blah-Blah is head of the FOREX dept. As the concerned product uses multiple systems and people for small-small activities, it hardly creates any problems for Bankers. So I doubt that any banker can actually tell us specific pain areas for this product, they will just tell problems of bigger products they handle.”

My PM thought over this explanation for a moment and decided not to chase me out of his cabin for such a small issue which was not my creation in first place. So he decided it was wise of me to keep that section blank and my onsite colleague owes has done nothing wrong. The fact is I was not lying. Whatever I told was supposedly expected from the client banker. So I may have missed real thing but I did not create any problems for client as well as my employer.

Now look at the underlined things in my answer. They are my guesses or deductions from a line my onsite friend told me plus some general knowledge. I managed to keep anything from being too specific. Do you see what I mean? No??? Well, I will come up with more examples later. Just keep in mind that whenever you need to slip through tight holes, make sure you are very logical about things you say or make up and also make sure you have left enough loopholes to bypass someone trying to catch you. 😀 I call it Fakology and I intend to write a guide for it, seriously. I love myself for this ability (and many of my superiors and friends hate me for it) 😀

5. Basic Instinct: Now, this is a thing I guess I share with thousands of people around the world. I believe that every person has a power or ability sometimes called Sixth-sense. It is not just your logic or brain power. It is some instinct that flashes up some feeling in your head for a moment when you are about to make a decision. Mostly the feeling slips away before you catch it and understand it. But whenever you manage to get a hold on it, it surely affects your decisions.

The Sixth Sense

I believe my intuition is very strong. I have saved myself from many blunders and stupid mistakes by following my instinct. Sometimes I think my quick reflex to something like ducking an unseen stone is more than just good eyes and ears. Many times I think I heard someone coming before anybody else but it is mostly the feeling and not the sharp ears.

I have a strange example here: In my college days, some friends decided to hide programs in computers in college lab and use them for practical exam next day. I had no need for cheating but I decided to give them company just for thrill of doing something against the rules. That evening, the lab assistant was promised a drink and then he locked us in lab with and promised half an hour for the dirty work. I did not take part in copying but sat browsing the net. After few minutes, I felt an urge to go out of that locked room. Nothing was wrong but something strongly urged me to get out and I started feeling very uneasy when I tried to force away the urge. So I went to locked door and asked the assistant to take me out. He knew me very well. He snapped at me that why I went in at first place if I did not need to cheat? But he let me out and I ran away. I was feeling suffocated in the building. I ran to bike stand away from the building. Hardly 5 minutes had passed when all (cheater) boys joined me at bike stand. A teacher of my dept had caught them red-handed!!!! The teacher failed them in practical exam as punishment instead of making a big issue for that serious crime.

I was simply lucky to get out in time. I was about to get punished for being at wrong place at wrong time in wrong company, I must have missed her by a minute or less. I still don’t believe that it was just a co-incidence. Unknown, unexplained urge to get out of that lab just few seconds before the teacher decided to check the lab……… to much for just a co-incidence!!!
There is other side to these so called instinct decisions. Sometimes, it does not feel right for the situation. It may be turn out to be right in long run but at the particular moment, I can’t afford to follow it. Also many times I simply ignore it because of some stupid attraction or something like that overcomes it. And I regret it many times. How many times I say, “Damn, I should have done it that way. I should have listened!!” I think I should write about instincts in detail in a separate post later.

Well, that’s all for now. I can write a book about myself and best things about me, but I doubt anyone will ever read it 😀
And this is the longest post I have ever written. I hope some people have really reached this line honestly 😀 😀
If you answer this question then I will know that you have read all points above. If you can’t then its okay, I will assume that you have read between the lines 😉
Que. I mentioned that I want to write a guide for something. What is it?
Answer the question in comments. This question is optional 😉 , you can choose not to answer it.  😎

Do you guys need any disclaimer??? I hope not 😉 😀

Shameless self advertisement: See my photography here.  Lately, I am advertising my photoblog too much 😀 😀

Addictions

Have you ever tried using StumbleUpon ?

Its damn addictive!!

Addiction is a strong word. Its the word which changed lifes of two people. Well, not exactly…. but this is what they said to each other….”.. its becoming an addiction….” and then it really became an addiction for lifetime.

Am I making sense? No? Oops!! Someday, I will elaborate about it. Till then your guess is as perfect as anybody else’s.

Just try that stumbleupon once, I doubt there will be very few people in the world who won’t like it.

Cheers