It's our 9th anniversary today..

..aur baar baar mere zehen mein ek hi gana aa raha hai:
"Nau saal pehele mujhe tumse pyaar tha...aaj bhi hain aur kal bhi rahega"
Toh kya hua agar Sau ko Nau banaya...gana toh theek baith raha hai na?

It's been a heck of a journey, these nine years and more. Here's how we met against pretty strong odds: http://rachnasays.blogspot.com/2009/11/my-knight-in-shining-armor.html
I mean what are the odds for two people to meet, one from mumbai and one from hyderabad, studied in different B-schools and worked at different places. Imagine, had I met her before the ad in Jeevansathi and told her that "u, yes U will be marrying me. So I am going to put arm around your waist like this" what would her reaction be? I'd be getting a resounding slap, right? So, what's the way to be able to do this rightly? It goes through Jeevansathi.com :)

What can you say about a simple cosmopolitan Mumbaiite girl who loves her family unconditionally with the same fervor as she loves her alu-badiya dishes :) She is a UPite but she has the sophistication and polish of a British royal. In my 9 years of marriage I must've heard her fart(more of a whimper, if u ask me, which needed to be confirmed that it was a fart), maybe, 3 times. I haven't seen her pick her nose ever. English and hindi are probably the only languages she know but her knowledge of them are impeccable. I still discover new hindi words from her even to this day :) She might not know why the 3 pin plug is not going into a two pin socket but she knows how and why our body functions. She is a walking-talking human encyclopeadia but she also admits that she discovered a lot of amazing human features only after marriage, which she feels is super-human ;)

She always know what is the right thing to do in any given scenario. No wonder that she has never had any problems with her in-laws ever! That doesn't mean that we haven't had our share of tiffs. But that is only because I am the most stuck up, boorish and tactless person in an area 50 kms around me. She's the kind of tension difuser the sorts which I haven't seen before her. She'll be the one to open up conversation lines with me even if she's mad at me, of course for bad things said/done by her due to my misbehavior(read above) ;) She's the darling of the kids because she's the best mom that is ever possible, unless, of course, if they step on her nerves on a wrong day.

I do injustice to her beauty by taunting her with my innumerous-virtual-hot-girlfriends :) But somebody has to be there to do the clowning around and keeping up the giggles in the marriage, right? Jokes aside, I take this day to tell her that she's the most beautiful woman I know inside and outside and I can't imagine life without her. This must the be the most romantic thing I have ever said even secretly ;)

Formula to get your own state

Very nice! KCR has evolved a Do-it-Yourself-at-Home formula to get your own state. Following is the formula:

1. Purchase student leaders in the major cities with promises that they'll get leadership positions when their state forms. The destructive..er...disruptive force that students wield during protests can never be too underestimated. Police cen't use excessive force against them too for the fear of escalating tensions into a civil war.
2. Make the regional leader go on a fast-unto-death amidst a sprinkling of violence/arson/loot from the students you have purchased. All the while escalating the protests cum violence levels a notch more everyday.
   
3. Nearing the 6th day of the fast put the region on a complete halt with our well-known protest called Bandh.
4. Use our 24X7 media as a catalyst in the whole process by showing the ever increasing protests on TV and the regional politicians unleash venom on the government.
5. As soon as the doctors attending the fast-unto-death politician declare that he is in mortal danger of slipping into coma/death the center will blink and say "Yes" to the new state.
6. There is going to be a lot of rejoicing and also demands for pardon to the "patriotic" students who had indulged in arson/loot during protests.
7. Profit!!!!

Already Gorkha Jagran Morcha(GJM) has stepped up its demand for a separate state using the above formula. Waiting for Vidarbh, Poorvanchal, Bodoland,etc to go on similar paths soon.

People, I am going positive

Just the other day I was reflecting on my online history and I discovered that I only write negative things!!! Negative about our President, Prime Minister, Heroes, Heroines and almost everyone. For a bystander it may seem that I no longer seem to have anything positive to say about anyone. I know it's not the case. The actual case is this. I take the effort to write only if it is anything negative about anything! And I pass it off in the garb of humor. I don't know from where I have took that inspiration or when it began, but it looks like I was emulating a columnist or an editorial. Nobody writes a column on positives of anything unless it is about spirituality, right? Look at Shobha De, Khushwant Singh, Vir Sanghvi, etc.

I am putting an end to it now, on the records. Even if I have to write something negative I am going to force myself to write 2 things positive about the person or thing. If I don't do it flog me publicly, people :)

As a first step I've deleted some immensely negative sounding articles from my blog. Please point me any article that still needs to be removed. Thanks!

My second rant on Big Boss 3

Ah! Yesterday's BB was an episode nobody will forget in a hurry. BB opened the session for nominations and we were on the edge of our seats to know who the new guys will nominate and whether Bakhtiyar is still in the cross-eye of the evil-five(Vindu, Rohit, Raju, Poonam, Claudia). We were also eager to see how BB deals with the way Vindu, Rohit and Raju discuss nominations so freely. And an edge-seater the episode turned out to be.

BB let Poonam, Pravesh, Vinod, Bakhtiyar, Aditi and Claudia cast their nominations. And the killer blow - Vindu, Rohit and Raju, basically, lost their previlige to cast their nominations. And the other killer-killer blow: All six who got to nominate got nominated - Bakhtiyar, Pravesh and Aditi with 3 votes each and Claudia, Vinod and Poonam with one vote each. The damndest thing of these nominations is gonna be that a person with one vote is going to leave BB this week(my hunch is Claudia). Then the Killerest blow - BB showed all the contestants a prolonged video of how Vindu, Rohit and Raju discuss nominations. All the while Vindu(the scum of the earth) and Rohit(the sni-bitch of the world) were laughing at eachother. And Raju later clarifies with Vinod that he was just lending an ear to the planner and that he could not alight out of a moving train. Later in the evening Rohit has a nervous break-down when the magnitude of the event dawns on him/her. But he has shown such drama before. So can't tell if his "evilness" has reduced.

Poonam Dhillon got to talk to her children on the gift that Tanaaz gave her before she left BB. I was surprised that her children were telling her that they were proud of the way she is playing. Thankfully, she showed that she still has some human element in her by not nominating Bakhtiyar. But this woman is still the weirdest woman in BB3. She never displays strong feelings even after seeing her supposed allies bitch and plan about her. I, personally, detest people who do not show their true emotions and slyly indulge in the game.

Pravesh - I had high hopes on this guy. But turned out to be a damp squib. He nominated Bakhtiyar and Aditi, in alliance with the evil-axis, and without displaying any tangible reason.

Bakhtiyar - as if you haven't guessed by now, I love this guy. He has until now played a clean game and is extremely emotional(this is not the reason i like him). I like him because he shows his true emotions. But he sure can work on the amount of crying he does.

Claudia - The dumb-bimbo of the show does her nominations for petty things and things that she doesn't understand and most of all because of opinions formed by things told to her by others. I'd be glad to see her go out this week.

Another guy who has played cleanly is Vinod Kambli. Surprisingly, I hated him when he came in. So, I tell myself again, not to judge a book from its cover.

Just when I was planning to quit watching BB because of it's similarities with the daily soaps where everyone is scheming against everyone else, comes a redeemer of an episode. I am hoping to see a new alliance forming with a few misunderstandings clearing up and the evil-axis shutting their trap and leaving the BB mansion one by one.

My first rant on Big Boss 3

My first post on the happenings of BB3 after week 4, or is it 5? Finally, it seems like all the characters are unravelling.

Yesterday was nominations. I thought Vindu would be the person who’d get maximum votes in it. But came to a conclusion that you can never tell how a woman thinks! You would think that after how Vindu behaved with Sherlyn before she left BB3 house all right minded women would first vote for him. But I was wrong to think in that way. Apparently, there is a bigger concern for women than utter disrespect to womankind. And what is that? Somebody bitching about them behind their backs. Two out of every five women are more concerned with bitching behind their backs.

Shamita, oh how i hate such over-sugary treats. She is a one sickeningly sweet personality who’d be okay if she kept her mouth shut. Every week she’ll nominate her two housemates with loads of sorries and they are actually very good people syrups. This woman lacks conviction. She lacks a vent for her pent-up feelings. Oh wait! Are her tears her vents? If so then she is venting fine :)

Raju Srivastav, this person was in the reckoning for the title. But he had to play politics. Like they say, you can’t keep politics out of a UPite or a Bihari. I am hardly a person who would spend Rs.3 to save a person. But I had thought that I’d save him if he ever was nominated. But this week he lost that privilege from me and the wifey.

Rohit Verma, the weirdo in the house. Every season BB tries to put in a weirdo like this. And mostly they are lucky if they survive two weeks in the house amidst the intensely hostile housemates. This one is a eunuch. First few weeks our sympathies were with him/her. But he has turned out to be the most potent snitch in the world. Now, how I wish Kamal was back to get a piece of his ass :)

Vindu, an example of a failure son of a famous actor. He is the motor-mouth, rambler, mentalcase, empty-head of the house. The whole of India is wondering why this loser is in Big Boss. Nobody is even vaguely aware of his anticidents to merit a berth in BB, except that he is a son of a Famous Shwarzneggeriesh Indian actor. BTW, BB fared miserably in selecting it’s contestants. Jaya, Vindu, Claudia, Kamal, Rohit – we hardly knew them. The trash of BB3. I’ll be glad to see Vindu leaving from the house.

Yesterday, BB made the nominations an open affair because most of the participants were planning nominations with eachother. This was fair to the people who planned their nominations b4 hand but it seemed unfair to those who didn’t. But what to do…aisa hain toh hain. Everyone came to know the true colors of each other. The planners couldn’t change their plans lest they’d be thought of as cheats in front of those who they planned with. Tanaaz and Bakhtiyar were together nominated with overwhelming majority with 6 votes each. Next in number of votes were Vindu and Ismail with 4 each. When everybody was thinking that only Tanaaz and Bakhtiyar were the only two who’d get nominated BB played the trump by nominating Vindu and Ismail too. I think it makes commercial sense to the channel as people would hardly vote to save one of the couple. Who’d they vote for? But now they’d get overwhelming number of votes. They’ve already got 4 votes from our house. 2 to tanaaz and 2 to bakhtiyar, one from each one of us. Yes, we voted for the first time yesterday. I guess, we are trapped into the charm of what is BB :) As far as what we’ve seen BB3 and we think we’ve seen 95% of that stuff :) we think Bakhtiyar and Tanaaz have been true to their self. Even Raju has fallen by the roadside.

Does it mean that BB will try to get them nominated to drawn in huge votes? Let’s see what the coming days bring us.

Review of VGP Golden Beach Resort, Chennai

We visited this resort for one day on Sep 24 '09. We were actually visiting Pondicherry when we thought that we must also pay a visit to Mahabalipuram before we left to Bangalore. That is when we struck upon an idea of staying in seaside resort nearby. Somebody had suggested to us this resort. So ,we had called up VGP to book for two nights of stay and the person made our booking without even taking any down payment. We were a bit uneasy about it. But later realised what a big blessing it was!
As if the hot and humid weather of Chennai wasn't enough of a spoilsport, VGP resort did its best to aggravate the feeling. Since it was so hot and humid we decided that we'll stay here only for one night and the reception didn't make a fuss about our initial 2 night booking we had made on phone, thanks to him:).
First, about the overall property. They have a vast estate but very ill-maintained. There are umpteem figurines lining the whole estate but they look like straight out of a horror movie. There were stray dogs all over the place but not aggressive(thanks to the small mercies), more on them later.
We had taken the sea-facing row-house for Rs.2000(+250tax). The room was big but again ill-maintained. It had a damp smell in it. The bed sheet hardly covered the mattress and kept coming off if we slept on it. There was no blanket in the room. There was one sofa kept there which had holes in it with an old looking cloth upholstery. There was one coffee table with an old and torn rag on top of it. Why even bother covering it, I ask? The A/C had no swing fins! Its remote was not working. The TV did not have a remote. And the channels were all fuzzy-wuzzy-the house-keeping would later explain to us that it is the same for all rooms as a great consolation. There was no drinking water kept in the room.
The house keeping was another nightmare. When we called them up to ask them for water, remote for TV, etc they couldn't speak in english. They knew only Tamil. Other times they were giggling and passing the phone around. When asked for drinking water they said that we could take the water from the garden! Even the room service was lousy. Again only Tamil speaking staff and the food was pricey and greasy.
Nightmare of nightmares, we were shook off our lounging in our room by a thundering sound outside the room followed by a dog's squeals. We thought something big must've fallen on one of those listless stray dogs outside. When I went out and enquired from the house-keeping staff hovering outside the room, we were told that they were shooting down dogs!!! And we were thinking of going out to have our dinner outside the resort. It's another story that we did go out, didn't wanting to bother with their hopeless staff. We saw men dragging a dead dog when were coming back(was I relieved that it was not a dead person or what!) and my younger son kept asking why they were doing so! :( We could hear gunshots until early morning of the next day.
We were glad when it was 8am when we started checking out and fled from the place. Thank god they didn't take money for 2 nights of stay in the first place!

Most essential software that I install on my computer after a fresh OS install

That was a heck of a long title, wasn't it? But helps in search engine tagging ;)
Ok, so, the past few days I've been busy with the re-install of the OS of my company laptop. And I am just about to get my new laptop. So, I thought that it would be a good idea to list down the basic essential software I would spend time downloading and installing. Here it goes:
1. First and foremost would be Firefox without any questions. Not if I were installing a linux system on my machine, though, because all the flavors of linux come with Firefox as the default browser.
2. My corporate laptop came with WinZip already but an archive handler IMO is the next important thing anyone would need on their computer. WinZip is commercial but there are infinite options for a free archive handlers as well.
3. PDF file reader! I have grown fond of FoxReader as opposed to Acrobat. Adobe acrobat is sly fat lady of pdf readers. It occupies huge memory, it takes long to load and it keeps downloading latest versions on its own. I don't like it one bit.
4. VLC media player for playing ANY video file. There is no replacement of vlc in this department. There is no media player that will play any media file out of the box(OTB).
5. Pidgin, for IMing. Pidgin is real nifty with support for many proprietary IM clients like yahoo, gtalk, msn, etc.
6. TweetDeck, for the twitter client.
7. For some java related stuff that I have in which I store my personal information I need a JDK. So, a jdk is next in line.
8. I would like to have a copy of Eclipse for that occasional outburst of programming. And these days I am checking out Android. Therefore, the android SDK is next.
9. My corporate laptop has Microsoft office pre-loaded. But on linux/Mac OSX I'd need something like OpenOffice for that occasional document that I need to create or view. Many linux flavors already come packaged with a copy of OpenOffice.
10. Ah, did I forget the flash plugin download the browser will make you do to watch anything on youtube?

Please add a comment if you feel there is something I missed.