The Sushi Bar

Reliance Money

2007-11-29T19:15:00.000+05:30

I am new to dabbling with stocks and wish to start trading soon.

I have heard that Reliance money's Online Trading service scores over Indiabulls and other trading platforms. Especially with their customer service being top of the line.

Will keep you posted on my experience with the same.

Digital Frames

2007-03-17T14:29:00.000+05:30

Photos need not be on paper anymore...ever seen a digital photo frame?

Digital Frames Direct of UK is a store in the UK, where you can buy Digital Photo Frames Online.

I was just browsing their collection, seems to be quite a scope for these gizmos! Especially as corporate gifts.

Check it out.

Shhh....Life might be listening!

2006-08-24T01:38:00.000+05:30

They returned to the gates of the monastery. There, the alchemist separated the disk into four parts.

"This is for you," he said, holding one of the parts out to the monk, "It's for your generosity to the pilgrims."

"But this payment goes well beyond my generosity," the monk responded.

"Don't say that again. Life might be listening, and give you less the next time."

What's he thinking??

2006-08-08T00:29:00.000+05:30

I recently changed my pic in Orkut to one of me snapped while I was in a restaurant thinking and scratching my head.

The pic in reference is:

Now, many many people have been scrapping me and asking me "Dude, what are you thinking there?" and "Dude, you're thinking!!??!", etc, etc.

I thought, why not let creativity have it's way.

So here's a little game, where you have to tell me what I'm thinking in this pic. No there ain't a correct answer, and definitely no prize! Think of it like one of those 'Fill in the thought bubble' kind of games, where you write down what the guy is thinking.

I'll give you an example, how about "Hey I forgot what I ordered! Dammit!".

Let your creativity loose, write what you have to, get as insulting as you have to, just write something! (Use the comments facility to post your thoughts)

Cheers!

Murphy and his goddamn law!

2006-08-02T02:12:00.000+05:30

"Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong"

Ever since it started raining, Mr. Murphy has been having his way with me.

I usually bike it to work. In the rains this means risking gettin drenched and also risking a bike ride on slippery roads. That's why I don't always risk it. If i feel that it might rain heavily that day, I hesitate taking my bike.

But this year, everytime I think 'oh damn, it's so damn cloudy, I better not risk getting soaked, chal I'll rick it to work today', as soon as I reach work, surprise surpise, the clouds have parted and the sun god laughs down upon me! I just wasted 70 bucks to get to work, and will hereby have to waste 70 more to go home!

What also happens a lot these days is that at 9-9.30 when it's usually time to leave, it's raining in my area. Raining heavy enough to make me think twice about taking out my bike out. So I don't. But then what happens? I get to work and all through the remainder of the day, it doesn't rain! Sheesh!

The other day, I shocked a few people at work. I turned up in shorts. Everyone asked why, and here's why... If i wear pants to work while biking, and if it starts raining, my pants will inevitably get wet. I work in an air-conditioned office, and wet pants will mean i'll have to freeze myself all day! That particular day, since the sky was so overcast, I decided to wear shorts to work and change into pants when I get there (I was carrying a pair in my bag). It just so happened that the entire day, the clouds were just out there to tease. It din't rain a single drop, and my efforts were in vain. Ofcourse, I din't change into pants once I reached work, since noone really seemed to mind me turning up in shorts.

Au contraire, I have also noticed, that when I do decide to take my bike, and it isn't raining, I do get soaked. The rains alawys start when I reach the santacruz flyover. I get soaked, park the bike on the side, contemplate waiting for the rains to pass, get frustrated waiting, so continue biking...and reach office soaked!

Sheesh!

I'm waiting for the summer...when the rains will cease, the winds won't restrict me, and the roads will hold on to me!

Liquids

2006-08-02T02:07:00.000+05:30

The 4 Liquid Stages Of Life...

All's 'Well' That Ends 'Well'

2006-07-30T18:19:00.000+05:30

Got a forward recently about the 'Prince down in the pits' story. Hilarious! Just had to post it up here.

A five-year-old boy, Prince, fell on his birthday down a sack covered 60-feet tube bore-well hole in Haryana and was rescued after 50 hours. The CM immediately announced a 2 lakhs rupees cash award for the child plus free education. What was the child being rewarded for? His stupidity for stumbling down the hole? Or compensation for the undue delay of 50 hours to rescue him? Well, whatever that was, Prince was down but not out for nearly 50 hours.

I can see thousands of parents queuing up at bore well holes holding their brats squirming in their hands. One parent might remark, "I want to make sure that his future is all 'well'." Another might add, "Yeah! The 'whole' of it!"

The opposition will make a big issue of this issue of the issue falling down the well saying that the government is trying to cover-up and it should sack' the concerned officials.

Meanwhile, Prince might consult a numerologist, who will promptly advice him to drop the 'n' in his name to make it more apt. Newspapers also mentioned the most significant fact that Prince was an OBC. I'm sure that some caste lobbies are going to protest that even SCs and STs should be given equal opportunities to fall down holes.

New textbooks will have a nursery rhyme saying,
"Ding Dong bell,
Prince is in the well!
Who put him in?
He fell 'cause he was thin.
Who pulled him out?
Firemen without a doubt.
Politicians are scrambling with aid and cash
To help prevent their career crash!"

Reporters 'digging' for some news might ask Prince how he celebrated his sixth birthday, and he may remark, "Oh! It was very boring, in fact, it was the pits!

However, All's 'well' That Ends 'well'

Update!

2006-07-23T16:47:00.000+05:30

2MegaPixels has been updated!

Check it out now: http://2megapixels.blogspot.com/

Blockspot

2006-07-18T12:46:00.000+05:30

Blogspot has apparently been blocked by the Indian government. I haven't read any articles about it myself, but that's the word on the street.

'Where there is a will there is a way'

And when there is a problem there is always a solution.

To visit banned sites on the internet check out this site: http://www.anonymouse.org

Pointed out by Amol, the site lets you visit almost all banned sites. It's like a proxy that loads the site on it's own server and then you access on their server.

Quite useful in these situations.

Phir Lock Stock

2006-07-13T10:58:00.000+05:30

Went to watch a movie yesterday, after quite a long time - Phir Hera Pheri. I don't watch too many hindi movies, cause I find most of them to be pathetic and I can't sit through the song sequences. But this was Phir Hera Pheri, the sequel to Heri Pheri, the rib tickling hit.

Well, what a waste of 110 bucks (which I still ain't paid Sankalp). The movie was a complete disappointment. Disappointing, because it was a complete rip off of 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'. Whoever directed this movie has really made a mess of the whole movie. If Guy Ritchie was to see this, we would probably sue Bollywood, not for copying, but for shaming the original movie in this ugly fashion. This movie has completely disgraced the original.

Even if it wasn't a rip off, the movie wasn't exactly great. Akshay Kumar had the major role, Paresh Rawal made a complete fool of himself, and Sunil Shetty - I still don't know what he did in the movie! Bipasha can't act, and Rimi is quite hot! No more comments.

Watch the movie, cause I know you will even if I tell you not to.

It's movies like these that keep me away from hindi flicks.

22 years and many more to go

2006-07-08T11:34:00.000+05:30

Don't ask me what it means. I just felt like writing it down here.

Infer from it, what you must.

Xquar

2006-05-15T12:44:00.000+05:30

Friend n colleague, Amol Naik just launched his site xquar.com today.
The site will currently is just a search engine, and towards the future will have a directory of websites.
He was so elated that he gave me a chocolate. The least I could do to repay him was write about it in my blog and possibly get him some traffic :)
So guys, visit his site and bookmark it!
(Amol Naik blogs at http://amol-v-naik.blogspot.com/)

My Day in INGs

2006-05-10T21:16:00.000+05:30

New Post

2006-02-21T23:42:00.000+05:30

Time for a new post?

What do I write about?

I know, I'll write about my bike scandal.

No wait, but that's too much to write about.

I've already narrated the incident to tons of people. I think I should carry transcripts of the incident to distribute to people. Sick of talking about that!

Ok can't think of much to write right now, suggestions most welcome: vivekhegde@gmail.com

Fow now I have a message for anyone whose vehicle gets stolen in Mumbai:

If your vehicle gets stolen, just pray that it isn't returned!
The Indian judicial system will make you cry if it is found.
You would much rather have the insurance pay you even 1/3rd of your vehicle's value.
Mark my words, for they are words of experience.
If your vehicle is returned, darn I pity you!

That's all folks!

Relics

2006-02-01T23:14:00.000+05:30

I came across a post i had written on 19th September when I was in the whole CAT mood, slogging my ass off! Never published the post. Was still a draft when I found it. Wanted to post it here.

An estimated 1,50,000 students gave the Common Admission Test (CAT) last year in 2004. Its estimated that almost 1,95,000 students will be giving the test this year. Out of these, I think about the top 1000 students might stand a chance to get a call from either of the IIMs. Mind you, when i say chance to get a call, I really don't mean admission. I suppose only the top 500-700 students will get into either of the IIMs.
This year, i'm going to be among one of those hopefuls who will be trying my luck on November 20th. I don't know if I stand a chance or not. I really don't. And its quite scary to think of it. If I sit and think that I don't stand a chance, I'll probably never work towards it. But how hard am i supposed to work? People start preparing for the CAT even a year before the actual examination! I don't know if they made it or not but would 4 months of preparation be any kind of match for 12 months of similar hard work? I hope so!

I din't make it.

But I'm not really complaining. Life's good. Got a job. A great one too!
I'm a copywriter @ Pinstorm. Really cool place to work!

More on that later.

Go Goa!!

2006-01-24T09:54:00.000+05:30

Photos from my trip to Goa this January are now up on their own blog.

The address for this blog/photo album is

http://goa-jan2006.blogspot.com/

Note: Currently, only half the album has been uploaded. After uploading maybe 30 photos continuously, Blogger thought that I am a spam-bot trying to make another spam blog and prevented me from posting more pics until furthur notice. The site has been submitted to Blogger for review and I shall be completing the album once I get the permission from Blogger. Till then, you have the latter half of my Goa trip to review.

Right Stroke For Your Bike

2006-01-09T10:44:00.000+05:30

My partly authored article titled "Right Stroke For Your Bike" on bike maintainence appeared in the DNA daily newspaper dater 9/1/2006, on the Speak Up Page. Here's the article.

Right stroke for your bike

Vivek Hegde/ Joel Sequeira
Vivek rides a Bajaj Pulsar
A vital part of being a biker is keeping your bike in top shape. Regular care and maintenance of your bike will contribute towards more comfortable rides for you and your bike. A few helpful pointers on maintaining your machine are presented below:

• Start with regular oil changes. Ensure that you change your oil as per the manufacturer's recommendations. Drain the old oil, pour in some petrol to wash the gear box and then pour in the new oil after draining the petrol.
• Remove your spark plug and clean out the sparking points with sand paper.
• If you ride in very dusty conditions then open your air filter once a month and clean the filter sponge with petrol. Sprinkle a few drops of oil after cleaning to increase the life of your air filter.
• Open the chain cover and thoroughly oil the chain every 15 days. Turn the wheel while pouring oil into the chain so it distributes evenly.
• Ensure that your electrical system is working properly. Make sure the cables are not worn out and that switches work properly. If damaged, get them replaced.
• Adjust your rear brake pedal and also the clutch lever as per your comfort. A little play is recommended in both.
• If you have a disc brake in your bike, check the oil level regularly. Also clean the disc with a dry cloth every week.
• Use anti-rust powder on your chrome parts to keep them rust free and shining. Just take a small pinch of powder on a wet cloth and rub it on chrome parts like the exhaust and spokes to keep them looking like new.
• Pouring a few drops of oil into the silencer of a 4-stroke bike is recommended so that it doesn't rust quickly.
• If your brakes squeak and squeal excessively, get the brake shoes cleaned or replaced.

Burp!

2006-01-06T00:46:00.000+05:30

I was recently invited to my CAT tuition teacher's brother's wedding at Byculla. It was a Muslim wedding, probably the first I have ever been to. I was looking forward to this 'Gastronomical experience' since a long time. Our teacher had already made our mouths water just by describing the awesome food at a Bori wedding, now I just couldn't miss out on the real thing.

After finally finding the place (after traveling beyond our legal ticket limit on the train) and greeting our teacher and all that formal stuff, we finally sat down to eat. We had arrived too late and missed out on the buffet and now had to dine in the traditional Muslim way - at a thaal. No regrets on missing the buffet, we learnt later it was rather 'unexciting'. Back to the thaal - a thaal is a humongous steel plate, about 3 to 4 feet in diameter, around which 7-8 people can sit and have a meal. As our teacher later told us, it can get rather messy if you are seated with jungli people, but luckily we sat with our teacher's sister and brother in law. 4 of us sat down knowing not what to expect. We were all new to this concept. My teacher's relatives were rather helpful and considerate. They gave us the whole low-down on all the food as it came and went, telling us a lot about the whole tradition.

Well we were all set to go and first we started with each of us taking a pinch of salt. This salt was apparently supposed to assist digestion, but I really doubt anything less than 4 tablets of hajmola can help in digesting so much non veg food! Salt out of the way, there was this small oval rasgulla type sweet which we all shared, it's supposed to be consumed at the start of at all good occasions.

What followed after these small formalities (you can call it that) just teased our taste buds.

Appetizers came out first - Sukha Bhel and Dahi-Idli. Now I myself do not touch dahi unless it's flavored (don't ask me why) so I dug into the sukha bhel without hesitation. Don’t know why, but this sukha bhel with big chunks of potato really appealed to me! After we were fairly through with the bhel and idli, the brother in law took out a big bowl of ice cream from under the thaal. It had two flavours - Orange and what I think was coconut. I didn't pay much heed to the coconut flavour, but I totally feasted on the orange ice cream! Seems everyone preferred the orange cause it was the first to disappear. Coconut though not as popular, also finished shortly after. Now these guys have a tradition with their thaal, they alternate the sweet and the spicy; don't ask me why, I was totally enjoying the experience. What came next really left me breathless. An almost whole roasted chicken covered with an attractive red sauce. It looked beautiful (hehehe)! I swear it was over in 3 blinks of the eye. But then who had the time to blink while digging into this amazing dish! The red sauce was just amazing, we were having just the sauce with our spoons once the chicken was over.

The chicken was followed by another sweet dish. Litchi soufflé embedded with small green mini khus rasgullas. It was really orgasmic! All four of us were staring at each other with our mouths wide open in amazement after tasting that soufflé. It was simply amazing. It was the softest bit of food I have ever had! It had these bits of litchi flesh in between and when the soufflé, flesh and rasgulla pieces were combined in a single spoon, you got a real killer combo! I don't even need to tell you how long it must have lasted.

The soufflé was followed by an assorted kabab platter of sorts (although I wish it was followed by a second round). The plate had chicken lollypop, fried chicken and seekh kababs. Nice! These dry starters were really good! Especially the chicken seekh kababs.

All along the sukha bhel and dahi idli were present to give us company while the dishes were brought to the thaal.

All good things have to come to an end. This thaal experience ended with mutton biryani. I didn't really like the biryani too much, it was sort of too dry and also mutton which isn't boneless is really not that great! You hardly get any meat! Well none the less, it was a new kind of biryani to taste, and taste it we did! 3 rounds of biryani made it to our thaal!

At the end of it all, we were all quite satisfied!! Tummies all bulging, we tried our best to get up and get back into our senses and went to wash up. It was end to our thaal feast. One that we will definitely not forget easily.

Now where’s that bottle of hajmola?

Check out Amol's post on the same topic. Click HERE.

Greetings

2006-01-01T00:00:00.000+05:30

Helmets

2005-12-31T14:27:00.000+05:30

A few months back, the government passed a law that makes helmets mandatory for motorbike riders in Mumbai. After the law was passed, suddenly there was a like a huge rush to go buy helmets. For a few days helmets were out of stock. In a span of 2-3 days many hundreds of thousands of helmets were purchased. Cops too were out on the streets stoppng bikers who were riding without helmets and actually penalizing them.

Today, a few months after the law was passed, as I ride down the roads I still see many bikers without helmets. Many bikers do have helmets, but not on their heads, but rather kept on their handlebars. Occasionally I do come across a police naka where non-helmet bearing bikers are stopped and fined, but I also see policemen on the road who turn a blind eye to bikers without helmets.

Now I don't see why any biker would not be wearing a helmet. It's for his own good. When i bought my bike nearly 3 years ago, one of the first things I did before beginning to ride was go and buy a helmet. I must say it was a very wise decision. The helmet has saved my life many times. Once while I was heading back from college, after collecting my exam hall ticket, these 2 kids ran onto the road just as I was passing them, causing me to dodge them, lose my balance and fall, sliding a few feet on the road. I fell with my head towards the divider of the road and if it wasn't for my helmet, I would surely have either have had concussions on my head or have scraped my head against the divider. I did get a broken left wrist after the incident but that's anyday preferred over a head injury. In another incident, my friend was riding the bike at quite a high speed, and he was wearing my helmet when we had a collision with a Zen (the details of how it happened are not important right now). We hit the side of the car. My friend got fractures on both his arms and hence couldn't give his seventh semester exams. Because he was wearing my helmet, he only suffered a few bruises on his lips and needed stiches. I can't imagine what would have happened to him had he not been wearing my helmet.

People don't realise the importance of helmets. I have heard of many instances where people have died due to not wearing a helmet. Helmets save lives. Take it from a biker who has avoided many an injury. The next time you decide you want to ride a bike, please do use a helmet. Helmets don't mean you have to ride slowly. I have had my share of wild experiences on bikes, but safely, with protection.

You shouldn't need a law to make you wear a helmet. Use your head and use a helmet, so you can continue using your head.

Miniclip.com

2005-12-30T10:34:00.000+05:30

Miniclip.com is my recommended site for anyone who doesn't have too many games on their home computer or just isn't really interested in gaming too much but likes to occasionally entertain themselves with the small game. This site contains a whole load of flash games, which will keep you busy when you are quite bored and have nothing to do. It's really worth checking out.

Few games I recommend on Miniclip.com: Motherload, Monster Truck, Big Jump Challenge, Hamsterball, Black Knight.

I'm Famous!

2005-12-27T23:28:00.000+05:30

Hehehehe

My comments on the recent power shedding issue going on in Maharashtra appeared in the DNA newspaper dated 27/12/05, on the Speak Up page (reader contributions).

Here's a snippet of the page. Click to enlarge.

Merry Christmas!

2005-12-25T12:06:00.000+05:30

Merry Christmas to one and all!
'Tis the season to be jolly!

K750i ADs

2005-12-24T12:43:00.000+05:30

Made 2 new ADs for the Sony Ericsson K750i.
Click HERE to see them.

Hutch is here

2005-12-23T16:03:00.000+05:30

I like the way Hutch has brought about the change from Orange to Hutch. Rather smoothly.
I just got my first 'Hutch' bill in the mail. It looked like a normal Orange phone bill. Black in colour with the usual Orange logo. Message on the envelope: "Bye. Orange is now Hutch in Mumbai".

Open the envelope, and what do you know! There is another envelope inside! This time its a blue one with a picture of 'the' cute Pug on it. There was also the message "Hutch is here".

I've always liked this company! O&M made the awesome Pug commericials for Orange, and now for Hutch. I guess the new logo was also devised by O&M...has quite a fesh look!

[For a closer look at that adorable Pug, click HERE!]