safari browser or iPhone?

Well did some research on safari browser on iPhone, and it was an eye opener. I'm not alone!!! There are like million other users cursing safari browser on iPhone. So while reading different kind of discussion forums, guess what's the solution? "reboot!!!" Yes gentlemen, iPhone requires a reboot to fix this problem.

So who was talking about Microsoft, that all its application needs reboot when they behave funky? :)

annoying features of iPhone

Here I go again.

It has been now almost a month, that i have been using my iPhone. Overall user interface is very good, but there are few things which annoy me a lot. There is no way that i can open two applications in iPhone. I was so stuck few days back. I had open a demo account of forex on Saxo web. Once registration was done, they send me a user name and password in an email. the user name was 8 digit number and password was a 10 character alpha numeric string. Now there is NO F%$%#%#$% way to 'copy' and 'paste' stuff in iPhone. Also I have to remember my user name and then go to the Saxo application, but to open Saxo application, i have to close my mail client (how stupid is that...). by the time i reached saxo web client, i forgot my user name, so i went back to my mails, for which of course i had to close the saxo web client. so this went on for couple of minutes, after which i gave up. How frustrating can that be?

Now i understand why Apple is not Microsoft. These are very small features, which are always taken care by Microsoft, but we only appreciate them once we move to some other platform.

Other major problem which i face is the 'Safari' browser in iPhone. Somehow it tends to crash on every other website. I tried using it for browsing Internet and after every few seconds it crashes without any reason. Then finally after digging into settings and all, I found that i can open a debug console window for Safari, to see the errors. Now imagine, I went to www.gmail.com, and my debug console is showing three errors, and all of them are that Safari cannot parse the HTML. How stupid is that? This means, safari is not even a proper browser and they launched it to market as there production version.

Well will write more, if i find something else. Till then enjoy the 'user interface' of iPhone.

my new toy

Well finally I bought myself a toy. It feels like I'm a kid again. my wife always tells me, that you're like a kid, playing around with your iphone. Well the thing is, its addictive. Once you start using it, you cannot get your hands off it. Its like good old days, when dad use to get us a toy and we use to play with it whole day, and for first 2-3 days, we just don't want to sleep even. I remember, i was in high school, and we got a 6 CD changer 'Sansui' system. My brother and I went crazy and were not ready to sleep that night. So i guess same is happening to me again with this iPhone. I keep on downloading some games and try playing around with it, until I realise that its too late and i should sleep, unless I wanna get late for office next day :)

The best i like about this phone is the interface it has, and the easy of using it. It was surprising to see, my son got hold of this phone and less than a minute he knew how to use it. 

Random Thoughts

Just sitting in office gave me a random thought on how we indians celebrate festivals here and how tough is it for our kids to cope with two very different cultures. Last friday was 'karwachauth', so in the evening there is a pooja ceremony, so my wife was getting ready and she put 'sindoor', so my 3 year old kid ask her "What's that?". So it took her quite a time to explain, why she's putting this and what all it means. I'm sure, he doesn't care right now, but was just curious to know. Same happens when we have diwali or something else, we make sure that sameer wears traditional indian dress. atleast he should be aware of what our culture is. 

I'm pretty sure when he grows up, he's gonna ask million questions, on why we do certain things. Like why don't we eat meat on tuesday. Or why cannot I eat beef? I don't know how I'm gonna make him understand these things, but I'm sure, he will understand :) {at least i can hope for right now}

Fun filled weekend

Well my last weekend was horrible as well as very exciting. You guys might be thinking how's that possible. Well it can be because, according to me, weekend starts at Friday 5:00 p.m. But because i had to stay back till 8:00 in the evening, that's why it was shitty. Don't wanna explain why i was here till 8 because then I'll be all agitated again.

Anyway, the best part was that it was KC's [one of my friend] b'day. So we guys met to celebrate his b'day. The evening started with 3 vodka shots within a span of 5 minutes. [that's crazy...RIGHT!!!!]. well as soon as we finished that, we went to a bar at Metuchun. That's one place where we guys like it, because the guy there makes one of the best Irish Car bomb*. So finally had 2 shots of it. believe me, i was totally high by that time. But then someone [i know who, but will not name it :)] said, "lets try a patron shot". Pheeeew... i was NOT in for that, but then i was told, "COME ON .... PUNJABI...!!!". Now you guys know, why punjabi's are like heavy drinkers (but c'mon you also know they are the ones who ROCK the party). anyways we had one more drink, and finally planned to play pool. The intensity of these drinks can be weighed on the fact that KC started his game by picking up a broom rather than stick for pool. that made us crack a lot. Anyway, as we were about to come back, someone said, "KC is to be surprised at home, so we cannot leave for another 1/2 hr." So what guys had a chance for another drink :). All were again inside the bar and we had couple of Irish Car Bomb again. I don't think, anyone was in a condition to drive back, but somehow Tarun (the brave soul) volunteered himself, and took us to Quick check for coffee, because we were in no condition to face girls at home and spl. to KC's parents and in-laws. Anyhow, we got little bit sober, and finally went home. It was a great experience where KC was greeted with everyone dancing and all.

After cake cutting and all, we finally went upstairs to play poker. not to mention, i lost badly and still have to pay to Sahil and Munshi (which i plan to pay them in next game). So this was on friday night, came back around 5:00 in the morning. But was real fun. 

It was more fun on Saturday as well as Sunday, but will write about that later.

*Recipe of Irish Car Bomb

3/4 pint Guinness® stout
1/2 shot Bailey's® Irish cream
1/2 shot Jameson® Irish whiskey

Add the Bailey's and Jameson to a shot glass, layering the Bailey's on the bottom. Pour the Guinness into a pint glass or beer mug 3/4 of the way full and let settle. Drop the shot glass into the Guinness and chug. If you don't drink it fast enough it will curdle and increasingly taste worse.

The Wheels of Life

Battle at Kruger

This is the batter at Kruger. Filmed at Kruger National Park in South Africa. Wonderful video, amazingly showing the old saying, 'United we stand'

End of story?

So finally, whatever that rises, is due to fall. It might take a little while, but it does FALL!
Now the real test begins, for the two mainstream parties, how they will maintain this coalition together. Till now the only binding force for them was a united opposition to Musharaf. Now when musharaf is gone, what will keep them together is the main issue.

hoping for the best for the people of pakistan.

Happy Independence Day

So once again, we're celebrating independence of India. Indians seem to be happy all over the world. Truly its a day to celebrate, but what are we celebrating for?

When i thought this for a while, I got optimistic as well as pessimistic. Optimistic, because to see India grow economically. We see the economy growing, people all over the world taking about India's economy. India becoming as a back office of the world. that makes me proud.

But when i think more deeply, i become pessimistic, to see how my country is ripped apart today. Things are beyond anybody's control. Bombs are going everywhere, people are dying. even today, after such a growth in economy our farmers are ending there own life just to get rid of there loans. Our politicians have no class, corruption is all time high. There is no basic infrastructure in the whole country.

It seems we still have a long way to go...

House warming party!

finally yesterday we did our house warming party. It was fun, because we did a bar-b-q party. I got a new grill (3 burner gas grill). was fun watching all that chicken being cooked on it. Also for vegetarian people we did 'paneer tikka' {grilled cottage cheese}. hopefully people enjoyed a lot. the fun part was the cricket match played later on. It was funny to hit shots after having couple of beers and soo much chicken.

will upload more pictures soon...

Laloo and Maya

These are 2 jokers in our Indian politics. Both are well known for there corruption and uncounted wealth. One became famous because he ate 'chaara' and other came to fame, because of her dirty remarks made on Hindus












(picture send by dipankar deb roy)

Trend of breaking news!

Recently my parents were visiting us in US and for them I got them Hindi channel package, so that they can entertain themselves, or at least see Indian news channels (as my parents are always watching news).

Watching with them all these news channels, I realized, that nowadays every news channels has a 'Breaking News'. It can be from anywhere to anything. Just that they have to give a rubbish news but print it as 'BREAKING NEWS'. Anyway, here are few samples, but I won't say them as breaking news but they should be called as 'BARKING NEWS'

Sam in Pool

Home Sweet Home!!!

Well here I'm after a long time. Will not lie, I was lazy for quite some time. Never felt like writing anything. Also we were busy in house hunting. And FINALLY, got the dream house!!!!!

Few old pictures!

Well in my last post, I tried creating an album on my blog, which was pretty cool. So i thought why not create another one, with the old pictures of Sameer what I have. So here it is...

X-mas Party

Well it was really fun having a x-mas party at friend's place. It was awesome party, and offcourse we drank a lot. so here are few pictures for you guys to enjoy :)

Finnland Airport!

Here's Sameer enjoying his India trip. While going to India, we had a stop over at Helsinke airport, so he was all set to drive his car, which had 2 steering wheels :)

Back in US!

Well here I'm back in US again. Went to India for my brother's marriage. Will be posting pictures of marriage soon. But till then enjoy this video of Sameer, dancing on his chacha's sagan party. :)

Jai Sri Ram!

A good friend of mine(Mukesh Kachroo), just send me this funny thing, so thought of sharing with you all.



Sri Rama surveyed the Ramsetu and said, "Hanuman, how diligently you and your vanara sena built this bridge. How remarkable that it has withstood the ravages of time, considering that a bridge at Hyderabad built by Gammon using the latest technology collapsed the other day even before they could stick posters on its pillars."

Hanuman said humbly, "Lord, it is because of your grace. We just wrote your name on the rocks and threw them into the sea and they held up. No steel or cement was used. But Lord, why rake it up now?"Said Rama, "Well, Hanuman, some people down there want to demolish your bridge and construct a canal. The contract involves lots of money They will make money on demolition and more money on construction."

Hanuman asked, "Why don't we go down and present our case?"

"No," said Rama, "Times have changed. Historians will ask us to submit proof of our existence. Do we have a birth certificate, a school-leaving certificate or a driving license? As for address proof, the fact that I was born at Ayodhya is itself under litigation for over half a century. If I go dressed as usual, the ordi- nary people may recognise me but politicians will take me to be a lost Ramlila actor."

"But I built it! I'll swear on oath!"

"My dear Anjaniputra, it will not work. They will ask you to produce the layout plan, the project details like financial outlay, how the project cost was met and the completion certificate. They may even want to see your engineering college degree."

"Lord, I don't understand. You have given darshan regularly to 'historical' figures like Surdas, Thyagaraja, Jayadeva and Tukaram, yet people disbelieve your existence? Should we replay the Ramayana on earth to set the government record straight?"

The Lord smiled. "It won't happen. Ravana is terrified that Karunanidhi will make a saint of him. And his mama Mareecha, who appeared as the golden deer to tempt Sita, refuses to step on earth for fear of Bollywood hunters. Let it be."

deal is DEAD

finally the ball has been dropped. Its now a fact that Indo-US nuclear will not go ahead. after showing all the courage, congress party finally gave in. this makes me think that after all, personal greed gets so high that people forget about nation at all. today we're riding on 8-9% growth rate, which means future is good, but how are we gonna survive at this rate without the energy security. Or are we (oooopsss... i mean the left parties of India) thinking about to repeat china mistake and blacken our skies overnight by using coal based energy.

frankly speaking, i have never been a congress supporter. I have always experienced that congress party is one of the most corrupt parties in India (which doesn't mean other parties are not) and also one of the parties which has always landed India into mess. but for some reason, i started developing some respect for Manmohan Singh and Congress party as how they made a stand against left. but in the end, its the same story repeated again and again.

Left parties are still day dreaming that one day they gonna see a red flags everywhere, and communism is the way forward, but they need to look around and see, China (whom they follow blindly) has also embraced capitalism. the only problem with left is that how can they align with US. these guys have rejected US even in there sleep. And now the govt. whom they support, is aligning or shall i say tilting towards US. So its an ideological question for them. (without any thought process involved)

As far as I can see, deal is DEAD. And so is India's energy security. The best option would be that Congress party should negotiate with BJP to support the deal. (after all some credit goes to Vajpayee govt. too, to get this deal done)

On second thought Congress asking for help from BJP!! (am i day dreaming now...?)