How Password Change My Life

One day in December 2012 when things are little unsettled in life I walk into the office, as usual my day begins at my computer screen. It was all great, until I saw this message:

Your password has expired.

Click ‘Change password’ to change your password.

No shit. I thought clicking ‘Change password’ was gonna do something else.

I read this dumb message in my mind: The damn password has expired.

At my workplace, the Microsoft Exchange server is configured to ask thousands of employees around the planet to change their passwords. Every 30-45 days.

Here is the horse-shit: The server forces us to use at least one UPPERCASE character, at least one lowercase alphabetic character, at least one symbol and at least one number. Oh, and the whole damn thing can’t be less than 8 characters.And I can’t use any of the same passwords I’ve used last 15 times.

So there it was… This input field with a pulsating cursor, waiting for me to type a password that I’ll have to re-enter for the next 30-45 days. Many times during the day.

Then, letting all the frustration go, I remembered a tip I heard from my former boss.

I’m gonna use a password to change my life.

With a state of mind I couldn't focus on things. Of course, there were clear indicators of what I needed to do -or what I had to achieve- in order to regain control of my life, but we often don’t pay attention to these clues.

My password became the indicator. My password reminded me that I shouldn’t let myself be victim of recent happening, and that I’m strong enough to do something about it.

My password became: “Willbeok25@march”

I had to type this statement several times a day. Each time my computer would lock. Each time I would come back from break or lunch.

In my mind, I went with the mantra that I didn’t type a password. In my mind, I wrote “Will Be ok by March” everyday, for one month.

That simple action changed the way I looked at my life. That constant reminder that alI should be ok, led me to accept the way things happened.

One month later, my dear exchange server asked me again to renew my password. I thought about the next thing I had to get done.

My password became Startreading24@year. For start reading at least 24 books in a year.

And guess what happened. I star reading and it became my one of the Hobby overnight. When I shared this with one of my friend he took the challenge with password "Quitsmoking@4ever" his password was a painful one to type during that month, but doing it helped him to yell at himself in his mind, as he typed that statement, but the result at the end was he quit smoking. 

Now my password is no more system password, it motivated me to follow my monthly goal.

One month later, my password became Save4trip@dubai

Guess where I planned it 7 months later. With savings.

Thank you, password.

So, I learned that I can truly change my life if I play it right. I kept doing this repeatedly month after month, with great results.

Here is an extract of what some of my passwords have been in the last 1.5 years, so you get an idea of how my life has changed, thanks to this method:

willbeok@march← to my situation in life, who started it all. Startreading24@year ← it worked. Save4trip@Dubai ← it worked.Sleep@before11← it worked.No@drinking2months ← it worked.

Booking a car is next on agenda← Yep. Life is gonna change again, soon.

I still await very anxiously each month so I can change my password into something that I need to get done.

This method has consistently worked for me for the last 1.5 years, and I have shared it with a few close friends and relatives. I didn’t think it was a breakthrough in tiny-habits but it did have a great impact in my life, so I thought to share it with you all.

Try it yourself! Write these statements with the right mindset and attitude, and you’ll change your life. Let me know how it works for you!

Remember, for added security, try to be a bit more complex with the words. Add symbols or numbers, or scramble a bit the beginning or the ending of your password string. S4f3ty_f1rst! (Safety_first).

Also, don’t forget the Recommend button.

— Tweet (@arunbais) or email me, and spread the ☺ around.

Thinking can be equal to living longer

“Death is something inevitable. When a man has done what he considers to be his duty to his people and his country, he can rest in peace. I believe I have made that effort and that is, therefore, why I will sleep for the eternity.” - Nelson Mandela 

One of my friends shared the above quote of Nelson Mandela few days ago on Facebook.

The quote triggered the thought of thinking and thinking logical, we all know that Death is one of the most exhausted topics of conversation, because it is unavoidable. We move with great speed through life, sure of only one thing, that one day we will stop moving.

We talk about it but do we really give it a thought, it is evident why we must die – Dying to save space - because the Earth is a limited space to live in.

Or Dying to Evolve, we reproduce to create a bettered version of ourselves. Our children are therefore better equipped to survive the world than we are, just as the iPhone 3G turns heads no more these days, and we too are useless once the next generation is born so we die.

But what about Dying to Prevent Boredom, attractive as the idea of immortality sounds, living forever would take all the fun out of life. Here, I’ll reference a speech made by Achilles in the movie, Troy to Briseis, (the girl he keeps in his tent) he says that “the Gods envy us for our mortality – that every moment is so beautiful because it will never come again. In the prime of our lives, men are (usually) at the peak of their physical abilities and women are the most beautiful they will ever be. Intelligence, fortunately, follows linear growth so most of us continue to gain intelligence until the day we lose our minds completely, and even then who says losing your mind isn't the smartest thing to do? We die to give greater significance to all experiences in our lives.

Granted, we will die someday, but is there any way to stretch the time in between?”

I saw Inception recently and was very impressed with how Christopher Nolan manages timelines in the movie. It is indeed true, that time dilates in our dreams.

Both of these have a common factor which created the experience of time slowing down – an increased rate of thought formation.

SO we should think more to elongate our own experience of time, the mind in fact is the most wonderful gift God could given us. It allows for endless exploration of all possibilities in the privacy of our head; the only part of ourselves that is completely our own, inaccessible to anyone else. Just as I have, you must stretch your own ego and embrace the concept that this is your world that you are its God and your perception of it is all that exists. Then you will be able to grasp that stretching your own perception of time, stretches time for your whole world. I’m saying that the more thoughts you have, the slower time passes for you. It is the blank moments, when I don’t have a thought about life that just flies by – although I appreciate those too, on occasion.

Now, I've never been a fan of talkers – I find that the more people talk, the greater the noise that drowns out the signal (good ideas). A similar situation may exist for heavy-thinkers as well – the more thoughts you have, the more useless thoughts you may have that overshadow your useful ideas. If you are content with simply stretching your own perception of time, then by all means, think away! Think smartly, think nonsensically, and think however you like.

But, we do have limited time in this world, no matter what our perception of it is. Myself, I am not content with having any useless ideas; I consider ideas that do not directly or indirectly result in action to be a complete waste of time. So, I would never allow myself to think simply for the sake of thinking. Then again, I may be completely wrong here, but a little more thinking never hurt anyone. Except perhaps those who are afraid of having thoughts at all.

Why I’m going to miss being twenty five

Seven days ago, I turned 27 and today I am missing something, something about my yearly twenties, as an adult, twenty five is the best age to be. Your social circle no longer includes whiny teenagers who think a heart-break is the end of the world, nor do you have to deal with married thirty something (although I am married at 26), who take every opportunity available to show off their trophy wives and expect you to join their ranks. You may already have a job, or you may still be looking for one. It’s not the end of the world if you don’t have a successful career, or even an inkling of where you’d want to be in ten years. You’ve had a few failed relationships, maybe even a couple of heart-breaks, but you still haven’t become jaded enough to entirely give up on the idea. You still meet plenty of new people and make new friends easily. You’re old enough to legally consume alcohol every weekend, but not old enough for people to think of you as an alcoholic. It is still okay to party with friends without needing a valid reason for it, and hangovers don’t last days.

Probably the best thing about being twenty-five, is that you’re still technically in your early twenties. Just a birthday later you suddenly enter your late twenties. The one year translates into added pressure to have a better paying job, expectations to be married or to at least have a steady partner. Impromptu week long getaways with friends will be frowned upon. People will expect you to be more serious about everything, behave more like a grownup and be more mature in general (read: boring and predictable.) Hanging out with your loved ones will become a chore, requiring you to schedule time for them in your newly hectic life. You’ll be expected to have your own place. Living with your friends will no longer be viable, as they’ll be busy dealing with their own problems that come with suddenly being on the wrong side of twenty.

All your travel plans die with your twenty-sixth birthday. Though you keep telling yourself that you’ll somehow make time for that backpacking trip across Europe that you’d promised yourself many years ago, whenever your office decides to grant you your leave, you’ll be left scrambling to plan a hasty visit to your home to be with your family for the holidays. The one vacation you do get will be your honeymoon, and let’s be honest here, that was not at all what you had in your mind when you so meticulously planned your great adventure.

And so I sit here wishing that time would slow down or entirely stop, that these next few months would somehow stretch into an eternity, wishing that I was still in my twenties.

My love for Cinema & few unheard Recommendations

Indian Cinema is celebrating 100 years of Bollywood, irrespective of genre, language, actors, country and director, I like to watch all kinds of movies, they are my perfect getaway from mundane reality and entry to the fantasy land. My love for cinema has given me sleepless nights, endless conversation points, fabulous ideas, memorable dialogues & lingering music; you now must get my obsession levels. I am grateful to my laptop and many of my friends for sharing their great collection and recommendations. My obsession owes each one of you and the great internet movie friend (who shall not be named here) a GREAT BIG FAT THANKS!

 

Here I am mentioning my three recently watched movies, in no way these represent my favorites, and they will act more like recommendations of sorts as they may not be that popular....

1. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas – One of the most underrated war movies. This movie is among the rare ones where the brutalities of war are portrayed in the most subtle and figurative manner. The story unfolds through the innocent eyes of an eight year old German boy who is oblivious of his father’s role, the adjacent Nazi concentration camp or the holocaust that awaits him. Brilliant acting, plot and the setting makes this a must watch movie. The ending is absolutely remarkable and comes packed with a punch. Caution: Can leave you with a lump in the throat.

2. In the Mood for Love – Recommended by my dear friend, this can easily top my favourite romantic movie list. Highly impressed by the cinematography, story-line and subtle expressions. Post this movie, I became a great fan of the Chinese director Wong Kar-Wai and have watched many of his other movies like My Blueberry Nights and Chunking Express but In the Mood for Love remains my favorite. The movie is a lesson in love, infidelity and doing the wrong for the right reasons or vice-versa. Loved the ending – unexpected, sad and moving. Also, the soundtrack of the movie along with the visualization is absolutely brilliant.

3. Children of Heaven – This simple story of two siblings and a pair of lost shoes leaves you with such a warm and happy feeling. One of the simplest tales told with a sweet message of love and faith is a must watch and does not require much critical analysis. Watch it just to remind yourself that life is all about the simple joys and how underrated they are!

Shawshank Redemption, The Prestige, Memento, Forrest Gump, Inception, The Departed, Amelie, Revolutionary Road, Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind, Rashomon, 12 Angry Men, An Education, Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, 500 Days of Summer, August Rush are some of my other favourite movies which I would really like to recommend others to watch. Phew! The list is just endless and I am sure I have missed many of the good ones that I cannot recollect at the moment.

8 Productive things to do during the Workday

Forget about your job title or profession – everyone is looking for ways to be more productive at work.
Experiencing a highly productive workday can feel euphoric. But contrary to popular belief, simply checking tasks off your to-do list isn’t really an indication of productivity. Truly productive people aren’t focused on doing more things; this is actually the opposite of productivity. If you really want to be productive, you’ve got to make a point to do fewer things.

Here are 8 productivity tips form Project Management Expert, Author and Agile Visionary – Tony Wong.  

               
1. Create a smaller to-do list. Getting things accomplished during your workday shouldn’t be about doing as much as possible in the sanctioned eight hours. It may be hard to swallow, but there’s nothing productive about piling together a slew of tasks in the form of a checklist. Take a less-is-more approach to your to-do list by only focusing on accomplishing things that matter.

2. Take breaks. You know that ache that fills your brain when you’ve been powering through tasks for several hours? This is due to your brain using up glucose. Too many people mistake this for a good feeling, rather than a signal to take a break. Go take a walk, grab something to eat, workout, or meditate – give your brain some resting time. Achieve more productivity during your workday by making a point to regularly clear your head. You’ll come back recharged and ready to achieve greater efficiency.

3. Follow the 80/20 rule. Did you know that only 20 percent of what you do each day produces 80 percent of your results? Eliminate the things that don’t matter during your workday: they have a minimal effect on your overall productivity. For example, on a project, systematically remove tasks until you end up with the 20 percent that gets the 80 percent of results.

4. Start your day by focusing on yourself. If you begin your morning by checking your email, it allows others to dictate what you accomplish. Set yourself in the right direction by ignoring your emails and taking the morning to focus on yourself, eat a good breakfast, meditate, or read the news.

5. Take on harder tasks earlier in the day. Knock out your most challenging work when your brain is most fresh. Save your busy work – if you have any – for when your afternoon slump rolls in.

6. Pick up the phone. The digital world has created poor communication habits. Email is a productivity killer and usually a distraction from tasks that actually matter. For example, people often copy multiple people on emails to get it off their plate – don't be a victim of this action. This distracts everyone else by creating noise against the tasks they’re trying to accomplish and is a sign of laziness. If you receive an email where many people are CC’d do everyone a favor by BCC’ng them on your reply. If your email chain goes beyond two replies, it’s time to pick up the phone. Increase your productivity by scheduling a call.

7. Create a system. If you know certain things are ruining your daily productivity, create a system for managing them. Do you check your emails throughout the day? Plan a morning, afternoon, and evening time slot for managing your email. Otherwise, you’ll get distracted from accomplishing more important goals throughout the day.

8. Don’t confuse productivity with laziness. While no one likes admitting it, sheer laziness is the No. 1 contributor to lost productivity. In fact, a number of time-saving methods – take meetings and emails for example – are actually just ways to get out of doing real work. Place your focus on doing the things that matter most as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Remember, less is more when it comes to being productive during the workday.

What’s your secret to productive workdays?

I Wish I Could........

You remember being a kid and looking at grown ups and thinking how much “fun” it would be to be a grown up?

I do.When I was a kid, I couldn’t wait to grow up.

I envied how grown ups got to do everything they wanted but I couldn’t stay up past 10 pm.

I envied how grown ups got to go wherever they wanted without asking. But I still had to ask for permission to watch TV.

I envied how grown ups always had so much money to spend. But I wasn’t allowed to eat all the ice cream in the world.

I envied how grown ups were so important and were treated with such respect. But everything I said was “cute” or “funny” and no one ever paid heed.

And so I wanted it all. A grown-up was my celebrity.

I became older. A teenager. And I still continued to envy grown ups.

I still envied how grown ups got to do everything they wanted. But I wasn’t allowed to talk on the phone all I please without being disturbed.

I still envied how grown ups got to go wherever they wanted without asking for permission. But I had to make up a million excuses to go out with my friends.

I still envied how grown ups always had so much money to spend. But I had to save up for months before my boyfriend’s birthday.

I still envied how grown ups were so important and were treated with such respect. But where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do was regarded as “childish”.

I still wanted it all. And I convinced myself that it would all come in good time. A few more years and I’d have finally grown up.

Those years have gone by a little too quickly for my liking. I’m what you would define as a “grown up” now. And I get to do all those things I envied as a kid. Only, now it all seems very different.

Yes, I am allowed to do whatever I want. But I don’t have the time or the energy to do any of it.

Yes, I don’t need to ask for permission to go anywhere. But I wish there would be someone to make my decisions for me. Tell me what was right and wrong. Give me the right advice on anything and everything that I did.

Yes I have so much money to spend at my disposal. But only I know the efforts and pains it has taken me to collect each and every penny.

Yes, I seem very important and respected when it comes to making decisions. But I wish the burden of responsibilities was much lesser.

And now I wish I could go back and stop time. I wish I could go back and be looked after and pampered and fed and taken care of. I wish I could go back and be a kid. I wish my parents were around all the time to release me of all my responsibilities. I wish my saddest moments were those when I got into a fight with my siblings. I wish I had a fixed bed time during all those times that I have to stay up working through the night. I wish mom was around to put me to sleep when I was sick. I wish dad was around to pat me on my back when I did well. I wish I could eat all I wanted and still look cute. I wish I could crawl into mom and dad’s bed during winter nights. I wish tears rolling down my cheeks were only because of my scraped knee. I wish I could rewind. And then I wish I could pause.

The 3 weeks challenge - no phone in the company of others

Have this made you wonder “what do you miss out on because you are often not “present” as you focus on what your phone presents to you.

Most people seem completely addicted to their phones.

As soon as a plan touches down many simultaneous “ding dings” chime out demanding the attention of their owner.

Recently a friend of mine off air for two days with no email, phone, sms or internet, and when he was back, he had quite a back log of email and messages on his return mostly with response “Is something wrong with your phone” and that too when we announces this in advance that he is not able to response to any call or email or message for next two days.

People seem to have a high expectation that if they send a message, the response will be instantaneous. Even if we all noticed on a normal bus stop most of the people waiting were all inspecting their mobile phones – not even noticing the existence of the other human beings around them.

My question for the situations:-

Is all this immediate communication really giving us the opportunity to do good work?

How many emails or text messages are dashed off in haste only to be misunderstood or incomplete? Are we being truly present?

Okay I am taking a personal challenge for the next 3 weeks to not use a mobile device in the presence of others. And I wonder who I will get to meet and what conversations I will get to experience – and also the added upside of not sending off a one line response to someone without a considered response.

Let me slow things down – and not rush to everything, and I’m sure I will do better work as a result.

Who wants to play with me – the 3 weeks 'being present' day challenge? Let me know how you go.

On quest of How to Search.....

Everyone knows that search on the web is synonymous with Google. Or is it? I’d say it used to be … still is to some extent … but not entirely.

Anyone who spends a considerable amount of time browsing the internet and searching for content is bound to be – knowingly or unknowingly – using more than one medium to search. I will try here to share some that I use.

Well, see the problem with Google search is that it throws up a lot of irrelevant search results along with the relevant ones. So that means you have to dig through the search results, drill down, refine your search string and despite that at times come back all sweaty, grimy and empty handed. Well maybe an exaggeration, but it could still leave you wanting for more.
The second problem that I see with Google search is, that I am not getting any feedback, opinions, ideas related to the topic I am searching for. So there is no conversation happening. I cannot ask any questions, get any replies. It is like watching television… very one sided. It is because of this reason that I had said on twitter once that “Twitter is making me lazy. I prefer to ask a question here and get contextual answers rather than do a search on Google”. This other time I tweeted that “Twitter search has something Google doesn’t have – people”.

But I digress. The point here is not to put down Google search (They are doing their job pretty well I’m sure) but to discuss alternate means of searching for content on the web.

The trick is in knowing what you’re searching for and what could be the optimum places to look for them. I was recently looking for a prototyping tool which would give me the option of adding rich in-the-page interactivity. Searched high and low on Google but came up with nothing. That is when I turned to LinkedIn. Yeah LinkedIn. While it is a great community for business networking, the added advantage is that it has an active community of professionals discussing, offering feedback and opinion – all of which is a lot more useful because here is someone talking about their own experience rather than trying to sell you something. Well guess what! In a discussion of User Experience professionals group, I found a list of prototyping tools I had not come across on Google, found opinions of which ones are useful in which context and also tips of how people are using existing tools like PowerPoint and Visio very successfully for prototyping.

I did mention Twitter already very active communities; people on Twitter are always more than willing to help you out if you need something. Just try it sometime. Looking for something? Ask a question on twitter. Believe you me, you will not be disappointed. People offer suggestions, opinions and if they don’t know, they will RT (retweet) – your tweet so that someone in their network can offer you help. People on twitter called it Crowd Sourcing. I have indulged myself on various occasions, asking about tools I needed, and even opinions for narrowing down options while buying my car.

Even Twitter Search throws up very useful results. I now often tend to put a search string in http://search.twitter.com/ before I Google. Twitter search again brings to you tweets of people sharing their views and comments along with suggestions. You do want to know more about the link you are going to click, the tool you are searching for, that phrase you have to research, links people are recommending. It helps to filter out a lot of crap which you otherwise tend to encounter through regular search.

You may even consider platforms like Slide share and Scribd. Although with Slide share you are most likely to end up with a list of ‘ten things your organization should or shouldn’t in the social media space’, no matter what was your search string. If you have the patience to dig through that content, you may come across some real insights related to the topic you searched for.

Some of the other sites I have used successfully in the past are YouTube, Digg.com (this was a very useful resource while I was searching for icons once). The point is that these are all sites with user generated content. So if you search on them, you will definitely find more than you were looking for. Opinions and suggestions make your search more relevant and the conversations make it more interesting.

Having said that, Google still has what none of these sites have – Pacman.

Do share your experiences of searching on these sites and also any special tips or techniques that you use while searching, would be really good to know.

The Psychology of Lies and Liars‏

Very few people are skilled at covering lies, either they have an extensive knowledge about human behavior or they are psycho killers. This post is written keeping in mind, that neither of you fall in one of those categories.

"I have read the terms & conditions & I agree to them."

Everyone lies. You do, your friends do, your parents do, if there was a God, I'm sure he'd tick the terms and conditions box without actually reading them. Of course, there's a certain psychology involved behind that.

There are lies that 93% of the population says at some point or the other and make very similar gestures to give away the fact that they're lying.

One of the most common lies being, "No mom, everyone got horrible marks on the test." When in reality, you know that you're the only whose flunk the test in the whole class, your mom knows that too. In fact she said a similar lie to her mom at some point yet nothing happens to you and you get away with it.

But this is a lie which we are actually nervous of while telling it. So the sentence is usually accompanied by your hand being raised to a part of your face. Either to scratch your nose rubs your ear, touch a part of the forehead or something along those lines. Why do we this movement? Simply because when we lie, there's this awkward silence when no one is saying a word. We feel that silence because we are the ones who are lying and are nervous, however, the person we are lying to will NOT feel that silence most of the times, unless we shows signs of nervousness by doing one of the actions mentioned above. 

If however a lie is of bigger proportions, like telling your boyfriend or girlfriend that you haven't cheated on them when in reality you have, the rubbing of the nose, ear or forehead will also be accompanied by swallowing of your own spit. So if you want to catch someone while doing this, look at their throat and see if it moves

.
There will be times when you're telling a serious lie, could be anything and to anyone, to a friend or family, you'll notice your breathing rate increases and when that happens obviously your chest begins to heave. If you think someone's lying to you, this could be another way to figure out. Just stare at their chests, and risk being considered as a creep. 

These are some of the basic behavioral changes that occur when someone is lying, and by reading this post, you can sort of begin to make sense of how easy, we as human beings can be to read. So what should you do to control it? Simple, NEVER bring your hand to your face while lying, try to breath as less as possible, try to be drinking water or something else which is non alcoholic while telling the lie so that the swallowing motion is covered.
Also, just so you know, the people who lie the best are the ones who continue talking non stop. And can tell a tail as it happened and can also recollect the events that supposedly occurred in reverse order. Every liar practices a story; no one practices it in reverse.
And yes, I HAVE read the terms & conditions once in my life, just so you know, they're utterly pointless.

Mountain Railways of India -- World Heritage Site -- National Geographic

Mountain Railways of India -- World Heritage Site -- National Geographic

I have posted the above link of Mountain Railways of India - World Heritage Site directly from the website of National Geographic, feel proud that we have develop it century ago and such a thing mentioned on website of well know National Geographic but so feel sad about the condition of these trains, not able to comment on The Nilgiri line and The small-gauge Darjeeling Himalayan Railway as have not seen it yet but The narrow-gauge Kalka Shimla Railway is not working what I remember when had a visit of Himachal last year.

As all above are world heritage site - we request our government to make sure they are well maintained and well working.

Regards.

Ranikhet :- Hidden Jewels of Himalayas

Some of the key symptoms of being bitten by the travel bug are easily identifiable, you start thinking of hills, towering trees (actually whatever fascinates you). One of that bug bitten our whole team and we started making planes for different destination lots of suggestions came but finally we all settled for one of hidden Jewels of Himalayas, unexplored “Ranikhet”.

All preparations done, date got decided and on September 14, 2012 at 6:30 pm we started from our office with rain and traffic jam it took almost 3 hours for us to reach Ghaziabad, but as I mentioned we are going to explorer hidden jewels of Himalayas, our journey has a lot hidden for us, as soon as we reached Ghaziabad we come to know about the blockage of route due to riots at village near Ghaziabad, result in route change for us, now have to go via Meerut. We had dinner at Dhaba “Shiva Bhojnalya” near Morta the most pathetic food we ate.

With almost half empted stomach we started our journey only to know that Meerut is waiting for us with another hidden thing “tyre defused’ change of tyre and repair of defused took almost 2 hours and by the time it 2 am in night we have completed only 65 kms out of our 350 kms. 

Our journey started from NH121 to Ranikhet via Moradabad, Rampur, and Kashipur and due to bad weather and Road we have to take the route which takes us via Corbett Park, the park is located on one side of NH121 and other side is human habitat, we show lots of birds and animals including Chital and one human tiger in white shirt as told by our Bus Driver. 

At Corbett Park on way to Ranikhet

After a journey of almost 16 and ½ hours we reached Ranikhet the beauty, the weather all is amazing and on the top of that our Hotel Parvati Inn with its mountain range view Rooms are making the experience un explainable.

Ranikhet is extremely appealing to any nature lover, the scenic beauty binds you. It still remains an Army Cantt area with Koumaun Regiment’s camp are there. There is nothing much to do in Ranikhet and that’s what you enjoy. There are some nice trails around the resort and went deep in the forests. We were told by some of the locals that seeing a leopard is a common sight, but we are more interested in Jism 4 Staring Akash, so Leopard has better luck next time. 

Breaking:- New Poster of Jism 4

We all went to Koumaun Regiment’s museum the first of its kind in whole India with many first against his name; Jhoola Devi Mandir has its 700 years old story. The most amazing thing about this place is its natural beauty. 

At Jhula Devi Mandi

We partied till late night in our hotel room and terrace of hotel, I missed as I slept earlier, but I wake up early and see the most amazing view of mountain, me with Nilakantha and Jagdish went for morning, had a cup of tea and wow! That’s what we can say.

Togetherness

Memorable

Something Lost is found between Two

Now its time to say good bye to Ranikhet, we boarded our bus but we are know utilizing our time take a route which covers Bhimtal famous for its lake, it is believed The Pandavas spent their time during exile. We stayed for 5-10 mins there before started for Delhi, after crossing Khatgodam we are back to plan from the laps of mountains alas! Like we started with most pathetic food we end up having our lunch in one of the most pathetic restaurant Floura, now all are tired but enjoying every bit of tiredness as this is the memorable trip for all of us which is somehow the last as well for most of us as soon as we reached NCR its time to say bye to one by one.

11 Murti

We are now back from our most memorable journey of all time we all wants to thanks Mr. Nilakantha Mohanty for making this amazing and memorable journey and togetherness possible for us. Thanks a lot.

Nilakantha Mohanty

Can we truly say that we are not corrupt?

Corruption is the bad word and we support all means possible to end it, most of us almost criticized our government every day we also supported different anti- corruption movements through blogs, tweets, facebook and few of us also attended rallies. 

But after a brief thinking on the issue I have some questions in my mind, can we truly say that we are not corrupt? Can anyone of us say we have not done at least one of the things to get our way?

1.       Jumping Traffic Lights – You did not see the light changing and when the cop catches you have endless excuses, but it will leave you with options. You can pay the fine, get your license confiscated, go to court next day and get it released right? Alternatively, give him hundred rupees and are set free. After all you do not have time next day, you life is already busy. What will you do?

2.       School Admission: - Giving the best education to your child is something you feel you have to do. But the most prestigious schools will not let your child in if a certain fee is not paid. It could be called a deposit, a security, or a miscellaneous expenditure. The truth is you are not going to see it again and your kid won’t get in without it. “What do you do?” Yes, it is still a bribe. Is corruption then justified?

5.       IT returns: - Run to the IT consultant, pay imaginary rent, claim rewards (drivers are such a help in every sense) avoid the Tax to the maximum possible extent. Hey, you are still paying tax, so why so serious? In other cases, spend a little on the people who will help clear the fake IT bills. Does a justification that it’s all going into the politician’s pockets make it still ok?

6.       Cooking Gas: - Just get holds of the friendly cylinder delivery boy give him a little “Bakshish.” Just get this done quickly, it is all right. After all, it’s not your fault that you did not know both your cylinders had finished. Right?

7.       The DVD Walla: - It’s absolutely all right to buy the pirated DVD, which you are dying to see, or to download from free U-torrents. What the heck, everyone does it? The movie guys make a lot of money anyways right?

8.       Buying Property: - Reason it out. As such, the property costs are so high, pay a little “black” money, and pay lesser in registration, stamp duty and all the other things that can save you just enough to buy that new stove you need in your kitchen. Your builder is actually doing you a favour, isn’t he? But “What do you do?”

Morality is a choice we make every day. Can we still stand and say we are not corrupt?

How to choose your mobile

Hello to all dear friends after a gap of almost two years getting usual to blogging will take some time but here is my second blog in one day obviously prepared almost 10 days back.

 

The way we buy mobile phones, and indeed most things, has changed in the last few years.

Nowadays, you can simply enter a phone model’s name in a gadget website and make your purchase decision based on the reviews. Some of us don’t even bother going to the store anymore, as online shopping sites may offer better deals.

The mobile phone is a sophisticated piece of hardware, so it makes sense to seek the opinion of an expert before deciding on a purchase. But there are certain factors that make you a better judge than an “expert” reviewer.

For instance, will the device feel comfortable in your hands? Can you use the on-screen keyboard while holding the phone in the same hand? How easy, or complicated, is the phone’s navigation or menu? Will the phone fit into your pocket? Only you can answer these questions after holding and using the device.

For this, you generally have to go to a store. Here are a few basic tests you should perform when you get to the store to evaluate any device,

Launch the text messaging application and write a sentence like “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” to check your fingers can handle the touch-screen keyboard. You should try this in both portrait and landscape orientation.

Next, launch the camera application and take a few sample shots. Check the picture quality of course, but also see if there’s any lag between you hitting the shutter button and the actual capture. The camera is likely to be one of the most used applications on your mobile phone, and it’s frustrating to miss photographing a “golden moment” because it’s too slow.

Do a couple of common tasks to test the phone’s navigation. You can change the wallpaper, set a different ringtone, adjust the brightness, and so on. Launch the default web browser, reset the settings and then go to a couple of your favorite websites. Do they render properly? You could also consider using the Google Maps application to determine how quickly the phone’s GPS can pinpoint your location (it may not be a very accurate test though while you are inside the building).

Most of the latest phones have gorgeous big screens, but remember that the larger the display, the faster it will drain your battery.

Another important question is whether the number of apps available for a mobile platform is a factor in deciding your purchase? If you are an enthusiast or a power-user who likes to try every available new app and game, the answer is probably yes, for the rest of us, not so much. I have been using both Window and Blackberry devices for some time and though I install new apps quite often, the ones I use frequently are probably available across all mobile platforms.

Have a happy taking, sharing, chatting what it is you enjoyed on your mobile....

Bye for now!

A week without Gmail

I have never been away from my Gmail mailbox for so long.

No, I haven’t taken extended absences; it’s just that I am now using the new Outlook.com service as my primary email client. The incoming emails are still handled by Gmail as before, but I can easily read and reply to these messages inside Outlook without ever logging into Gmail.
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Outlook.com made a good first impression when it was unveiled last month and after using the email service exclusively (and heavily) for about 10 days now, it can be said that Microsoft’s revamped Hotmail service does prove the initial impressions right.

‪​‪There are quite a few factors – like the minimalist design that resembles a desktop app, the use of big fonts in message views and menus, more user-friendly keyboard shortcuts – that make Outlook quite a pleasure to use. ‪‪ then there are several unique features in Outlook that are missing in Gmail.

‪​‪For instance, when you are composing a new message, the profile pictures of your contacts are visible in the drop downs, making it easier for you to visually pick the right address. Microsoft promises to add more gigabytes should your Outlook mailbox run out of space, but there’s a handy “sort by size” feature available to quickly discover the space hogging emails. If you are sending an email with a large attachment that exceeds the allowed size limit (25 MB), Outlook will automatically route it via SkyDrive.

‪​‪You can also connect Outlook to your Facebook account and the built-in messaging client can then be used for Facebook Chat. Similarly, if you connect Outlook to LinkedIn, all your LinkedIn contacts will be automatically imported into your address book (though you can’t export this data out of Outlook).
‪​‪In the last 10 days of active use, I never really felt a need to go back to Gmail anytime, but I do miss a couple of things in Outlook. There’s no offline support and you to have to be connected to search or reply to messages. Categories in Outlook are similar to labels in Gmail but they aren’t color coded. Outlook doesn’t support IMAP at this time, so you can’t sync your web inbox with any of desktop email clients.
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Google’s two step verification is a big relief because unauthorized users won’t be able to get into your account even if they are aware of your Gmail username and password. That layer of security is currently absent in Outlook, though you do have an option to set one-time passwords for logging into Outlook from public computers.
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I am also not too sure if it is possible to use Outlook.com as the default email provider for your web domain as is available in the free edition of Google Apps.

Despite some of these limitations, Outlook.com is a solid contender to Gmail and the upcoming integration with Skype will make this service even more interesting.

Happy emailing.

Peaceout!

Friendship and Love!

Both are so much related to each other and are so dissimilar! What are the differences between friendship and love? Is platonic friendship possible between person of opposite sex?
What is friendship? Why do we call a person our friend? When do we call someone a very good friend? If we care for a person, if we always ready to help that person and if we share most of thoughts with a person, they are our good friends. We can always count upon our good friends in our emergency. We are always sure that our friend will understand why we acted in a certain, we need not explain anything to our very good friends. The friendhip is so deep and the relationship is so intimate, that most of the things are automatically understood by our friends.

What about love? In a relationship of deep love all the sharing that we discussed above are taken for granted. But love transcends all this. During love we are attached with a particular person while in friendship one may have many friends. A loving relationship makes one so much attached to others, that one gets pained if his/her beloved is hurt! Love also involves a physical element, friendship does not have that. This is vital difference nature gives us love, so that specie can go forward, Nature does not give us friendship. Your heart beat will never increase in anticipation of meeting your friend. You will not feel totally lost if you don't meet your friend for few days. You will not lie awake at night thinking about your friend. You will not have dreams in your eyes thinking about your friend, but in love you will do all this and much more. Indeed there is no comparision between Love and Friendship.

My Guardian Angles

They always keeping you out of troubl & protecting you at the cost of their lives, whatever wrong is done they always good to you.They make impossible happen for you, they are our guardian angles, our parents.
I always think my father is special but he never think so, that itself makes him special. My father is my Hero, though he led a very busy life, he was always there for his family. Not once we feel that he didn't give us enough time we challenged each other to the games of tennis and carrom. I wondered how he managed to be at so many places doing so many things? Super Human Quality.
On the other hand my Mom is a typical Housewife, her entire world revolve around all of us, she is one woman army at home. Bringing us isn't an easy job but she did it without complaints. She used to wake up us every morning and get us ready for school which include Ironing our clothes, putting on our socks and tying our shoelaces, cooking lunch, washing our dirty clother and sitting with us when we are back. How could she do all these things with other household work? Again Super Human Quality.
Our parents inherit super human qualities when it comes to their children. They put everything to put smile on our forces without ever letting us know the hardship they go through or scarifices they make.

Mummy and Papa - Love you more than my life-You are everything to me.