I'm a professional farmer now!

Over the past few days, I have found myself spending considerable time farming and I am loving it! Well, not the real farming though.
Yes, as few might have already guessed it, I am talking about the application 'Farmville' in Facebook. It all started couple of months ago when my friend, Sheetal talked about this game. She was(& still is) very much excited about this game and mentioned that its a cool interesting game which she is enjoying from quite some time. Basically, I am not a guy who enjoys these kind of online games, so didn't bother to give a try then. But the talks n praise for the game didn't stop there. Another friend of mine, Nithya told me that she has found this game very interesting as well and only then I 'actually' thought of giving it a try. Many days passed by without getting online on Facebook and hence without any farming. After few days, I saw many of my colleagues busy in some kind of online game due to offload season in office(which is not the case normally!) which included a square pasture of land. On inquiry, I found its the same game which Sheetal and Nithya talked about. That's when I decided to go for it. I immediately logged into Facebook and owned a farm!
From then on, its all about plowing land, sowing seeds, harvesting, and handling cattle :) Along with all these activities, the game is made interesting with other tasks where in you gift your friends(& neighbors) with different kinds of trees, animals, decorative and etc. You get points(coins & XP) and move up the ladder in farming(levels). I enjoy this game mainly because of these things:
- This gives me some activity which I plan and perform like sow the seeds which will be ready for harvest after a day or two. Gives some kind of satisfaction ;-)
- This gives me a place where in I arrange stuffs in a way I like it. You tend to keep your farm live with different kind of harvests, animals and make it beautiful. This tells that I enjoy arranging items and making the place neat!
- This gives a place to send silly gifts to friends. I just sent a nice looking rabbit and a banana tree to my friends.
- I move up the ladder in farming and gives a nice feeling! :) Who doesn't feel good when moved to next level?!

This game has created quite a fuss in the media as well. Yesterday itself I came across an article in Times where I saw many guys(like me) saying the similar stuff. And moreover, I see many people around me talking these things:
- "Please remember to send me nice gifts like cows, pigs and maple trees!" Sounds ridiculous in real life :-D
- "Yeppie, I made it to the 15th level". And what about professional career? huh
- "Hurray, I just moved ahead to the next level when the fact is that you started farming before me". Look at this sense of achievement! :)

Frankly, I like the game and spend around 15 mins daily in it. If you havn't tried it, please do and let me know how you feel. And if you are already a 'Farmville' fan' let me know your level and your thoughts about it and and.. if possible share your farm snapshot :)

Random things about me

I am tagged by Amruth to post 25 random things about me.

The rules being:
Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. If I tagged you, its because I want to know more about you.

Here are the 25 random things about me:
1) I believe in the following quote - 'Be the change you want to see in the world'.
2) I enjoy getting totally involved in the movies I watch (This really pisses off few of my friends watching along with me because of the expletives exploding off my lips :-) ).
3) I am a big fan of 'F.R.I.E.N.D.S' TV series.
4) I dream of completing a marathon or at least a half-marathon.
5) I dislike snakes. Or may be I suffer from Ophidiophobia :(
6) I once won the first prize in 'threading-a-needle' competition :)
7) I follow an unwritten rule or policy of wearing formals on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays while casuals/jeans on Thursdays and Fridays to office.
8) I like to play cricket, badminton and table tennis.
9) The fastest speed ever achieved by me in my bike is 95 kmph and in a car is 105 mph.
10) The best character I have ever read about is Barney Livingston from the book 'Doctors' by Erich Segal.
11) I am a fan of Saurav Ganguly.
12) I love mathematics and once had plans to give tuition classes to school students during my graduation days.
13) I hate when people forget their mobile phones and hurry off without realizing the fact that their silly ring tones create nuisance. (An idiot who sits in the neighbouring row just did this.. huh)
14) I like Bengali sweets which I really enjoyed at lunch today.
15) I like to go around visiting new places meeting new people and knowing new things.
16) I try to learn a new word daily. But that seldom happens :(
17) I love dancing. And love it more when I am dancing well and have a nice partner ;-)
18) I wish to travel to all the continents expect Antartica as I don't see anything interesting there :)
19) I recorded a speed of 9 secs to type from A to Z. (Please give it a try sometime in Facebook)
20) I was once saved by my friend when I was drowning next to a nice water falls. Bad experience! I know.. (Hey, I am a good swimmer basically but was very tired to pull myself up in the deep waters :))
21) Immediately after my birth, I didn't cry(respond), so the doc had to slap couple of times on my little butts. One heartless doc I should say! (My mom narrates this story whenever I yell at her that I am not her real son :) )
22) I don't like blogging at office, but due to lack of work I am doing exactly that now!
23) My mobile number is 9740596642. (This is for all those beautiful single-ready-to-mingle girls in Bangalore. And believe me, many people have complimented me that I'm tall, dark and handsome :))
24) I like blogging but havn't been able to do in last couple of months :(
25) And I 'strongly' feel that commenting on the posts/articles you read is a good practice :)

I do not have 25 people in my list right now to tag as per the rules but would love to tag the ones in my list i.e. Nandy, Sheetal, Smita, Deepthi, Mummy bear and Anuji.

NOC at Hyderabad

This post is for those who are in search of complete information regarding the issue of No Objection Certificate(NOC) in Hyderabad for bikes/cars, which is necessary when planning to shift to other states.
Getting the NOC turned out to be a tiring activity for me. Since the AP transport website and officials at the RTA offices didn't give me the complete information, I had to run around different places including police stations!
After all the hassle and successful issue of NOC for my bike, now I am here to help others.

Basically, along with the requirements mentioned in the AP TRANSPORT website, we need to have the clearance from the Crime Police and Traffic Police. Here is the list of the required documents:
» Certificate of Registration
» Certificate of Insurance
» Evidence of Payment of Motor Vehicle Tax upto date(No need of this)
» Pollution Under Control Certificate
» Clearance from Crime Police
» Clearance from Traffic Police
Clearance certificates from both the Police departments can be obtained by submitting application forms in writing with the details. Before submitting the application, do remember to take the e-Seva receipt of Rs 100 (for bikes). Remember, the vehicle owner should be present at this time. And the clearance certificates are issued next to the day of submission of the application at both the departments. And fortunately, these offices are in the same building opposite to the Nampally Assembly.

Finally, take the above mentioned documents to the RTA office the bike is registered from. After the document check and a payment of Rs.75, you will be asked to go for the inspection in the RTA office itself. And once done, you will be asked to come the next day(or the same day later) to collect the NOC!

Yes, its that simple! No need to have any agent for this activity. And surprisingly this work will be done in 3-4 days and will cost just Rs.175(of course, this is excluding the bribe we have to pay at the Crime Police department. Prove yourself smart if you can escape from this!!).

Memorable May!

The month of May has always been very special to me as I celebrate my b'day in this month :). But this year it was special for many more reasons. Perhaps, overwhelming than special. Interviews, close friend's marriage, trek, headcount reduction and b'day being the reasons to be more precise.

Interviews:
Spent the whole time during the first week lazing around and simply planning for the trek which was nearing. But was stuck with a very difficult task on 6th.. to prepare for a telephonic interview scheduled for the next day. The interview did go well to some extend but surely was skeptical about receiving a call again from the interview panel. So for the next couple of days, I got busy with the execution of those plans which I had come up with for the trek. This mainly included shopping for necessary items for the trek and hitting the gym to save myself from the embarrassment at the camp if not fit enough. All of a sudden on 12th, I got a call from the same interview panel for the next rounds of interview, for which I was asked to travel to Bangalore. Now I was in a fix as I had to advance my travel plans to Bangalore by a day to make it to the interview and also to my friend's marriage which I had already planned for. Well, for the marriage there wasn't anything for me to prepare for but for the interview, I had to prepare well and for which I didn't have enough time. Nonetheless, going with the wind, I scheduled the interview just on the day before the marriage. So basically took a flight the immediate day of communication. Note that I still hadn't done my homework for the interview. I reached Bangalore on 13th night and rushed directly to my friend's place who stay close by to the company where I had the interview the next day. Well, I had this goofy idea of actually sitting that night for the preparation. But as we both were catching up with each others' recent events, he informed me about finding a gal for himself. Well, as everyone knows if there is a news of this amplitude there has to be talks! And my friend gave all the details about her and related stuff till 1am and then I realized that I still hadn't done any prep for the interview. I had to excuse myself from this topic and take books in hand for next couple of hours and I was dead tired after that. The prep wasn't up to my mark but had to deal with it. The next day fortunately the 3 rounds of interviews did go well and I actually made it. The HR guy's implicit remarks concluded that. But was told to wait for the final official confirmation.

Friend's marriage:
Later that day after the interviews, I managed to give a surprise visit to a good friend of mine who works in the same company. And after that, had a nice dinner with another friend before running to the railway station to catch a train to Davangere, supposedly the place where my close friend was getting married. The ceremony was grand and I had nice fun along with my few friends who accompanied me. Again, I had to run back to the station to catch a bus back to Bangalore. And let me not get into details about the problems in traveling with non-confirmed train ticket and a bus journey.

Trek:
Back to my same friend's place in Bangalore the same night and was off to the airport in the early hours the next morning to take a flight to Delhi to start my 11 days trek expedition. I had a great trek and was back to Hyderabad, my abode on 26th night. The next day, in the gym I noticed I had lost weight by almost 4 kgs but it was worth it!

Headcount reduction:
After 2 days, 28th precisely, we heard the much anticipated news of mass reduction in office. Well, along with around 80 others in that list I was affected as well. For the very first time I lost a job(please note, its my first job). I was not mad or tensed with the situation. You know why?! Because I had got the official confirmation from the other company the previous day and I had a job waiting for me. Well, that's called timing! what do you say?!

B'day:
31st May is my day. Had nice time celebrating with my friends who made it more special!

Sar pass trek!

As previously mentioned in my post, I took part in the Sar Pass trek expedition conducted by Youth Hostels Association of India. This 11 days trek was truly an amazing experience. This gave an opportunity to enjoy the nature's beauty and to visit the 'heaven on earth' as many say and to be away from civilization for few days as well(not that I detest it). This trekking expedition normally happens in the month of May every year and I picked 16th May as the reporting day. Considering the fact that there isn't any activity on the day 1, I decided to skip the day 1 and directly report on day 2. So I reached the base camp, Kasol on 17th May taking a bus from Delhi towards Kullu/Manali, getting down at Bhuntar and taking one more bus to Kasol. Kasol(6500ft) is a small place having a pleasant climate throughout the year. I was surprised to see a lot of foreigners mainly Israelis making Kasol as their abode. Day 2(my day 1) at base camp: Since I was bit late to the base camp, I missed the acclimation walk planned for the day. Later that day, I met my batch mates i.e SP_19, a group of 52, during the orientation. In this orientation, the Field Director provides all the necessary information required to be known by the trekkers and some useful tips. Apart from this, orientation gives you some laughs because there will be some guys who do something mischievous which pisses off the Director and the whole group have to bear the lecture, the ones which we were accustomed to during school days :). We all dispersed to our tents after the orientation to follow the norms of introducing ourselves and taking the terms to the next level of fun. The whole group assembled together again during the tea break and during the dinner time which was followed by the camp fire. Camp fire was one different experience as it was with no real fire because burning of wood during camp fire is prohibited :-) Few guys came up with some nice skits and few others sung songs.

Day 3 at base camp: We were taken to a nearby place for the morning exercise which reminded me of Physical exercise class what we used to have in schools, the only difference being the absence of band. Seeing off the previous batch to higher camps is a ritual which we followed too. SP_18 batch was ready, everyone with their rucksack all geared up with so much enthusiasm and ready-to-conquer-the-world feeling. As per the schedule, we later went for the rock climbing and rappelling activities. It wasn't a tough job, however it introduced everyone with all the details involved, mainly the kind of knots required during these activities, the small tools and equipments and the techniques. Later that evening some of us bunked the camp fire session and roamed around having fun.

Day 4 : Now it was our turn to get ready with our rucksacks and walk out of the base camp towards higher camps. We all took a bus to Unch Dhaar, the place from where our trek begins. It was amazing to witness an already loaded bus to accommodate another 52 in it. We had to stack our sacks on top of the bus before starting. After few minutes, due to a road blockage, we had to get down that bus, walk past the blockage and take another bus. Here, few of us got an opportunity to travel sitting on top of the bus. The ride was great, sitting on top with absolute scenic beauty around you. We reached Unch Dhaar where everyone of us purchased sticks which comes handy during treks and it indeed made it easy. The actual trek started. We all walked past a steep valley and reached the next camp, Guna Paani(8000ft) after a 5kms walk. In between we all took rest at couple of tea stalls and lunch point. One good thing was that we found these tea stalls which mainly served tea, maggi noodles and omlet all the way to the top. But the rates increased exponentially with the height. The tea which costs Rs 5 at this first stall, costs Rs 25 at the highest camp!! We reached in the late afternoon so we all had ample time to roam around, spend time in groups and to have fun.

Day 5 : Early morning we all were ready after the break fast and after packing our lunch boxes to trek towards the next camp Fual Paani(9500ft). This day trek was the most difficult one as per me because of the steep climb for few Kms. It really tested us all. We walked past a water fall and a nice cozy lunch point below a huge rock before reaching the camp only to find that the tents are located again over a slope. Because of which walking around was strenuous and tents very uncomfortable. This camp was totally in the midst of pine trees and we were welcomed with drizzle and followed by a double rainbow!

Day 6 : We were all set again in the early morning with our lunch boxes towards next camp Zirmi(11000ft). This part of the trail was very scenic with part of it though the forest with pine trees and later with some wonderful spots between mountains. We got lot many points to have our photo sessions on the way. We reached Zirmi after around 6 hours covering around 6 kms. One more appreciable thing was the spot selection for these camps. All the camps were situated at the right spots where one could just sit and enjoy the nature at its best. Night time after dinner, we paid extra for the camp fire at the nearby tea stall and enjoyed for an hour singing and dancing in that very cold temperature around the actual fire in this case ;-)

Day 7 : The temperature was dipping as we progressed and this was the day when we hit the snow clad mountains. The scenes were mesmerizing and the Himalayan range seen with much closeness. We reached our next camp Tila Lotni(12500ft) with snow patches all around the tents. The rocks nearby gave us a nice platform to witness the spectacular view of mountains around. It was quite a scene to capture during sunset and sunrise. By this time, in this cold weather and high altitude, many guys started mumbling and fumbling as previously cautioned during orientation :)

Day 8 : This day was real adventurous and hectic. We walked through a very high steep mountain followed by in the snow for around 2-3 hours before crossing Sar Pass(13800ft). Walking in the snow was a great experience with some initial scary slips and feet getting in 2-3 ft in the snow during afternoon time. Once we crossed the highest pt of the trek, we all were ready for the next adventurous activity i.e. a slide for around 600 mts in the snow. I should tell you, it was the best part of the day. Its just that you have to sit on the snow without any mat or padding and let yourself slide down. You reach good speed in the process and the secret to go without any falls or vaults during the slide is to just rest yourself on your lower back n butt and not to get the legs down on the snow. But many did this mistake and gave all others to sit and witness this great comedy show :) After the slide we were all wet and more importantly our butts were numb! :) After couple more hours of walking, we reached next camp Biskeri(11000ft). To everyone's delight, we were served pakodas with tea. We had a game of cricket and that might be the game at the highest altitude by anyone so far.

Day 9 : We were now ready to hit the next camp Bhandak Tatch(8000ft). This camp is known as the Switzerland of India and rightly said too. There was a change in plan. Few of us, to be more precise, 10 of us decided to skip the stay at this camp and run through the last leg of trek on the same day itself. We had more than one reason for this plan(as a matter of fact, we cooked more reasons later to convince the camp leader) IPL T20 finals, party at the base camp, done with trekking are few of the reasons basically. As per the new plan the elite 10 of us started off towards the base camp after saying 'good bye' to the rest of the group. We walked for around 19 kms on this day. After 7 days away from civilization, it was with a relief and sadness we hit the road to reach base camp. Reached Kasol back in a taxi and decided to stay in a comfortable hotel rather than in those tents at the camp. The group had a party in a nice restaurant with IPL finals, and I missed it as I had temperature and had to take rest in the room :( But I was happy to know that my team won in the IPL match.

Day 10 : Unfortunately the stay at the hotel didn't turn out be very comfortable as there was no power supply and hence no hot water :( We actually saw our faces in the mirror after 7 days and frankly speaking nobody wanted to see their faces again :) After somehow forcing the hotel guys to provide hot water, we got ready and landed in base camp to finish off with final formalities and obtain the trek certificates. Finally bidding farewell to few of my friends, I, along with a friend of mine took a bus to Kullu to get on another bus to Delhi.

This has to be one of the best outdoor expeditions I had so far taking into account the place, the time and the friends I made during this trek. This trek gave me an opportunity to make some wonderful friends, to meet new people from different parts of India and to see new places. The trek would have been pale and less enjoyable without these new friends of mine.

You can check the trek snaps here.

Zoozoo

Recently I came across the Vodafone ads and I should tell, these are simply great. The ones in which you see characters in white costumes with egg shaped face. I mean, there is humor, creativity and more importantly sticking to their purpose - passing on the information on target!
Well, if you are under the impression that these are animated characters then you are wrong. The characters are actually men n women in white costumes and masks. All the shots are taken at 20 bps coz of which these look very funny and childish. New ads on the same theme for different value adds of Vodafone are being aired at regular intervals.

I am adding few here which I have liked in order. Lemme know what feel abt these ads!

Status messages

As many will agree, Instant messengers are the mostly widely used tools/gadgets in this internet age. These tools bring people closer and a way for those who aren't good at face-to-face communication ;-)
Well, keeping the benefits and advantages aside now, I would like to mention about one thing in IMs which is not followed in the right manner -- yes, few might have guessed it -- Status message option. Before proceeding let me tell you, this is just my personal opinion and not any standard specification :)

Status message option in IMs should be used to mainly show your current state(Busy, Available, Do Not Disturb etc) or to pass on some relevant information about yourself(Blog links, details about self, current stay etc) or something which helps to get some attention or information from your friends in the list.
Few status messages from my friends list which I feel are appropriate and interesting ones are:
- "I want my hour back!" Quite understandable during Daylight saving adjustment
- Link to their employer's website featuring them in headlines with a nice snap. Well, who doesn't want to do this if in headlines :)
- Link to their webpage or blog. Yes, this gives way to know them better
- Link to some interesting articles or cartoons Ex. http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/2096/sarkozy.jpg
- "YooHoo.. I voted!! Awesome feeling!!" Quite timely as this being the election time in the country
- "Its a baby boy!!" Happy to know dear..
- Current music track. Talks about their taste and mood!

And now coming to what I hate to see in status messages is some famous, thoughtful quote; which will be borrowed from a website or from daily subscribed mails or from those thousands of floating mails. Whats more, the quote changes every single day like the change in date in your PC. Yes, I simply detest reading a quote though its quoted by some great philosopher or a great scientist. For that I can simply browse the net and get from the websites. And besides what really does the person wants to prove by having it mentioned there?!! This remains a mystery to me.

My status message reads about the track - Viva forever Spice-girls
Whats yours??

Time for a break!

I have decided to go on a Himalayan trek in search of peace, adventure and trill :)
Sar Pass trek is a 11 days expedition and one can find more details here and here. I have registered for the 16th May batch but will report on 17th at the base camp as I have to attend one of my close friend's marriage on 15th and besides day1 does not have any interesting activities planned. Considering the fact that I missed this trek last year when few of my friends planned for it, I have decided not to miss this year's opportunity at any cost :)
All the necessary flight and bus tickets have been booked today. The only thing remaining now is to get ready with the list of trek items and go for shopping. This I plan to do over the coming weekend.

So thats the story. The countdown has begun and I am really excited about the trek :)

Hidden image

On the way to the coffee-machine in my office, my eyes used to always fall on a particular photo frame kept in one of my co-worker's cubicle(oh NO!!, it isn't the kind of image which catches one's attention normally ;-)) . Well, this photo frame is much similar to the ones which my granny possess. May be this fact made me more curious to know what this photo embeds in it. You might be wondering now, what is so difficult in knowing what a photo or image is all about, all we need to do is to just look at it. But let me tell you, the photo/image which I am talking here is not an ordinary 2D image but is a 3D stereogram.
Today, finally I went to my co-worker and inquired about the image. She was more than happy to explain me about it. She provided me some tips to follow to actually view the hidden image in it. After around 2-3 mins of straining my eyes, I could finally figure out the image embedded in it. The 3D image had layers of images, background image, a heart in the next and finally word 'YOU' on it. It was a great feeling to decrypt it( or is it because of the type of hidden image ?! :) Now having known the trick, I can go to my granny and ask her photos to check the hidden god images.
I went to my friends with the frame in my hand and forced them to try their luck in identifying the hidden image in it. I gave them all the tips but all in vain as nobody could figure it out. I was disappointed as they would not enjoy the excitement what I went through and felt lofty at the same time as I alone could see the hidden image ;-)

Basically a stereogram is an optical illusion of depth created from flat, two-dimensional image or images. And the one which my co-worker and granny have is called a autostereogram. An autostereogram is an optical illusion of depth usually observed by allowing the eyes to focus behind an image (diverge), but also sometimes in front of the image (converge). These two methods are also known as wall-eyed and cross-eyed, respectively.

Wall-eyed:

Cross-eyed:

To enjoy this nice illusion, check out for few stereograms. But mind you, few people cannot see the hidden images - Why?.

Updated**

Tips:
Wall-eyed - Blur your eyesight
- Try to move yourself in the range of 6 - 12 inches from the image and try to figure out the different layers in it.

Cross-eyed - As the name says, its pretty straight forward.

In the wall-eyed image attached above, you should be able to see a knight on a horse(facing left side) with his left hand on his sword and a flag in right hand.

Pretty face!

To be honest, the topic which I am about to write is one such topic which really eases me in this current unstable scenario. Unstable mainly because of market slowdown and the layoff scare.
The topic is about a sweet girl(can there be any other better topic?!) in my office. Without any hesitation, I can say that this girl has been the topic of discussion - the most in my group.
I first 'noticed' this girl in our office cafeteria during lunch time about an year and half back and since then she has been the only one my eyes search for during lunch time in office. In the initial few days, I thought it's yet another new sweet face, but later it turned out to be something more:) After few days of my observation, I asked my close friends whether they knew anything about this girl. Unfortunately they didn't know, not even her name. Well, frankly speaking, I didn't try to know anything more about her because the only thing which I was really concerned was her sight during lunch times:) I nicknamed her "J2" because she looks a bit similar to a friend of mine whose name starts with 'J'. For the next many days, unintentionally, I used to start her topic with my silly observations like she wearing a new dress, sporting a new look, her gait etc etc.
Later in due course of time, I got opportunities to introduce myself to her, play a game of throw ball along with other friends. This used to be again the next day's discussion about how we played, how she cracks a joke and many more. I like everything about this cute girl.. be it her soft voice, her hair style, her dressing sense, the way she laughs.. My friends had a tough time changing the topic sometimes. Few agreed on whatever I used to say about her, few advised me to do something more, few asked me to get over her, but as I didn't have any intentions whatsoever, I just settled looking at her and making my eyes and heart sink in this rare sea of happiness.
As we both don't work for the same team, neither sit in the same floor, I hardly got any chance to know her well. Say it my stupidity or my obtuseness, I never tried to approach her and become close and know more. But sometimes Lady Luck smiled at me! Well, I was asked by one of my friend to join him in a competition. Luckily she was in our team as well. I was more than glad to know that fact. Eventually we won the competition with a great team effort and it was very pleasing to share that win with her in the team.
Even now my eyes yearn for her just one look in office. Shamelessly, I have to admit that she has caught me few times staring at her, but I just cover it up with a simple 'hi'. I assume there is no way out! I don't know how the things will be in future without her around.. but I will truly cherish these small things :)