In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

- William Ernest Henley

We all know humans have five important abilities (what we often refer to as five senses). Some people do often claim they have the additional sixth sense which is arguable – Let’s not get into that here. The five abilities that humans have known to have mastered so far:

• Ability to hear
• Ability to see
• Ability to feel
• Ability to taste
• Ability to smell

Thanks to our fore-fathers and their life changing inventions, we now live in a world in which it is possible to share some of these senses with others; even with someone who may be sitting right across the world. With the invention of telephones and radios, people were able to share what they hear to people far away from where they were. Imagine the delight a grand parent would have had the first time they could hear their dear grand children’s voices. Though at times it may not possible for them to physically be there to see those little ones blabber off to glory, the voices over a long distance telephone call would make a world of difference to them.

Then there was the ability to share what one saw. Inventions of cameras, televisions, webcams, etc. have transformed societies and living styles. I feel lucky to have been born in a generation in which I can capture what I see and share it so easily with anyone who needs to see it. “Pictures speak a thousand words” as they say. Imagine trying to explain in words about your recent trip you had to the most breathtaking place without the ability to share what you see!

I was just thinking how different my world would have been without the abilities of sharing just these two senses with the people I care. Then I was contemplating what was next? What about the next sense of feel/touch? Would it be useful for a doctor/surgeon operating remotely to have the ability to feel the texture or harness/softness of the tumor he is operating on remotely? Would it make a difference to a solider who is thousands of miles away in a battle field to have the ability to touch and feel his new-born baby? The world of communication would be lot different if this was possible; won’t it?

I was thinking on how could it be possible to share such a thing digitally right across the world. Since I use Photoshop many times, the coloring schemes came to my mind. Using the color picker tool I can point to anywhere in a picture and know what exact color it is in. This would give me digitized values of that particular color in various color schemes. RGB for instance is one of the most commonly used color schemes. Providing values to indicate how much of Red, Green and Blue is used, computers now have the ability to show many millions of colors. So if I have to tell a friend of mine that I am seeing a Red rose, I now have the ability to indicate to him/her how red the rose is. In other words we are now able to quantify sight in a way.

If we apply the same kind of scheme/logic to the sense of touch, there may be many more vectors/variables. Some of them I can think of right now:

• Hotness/coldness
• Roughness/smoothness
• Hardness/Softness

What about digitized values for these parameters? With the combination of these values it would be a good starting point to at least share/simulate what it feels like to touch something. Am sure there would be lots of inventions and technologies in industrial and military field by now which would do similar things but it’s still not available for commercial/personal use. Getting to this point is one step closer to the ultimate step. Once humans have fully understood and mastered the working of human brain; may be we can take this to the next level. The information about what we touch and feel through our skin reaches our brains through electrical signals via nerves in our body. If someday, we fully understand what these exact signals are and how this information is sent across to the brain, we can use the digital values in the form of something like the touch scheme I described have above and translate the digitized information into brain signals to make the recipient feel something he is not actually touching.

Wishful thinking you say?

It would not matter what you owned or owed
Your grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear
So too your hopes, ambitions and plans will expire
The wins and losses that once seemed important will fade away
It won’t matter where you came from and on what side of the tracks you lived at the end
It won’t matter if you were beautiful or brilliant
Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant

So what will matter?
How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built
Not what you got but what you gave
What will matter is not your success but your significance
What will matter is not what you learned but what you taught
What will matter is ever active integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example
What will matter is not your competence but your character
What will matter is not how many people you knew but how many will feel a lasting loss when you are gone
What will matter is not your memories but the memories that lived in those who loved you

A life lived that matters, is not of circumstance but of choice

Contribute and help make the world a better place in any small way you can

Hope I can post more regularly now

After a lot of confusions on the scheduling of this event, it was finally decided that the Portal and Content Management Practice team from Bangalore would head to Club Cabana on 21^st December. Club Cabana is a club / resort a little off Devanahalli main road on NH 7.

This outing was organized for the team for two basic reasons: One, this would be a nice stress buster outing which would help us all rejuvenate. Two, this would be a nice platform to personally interact with all the team members and get to know everyone in the team. Which ever way everyone saw this outing to be, it turned out to be one nice outing that would be remembered for a long time.

The start to the outing was not particularly good though. I got to the office only to find out only few members of the team would be able to make it to the outing. This made me think if there is going to be a fun side to this outing or would it end up to be an outing that we are just there as a mere formality. Soon this doubt was put to rest when I got to know that a sizable number of people from our Chennai team would be there to join us on this outing. Soon the slim numbers swelled up to be a sizable 15 or so. We finally hit the road on the bus arranged for us. Since the destination was around 30-35 kms away, we expected to reach in around 60-90 minutes.

After a brief round of introductions, we started off with the usual Antaskhari. Going by the fact that the team was from all parts of India, the Antaskhari turned out to be a multi-lingual one which was fun indeed. The fun had started off. On the way Vinod sang for a beautiful and melodious Malayalam song. We surely have a good singer with a great voice in our team now. 3 more team members joined us on the way and got on the bus from the Manyatha TechPark branch.

We got to our destination and were happy to see the weather stay so good so far. After long rainy sessions from the past two days, we had our worries about the weather. The weather gods were with us and luckily it stayed good all day long.

After a brief breakfast session, we headed out to explore what was available in the club. And being Indians with Cricket in our blood, most of us thought Cricket would be a nice game to start off with. Soon there were two teams and the match was underway. We were 7 overs through in the first innings and the match had to be abruptly stopped since there were team games arranged else where for us. But if at all the match had continued the outcome of the match was very obvious. The team which was bowling first was in a comfortable position to win the match soon. I am sure the team members of the other team will have comments on this. Please do drop in any comments in the comments section of this blog.

Sashi and Parag had arranged for us three team games and it turned out to be real fun, especially the Mystery Dodge Ball. One team (team that I was on) clearly out played the other in two of the three games. After these fun filled games, the whole team dispersed to use the facilities available at the club.

Everyone was busy with Billiards, TT, Carrom, Tennis, Badminton, etc. And before we all realized we had reached lunch time and it was time to grab some food for our grumbling tummies.

Post lunch was when the actual fun started. A bunch of people headed to the Bowing arena and a few hit the water. Since I dint want to get into the water right after a heavy lunch, I joined in with the Bowling group. The first round of play was the usual one and we all scored well. The second round is where we started some weird Bowling tricks. Spins that never worked as it had to, twin attack on the same lane all at once which strangely dint hit even one pin both the times, the reverse Bowling, name it and we did all that. One of us even let our legs do the Bowling on one of the frame! We followed this session with few exciting rounds of FoozeBall and Snooker.

The other group which had hit the water right after lunch must have had an awesome time too. I welcome anyone in that group to put in your say in the comment section of this blog. Some of us from the Bowling group joined them in the waters for a while. The wave pool, the water slides, the wave pool were all too much fun.

Soon it was time for all of us to get out of the water and get ready to head home. All in all, this experience was a real good one which we would all remember for quite a while.

The whole set of snaps uploaded at: http://picasaweb.google.com/nitingr/ClubCabana

Things we missed out this time:

1. A good Digi-cam to click good quality pictures. We had to go with a few mobile phones to fill in the gap here.
2. A final group photo before we headed home.

After the Japanese Grand Prix on 30^th September, 2007, the rookie Lewis Hamilton was the firm favorite to romp home with this season’s Driver’s Championship. Lewis with a clear lead of 12 points from his team mate Fernando Alonso looked all set to become the first ever rookie driver to clinch the Driver’s Championship. But lady luck seemed to have deserted him for the last two races. He retired in the Chinese Grand Prix and this set up a 3 way battle for the Brazilian Grand Prix – the final race of the season. It would be either Lewis Hamilton or Fernando Alonso or Kimi Räikkönen who would walk home with the Driver’s Championship.

Lewis had a 3 points lead on his team mate Alonso and a 7 points lead over Kimi. So on 19^th October, 2007 at the start of the practice sessions for the Brazilian Grand Prix, Kimi (Also known as Ice Man for his cool head / Flying Finn) had a very outside chance of making it through to the top. Some thing dramatic had to happen to Lewis’ car and he had to finish first. Guess what? It just happened.

What a finale to the season it was today (Sunday)! What a race! According to me this was one of the best races of the 2007 season. It was a total action packed race right from the start to the finish. I really dint know whom to support for this race. There is this rookie Lewis who has exceeded all expectations to the point where he is in the best position. Then there is our defending champion Alonso just 3 points away. Then there is Kimi who has done a dramatic turn around to get to the position he has.

At the start of the race day, Felipe Massa sitting pretty at the pole position for this race meant a lot to Ferrari. What a team-man Massa has proved to be this season. I don’t really know weather the way both Ferrari drivers started off the Start-Finish line was planned but what we could witness was the perfect example of how team-work should be. As soon as the 5 red lights went off, Massa banked right to block Lewis (in the 2^nd place) and this opened up a window for Kimi (in the 3^rd place) to get himself in front of Lewis. Alonso (in the 4^th place) also cashed in on this move and jumped up one place. But from 2^nd to the 4^th in a few seconds was nothing but a disastrous start that Lewis wouldn’t have wanted.

But all was not lost until Lewis’ car gave in with an electronics failure after a few laps. Gear shifts on his car were not coming through and he slumped back to the 18^th place! This ruined all his chances to win a seasons championship which he has actually dominated from the start.

Massa led most of the first part of the race. But a clever pit strategy put Kimi in the lead for the rest of the race. Once Kimi got the lead all he could do is do his best to keep his position and hope things would pan out on his back to his favor. And that’s exactly what happened! Lewis managed to get to the 7^th position at the end of the race. But this was just now enough.

There were so many shuffling of positions in the race that everyone was going mad to keep up with what each change in position would mean to the Drivers Championship. At a point of time I had to take a paper and pen to actually jot down the point scoring positions and think about all permutations that could possibly come up for each change of track position.

At the end of the day, I could say one thing for sure – Formula 1 fans were treated with one heck of a race. McLaren would be ruing at the result of the Drivers Championship. Both their drivers who were in a position to take the Championship failed to do so. I would blame it on Alonso for the position they have ended up today – It was just a case of being a bad loser. No one at the start of the season had expected the rookie – Lewis to do this well. By mid season the relationship with Alonso and McLaren started falling all apart. There was just no team work. Both drivers were fighting with each other even at places where there needed to be some understanding between them. This was clearly demonstrated at the start of the race today. Even the post race interviews with the winning drivers proved this point again. More than 70% of what both Ferrari drivers talked was about how the whole team worked together and they were so thankful for each and everyone in the team. Alonso never mentioned this or even if he slightly did do that on one occasion, he never seemed thankful for anyone (For reasons everyone know now).

All in all it was a terrible season for McLaren. Though they were clearly the best team on the circuit, results and circumstances were totally against them.

According to me the highlights of the season were:

1. Exciting rule changes for the season which brought in lots of life into the sport
2. Emergence of great drivers like Lewis who have a long way to go here. They have all made a mark for themselves already
3. Close finish to the season’s Driver Championship. It was the first time in over 20 years that 3 drivers so closely fought it out in the last race
4. The McLaren – Ferrari espionage controversy

With such a dramatic and exciting season coming to an end and with so many controversies still hanging loose all around, it just paves a way for the next season. Formula-1 fans all around the world would be eagerly waiting for March 2008 for the start of the 2008 season. Lets all hope the 2008 season will be as exciting as this one.

As your computer starts up you think about the advertisement you had set up to sell your creation.

The new outdoor lounger – set comes complete with table & umbrella as well as 2 loungers. Great for any pool area or deck. Modifiable so you can color anyway you like.

Was it good enough to make a sell, you wonder!

Finally you login to you Second Life and are really elated to see that someone has purchased your Outdoor Lounger. You have made L$300. That’s now enough Linden Dollars to buy that virtual private island you were eying since quite some time now. You make final checks on the virtual property and virtually interact with the property holder and crack a deal. The Linden Dollars exchange hands and now you are the proud owner of the private island on the web.

Seems like fiction? Well, this is the modern World Wide Web (www) for you. This is actual reality and it is happening and working as you read this. There are millions of registered residents on Second Life and presently many of them are creating new gizmos to sell in the virtual world, many are interacting with exciting people, making friends, some are attending Harvard Law classes, some are virtually experiencing the new car on the block, the list is endless.

On the market, Linden Dollar vs US Dollar stands at 271.3 L$/USD as of 26^th June, 2007 9:16pm PDT. US Dollars spent in Second Life over last 24 hours $1,680,771 as of 26^th June, 2007 7:29pm PDT.

Hard to digest?
Well then digest these:

• Toyota is the first carmaker to enter Second Life. It has been giving away free virtual vehicles of its Scion brand. Read more>>>
• Microsoft Uses Second Life to Promote Visual Studio. Read more>>>

When you hear names like Toyota and Microsoft, you know it all ought to be serious.

All this time, I have been talking about Second Life, an Internet-based virtual world. A creation of Linden Research, Inc. Follow this link get a second life>>>

There is a changing trend in the world we live in and we are unknowingly getting used to this change. More and more of our activities are shifting towards the internet. Nowadays the powerful desktops or laptops we were using to crunch our complex tasks has now virtually become a medium to plug into the Internet and all our work is being done with online applications.

Be it the latest MashUp site, your web desktop, your online spreadsheets, your blog; be it anything on Web 2.0, it has all become a part of our daily life now. Now, unknowingly we are getting used to the new trend on the raise – The Web 3.0.

Artificial intelligence, Distributed computing, Semantic Web, Scalable vector graphics, Second Life are all part of Web 3.0. More and more stress has been put on transforming the web into a 3D space. As we brace ourselves for the new 3D experience of the Internet, I often wonder – Are we ready for it? Is India ready for this change? Is India up to pace with the technology?

Web 1.0 was dial-up, 50K average bandwidth, Web 2.0 is an average 1 megabit of bandwidth and Web 3.0 will be 10 megabits of bandwidth all the time

- Reed Hastings, founder and CEO of Netflix, at the Technet Summit, Nov 2006.

If you are a techy guy, you would have understood by now that the most basic infrastructure required for accessing something this heavy is your Internet Bandwidth. I was reading an article recently in the Times of India which had reported a study on how India fares when it comes to Broadband penetration. According to the report, at present the broadband penetration is at an alarmingly low level, at around 4%. This speaks a lot about the hardware infrastructure presently available in the country.

Every common man who wants to get a Broadband connection now in India now knows how hard a task it is. I wanted a broadband connection to my house and had to scout around and went to various providers available. All had the same response. There were not enough ports available and there was already a big queue in place. I finally decided to go with BSNL and applied for it. After a 6 month long wait, I finally got the broadband connection I was looking out for.

So this makes me wonder. Are we sitting on a good enough hardware infrastructure to experience the full power of what the modern day web has to offer? I wonder if there is anything being done to improve it. Are providers in India already thinking about the potential of the broadband market? Is there enough help from the government on this front?

_________________________________________________________

PRATIBHA WHO?

- The criterion for president is not just loyalty, but future loyalty

Writing On The Wall – Ashok. V. Desai

I did not read the headlines carefully enough. What registered in my mind was that some Patil was chosen as presidential candidate by the Congress and supported by the Bahujan Samaj Party, and that their combined numbers would ensure her election. I could not place the name immediately. Then I remembered that Parvati Patil was a fellow student of Harry Potter. That made her famous enough; and now she must be close to adulthood, so it should be all right. But she had a sister, Padma, who would be equally eligible; which of the two had the Congress chosen?

I looked again, and found it was Pratibha Patil. Good, I thought. We Indians boast of being a democracy. We tell everyone that even a tiffin carrier could become president of India; it is great if we have chosen a really unknown Indian.

But why this preference for obscurity, when we have so many illustrious Indians? There is Amitabh Bachchan, the consummate actor who has the right word for every occasion. There is his daughter-in-law, Aishwarya Rai — sorry, Bachchan — whose eyes would bewitch the whole world. If you are on the other side, there is Shah Rukh Khan, who would display to the nation his patented technology of breaking hearts. And if you want a more international figure, there is Shilpa Shetty, whom the British think of as delectable Miss India.

There is Amartya Sen, the Nobel laureate who can write three speeches in one flight and make each sound different. There is Ram Guha, who can make history as interesting as fiction; his president’s XI that would beat all the world’s cricket teams. If you are on the other side, there is Arundhati Roy, the bad-tempered beauty who has put her literary talent at the service of the goddess of environment. And if you prefer an achiever to a wordsmith, there is Ela Bhatt, who brought a livelihood to poor housebound women.

There is Ratan Tata, the industrialist that the largest number of Indians admire. If you admire size, you can choose Lakshmi Mittal, who controls the world’s largest steel production capacity. Then there is Azim Premji, who turned a vegetable oil factory into India’s biggest software factory. Or there is Sunil Mittal, who defeated every obstructive or greedy telecommunications minister and created a business in ten years as big as what took the Ambanis forty years to develop. And if you like showmanship, none could be better than Vijay Mallya. President’s parties would be adorned by fountains of Scotch; and Abdul Kalam’s herb garden would be replaced by a race course.

There is Vishwanathan Anand, who two months ago became the world’s champion chess player. He would probably not accept presidency while he is at the peak of his career; nor Sania, who is still going up the ladder. Sachin Tendulkar just might, if he accepts the emerging opinion that he is past his peak. I would prefer Mahendra Singh Dhoni, provided he grows his hair long again. But both may decline, since there is more glory in playing cricket before 30 million viewers than in giving the Independence Day speech to 300 schoolchildren and 500 policemen. So maybe we should go down to Kapil Dev, the best living Indian cricketer. Then there are artists: Husain the grand painter, Susmit Sen, leader of Indian Ocean band, and Salman Rushdie, the writer with the beautiful wife.

If the president were elected by direct vote of the Indian people, I bet that any of the 21 people I have named would get more votes than Pratibha Patil. How did the Congress decision-makers reject all of them and settle on her?

The answer could be that much as the prime minister keeps exhorting Indians to achieve excellence, excellence was the last thing they were looking for. Let alone excellence, they did not even want outstanding achievement. Politicians do everything to defeat merit; reservations are standing testimony to their distaste for it.

But more likely, it is a matter of caste. The candidate had to be a politician. It was reported last year, when Sourav Ganguly was ejected from the cricket team, that Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had offered him a seat in the upper house of parliament. But that was to be a reward, not for being a good cricketer, but for being a victimized Bengali. And it was intended to make a politician out of Sourav. But even in the depths of his misfortune, he refused to convert to politics. In any case, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) would never put up Sourav for presidency; he has achieved too much to qualify.

But lack of achievement cannot be a qualification. Almost every politician would qualify if it were, and it would be impossible to choose a candidate. Even the Congress insists on some qualifications in presidential candidates. The foremost qualification is loyalty. So many people have left the Congress over the years; the Bharatiya Janata Party would be a shadow of itself if all ex-Congressmen left it. And if you are a Congressman, you do not have to leave the party to be disloyal. Since the present Congress is Congress (Indira), any flirtation with Congress (Organization) forty years ago would have disqualified Pratibha Patil. Congress (O) was at least a separate party; even if she had flirted with Narasimha Rao her future would have been blighted. The loyalty required is not loyalty to the party, but to the dynasty of the party.

But even the number of dynasty loyalists is too large; a further criterion of choice was needed. It goes beyond past loyalty; it amounts to future loyalty. After he is made president, the candidate must not develop a conscience and disobey the party’s orders. This is difficult to ensure, for the president can no longer be disciplined for disloyalty to the party. He could be impeached. But disloyalty would not be sufficient grounds for that; something more serious like moral turpitude would be necessary. How can one guarantee that a president would do one’s bidding?

The Congress does so by choosing a candidate who has never taken a decision on his own, even when given a chance to do so. Pratibha Patil was not just a Congress loyalist; she was a Chavan loyalist. That meant that as long as he was alive, she took his advice and did his bidding, even when she was a minister. And when he died, she transferred her obedience to the next dynasty loyalist in Maharashtra. Unshakeable resolution never to act independently was the final qualification that made her the chosen candidate.

So I am afraid Pratibha Patil will be a rather colourless president; forty years’ habit is difficult to break. This is no cause for disappointment, for most previous presidents were no different. Varahagiri Venkata Giri, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy, Giani Zail Singh and Shankar Dayal Sharma had the same qualifications as Pratibha Patil. Their tenures were so forgettable that Pratibha Patil cannot do worse. She has a wonderful job; expectations are so low that she can only surprise us. She may have been waiting patiently for forty years to get this chance of surprising the whole nation. Let us wait for the surprise, but do not hold your breath.

As written by Ashok. V. Desai (The Telegraph article)

Official Movie Website>>

Cast: Sarika (Sheetal), Rajat Kapoor (Ranjeet Thandani, Vinay Pathak (Bharat Bhusahn), Ranvir Shorey (Asif, the income tax-officer), Milind Soman (Anant Ghoshal) and Bhairavi Goswami (Suman Rao) Director: Sagar Bellary

Bheja Fry is an awesome movie. I just loved watching it. It’s a movie for everyone. I am very sure everyone who watches this movie will laugh his heart out.

It’s the story of a group of smug urbanites who invite an idiot for dinner every week, laughing up the evening at his expense. Of course, the idiot turns the tables.

Bheja Fry is actually a remake of a French movie Le Diner De Cons (The Dinner Game).

Here is the synopsis of the movie:

Ranjeet Thadani (Rajat Kapoor), a bored, arrogant music company executive hurts his back the night he has found a prize catch for a weekly bring- your-idiot talent dinner hosted by his friends and him. He ends up spending the evening with this idiot, Bharat Bhushan (Vinay Pathak) who tries to help him get his wife (Sarika) back who left him earlier that day. The result is utter chaos let loose by the idiot, who cannot do a single thing without messing it up further.

The plot turns around to be a series of mini disasters that leave Ranjeet’s comfortable life in ruins.

The main protagonist of the movie is Vinay Pathak who plays the role of Bharat Bhushan, a roly-poly officer with the Income Tax department. His innocence and his obsession for singing gets him trapped in Ranjeet Thadani’s house. He shares his pain through Hindi songs and a scrap book which contains memoirs of his childhood. He relentlessly tries to be of some help to Ranjeet Thadani, only to make matters worse on every front. A likeable, warm little fellow, he is undeniably a big time goof up.

I won’t revile reveal much of the movie and spoil your fun. But I do suggest that you make it a point to watch this wonderful movie. This is what a comedy movie should be like- no heavy dialogs, no vulgar slang, no provocative scenes. Just plain ol’ situational comedy. Just perfect to tickle your funny bone a little.

BTW, a point worth mentioning- That the movie is not a long boring one. It’s just around 1 hour 45 minutes long.

Other reviews:

Indian Express Review

Times of India Review

Rediff Review

• Two bombings in the Alergian captial of Algiers, kills 33 people and wounds a further 222 others. [1] 2007 Algiers bombings.
• Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announces that Iran has successfully enriched uranium.
• Don Imus‘ television show on MSNBC gets cancelled due to racial slur.

Oopsi! Lets not go there again

The reason I did that was because I turned 25 years old on 11^th April, 2007.

It was a very memorable day all through. At the stroke of midnight I started getting calls from a lot of friends to wish me on my birthday. As this was happening, I realized that my cute little sister was standing at the doorstep with a cake and a candle on it You can imagine the smile on my face to see something like that. That was really sweet of her.

It gets better as it goes! I cut the cake and my sister gives me the gifts she had bought. A cute bouquet of exotic flowers which just broadened the smile that was already on my face She follows it up with another set of gifts, couple of movies I was searching for from a long time. She had found the DVDs of Million Dollar Baby and Dil Chahta Hai!

Found a vase for those lovely flowers:

Thank you so much Pujha. Love ya a lot

I wake up in the morning and I am having my breakfast when I get my second big surprise. My close friends Balaji, Swaroop and Srinivas arrived with a cake for me

Thank you guys. You really made my day!

The rest of the day at work was really amazing too. On an average, I got a phone call / a SMS / a mail at least once every 15 minutes! At the end of the day my sent messages folder on my outlook and my phone were filled up with Thank You messages. My Orkut scrapbook was not different either. Almost 40-50 people remembered to wish me there as well

It was really amazing and touching to see so many people taking time out to wish me on my birthday. Thank you so much everyone. That really meant a lot to me!

I really thought I was through with all surprises for the day. Well I was totally wrong. Guess what? I had another party on the bus way back home! Route 203 is what I ply on – my company bus. I feel really lucky to have chosen this route. Reason- The bus is full of really sweet, enthusiastic and energetic people. We all make it a point to have a gala time till we reach home everyday (A fun way to keep away the Bangalore Traffic blues).

Everyone on the bus had teamed up to get me a cake Yes! My third in the day Am I lucky or what.

The cake on the bus…

Thank you everyone on 203. Thank you so much

I finally reached home and ended the absolutely wonderful day with a warm dinner with my parents and sister. Did have some yummy food at dinner!

And who says birthdays are just another day with nothing special happening… In fact I just discovered that a person celebrates something called Unbithday on any of the 364 or 365 days in which it is not the person’s birthday. So what are you waiting for? Keep wishing me all year through.

Happy Unbirthday to you too…