Yuvraj beat Ricky Ponting

In a shocking incident post India-Australia semi-final match played at Ahmedabad on 25th of March 2011, an incident occurred which was captured by our camera man!! Yuvi (aka Yuvraj Singh) beat Ricky Ponting after India beat Australia in the Cricket World Cup 2011 semi final. Australia, previously, had scored 260 for the loss of 5 wickets in the allotted 50 overs. India effortlessly scored the required number of runs with 5 wickets in hand.

It is believed that Yuvi was very angry that he couldn't beat the same Australian team when the two teams had clashed previously in the 2003 cricket world cup tie.

Yuvi beat Ponting?

PS - I am not the photographer of the above photograph. I had got the above photo as part of an email and have put it here for the world to see!!

The story too was made up by me for fun... No such bad incidents occurred in real as mentioned here.. :)

Great imagination of world cup 2011

Here is a morphed picture of the current Indian world cup squad posing as the team from the legendary movie "Lagaan"...

This was another email forward I received today from a friend of mine. Please note that I am not the creator of this picture... So all the appreciation for the creativity behind the morphing should go to the "anonymous" person behind it.

The Indian cricket world cup squad in a morphed image of the Lagaan movie poster.

Visualizing Pi

From Wikipedia: π (sometimes written pi) is a mathematical constant whose value is the ratio of any Euclidean plane circle's circumference to its diameter; this is the same value as the ratio of a circle's area to the square of its radius. It is approximately equal to 3.14159265 in decimal notation. Many formulae from mathematics, science, and engineering involve π, which makes it one of the most important mathematical constants.

Source: Online Schooling

Super Moon - Bangalore - 19-03-2011

Today the 19th day of March in the year 2011, after returning home from shopping in the evening, I photographed the "Super Moon". The Moon is called "Super Moon" when it is closest to the earth.

The name "Super Moon" was coined by an astrologer Richard Nolle in the year 1979.

Here are couple of photographs from my archives.

1.

2

 Further information about Super Moon can be found here in Wikipedia.

Vaccines Save Lives

In this animation, Bill Gates discusses the lifesaving power of vaccines. Click here to learn more about vaccines.

Quiz: What is the age of the world's known youngest grandmother?

How old was your granny when you were born or at least as you remember seeing her first? 50? 55? 60? 65?

My grandmother was around 70 years when I was born. And when I say the word grandmother, I can remember about her as having wrinkled skin, drooping eyes, lots of experience in life, master story teller, queen of patience, my favourite friend, my beloved, my confidant.

Only recently did I realize that all grand-children may not expect all of the above from their grandmother(s)... for world has got its youngest grandmother who is aged... hold your breath before reading further... only 23 years!!! Rifca Stanescu, a Rumanian woman, is a mother of 2 and a grand mother of 1 at the age of 23 years. At this speed, she surely has every chance to become the youngest great-grandmother too. :)

But on a serious note... how good is it for young adolescents to give birth? A serious topic to ponder over... but let me not get into the details about the same over here in my blog. The world is free; and may people do what they feel is right.

Another thing I realized from this incident... Indians are not alone in terms of child marriage... there are lots of  people from other countries (developed or otherwise) too who are competing for the same.

Here is a "copy paste" of the information already available on the net in many other websites...

Rifca Stanescu - Source Times of India

AT 23, THIS RUMANIAN WOMAN IS THE WORLD’S YOUNGEST GRANDMOTHER

LONDON A 23-year-old woman from Romania has claimed to have become the “world’s youngest grandmother”, a media report said. Mum-of-two Rifca Stanescu was 12 when she had her first child Maria. She urged her daughter not to follow her example - but Maria gave birth to son Ion while only 11, the Sunreported. Rifca had married jewellery seller Ionel Stanescu when she was 11 and he was 13. They eloped because Rifca feared her father wanted her to marry another village lad in Investi in Romania. She was forgiven when she had her daughter - making her mum, also Maria, a great grandmother at 40. Son Nicolae was born a year later. The young mum later tried to persuade Maria to stay at school. But Maria left to wed when she was 10 and had her baby six months later, the report said. PTI

The article published at Straits Times has a few pictures of Rifca and her family.

Job Hunting - A big headache!!!

Somebody said...
"... don't love your company... love your work..."

And somebody else said...
".. it is not for money most of them change jobs... but it is because of the bad managers..."

Well... I have loved my company... and have loved my work... and it is for both money and because of my manager I am changing jobs...

The thought to go for job hunting didn't start all of a sudden... but it had grown over a few years now... and it became stronger after a recent incident... And now.. I am in the middle of it... i.e. serving notice period in my first company... and waiting for the D-Day on which I will be joining the new company.

I had been telling my friends that I'd be changing jobs very soon... but that "soon" had not come sooner!!! The main reason why I waited for long before ultimately deciding for a change is because I needed some time to prepare for the interview and a strong reason to go for it. But that, fortunately or unfortunately, never happened. I never prepared anything for any of the interviews and I couldn't find a strong reason to leave the current employer until recently. Ultimately I decided to move on and look for the new employer in the month of January 2011.

One particular night early January 2011...I couldn't sleep... I had this strange feeling... I felt that I can never change job and I will be struck with the current one forever... The fear was so strong... that it made be switch on the computer at that moment, create my resume upload it into a job portal... and only after I did this was I able to sleep... The strange feeling I had that night was actually triggered by another incident that had happened in my current company.

What happened after I uploaded my resume was as expected... I got "calls" from multiple companies (consultants) for various types of positions in the IT field... Within a span of around 2-3 weeks, I attended a lot of interviews... including interviews from companies like IBM, Patni, HP, Microsoft, NDS, ITC Infotech, JK Technosoft, Kyro, Dell, Volvo IT, Sonata. Except HP, I passed the technical rounds in all the companies. I liked the interviews with Kyro, NDS and Microsoft. Though HP questions were good, I somehow didn't feel good about the interview... and from the very first question, I somehow knew that I wouldn't be selected by HP!! Kyro has become a dream company for me now... After the tech lead from Kyro explained about the work they do... I was just overawed! And decided that it is a company to work with. But after the 2nd round of technical interview, I wasn't called for the 3rd round. I do not know why... and I did not ask them why! Currently I am looking for the outcome of the 2nd round of interview with Microsoft... If I pass the 2nd round, then I need to go to Hyderabad for the 3rd round of interview and probably the 4th one too.

If I was happy because of the amount of interview calls I was receiving and the number of interviews I was attending after a 5 years break, I was tired  at the same time because of the amount of travel that I was making by running around various companies for interviews. And after 2 weeks of continuous interviews I was dog-tired, and nauseated. But as the saying goes.. "All is well that ends well"... I did end up with a good offer from one of the companies... though I am currently looking forward for the outcome of the interview with Microsoft, I am not attending any more interviews.

The biggest challenge for me during the entire process of job hunting was to reject the offer from Patni... When the interview was scheduled, I wasn't informed either by the consultant nor by the Patni HR, that the position was for Dell.  I was only told that the client was Dell and the first interview will be conducted by the client. Only after attending 2 rounds of interview from Dell, did I realize that the opening is actually for Dell and Patni was doing what is called as "body shopping". And at the same time the news about iGate taking over Patni was announced. All these made me not to go for Patni... But saying "No" to Patni was the biggest challenge since the consultant was hell bent on making me, forcing me accept the job offer from Patni. I had to have a couple of professional fights too with the consultant and more than half-hour discussion with the Patni HR before making them understand that I was seriously not interested in moving to Patni. and to Dell. I  had/have nothing against Patni, Dell or iGate... But it was just that I didn't want to join Patni and work in a different company day-in and day-out.

We learn something or the other each and every day... and this entire process of job hunting did teach me a thing or two. The first thing I learned after the Patni incident was that the life of a consultant is not easy. They get perks, extra money only when a candidate gets a job offer. No job offer no proper salary for the consultant and he might even lose his job which is in a way ridiculous and in a way embarrassing. The second thing I learned was that do not ever accept too many interview calls in a short period of time. It will  not only exhaust you physically and mentally but may also become a reason for failing in interviews!!

Wishing myself a happy future in the next company. :)

Visa Card Advertisement - Bad example to promote the product

I am a strong believer in the power of advertisements... It is, according to me, the second best thing that helps in increasing the sales... the first best one being the exchange of words through mouth...

But at times the advertisements are totally illogical like the one on Visa Debit card.

The Ad concept: A person goes to an auto-rickshaw and asks the driver to take him to the nearest ATM (Cash point). But the driver says he doesn't take anybody to the ATM. So also all the drivers waiting for the customers in the auto-stand. The first auto driver (Vinay Patak) says that it is a waste of time to go to an ATM, instead one can go directly to shops, movies, malls and use the Visa debit card directly.

See this video.. and then read my comments below it.

Though the basic idea about the product (Visa debit card) is good, the usage of auto-rickshaw to denote the same was a bad idea. Why?

The reason is pretty simple... In India many a shop vendors still don't accept debit/credit cards and not even food coupons (like Sudexo, Ticket Restaurant, etc.). In fact even the city buses, auto-rickshaw drivers and many a taxi drivers don't accept cards for payment. The hard cash is the preferred means of payment. In this Ad, usage of auto-rickshaw was a bad idea since the customer wouldn't be possible to pay the driver through his visa card, though he could use the same to buy stuffs from bigger shops, malls, theatres, etc.

In short, according to me, the total impact of the advertisement on the prospective customers is infinitesimal. The Ad-makers should get creative enough and think of a better way to explain why one should go for plastic money.