Diary 63: Relatives Day

Yesterday I slept at around 3:00 am. I was just obsessed with YouTube the whole time. Dave Days was getting into my head. Anyways, Today I woke up at around 10:00 am, and then called up Abhishek to finalize our meeting plan. He asked me to postpone it to tomorrow as he will not be able to make it within 5 pm, and add to that I had relatives coming over for just one night, so I didn't want to be rude. My mother's choto mama, mami, and their younger son were coming. So, it was good news for me. I got to stay at home again, and for one more day. I had no mood for JAVA today. I tried many times, but I couldn't. Instead, I was enjoying YouTube videos. I was totally addicted to it. It was like a drug, without which I cannot survive. It did nothing good except for giving me an inspiration to compose songs and sing again with the same vigor as I did earlier. The next part of the day, I focused on recording. I recorded this. This was originally composed long ago, but I never recorded it this way. Anyways, after this I practiced vocals and english pronunciation for some time. I took the help of YouTube for the same. I was using YouTube like food. After sometime, I just moved away from my laptop and took a bath before the relatives come in. I was practicing this whole time, even in shower. I liked it. After a long time, I was singing with that same will and energy. Anyways, my relatives came in. I realized that they were in a hurry. As soon as my mom's choto mama entered, without saying any hello or hi, he handed me the train tickets and ordered me to find out the timings of the trains and also book two more train tickets. I never handled so many train tickets before (7). Well, I did all that except for the booking part. After that we moved for dinner. At the dinner table, mom's choto mama started telling us that the moon landing was a hoax, and I started grinning. Then, I explained him the hoax in much more detail. I even gave him the shock about the 9/11 controversy. Initially he was not accepting it, but then I convinced him by giving him some very good examples. He was shocked. Then, we started watching the India WI test match. It was Day 3, WI were all out for 190, and thus India had a lead of 11 runs only. India started off fine (20/0), but the rain interrupted the match. After that, we decided to call it a day. Everyone went on to sleep, and I started watching YouTube videos again. Then, I started writing this post. Now, I plan to see a few more videos and then sleep by 2:00 am. 

Diary 62: And Just Another Day Again

Yesterday I slept at around 4:30 am. I recorded a new version of the Kisine and named it Kisine Upgrade. I also uploaded it in muziboo and here is the link. Anyways, I watched a lot of Youtube videos, and meanwhile completed the Day 10 of the JAVA book. Today I woke up at around 10:30 am. As usual, I brushed my teeth and went online to check the mails and all. I was depressed because the FeastHunt was going nowhere, and it seemed that I am the only one interested. Akshay and Dallas were too busy to do anything. So, in my mind, I decided that whatever money it takes, I will give the job to the webprint guy. Anyways, I started with JAVA's Day 11 chapter. I was pacing through the chapter till I reached a part where things got tough, so I left it for the time being as I was already too full of JAVA. Since I was dealing  with the same type of things, so I was a bit bored too. After that, I realized that it is June 29th. Two years ago, this day marked the beginning of my job life. Everyone of that batch was updating his/her status message. I dedicated the song "Kisine Upgrade" to them. Few of them heard it and liked it. Rest didn't care to listen. Anyways, the next part of the day was dedicated to write posts on Informatica B2B Data transformation. It took a lot of time, as I had to take snapshots, upload them etc. But, I was happy after that. Meanwhile, I got a call from Abhishek agarwala, and we decided to meet up in Andheri tomorrow. Then, I decided to look back into the "Induction Day Song" that I and Janani made, and Ojas wrote. I decided to re-record it again, but soon realized that it doesn't suit my voice. Anyways, I tried convincing my sister to sing it, but she denied. I was also helping her in doing her project work and home work. She is not that good in maths. In fact, not good at all. Her basics are very shaky. During the evening time, we ordered McDonald's. I used one of the coupons for that. We ate that as our dinner. After that, I started watching the India WI test match. India were all out for 201, and WI were chasing with 82/5. Then, I again started helping my sister with the maths problems. I moved back to my room, and browsed through random things. Then, I started writing this post. Next I plan to practice some music, and then sleep by 1:30 am. 

Informatica B2B Data Transformation: Basic concepts (working with Parser)

Below, is a diagram which shows how a basic Parser looks like, and also the Marker and Content Anchors. It also shows what are the various ways of looking in a file and searching for a pattern in the file.

In order to open a new blank project in DT, go to File -> New -> Project -> Data Transformation Project -> Blank project. Give the project a name, and then you are ready to go. Initially you will have nothing but a blank code file (.tgp file) under the Scripts section on the left hand side (Data transformation Explorer). If you are not able to see the Data transformation Explorer, go to Window -> Show View -> Data Transformation Explorer.

Before you begin anything, just prepare a basic XSD file (preferably using XML Spy) which contains a Root element and a Data element as the child element of that Root.

Initial Stage (Only a blank code file)

Open the image files in a new tab to view it in a better way. 

A simple XSD file

It is better to use a software such as XML Spy to make a Schema definition file. But, if you are well versed with XML and XSD, you can directly code it here.

The basic components of a Parser

It is an empty Parser. If we look at the image, we will see the various properties of a Parser. We will go deep into each one of them, in the coming posts. Example source is a required element. It is the input to the parser.

I used a simple Text as an input

Other input options are also available, but for simplicity I used a Text input. After doing this Press Ctrl-F10, and you will see the input on the right hand side  as shown in the next image.

Marker in Action

You can see that once I introduce a Marker, which searches for "apple" in the body of the code, the "apple" word in the input file gets marked. You can use the property expander/minimizer to view the other properties of a marker (Phase, Marking etc).

Note: You can enter a Marker by either selecting the word from the right hand side and selecting "insert Marker" from the right click, or you can just start typing in Marker, and press Enter in the code area.

Content Anchor

Next, if we add a content anchor, by just typing in Content in the code area below the marker, we will see that the text "very much" gets selected in a different color. This denotes the part to be captured and put into the XSD element. For now, the data holder of the Content is blank, but we will add it eventually, otherwise the project will be invalid. Also, note the disable and optional features, which helps you to discard parts of code while executing the code.

Marker Content Maker

In this, we can see how the Markers act as a border for the content. We define one more Marker, which searches for "much", just below the Content anchor and hence we see that the scope of the Content anchor is then limited to the word "very" (along with spaces). Next, we will place this word into a data element in the target XSD.

XSD element in data holder

When we click on the data holder of the Content Anchor, we will find that a new pop up box opens up. This shows the variables schema that are available in the project. It also shows the local variables which contains the system variables as well any custom variables that you might have made. For now, my XSD is placed in no target namespace. So I selected the Data element from there.


Once you done with the above steps, save the code and press Ctrl-F10 to ensure that the markings on the input file are right. Also, if you want to experiment with properties of Marking etc, you can do that. You will understand the concept better by experimenting with the options available. Anyways, now to run the project, you can go to Run in the menu bar or press F5 or Ctrl-F5. Once you do that, you will see the Events tab filled with the execution steps below the code window, and also an output file under the Results section on the left hand side. Open the output file to view the desired XML file.

The final output file

You can browse through the execution in the events tab, and understand how the back end engine works. You will also observe that the Markers are executed first as they are in the initial phase followed by the Content which is in the main phase. Also, you will see that the Data element contains the word "very", hence verifying that the code works fine.


This post showed the working of a Parser. The example here is very basic, but is the foundation of more complex things that can be handled in a parser in DT. Please note the important concepts in here: Marking property, Phase property, Data holder, Opening and Closing Marker.
If you happen to pass by, and have any doubts, then please drop a comment to this post, and I will get back to you.

Informatica B2B Data Transformation: Basic concepts

Well, I am returning to this topic after a long time. Looking at the stats of this blog, I realized that many people are visiting mainly because of the informatica B2B post here. So, I have decided to continue with it.

In this post, I plan to cover the next level basic components in a Data transformation(DT) project (the file has a format of .cmw). In a bird's eye view, the DT project can comprise of three components: Parser, Mapper, Serializer. 

A Parser is a component which converts raw unstructured (non-relational) data into structured XML data. For ex: It can take an excel file as an input, and put the required excel cell data into the target XML.

A Mapper is a component which helps in mapping the data from one XML structure to another XML structure. This is generally used after the raw unstructured data has been brought into a staging XML structure. Once, the data is in XML, if we need to refine the structure more, we can use a mapper.

A Serializer is a component which prints the XML data into a file of any other format (.txt , don't know about other formats as I have not tried them yet). It does the opposite of a Parser, and can be used anywhere in the project. Sometimes to generate text files to check statuses of few variables or a final text file which contains some information (Ex: Invoice ).

Now, to implement all of the above three components, we need few internal and global components. In any programming language, we use variables, data types, data structures, built in functions to build bigger and customized objects. In the same way, here we make use of "Anchors". As the name suggests, an Anchor is an object which helps keep track of the objects we are dealing with- in this case our input files and XML schema. There are many types of Anchors but the two most basic and most important ones are - Marker and Content. 

A Marker is an anchor which searches for patterns within the input file, and moves the cursor to that position. Say, we are looking for the word "apple" in the input file. Then, if we build a marker which searches for "apple", it will go and find the first "apple" that appears in the file, and place the cursor just after the letter 'e' i.e. after the word apple. This is the default operation of a Marker, but we can customize it to place the cursor in the beginning also. This can be done with the help of Marking property. It can have four values: None (no marking, the cursor remains at the beginning of the file), Begin (begin position), End(end position) and Full(which marks the whole word and places the cursor at the end). 

A Content is an anchor which is used to capture the relevant data between various Marker Anchors. You can imagine the Marker Anchors as borders, and Content Anchors as anything within those borders. The Content Anchor captures the relevant data in the input file and puts it into a target XML structure. This anchor also has the Marking property with the same options as above. This enables you to pick up the same thing again, and put it into different target data elements, as the cursor position remains unchanged. Also, there are Opening and Closing Markers within a content anchor, and they can act as the borders also instead of a separate Marker anchor. But, we need to be careful when we use it, since we should use either the Content's properties or the Marker defined separately. We cannot use the two things together, since the cursor moves with each marker. 

The last thing that I am going to touch base today is the Phase property. It is one of the important concepts in DT. Phase defines the order of execution. There can be three types of phases : Initial, Main, Final. Anchors can have any of these three phases. All the anchors in a particular phase are executed in one go but in the order of their appearance in the code i.e. from top to bottom. As expected, the objects in the initial phase are detected first and then executed in the order of appearance. Similarly,  the main and the final phase are detected next. By default, all Marker Anchors are in initial phase, and all Content Anchors are in main phase. So, the back end engine, first recognizes the Markers and after it has the borders, it searches for the Content in between those borders, only if we want to search for them.

The next post will contain diagrams and will also contain guidelines to start working with Informatica B2B. Happy Learning !

Diary 61: Just another day

Yesterday I slept at around 2:30 am. Today I woke up at around 10:00 am. I brushed my teeth, and went online to check my mails and all. In the job front, someone new joined yesterday. His name is Rohit ranjan. He is one of the friends of Mukund and Sarvesh, and have been together since college time. Anyways, after browsing through random sites and all, I started with JAVA again. It went on till the middle part of the day, before I started watching random YouTube videos. Mainly, I watched parodies of songs. I really liked the ones made by Dave Days. I realized that he is just 19 years old and is a public figure already through YouTube videos. Anyways, after wasting so much time on those, I went back to JAVA. Meanwhile, I got a call from Abhishek Agarwala. He told me that he is in Mumbai, and also that he has resigned from his job. He is going to start something of his own. He is planning to sell ERP products to schools. The idea is good, but he needs to perform a market survey first because there is a possibility that the schools are already using something. Anyways, it was nice talking to him after such a long time. I am planning to meet him in the coming days. He is there for one week, so hopefully we meet more than once. After that, I had my lunch. Today, the school started for my sister so she came in around 2:30 pm. After the lunch, I was multi tasking between JAVA and YouTube videos. Today, it was raining cats and dogs. Winds were crazy, and hence my sitting place got waterlogged. I helped my mom with the cleaning business. The slider windows are not much of a help in case of such a situation. Anyways, before the evening time, I felt very sleepy, and hence decided to sleep for a while. Apparently, I slept tight for around 3 hours. I woke up, when Dad arrived from office. He brought "Bhutta", so we had that. Then, my sister went for her tuition, and moved to my room. I started writing this post, and also watching the Dave Days videos. He actually inspires me to post more youtube videos, and also to exercise to get thin. I also realized that India has lost two wickets already in their second Test against WI. Anyways, it is only 9 pm, and I am finishing the diary for today. I know that nothing exciting will happen in the coming 3 or 4 hours, so it doesn't matter. I hope to make tomorrow sound more interesting. After all, it is up to me to make it. Next, I plan to continue the multi tasking between JAVA and YouTube. I may finish of the Day 10 today. Only one topic is left in that chapter. I plan to sleep by 2:30 am.

Diary 60: Sad Day

Yesterday I slept at around 4:30 am. I finished the season 9th of CSI:Miami, so now I don't have any episodes to watch. Today I woke up at around 10:00 am. I was feeling sleepy, but I didn't want to sleep. I brushed my teeth, had some breakfast, and then moved on to checking mails etc. I got a mail from Gil, saying that we have an all team call at 8:30 pm, where everyone would be there. Then, I moved on to look for MBA colleges. Well, this is when the day turned the other side. I got very depressed and felt sad that I couldn't convert the IIM calls or ISB call. I realized that I have to start all over again, and that I missed out a golden opportunity. I stopped looking out for more options, and slept for a while. Then, I had some general chat with my sister. I even wrote a new post on the blog, to calm my inner feelings. It helped. I finally returned to the normal state and accepted my situation. Then, I just browsed generally through the web, searching through random things. Then, I had my lunch. After that, I watched the discovery channel for a while before moving to my room. My sister followed me there and started working on some holiday homework. I also started with JAVA. In between, I was helping my sister with her project work too. Then, I got a call from the Webprint guy, and I asked him few questions and doubts I had regarding the project. I felt bad that I had to keep him waiting for so long. I called up Akshay and Dallas immediately but they didn't seem interested and were busy in their office work. Anyways, I continued with the JAVA thing late into the evening. Then, I had some Tea, and there I even discussed the problem of MBA thing with my mom. She asked me to keep trying and not give up. I was relieved that I discussed all this. After that, I moved back to my room for the 8:30 call. It started a bit late, also Ankit and Sushma were missing because they were also sick supposedly. Anyways, the call went on till around 9:30 pm. After that call, I continued with JAVA for a while, and then started writing this diary. Meanwhile, I was also watching some random Youtube videos. Next, I plan to just watch more random videos, continue with JAVA, and then sleep by 2:00 am.

Scribbling 5: The Return of Fear

Yesterday before sleeping, I finished with the 9th season of CSI:Miami. Well, I was relieved in a way that now I am focus on more important things in life or 'seemingly' more important things such as MBA. This one degree has caused a lot of havoc in my life. Constant pestering from my parents has led me to believe that MBA is the sole purpose of my life. In my opinion, that is completely untrue. I like to follow knowledge and innovation. I like to follow my heart and do what I do best. I don't like jumping on to things just because everyone feels it is the right path for me. People in my life look down upon me just because they feel that I am not there where I can be. I feel agitated and frustrated. Fear develops and creeps in within me.

Today morning, when I woke up, I realized that there is no CSI:Miami episode to look out for. I had nothing else to do as there was no new project on the job front. There was JAVA, and I will continue that no matter what - mainly because I am gaining a new form of knowledge and capability there. I can see the things which I am building. I can think from the scratch, and also it is helping me at my job front also, because the tools that I am using are all JAVA based. But, I started my day by looking out for my MBA options. It was a bad choice. It revived the fear that I was so successfully avoiding.

The past one and the half months have been an amazing journey. I followed my heart during this time. There was no fear or doubt of failure. I was very proud of my achievements, howsoever small they might be. I stopped making comparisons. I felt the same old confidence that I felt when I was in Jodhpur - the golden period of my life. I was at my innovative best, which can be seen from my efforts towards FeastHunt. In reality, I learned more about business this time than any other time when I was fighting for MBA options. I felt the difference between practical and theory. Moreover, I was finally able to enjoy the time spent with my family, the thing that was missing for quite a while now. I laughed along with my sister, and my mom. I could talk without any guilt about anything. I didn't bully my sister. In fact, I realized that my sister was a mirror of my actions. It was me who was responsible for many of her shortcomings. But, now instead of feeling guilty and depressed about it, I acted towards it. I enjoyed time with her. I encouraged her. I managed to make her understand things in a peaceful and productive way.

I don't know how long will this phase of Euphoria last. The events of the morning didn't help my cause. I was dragged back to that same old fear. Inside my heart, I am not ready for this. I will find it tough to convince any B school to take me in. I don't have a reason for doing MBA. But yes, if I am given such an opportunity I am sure I will generate great returns from it. My recent past may not reflect the perfect profile for an MBA candidate, and that is what causes me to back out. I don't have fancy leadership points or entrepreneurial ventures at the college level. I always have the guilt of not doing anything during my college years. Just going through the courses, and aiming to be a musician didn't lead me anywhere. I had already realized it during my final year. I often feel the lack of a mentor or a guide in my life, who would understand me and hone my strengths. 

But anyways, I have to start again. It doesn't matter how low it makes me feel, I need to overcome it. The sooner I do it, the better it is. 

Diary 59: Relaxing Day

Yesterday I slept at around 4:00 am. Actually I don't remember when exactly I slept, but that should be the approximate time. Today I woke up at around 12:30 pm. I brushed my teeth, and then had my breakfast. I was very tired after yesterday, so I decided to relax a bit. So, I moved on to watch the next TV episodes. I was on the verge of completing season 9 of CSI:Miami. Anyways, the middle part of the day was spent mainly on the TV episodes. In between, I helped Dad to set up the curtains and the bed. After that I had my lunch. Then, I decided to write a post on the blog about the business models that I came to know yesterday. After that, I reverted to the TV episodes. In the evening, I played the guitar for a while, and recorded a video of a small composition with my SLR, and even uploaded it on youtube. Then, since my mom and dad were out for the bengali cultural meeting, my sister made an egg omlette for me. It was the first time that she cooked something substantial, and I liked it. Later, she even prepared Tea for all of us. As we were having Tea, mom and dad were discussing some sort of investment in the Kali Mandir construction. So, I involved myself in that discussion, and tried to figure out the pros and cons of it. It was a healthy discussion. Discussions of this type help me in gaining more and more knowledge and experience about businesses and investments. After that, I wrote this diary, and next, I plan to have dinner, watch the TV episodes, and then sleep by 1 am.

Business model of ofoodies.com / bookurtable.com

Well, first of all, this is not a professional business plan report, so if, you as a reader, find the format wrong, I am sorry, I don't follow formats. Also, this is my opinion, and the facts mentioned here are what I have found out myself and not through any inside person.

Anyways, moving on with the post, I would like to share the business model of the sites such as ofoodies.com, bookurtable.com etc from my perspective. As per my knowledge, the oldest of such sites started in India at around 2008.

First, let me tell you what these sites are for. They provide means of booking a table online in a restaurant with which they are affiliated. They cover multiple cities mainly Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore etc. Well, in our daily lives, we still don't use online table booking so profusely as we do online ticket booking for travel or movies etc. The later system consists of a Visa Payment gateway, which is basically a means by which the website can direct the customer to their banking or credit accounts for payment of the services i.e. ticket booking. Now, imagine if you would have to do the same when you book a table in restaurant. Obviously, you would back out, and instead call up the restaurant to book the table for free. So, as expected the online table booking system of the sites mentioned above doesn't comprise of the Visa Payment Gateway. So, you can book the tables for free here. 

Now, we will look at how these sites work. A customer who is looking for a table in a restaurant will search for that restaurant or the location where he wants to eat, in the site, goes to the "Book Table" option present in that restaurant page, fills in few details such as Phone number, Name, Number of guests, time, etc and then clicks the confirm or submit button. On receiving a valid phone number, a verification code is sent out to the customer, which he needs to enter to validate the booking. This is done to prevent random requests and pranks. The customer gets a unique booking code, which he needs to supply to the restaurant when he/she reaches there or the customer just needs to mention that he/she has a booking from that site. This is done to track the number of bookings through the site and hence, is the major source of revenue for the website other than Ads.The next steps that take place are at the back end of the website. There is some sort of a call center set up where the people are monitoring new requests for table booking. The person concerned receives the request and contacts the restaurant to book a table there for the customer. So, basically, instead of you calling up the restaurant, the back end persons of the website call up the restaurants. Once they know that the table is available, they let the customer know that your booking is confirmed through a SMS and also by a phone call. Some sites prefer to provide the customer phone number to the restaurant and some don't. 

Now, here is my opinion about this model. Well, first of all, the system is more of a problem than a solution. Any customer would prefer to directly call up the restaurant and book a table, rather than waiting for someone to call on his/her behalf especially when you already have the phone number of the restaurants so easily available. The site acts more like a personal secretary than a business. Another big flaw is that it is not real time. The status that you see in these sites are not showing the actual status of the time slots in the restaurant. Consider a site such as bookmyshow.com, they show a real time snap shot of the seat bookings at their site, before cutting off the access one hour prior to the show timings. So basically, even if you try to book a table at the preferred time slot, there is always a possibility that you don't get the table reserved at all. There is yet another possibility though. The restaurants might provide only few tables out of the total tables there for online table booking. If that is the case, then the website fails already because at the peak hours, the restaurant will not hold up a table just because the table is supposed to be filled up through online booking. The next problem is that the charges for the restaurants are too high. They ask for up to 30% or even 40% of the total bill that the restaurant have charged to the customer. It is a ridiculously high amount. The charges are high  because for now the number of bookings are quite less through these websites, and thus to reach a break even point quickly, they need this charge structure. So, in a nut shell, it is neither customer friendly nor restaurant oriented. This site works better as an information and advertisement site rather than a booking site. There are sites such as burrp.com, zomato.com which do a much better job in collecting the information of the restaurants and showing it to the customers. So, when you are a online booking site, you must be an "ONLINE" booking site and not a call center. 

Well, this was the case with India. When I look outside India, the models are quite innovative. There is a site named opentable.com, which started way back in 1999, during the dot com bubble stage, and has gone through many transformations to finally reach where it is now. It caters to around 20,000 restaurants across continents. It has been enrolled into NASDAQ recently. The model that opentable.com follows is completely different. It is an actual real time online table booking system and not a call center. One can easily find out the business model of opentable in the internet. It was not always successful, it had to see some very hard times, especially after the dot com bubble. 

On an ending note, I would say that people/companies in India are so busy in implementing things that they forget about innovations and synergies. Right now at this place, I can think of so many new ideas which could have made the business models of the sites mentioned much more customer friendly and restaurant oriented. Its time that India moves on from being the "CALL-CENTER" hub of the planet.
UPDATE: As pointed out in the comments below. Bookurtable is indeed real-time. I don't know why I am still hesitant about using it though. It lacks something may be. So, I apologize for assuming that it is not real time.

Diary 58: FeastHunt Day

Yesterday I slept at around 4:30 am. I was mainly watching the TV episodes. Today I woke up at around 10:35 am. I knew that I need to go to Powai for the FeastHunt meeting. So, I brushed my teeth, had breakfast, and started to get ready. I also watched one of the TV episodes, and then took bath, and left home with Dad around 1:00 pm. I reached Powai at around 2:30 pm. Then, I and Akshay moved to Mantra's to have lunch. Dallas joined in. Akshay told me that he got a new job in JP Morgan. He also told us that one of his friends showed a bit of interest in the FeastHunt Idea. Anyways, after our lunch we spoke with the manager of that restaurant. Well, it was one hell of a talk. Initially he was very adamant about the whole idea, but we kept him in the conversation, and he gave us a very good idea about the whole "Friday" scenario. We learned a lot from this conversation. Anyways, next we moved to Akshay's house. There we brainstormed for a while, the result of which was more questions and scenarios. We realized that the table management system in many restaurants in not aligned with our solutions. Next, we decided to have a look at our competitors. Well, in my mind, I placed them at a very high place as I thought that they must have a very sophisticated technology to integrate so many systems at once, but very soon I realized that both the sites are nothing but call centers, where someone calls up the restaurant to book a table. It was ridiculous. It did nothing, but increased the number of steps in booking a table. It was not real time. It was just a dubious way of causing a reason to earn money. Akshay and Dallas liked their model a lot initially, but then I showed them the basic flaws, and how the system is obsolete and unnecessary. Meanwhile, I got a call from my sister that her tuition was over and Dad is not picking up his phone. I called up many times at home and at Dad's mobile, and then concluded that they must have left the mobile at home by mistake. Later I came to know that it was indeed the fact. Anyways, then we decided to talk to more restaurants. We chose Bistro Grill, as Akshay told us that it is one of the restaurants that is very new and will be very happy to find a way to increase their presence. So, we went in. Well, it was also one hell of a conversation. The manager was too straightforward, and directly asked the charges for the service. Obviously, we didn't decide any fixed cost structure, but I gave a basic idea of how it will look it. The revenue structure analysis a few nights earlier helped me in this. He even allowed us to see the back end of the system. There we realized that Bistro Grill is not in the Category I type restaurants. It has a billing system, but it is missing a basic Table management System. After that, Akshay had to buy some medicines so we moved to some shop, but I and Dallas decided to go to the P3 store. I bought new headphones finally, and Dallas bought a Lamborghini theme mouse. After that, we discussed final words on action items, and dispersed. It was around 9:30 pm, when I left Powai for Vikhroli station. Meanwhile, I decided to call up Ajeytaa, as I was supposed to meet her today evening. I called her up many times, but she didn't pick up. I don't know what has happened to her. She was become very lazy and at times mean. Anyways, I left her a message. Hopefully she will reply. I reached Kharghar by train. My dad picked me up from the station. Then, on reaching home, we all had dinner except for my sister who had Dosa earlier. Then, I moved to my room. There I and my sister chatted for a while. I taught her to use the SLR camera for a while. Then, she left for the night, and I moved to my laptop. I was enjoying the comfort of my new headphones, but I knew that the sound quality was nothing compared to Scheinheiser. But the headphones were compatible with IPod, so it was very useful. Then, I watched a few Coke Studio videos, TV episodes, and then, wrote this long Diary. Next, I plan to watch the remaining TV shows, and then sleep by 3:30 am.

Diary 57: Meeting Alok Day

Yesterday I slept at around 4:30 am. Today I woke up at around 11:30 am, with a phone call from Ankit. My voice was cracked that time so it helped my caused to the avoidance of office. Anyways, Ankit asked me to follow up on the DX plugin installation. I woke up, brushed my teeth, had some Tea and then composed a mail to Gil telling him about the problem I am facing in installation. Then, I moved back to JAVA. I was multi-tasking between TV episodes and JAVA coding. After some time I got a message from Alok, saying that he is near kharghar. So, I called him up and told him to get down at Vashi. Then, I told my mom that I am leaving for Vashi. Today she cooked Chicken for dinner, but I told her that I will have that in my dinner. Anyways, I left for Vashi and finally met him near KFC at InOrbit Mall. He had the same pony tail which I saw in the video chat once. Well, before eating at KFC, we roamed around the mall a bit, and also went into the Kid's zone to play some Arcade games. It was fun. I even took my SLR with me, and took a few snaps with that. Then, after the lunch at KFC, Alok left for IIT and I left for home. It was planned that we will meet again later for another session. So, I went back home, uploaded the photos on facebook and picasa, watched TV episodes and relaxed a bit. Then, at around 5 pm, I got a call from Alok that his job is done, and we can meet. So, we decided to go for a movie. That time, we decided to go for Double Dhamaal, but I reached a bit late and we missed the 6:30 show, and then we missed even the next two shows in a confusion of moving from theater to theater. Anyways, we finally settled for the 8:15 pm CARS 2 show. I was excited as I loved CARS 1. So, after all the running here and there, we finally sat down, had some food, and chatted about old and new things. I even told him about the idea of FeastHunt. I didn't give him much details but I gave an overview. Basically, in the process I got an opinion from him. I also got few nice ideas such as Calorie Meter. He had one idea too, the one with the RFID Menu. I liked it, but it was not marketable yet. I will take some more time to gain the market for that in India. Anyways, after all this discussion, we moved to the movie theater. CARS 2 was awesome but somewhere it lacked the soul it had in the first version. The second version is full of so many things that the main essence, the soul of the movie was corrupted. No doubt, the 3D effects were good. One has to know a lot of things ranging from GodFather to habits of people in Europe and America, to fully enjoy the movie. Anyways, after the movie it was time to say Goodbye. He insisted that I come to Pune sometime. I didn't promise but I said that I will make some time for that. Within all this noise, I don't know whether I can, but I will try. Then, I came back home. I remembered that I shouted on my sister today on phone, because instead of helping me out with the show timings on bookmyshow, she was laughing and teasing me. Anyways, I had already forgot all that, and was in a good mood. I laughed, taunted, etc with my sister on the dinner table. Meanwhile, I got a message from Ajeytaa asking me about tomorrow evening. She was here only till Sunday, so I was in a catch 22 situation as I had some FeastHunt commitments too. Let's see what will happen. Let her reply back. Next, I came back to my room, and wrote this diary. Next, I plan to watch the TV episodes, move on with JAVA, and some random net browsing as usual. I plan to sleep by 3:00 am. 

Diary 56: Repeated Off Day

Yesterday I slept at around 3:30 am. Today I woke up at around 10:30 am. I went online and checked mails etc. I had my breakfast, and then moved straight to multi tasking between TV episodes and B2B DX training. With all the JAVA training I am doing, the back end of informatica was getting clearer to me. The issue which has been bogging me for quite a while seemed clearer and I can easily relate to that. Meanwhile I realized that the B2B DX lab guide is done with and only the problem persists. I mailed the update to Gil, and explained him whatever I could understand about the problem. After that, I had my lunch. Earlier, I informed Ankit that I was still not well. I did this so that I can get some time for other stuffs like JAVA and FeastHunt. Anyways, after I was done with the B2B DX, I moved on to JAVA. Today the chapter was interesting because everything was very interactive. The Swing platform created user interfaces and hence was one of the important packages. I was keeping up with the TV episodes too. This went on till the evening, when I had to re-visit the problem I faced in the training. After some 11 mail exchanges, Gil reached a conclusion that we may need to re-install the DX plugin on the server, and he asked us to do it. Now, although I may want to learn how to do it, but I don't want to risk losing a more or less working plugin. I went forward with it, but stopped in mid way. Ankit was also in the loop, but as usual, he had no say in it. After that, I reverted back to JAVA. Later, I had my dinner. After the dinner, I realized that it is the deciding day for the first test between India and WI. So, I tuned in to Ten Sports and was happy to know that India needed only 2 wickets to win the test match. It was a very low scoring Test match, and the pitch was tailor made for a result. Anyways, I got the news later that India won by 63 runs. It is good to use "India" instead of some stupid club's name. Then, I moved back to my room. I found out that Alok to coming to Mumbai tomorrow. So, I may meet him tomorrow. Then, I moved to multi tasking between JAVA and TV episodes. I finished the Day 9 chapter today. I just started with the Day 10. Next, I wrote this diary post. Now, I plan to watch the remaining part of the episode and then go to sleep by 4:00 am.

A 'Not-so-good' JAVA Program

import java.lang.someDictionary.*;

public class addWords {

public addWords() {
String[] words = new String[4];
words = {'excited', 'expert', 'exhausted', 'experienced'};

for ( int i = 0; i < words.length; i++){
words[i] = Concatenate( 's', words[i] );
addtoDictionary(words[i]);
}
}

public static void main(String[] args) {
addWords NewWords = new addWords();
System.out.print (" Enjoy ");
}
}

Diary 55: No Office Again Day

Yesterday I slept at around 3:30 am. But, before that I did some financial analysis on the whole FeastHunt project, and realized that we need some 50-60 clients to achieve break even in 12 months. Anyways, my assumptions were very rough and I used worst case analysis. Today I woke up at around 11:15 am. I had my breakfast and then went online, and checked my mails. I was invisible till around 12:30 pm on my work chat, because I used fever to avoid office. Anyways, I started with training of B2B DX. Gil replied to the problem I mentioned yesterday, but the problem was not solved yet. I moved on to the next exercises. In between I watched a few TV episodes also. I got hold of the JAVA book too, and continued with the Day 9 chapter that I started yesterday. I had a late lunch at around 3:30 pm. Then, continued with the TV episodes. Today I started with the 9th season of CSI:Miami - quite an achievement. I took a bath during the evening. Then I got hold of the guitar and started playing random tunes. The whole evening was spent in the same mode. We had dinner, and then I and my sister spent some time together discussing random things from music, VB, JAVA, Music etc. After that she went to sleep and I started watching TV episodes again. Next, I wrote this post. Now, I plan to watch the remaining part of the episode and then sleep by 2:30 am.

Diary 54: No Office Day

With this post I overtake my previous blog in the number of posts. Yesterday I slept at around 3:30 am. Today I woke up at around 10:20 am. I went online and checked my mails etc. I started multi tasking between TV episodes and B2B DX training. I was finally getting into the comfort zone of B2B DX. The new lab guide was good, and repeating the things cleared a lot of doubts. But still with each doubt cleared, one doubt popped up. So, I am keeping a note of those doubts, which I will ask Gil later. Anyways, the multi tasking went on, I had lunch and kept going. I got stuck in a big way in the lab exercise, due to some fatal error : NoSuchMethodFound error. Now, with all the JAVA codes I have been writing, I realized that the problem is in the back end of Informatica. So, I didn't waste time to mail the problem to Gil. Let's see what he does. After that I was feeling very sleepy, so I decided to take a nap. The nap went on to become a host of delusional dream array. I saw Ajeytaa and Vaibhav in that. I was in Vashi, and was going to Office to Powai (where I don't go anymore). But Ajeytaa refused to go with me, for no good reason. I suddenly woke up, thinking that it is morning time and I have to go to office, but soon realized that it is 6:30 pm. With that heavy head, I woke up and had some Tea, made by Mom. Then, I resumed my TV episode watching. At around 7:30 pm, I took out my electric guitar. It has been a long time since I played it. I cleaned it and then played it, only to realize that my skill set is very limited, and that the strings are in a very bad condition. Anyways, I didn't give up and kept on playing till my sister's tuition teacher came in. During that time, I went back to TV episode watching. After the teacher left, I decided to record something. I found the connecting jack and somehow managed to record something amidst all the electrical noise. Then, I had dinner at around 10:45 pm. Next, I wrote this post. Now, I plan to again record something, watch the loaded TV episodes, start the Day 9 chapter of JAVA book, and then go to sleep by 2:00 am. A wishful thought indeed !

Diary 53: Early Off Day

Yesterday I slept at around 3:45 am. Today I woke up at around 8:00 am, and got ready for office. I went to Sion, along with Dad, and from there to Bandra station. I finally reached office at around 11:10 am. I realized that Ankit is not there in the office yet, and later on I found out that he hasn't left Jodhpur yet. Anyways, I used this free time to have a chat with Alok regarding real time booking systems and also to go over some basic concepts of Data Exchange. At around 3:30 pm, Sushma left because she had some work. I decided that I will also leave early. I left the office at around 4:00 pm, and reached Andheri station at around 4:20 pm. I was very hungry then, so I decided to have a burger and a small coke from the nearby McDonald's. It was bliss. After that I boarded the train and finally reached Kharghar at around 6:20 pm. I reached home, but kept thinking about the hardware issues regarding FeastHunt. My mom told me that there is no milk in the house, and so we will wait for Dad to bring it in. But, I decided to take this chance to go out and talk with few of the hardware providers in my area. So, I went out. I tried explaining my requirement to them, but they were not able to understand. I gave up and came back home with the milk. Then, I decided to take hold of JAVA. I was multi tasking between JAVA and TV episodes. I finally finished the Day 8 of the book. Then, I had dinner and came back to my room. After that, I started deciding strategies based on various categories of client. I also started making a document which could be referred by us and the restaurant owners. It took a long time to make the document, but finally the first draft was ready by around 2:15 am. I mailed the document to Akshay and Dallas. Let's see what opinion they have of it. Next, I wrote this post and now, I plan to watch the remaining episode and then go to sleep by 3:15 am.

Diary 52: Relaxing Day

Yesterday I slept at 1:30 am. I know that is very early according to my standards. But I was very sleepy that time, so I decided to call it a day. Today I woke up at 11:20 am. I brushed my teeth, had my breakfast and went online. Today I had nothing special to do, so I just relaxed by surfing the net here and there. Then I got hold of that online book -"Why's poignant guide to Ruby". This book was given to me by Alok. I decided to try it today and I realized that it one hell of a crazy book. The author was just crazy and had comics and weird examples. I kept on multi tasking between this and TV episodes. Then, I went to Nerul to pick up my sister from her tuition. I came back and had lunch. After the lunch, I again multi tasked between that online book and TV episodes. At around 5 pm, I was tired and very sleepy. So, I slept again for about 2 hours. At 7 pm, I told my mom that I am hungry and went back to watching TV episodes. After that, my sister came back home and the whole family sat in my room. The whole evening was spent in discussions of music and other stories. Dad's mobile had previous recordings and we all were listening to those. My sister was appreciating my ability to sing high octave notes. Anyways, finally we dispersed for dinner. Meanwhile, I had also set up a call with Akshay and Dallas regarding the progress of client strategies. Before the call, Dallas informed me that he spoke with another client. Then I decided to loop in Akshay also, and we had to shift the timings of the call so that we can all talk together right now. He explained the details to us. We decided that we will target more clients in the coming week and thus build our market survey. On that note, our call ended. I had dinner, and moved back here to continue watching the TV episodes. After that, I wrote this diary post and now, I plan to complete the episode and then sleep by 2 am. Also, tonight I plan to wish happy birthday to Mahak. I don't know whether she will be online or not. But anyways, I am wishing her here. 

Diary 51: Meet the Developer Day

Yesterday I slept at around 4 am. Today I woke up at around 10:30 am, by a phone call. It was Dallas. He told me a lot of things. Things about meeting the developer, deciding the strategies etc. Anyways, after the call, I brushed my teeth, had my breakfast, and informed my mom that I will go out. I took bath and got ready. The car was not available as Dad had to pick up my sister from the tuition. So, I walked a bit and caught held of an Auto. I had a long journey ahead. I reached Wadala, then Andheri, and finally Malad. It took around 3 hours, mainly because the ticket line at Kharghar station was too long. Anyways, Inorbit Mall was the location of the meeting. We met at the Cafe Coffee Day outlet there. We didn't waste much time, and started discussing our strategies regarding various types of clients. Meanwhile, the developer guy came in, and we started explaining the idea to him. He understood the concept and said that it can be built. He was concerned about the hardware integration part. We were also concerned about it, but the answers will come up only after market survey. Anyways, after the meeting, we decided to watch Kung Fu Panda 2 in the theater above us. The developer left, and we moved in to the theater. The movie was very nice. Few scenes were really awesome. After the movie, we dispersed. I returned home and they went over to Aditi's engagement party. I reached home at around 9:50 pm. After that, I had dinner and watched TV for a while. After that, I surfed the net and started watching the TV episodes. Then, I wrote this post and next, I plan to watch the TV episodes and sleep by 3:00 am.

Diary 50:Janani and First Client Talk Day

Yesterday I slept at around 3:30 am. Today I woke up at around 10:30 am. I went online and checked mails etc. I ate my breakfast, and the then I checked my domain - www.mydomainbitch.com. I could finally see it on my machine. I was excited. Then, I tried to find out more details about tumblr. I found out that it is a very basic site, and for any unique change, we need to change the basic HTML code. I informed Alok about the same, and we both started out exploration with HTML and CSS. I added the facebook like button, and he added the sidebar and tweet button. I have some more ideas which I will convey to him later on. Also, meanwhile, I, Dallas and Janani decided to meet up. Janani is leaving on sunday morning, and so she will be busy packing for the rest of the stay here. She will most probably get through the UPSC first phase. Let's see. I left home at around 5:30 pm, and reached kurla at around 6:37 pm. I waited there for around 30 minutes. Then, finally we met. I was shocked to see Janani. She has become so thin. It was like Janani divided by 2. Anyways, Janani was keen on visiting the Deloitte office and even go inside. I decided not to go inside, but I came in till the main door. From there, we left for Poptates, but considering the traffic, we decided to go to Aromas, which was nearby. There we ate a lot, talked a lot, laughed a lot, and also I took out my SLR and snapped some amazing shots. Later, when I shared those pictures on facebook, I was proud of myself. Janani left in between as her cousins were coming in to pick her up. We all bid her goodbyes. Then, we spent some more time there eating and drinking. After that we dispersed. But I and Akshay waited for others to go away. Then, we moved back in, and spoke with one of the waiters there. His name was Michael, and was very helpful. We even got the phone number of Aromas' brand manager. It was a step towards our first client. It felt awesome. Tomorrow we are meeting again, to discuss the strategies towards different clients. Lets see how it turns out. I came back home at around 11:30 pm. I uploaded the pictures asap, and then wrote this post. Next, I plan to watch the tv episodes and sleep by 3:30 am.

Diary 49: My domain Day

Yesterday I slept at around 3:00 am. I messaged Sushma that I will not attend Office as I was working late. Today I woke up at around 11:00 am. I went online as soon as possible. Well, I was not that happy with the progress of the feasthunt project, but I always wanted to own a domain, where I would express anything I want to the world. So, I pinged Alok, and asked him to suggest a name for my domain. We went from this and that, from weird to mainstream, when something suddenly came up. It was mydomainbitch.com. It was inspired from Facebook's movie, but who cared. It was the most appropriate name. It was indeed my domain. Within minutes, I was signing up to buy the domain. I chose bigrock.in instead of godaddy because godaddy didn't accept debit cards or netbanking. Also, it was cheaper. I was totally new to all this stuff. But, I managed to pull this off, and there it was, our domain. I bought it for a period of 2 years. I was the administrator of it, and it felt good to be one. I found out that we need a hosting site as the hosting is not free. So, I and Alok decided that we will do it on tumblr.com. We will create twitter accounts using our new e-mail ids from the domain, and use it to popularize our website. Alok suggested that we assume two identities and fight on the website on relevant topics. Although I was skeptical to it, I agreed to it for now. I learned how to redirect my blog to the domain I bought. I was never aware of terms such as A record, AAAA record or CNAME record. I am still a naive, but at least I can manage my website now. Anyways, the whole day was spent in setting up this website - the twitter accounts, the website admin console, the tumblr accounts and what not. At around 7:30 pm, our site was up finally. Alok could see it, but I couldn't due to some cache issues. Anyways, I used remote desktop connection to see it, and there it was. It felt good. Next, I looked up the JAVA book for a while, and watched TV episodes also. I informed Gil that I somehow managed to complete the exercises in the newer version, and also that the DX server is down. I also informed Dallas about the new domain and said that it is a step towards feasthunt. Then, I continued watching the TV episodes and slept at around 3:15 am.

Diary 48: Office Day Revisited

Yesterday I slept at around 1:30 am. Today I woke up at 7:45 am, and got ready for office. I was feeling good about waking up early. Anyways, today I ate the breakfast at home and left with Dad to catch the ONGC bus. It came in late, and so we reached the ONGC office at around 10:45 am. From there, Dad's car dropped me to Bandra station, and I finally reached office at around 11:45 am. At office, I focused on the DX training labs. We ordered lunch although I already brought lunch today. After the lunch, Mukund left as he had no work. Ankit was going to Jodhpur for two days, so he had to leave early. I also left office by 5:20 pm. I caught up with the driver near Bandra station at around 6:10 pm. Finally, I and Dad reached home at around 8:00 pm. I started working again on the DX training. Meanwhile, I surfed facebook and checked mails etc. Mom cooked Maggi after long time, so it tasted really nice. Later, we had dinner at around 10:30 pm. After dinner, I shifted my focus to FeastHunt. I got in touch with Dallas and Akshay to get status updates. As we spoke, we decided that we should have a conference call. In the conference call, we discussed a lot of things, mainly the business side of it. I discussed few ideas I had written down earlier. Few ideas were very appreciated. Let us see how things turn out. We are planning to meet up this saturday. I hope that the meeting turns out to be fruitful. After writing this post, I plan to watch the loaded TV episode, and then sleep by around 2:30 am. 

Diary 47: No Office Day Part 2 & Mom returning Day

Yesterday I slept at around 2:30 am. Today I woke up at around 10:15 am for the scheduled call. Actually, it was yesterday night that Ankit suddenly messaged that we all need to be in office as we have a call at 10:30 am. I messaged him back saying that my parents are coming in at 11:00 am, so it won't be possible. I even mailed Gil. Anyways, I brushed my teeth and called up Dad. I found out that they have already landed. Dad went to office and mom is on her way to home. The call started a bit late, which allowed me to help mom get all the things inside the house. The call went on for 35-40 minutes. After the call, I proceeded with the B2B DX exercises. Meanwhile, I also showed my new camera to my mom, and explained her the features of it. After that, I started multi tasking between training and TV episodes. Then, we ate our lunch. After lunch, I changed rooms as mom needed to sleep. Finally, after one month I returned to my old room. After that, I went on with the training. Later I was tired so I relaxed by taking a few snaps with my SLR. Then I started watching tv episodes. This went on till the later part of the day. Meanwhile, Dad came in and saw the camera. I told him about it, and he didn't respond that much. I was relieved. After that, I started with the JAVA book after a long time. I started with Day 8 today. Then, I had my dinner and watched the tv for a while. Then, I multi tasked between JAVA and tv episodes for a while before writing this post. Now, I plan to complete the tv episodes, and then sleep by 1:15 am.

Diary 46: No Office Day Part 1

Yesterday I slept at around 5:00 am. Today I woke up at around 10:45 am, with the bell ring of the maid servant. She came in quickly today because she knew that mom is about to come tomorrow. Anyways, I asked her for Tea only, and used the McDonald's left over for the breakfast. After that, I started watching TV episodes and general net surfing. This went on till around 4 pm. Then, I decided to go shopping for vegetables and other stuff. I came back at around 5 pm. Then I took a bath, and reverted back to watching the TV episodes. Meanwhile, I again started playing with my SLR and took a few more snaps. I posted them on facebook, and then someone suddenly posted a status message saying : why do people with SLR start taking pictures of random objects. Instead of attacking it, I liked the status to dilute things. I guess he was not able to understand the depth of those pictures, the focus, the zoom etc. Anyways, later in the evening, I started building a macro enabled excel sheet which would enable us to store the restaurant data in various tabs. I sent that across to Dallas and Akshay. After that I decided to have my dinner. I cooked the rice and used the rest from left overs. Meanwhile, I watched the India west indies match for a while. I returned back to the room after the match, and started watching TV episodes. Next, I wrote this diary. Now, I plan to watch the remaining part of the episode and sleep by 2:00 am.

Diary 45: Relaxing Day Part 2

Yesterday I slept at around 2:45 am. Today I woke up at around 10:15 am. I was supposed to go to Powai today, but I got a message from Dallas that his aunt expired and that he won't be coming. So, our meeting got postponed. I was sad, but nothing could be done. After that, I started watching TV episodes and movies simultaneously. Also, the maid came in today finally. So, I had Tea and some breakfast made by her. She also cleaned the house and made food for lunch. Today a lot of people came in to ask for money - Doodwala, Carwasher, AC repair, etc. Except for AC repair, I told them to come later. The mid day was spent on the movies and the TV episodes. In the later part, I took my cam and snapped a few more shots. I put them in the album and few people even liked it. I was glad that I was able to share the pics with everyone. Anyways, during evening, I was feeling very hungry but I controlled it till night. At around 8:30 pm, I decided to eat dinner from the food remaining after the lunch. I also decided that I would order McDonalds later on, and would keep something out of that for breakfast tomorrow. So, I did that. Then I continued multi-tasking between TV episodes, movies and SLR. Later tonight, I even had a chat with Dallas and Akshay regarding our future strategy. It seemed that Dallas was lazy and didn't do what he was asked to. I also had a long chat with Alok regarding various things such as website development, facebook hatred, creativity etc. After that, I watched another episode and wrote this post. Now, I plan to sleep by 5:00 am. 

Diary 44: Relaxing Day

Yesterday I slept at around 3:00 am. Today I woke up at around 10:30 am. Since, it was a Saturday I was lot more relaxed. I had to skip the breakfast because I decided to eat the lunch directly. Meanwhile, I decided on my next move on feasthunt. I even sent out a mail to Dallas and Akshay telling them that we have to change our strategy and focus on other things etc. After that, I started watching TV episodes. At around 2:20 pm, I started making my lunch. I prepared Maggi, and nuggets fry for that. After the lunch, the internet went down for some reason. So, decided to watch movies instead. I plugged in my external hard disk to the TV and then the TV to the home theater system. So, it was a full on movie experience. I watched two consecutive movies - Karate Kid and Social Network. The whole time, I watch also clicking pictures with my new SLR camera. I got some nice feedback on facebook also. I uploaded them in picasa and shared the slideshow on this blog too. I am totally crazy about it. Let's see how my parents react when they see such a costly camera. At around 9:30 pm, I went out to draw some cash from ATM, in order to pay for the AC bill. Meanwhile, I also had some paani puri after a long time. I came back home and ordered McDonalds for dinner. After my dinner, I started watching TV episodes again along with a movie. Then, I even had a look at the cricket match going on between India and West Indies. It was really boring. Anyways, then I wrote this diary post. Next I plan to complete the TV episode and then sleep by 3:00 am.

SLR: Day 2

I read the manual and tried out few more modes:

Diary 43: Camera Day

Yesterday I slept at around 2:45 am. Today I woke up at around 10:00 am, and saw that it was raining heavily. I had no choice, but to get ready for office. Meanwhile, I started thinking about the parcel from chennai i.e the SLR Camera. I looked up the nearest courier service office and called them up. I found out that the package has already arrived at their place. So, I asked them whether I can pick it up or not. They replied affirmatively, so I quickly got ready for office, and on the way I picked up the parcel. I was in two minds whether to go to office first or back home to keep the package. I decided to take it to office, as it was already too late and it was Gil's last day in India. The trains were running late due to the heavy rain, so I reached office at around 1:40 pm. When I reached, I found out that they had already ordered lunch, but I was not included. Anyways, I had already bought my lunch from McDonald's as I did yesterday. I just borrowed sprite from them. After the lunch, I started working on the problem that Gil gave us yesterday. The major part of the day was consumed in that. At around 7 pm, Gil started packing stuff as he had to leave for dinner and then London. We said goodbyes and then I left for home. I reached CBD at around 10:30 pm. I decided that I will take Dominoes pizza as dinner. I went home, opened the package, and there it was, the Canon EOS 1100D. I started exploring it straight away. I even uploaded a few pics to facebook. I even started watching tv episodes. Next I plan to watch the remaining part of the episode and then sleep by 3:30 am. 

My first takes with Shaky Hands

Diary 42: Heart Crushing Day

Yesterday I slept at around 2 am. Today I woke up at around 10:00 am, and got a call from Ankit. I told him that I am about to leave now. He said that Gil was planning a session. I asked him to schedule it later. Then, I got ready for office, and left without having any breakfast at about 10:50 am. Finally, I reached Andheri at around 1 pm. I called up Ankit and asked whether I should pack my lunch from McDonald's or wait for later. He said that I can pack it as they already have had lunch. Even Sushma asked me to pack something for her. Anyways, I reached office. I had lunch straight away and then Ankit told me that Gil has asked us to look into few things. So, most of the mid-day was spent on that. Today Sushma left early because she was not feeling well. During the latter part of the day, Gil took a session on administrative properties of Informatica, DX and so on. This went on till 8:15 pm. After that, we dispersed and I left for Andheri station. I got into the first train I got and reached CBD at around 10:40 pm. I was unsure about my dinner plans, so I decided to eat out. I went into three star hotel here. There was no one except me, so I decided to use this opportunity to conduct my survey of the three star hotel. I called up a waiter who was working there, and started asking him questions. I came to know that few of the four/five star hotels already use online table booking, which crushed my heart. I came back home and looked up google, and found 4-5 sites online table booking sites in India. I mailed the links to Akshay and Dallas too, let's see what is their view on this. Anyways, all hope is not lost, but the whole thing has become more complex and tougher. I hope we can survive the competition and move forward. Next, I plan to sleep by 2:30 am with a disappointed heart.

Diary 41: Good, very Good day

Yesterday I slept at around 2:00 am. Today I woke up at 9:15 am. I kept on shifting the time of my travel, till the time I realized that I have to make the 10:57 am direct train. I got ready for office as fast I could. I was very hungry, so I even made nuggets fry in the quickest possible time. So, I left home and some how managed to reach CBD in time and also board the train in time. I reached Andheri at 12:15 am and office by 12:35 pm. As soon as I reached, I came to know that they are ordering food from subway. So I also ordered one subway for me too. Meanwhile, I started with JAVA, and informatica installation on my local machine. Soon, the food arrived and made us happy. Gil paid the bill for it so it was even better. Anyways after that I was busy in figuring out the connection issues between remote machine and my local informatica powercenter client. I even posted a discussion on the informatica support, and the person even called me up to help me. Well, ultimately it was Gil who solved the problem. The problem was with the hosts file. Today, Ankit and Gil finalized an office space too, although the paper work is left, but I guess it is more or less final. It is not very far from the present office, so not a big problem for me. Later part of the day was spent in just general net surfing and all. Then at around 8 pm, we decided to move towards Yoko Sizzlers for dinner. Gil left early to hold the table for us. We reached there by 8:45 pm, and then ordered various sizzlers. Except Gil and me, no one had sizzlers before. So I was guiding them on their choices. Gil ordered a beef sizzler, and I ordered a chicken sizzler. Meanwhile, I asked Gil whether he has heard about Open Table and also whether he has used it. I even asked him few details about real life situations, and the whole discussion was very helpful. Then, we all dispersed and I left for Andheri station. I boarded a train to Wadala, and then from Wadala towards CBD. I reached CBD at around 12:00 am. I fooled the parking guy and gave him lesser money. I drove back peacefully to home, and started watching the ongoing match between India and WI. India were well placed, so I moved into the room inside. I realized by now, that the internet connection was not behaving correctly. After lot of ups and downs, it finally worked, and I started watching the CSI:Miami episode. Also, I came to know that Dallas and Akshay were not able to go to Rodas, and instead planned a lunch there on Sunday. Let's see how it turns out. Next I plan to complete the episode and then go to sleep by 2:45 am.

Diary 40: Good Day overall

Yesterday I slept at around 1:30 am. I was furiously trying to think of ideas to implement a solution for feasthunt. I had few doubts, so I noted them down in my head, and moved ahead. Meanwhile, I caught a glimpse of the one day match going between India and West Indies. Later I came to know that India won by 4 wickets. Today I woke up at around 8:45 am. I got ready for office by around 9:25 am. I left for CBD and then boarded the train to Wadala. I realized mid-way that I didn't bring water with me. Anyways, at Wadala road station, I somehow managed to catch the next train to Andheri, and reached Andheri at around 11:00 am. I reached office by 11:25 am. Gil was not there yet, as he was awake till 4:00 am last night. I was very hungry but I decided that I will directly have lunch. I was offered the new laptop but I declined and instead gave it to Sarvesh. He was happy, but I didn't want my collected materials, softwares, bookmarks etc. to disperse. After that Gil arrived, and then we all discussed many things including our expectations, history of formation, description of the projects at hand etc. Today, the new hires started using the tool, and hence I was there whenever they needed help. I was happy about it. I also touched the JAVA book for a while, but nothing substantial happened. Our team discussion went on and on till 4 pm, and so we had a delayed lunch. I ordered Veg today also. Gil, Sushma and Ankit left to look for office spaces at around 4:45 pm. After that, I started looking into Feasthunt. I got some interesting links and references, which changed my view point very much. I left office at 5:30 pm, and then boarded the direct train to CBD. On train, I decided to utilize the time and framed few of the survey questions, and even few business models we can follow. Finally I reached home at around 7:50 pm. Then, today luckily the AC guys came in. They embedded the PCB on to the AC, and then it started working. I told them that I will pay them later and they agreed. Then, I started multi tasking between TV episodes and feasthunt research.  Meanwhile, I ordered my food from McDonald's again. I got the food at around 10:45 pm, and I was done by 11:00 pm. Then I, Dallas and Akshay had a call at around 11:15 pm, in which I explained them what to ask the clients, what type of business models we can look into etc. Let's see what happens tomorrow, when they actually go and ask the manager or the person concerned. After that, I decided to wash the dirty clothes as I was short on cloths to wear through the week. Then, I started writing this post, and next I plan to finish the washing and then watch the loaded TV episode. I plan to sleep by 2:00 am.

Diary 39: Extreme Anger Day

Yesterday I slept at around 3 am, after watching the TV episodes. Today I woke up at around 6:50 am, and got ready for office by around 7:25 am. I just ate one piece of cake for breakfast, and left to catch the 7:57 Andheri bound train. I reach well before time, and comfortably boarded the train. The train was very crowded but I managed to hold on. I reached Andheri at around 9:30 am, and office by around 9:50 am. I came to know then that Gil is coming in a different flight and will reach office by 6 pm. This one news made me extremely angry, although I didn't show any anger, I just stopped talking for some time. I was frustrated because the one time I managed to reach office amidst rains and train crowd, I got deceived. Anyways, in protest I started with the remaining part of JAVA book. Apparently I finished the Day 6 of the book, and was about to complete even the Day 7, when I got too tired and left it. Meanwhile, I took a huge step and decided to buy the Canon EOS 1100D SLR for Rs 23,700 from e-bay. Divyansh's model arrived today. At office, we ordered lunch from outside, and I preferred Veg. today. We all were very hungry because we all skipped breakfast. We all were tired of waiting for Gil. The time passed by but there was no sign of Gil. At around 8:00 pm, Gil finally arrived. He was handsome and dashing as expected. Despite being a jolly person, he was a extreme hard worker. He just traveled 18 hours straight, and then got back to work right away. He brought us new laptops too. He said that we should keep the newer ones, as they are more powerful and have more battery life. The only problem is the screen size, which is much smaller than the present one. I am resistant to change simply because my configurations and all are already done in this laptop, and I don't want to waste time in setting up the whole thing again. Let's see what happens. I left office at around 8:30 pm, but it was difficult to find an Auto to the Andheri station. One of the autos left me near the market, and I had to walk to the station from there. In the way, I decided to take two burgers from the Andheri station McDonald's as I had little hope that I would find anything eatable in Kharghar. Anyways, I took a train to Wadala. At Wadala road station, the connecting trains were so close that I tried to catch the next train by running across the whole station from one end to other. While I was climbing the staircase, I realized that I will not be able to make it, as I released too much energy in too less time. I was dangerously exhausted. I took in deep breathes to make up for the high rate of oxygen consumption. After I cooled down, I felt a lot of heaviness in my head and shoulders. It was a condition where I was sleepy but couldn't sleep. Somehow, I managed to reach CBD. From there, the journey was smooth. The one at the car parking charged less due to some reason. I was feeling good again, and drove the car to my home peacefully. On reaching home, I decided not to watch the match and also not to watch the TV series. I am planning to sleep today. I have already informed Gil that I will be a bit late tomorrow as it was a long day today. Now, I plan to sleep at around 12:15 am.