Diary 198: No office Day

Yesterday I slept at around 3:00 am. I woke up at 9:10 am today. I brushed my teeth and started watching the Day 1 of the 2nd test between India and West Indies. Meanwhile, I decided to work on my essays too. It took me a while to start on my 3rd essay. India started off well but soon Sehwag was out by playing a silly cross bat shot. There was great anticipation about Sachin's elusive hundredth hundred. But, all in vain, Sachin got out after scoring 38, and again due to impatience. He played a pull shot off Bishoo and killed everyone's hopes. Anyways, on the other hand, Dravid went on and on. He scored a century and lifted India to 346/5 by stumps. Although, he got out, Laxman kept the batting alive with his 73. At around 3:00 pm, we had our lunch, and soon after lunch, Ankit pinged me and asked me about my whereabouts. I managed to steer the topic to other things. Later, I decided to take a nap and woke up at around 6:00 pm. Then, Dadai and I went out for some minor food shopping. We came back, had some Tea and snacks, and then I moved to my room. I helped my sister solve some problems and I worked on the essays too for a while. Then, I left for the gym. Today was cardio day. I came back at around 10:30 pm, and took a bath. I had a good dinner today. I ate rice and chicken. Then, I watched the TV for a while, and then moved to my room. I wrote this post, and now I plan to watch the latest episodes of CSI:Miami and Dexter. I plan to sleep by 2:30 am.

Diary 95: Issue solving Day

Well, before I start, I would like to say that the major part of the day was actually night. After writing the post last night, I was trying to solve the issue at hand. Sarvesh was also there with me, and was looking at those issues. Meanwhile, I and Mahak had a small fight, and she supposedly blocked me on gmail. I didn't tested whether she blocked me or not, and I continued  my work. Lots of things were discussed and finally we arrived at an acceptable solution. It was already 5:30 am, and so I mailed the latest version to the team, and slept. Today, I woke up at around 12:30 pm. I brushed my teeth, and went online. I checked my work mails. There was not much development from Gil's end till then. Meanwhile, I had my breakfast. I started listening to songs on YouTube. I decided to play the electric guitar along with them, and then recorded a small piece of music too. It was not that good, but still I kept it. Then, my sister arrived from school. She got some of her papers evaluated. She got 38 in Maths, 32 in Hindi, 22 in English, 34 in SST. Everything was out of 40. She was disappointed about English, but happy about maths. She refused to show me the papers. Anyways, I had lunch, and then moved back to my room. Then, we got a mapping document from Gil, so I started looking into it. It was a huge document, and it seemed that we would need few more days to just understand it. At around 5 pm, I, Akshay and Dallas had a call regarding the feasthunt project. After that call, I reverted to work, and also to YouTube video watching. Then, later in the afternoon, I realized that India are on the brink of losing one more Test match in England. Tendulkar made an half century but all was in vain. Dhoni was out first ball. Most of the players were out for a single figure. Lets see if India can maintain the top spot in Test Rankings. Then, I moved back to my room, and browsing random things. I decided to watch the movie "Badmaash Company" tonight. So, I put it for streaming. Then, I got a bad news that my choto mami's mother has expired. Though, I was not that close to her, but I remember her when I had met her. I don't know yet how it happened, but we all will miss her. May her soul rest in peace. Next, I started to write this post while listening to songs. Next, I plan to have dinner and then watch the movie. I plan to sleep by 3:00 am.

Diary 88: WFH and Movie Day

Yesterday I slept at around 5:30 am. I was video chatting with Mahak, and also watching the movie "Band Baaja Baarat", but then it was too late so I left it in between and slept. Mahak was sad about her bf. She was not getting any attention. I tried to calm her a bit, and show the right direction. I hope she finds it. Anyways, I woke up at around 11:00 am. I brushed my teeth, and then went online. I told Ankit that I will work from home on the issue. After that, we got a mail from Gil where I found out that there have been significant changes to the part of the problem I have been working on. So, I was a bit taken aback, but started again. Also, I got a call from the Webprint guy. He wanted to schedule a meeting, so I gave him the time for tomorrow evening. Meanwhile, I completed the movie that I had left. Then, at around 2:30 pm, I had lunch. Then, I decided to watch the movie "Tanu weds Manu". So, I started loading it, and also concentrated on the problem. Then, I left the problem and started watching the movie full time. It was just fine. Nothing special and very expected. Today, my sister was super busy with her preparations for tomorrow's exam i.e. English. In the late afternoon, I came to know that India is in trouble against England, and also that Sachin is probably playing the last test match at Lord's. Bows for Sachin, he is a great inspiration. Later that day, I found out that India lost the match by 196 runs- such a shame. Meanwhile, I started chatting with Alok and Mahak. Mahak was bit down today, but recovered from her anxiety to dump her bf. That is good news. Anyways, the chat went on and on, and we shared lots of YouTube videos etc. One of them was one of Coke Studio - ghir ghir. That song gave a new high. I was literally high on emotions and adrenaline. Also, Mahak gave me this link to a documentary named "sita sings the blues", which is supposed to be a satire on Ramayana. I may watch it after writing this post. Also, I plan to watch "Stanley ka Dabba" tomorrow. Now, I plan to sleep by 2:30 am.

Diary 9: Nothing much

Yesterday I slept at around 5 am, after watching CSI:Miami. Today I woke up at around 10:45 am. I had no particular tasks to complete. I remembered then that I have to send some documents to NuMantra Technologies for verification purposes. So, I collected the documents from different sources and sent them by 12:15 pm. After that, I started watching CSI:Miami season 2, and continued that till lunch. After I had my lunch at around 3 pm, I continued watching CSI:Miami till 4 pm, when the match between KKR and Chennai was supposed to begin. But I found out that rain has delayed the start, and the match will start at 5. So, I just surfed net, and watched CSI:Miami till 5. Then I started watching the match (I was wearing the KKR T-Shirt I bought yesterday). The match was totally one sided. Chennai started batting but were never able to let loose. They ended up with a mere 114 in their 20 overs. KKR's chase was very comfortable and they were going on nicely, when rains started again. Finally KKR won by D/L method, and ended up with 14 points on the points table. Well, as soons as this match ended, the other was on its way. My mom and dad went out for shopping, and also to bring my sister from the tuition. I started watching the Mumbai v/s Delhi match. Mumbai started off in an amazing fashion, with Blizzard living up to his name, but soon Mumbai lost Tendulkar to a nice in-swinger by Irfan Pathan. I wanted him to play well today to close the gap between him and the orange cap, but unfortunately it didn't happen. Mumbai ended up with a huge score of 178. Delhi's chase was a shame. Sehwag lost his patience as usual. Anyways, Mumbai won the game by 32 runs, and ended up with 16 points on the points table. At dinner, we had pani puri today, and then we dispersed to our rooms at around 11 pm. I also found out that I have been rejected by IIM Indore too, which didn't affect me much. I will inform my parents tomorrow. Next, I watched another episode of CSI:Miami, and then found out that Ganguly will be playing tomorrow for Pune Warriors at Mohali. I am excited about it, although I have no high hopes from him. Now, I plan to watch another episode of CSI:Miami and then sleep at around 2:30 am.

Diary 6: Good Day.. and Life is always about a Good day...

Yesterday, I didn't sleep at 2:30 am as planned. Instead I worked extra so that I can have a comfortable day today. Gil sent a late mail, to give us the information about the morning call, and also tell us about the next tasks on our plate. I was awake and hence started working as soon as I got the mail. I finished a considerable part of that task, and then slept at around 3:30 am. I woke up at around 9:20 am, connected to the internet and straightaway told Ankit that I won't be coming today as I was too tired from yesterday's work. After this, we attended the call with Gil, in which he just re-iterated the contents of the mail and thanked us for our efforts and hard work. The call ended at around 10:15 am. I started where I left off yesterday night, and neither Ankit nor Gil had any idea that I can finish my task off in just few hours. Today, I was relaxed and working at a steady pace, with no hiccups or issues. My brain cells were also firing the synapses in a superb way. I figured out a lot of optimum ways to implements many parts of the solution. I was happy to see how deep I was able to think, and how I have captured the software well, just within few weeks of training, which was primarily on a self-trained basis. In between work, I had lunch at around 2:45 pm and also watched an episode of CSI:Miami. Also, my Dad had to stay an extra day at Delhi because the work was not complete yet. He asked me to pay his SBI Credit Card bill, and so I did. I haven't got the salary for the last month yet, may be because Gil is too busy with the project work that he forgot to transfer the money. On another front, I got my Ad-sense account activated for my earlier blog, but will have to look into details of how it works. Anyways,I completed my task at around 3 pm. But, I didn't stop. I had a quick peek at what was Ankit's task, and I realized that he will surely have a long day ahead, mainly because it would take a lot of time to understand the complex sections which were earlier not his part of the task, and which made yesterday a hell for me. I had already figured out ways around it, but it would certainly take some time for him to acclimatize. Anyways, I knew that there was one more task, so I had a look at it, and started working on it. It was similar to the earlier ones, expect for one part, and so I decided that I would keep the rest of the parts ready. Meanwhile, there was an IPL match going on between RR and CSK. It was an important match for both of them, considering the new format of Qualifiers and Eliminators for the top four teams. 1st and 2nd team play a qualifier, the winner goes to the final, and the loser plays with the winner of the eliminator between 3rd and 4th. It is a good way to ensure that the consistent teams get more chances. Anyways, the match was won by CSK comfortably at the end. Mike hussey tied with Sachin as a contender for the Orange Cap. But later in the day, Sachin takes a lead of 24 runs. I stopped working at around 7:30 pm, and then suddenly I got a call from Shaurin, my ex-colleague. We had a nice chat, and came to know that Amlan is going to Paris to pursue Masters in management course (MIM), which is not a MBA, and is valid only in Europe. We cursed the B Schools for their gruesome admission processes. It was nice talking to him after a long time. After that, I started watching the IPL match between Mumbai and Pune. The match was taking place at DY Patil Stadium, just few kilometers away from my home. DADA was not playing, although he was sitting in the dug out of the team. Well, Mumbai batted first, and although they didn't start off well, they somehow managed to score 160, with some hitting by Keiron Pollard and T Suman at the death. Pune lost a wicket of the first ball of their innings, and they never were convincing enough. Mumbai won the match by 21 runs, and they are again back at the top of the table with 14 points. Today, again for the third consecutive day, we didn't eat home food. Today we ordered the food from a dhaba, which opened recently in our society premises. The food was good, but the quantity was a bit on the lesser side. After that, I logged in to my work mail, and found out that Ankit had not yet completed his task. I was saying to myself - What goes around, comes around. Then I watched few videos on Youtube, and then started writing this post. Meanwhile, I got a message from Gil that tomorrow's call will also be at 9:30 am and also that there is more work on the way, but now I am not that worried as my work is already ahead of what was required. Now, I plan to watch 2 or 3 online episodes of CSI:Miami, and then sleep at around 3:30 am.

Diary 4: Osama Bin Laden dead? Really ? I am not that sure about it.

Yesterday I slept at around 2:30 am, and today I woke up at around 10:15 am, to attend a conference call with Gil and Ankit. I had already told Gil that I will attend the call from home as I was too tired from yesterday's heavy work. Anyways, the call was just a half an hour call and ended at 11:00 am. In the call, we were assigned some new work which was pretty much simple and straightforward. After the call ended, Ankit told me that we will meet in office. I said that I will leave in a while, after starting the work. Somehow, I got stuck in the starting itself due to faulty schema definition files. I figured out the main problem and told Gil about it. He advised that I make a new project for now, and we can deal with the version problem later. So, I started working on the new project and was on full flow, so I decided that I will continue working from home and not waste any time. Time was flying by and soon it was 2 pm. Ankit had already reached office by 1 pm, but the internet connection at office was giving some problems. Sushma was also online today, since she was back from her one week holiday. Anyways, before Ankit could say anything I told him that I ran into an issue with some files, and hence had to clarify them with Gil, and since I didn't want to waste 2 hours, I stayed back. He understood the point, and afterwards took the updates from me regarding the new task. I had already divided the work between us, again assigning him the lesser portion of the pie (since I want to reap the maximum benefits of the task). I had a quick lunch at around 2:45 pm, and again started working. I completed my part of the new task around 4:30 pm, but then Gil came along with some other task, which unfortunately I had to do, since Ankit had not yet finished his part. So, I again started working. Meanwhile, I also started watching the ongoing IPL match between Mumbai Indians and Punjab online. I was eager to watch this, because it had Sachin Tendulkar. Mumbai was the first to bat, and started off slow, losing the wicket of David Jacobs in the first few overs. But then, Sachin and Rayadu introduced some stability and accelerated the run flow. The commentators today were criticizing Sachin because he was playing slowly, but in my opinion he played very nicely, understanding the slowness of the wicket, and also understanding the importance of his presence on the crease. He also regained the Orange Cap, and made a 45 ball fifty. Mumbai lost few wickets in the middle, but managed to get to 159 their 20 overs, which many people said is not enough as the wicket was good for batting conditions. I had my doubts regarding that. Anyways, somehow multi tasking between work and IPL, I saw the second half right through. Punjab didn't start well, they lost Gilchrist early, and Valthathy was on an all time low, with strike rates nearing 30-40. Punjab was also finding it difficult to make runs, and lost wickets in the middle overs. In the end, Mumbai won by 23 runs, and won back the first position from Rajashthan Royals with 12 points from their 8 games. Meanwhile, Ankit was facing some problems integrating my code with his, and so he sent it over to me to verify, and few manipulations, I was successful in doing that. So, I sent it over to both Gil and Ankit at around 7:15 pm. I was now free, finally, with all action items closed. So, I went to the drawing room and started watching the news. Well, today there was a huge announcement made at an international level by the president of US - Barrack Obama. At 8:30 am IST, he announced that Osama Bin Laden has been killed at Abbottabad, a place in Pakistan, some 50-60 kilometers north of Islamabad. Everyone reacted - the international press, the world political leaders, Pakistan government, Indian government, Indian media, Pakistan media. Most of them focused mainly on two points - Credibility of Pakistan on issues of Terrorism and Praise of US president in capturing the "most deadly" terrorist of the present times. When I saw the news, I was practically laughing at the ignorance and US biased nature of discussion. Very few, I mean, limited to numbers which can be counted by a kid studying in nursery, were actually asking the right questions - Where is the proof that Osama Bin Laden is dead ? Nobody saw any video or photograph. Why was his body buried at sea ? (may be to conceal evidence of DNA etc). Why this happened just in time, when Obama's popularity was on the decline, and was on his way to run for president for the second time?. Well, I need not tell myself why. I pity on those who cannot understand the real motive. People still think Osama Bin laden was the 9/11 mastermind, without asking any questions. This is not just the 10 years from 9/11 to today, the disease has been here for a much longer duration, more than anyone can imagine now. Good luck to the citizens of United States, but they have fooled yet again. Well apart from all this, tonight my mother said that she is tired of cooking. Hence, we ordered food from outside - veg noodles, veg machurian, chicken fried rice and chicken in barbeque sauce. I liked every item other than veg manchurian. Well, I was not much interested in the second match which was being played today between Delhi and Kochi. The epitome is that Delhi performed badly yet again and Kochi were fabulous. I returned to my room, to check my mails etc at around 10:30 pm. I also had a small chat with Gil, who fixed 9:30 am as tomorrow's call timing. I was fine with it, and I informed Ankit also. Then, started writing this post, and now I plan to watch two episodes of CSI:Miami, before I sleep at around 2 am.

DLF IPL 2011: Match 29 ( CSK v/s PWI )

Well, to start off, after India's world cup win on 2nd April 2011, I hardly care about what is going on in IPL. Earlier seasons were far more exciting given that nothing big as "World Cup" win had occurred before any of them. Also, this year's IPL has recorded the lowest TV ratings among all seasons as per news article - http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/media/entertainment/media/ipl-4-opens-to-lowest-tv-viewership-ratings/articleshow/8076188.cms . 

But barring all this, I have been keenly watching one person - Sachin Tendulkar. So much is there to learn from him - his humility, his calmness, his enthusiasm. I wonder how he can maintain that pace at this age when I am practically bored and lazy in my early twenties. He is the only reason, I am supporting Mumbai Indians ( apart from the fact that I own a jersey of MI :) )

Getting back to the present match, CSK started off well with Murali and Mike Hussey getting a few good hits here and there, but soon CSK succumbed to some superb bowling by Pune Warriors. Dhoni gave some support to Hussey. Raina and Morkel didn't trouble the scorers much. Hussey nearly stayed there till the end with a well timed 60 odd score.Well, in the end, CSK managed to score 142/6 in 20 overs. Not a very competitive score, given the boundaries are smaller in this ground than boundaries in other IPL grounds. Jerome Taylor, replacing Wayne Parnell, played his first match for Pune today and took 3 wickets. None of the bowlers had his economy rate above 8, which is quite commendable in this format of the game.

Now, coming to second innings, somehow there was no urge shown by the batsmen to make runs. Yuvraj, the captain, led the team in this front. He was very very tired and was sweating like a pig. Today was just not his day. Ashwin bowled superbly coupled with Bollinger. Most of the bowlers were very low on economy rate as per game standards. Chennai were superb on the field, and saved around 15-20 just by saving the boundaries and singles. Manish Pandey failed to create an impression on his Pune debut. It seemed that Pune were too complacent with the batting. In the end, even 142 seemed a mammoth total to chase, partly because of the slow nature of the pitch, which was clearly visible with the number of mis-hits by the Pune batsmen. Pune lost the game by 25 runs.

The net result of this was that Chennai won a critical game and are still in race for the semi-final spot. They have a reputation of making a good come back. Lets see, how the path unfolds for the defending champions from here.