Techcular.Com: For all Gadget Related Queries.

We love gadgets, but while buying them, we need careful analysis. A thing once bought is outs, and most of us can't afford to buy it one more time. Thankfully, I found a site which helps me make my choices. Techcular.com, it's a wonderful site. do check it out.

PriceIndia.Org : Before You Buy Check Over It.

Because of the online shopping becoming huge, the people in the physical market overpricing by loads depending on the condition in the area, there are often chances of paying more than one should do if the trade is honestly done.
There is now a website, thankfully which can help you get the right prices so that before buying you know the approximate costs and don't end up paying too much extra.
Another interesting website, Techcular.com, is a technology blog for gadget freaks, like me.

Enjoy the sites :)

My Experiments with GM Diet for Vegans : Day 1

Dieting is a commonly misused term. When someone says 'I'm on a diet', it is equated 'I'm not eating anything'. On the other hand, diet is an excellent way of self-management where you are getting disciplined by eating only the foods good for your body. Dieting is good, in short.
GM Diet for Vegans, or the General Motors Diet for the Vegetarians is a vegetarian-variant of a famous 7-day diet schedule which makes you lighter by around 5 kgs and cleanses your system in a week. It sounds magical, but well when you get down the path you know it's not magic but hardwork.
Especially staying in Delhi, Kamla Nagar and not eating anything other than fruits is a punishment of sorts. Yes, that's what the diet said.
Day 1: Fruits and Water. The most difficult thing was that there were no bananas. And in the end I realized, it wasn't what I missed that hurt. It was what I ate. Especially concerning was Water-melon. Half a water-melon took an hour to finish and after eating I still felt hungry. Apples and water melon along with water consisted the diet mainly. Felt lighter, but because I was always hungry.
P.S. I didn't use weighing machine before the start just to test my overall feel during the diet. Weight-loss was secondary. I was more inclined towards the positivity it's supposed to bring because the digestive system gets cleaned. If weight-loss is there, it'll be automatically felt I believe.
My Experiments with GM Diet for Vegans: Day 2, see you tomorrow...
Till then, keep eating. And keep yourself in check so that you don't ever need drastic measures.

Love: Eternal and Impossible

The article talks about love as in a relationship emphasizing one true love for life.

Gone are the times when we'd do anything to retain our partner

Before moving on to relationships let's ask some questions to our honest self and review our situations.
1)Did we ever feel the need to change our family despite arguments or fights for permanent? Children may want to separate from parents but that's a different issue. What I want to emphasize is did we ever want another set of parents? Obviously wishful thinking is different but exchange the mother of a one-year-old and see how he reacts. Similarly, take away a one-year-old from parents, especially mother, and see how they react. Talking about that time because the love then is of the purest form, not diluted by other factors. We didn't need another mother of father, we may think of staying away from them but won't want them replaced. Forget the scripted shows, talk reality, an honest question to yourself.

2)Would you consider going and living permanently in a different country? Those who make the decisions have some factors. And from what I've seen, there is a longing for home forever.

3)When people are sad, what they do is curl themselves into the shape they are as a fetus, just to try and inverse the process and go back to their origin.

Now coming to the point, we don't want to change things unless very important, be it the old home we live in. We try and get it fixed again and again, get rebuild unless we're forced to shift. And most humans come back to their natives even then, or when going around the place remember there was the house where I lived many a great memories.

The point is, why do we so easily give up the person we'd sometimes dreamed to live the life with? The bond with person is greater because it's not a blood relation and still you imagine getting old with that person. The questions has become even greater today with frequent break-ups, pre-marital affairs, post-marital affairs, divorces, live-ins, etc. If we don't need more than one mother, more than one father, then why do we come to realize we need more than one partner?

The simple answer is, the common frailty, quantity is better than quality. Though it takes a second to remove any doubts. A one-year old will have very few wants, mostly food and sleep. When he gets them, he's happy. When he doesn't, he's sad. It's not that the baby won't have anything else, but anything will do and not a particular thing. A 25-year old on the other hand has multiple wants. He gets them, he wants more. He doesn't get them, he wants them more. In both cases, he's not happy or content for long.

Also, the thing is, with parents we know we'll have them whatever we do and we can't have another set. Having a partner, we always have loved this saying 'tu nahi toh koi aur sahi, aur nahi toh koi aur sahi' meaning if not you, someone else, and so on. It's basically for those who aren't successful in love, and not for those who like to want more than they have.

There are also great people who, have one single person who they will have for life, but will still keep searching for others for pleasure. For them, there's nothing to say really. They've been wronged by a cultural shift but just one thing, if you ever love someone truly and would like to give up everything for that person, you'll remember what all you did and you'll probably be thinking the same is true for the other person as the demon is in your mind. There's an interesting forward sms too regarding that.

It could also be attributed to the tensions and depression. Today, everyone is in depression, so how will they solve the problem of their partner? When the sky is blue, they have a great time, but when sun starts to rise, they go back in search of shade. It's an attitude problem. We are the generation who'll call themselves the problem solvers, and can do anything for the friends is what we say. But we can't constantly go on with a nagging partner all our life, or even an year or two for that matter. And it's not depression we blame. It's the ease of getting away with anything after having made the best use already according to us.

So what is the solution? I don't know. I guess if you love your partner enough, you'll not need anyone else in life for that position. The solution is too simple to really apply that we forget and search for complex solutions.

Render with Ambient Occlusion, MY First Model (Barring Hands)

Spidy B-)

Pausing Live Video

This thought stings me, how come you advertise about pausing live video? If it's paused, it isn't live, as simple as that. It's a weird world where to make things simpler people make so many mistakes.They could've said it in a better way, probably pause what you watch, resume when you're free to watch again or something.
Actually, first part may be right, instantaneously, pausing the video you're pausing is actually live only. But the next instant, reality changes.
Life runs like this, there is no pause button, the moment you put it on pause, you're behind others. Make sure you utilize your time wisely.
P.S.: Even taking a rest may be utilization of time.

The Butt, rather the Ass of all Jokes

In the school, we had a one-liner on the decorated posters which I used to accept during those times but I do feel about it now. It said 'a day as a lion is far far better than hundred days as a deer'. Why, I say?

For me, Lion stands for brutality. Deer stands for beauty. We often say 'thing of beauty is a joy forever', yet we choose brutality, fierceness. That is because we do want to have that attitude, that hunger. But aren't we over-doing attitude thing? I mean we learned metaphors on a beautiful life, and we never talked of lion. And according to science, food chain and food web and balance etc, all are equally important to the overall existence and well-being. Yet we like one thing, choose quite another.

Let's discuss the life of a lion, what metaphors will it hold? Brave, fierce, competitive, brutal? He would be what Boman Irani describes in 3 Idiots. Deer on the other hand, a beautiful runner, fast but second to predator only. We don't want to come second then. Is it? Because it's not supposed to be an article dictating views, I'll leave this point open.

There's another thing that keeps me thinking, we always want and expect hard-work. And we don't use donkey in a good way. In fact it is always joked upon by us. Is it because donkey doesn't have a brain and keeps doing the same things for humans? Then do lions have brains? Would they attack if they weren't hungry? They will die if they don't kill, simple as that. So what's with killing as brave and fierce? Isn't it all a perception in the end?

Everyone who is a lion today has been a donkey at some stage consistently, and still is probably if he is managing those levels. And everyone would like to be remembered for some form of beauty too. So one can't rule our deer either.

What I feel at the end of the day, attitude, passion, talent, etc, all these traits aren't really what determine anything. It's the human trait that determines. Each human is innately different from each other. Being human is about being natural, and you can learn the skills only because your abilities reach your pinnacle during that period of learning and you continue the path of learning all through the life. It's nothing less, nothing more.

TO the Fortress, FOR Rahul Dravid, Carried BY the Madness

A shortened trip to watch a cricket match in temperatures soaring at 40 degrees and above, it might be called madness. But we had our reasons, and we enjoyed it, specially with a great company and terrific hosts. Here's the details if you wish to catch the enjoyment we had.

A guy doing an IT job using up more than his weekend, a job-hunting guy giving his Saturday interview a miss, a recently-turned 18 going out for first time with people other than family, and another guy who had his minds on various things, all went for the small 2-day trip basically for the match, and Jaipur sight-seeing as a secondary option. Sight-seeing can be thought as double meaning, especially with an all-boys gang.

We did what we went for right from the start, we had fun. Right from the time we met at Kashmere Gate (sans-Kichu), and enjoyed. It wasn't an easy thing to do, with heat catching up. While on our way, two of us slept, Santosh less though, and two others didn't at all. Part of what we discussed is when we can talk about anything any time, why do we use women as a synonym of gossip? Wait, may be we were discussing it while coming back. Doesn't matter, we did, and there's a point.

We reached there, booked a hotel after a lot of hard-work because there was an AIEEE exam scheduled and hotels were mostly full. Santosh left for home, and all the others gave an attempt at sleeping. Most did this time. In fact, it was difficult to wake Aman up from the dreams of Amani. I can claim to have heard him say see you later, love you, etc.

Santosh finally came with his friend Amit. He got his car down, drove for us and had it not been for him we would have been burning in Jaipur. He had actually left an important relative at home just to be with us. Brilliant work I'd say, finally someone gave me importance, albeit because of Santosh. He is a brilliant guy, I don't mean Santosh but Amit. You can't call someone brilliant if you know them for too long, can you? We had brilliant kachori when we got ready. Then it was about roaming around. Amer Fort, where I took a long route, I was alone in fact clicking pictures and walking up under the fury of the sun who was angry probably because I tried to touch it. I didn't really, but misunderstandings always rule the world. Amer Fort is beautiful. The walk alone was interesting, would have liked to go farther to the other forts but when I came back I wasn't in position, and Aman fell ill due to his nocturnal habits mostly. It was his sleep time, the main problem. We entered the insides, took pictures. It was brilliant. Specially to be taking pictures before we actually saw bats. And we ran away. I was always the last one left for the pictures. Sad, who clicks the photographer? Probably someone does if photographer is a female.

From Amer Fort, we headed for Jantar Mantar. It was something you'd like to visit under enthusiasm when you've score an 80 or 90-odd in Science in Xth standard and taken up Sciences for the Senior Secondary and dreaming to be an engineer or a scientist. For most, reality falls early, and in last few years, even the IT fell before reality. Anyway we were enthusiastic anyway. Checked the sun clock which was working fine. Took some pictures, the most beautiful place I found worth taking pictures, later I found, was a toilet. Amazing where toilets are more beautiful than equipments.

We saw Hawa Mahal from outside. It's not bad really, a good architectural piece. Later, we headed back to hotel, and then a bit of rest, and we went to Chaunki Dhaani, a heaven! It's a place I had visited a month prior to this, had loved it. This time, loved it even more. What atmosphere, what serenity. The lighting, the atmosphere, the brilliance of it all, the food, the service, everything was fantabulous. The other three forgot to thank me for forcing them to come there because it would've been cancelled but it's a thankless world really. I mean these guys thank their girlfriends thousands times a day for nothing really, and a friend? Isn't a friend to be taken for granted. Well well. I would've minded if I didn't enjoy it. I loved it. The food was the highlight, a great food, whose one plate would be enough for a family without any extra serving on a normal day, but that day, even Aman finished one-fourth of it who usually gives ants a competition. I had the lion's share. Finished almost everything till my stomach reminded me if I didn't have mercy on it, it'll not have any during the match tomorrow. I had to give up. The cruel stomach still cause problems. We topped the brilliant Rajasthani thali with a couple of Punjabi dishes with a kulfi. Kichu had been wanting kulfi all day so it was but natural that we have it. We had it, we loved it again. Santosh and Kichu went to the dance floor just because there were so many of the girls. I had the best seat, a camera in hand, to supposedly click those two. I just kept on clicking and clicking, a wider frame and tried my best to skip those two and capture everything else. One of those days when you need concentration to succeed and who will have the concentration to click in such situations? Ended with a paan, which was brilliant again. Later, at the room, I managed to finish a cold drink again. A match made in heaven I'd say, cold-drink and me. Roaming around at midnight to search for cold drinks, what else can one say? Obviously others wanted water and that could've waited.

The next day, the big day, the match day. Santosh tried it hard to keep the emergencies coming in so that we do feel like missing the real deal. I bought the Rajasthan Royals t-shirt, Santosh also ghost-bought it. We were with his cousin, we went to Puma store to get the tees, then to a mall which was more of a market and all hopes of getting under the ac went under drains, rather under sun! Would you believe, sun was still angry that I challenged it to go farther than it has ever been? The best thing in the market was the BRRR campaigne. I mean the girl who was presenting it. Coke given inside was chilled, super-chilled, and was therefore brilliant. I gave it a shot, and being the perfectionist I am, couldn't clear it up without any rehearsal and in the two shots they gave me. No respect for their brand ambassador Aamir Khan who wouldn't have cleared a difficult brrr stunt in 10 shots with proper rehearsal. Oh well, life isn't fair always, is it? Anyway for the coke of it, it was fun.

Then came Santosh, and went again for booking tickets. Finally he came, and me and Santosh stripped in public. I mean we changed t-shirts to show our love for Rajasthan Royals. It was one of those days when I'd have done without the slight obesity. But well, thankfully only our group was watching, and it's good not to be liked by boys for your body. Santosh had no such problems. He's a semi-skeleton after all. For the match, along with us four were Santosh's cousin Manoj and friend Ramavtar. They were great hosts, I'd bet better than Santosh. Well sorry Manoj and Ramavtar, that wasn't even a comparison. Anyway.

Off to match, the security guards tried there best to make people turn back and go home so that they could watch all alone. We didn't. I held on to the poster we had made for Rahul Dravid despite them telling it's not allowed. I held on, and kept it open almost all the match, till Dravid got out probably. The match was brilliant. Dravid was batting well before Watson stole the show with a wicket maiden and from then things turned backwards till Menaria came. Earlier in the day, Uthappa got out four times to Warne, while the umpire was sleeping in the first over where three weren't legally out as per umpire, Warnie changed ends and finally got him out the fourth time. For the record, Uthappa got some 4-5 boundaries of Warne. Well well. Coming back to batting. Menaria is brilliant, and before Taylor if was him who gave the impetus to victory. Taylor finished it off with the classy Rahane who seemed to be wasted lower down, as he later proved to. Santosh had left mid-game, continuing the practices from the manual of good hosts authored by Ricky Ponting, with contributions from Andrew Symonds, Michael Clarke and Mathhew Hayden. Ramavtar came back after dropping him and we went to hotel, clicked a few pictures, and had a brilliant dinner. Then going to the bus station, we took the bus.

It's interesting how lovely the ride can be when you're not comfortable. Because you can't sleep obviously. You know you have to talk. I was listening to the fast and full bass songs trying to sleep because that's how I sleep with the aide of music. Aman tried his best and I guess he failed. That's why he started talking to me, probably only the best thing after sitting silently in an uncomfortable bus. We managed to wake Kichu up. Actually Aman managed to, his brilliant idea. He told Kichu if he wanted to learn Punjabi songs now. Obviously, Kichu's heart goes out to Punjabi and so it was really no question of no. He was, for the first time in our trip, physically and mentally both present (other than the match) because he was either sleeping or on phone for the rest of the trip. He messaged someone 'kinna sona tennu rab ne banaya' and was last seen checking his cellphone ten times a second while we were leaving. There was no reply, obviously not everyone stays awake at night in the matters of heart. I had the last cold drink of the trip around 2 am. It was good to be back home finally.