Aggaaggaaa!

It is after intense thought that am writing this post. I just unearthed a priceless piece of general knowledge. Or even wisdom, you may call it. And simply having it in my head is painful. I want to get it out.

Post rating: U / PG (Meaning, read only if U are alone, living in a PG. Veetla irundhaa padikkaadheenga)
(Ok, very seriously, this post has infinite direct allusions to a very popular and fulfilling Tamil swear word. If you are the kind who winces on hearing such words, you might have a seizure before you finish reading this post. Don't blame me later!)

Come Maadi Learn Maadi

All you non-kandu buggers at Bangalore.. I know exactly how you feel when folks on the road give you directions that consist wholly of words like "aagbittu hogbidi.. periya bittu malabar beedi" and the like. So here's an effort to learn the basics of the language that will ensure survival in the city:

http://absolutegyan.blogspot.com/2010/06/kannada-kali.html

GM Diet!

I am not so much of a supporter of diets. I believe more in working out rather than in cutting one's intake. The missus is a proponent of dieting. And I usually fight with her over this.

But I heard about the GM diet a couple of days back. Anyone I spoke to about this had a good thing or two to say about it. So in a sudden pang, we decided to jump into it yesterday.

The version we're following is here.

My updates:

Day 1:
86 kg before the beginning of the diet.
All fruits day.
Was kinda tired of all the fruiting and pissing around all day! And had to suppress a lot of temptations :(

Day 2:
84.7 kg! 1.3 kg down in a single day!
Today's an all vegetables day.
It's evening, and slowly getting used to the diet.
It feels great though :)
More tomorrow..

Day 3:
85.2 kg :( Gone up a few hundred grams! Not worried though.. The first 4 days are only supposed to be preparation for the last three days of dieting, which is when the actual weight loss is supposed to happen. Lets see.

Day 4:
84.1 kg :) Ah! Back on track!

Day 5:
83.6 kg - Not a stellar fall from yesterday. Nonetheless its a fall at least!

Day 6:

83.1 kg - Things look great!! 3 kg in 5 days!!

But alas :( This was the last day of my diet :( Given that this is my Thalai Deepavali, couldn't really argue with the in-laws on the validity of my diet. So broke the diet today!

And didn't measure my weight for 3 more days. Kept feeding heavily on sweets and stuff. Finally reached 86 after all the munching on the occasion of Diwali. So am back at square one, but the diet prevented me from reaching 89! In that sense, was successful!!! And the inches I lost haven't come back (as yet). And now am quite conscious of the amount of food I take, and am able to say no anything, however tempting it might be!! So on the whole, I give this diet a thumbs up.

(Note: Some people complain against this diet, saying it might lead to side effects like loss of hair. I have always been losing hair rather fast, so I didn't notice anything odd)

Revival of AbsoluteGyan

My other blog was hybernating for a year and a half. Now, I am on a drive to revive that. Planning to put up notes from the various talks of business leaders that I would be attending here at IIMB. (Have already put a post on the essentials of Venture Capital funding)

Now, have started a series on the basics of digital photography. A series that would aim to take amateurs to the doors of serious photography. Hope I'd get enough time during summers to take this series to its logical end. If I don't conclude it during the summer, I may never :)

Do visit http://absolutegyan.blogspot.com/!

The Countdown...

01-Dec
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02-Dec
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03-Dec
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04-Dec
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05-Dec
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06-Dec

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07-Dec
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:)

08-Dec

Placed!

More details later!

The 4th idiot

Today morning I was returning from the mess to my room when I saw a group of folks standing near my room looking at the looooong corridor longingly, with SLR cameras in hand. That struck a chord with me cos that's a frame I love too. It's a very long corridor with neat rows of beams on top and pillars on the side - a photographer's dream setup.

So without any hesitation I approached them and introduced myself and asked if they were from some photography club. That kinda shocked them all. They looked at each other and laughed out loud and said they were making a movie here.

"Oh! Sorry I mistook you all cos of these cameras. If you are looking for some nice place, there is this thing called the Central Pergola. Have you seen it? The huge window on a large stone wall?"

"Ya we've seen that. Can take silhouettes there"

"Ya that's why I suggested that place :) BTW we have a photography club here"

"Oh is it? Cool. So what do you folks do in the club?"

"We move around taking pics in the campus and outside"

"That's great. Can we have a look at the pics?"

"Ya sure.. I'll get in touch with the club folks and make a collection and meet you. How long will you be here for?"

"Two more days."

"Fine, I will get in touch with you by then. Bye!"

"Bye!"

And only after that did I realise who they were - Raju Hirani and his crew for the movie '3 idiots' starring Aamir khan, and Madhavan!! :) I kicked myself for not realizing that when I was talking to them (Raju's crew.. Not Aamir and Maddy.. They werent thr).. Now a Google image search confirms it was Raju Hirani.

Hope I really get to meet him again in the next couple of days!

Life@IIMB: The not so random parts

Ok, so FINALLY I bring myself to key in these thoughts that I've been thinking of penning for a long long time now. It's just more than 2 months since I landed here, and in this period I have got a hang of the place. Some notes from my thought stream:

• The brand of IIMB is just too powerful. Very often we have some great people coming over here to talk to us from the dais. When I say great, it's not out of diplomacy; I truly MEAN great. The likes of Abdul Kalam, Capt Gopinath (Deccan Aviation) and Subroto Bagchi (MindTreeeeeeee :) ) were here in our first month, and many more keep coming over. Their sessions help in one thing: to keep our targets focussed high. Their presence keeps instilling in us a sense of the significance of the place we are in.. It keeps reminding us that being in such a place, if we end up doing something insignificant in life, something is really really wrong with us.
• The campus is a separate world in itself. Its culture and feel are very different from those of Bangalore.
  
• Except for the pub and party attitude :) I am reminded of a small incident.. A few years back when I went to Max Mueller Bhavan in Chennai for some competition, I found a govt school boy of about 10 - 12 years sitting next to me. When we were small-talking, suddenly he gasped. I looked at him quizzically, and he pointed to a lady (foreginer) seated across the room. She was smoking. That shocked the spine out of my small acquaintance, as was evident from his words "pombala dum adikkuraa!!" (meaning "a female is smoking!"). Had that guy been here, he'd have become very broadminded very soon.
  
• Self sufficiency rules IIMB campus. If one wishes so, one can stay within the campus itself for 2 full years without stepping out (except for stuff like bank loans).
• After coming here, I take longer to wash my face, and shorter time to comb my hair
  
• Ok that's another way of sayin I'm losing hair :( Maybe cos of the post 2 / 3 AM sleeping habits. In the two months I've been here, not once have I slept before midnight. It's not that acads are too tough. Am sure they're manageable. But there are a whole lot of other stuff that go on here, and one always finds that time is heavy in demand. I would sure be happier if days were longer than 24 hours.. I can learn/do something more in that time..
• Luckily most of my passions have remained unaffected here.. I've performed three dances till date :) And am a part of the photography club.. And, I've enrolled myself in the carnatic music classes - something I've always wanted to do!! These make sure I stay in touch with myself and my life.. Maybe the biggest casualty is my blog.. Whenever I find some free time, I rather wish to rest and relax than write something here.. cos i usually write ONLY when am in the mood.. In fact, this blog started as hints at the back of my Economics notebook..
• Which brings me to the point that classes here are like classes everywhere.. We sleep / draw caricatures / click pics of sleeping friends / etc.. In that sense, this place is as good as any other educational insti in the country :) and we just love it.. Cos classes are 1.5 hours long :( one simply cant focus on a subject for so long at one go..
  
• A point of respite is that there will be max 3 classes per day.. and afternoons are free.. One can catch precious sleep in that time.. which is what most of us do actually :)
• Hectic activity comes in cycles here.. If one week is back breaking, the next week would be relatively cool.. But one should risk getting used to the "cool" part, cos that's just a temporary respite.. Schedules will soon be back to demanding superhuman levels of capacity, tenacity and efficiency.. But no one feels bogged down by all this, cos there are 270 other shoulders to offer solace..
• Competition here is high.. very high.. damn too high.. fuckin high.. Ok guess I've hit the superlative.. Just imagine, in my first test here, I got 5 out of 7, and was class second (mark-wise).. but there were 4 guys who had scored more, and 15 who had scored as much as I had.. In one sense, I stood 20th in a class of 67, despite scoring the 2nd highest mark..
• One reason for the point above is that this place overflows with IITians.. They have landed here in flocks.. Before coming here, I used to think IIT+IIM was an awesome combo.. But now, I feel that's very very commonplace.. In fact, now methinks if you are a non-IIT+IIM candidate, it is a greater achievement :D
• Another point about students here is that most of them have been in many positions of responsibilities in the past.. That gives all such people a great sense of confidence.. And to some, it adds to arrogance of the undesirable kind.. Though a minority, these people end up as "footage mongers".. Anything happens at college, these people HAVE to grab some limelight.. And they do it so obviously, it gets very irritating.. but, have got used to it now.. and it's become fun to watch them in action :)
  
• One thing that jumped out at me @ IIMB is the level of diversity here.. There are so many people who have never been on my radar in life which has been full of Engineers and nobody else.. And here I share class space with people who have been pilots, sailors / marine engineers, CAs, pure science aficionados and so on! My networks in life have never been this diverse..
• But if I look outside of diversity, my networks are quite useful! There are so many DAV and PSG guys here at IIMB!! Kinda reiterated the significance of being at good institutions..
  
• Almost all student related activities here are handled by students entirely, including the all-important placements.. This reminds me of my good ol' alma mater PSG Tech, where similar autonomy existed for students..
  
• A funny thing here is that one's sense of seniority gets muddled.. many people who were my juniors at school and UG are my seniors here :) And this is bound to continue as the average work-ex of the incoming batches is on the rise year-on-year..
• The buildings here remind me of Hogwarts.. Tall, stony structures.. with creepers to add to the impact.. And pergolas to offer a light-and-shade effect (jargon courtesy: my architecture friend).. The great imposing structures are a sight to watch! have clicked some pics.. Mostly my next post..

One thing I do miss is Chennai and MindTree.. That's equivalent to family and friends.. They were so much a part of my life for 2 years and suddenly now they aren't, in the everyday scheme of things.. That is one reason why I relish this hectic life.. Takes my mind off all these..

To end, a small anecdote.. A friend of mine had some personal problems and was cribbing to his brother about how he was unable to get some things done.. his bro (an IIMB alumnus) said with a smile: "Don't worry.. There are very few things an IIM guy cannot get in life".

I have grown to LOVE the arrogance in that statement.. And this is quite unlike my usually sober nature.. The reason is that, to this date, it gives me a lot of strength and confidence when am down and nearly out..

Search me!

Ok guys, I'm fed up of explaining to people that you can format your text in Gtalk.

- Enclosing text between asterisks makes them bold.
- Enclosing text between underscores makes them italicized.
- Dunno if there is a way to underline text. Let me know if there is.

Anyway, this is fairly common info. (That is to say, pls dont hit back saying your 5 - yr old cousin has this in his knowledge bank)

But there is something extremely interesting about Gmail that I got to know from my friend, philosopher and guide Rathna Anna!

In gmail, all the following IDs are one and the same:
- abc.def@gmail.com
- a.b.c.d.e.f@gmail.com
- ab.cd.ef@gmail.com
and so on!

The dots can be played around with! :) If you dont believe me, send yourself a mail with the dot misplaced.

Interesting right?! :)

Do you guys know any other easter eggs like this?

Nokia va Noandu ya!

One good ideal to follow as a 'good' consumer would be to use a gadget / service as extensively as possible. I have seen people using high-end tools for pedestrian applications! And when that happens, it irks me like nothing else can. What else can I do, when a person sincerely opens MS Word to store a phone number!

Let me get to the point directly. This blog is to state some cool "secret" things that can be done with higher end Nokia phones. (N Series / 6681 / 6680 / 6600 etc)

Ok, frankly there is nothing secretive about these features; they are there on the user manual alright. But none of us turn to the user manual EVER, right? As people often say, "If all else fails, read the instructions". So I believe you guys might have some useful take-aways from this one.

Here goes...

1. To select text: YES! You can select text like you can do on the computer.
- Place the cursor at the beginning of the text to be selected
- Press and hold the edit button (it is the button labeled with a small pencil)
- Now move your cursor to the right without releasing the edit button (use the arrow keys for this). As you run the cursor across the text, it will get selected and will be indicated as on a computer
- Once the cursor reaches the end of the text to be selected, release the buttons
Simple!
(Tinker around with it; for e.g., with the edit button pressed, instead of pressing the right arrow several times, press the down arrow once to select an entire line.)

2. To copy text:
- Select text as indicated above
- Now press and hold the edit button
- An option will appear on the screen to copy the text

3. To paste copied text:
- Place the cursor wherever you want to paste the copied text
- Press and hold the edit button
- You will get an option on the screen to paste the text

4. To mark multiple continuous options on a list:
Like, when marking many songs / images on lists. There is a much easier way than to go to options each time!
- Place the cursor on the first item in the list
- Press and hold the edit button
- Press the arrow keys to select multiple items
But the catch here is that this is useful only if the multiple items are continuously positioned on the list.
To unmark all marked items, repeat the same procedure. Now all marked items will be unmarked.

5. To insert multiple symbols in a text message:
- press "*" and bring up the list of symbols
- Move to the first symbol you want to insert
- Press "5" (NOT "select")
- Now the symbol will get inserted in the text, but the list of symbols will not disappear. So virtually you wont be able to see the text; but do not worry. The symbol would be there alright
- Now move to the second symbol you want to insert and press "5" once u reach it
- Repeat the same for all symbols you want to insert, BUT FOR THE LAST SYMBOL ALONE PRESS "SELECT" INSTEAD OF "5"
- Now the list of symbols would disappear and you would find that all symbols you inserted would be available on the text in the same order
(Tip: To navigate in the list of symbols you may use the arrow keys. But keys 2, 4, 6 and 8 also double up as alternate arrow keys. I find it easier to navigate with them, rather than with the arrow keys)

6. To view all open applications:
Ok, this is already quite well known. But repeating for the sake of the uninformed.
- Press and hold the menu key
- Your screen will now show the list of applications that you have still left open (if no application is open, it would say "telephone" alone. That is your phone's desktop)
- You can move between the list by using the arrow keys or the menu key
- Choose the "select" option to open the desired application

7. To close applications open in the background, without entering them:
Closing unnecessary applications is very essential. Applications which remain open in the background will consume your battery power. So it is prudent to often check as per the above instructions if you have any applications unknowingly left open. This will often happen this way: You might have called someone from your contacts book / call register. Then you would have forgotten to exit your contacts / call logs once you finish the call. (Worse still, some of you might not even know that it has to be done!) So without your knowledge, after every call you make from your contacts / logs, your battery power will keep reducing unnecessarily. The way to close those applications without entering them is this:
- Press and hold the menu button
- The list of open applications would now appear
- Navigate to the application you want to close (by using arrow keys or menu key)
- Once u reach the application to be closed, press the delete button (the one marked with "c")
- You will be prompted if you want to close the application
- Choose 'yes'

Well then, folks! That's it on this.

I have tried as much as possible to keep the instructions general so that they can be applied on any Nokia higher-end phone. But do remember that nobody is infallible!