Irresistable - only for guys

there is this email floating around and i thot i shud have it in my blog for no reasons...isn't it tempting ?...sweet sugar on sweeter lips...

Fun Bunch!!

From left-right : S u m i t i T a y a l (Su), K i s h o r e (juicy), V i s w a , S r e e l a t h a & S u h a s i n i .

Venue: Little Penang - Banjara hills.

Person missing here is Swaroop(who was showing off his new Nokia that had a flash. Gawd, i wonder why cell fones come with so many features. Soon, its gonna have in-built toothbrush, placeholder for some chicklets or mints, and the sides will have some chemicals to light a match stick). Yeah but thanks Swaroop, without your flash this night snap wouldn't hv looked the way it looks now:-)

I've been sticking around with these guys for some time now. They really are a fun bunch man..Nice friends...The only sick thing with us is that whenever we get together we can't resist us from talking about the sicker corporate world where we dwell. Ten minutes of "hi", 10 mins on the restaurent/food, 10 mins on the last vacation one of us would've had and then back to office gossip, but we all love it.:-). How else wud u get to know abt all the babes who newly joined the company.

Land of 3Fs

Ok. My 6th visit to this rocking place in India :-) Hmm Gong sound in the head of few of my friends for telling this ..Can't wait guys, till i fill in diesel and pack my bags to the land of 3Fs.Yeah land of 3Fs - Fish Fry, Fenny & Football. The trip is pretty much planned and all set. Am gonna spend my x-mas there this year. Hoo Hoooo..Thanks Dad, for collecting most of the information.


Its going to be a 7 day trip. Stay will be in a beach side resort of the National institute of oceanography( been there earlier - lovely place). Attend Sandhya's (my cousin) wedding there, do some site seeing and hopefully some photography too (by them my dark room will be fully functional. btw, the equipments have reached Bombay from Texas and will be soon in Hyd.)

Its about 710 kms of rolling in 3 different highways. The route is like this...(my best attempt to be accurate to the 3rd decimal in inches :-)


Till then, i'll be looking at the calendar all day.....

Man's best invention

All you bachelor guys, Which according to you is Man's best invention !!!

Maggi Noodles
Black Jeans
Body spray
Laptop
Remote control
3 piece cargo
Hair gel
Beer
1 - Black Jeans - Boy, how many days did i wear it to college and yet looks cool and fresh:-). Hasn't it saved detergents during our college days

2 - Maggi - My taste buds still love her(or may be my laziness to cook compromises with the taste)

3 - Remote control - it would've taken 3 light years of time for me, had i been running to the tv to change the channel and get back to sofa all these years.

4 - Laptop - It never reminds me that am married.:-)

5 - Beer - No comments needed

6 - 3 piece cargo - My recent obsession. I wear it to office with all 3 pieces intact, then unzip the first zip in the gym and make it look like shorts, unzip only the last one for a good night walk in necklace road wearing a 3/4 pants.

7 - Hair gel - Hmm. Water problem. No problem. Brylcream is the answer.

8 - although i don't need one :-), am sure this is there up in the list for many bachelors:-).

Am an MBA. Are you one too?

Just realized that am an MBA. It stuck me only today when i was driving through Paradise area . Hee hee!!!!. Don't drop your jaws. I was driving back home and there was this babe in front me trying to cross the busy roads, probably to catch up with some old and long lost friends on the other side and was all of a sudden dumbfound in front of my car. (wish i had time to offer a drop) and wish she readily accepted it too:-). She was damn pretty and her t-shirt was one of those that had freaky and funny lines. Caught inbetween adoring her and reading these lines, i chose the later. Had i chosen the earlier, it would've been too obvious and i'll be hitting my head for embarassing myself. Yeah the t-shirt read "am an MBA" in the typical comic sans serif font. I was wonderng whats the big deal about this sentence. When she turned after showing a geture of apology to me, i noticed it read "Member of Bad Activities".

I was almost shouting - "hey am one too". I definitely belong there. don't i? So are you one too?

First blood - reloaded

i just consumed this a few minutes back. It is raining and very chill outside here in Hyd. Came back from office, parked the car, started my Yamaha and Vrooooooom to the nearest Haleem shop .... Hot haleem in cold weather - Yummmmy n D E L I C I O U S !!!!!!



For readers new to my blog, please read my blog on "First blood" written a year ago.

Did you guys realize something - Its more than a year since i started blogging.
Danke to Moinu & thanks to Ashok for the encouragement and for being regular readers of the junk that i've been giving for a year.

About 20 blogs in a year - Not bad isn't. Mr. Bachi was saying this is not going to last long when i created the blog. Soon you guys are going to see me cycling & also play piano :-)

The Best Puzzle happens to be the Worlds biggest selling Toy.

Are you Man enough to solve the Rubik’s cube every time its kept in front of you? Not just once – E V E R Y T I M E.
I can’t explain the joy that you’ll experience when you solve a Rubiks cube in front of someone (or a set of people) and then toss it off with all the cubes in its place. You have to experience it yourself.
Will talk about ‘tossing’ a little later.(and if I don’t, remind me).

Before I start facts and fictions about Rubik’s cube, my credits to 4 people without whom I wouldn’t have learnt this art.

1. Mr. Mark Jeays – who explained the physics behind the cube.
2. Mr. Bodsd – who translated Mr. Mark’s explanation to something which I can understand.
3. Mr Ashok Vedagiri – for pestering me to blog
4. and last but not the least, Mr. Erno Rubik for inventing this toy which can be played all through your life and still find it new & exciting every time you solve it.

Solving rubik’s cube has been my favorite timepass for the last couple of months and I might’ve solved it, may be 250 times and am pretty sure all 250 of them were unique combinations.

Read on to know a little more about this toy.

Wiki says “Rubik's Cube or Rubix Cube is a mechanical puzzle invented in 1974 by the Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik. The plastic cube comes in five different versions: the 2×2×2 ("Pocket Cube"), the 3×3×3, the 4×4×4 ("Rubik's Revenge"), 5×5×5 ("Professor's Cube"), and the 6×6×6 cube. The 3×3×3 version, which is the version usually meant by the term "Rubik's Cube," has nine square faces on each side, for a total area of fifty-four faces, and occupies the volume of twenty-six unit cubes (not counting the invisible cube in the centre). Typically, the faces of the Cube are covered by stickers in six solid colors, one for each side of the Cube. When the puzzle is solved, each side of the Cube is a solid color. The original 3×3×3 version celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary in 2005, when a special edition Cube in a presentation box was released, featuring a sticker in the centre of the white face (which was replaced with a reflective surface) with a "Rubik's Cube 1980-2005" logo”



I told you earlier that I might’ve solved it 250 times and each time it was unique. Sounds like a cock and bull story isn’t?. The fact it has 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 unique combinations and this is just the number of possible positions. The number of solutions are a much bigger number and knowing that number is of no relevance to anyone.
Its humanly impossible to find out all such combinations and solve it too given a very small life. So that makes this toy a one of its kind. Anyone at any age can find it interesting to solve it.

How I reached the pinnacle: It was a Saturday night, when 3 of us (Amit sharma, Bodsd & myself) had a light dinner at GK and went back to my place. After discussing about cars, home interiors et al with Bodsd, I crashed onto my Bed at about 4 in the morning. Bodsd had a flight to catch at 7 and if he goes to sleep, he is not going to make it to the lane. So he kept himself amused by fixing the Rubik’s cube lying near by cot. When I woke up, the cube was fixed, Without giving much attention to the cube we went to the airport. When I came back I was wondering how on earth one could fix a Rubik’s cube. Bodsd flew to the U.S and we met up again after 3 or 4 months. During these days I did not shuffle the cube and was trying to understand the solution. Googled and found few forums where they discuss about solving it blind folded, solving with one hand etc, but never could make any sense and was thinking this is for people from Mars.

Client’s place is a good place to venture into all these isn’t? I was in U.S and visited Bodsd’s place almost every day for dinner. Thanks to P2k & Bodsd for the amazing food and hospitality. They are simply superb hosts. While P2k was cooking, the only thing that Bodsd & myself were discussing was on the Rubik’s cube solutions. There were times when I called him on his mobile when I was stuck with the solutions. After 6 full days of trying “I SOLVED IT”. I felt like I had wings to fly which many other human being din’t have. Since then I have been solving it whenever I get a chance to. I started carrying it in my pocket when I went to restaurants, when I go for a walk, and once when I was in a movie. Now I solve it in about 6 to 8 mins on an average with 100 to 130 moves. I know am a kid in front of millions of Rubik’s cube solvers who do it more efficiently, but am still above billions of people who don’t know how to solve it 
This is one toy I’ll cherish and play for the rest of my life.

Coming to the ‘tossing’. When bodsd first solved it, he tossed it off his hand onto the sofa giving a gesture that this isn’t a big deal and that he can do it with so much ease. I like the way he tossed it and I do that too in front of others, afterall showoff is honey for some and beer for others.:-). Now I realize that the pleasure derived by tossing it off is more than solving it.

Back to basics

Never been under such tremendous pressure to write blogs. People are calling my blog site a stale tank, calling me a lazy bum (although i am), and Moinu criticizing this as a temporary stint.
WTF man. Blogging is becoming a social responsibility now, like attending weddings or giving gifts for birthdays.

Ok, here's something that i've been holding back for sometime now, for the simple reason that this shouldn't go down as a hall of fame for 'showoff'. (it may turnout to be one), but who cares. If honey is sweet, so is showoff. If beer fizzes, so does showoff.

Back to basics - You can get back to basics on so many matters. The coach of a soccer team goes to the drawing board after every match. Cricketers go to the nets. Here am getting back to the basics of Photography, the film, the negatives, the pinhole camera ,the chemicals ,the trays , the dark room and the red light. I know, at this point of my blog, it invites most of my readers to look at the 'back button' of the browser or at the "X" button on the top right corner of this page. Will cool it down for you folks and make it less technical :-)

just a couple of paragraphs on the lost art - "the Conventional non digital photography". if you find a suitable name for the above, please let me know and i'll get your name evangelized through my stale blogs.:-). I call it the Dark room photography.

I dont have a digital camera and i dont miss one. Digital photography has made life so easy for everyone with advancement is lens, the sotware used, the memory, the additional features etcetc. But as it advances, the conventional means of developing a photograph is slowly becoming extinct like the post cards /inland letters and fountain pens. You don't need computers, you don't need sofwares to crop, straighten, glow, tint and filter. You learn each one of them to do it yourself and enjoy the essense of dark room photography.

Even if you use a conventional camera, you end up processing in the lab for a few bucks. Why not process and print your black-and-white photos instead of sending them to a lab? Quality and control: both are diminished the moment you let someone else process your photographs. If you have the time and commitment, processing your own work will give you an amazing amount of control--and creativity. And here, "Creativity". Isn't this a word that every one wishes to be associated with? This is exactly why it kicked me to learn more about the LA (lost art) and as a result, the showoff started. Yes am setting up a dark room in my house. The equipments for film processing are on its way. Ill upload few snaps of the equipments (thanks to my grandpa, who is a professional photogrpaher) who is kind enough to hand over the baton to me and continue the legacy. Ofcourse those are digital snaps :)


It will be an overdose, if i explain the steps involved in film processing today, but will attempt to do each step as i learn (sometime in the near future). For those interested, I'll talk about
a) What you need?
b) What to learn?
c) How it works?
d) Where to buy

On the outset, Dark Room photography is simple and affordable and is a hobby well worth spending your time and money. I wish readers of this blog pick up interest in this and do film processing some day or other and keep the dying art alive for some more years. For the rest, good luck with digital photography and hell with all those softwares that can make crappy snaps looks like masterpieces.

Solitary Weeper

I haven't experienced this before. Not sure if i'll ever experience this again. But it was tough for me to leave her all by herself and bid farewell. As i look back...Long drives, bumpy roads, knee deep stagnant water, Hyderabad summer, unwashed for ages - she has never let me down. She has never offended me. She rolled faster and faster whenever i wanted her to. She was a stress reliever when I banged her doors hard to show my anger on someone whom she hasn't even seen. Trips to Medak, Srisailam, Warrangal, Vijayavada and 30000 kms in Hyderabad and not a single breakdown. Today, am breathing air only because she took a bad hit on herself in an accident two years back and saved my life. Even after the accident she never looked liked she had met with one. She was more a friend than a luxury material.

Tonight she is spending her night in some garage, standing next to so many other cars. For one last time I switched off the ignition. Little did she know that was the last time she is serving her master. If she had senses, she must be thinking that am going to rescue her tomorrow morning from the dungeon. But she is only going to be refurbished and sold to someone and be a money maker for the car agent.

First car is very special to anyone and am no different. As i walked away after parking and locking, i couldn't take my eyes off her. I heard her speak to me. But i had no options but to kill emotions. I was rude to her and pretended i was happy leaving her there. It was an emotional moment for me, after all she was my first car and am sure i will never feel as emotional as i did today towards cars. When i left her alone today, i had nothing to take with me but for the sweet memories of my association with her last 3 years and 2 lessons.
Lesson#1 Never love materials.
Lesson#2 How to kill emotions.

If only she had eyes to weep...
If only she had heart to feel...
If only she had a mouth to speak..

Tomorrow i may see her zoom past me in the roads of Hyderabad with some stranger sitting behind her wheels. Will she recognise me......?

Talk about 'Thin', but not out of thin air.

I wasn't as proud as I am now, when I bought this sleek Motorazr V3I. Every one on earth knows the fact that Nokia phones are the most reliable ones and easily the number one cell phone maker in the world. But I always had the flair for phones that are sleekish though not so reliable, taking a chance with my luck, thinking nothing will go wrong with my piece. Touch wood!!!I never ran out of luck so far.


My first phone was Siemens SL45, with MP3 player and 32 MB memory stick, voice dialing, orange backlight, sync up with outlook stuff etc. Sounds a thing of the past right? But I bought it in the early 2001 ( almost 5 years back, when an illuminated back light was considered the in-thing). That piece is still serving its tenure at my dad's place after bungee jumping 100 times.


Bored with SL45, I wanted to shift to one of those flip models and with budget eating up my wallet leather, decided on Sony Ericsson Z200. That year Sony ericsson was declared the best emerging mobile maker, closing the gap with nokia. As an anti-Nokia, din't think twice to pick up that piece. Did enjoy that for a year and a half before Motorazr was introduced.


My god, this phone looked like it was as thick as just the 4 cards Ace, King, queen and Jack put together. It was that thin and anyone holding it wouldn't feel shy to flip it up to catch the public eye. I walked into one of the shops and asked for the price and it was a whopping 32000 INR. Without showing any expressions on my face and pointing my fingers towards the fone displayed in the showcase, I pretended as if i was enquiring the rate for the piece next to it and sneaked out of the showroom when no one was noticing. Since then i was tracking the rate of Motorazr whenever i passed by like the stock brokers tracking a scrip to fall down before they can engulf it from the market. Two full years passed by. 30000, 24000, 16000, 11000, and then it came to 9000. Sounded reasonable and affordable at that point of time, withdrew money from the ATM and proudly walked in the show with my brother. Like i was ordering for a burger in McDonalds, i went to the shop and said "One Motorazr please, black, with wireless headset" and was waiting for him to bring the piece.


He brought it to me and with full of excitement held the handset before my brother said , "Are you mad!! This has just 10 MB of storage. You can't listen to songs, you can't store high resolution snaps, you can't download too many ring tones etc etc". I thought a cell phone is to make a call and talk. Puzzled in front of the shopkeeper and keeping my ego boosted, i told my brother "I know and i want this only", though i was thinking inside, may be am stupid.


Puzzled for a while, managed to convince the shopkeeper that i have to withdraw some more money before i can own it. He knew what I was doing :-). It was so obvious that i wasn't buying that day. Weeks passed by, brother left me to chennai and then one day when i was driving past Raj bhavan road in Hyderabad, i saw this model holding this model. Normally i would be starring at such models without taking my eye. That day something else in the hoarding caught my eye. "Extendable memory, Itunes...." rest is history.

Something out of Nothing

After a hectic day at office last evening, i was driving my car back home furiously. My Fury - partly because of the senseless traffic of Hyderabad, partly because of the lunatics who keep honking in signals even when the signal is RED. I was damn hungry and was thinking of a hot and delicious dinner at home. I was driving recklessly and restlessly and couldn't wait to get home. After parking, slamming the door, beeping my autocop, rushed into my home to find my fridge empty. Not even a bottle of ice water. It always happens when we are desparate to find something isn't?:-) All i could find were some dried curry leaves in one corner of the fridge and some crated coconut ( God know when the coconut made to its earth). Frustrated, i slammed the fridge, threw my bag, my shoes and went to the changing room. While i was about to leave the changing room, i found a small torn book, hidden beneath my bean bag. The rest of the blog is a product of some innovative thinking by someone and some smart and quick cooking by MEEEEE!!:-) Yes it was a cook book and it had few recipes on how to prepare something real quick. And guess what, one of the first few recipes was on how to prepare "Curry Leaf rice". I had one of the best variery rice yesterday and I hope you'll enjoy too. So sit back, relax and enjoy this nice little recipe on Curry Leaf rice for all you bachelors, people who are travelling, people like me who come home and find nothing but curry leaves in the fridge.


So here it goes.....I'll try and make is as short and simple as possible.
Take a tawa and fry a cup full of curry leaves for 5 mins and keep it aside.
In the same tawa, pour a table spoon of cooking oil. Add some mustard, cumin seeds, urad dal, 6 dried red chilles, a cup of grated coconut, a spoon of black pepper and fry them for about 5 mins.
Cool it for sometime and then grind the mixture along with the fried curry leaves and prepare a spicy flavoured powder.

Boil rice separately and mix the powder. Voila!!! Tasty, delicious Curry leaf rice. Light and healthy:-). Add salt to your taste. Add little ghee, if you find it dry.
Try this out at home and let me know your comments.

I think this photo comes reasonably close to how curry leaf rice looked when I prepared :-)

High Fly >--> >-->

The airlines industry is in its all time peak in India with the recent boom in that sector. Indians rocked last year's air show in Paris with highest number of aircrafts booked by our countrymen. Pilots are in demand, so are air hostess, flight caterers, seats in Aviation academy, and all supporting sectors. The main reason for this is the privatisation of the industry and introduction of the concept of cheap airtickets which is borrowed from the west and Europe.

Air tickets are available as cheap as 500 ruppes (around $11 US). Some airlines even introduced free tickets as early birdies. Some have promised to pay the difference if the customer finds a cheaper rate. But these cheap tickets doesn't come at your luxury and disposal. For the first time, customers in india are made to plan well ahead of their vacation schedules to avail these cheap prices.

So my dear friends, here are some tips and links that may be handy.

Tip#1 - Visit the websites frequently - Each airline company hosts a website where you can get the latest information on the availability of tickets and the fares. People who are net connected 24 by 7 can keep polling these websites to get good benefits. Many companies, open up a 3 month booking period and sell the tickets at the cheapest rate possible at the start of the season. Eg. Air Deccan opened up booking of tickets for the month of March,April and May in the month of Feb. In the first week you are assured to get the cheapest rates. Same will be the case with other Airlines. So it is advised to block your calendar to spend some time browsing these sites to note down the next open date.

Tip#2 - Plan your travel - You better start cultivating the habit of thinking ahead of time, for upto 6 months to plan your vacation / travel. May it be celebrating your anniversary in Andamans, or attending friend's wedding in Mumbai or spending time with your family members during a festival - Think and plan ahead. Its going to save some bucks for you.

Tip#3 - Get Updates on your mobile phone - Register for SMS updates from these websites and you'll be one fo the first to know about offers and schemes.

Caution#1: It is not advised to travel with babies in some of the cheap airlines as there won't be any onboard catering / baby care facilities etc. Go with Indian Airlines / Jet airways which are still considered as the premiere flights in our territory.

Caution#2: High Probablity of flight delays come as a price that we pay for choosing cheap flights. So Senior citizens please avoid. Also if you are going for honeymoon, am sure you don't want to waste you precious time waiting to board in the airport. Reading magazines in airport is probably the last thing that you would want to do in the Honeymoon vacation :-). So Book your flights to Honeymoon destinations even before you print your wedding invitation cards.

Caution#3: Most of the tickets cannot be cancelled / rescheduled. So take extra care when you choose the dates.


Some of the links
www.airdeccan.net
www.goair.in
www.spicejet.com
www.flykingfisher.biz
www.paramountairways.com
www.airsahara.com

Happy flying !!!!!

Post your good and bad experiences with these flights for the benefit of the readers.

Peter's corner

APT Caption!!! Click on the photo and see what is written on the News paper





PETER with a CIGAR.
JIOTD gang remembers PETER on this day and will remember him every monthend.:-)

Ten strange things that happened over the week end!!

10. I prepared Thai Red Curry at home and it came out well.

9. I walked 8 straight kilometres alone in 1 hour 21 minutes in Necklace road.

8. I came all the way to office just to play pool.

7. Su(m) was working on a Sunday. When I peeped into her monitor, I could really see some Java code.

6. SA beat Oz comfortably in the Centurion ODI.

5. Juicy din't blog anything during office hours in the last 1 week.

4. I completed 30 days of diary writing without a break.(Bachi owes me Rs.10000/= for this).

3. Shopped in Hyderabad Central on Saturday and the bill amount was not 4 figures.

2. Fifth floor team won against 2nd floor folks in cricket.(thanks to Bachi for not playing).

1. Viswa invited for some Hot samosas and I din't go there to hog them.(Peter must be missing this).

Change of Name

This is to announce the change of Name of my blog from "Rusty forks and silver spoons" to "Rusty folks and silver fools" - An encyclopedia for the craving hearts.

Major Gang grows !!!

This one is on a totally unrelated subject vis-a-vis my blog title of 'Rusty Forks and Silver spoons' .

The latest addition to major gang, which has been on its all time high in the year 2005, is the chairman of selection committe of the Indian Cricket team, Mr. Kiran More. The gang, all though had few hiccups and turbulence in the form of Bachi's wedding, is still having a stiff tail.

Munaf Patel who had England bite their dust on the opening day of the 3 day match played between Board President's XI & England, swung and swept off 5 wickets (3 crucial ones) for 59 runs and brought a demoralising start to England's tour of India , was not selected for the first Test. With sheer pace, Munaf set the tone for the rest of the tour, putting England on the back foot , rocking the stumps 4 times in his 5 wicket haul.

But major gang, stayed undeterred with this fellow's performance and the new member Kiran More has gone ahead and selected VRV 'Singh', who went wicketless on the opening day. Not just that, he was thulped for 4 boundaries and a six in an over by Kevin peterson, who is likely to do the same in the first test match if he faces VRV again. His confidence must be high when he faces VRV, whereas Freddy Flintoff, Strauss, Jones etc must be still thinking how they lost thier stumps to Munaf.

'Poor guy' Munaf, as usual lost it to the Major gang.:-)

Please note:-
1. this blog needs to be read and taken lightly, keeping in mind the core subject of Cricket :-)
2. If you search for Major gang in Google, you are very likely to get results from this page, putting Major gang in the global map. So thats the positive to be taken from this bloglet.
3. No offences meant to anyone except Kiran More (probably others invovled in the selection).
4. Due respects to VRV and his potential and I wish him success in the upcoming series against England.

TP juicy

1. Well, this blog is just to let you all know the amount of time pass that juicy does at work.
He has written about RBD during office hours and published to other colleagues and spoiled their time as well, which even triggered me to write a bloglet :-).

2. Juicy, you've started to exist than live. Your job is no more white collared. The very fact that you named your blog as 'Paint it yellow' shows you are now entering into the pale yellow collared slave colony with no exits.

btw, Juicy, you've used copyright-ed words like "data" & "information" in your blog. You may get into legal trauma for usage of such words and publishing to the world. To make things worse, you've also used highly proprietary words like "PUN(jab)" which can get you into long term imprisonment or even guillotined.