Circa 2007:  I got an Interview call from IIIT Hyderabad for the M.Tech program after successfully clearing the written test. So, my best buddy Vinay Harsha accompanied me, as my good luck charm, to the interview.

So, there we are waiting for my turn and we happened to see IIIT students jazzing around the building. They wore T-shirts with Shoot-Out captions like "I am an Accenturist" (meaning they got selected for Accenture), etc. Then Vinay meekly said in my ear, "If somebody comes wearing a T-shirt shouting "I work for Google" , all these ‘Accentur’ists and ‘NetApp’tist guys will walk away soundless".

Well, I never made it to the IIIT-Hyderabad M.Tech CompSci Program; they never take Civil grads to the M.Tech CompSci program for which I applied.

Circa 2009: I participated in the Google Got The ‘App’titude challenge and represented our college.  We successfully managed to complete the task before the competition deadline and Google Guys being the Good Googlers sent us a bunch of Google Goodies - Google T-shirts, Google keychains, Google stickers and other Google Stuff.

I know its not even close of wearing the Googler T-shirt, but when I wore that  T-shirt now, I just couldn’t help but smile when I think of Vinay’s words that day. This is for you Vinay.

Click on the images to enlarge.

This is fun but it seems accurate. I just tested a few of my friends and it seems to work.

That is me to the left - Rahul in the center & Yureshwar to the extreme right.

 Try here http://turnyournameintoaface.com      lol..Have fun!

The cabbie is really testing my nerves. I have been waiting for his call for the past 30 minutes and all my folks are asleep. So…i started playing around with Google Latitude’s new feature of embeddable badges. So, got the code, embedded into my Joomla and now you can always find where I am on my About Me Page

P.S: Oh ..cabbie…where r u? I just wish the Cabbie uses Google Latitude too

P.P.S: Google Latitude is a feature from Google which allows you to share your location with anyone. Although this badge is for displaying your location manually, you’ll need a mobile phone with Google Latitude or iGoogle or Orkut to provide your location updates to Google. Somebody buy me a HTC Touch HD so that I can update on the fly

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From the post title, don’t expect me to weave a C.S. Lewis Narnia Chronicles

I have been meaning to post my experiences at the Infosys Global Education Center Mysore campus. For the uninformed, I am currently doing my internship at Infy and working on a DW/BI project.

PS: The usual disclaimer about my own thoughts being penned down and nothing to do with Infosys Technologies Ltd

 So ..here we go .. Month - 1 - Infosys Global Education Center - Mysore - a 330 acre fantastic green campus - Every parent’s  and real estate broker’s dream .  The campus is a learner’s heaven and the library albeit not a bibliophile’s haven yet is a techno-bibliophile’s nest and my favourite place. The muliplex is really cool [ Look at the picture - that’s the  four screen multiplex with the cricket ground in the foreground - Pic Credits: Srinivas Dommety]. Though I haven’t explored the multiplex much, I enjoyed watching Fast and Furious 4, - a fantastic sequel, last Sunday.

From day one,

I feel the wind brush across my face
Like an invisible wave crashing over me
I started holding my breath the moment I left
Wondering what the day was going to bring for me

But there’s no way that I could every prepare
For the scope of it all, for the chill in the air
The cold of the rain, the warmth of the day
I’m never gonna be the same

The whole world’s racing by
And no words can describe how this feels inside
You need to be here, you need to be here with me
They come and go so fast, these moments never last
So you need to be here, you need to be here with me

It’s something new and beyond every corner is a mystery
‘Cause every road that I’ve taken
Can never be mistaken for the one that now is under my feet
And I realize with open eyes
Every second that we have is once in a lifetime, once in a lifetime

Hoobastank was the practically echoing inside me all the time. I just couldn’t put it in better words. The whole world reflects the fresh grads who race to give their 110% in the module tests, cramming the code, slides and working feverishly on the demos and Lab Guides.  Compre’s test their nerves and  the  perceptions (Internal Exams)  definitely lead to prescriptions

Every person I met at Infosys is unique - in thought and in character. HR doing  a good job heh?  Pat on ur back HR Till week 2, I had no idea that the girl sitting beside me is an accomplished singer who made it to National TV. She also made it as the Mysore DC Idol - something similar to American Idol or our own desi Indian Idol !!

I am loving the internal bulletin boards - especially the Data Warehousing / Business Intelligence forum where I am contributing much. The food courts are a real treat. Being the ‘continental foodie’  - I am enjoying the subsidized pizzas and CCD’s. I made some great friends in a very short period of time.

Oops - Intermission - It’s 03:00 am in the morning and my cabbie will soon arrive. I am at my sister’s place. She is leaving to London  today  - and  I  have to get back to Mysore….so I need to stuff my things to catch my Volvo.

PS: I will soon update the Gallery

P.P.S: Sure ‘dude’, I will soon update the album with our trekking pics

Guten nachT/ag,

Deepak.

Balance is not the most apt word for me right now. Taken from Latin ‘bilanx’, if my etymology knowledge still holds good,   - it means "(scale) having two pans". Now why is it not the most apt  word you may ask. Ah! working on 4 projects and my Oracle certification exam at one stretch coupled with a strong dose of academics - I am giving my best to bilanx my life. I feel/think this is getting the best out of me. On the contrary, my Dad thinks that there is some other reason, I didn’t come home for the holidays. Well, my unscheduled project schedules at college are the main tie-up.

I spent the last Sunday with my sister in Bangalore - eating, shopping and that was a real stress buster. Thanks Ashy for such a wonderful time.

While going from Mysore to Bangalore, I saw an interesting and clever marketing/advertising drive by a young boy on the train. This boy just came from nowhere and started throwing peanuts on everybody’s lap. He continued doing so till the end of the compartment. Many, including me, were like WTF ? Is he nuts or what (pun not intended)? My environmental-concerned-mind started boiling on seeing the amount of waste he just generated in 3 minutes.  Then the boy started doing something which really stung me. He started shouting and selling Peanuts!! Intuitive and amazing - he first gave a taste of the roasted Peanuts to everyone - even though its only one or two. If he just comes and starts selling, not many would have bought the peanuts. People may be wary of the quality and some might not have shown interest at all. But by making everyone  taste, even if its a single peanut, the boy proved many things at the same time - he showed them the quality and brought out everyone’s insatiated hunger. 

He just reminded me of Danny Boyle’s SlumDog Millionaire albeit in a different way. Indian media is going great guns over the film’s Oscar Nominee treat. Many people don’t even realize that the film is a British Film and not an Indian film, directed by Danny Boyle. Many Indians are ‘Boyling’ over the fact that India was shown as a SlumDog in the film while many, including me, are happy that A R Rahman grabbed 3 Oscar nominations. His latest, Dilli 6 aka Delhi 6 album rocks!

And what is a balance with more than 4 pans called? Anyone knows? ..lol.

Back to books,

l8r all,

Deepak.

Randall Munroe from xkcd imagines some correlations between Google searches and people that are unlikely to use them. The #1 US state for [men kissing] is indeed Utah, but the other correlations are made up.

Now twitter directly from your Gmail. Twitter Gadget is a simple, web 2.0 robust Gmail gadget that allows you to tweet directly from your Gmail account. It’s a boon for many office-goers where Twitter is blocked (My sister Asha is gonna love this! She has been complaining about her err…non-tweeting ability from her workplace. Not that I recommend anyone cloaking at work, especially in a market scenario like today)

Installation:

http://www.twittergadget.com/how_to_install.html

Related Posts:

Gmail Gadgets that work

Thanks Nabhajit. 

Technorati Tags: google gadget, twitter

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For some breathtaking pictures and for some memories you wish fade away chop-chop, visit:

The Year 2008 in Photographs at Boston-Big Picture.