Fun on weekend

The only thing that I missed last weekend was FOOTBALL :-(
But I don't repent it! For the fact that the reason to miss it was worth it! My cousins had flown down from Ahmedabad specially to spend the weekend with us! So, me, my younger bro, two cousins from Pune and 2 from Ahmedabad, in all we were a bunch of 6 young energetic people set to enjoy ourselves! We don't get such an opportunities often.

We met friday night and spend all the time fighting and arguing, until it was Saturday morning. It was then that we decided to go Mahabaleshwar in just one car (Honda City). The journey was fun, we booked room at Panchgini and headed to Mahabaleshwar. I visit that place VERY often and I should admit that the crowd has dwindled like anything! Yes, not many ppl and crowd wasn't so good either ;-(

On reaching there, we ate all the junk food we could, played some games and then came the MOST boring part... shopping!!! My sisters made me walk through market for nearly 2+ hours and bought almost nothing! We then returned to hotel, (things like this make me believe in GOD ;-) ! We again stuffed some food (it was called Chinese food) and resigned to our room. We played cards, chatted, took photos and then fell asleep watching TV at about 0230hrs Sunday. We woke up at 0800hrs, had breakfast and checked out of the hotel. Then we went back towards Mahabaleshwar for Mapro's Garden. We had the famous Grilled Giant Sandwich, clicked some fun photos and headed back to Pune. On the way back we stopped to click more FUN photos! On reaching Pune, we freshened up and then, some more shopping! (does GOD really exist???) Going to Pune Central on Sunday! Too much crowd! But I had no choice. Went there and again I had to stand/walk/run for nearly 2+ hours!!! My sisters wanted to ensure that Monday morning my legs shouldn't feel that they didn't play football this weekend. And they pretty much succeeded in doing so. After dinner, we went home, had some chat and slept with sad faces since we were to part in the morning!

All in all, it was a VERY SPECIAL weekend and I enjoyed it to fullest!

Now time for some photos:

1. Sexy fiery lotus at Mapro's Garden!



2. Another cute lotus at Mapro's Garden!



3. Fun on the way back home!

Nana Patekar and Ajay Devgan

After a fews days I met Sush, I had gone to my Head Quarters (Satara, on 6th March). Since a couple of months lot of shootings were scheduled in Satara and many of Bollywood actors and actresses were out there! Since we (me & my bro) only had few hours of time, we could only meet bolly's two of the MOST NO-NONSENSE guys: Nana Patekar and Ajay Devgan. Nana was sooo cool and down to earth that he greeted my mommy (who, by now was visiting shotting set for the nth time) by her first name! He allowed us to click a few snaps, chatted casually what we are into and gleefully gave autographs, before biding us good-bye. Ajay, was running behind schedule for his shooting and so didn't have time for photo or autograph. But, I clicked his SEXY BMW SUV! Had we been there for couple of hours, we could have managed to get them! Apart from these, my parents met Bipasha Basu, 2 famous directors (I don't recall names), Kajol and few others. In fact parents were insisting me to come sooner so that we could meet all of them, but as you know, I'm least interested in most of the celebrities! Here are the snaps...

Nana & Me



Ajay's BMW

An appointment with dentist

Finally I failed to avoid the inevitable... not unexpected!!!
I had been avoiding the painful treatment of Root Canal... the treatment I DREAD MOST... until lately, maybe!
Since my surgery (called de-impaction) that I underwent in December (check out this interesting post on it), I have been promising everyone at home and my buddies that I'll soon get treated for root canal early Jan '05, as they were much concerned about my frequent tooth-ache complaints, and food restrictions that I imposed on myself, esp chocolates and sweets. But I always found excuses for not taking an appointment. Frustrated, my brother picked this up and took an appointment for 11th Wednesday 1900 hrs (i.e. yesterday)!!! Man, I was so nervous by the time I reached home that my mommy actually started laughing!!! I didn't react.
1845 hrs, I reached the clinic... power was out... secretly I was praying that I'll be sent back saying that too many appointments have piled up due to power cuts. GOD didn't answer my request. I was ushered into room and sat on the chair that MANY people (who have seen dentist) DREAD! 1911 hrs, Doc's wife started peeking into my mouth! What the #@$%! I thought the doc Sr. Suhas Waze who treated me earlier will take it up... I had so much faith in him... in fact it was my faith in him and not the pain that I was there! I got more nervous... But I felt a little relieved that my brother, who is studying dentistry, was besides me! She started her treatment... hmmm... seems pretty competent... but I wasn't confident... she started her drill... the sound of drill sent chills through my spine... For nearly half an hour I was stiff as a rock... expecting that it will pain suddenly taking me by surprise. But to my surprise I didn't experience slightest pain! For a moment I thought all this is just a dream, for my previous 3 root canal treatments, by some other dentist, have been HORRIBLY PAINFUL! I relaxed and she skillfully finished her treatment, at 2015 hrs I vouched that I'll take earliest possible appointment for another root canal treatment, 20th of this month! Later on I learnt that she is indeed an expert in root canal. I now rest my faith in her for root canal!
All the pain I endured by NOT going for treatment all these months out of fear was not worth it!

Yes, I know you are curious to know the details of my dentist...

Dr. Madhavi Vaze, B.D.S, Dental Surgeon (treated me for root canal)
Dr. Suhas Vaze, M.D.S, Maxillofacial Surgeon (treated me for de-impaction)
Address:
Dental & Oral Surgery Clinic
7, Geetai Sankil, Ideal Colony, Paud Road, Pune-38.
Timings: 9 am – 1 pm & 5 pm – 8 pm.
Hello: 2544 4776.

Looking forward to one more painless root canal.

Moral:
I STRONGLY recommend these dentists for your dental treatments!

Comments Are More Important Than Code

And that is EXACTLY what this article talks about!
This in light of the fact that some time back I too was a victim (chk this blog post) of the same phenomenon: Reading/Hacking absolutely undocumented code!!!

BTW, this article is by: JEF RASKIN, professor of computer science at the University of Chicago, is best known for his book, The Humane Interface (Addison-Wesley, 2000), and for having created the Macintosh project at Apple. This info is enough to urge you to atleast gloss through the article.

Radio revivification

WOW! Since Nevis have moved to new location (moved to adjoining newer building in same campus) my radio has been blessed with LIFE! Yes, it's back to life and I can listen to Vivdha Bharati once again! Signal strength seems to be OK or EM noise has reduced, whatever it is, I don't give a damn.
The reason I'm posting this is just to tell you that right now it is airing AMAZINGLY GREATEST of OLD SONGS! And I couldn't resist a quick post just to BLESS Vivdha Bharati.

Long Live Old Songs & Vivdha Bharati!

New sexy portable MP3 player

Got a sexy portable MP3 player: Creative MuVo TX FM 512MB.

Salient features...

• Built-in FM radio and recorder
• Super-fast USB 2.0
• Built-in microphone for voice recording
• 5-band custom equalizer and 4 presets (Jazz, Rock, Pop and Classical)
• Displays ID3 tags for song title
• Reversible LCD for left or right handed operation
• Doubles up as USB storage device
• Weight: 32grams without battery
• Up to 15hrs of MP3 continuous play on 1 x AAA battery

I (rather my brother) have been using it for about 2 weeks without any grievances and is satisfied with it's sound quality and ease of using it's controls. It comes with an arm band so that you can easily put it on your arm while exercising, jogging, etc. Other contender for the 512MB MP3 player was Apple's iPod Shuffle! A little cheaper than TX FM, I would have gone for it but for these two short comings:

1. Built-in rechargable battery and charger.
2. without any additional accessory, only way to charge is to plug it in USB for about 4-5 hrs!

For 1, though a boon, rechargable batteries can live for only a limited number of charge-discharge cycles. And difficult, if not impossible, to get it replaced in India. And for 2, it restricts it's usage while you are constantly on move where you might not get opportunity to plug it in USB!

Hitch: The Movie

Hitch, v: to hook or entangle. True to it's meaning, movie is about getting dates together (no points for guessing that right)! Alex Hitchens (starring Will Smith), the Date Doctor, secretly helps guys build courage/skills/situations to walk up to his date and propose her. The best part is his tricks are flawless. Only to find himself carried away by a gorgeous gossip columnist, Sara (Eva Mendes), where his skills fall short!

I would have only gone it next weekend, but for my generous friend who gave me 2 tickets of the preview show which she won in one of the contests. I would rate this movie as a good Romantic Comedy movie. At times you will want to laugh at the top of your voices just to express how hilarious a scene was and I really did it a couple of times! Guess what... I was *not* the only one. All gorgeous looking females ensure that you don't get your attention off the screen even for a minute. No vulgar comedy, and can be watched with your family! Packed with enough of comedy and sense, the movie is worth 2 hours of your time.

Visited New Shopping Mall: Pune Central

If you, unlike me, read newspapers regularly, you cannot miss the Central's 4 page separate supplement advertisement that came with Pune's Sunday Times Of India! Though I'm not a shopping freak, I decided to spend some time browsing through the store (along with and on insistence of my mommy and brother). I cannot say if it's the greatest store, but with 5 levels (4 + ground floor) and 3 tier basement parking I would say this is *just* too big a mall and worth a visit for any serious shopping freak. Central claims to have the largest collection of all major Indian and International brands under one single roof. While I visited it, one of the floors was still under construction. Located near Bundh Garden, Boat Club, and owned by Pantaloon Retail, Central is the third (or fourth) branch in the country, others being in Banglore & Hyderabad. So guys, spare some 3 hours (and that's minimum) and have a leisurely visit at this new store, you won't repent it! And hey, I forgot to add that it has Planet M music store, food joint and some more stuff that I might have missed!

Nevis Celebrates Second Anniversary!

Nevis Networks grew to be a 2 year old startup on 2nd April '05. We had a small celebration (of course it had to be small, we don' t want people to get into party mood and be that way for rest of the week, and yes, we want to save every possible penny we can ;-) )! Cutting the cakes, followed by snacks and then group photos. Here's my team. And if you are wondering why on earth am I holding my right hand back, then you guessed it right, I'm holding snacks which I am trying to hide ;-)

I'm resting my hands on Nikunj's shoulders, to his left is Archana followed by Sweta. And the taller of guys between Nik and Archie is Boney.