Make your salary last longer

It is official that all the salaried people struggle in the last week of the month and are found with no money at their disposal. I completely agree with the statement but I guess there is nothing much that can be done about it. Times of India has taken the initiative and provided steps that could actually help you in making your salary last longer. You can read the article here. If you read the article you will not find anything new, it is the same thing that you know yourself but just don't seem to follow. In our world major part of the salary is distributed as early as the first week of the month itself in paying out the EMIs for the various things that we have purchased. What is left is used to pay the Credit Card bills and then the daily needs items for your house have to be managed. So it is really hard to actually save money.

Things have changed drastically in the last decade or so, I can hardly remember my parents buying anything on EMI they would rather wait for some more time till the time they had enough money to buy it. The general concept has changed people nowadays take into account the money that is scheduled to come and rely heavily on Credits and Loans and that is the basic cause behind the lack of saving. I strongly believe that we need to think differently and change our opinion if we want to actually save money. The present culture does not allow us to save it is more about spending. The choice is yours.

DOCTORS

Barney Livingston said :

"We have turned doctors into gods and worship their deity by offering up our bodies and our souls - not to mention our worldly goods.
And yet paradoxically, they are the most vulnerable of human beings. Their suicide rate is eight times the national average. Their percentage of drug addiction is one hundred times higher.
And because they are painfully aware that they cannot live up to our expectations, their anguish is unjustifiably intense. They have aptly been called 'wounded healers'"

These are the opening words of the novel 'Doctors' by Erich Segal. I started reading this novel after hearing several recommendations and must say am already loving it.

Shimla Trip Jan 2010

OK, so here comes the most awaited blog post of January 2010. As I had already mentioned we went to Shimla for a 2 night 3 days trip. We were 8 in number and all from office. The trip was planned well in advance and we had everything in place. The train tickets, hotel everything was booked and we were set to have a great time. We were to leave on the 22nd night and our train was at 21:40 IST but due to fog the train was delayed by 14 hours only. Panic hit us and we decided to go by bus and finally got tickets to the 23:00 hrs Volvo to Shimla. We had some snacks and drinks at my place and left for the Bus Station. We decided to go in Metro as we had enough time and we wanted to avoid the traffic jams. We stopped at Mc Donalds to have some food. We had reached the bus station pretty early so we had nothing to do but to roam around the area and yes we clicked some pics as well. We finally boarded the bus at 11 pm in the night, we got the last seats. While in the bus we decided to do something out of the box, since we didn't get time to cancel the train tickets of toy train from Kalka to Shimla, we decided to get down of the Volvo at Kalka and take the toy train. It was a brave decision but we decided to go for it. It turned out to be a great decision and we enjoyed the journey in toy train. We reached Shimla early on the 23rd Jan. Our taxi was ready and we went straight to our Hotel.
We relaxed for a while and decided to roam around the Mall road the entire day. It had been a hectic night and we needed a good rest. I was suffering from cold and even had fever on the day we reached Shimla, this is evident by my depressed looks. We also made plans for the next day we had planned to visit places where we can get snow.



We were up early the next day and had Kufri and Narkanda on our programs list. We also wanted to stop at the Green Valley. The trip to Narkanda was some 70 kms from Shimla and we were assured that we would get snow. We started at 10 in the morning and stopped at Green Valley, it is a beautiful place and full of life and greenery. I was not feeling good and was surviving on medicines. We also found ourselves divided on opinion on the route we need to follow that is we were not able to decide whether we should go to Narkanda first and then to Kufri or the other way round. But finally we decided to visit Kufri and finally move to Narkanda and then back to Hotel. We did not get to see any snow in Kufri and were bored, although we enjoyed the horse ride there and also the Maggi. Overall Kufri was a dull experience and we were still awaiting snow.

It is very surprising how a thing as common as Maggi leaves its impression on you, I guess it is the environment that makes it happen. I would like to mention that we were deprived of good tea throughout the trip and Jitu suffered the most. We finally got snow when we reached Narkanda and that was the point that made our trip successful. It was really fun to play with the snow although the bitter cold was keeping us away from playing too much with the snow.

It was a great trip overall, adventurous to be precise. The fog did not help us in any way, all our trains were cancelled due to fog and we had to travel by bus which we wanted to avoid as far as possible. This also swelled up our expenses and certainly increased the expenses by a minimum of 1000 per head. But it was a wonderful trip to say the least, we had lots of fun and enjoyed the company of each other. The trip was the last trip with Jitender and he learnt to click pictures on the trip. We all had our share of fun and the trip was a great success. There are so many things that we brought back from the trip. We saw the other side of so many people and it was surprising to see some of them. It is always fun when a bunch of people visit a place, it gives it an extra dimension. It was a great trip and was made possible by the efforts put in by each of us. I would like to thank all of you for making this trip a memorable trip for me.

Note: since there is no way I can tag the people in the attached pics but I will name all the members of the trip : Ankush, Binay, Jitender, Kushagra, Gaurav, Pratyush, Rohit and Yogesh

Side Note: I have also uploaded the pics on Facebook and Orkut so you may want to see them as well. This is especially for those who missed the trip.

The Last Drop...

We are back from our Shimla trip and we had lots of fun. I will write a separate post for the Shimla trip and post lots of pics for all of you. But this post will focus on something else. This trip was the last outing with Jitender Singh Gahlawat, Friday 22nd was his last day in office and the Shimla trip was his last outing with us. He is leaving for Bangalore tonight at 21:00 hrs from New Delhi. We called the Shimla trip as the Last Drop of Jitender.

I have already posted a blog on Jitu's farewell but I guess a man of his stature needs a bit more importance and remembrance. He was very close me and we had a healthy relationship both officially and personally. He was my senior and I have learnt a lot from him. He is very supportive and has helped me come out of my rough patches. He has taught me lessons that I believe are very important though they are often ignored. He was my critique and always pointed out my mistakes so that I can improve. I am a fan of his and I would miss him a lot in the coming time.

He has decided to permanently shift to Bangalore so it would not be easy to meet him and I am afraid I have lost yet another close friend. He was like a big brother to me. He was the one person who very regularly read my blogs and gave his opinion. He has been a real guiding force for me. He has also taught me so many technical things that I would not have otherwise learnt. He has given a different perspective to my way of thinking; he has installed in me a fighting spirit. I really appreciate the way in which he has supported me and helped out. I have lost two seniors and close friends within a period of 40 days and I am feeling pretty low about it. As I am writing this post, Jitu gave me a call from the Airport just to enquire about my health. To brief you guys, I was down with fever and cold while in Shimla. These are small gestures that do not take much, I also know it for a fact that it was not done as a formality, and he is genuinely concerned. I will miss you sir.

Layout Changed - Finally

I have been told by few good friends that the black and white contrast colors on my blog are making it difficult to read and straining the eye. But the kind of person I am, I persisted with it for over a month. But now I have changed it to a less contrast. Thanks for your suggestions. Hope you people like this layout, if no please leave a comment and I will think over it. For those who missed the black and white blog I have attached a screen shot of the same for reference.

Jitender's Farewell

Friday, the 22nd of January 2010 is a very important date as one of the most vocal personality in our office has called it over and today is his last day in office. I feel privileged to be associated with him. He has been a real guiding force to almost all of us who worked along side him. We started calling him 'Viru Sahastrabuddhe' and that was not just like that. He is immensely talented and is considered as a one man army. He has been one of the most efficient individual contributors.

His contributions and his knowledge are beyond comparison, he is one of its own. He is always ready with a opinion in any subject and rest assured that would not be crap. He has a vast knowledge in almost all subjects. He has a special liking for sports and more for cricket. We considered him a master when it comes to knowledge about cricket and cricketers. We used to tease him by saying that he even knows about a person who has played cricket only on his roof top. A master in every sense of the word, Unparalleled dedication and commitment, always smiling no matter how crunch the situation may be are all qualities of this man. A personality that could easily be called a 'Naked Fakir' and looks like a 'Mirror Cracking Material' (literally).

Yesterday night we had a farewell party for him at my residence in Dwarka. Yes, Yashpal's farewell party was also organized at my place so you can say that my house has been a witness to two such parties. We had lots of fun and enjoyment. It is almost impossible to keep the man quiet and he spoke almost all of the time at party. We gifted him a iPod which he can keep with him as memories of over five and a half years of service. He has been a master and we will miss his services dearly. The only thing that would feel relieved at Jitu's exit is the coffee machine in our office. He is a tea freak and just to avoid drinking lots of tea he started drinking coffee (which he does not like) and it was like twice every half an hour. He hates to eat sweets but can eat Kgs of Kaju Barfi in a go. The list is exceptionally long so I stop here.

I WOULD LIKE TO WISH HIM ALL THE FAME AND SUCCESS IN HIS LIFE. GOOD BYE, GOD BLESS AND TAKE CARE..... SIMPLY :)

Side Note: attached is the video clip of the party yesterday. Enjoy !!!

Best Proposal

This is the sweetest way to propose. Rats are showing the way. If you watch it closely you will see the chemistry and dedication between the friends as they can go any distance to help their friends. How can a proposal as sweet as this one be turned down. Awesome pic I truly love it.

Smart Investment

It is that time of the year when people are worried about completing their investments and working out ways to save tax. It is very important to keep your cool and not invest in wrong things. Investment according to me is a very sensitive issue and should be done after good analysis and study. It is a decision that should not be taken hastily.

I am not very good when it comes to investment but I know a few things like the rule of thumb. For one I know that the first investment should be a Life Insurance Policy and the next best thing is a Public Provident Fund account. These are the best investments to the best of my knowledge and also come under Section 80 C of the Income Tax Act and are exempted from Income Tax.

It is an advice to the people who are in 10% tax bracket that they should refrain from making investments just to save tax. I personally believe that it is better to pay tax than to pay 10 times the amount to save it. Also if you invest in a tax saver scheme the minimum locking period is 3 years. So there is no sense in locking a healthy sum of money for a minimum period of 3 years. Liquid money is important and it always helps if you have fluid money in your hands. So what are you thinking it is high time now the last date for submitting the proofs is nearing.

I have tried my hand at a completely alien subject and I may have got everything horribly wrong. So if any economic pandit is by any chance reading this post please correct me if I am wrong so that I can also learn a better way to invest. Although I am done with the investments for this year that would help me in the subsequent years.

Don't Have a Girl Friend ? Here's Why

Browsing through the various sites I came across an article and found the title interisting. The article had the same article as my post. It is a really interesting read, you can read the article here. The author has designed a very unique of finding out why you don't have a girlfriend. Peter Backus a PhD student of economics at the University of Warwick used the Drake Equation and concluded that his chances of finding a girlfriend is just about 100 times better than finding a civilisation in our galaxy we can communicate with. Although the results are discouraging but the article in itself is pretty interesting.

Backus used 8 parameters to come to this depressing conclusion. The number of potential girlfriends; population growth; fraction of people in the your country who are women; fraction of them who live in your city; fraction of those who are “age-appropriate”; women with a university degree (do discuss work); physically attractive; and number of years you have been alive for.

Read the entire paper that he published here. Although I disagree for the simple reason that the results are depressing but the concept is interesting. You must read the entire article to feel more connected to things and may be you can get the links to work for you. Interesting to say the least.

Books versus Practical Knowledge

We have often heard people grumbling and complaining about the fact that it is so difficult to get a job these days. It is a common thing and almost all of you would agree with me on this. But we have been faced with an entirely different situation where we are trying to hire a developer and to our surprise we are unable to get a person who has good understanding of the subject. All the feedback from the interviews is that although the person has worked on a specific technology but he/she is not aware about what happens internally. People only posses bookish knowledge and lack the basics.

I have been shocked by the low percentage of people who actually know what they are doing and what the technology is doing for them. The basic frameworks, technology is like a black box to most developers these days and they only know how to use it rather than trying to figure out what is happening inside. The culture is shifting to a more bookish approach to things. People are very good at things when it comes to understanding but they lack practicality.

We, in our office have opening for Java professionals and we are surprised at the candidates that are coming for interview. In the process of making their resumes look beautiful they have added so many technologies that they call themselves Jack of All but are Masters of None. I guess this is due to the cut throat competition that forces you to load your resume with all the latest technology to impress the Employer and force them to call you for an interview. But this is hampering the candidates as they are more focused on getting calls rather than actually breaking through. The concept has changed but I believe we need to rethink.

Early to Bed, Not Anymore

I was once questioned by a close friend of mine, why I always end up writing a blog post only late in the night ?. I thought about it and concluded that I need peace and concentration to write. I am generally very emotionally attached to my writings and I want to express my feelings like completely and this requires me to be in isolation. Also late in the night I don't have any other business to take care of so I can concentrate on my writings.

I guess this is a good enough answer. It is easily evident that we do not seem to follow the routine that says 'Early to bed and early to rise...'. In the type of life style we are, we hardly reach our beds before midnight. Things have changed so much but I am not sure if this is good or no but that is how things are for me atleast. Every time I want to change this I end up staying up even later trying to figure out.

Aal Izz Well

Do I need to give context to what I am writing here ? The answer is NO, if you think otherwise, you are wasting your time reading this post, you should be watching 3 Idiots. I have already posted an article on this movie where I declared this movie as the best movie of 2009. I still maintain my words and now everyone is saying the same thing. An article on the front page of Hindustan Times (Delhi Edition) has prompted me to write this blog post. You can read the article here. The article itself is under the section 'Beyond Belief' and I guess that is a good enough indication that the film has exceeded all the expectations.

My Facebook feeds, friends names in Orkut, everybody considering himself an idiot and feeling proud when people call them an idiot have all been inspired by this movie. The movie is doing a business of 17 crore per day. I am still in shock since I have read this news. I want you guys to tell the talented Sagarika Ghosh that she has got things wrong this time around. She has written a nicely crafted 'good for nothing' post that aims at making all the efforts in the movie to expose the flaws in our system look foolish. Read her thoughts about the movie here and make your own decision.

I believe that movies like this are good for the society as it highlights the basic problems that a child faces once he is thrown into the giant web. I don't know what prompted Sagarika to write that post. I guess studying in St. Stephens and Oxford does not expose you to the horrors of a normal Engineering College. Having said that I must also accept the fact that it is her way of looking into things. But I still fail to agree with any of her points but then as they would say Aal Izz Well.

Side Note: Please memorize the following lines they are lovely. Give me some sunshine, give me some rain, give me another chance I wanna grow up once again. [How True !!!]

Operator Overloading

If you thought that you knew all the concepts of Operator Overloading, take a look at this picture. It redefines the concept of Operator Overloading. :)

A Week Into the New Year

It has only been a week in the New Year but it feels as if it has been around for some time now. After a almost perfect beginning to the New Year, I have been thrust into the daily activities and I almost drowned under this burden. But today I got a bit of time so thought I should write something. I want to share my New Year celebrations but that would be a personal post and may disappoint some of my readers so I decided to make it my second post of the year.

So I will start by wishing you all a very very Happy and Prosperous New Year 2010. This year is very important keeping in mind the economic slow down that was experienced last year. How would this year shape out remains to be seen but by the look of things one feels it is going to be a rewarding year. We are already seeing signs of the Economic recovery around the world. Even in our sector we can see job openings in the market and companies are hiring person for sales. I do not have the vision and knowledge to comment on things but I have been told that when a company starts hiring people in the sales team you can be rest assured that the company is doing well. I am banking on that, many of friends have switched their roles, people have been promised salary hike. All these thing indicate that it is going to be a good year.

As I reflect back on the year gone by and try to analyze the situation we were in it gives me immense pleasure and satisfaction when I look at where I stand today. I can proudly add a key achievement in my resume which says 'Survived Recession'. Jokes apart this is going to be the year of revival and re building of whatever we lost due to the slow down. The slow down had its impact on almost every sector and segment and we are recovering, so this is an all important year.

This year is also special because we are going to host the Common Wealth games (fingers crossed). We will have Metro connecting the NCR and so many more things. I pray to God to grants us what we deserve and what we have worked for. Let every man have his share of things and make this year a year for everyone to remember and for good reasons. May God Bless All of Us Amen.

Rendezvous 2010

We had all gathered at Varanasi to give a warm welcome to the year 2010 but it turned out to be a really cool welcome. The weather changed drastically a day or two before the New Year Eve. It was good for us as it made the bonfire more effective and important. We had lots of fun on the new year eve, we had music, dance, games. We were treated to lovely drinks and superb food. The music is still ringing in my mind, I could still feel the warmth of the bonfire, the day was brilliant.

But the time leading upto the event was not as exciting, it was interesting and very hectic. My train was scheduled to reach Allahabad @ 00:10 hrs on the 31st but due to fog and mist the train got delayed and reached Allahabad @ 03:20 hrs in the morning leaving me tired staring at my watch. I was also deprived of food as the train did not have a pantry car. After a short nap I had to drive from Allahabad to Varanasi with my parents. It is approx a distance of 130 kms but after the tired night it felt much more. But everything was off in a flash as soon as I reached Varanasi.

The place was full of my relatives and there was fun in the air. There is something about that house of ours that attracts me towards it. I had fun the entire day and almost through out the night. I had to go back to Allahabad on the evening of the 1st Jan and had to catch my train back to Delhi on the 2nd night. The train took a good 18 - 19 hours to reach Delhi rather than the usual 9 hrs. It was due to the fog and mist and also the accidents that occurred near Kanpur the previous day. The trip was short but it was refreshing and really good. I had a great time, it was a perfect begining to a New Year.