Today is d-day for gadget lovers around the world who are waiting with bated breath for the I-Phone which is scheduled for release today in the U.S. Apple just like Google stands at the cusp of innovation. It changed how the world looks @ PC's with it's macintosh. It re-wrote a new chapter in the music world with it's I-pod and now comes the I-Phone which is a mobile phone integrated with an I-pod plus a host of other features.

From the newspaper columns which shows photographs of people who have been waiting patiently outside the stores in U.S one could sense what the hype is all about :) Priced in the range of USD 499 to USD 600 it seems very expensive compared to conventional mobile handsets. However the positive reviews the I-phone has generated (it does have it's flaws too) makes it hard to resist. :) I have a antique handset which is a Motorala C115 and I am looking for a change. Just like the prices of other handsets which have come down over a period of time, I hope the same happens with the I-Phone..:)

Nothing beat's a friday and the lovely weather for the past few days has only added to the excitement. We had a birthday celebration today wherein all the newcomers were introduced and the birthday bunnies cut the cake :) As usual, I couldn't resist the temptation of taking a bite :)

There was a prize distribution ceremony where the winners of the singles and doubles table-tennis matches were felicitated. It was quite funny when the winners started giving speeches oscar/filmfare style by thanking god, their families and ofcourse kissing the trophy and waving to the audience :) The audience couldn't help stop laughing :)

Weekend time..Yipee and I plan to catch up on a movie "Fantastic Four: Rise of the silver surfer" :)

It's been quite sometime now that I have been consistently inconsistent about writing my blog :) Monday to Thursday has been quite productive for me in terms of work. I could achieve some satisfaction for solving one of the problems. The funniest part is after installing and re-installing one of my software programs, I was unable to open my existing project.

That problem plagued me for a couple of days, until I was able to crack it today. It was mainly due to my oversight that I forgot to install a software add-in for the application.:)

I was just thinking about the weekend and felt that how boring it will be without my friend Agni. We were not very close pals however we did share a good bond. We would discuss till late night every topic ranging from movies, jokes, current affairs, romance and finance apart from ofcourse watching movies almost on every weekend.:)

One thing I liked about Agni was the fact that he was clear where he wanted life to take him. The savings bug has bitten me too after he showed me how we can generate a good corpus fund by following strict financial discipline every month.

I wish him all the best and hope he has a good time with his family in Hyderabad although I'll miss him. Anywayz it's a small world and who knows tomorrow I may be in Hyderabad we may cross each other's path again :)

Akshath (my younger brother who is also my dentist:)) was in town to attend one of his friend's wedding. It's good to see him again :)

I had a great weekend with my friend Agni. We watched the movie "Chain Kuli ki Main Kuli" starring Rahul Bose, Zain Khan. It was a fun movie to watch with no preaching about morality or ethics. The movie revolves around cricket. It was nicely made and after a long time you can watch a movie which genuinely revolves around kids. Rahul Bose is good and so is the child actor Zain Khan.

This is my 150th post/article and what a journey it has been so far. I have never imagined that I'll come so far but as a great poet said "there are miles to go before I sleep"

Everyone has a prayer on their lips for the safe return of the Atlantis crew which includes Indian American Sunita Williams. When I looked @ the images on television of two astronauts working on the shuttle in space, I just imagined what a feeling it is to be up there where you can see not only earth but other planets. It's a bit scary when you know that its just empty dark space staring @ you and exciting @ the same time coz not many people are lucky to have such an opportunity.

As the Mastercard advertisement states with its catchline "priceless" Yes, those feelings are definitely "priceless" :)

It's Friday once again, and I am looking forward to the weekend :)

It was a pleasant surprise today to see people wearing jumpers, wind cheaters and to think that just a few days ago people were trying to keep themselves cool under the hot sun.

The weather was nice and chilly. I was just hoping and praying looking @ the overcast sky that the heaven's don't open up just when I am on my way to work :) Thankfully my prayers were answered and it rained only in the evening.

I am having a bit of headache and can't wait to get back home.

When I was going through today's newspaper, one article which caught my attention was about Google. I have always admired Google as a company which was founded on the concept of innovation. This time it takes one more step ahead to become a carbon-neutral (which implies zilch or minimal release of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into the atmosphere) by the year 2008.

It's setting up renewable energy sources like solar panels, bio-fuels to power it's offices in the U.S and also working closely with chip-maker Intel for making greener pc's.

Eventhough I work in the IT industry, I am conscious about the amount of e-waste the IT industry generates. Wipro has become the 1st IT company in India to take a lead role by:

- Committing to build products complying with the Restriction of Hazardous
substances directive from 1st June 2007.
- Taking the initiative to set up systems to ensure complete take-back of
their e-waste.
(Source: Greenpeace Annual Report)

I have also signed up for a membership with GREENPEACE an environmental pressure group. It will be a monthly contribution of Rs.200 to the organization. I went through the literature of GREENPEACE and was amazed at the extent of environmental degradation happening all around us. Take for instance "PHILIPS" which many think is a environmentally sensitive and caring company, is not what it claims to be. It manufactures and sells around a billion incandescent light bulbs which contributes to net CO2 emissions of 48,013.56 tons per day (Source: Greenpeace).

So what is that we can do as responsible citizens to help stop GLOBAL WARMING?

Here are 8 simple things we can do and how much CO2 we'll save doing them...

1. Change a light
Replacing one regular incandescent light bulb with a CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lighting) will save 150 pounds of CO2 a year.

2. Drive less
Walk, cycle, car-pool or take public transport more often. You'll save one pound of CO2 for every pound we don't drive!

3. Recycle more
You can save 2,400 pounds of CO2 every year by recycling just half of your household waste.

4. Check your tyres
Keeping your tyres inflated properly can improve mileage by more than 3%. Every gallon of petrol saved keep 20 pounds of CO2 out of the atmosphere!

5. Avoid products with a lot of packaging
You can save 1,200 pounds of CO2 if you cut down your garbage by 10%

6. Plant a tree
A single tree will absorb one tonne of CO2 over it's lifetime.

7. Turn off electronic devices
Simply turning off your TV, DVD player, stereo and computer when you're not using them will save you thousands of pounds of CO2 a year.

8. Visit www.banthebulb.in
And join the Greenpeace in forcing the government to ban the bulb.
(Source: Greenpeace)

Now-a-days I am feeling fresh and rejuvenated..the credit goes to my beauty sleep. In my earlier blogs I had mentioned as to how inadequate hours of sleep was making me tired and restless the next day. The situation seems to have reversed for the past few weeks wherein I made sure that I go to bed in time and cut down on excess television. The efforts seem to have paid off :)

On the work front I have learnt to keep myself busy. Yesterday and today was quite productive as I could crack a problem which was plaguing me for the past few days.

Thanks to the lovely weather, I don't feel like getting up from my cozy bed in the mornings :)

It was a nice weekend except for Sunday. I was a bit depressed in the evening scratching my head as to what to do. On Saturday I hung out with Agni and his friend. Initially we had a plan to catch up on a movie @ Innovative, however it back-fired badly as most of the movies were houseful and the movies which were playing, we didn't want to watch it just for the heck of it.

We decided to have a good dinner and what a dinner it was :) Chung-Wa is a chinese restaurant located in Koramangala ( a stone's throw from my office). The food and the ambience was great and we savoured every moment. The icing on the cake was the ice-cream @ Corner house (a popular hangout).

I savored butterscotch with fruit toppings, agni enjoyed his chocolate cake topped with butterscotch and hot chocolate poured over it. It was really awesome :)

You honestly pay your taxes for the financial year and when your employer issues you a Form 16, you find out that the Income-Tax department owes you a refund because you had paid excess tax. Now we all know, how our government departments function and if the refund is in a four figure range such as 1000, 2000 etc we are never sure whether we will ever got it or the IT department will gobble up the money.

Yesterday when I was speaking to my family back home my mom informed me that my dad has received a letter from the Income-Tax department. For a moment, I was a bit tense wondering what's next. To my pleasant surprise, my dad told me that I had received a refund cheque from Income-Tax department. Then I recollected that yes, the IT department did owe me some money when I last filed the return in 2006.

The amount was not much however what gladdened my heart was that it's not all that bad about the government. Some departments do function :)

Today, I was able to do some productive work so the day went just about fine :) One of my colleagues resigned as she is all set to go to the U.S for doing her masters. All the best to her :)

It was Rafael Nadal's 3rd consecutive French open title on clay court and the person whom he vanquished was the World No.1 Roger Federer whom he had already beaten twice. Clay has alway's been Federer's weakness and Rafael exploited it to the hilt. French open title was the one thing which was missing on Federer's CV. I felt sad for Federer, however Rafael too deserved the win as he seems to have done his homework.

In any game, you win some and lose some. If you're one of the plain unlucky one's you don't win @ all. What was impressive was Federer accepting his defeat graciously and Rafael commenting on Federer that he was a good chap and he had great respect for Federer as a player.

On the work front, I have again issues with the software license so I have submitted a request for the new license. It may take upto 15 days.

I had a good time @ Hyderabad enjoying home made food and the taste of luscious mangoes apart from the usual lecture about how sick I look. I felt sad leaving home but then it's inevitable as I prepare for a working week ahead.

In the morning on my way to work, when I was waiting @ the bus stop, a shocking incident took place. Thankfully there was no casualties :) I was approached by 2 crossdressers / eunuchs (one in a red saree and the other in green) for money. I didn't pay any heed to them and looked the other way. There was a 20 rupee note in my shirt pocket.

All of a sudden the crossdresser in red saree snatched the 20 rupee note from my pocket and walked briskly, I was too stunned to react, however I managed to catch his hand and then left it. The arm was too soft and I felt as if I was catching hold of a girl.

I could have run behind the crossdresser and got my money back. However what scared me was I haven't done this earlier though I knew I was robbed in broad daylight. The very thought of picking up an argument with a crossdresser had me in a daze as they care 2 hoots about the people.

The people around me saw what happened as my face turned crimson red. There was an old gentleman who was witness to everything that happened. He told me that I should have given them a 1 or 2 rupee coin and they would have let me go. Now see what happened.

I understood the old gentleman's point of view but that was exactly my problem. I didn't have the change on me. Some of the people around me who noticed the shock on my face couldn't help smiling. After a while even I too began to smile and thought to myself to forget the incident as a bad dream and be cautious the next time.

The weather has been quite pleasant today. On the work front there's nothing exciting as I go ahead with my regular routine.

Getting a student visa from the U.S embassy, chennai was one of the toughest tasks as my younger brother realized. As I heard someone knocking on my door @ the hotel, I immediately knew it was my brother. I was waiting to hear the result of his visa application.

When I opened the door, I saw the disappointment writ large on my brother's face. He told me his visa application was rejected. I could instantly connect with my brother's disappointment and understood exactly how he felt.

We stayed put @ the hotel and discussed as to what could have gone wrong. We had a pleasant stay @ chennai, right from moment we touched down @ the chennai airport and the drive to Hotel Ranjith, anna salai. The only downside was the humidity.

The only option my brother has is to reapply after 3 working days. My family was also quite disappointed as they had pinned a lot of hopes. My brother had spent a lot of effort preparing for his TOEFL & GRE exams and I wish and hope that he realizes his dreams & ambition.

6th June is a date, I'll always remember. It was 2 years ago on the very same date after returning from abroad I got a job with an IT consulting company. That was my first job after returning home..:)

Nothing is progressing on the work front and I am busy with my .NET 2.0 learning sessions. For the past few days, I have been encountering turbulence in my personal life. I hope things return to normal.

I will be on leave tomorrow i.e Thursday & Friday. My Air Deccan flight to chennai departs @ @ 17:00 hrs tomorrow. It will be an overnight stay and then will travel to Hyderabad by the 9 p.m flight on Friday. My return trip to Bangalore will be on Sunday @ 18:00 hrs.

It was a pretty nice weekend. I watched the movie "Cheeni kum" with my friend Agni. The movie had a unconventional romance between an older man Buddhadev Gupta (Amitabh Bachchan) who is 64 years old and 34 year old Nina Verma (Tabu).

Buddha is a chef who owns one of the finest Indian restaurants in London and Nina is a visitor to the city. Their romance, can you beat this..begins over a dish of Hyderabadi Zafrani Biryani.

It was good clean fun, noteworthy is the performance of the kid whom Buddha fondly calls "Sexy". She may be a kid but talks like a grown-up. The only tragedy is that she is suffering from blood cancer. I liked the title song of Cheeni-kum.

On Sunday, when I was driving , I overran a traffic signal as I was a bit confused. The next moment I saw a cop giving me instructions to park my car on the side. I was impressed by the courtesy shown by the cop who addressed me politely. He asked me whether I broke the signal, I replied in the affirmative.

I had an option of paying a spot-fine, the problem was the cop didn't have a receipt. The fine was Rs.100. I didn't want to pay the money without a receipt as that would have encouraged corruption. I told the cop to note down my registration number for the traffic violation and send the notice to my postal address registered in the computerised records.

Back to work on Monday and this time it will be a short working week as I will be on leave on Thursday and Friday..:)

Today is June 1st, a landmark for me in terms of my stay in Bangalore, I have completed 6 months today in this city and my current organization. It's also my pay day :)

However as it turned out, it wasn't the perfect start to the Friday I was hoping for. When I saw my payslip it gave me a big shock, a sizeable amount of tax was deducted from my pay. I need to do something so that I can reduce my tax burden considerably. There are a few options I am looking at.

The mood of despondency lifted once my day came to a close..coz here comes the weekend :)