Tag: Whatever

New way to earn from home : Sell your crap ..!

And I am not very excited about it… Imagine opening up the newspaper when you get up at 11 in the morning (yes MORNING) and reading such a headline.. It turns out chairman of some committee, Mr. R Waikar has put up a proposal that says BMC will start buying all your crap from you. BMC will pay Twenty Five paise per kilo of the kachra collected from you .. “All this to try and stop you from dumping the waste carelessly and thus dirtying the city” .. All through my breakfast I was thinking about what will be the consequences if people started trading their crap .. Here are some of my pennyless thoughts .. :

1: Yelp! Someone stole my crap ! : Imagine people going to Police Station for complaining that someone has stolen their litter box .. “It was about seven kilo in weight and smelled pretty bad .. It was in a black plastic bag ” .. “Btw .. What are you hiding ??? That looks like my piece of crap !!” .. To which the policewallah will sheepishly tell the man that this was his own crap collected from a rave party at his home last night …

2: Everything is crap … ! : People will start selling everything they have no use to BMC .. People will start bringing work to their homes and sell them to BMC babus in the morning .. I can almost imagine little Chunnu proudly telling his mother “Ma .. I earned twelve rupees today by selling my school bag ! “…

3: My crap is better than yours ! : People will start competing in the quality of their crap .. Those selling big packets of kachra will have more recognition (they are keeping the city cleaner) .. Saas bahus will gossip about how much crap their next door neighbor is collecting these days ..

4: A new breed of entrepreneurs : Soon a new surname will join the Cablewallah, Tyrewallahs .. : Kachrawallah .. People will start importing and exporting kachra from Bombay .. Boy ! Thats a nice new opening ..!

5: A new source of income : You’ll have to declare how much you earn from selling your kachra .. It will be added under the head Income from other sources in your Saral form ..Govt will start taxing those who sells too much kachra .. !

… … …….

I have some more world destructive ideas in my head but I dont want to voice them .. See I am in a very crappy mood right now .. Where the crap is my litter box .. I need to weigh it ..

</crap>

But it Rained

It was giving signs all day long .. and by the time I reached office, it started pouring .. No matter.. I said to myself . .. it will be over soon .. I didnt know.

Time to get back to home .. My boss has already left and people who came late brought equipments to deal with the rains .. I didnt have rain coat . .. nor umbrella .. Umbrella is pointless though as you cant use it while you drive .. At around nine in the night, the rain’s intensity looks diminishing … it will be over soon .. I said to myself yet again … I didnt know ..

At around ten in the night, I decide to take the plunge .. Those are little droplets, I’ll reach home in no time .. So I try my luck at praying .. “Oh God .. Please stop the rain for just five minutes ..” and starts from my office.. No luck .. it kept raining .. and after only a minute of drive, I stop at a chai dhaba .. I’ll wait here and soon it will be over .. So drinking hot chai and watching water leaking from all corners of the dhaba shade .. and listening to Lata Mangeshkar “Chalte chalte yunhi koi mil gaya tha” on the radio .. Welcome change from Atif Aslam whom I am listening to very much these days .. All this environment makes me nostalgic .. So I brace myself again and start again towards my home …

At first I close my eyes when the rain drops hits my face .. then I began to enjoy the feeling .. I’ve always loved rains but after I spending my last year in Mumbai’s rain, all the romance was lost .. Anyway .. earlier I was driving fast .. then I started driving slow .. there is nothing that can match driving in rains .. Raindrops entering your eyes ..dodging the splash of water / mud from the car you are trying to over take .. hitting brakes too hard .. singing (yelling) on the top of your voice .. How come rains make people crazy …?

I am shivering when I reach the building .. Smiled when I see neighbor girl giggling at me .. Warm my frozen hands on the gas burner for at least five minutes (or was it ten ) .. Check my phone line .. whoa its not dead .. check the internet connection .. whoa .. its up too .. Great …!! Listen to November Rain for some five times .. writing this post and watching rain drops from the window .. ..

Its official raining in Bombay …

Windows Live Mail reveiwed

Lately I’ve been beta testing Windows Live Mail Desktop Beta (what’s with Microsoft and long names ..? And DOS didn’t use to support long filenames .. 😛 ) .. It is an email client which is supposed to replace Outlook Express and shouldnt be confused with Windows Live Mail which is now Windows Live Hotmail (phew … ). Last week Microsoft released a new version of WLMD and renamed it Windows Live Mail . Its still in beta and still I am using it as my default email client. Here is a short review of my experience with WLM:

Some great things about Windows Live Mail:

Interface : First impression is the last(ing) impression .. And WLM scores huge here .. Right from its splash screen, the interface rocks. Outlook 2003 like interface combined with a Vista like look and feel makes it look very appealing. It seems like Microsoft have now understood the value of eye candy plus ease of use in their applications. Filters like Unread Mails, Unread Mails from my contacts makes life so easy.

Supports Hotmail: Now you can check Hotmail (ugh .. Windows Live Hotmail ) using Windows Live Mail. If you are like me who lost the email client support on your Hotmail account some years ago, here is a good news for you .. WLM lets you check your Hotmail account without any subscription involved. I think Microsoft has now changed the strategy and allowed httpmail access to WLH because every other email service is offering it. Before using WLM,I was logging into Hotmail account in three or four weeks .. Now I check it daily ..

Lightweight : Although it sports Outlook like looks and Thunderbird like spam catching capabilities, its very light weight on system. It boots in 2 3 seconds and doesnt put any load on memory.

Integrated Feed reader: This is another feature that hooked me onto this proggy .. I usually check my feeds after I check my email and my email client having RSS capabilities stopped me looking for another RSS clients. The feed reader fits seamlessly in the interface and have all the options that I look for : When I click on links, my default browser opens ( I hate those rss readers which show the link in their own integrated browser).

Security features: Microsoft have improved so much on this front. The spam filter works great and catches most of the spam that I receive. It also checks for phishing messages and alerts when a suspect phishing messages is received. WLM is better in catching phishing messages in comparison to Thunderbird which use to think every mail I receive is a phishing scam.

Integrated blogging and contacts : If you have Live Space account, you can directly post entries to your Live Space from inside WLM. The contacts are synchronized with your MSN / Live contacts and you can choose to receive contact updates (great feature) ..

No nagware : One thing I used to hate about Outlook express was it combined Windows Messenger, MSN Messenger with it . .. And whenever I check my mail, I am automatically signed in to messenger service. And you couldnt exit messenger when Outlook Express was running as it would say “Other programs are using it “. Windows Live Messenger is supported in WLM but it doesnt start by itself nor it is needed when you have to check your contacts. There are no advertisements in the client also .. and it wont add any signature in your outgoing mail like other free / adware email clients. It is reported that the final version will also be advertisement free ..

Some not so great things about Windows Live Mail :

Feed Management : Definitely needs improvement. When you click on Add a Feed, it doesnt automatically pastes the link from your clipboard to add link textbox. Another thing is I dont see any option to make this program my default rss reader.

Blogging : I cant change my blogging platform from Live Spaces to any other services .. So this blogging link is practically useless to me as I dont use Live Spaces…

Cant Import Export Contacts : Thats the worst of things I didnt like .. As contacts are stored on Live server, you cannot directly import or export them .. Too bad if you want to import your Outlook contacts to WLM ..

Cant Import Export Message rules : So if you are going to format your system, you are going to lose all your email filters as there is no option to import or export them .. Blah ..

Cant define my own Search Folders : There are some predefined Search Folders and you cannot edit them .. Either you create some filters and redirect your mails to a folder and then use Search Folders with them .. duh .. Improvement needed here too ..

Conclusion :

Windows Live Mails looks like a very promising application to me .. If they take care of some quirks here and there, and include support for other blogging platforms, this is going to become the best free email client over there..

Tulsi dies in a car crash ..!!

Do not get all worked up .. Smriti Irani isnt dead .. nor is Kekta Kapoor .. So all saas bahu haters still have a bone of contention .. 😛 .. The news here is Tulsi ( Kyunki Saas bhi 40 years tak bahu thi fame ) is gonna die in a car crash .. And yes .. no points for guessing that she’s gonna come back again .. 😛 .. Here is the official word from horse ( mane’s ) mouth .. :

After some time, a new character will enter the show as Tulsi. Disbelief and confusion will reign, later everyone will know that Tulsi had undergone a plastic surgery after the accident. Supposedly Gautami Kapoor has been finalized as the new Tulsi.

Star Plus have also organized an opinion poll on who is gonna replace Smriti Irani in KSBKT .. The choices are Padmini Kolhapuri (porn star of yesteryears .. then featured in some great movies like “Woh Saat Din” ) .. or someone called Gautami Kapoor ( duh .. I dont watch much TV so I dunno if she’s a tv actress or something ..) .. Whack …

Yesterday I got a nightmare that Smriti Irani after leaving Saas bhi kabhi bahu thi is gonna make a show called “Kyunki bahu bhi kabhi saas hogi” and will air it on Sony clashing the time with KSBKBT … Man what this information and broadcast ministry people are doing ..? Banning FTV and AXN which are nice eye candy channels but not banning this BS programs which are mental torture ..

Yaawn .. Why did I even write this post ..? I hate soap operas .. :-w

So its been a year ..

Warning: This post can be a monologue. ..

The opening lines of every post are the most difficult ones to think .. How to write something that the reader will find interesting and captures the theme of the entry .. ? Well .. For this particular post, I couldnt think of any such opening so here it goes ..

It all started a year ago when I arrived in this city of dreams called Bombay ( I still call it Bombay) with many dreams and even more hopes in my heart… It was raining heavily and I was all wet when I somehow managed to find out the SBI guest house (where my friend Nisheet had already booked a room) .. We chatted about how our next day which was going to be our reporting to the job was going to be and how life would be after that ..

The next day was even more interesting .. We found out that we’ll be posted for the rest of our service in Bombay itself (or if you are lucky you’ll get a foreign posting afterwards .. ) .. We were allotted departments and roles… We had our first lunch in the Officer’s mess (why is it called Officer’s Mess ? ) and then went to our respective departments for introductions and all .. I still remember one of my senior told us “Now with what qualifications or experience you have come with doesnt matter ..What you can give to the bank will matter the most .. ” I still believe in those words .. Anyway .. too many things happened in the first day and I cant write all of them here .. We were given temporary accomodation in guest house till our flats were ready .. (Getting listed in guest house was another great experience) ..

So .. I moved into a new room in guest house and it turned out it was to be shared with three more guys .. Three guys literally from three corners of India .. Man those guest house days were some very well spent days of my life .. As I stroll down memory lane, I remember listening to FM and chatting till late night .. Learning Malayalam .. or Manipuri .. 😀 .. Having dinner together .. Racing in morning to get the bathroom .. Getting others late for office ..:D .. Sleeping in boring training sessions .. Waiting for the rains to stop which poured as if its the end of world ..

Earlier days were spent in shock and awe .. Being so far from family and friends was a new experience for me (and a very tough one).. Slowly official work started to fill this void. .. Earlier it was feeling important .. than feeling responsible .. sometimes feeling exhausted .. Then I got my first salary .. Earning money was not a new thing for me but now I had to manage my living all by myself .. Seems I am doing pretty good … A major part of our salary used to goto mobile bills .. And eating those horrible food at mess .. And as you are expected to work at office, chat protocols were blocked and most timepass websites were also blocked .. So that ended my Orkut addiction .. Finding out proxy sites to bypass the restrictions and finding out new new ways to access blocked site ..  It was nice experimenting with our newly found independence ..

So this year brought many ups and downs in my life .. It highlights again that life is a constant learning process .. and I am still learning .. and I am still coping .. I’ve made so many friends here and who made living here all alone a bit easier for me .. Thanks to everyone just for being there for me ..

Battybhai JAIIB

Circuit: Bhai, apnay ko chaar mahinay mein Tamil sikhna padega… Kuch upaay batao ..?
Bhai : Tamil kyun, aur yeh chaar mahinay ka kya chakkar hai ?
Circuit: Meinay ek Tamil baccha adopt kiya hai, aur woh chaar mahinay mein bolne lagega.

😛 .. Something similar was my case when I joined this bank some time back .. As a techie who knew nothing about banking and accounts .. And to be posted in the elite department of foreign offices necessited I learn all the banking related stuff .. So I started .. And now I can say I know atleast something about banking and operations ..

Anyway … This entry was about JAIIB .. Though it was a tough challenge to test my new acquired skills but with some not so great preperations and some great help from my friends ( Andy , Thaslim ) , I was able to clear the examination with respectable marks…

While I was preparing for the exam, I found that there werent any study material to be found on the net on JAIIB , so I’ve decided I’ll put some material collected by me on this site .. So if you are preparing for the JAIIB, then watch this space .. I’ll upload the material soon ..

Till then .. I am gonna enjoy an extra increment .. 😛 .. And prepare for CAIIB .. And search for my Chinki .. 😀