we are like pre paid card with limited validity?

Check this chetan bhagat's inaguaral speech in symbiosis BBA program (http://groups.google.com/group/aiii/browse_thread/thread/1a62efc78041c55c?fwc=1) where he said

"We are like a pre-paid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500 weekends. Do we really need to get so worked up? It's ok, bunk a few classes, goof up a few interviews, fall in love. We are people, not programmed devices. "

I think he is very true, whats the big deal if you bunk few classes, goof up some interviews (but not all :P then u will be in trouble for sure). We should definitely have fun in life... its no point taking life so seriously since no one gets out of it alive. So as he told... fall in love.. do some adventure activities, travel a lot, learn all you like, nothign is wrong in this world.. do something new... try everything in life n enjoy!

How to get a nice wife?

Someone fwded a mail about how to get a nice wife[in arranged marriage case], it is almost like process document which we have in workplace. Like you follow these steps then most likely you get a nice wife. But personally i feel "arranged marriage" is a gambling, you never know what kind of girl/guy you are going to get(whatever precautions or advise you take).

And for this generation i think getting arranged marriage is a painful process, like seeing many girls, talking to them, spending lot of weekends meeting new new people.. oh god... i tell you it is not for people like me at least.

BTW this fwded mail/ getting-nice-wife process document is interesting... so go n enjoy reading...

How to get a Nice Wife

There are times in a person's life when he needs to take crucial decisions on his own. Marriage is one of them. Believe me, the decision on whom to marry is the most important decision a person will make in his life. After marriage, your wife is the most important person in your life. She can make or break your life. The mere thought of this is very frightening.

Some of the questions that crop up are -

a.. What sort of a girl do I marry?
b.. Will she adjust in my family?
c.. How can I decide on a girl by just meeting her for a few times?
d.. When should I get married?
e.. This is my life. So, I should choose the girl I marry, but then what if I make a mistake? .. so on and so forth.

I will try to address these & many more questions in the following sections.

The Nine Rules of Arranged marriage

Rule 1 - Magic no. 28

In an ideal scenario, a girl goes to college at the age of 18. By the time she graduates, goes for her post graduation and/ or works for 1-2 years, she will be about 23- 24. This means that she has spent about 5 years away from her home. In the 5 years period, she would meet many smart guys at college or during her first few years on job. So, in all probability it would be difficult to find a good girl older than 24 yrs. Secondly, in Indian families there is lot of pressure on the girl's to get married by the time they become 24-25.

Statistics says that there is a generation gap after every 5 years. So, in such scenario, one would prefer to marry a girl who is about 3-4 years younger to you. Thus, working backwards, an ideal age for a guy to get married is by 28. Earlier the marriage, the better it is.

Well, as we all know, in the current market scenario, there will never be stability in our career. So, I believe there is no such thing as, "I will marry when I settle down".

Rule 2 -- Subset of marriage-able girls

At times you hear statements like, "I am not getting the right match, I will look after 3 months, I will find a better match then". Well the truth is otherwise. The subset of unmarried girl looking for a match is fixed. From this subset, there would be girls who would get married & there would be new girls added who would be looking for a match. The net result is that at any given time, the variety & number of marriage-able girls are fixed.

Rule 3 - Competition for girls

Like all other facets of life, there is lot of competition for good girls. So, if you are looking for a girl who is post graduate, done her Engg, is working, very beautiful, smart, from a good family etc. etc, just think again. There are other guys who are also looking for similar girls & probably they are better off than you in terms of career, looks personality etc. Given a choice every guy would like to marry Aishwarya Rai. So, set your expectations accordingly.

Rule 4 -- Understanding girls

You would have met a lot of people during your life. As we all know, its difficult to judge a person based on a few meetings. I am sure you would agree with me that in case of girls it is even more difficult to understand them in a few meetings. I know people who are still trying to understand their wife. ;-).. Understanding your spouse is a life long assignment. So, then how do you select a girl based on a few meeting? This is where you need to take the help of your parents/ friends & latest technologies like email/chat to choose your girl.

Rule 5 - Society expectation

The selection process is tough on every one who is involved in the process. In arranged marriage, involvement of family & society is pretty high. You can't meet a girl 3-4 times & then say no to her. It is bad for her future. So, you should have a good short-listing criterion. Meet only a few girls & be sure what you are looking for. It is for the benefit of everyone involved.

Rule 6 -- Marriage between equals

Unlike love marriage, in arranged marriage you also marry into the girl's family. In arranged marriages, family support plays a major role in ensuring a successful marriage. This is where the compatibility of social status, family values & caste/religion plays a major role. Its important to note that in case there is a perfect match between the two families, the marriage is destined to succeed.

Rule 7 - Know yourself

Unlike love marriage, in arranged marriage you first marry a person & then fall in love. So, it's very important that you do a self-assessment on the kind of person you would love. They say, "Opposite attract", while they also say, "Bird of same feather flock together". So, you take a call on what sort of person you like. Take a pen & paper; write down the kind of attributes you are looking for in a girl. Say, she should ideally have the looks of Sonia, the style of Monica, the voice of Sheena, the patience of Rashmi. You will certainly not find the perfect girl, but then you would have a good idea of what you are looking for. The secret here is to set some minimum criteria for selection. Don't forget rule no.3 here.

Rule 8 -- Girl's Beauty

A girl's looks attract, but then no one wants to end up marrying a dumb. It is like buying your bike. When you initially buy it, you are crazy about the looks, but later on you love it for its reliability, fuel economy & comfort level. Similarly, a girl's looks are important, but then it should not be the most important criteria. Later on in life, you will get bored of her looks. It is then that her personality & behavior will make all the difference to your marriage. I am sure your parents will be able to advice you a lot better on this topic.

Rule 9 -- Taking advice

As I have mentioned in the next rule, it's very important that the final decision on whom to marry must necessarily be yours. However, don't do the mistake of isolating yourself from the world while planning your marriage. Discuss with your parents & very close friends on this issue. They are your well wishers. Secondly, in such important matters its necessary that you analyze all possibilities. Remember, I am not suggesting that you follow others' advice, but don't forget to take their advice.

Rule 10 -- Own decision

All said & done, it's your marriage & your life that is at stake. Once you are married, you & your wife are the only persons who will be facing the music. Don't marry a girl just because your parents or friends asked you to do so. After marriage, if things don't work out & you end up saying, "It's because of my friends or my parents that I married you", then your marriage is destined for disaster. If the girl is of your choice, it is you who will be responsible for whatever happens. That's when the marriage works out perfectly. So, ensure that you marry the girl of your choice.

How to approach the selection process?

From the day, a person decides to get married; the selection process takes a minimum of 3 months. The whole process needs a lot of patience & commitment. The ideal steps to be followed are:

a.. Definition phase –

Define the minimum criteria for the kind of life partner you are looking for in terms of education, physical appearance, social status, family values, future career plans. Remember the Rule 3 here.

b.. Lead Generation phase –

Place ads in various newspapers, magazines, websites, through friends, family friends, family societies & association etc. You need to exhaust all possible means of getting bio-datas at one go. Remember the Rule 2 here.


c.. Short listing phase –

Based on your selection criteria, short-list the interesting bio-datas. The general process followed for correspondence is as follows:

1. The initiator sends a one page profile of himself/herself.

2. Based on the profile, the receiver sends his/her one page profile along with request for detailed profile, photo, horoscope.

3. The initiator then sends the requested information along with a request for similar information.

4. The receiver send similar information.

5. If the bio-data is selected, it is passed over to the next phase.

A.. Casual interaction phase –

Based on short listing, about 7 to 10 bio-datas are taken forwarded to this phase. The next step to follow here is to exchange email/ chat ids. The guy & the girl then interact for 10 - 15 days to try & judge mutual compatibility through email/chat.

B.. Family interaction phase –

Based on the earlier phase, about 5 leads are taken for consideration in this phase. During this phase, the parents get involved & check the background information about the families to find mutual compatibility.

C.. The dating phase –

Based on the earlier phase about 3 leads are taken forward to this phase. During this phase, the guy & the girl interact by going out alone for 2-3 times. The guy needs to prepare a set of simple questions like who is your favorite star, what are your hobbies? He needs to use his judgment to analyze the girl based on her responses.

D.. The D-day phase –

Finally, the D-day comes when the guy has to select the girl he wants to spend his life with. If the process if followed systematically, there will be no ambiguity in deciding who should be your life partner.

Finally, my dear friends, marriage is all about compromises. In spite of all the planning that you do, there are a lot of uncertainties in a marriage. In fact this is the best part about marriage. Just remember that the person you marry must be of your choice. In such case, there would be no going back for both of you.

A few words of advice: To make your marriage a success; just believe in the age-old virtue, "Never do anything to others that you don't like for yourself".

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Virtual Credit cards, now in india...

Yesterday i was going thru ICICI online banking and found something new called Virtual Credit card (i dont know when they introduced). It is linked to actual credit card and here we can set whatever limit we want, but less than actual card's limit. It means for online shopping and usage we can use this virtual card and keep the limit very low. So that even if hacker gets hold of your card he cant enjoy much coz your card limit may be very less.

hmm dont you think it is a cool feature for safe online shopping!

btw when I was googling more about this I found another thing Kotak net card, which is even more better. In this case it is linked to debit card and with very less activation period and credit limit. hmm lot new stuff to make online shopping safe.

check more details at http://www.kotak.com/Kotak_BankSite/personal/cards/netcard_faqs.htm

Piracy and Police!

Selling and buying pirated CDs became very common nowadays in Bangalore and other cities in India. And our police men are not taking any actions, forget about taking action, they are also happily buying CDs with others, check this photo :)

am I lucky or govt departments improved?

how do you feel if your BSNL phone-dead issue gets fixed within 15-20 minutes, after complaining thru tool free number?

how do you feel if a LIC officer calls you inside cube and gives whatever IT report you asked for quickly?

how do you feel if you can track local bus thru SMS?

and there are many more things happened like this with me.. and i just cant believe all this changed so fast in india...

india is truely shining :)

Sanskrit and Enigma

(Enigma child in us)

My Visual DNA

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Using subconscious mind!

Many times we do some things subconsciously. For example we will be thinking something but still we lock the house door and close the gate and start car and go to office. Etc...

So it means there is something which works without our consciousness, and I feel that is also faster because it doesn’t involve thinking...

Yesterday I discovered that we can also use this subconscious mind... You know how? Actually I didn’t use my Bank ATM card for almost two months and forgot my PIN number; I was standing in queue and was not able to remember PIN... Only 3 people next to me in queue... Now 2... Then 1... Hmmm now my turn but still I am with no PIN number... :(

Finally I got an idea... Many times we do things subconsciously... Including withdrawing money... like I will be talking over phone when I go to ATM... But I just go there, put card... then automatically I enter pin number, get money and come out... so I thought why not do the same and tried using my subconscious mind... I just went to machine... Put my card... Pressed some number automatically and it worked :)

Funny Ze frank!

check this Video

Trip to Malnad

On Independence-day holidays, me and my friends(Vyas,Manoj and Anand) decided to go mallenaadu [rainy place], also called as malnad (udupi, shimoga,Uttar Kannada,Dakshina Kannada districts comes under malnad)

and the trip was really adventurous with this year's full swing monsoon in malnad.

there is lot to write, but let me tell you what we did in few words, hmm august 12th morning we started from bangalore, we took shimoga route and then touched aynur, thirtha-halli then Agumbe and finally night 8pm we reached Adreno's farmhouse in hebri.

oh god, Agumbe was like heaven with that fog and rain. Agumbe has the reputation of being the wettest place in southern India and also Shankar nags Malgudi-Days was shot here in agumbe.

13th august, we did trekking in Someshwara wildlife sanctury in hebri, it was 5-5KM trekking. did trekking till koodlu thirtha water falls and returned to camp in the evening. i guess everyone donated enough blood to leaches...:), good thing we did was we were wearing shorts/chappals instead of jeans/shoes, this helped us to find leaches and throw them faster...

Photo near koodlu-thirtha water falls:


click here for an enlarged and clear picture


these photos are taken on trek way...


click here for an enlarged and clear picture



click here for an enlarged and clear picture


14th august we did rafting in sita river, hebri again after 2 years, hmm this requires lot of energy than trekking, trekking day itself we were tired and after rafting hmm cant tell.. still it was super adventurous...

photos of rafting is here


click here for an enlarged and clear picture


after rafting we headed towards Manoj's house in Sagar and reached his house around 2am in the night, took rest and in morning we had superb/rich breakfast prepared by his mom (malnad people are actually famous for their hospitality) and then we went to see Jog falls.

Jog falls was wearing a super cool look with heavy discharge of water from linganmakki dam and It was a good view to see so much water there after many long years...


click here for an enlarged and clear picture


after all this adventurous stuff I went to my native place Bhadravathi and friends are back to bangalore.

and more photos at www.flickr.com/photos/kashi