Singapore with Selp and Murali!

Pics..



Ice skating video!

Pulao Ubin

A beautiful island near singapore covered with forests, around a centrally located quarry area. This trip happened a long time back! Here's a video of all of us having lunch..

Wall E!!

At the end of Phase I, this is what our custom Scrap Wall E looks like!

CHYK Camp

A really lovely song, for reasons beyond explanation! ;)

Mere Khayalon Ki Malika

Mere Khayalon Ki Malika

Chaaron Taraf Teri Chhaiyyan Re

Thaam Le Aa Ke Bainyya

Chaaron Taraf Teri Chhaiyyan Re

Chhaiyyan...



Aayi, Phoolon Ke Ras Mein Naha Ke

Layi, Bheeni Si Khushboo Chura Ke

Teri Aankhon Mein Hai, Halka Sa Nasha

Tera Roop Meri, Nazron Mein Basa

Mere Khayalon Ki Malika ...



Jadoo, Chhaya Hai Tera Jadoo

Kaabu, Dil Pe Nahin Hai Kaabu

Sapnon Ki Pari, Itna To Bata

Rehti Hai Kahan, Tera Naam Hai Kya

Mere Khayalon Ki Malika ...

The kids room!!

Yeah.. That's our room!!

Palmtop time!!

Third house in three months!!

Wow!! What a stay it's been so far! We are in the third house in the three months! Nice family.. a husband,wife and three kids! Looks like these guys have really taken singapore government's encouragement for having three kids per family, seriously!! Me and sharvil thought we were gonna have a tough time without internet.. But these three kids kept us more than busy for the past couple of days.. We learnt so much stuff from them, that we're just not able to believe how these three days went so fast! Pokemon cards, Pokemon games (really weird ones!!), playing tennis with basket ball, playing volley ball with a soft ball!! Truly, it was really difficult to put up with these guys' enthu! It was fun though!! Akash, Varunesh and Thanush.. ages are like 9, 7 and 5 years!! Each one pulls you from each direction first.. you'll really need to try hard and unite their interests, and then things move on smoothly for a while, till after a short while, the same thing repeats! So the best thing to do: praise varunesh's artistic skills.. he goes to the room, takes a paper and pencil, starts drawing mickey mouse! One down, the remaining two can be tackled on a two-on-two basis!! :P It isn't that bad actually! Just exaggerating stuff! Nevertheless, these guys are great fun!! Thanks to them that we didn't get bored for the past few days!!
Next, coming to the IT fair that's been going on for the past few days.. I haven't seen so much crownd at any other place in singapore. For the first time I see people rubbing against each other as they walk! Four floors of stalls, all kinds of electronics at prices that'll tempt you into buying them at the first site! And lovely looking girls presenting some of the items there, that if you aren't focussing on the product, she's definitely gonna lure you into buying it!! ;)
We've been window shopping in the fair for the past few days.. going around and checking out the various costs, and ultimately ended up collecting a hundred plus pamphlets.. amazingly colourfully illustrated, with all attractive costs! Nothing much to be mentioned about the first two days.. So I'll directly come to today, Saturday.
Sharvil was gonna buy a camera and a hard disk from what we'd seen in the past few days. I was planning to buy a digital photo frame.. Sony was the best that I'd seen there for a 199SGD. Actually not worth so much, I checked in other shops, I could get better features at lesser costs. That made me land up on the only other option I had.. The ASUS palmtop PC. For a sexy 398SGD, we get a mini laptop extremely portable and powerful, cool looking, performing really good! Well, I got this not for me, but for my girl friend's mom! But now am really considering giving my laptop to her and retaining this baby with me!! It's really an awesome piece of engineering, both in terms of cost and features - the best deal, I would say, in the entire fair, was this!
With a tinee tiny 7 inch screen, I had some reservations about it, but its GUI turned out to be classic! It runs linux - i was really thinking about putting XP on my own later - but now i really think that would be a very very bad choice! Coz this one, inspite of running Linux, has the best of both worlds to offer! No more clumsy linux software installation crap, and no more of XPs slow booting or programs loading irritation. It's fast, and doesn't hang, typical of Linux, and its user interface is so well organized, that you really have what you need at your finger tips! Six tabs is all it takes to organize your entire stuff, and cool big icons for software launch make it very convenient for using them.
Coming to the hardware part - a Mac book type, full size QWERT keyboard, 3 USB ports, built in WiFi adapter supporting 802.11G, an inbuilt SD card reader, ethernet port, projector/external monitor connector, built in mic and webcam, a cool and well performing touch pad, a 7 inch LCD screen, and hi definition audio output speakers, an 8GB solid state hard disk, Intel Mobile Processor, and a very comfortable 1GB of RAM, all packed into a very cute and under 1Kg package!! Talk about the ideal business man's companion - here it is!! 8GB is not much, but pretty much to manage word documents, audio files and a few videos, just the kind of stuff that my mom in law's job profile demands!! :P
And how do I know about its performance? Well, this whole blog is being composed on the cutee!!
Coming to composing this blog - what about the internet?! Well, we got a Linksys wireless router from Cisco, that we configured with our owner's modem and PC, and broke our heads over the net not connecting coz we were entering the wrong password every time (which we found out after reinstalling twice, and spending a whopping 2 hours on the problem!!), and finally got it fixed!! And wifi on the ASUS EEE PC (now I reveal the name!) is damn good!
If you want this to sound more like a product review, well I'd conclude by giving it a 9.5/10, or a 4.5 stars on 5, the remaining 0.5 in both cases deducted coz of the small size of hard disk, which could have been slightly bigger. Coming to that, the ASUS has just over 5GB for use, rest taken by the OS and other software stuff.. But if you're looking for the best deal for your small budget, ASUS EEE PC would be the ideal one!
Pics on the new house and the ASUS baby coming up soon.. keep checking!!

The Others? Really?

I talk about it.. a lot. I say people don't do anything about it. While I was reading a blog about how someone felt about it, I thought "What's the use? Is there anything you are doing about it? Why even talk?".
I think about it many times.. just say to myself that I'll do something about it, and simply and conveniently forget about it.
What about those who've dedicated their lives serving the poor? How much have they sacrificed in their lives? And why did they or do they do it? It's not always that all of them have the heart to help. Some do it to profit themselves, be it in terms of respect in the society, or monetary. But the question to be asked is not "Why are they doing it?", rather, it is "Why am I not doing it?".
I think of reasons, many very convenient to write, absolutely logical to believe, seemingly true to just ignore the fact that all of us, as humans are bound to do something about them. I'm obviously not gonna put them in here to convince myself that what I'm doing is right, or justify my inability to do anything. No matter how much I don't want to think about it, it's there, within, around, everywhere.
How much I'd like to say "There's something I'll definitely do about it in the future", which is just a lame excuse to get away from it, I'd rather just put it after I've done it.

The second house in two months!

St john and kusu.. the photo blog.

@ St Johns and Kusu Islands!

Sentosa Fun!

Sentosa.. A must visit place if you come here! Don't miss the fun!

The fun we had at Sentosa!


Check out these videos of a part of the fountain show!

A very cute video!

Tried a lot to get this video, which i'd seen in eashwar's iPod for the first time. I found it real cute. After that have been trying to get it, but never did. Until a couple of days back when i found it as a status message of someone in my list!
got the video on youtube. here it is!

Cheers!

Me, gaurav trying a bottoms up with a beer @ Simlim square.. it's come out real cool! Thanks to sharvil for this brilliant video!

The illegal pictures! (Cam not allowed in office!)

Infineon in GoogleMaps

Infineon in close up. (A photostitch, 6 photos together form this one)

My Cubicle!

Waiting for bus to Kallang MRT!

Near our house.. tried a new way. Found some nice places!

Simplifying Things!

Well, it's not that I don't have time to crap here. Nor is it entirely that I'm too lazy to write! Just that I thought, after receiving some constructive criticism from my blog readers (wow! that's sounds cool!), that I'd make things easy for them, by putting in a lot less text (essay, some may call my prev. blogs, not realizing that they're the ones who are either jealous or lazy!). So here's the try... Picture blogs! I really don't like the way they appear here. But it's okay for now! If anyone knows any site where i can blog pictures as well as text (like blogspot- should be fine) do let me know!

The professionals returning home!

Can you believe that's a cat!

HDB apartments (a four second exposure pic!)

Outside Block 71 (our block)

Infineon's VoIP chip.. Inca. I took the pic! cool right?

Chopsticks expert tutorials on how to eat Chicken Noodles with soya sauce and an awesome soup!

By the way... this is the dish.

What remains after the session. Pretty clean uh?!

Cheers! Nice dinner!

Chinese and the romantic pier

Well, as promised yesterday, here are some snaps i got from the net...

The hawkers (food courts) near our place

Thats' ECP again... Whoever took that picture-you rock!

An aparment looking exactly like ours, with clothes hanging out in the Singapore drying style!

And ya.. about today.. since this has become our usual routine, i wouldn't stress much on our uselessness!! Got up at 0921hrs for a visit that we were to give to the ministry of manpower for our visa, and for an appointment that sharvil had with his supervisor at 1000hrs! This time we didn't panic, coz we now know precisely what's to be done! We tried calling the supervisor, but we didn't have the number. So called the secretary instead, and asked her to inform him! 

Took bath (which was compulsory as we didn't take bath the prev day inspite of a really sweaty day!) and left to MOM by taxi (ya, company's refund still holds!). Got the visa thing done, and came to office. We were told that the meeting with the supervisor was at 1500 hrs. So went to the cubicle and got stuff ready to submit to the HR. Submitted, and went to the bank to open an account. This bank is called the POSB. Excellent service here.. within 15 mins we had the account ready, pass book and ATM card at hand! That was really cool!

Came back to office, had lunch (which was really good.. mutton, fish, rice n all..), came back to cubicle. While sharvil was trying to fix his comp with help from the IT helpline here, i was browsing and mailing ppl, coz my supervisor was on leave today!

After that there's nothing much to add.. slept for a while, woke up and took the company bus to MRT and came home. 

The evening me and sharvil went jogging to the beach, about 3-4 kms., and jumped into the water! Had a great time there.. running along the shoreline, writing names on the sea shore, and see them get washed away by water.. all this at 1930 hrs! Then half naked, we took a shower there, and went to the pier and started chatting for a while with the wind blowing at out face! 

Wow! I should be here with my girl friend man! I miss her so much, more so when i see other couples here... which is everywhere and all the time, except the office!! I so wish she was here. Seriously, for those who read this blog, and plan to come to singapore, you should do so with your girl friend or boy friend.. it's gonna be the best thing you've ever done in life! And remember to pay a visit in your 20s itself, and not after you get married with family n all. Of course you could come then, but that should be after you've made your 20s trip! And for those who are in their 30 plus, better later than never! :)

We had an awesome dinner today... Coming back from the pier, we stopped at a hawkers' and ordered some chinese stuff.. What follows may be skipped by pure vegetarians.. non veggies read on! 

First we ordered this ham-mushroom soup. First it tasted pretty weird, but with a bit more of salt and pepper, it was good.. mmm! Then arrived our noodle dish: Alio-e-Olio! These were the ingredients... Noodles, prawns, fish (all boiled, and with very l'll masala), and for the best part... the part that made us try it... the oyster, also boiled (couldn't find any masala on it though!) But it tasted pretty good. I mean, we liked the taste. But am sure most wouldn't like the taste! Probably we wouldn't have too, had we not been hungry and in the enthu to taste something different! But nevertheless, the stuff was good.. And here's a hint on how to eat chinese food stuff.. Don't try experiment or open (if possible) to see what's inside a particular stuff you've been served! Seriously, if you'd seen the oyster, you'd definitely, if not puke for in the worst case, atleast loose your appetite for sure! But I was determined to! So i saw it, and inspite of that had it! But it tastes fine! Much like meat... But you can feel the parts inside! Yuck? But it was indeed a 'wow' dish!!

So after that lovely dinner, we had a coke, got some really huge plums in a nearby fruit store, and came home. The plums were just absolutely tasty man! Never tasted plums like those before!

Had a long chat with jini, and my wingies selp and terror, who are planning to come here this october. Let's hope it works out fine!

And 0134 now... I don't wanna think about tomorrow! All I know is that neither of us is feeling sleepy at the moment! And that I, though not in a mood to blog just a few minutes ago, am in a don't stop typing mood now! 

Some more pics... 

An MRT Station

The Esplanade - Theatres on the bay

Some more pier stuff...

Google Map - Pier Close up.

Google Maps - The pier, long shot

That pic must have been taken at sometime in the morning... imagine that at 1900 hrs... truly a a place you'll wanna take your love to!

Some pics!

Me and sharvil have been roaming around city like crazy, and our owner, this hyper cool guy is making it all the more interesting by taking us to some legally allowed places! :P For more details contact the post owner! I don't wanna risk putting it all on this blog! So here are some pics of our endlessly flowing enthu's consequences...

Me and Sharvil near our flat

 

I think the oceans trying to tell me something...Shhh.. Trying to listen! :P 

Thats the king size bed in our room. It's clean for I cleaned it up for the pic.

 

A lake kinda thing filled with turtles near the East coast beach park (ECP)

The same bed in the morning just after we get up!

Gaurav, Sasidhar, Sharvil, JD @ ECP... waiting for our guide/senior/fundoo/friend/the schizoscasnic (got that wrong i guess. but that's what it sounded like when he said it!) Raghu!

I AM INVINCIBLE!

 

The cycling enthu! Almost 7 kms cycle ride against the cool beach breeze! 

Actually what we wanted to do was a lot of skating today (that is, learn, fall and stand up for today!). But we ended up cycling coz it was way too crowded there-safeguarding ourselves and the others. Nevertheless, we got these PROs in action. Check out!

And to the final pic in this blog... this is how we are right this moment! Sharvil's creating his first blog, and me updating mine! And his first blog is real good, but he's restricted access to it at the moment. Better he plays safe actually! You may use my name to get access, but don't misuse it! 

Alright, that's it for now. Next blog will be some pics that I'd downloaded from google maps. I'll put the pics first, and after i visit them, will give a description. 

And we'd better sleep now coz otherwise there's not way that we're gonna get our asses at MOM tomorrow morning at 0800!! (it's 0217hrs here now!, good morning already!)

First day Internship!

At singapore finally, and here at Raghuraman's place blogging from a Macbook! Exciting indeed! Let me first talk about how this laptop is... Well, I get the Apple PRO touch just like any other Apple products. User friendliness, the looks, performance... it's cool! Cost-we better not talk about it at the moment! Visual features are cool, and the dock, though something that I've used in the transformation pack, is obviously good and more, lets say, genuine here! In all, something that I've always wanted to try and here I am doing it! So, exciting!

Now coming to stuff @ Singapore. Firstly, the place is good! Really good! Be it the cleanliness, the way people follow rules here, the roads, the greenery, the transport-it's cool! And for someone who's come from India, these things are for sure, luring!
Me and Sharvil share the house here, basically a room for ourselves with attached bathroom, 2 separate wardrobes, AC, electronic water heater, a king size bed and a refrigerator, and a hall and kitchen which we share with the owner here. It's comfortable and well connected to all major places around. That's kinda the case with every place here i guess, thanks to the MRT and the buses! 
A funky thing with the transport, something really convenient too, is the EZtravel card we have for both the MRT and buses. You can top it up for how much ever you want, and keep traveling! No tickets, no cash needed for anywhere you go! And taxis services are pretty affordable here. We took a Mercedes Benz taxi (which wouldn't have been the case hadn't the company not accepted to refund it!) to the Ministry of Manpower to get the visa today. Traveled in style you know!
Coming to the company... Infineon Technologies, is an awesome building! Shaped like a ship, it's really unique! 

The best part is not that ofcouse, but how we went there on the first day! We'd planned to visit the office the previous evening itself so that we didn't have to search for it the reporting day, and that we did. We had a chat over a cup of tea with the seniors who're working there. That evening we went to a beach nearby, and planned to jog there the next morning at 0600hrs, then fresh up and leave to office. So what happened the next morning? pretty guessable now, coz that's what happens to all such great plans to great people... We went late!

What happend? Alarm rang at 6, 630, 730, we switched them all OFF, till the owner called at 0830 hrs to say all the best! we had to report at 0900 hrs! and bang! we get out of the bed, get ready, no bath! and took at bus to the MRT, came to a station called Aljunied (from where we gotta take a bus to the office), and got a taxi instead, that costed S$5, and reached office at 0920hrs! Thank God the HR lady wasn't available right then. we were asked to wait. 5 mins, she was there. she briefed us about stuff here. and we got our RFID cards issued (that's funky!). anywhere you go, you need this electronic card for access. we tap it near the door, a reads the code in the card wirelessly, and we're granted access.
met my project superviser, Goh Ban Hok. Sharvil's guy was in a meeting. So my guide took us around and showed me the lab i was gonna work n all.. lots of boards around, and complex instruments! let's see! Well, all looks good and interesting, let's see how my work goes on there!
So that was my first day as an intern - no bath, reported late, but had lots of fun! 

Safari Rocks! And the shameless me!

Alright.. So here I am after a long time again, to talk about yet another browser.. This time by Apple.. Safari! Just out of curiosity, and out of frustration of not able to study (Actually not willing to would be a more suitable term!) connected to DC++, downloaded FarCry game.. which I've been looking for, for a pretty long time. Only one guy has it in three hubs (around 200 users!) put together! Does he have slots? Nope! Just as usual! So what do I do? Try downloading CCS.. For my DSP online. I don't get a single search result for the setup! So chuck! Opened Opera.. the same skin.. Actually was getting bored with that. And the same old speed. Come on man! There's gotta be something faster than Opera! And suddenly this name crops up in my mind.. Safari! Initially a bit hesitant to download coz I didn't wanna fill up my harddrive with softwares that am not gonna use, i search in DC++. Get Safari303 (something like that.. too lazy to shift window and check the actual name!) setup. Install it. The interface is neat.. Very simple. Close buttons placed on the left side of the tabs.. Overall first impression: Just another browser! But something kept telling me that it's an Apple's product, don't underestimate it!
So my favourite site: www.gmail.com! I try that.. Guess what? I press Return, 1..2..3.. (seconds) Gmail:Email from Google page is up and loaded.. completely!
Lazy and pissed till now, I suddenly get all enthued and energetic! Next yahoomail. 2 seconds.. the login page is here.
Just wanted to make sure that it wasn't the net that's got speeded up.. so checked the same sites in opera: gmail: 1..2..3..4..5..6.. Gmail: 7..8..9.. Email from Google! Which means.. Safari Rocks!! Wow!
And then Blogger: Opera: 1....15.. Blogger's up. Safari: 1....5.. Blogger's login page is ready! Man! now this is brilliant! Finally I have probably the fastest browser on the planet! I pity those who don't use Safari! Somehow, it's just proved out to be the best amongst the ones I've worked on!!
APPLE REALLY ROCKS!! Can't wait to lay my hands on their other products! Lets see.. which one to start off with.. iPhone is the first on list.. Hopefully I make a PS station where I can save enough money to get myself an iPhone! Thats the reason am still using my Motorola C115 with a broken LCD (which some believe is a funky screen saver!!)! Next on list.. probably a MacBook! That should pretty much complete my wishlist. I wouldn't need an iPod.. iPhone's gonna make up for that. And other Apple's products.. iTV? Nah.. I'll have no use for it right now. Probably my girl friend would gift me that on our wedding! (Yep.. whats the 6.5LPA for then!?) So we could enjoy that together later!
So approximately when'll I have my wishlist with me.. Lets seee.. Assuming everything goes on well and smoothly.. Financially.. I should be able to get an iPhone by late November!! (thats a very strong function of my PS2 station.. but let's just assume i get into some company that pays me a little over 15k per month!) So I should be able to get myself one. Then.. The MacBook.. hopefully I settle in a job.. which right now is sooo unlikely! Still.. if i were to take a guess, I'd go with August 2011!! Whats special about that particular month? Nothing actually.. except that I proposed my gf on aug 7th.. So all i need to do (incase am in not in a position to get myself a MacBook) is just get a bit psenti with her.. She's definitely gonna ask me what i want.. and somehow just get this thought into her mind!! So then.. I'd have a brand new MacBook (Air? lite!) Shameless I am right!? May be!! :P

After a long time!

Been idle for another long while.. feel so like writing something today... The only problem is I
don't know what to! So I've decided to just put in some interesting stuff I did today.
So lets see... get up at 1050 today. Karteek wakes me up (I slept in his room yesterday night)
And after battling with myself for a long time, get up and decide to attend my 1100hrs lecure!
DSP baby! Something which I've been attending very regularly.
My so called 'guilt' says 'c'mon man! you can't guss this class also! and my brilliant mind says 'light ra! just another class! light ley.. we can copy notes..' but deep within it knows that the 'copying notes' thingy is never gonna happen! So finally.. who wins?! Its my guilt for a change!
I get up.. hesitantly. You know how it feels! Its the most irritating feeling I've ever undergone (everyday, but not got used to it yet!) Up.. and out from bed. Wash my face, brush my teeth with my finger and paste! Put on my shirt and jacket (I obviously wasn't half naked.. i was wearing a t-shirt! ;)) And off to class. 7 minutes late. Ma'am doesn't even care! So good for me!
So DSP class done! Numal class next. But this time, it my mind that wins.. Numal class gussed!
Initially i plan to go to room. but then.. somehow i land up in ipc! probably i was too enthued to create a profile in linkedin.com that karteek had told me the previous night about! Fine.. do I do that? Perfectly! How perfect? I forget to have my lunch! And at arnd the same time, my favourite lady comes online! (nah.. thats not my girl friend! its her mom!) No crazy thoughts.. i really respect her. Hence like her a lot! Nice n simple talk! I liked it. Alas.. didn't last for long. She had a class and left!
So once again.. I do some touch up work with the stuff i'd entered in the profile i'd created. I liked the stuff i'd written. Was satisfied, though it didn't actually seem big!
Then.. came 15oohrs. ADVD class! Should i attend? This time.. no hesitation. ATTEND! No other go. I guss.. Am screwed! Class goes pretty interesting.. Next hour EMF. I really wanna guss this class.. But Utsav the idiot drags me along to the class! some guy handles it, starts off with a lot of electrostatics crap! Damn boring class..
Finally that guy decides to leave us early. Me and utsav go to ipc and decide which assignment we're gonna select in ADVD. Once thats done, I go meet the EEE group leader, vk c chaubey coz he wanted to. nothing important.. just wanted me to submit some project report.
Then meet harini's wing to submit her resume. And back to hostel.. have dinner. come to room. Look at my laptop.. it wants me to watch a movie! :P So I do! A Walk to remember. downloaded from DC++. Turns out to be a real good movie.
Then. do i wanna sleep? No way! Its just 2330! So what do I do? I open my browser.. Flock. Its kinda slow to startup. May be coz its running in vista. May be coz am a fool to run vista on
512 mb ram! I don't care! It needs to run! i search.. for the fastest browser. And turns out that there's some guy who's done a very very extensive study on many kinds of browsers.. ranging from IE to safari.. on all OSs! The obviously best one is Opera! I download the latest version.. 9.25. Install. I didn't like the plain look very much. So decided to give it some funk! Downloaded a real funky skin. And I fall in love with it! Its sooo cool! Check out..

And its fast.. both start up, operating with multi tabs and also the speed for rendering.. its great! guess i'll stick to this. bye to flock for now!! Truth to be said, its one of the best browsers I've seen. I like it too.. somehow am kinda attached to it! don't know why!! I wont uninstall it. But just won't be using for a while!
Dont worry Flock! I love you!
And now i really feel like typing a lot.. but don't know what to. Anyway.. just start typing.. and all this's come out!!
Nevertheless, am sure I've had fun writing down all this. And someday, when i check
out what i did in my BITSian life, this's gonna come up! It'd be cool!!