as I see it

The wait is over ! Two great things Google has come up with - Video Chat and Voice over different platforms. Yes, they have incorporated Video Chat and Voice both in GMail for both PCs and MACs. The feature will be available in all GMail and Google Apps account soon but for all those who want to try their hand on it right away can click here and install the plugin. What you get after doing it is another option saying "Video and More" in ur Chat List and you can click on it to start a video chat with your friend.

As of now, it doesn't work until and unless your friends have installed the same plugin. I guess once the feature is rolled out in all accounts that again will not be a problem.

This was one feature I was waiting for so long : cross-platform voice chat and yes video chat along with it is another added advantage. I get new reasons to stick to Google and be loyal to them quite often :)

I remember my farewell at school, though it was a party, every few minutes one thought came to my mind - Is it actually a party, something to celebrate? I am no longer going to spend so much time with all my friends whom I have grown up with. A sense of separation it was and it made me literally shiver. I felt devasted.

Four years later, another farewell, this time it was my engineering college. Feeling was worse ! Separation. Another BIG Loss.

And, no matter how hard we try, things don't remain the same. It is a LOSS. A permanent one. While, its once a blue moon I get to meet my buddies from school (the time period is moving contrary to the stock prices), its already been 5 months that I managed to meet a handful of my friends from college.

I console myself by saying it had to happen, but again its a LOSS and its getting worse.

While there is still a lot of time before I see another farewell, the shiver and the disheartening thoughts that devastate me are here once again. Within 5 months of last time it happened, I can feel everything here again. Why ?

I don't know. I mean I know what the reason is but I don't know why is it bothering me that much. May sound stupid to many but the reason is the departing of the legends from Cricket. Kumble went about a week back, and I felt sad. Sourav made an exit yesterday. The cumulative loss makes me feel uneasy. But whats aggravating all this is the near future. What will happen when Sachin retires? I always thought how can we fill these voids? I read this article and recalled that he is the one I have been watching Cricket for. He developed my interest in the game. Him performing and taking India past all opponents gave me a reason to celebrate. Him getting out early was the reason I didn't feel like having my meals. The innings he played in Sharjah, when Warne confessed Sachin smacking his deliveries in his dreams, when he thrashed Kasprowich and Moody, when he stood like a wall in the Test against Pakistan, when the committment towards the game for the country was higher than his ACHING BACK and so many like these stored as files in my brain.

He will leave.

And when he does, as Siddharth said

Switching on the television the day after will be a serious challenge.

I don't know what it will be like. The LOSS here again will be permanent !

For the time being, I would prefer acting as that pigeon who closes his eyes seeing the cat coming to eat it, thinking that if by closing its eyes it cannot see the cat, then even the cat can't see it.

Bad. Sad. Will get worse.

Its been really long (yet again) since I have updated my blog. It was lack of time that neither could I update my blog nor could I keep up with all those I read. So, today that I am back I would surely like to mention this one line that has been doing rounds in my head

Tak tana na na tandoori nights,tandoori nights, tandoori nights..

I wonder whats with this song and what it means, though I have been told its something to do with some restaurant's name in this movie Karzzz.

Anyways, as desh puts it,

hum yaha yeh baat karne aayein hain ?

Not at all, in fact as the topic says, I am here to talk about the Retirement Season thats on.

Yes, we saw Anil Kumble bidding goodbye here in Kotla before even ending the Australian series. Though, he says the thought of retiring was on the back of his mind for quite some time now and it was the finger injury that made him take this decision, I still feel that it was the Criticism by Media (though as he says it started 18 years ago when he made his debut) that made him take this decision all of a sudden. Now, that I am at home for a small break, I had been seeing TV whenever I am sitting idle and needless to say, the News Channels these days (especially Hindi News Channels) are pathetic. I refuse to waste more space here discussing the word 'pathetic'.

It was they who started critcising Kumble all of a sudden when the INDIAN TEAM failed to bowl Australia Out. And as they go about it, if one channel shows it, the others have to follow.

Toota Kotla Connection, Nahi raha Kalaai mein woh Kamaal and many like these VISHESH BREAKING NEWS were out there on the DESH KE SABSE TEZ NO:1 NEWS CHANNELS. Though, I believe that yes the team had to get in more youngsters but overlooking a great man's contribution and doing whatever these channels did, it was annoying !

So, heres the end of JUMBO, the man who did so much for Indian Cricket and it will soon be followed by another great man Sourav Ganguly. One of the most successful captain of the Indian Team, I feel he has been the most ridiculed and dishonoured player I have seen and it takes real character to stand up and fight against everyone to prove your worth. I am truly a fan of this man. I wonder whose next. Is it going to be Dravid? This is something that comes to my mind of what I saw at Feroz Shah Kotla myself. There were 4 different groups playing the game of cricket on the field when Aussies were batting

Australian Batsmen
Sourav Ganguly
Rahul Dravid
Other 9 members of the Indian Team

Yes, this is what I saw. The Indian team had 3 different sects and they did not seem to mingle with each other at any point in time. Totally indifferent towards each other and their presence.

Anyways, moving on, as I mentioned it seems to be a Retirement Season. Two names don't really justify the use of the word 'season' here. So, here I mention another great name, an epic in itself, Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. Yes, of what I understand of the half an hour VISHESH on a news channel, 6th November is going to be the date when the last episode of this 8-year old soap (I was in class 9th then !!) will be aired. Apparantely, too much drama happened over this date as well. Star TV asked Balaji Telefilms to take this show off and BT obviously refused. BT went on to file a law suit against Star in the High Court claiming that there contract with Star was till March 2009. Star argued that the contract mentions some point relating to TRP being less than 20% over three months and is justified in asking BT to take that show off. Guess What ? LOL ! Bombay High Court refused to intervene and asked the two parties to settle this issue amongst themelves. So, apparantely, 6th November is the date of another (forced) RETIREMENT which incidentally was supposed to be the famous BA's retirement from the saas bahu saga.

So, Retirement after Retirement it is that marks the start of November this year. With all due respect, such long phase of being out of form, I guess even Dravid should consider this as an option.

Update : Reading what desh wrote, I recall that I missed mentioning Adam Gilchrist's retirement, though it wasn't November :)

Shawty had them Apple Bottom Jeans [Jeans]
Boots with the fur [With the fur]
The whole club was lookin at her
She hit the flo [She hit the flo]
Next thing you know
Shawty got low low low low low low low low

My alarm is buzzing. Phone speakers singing Get Low on top of their voice and what am I doing?
I am busy listening to what my Angel soul and the Devil soul have to say. It used to happen pretty often in the first month of my engineering days when I had to listen to arguments given by both the Angel and the Daemon about if I should wake up or continue sleeping for a while. As Isaid, Daemon beat my Angel soul hollow and maintained his position as a Champion for 4 years thereafter, not considering the occasional walk-overs given in by the Daemon ;)

It was like a routine for me then. No arguments, no noise, nothing at all. It was like an agreement that Daemon is the winner unless and until he decides to give away a match to the Angel to boost the latter's confidence.

But now it has started all over again. Since I can't afford to sleep as much I want to and whenever I want to (though I put in my best to achieve it) the chain of arguments and counter-arguments takes place every time my alarm buzzes. The Angel knows that my schedule is such that I have to wake up and thus, comes in with the 'Angel Allies' army but the Daemon still continues to fight single handedly. One Man Army ! And all the arguments put forward by both Angel and the Daemon make sense and seem to be pretty logical when you are half-asleep.

A snippet from one of the conversations :

A : Wake Up !
D : No need.
A : Wake Up, you have to go for the class.
D : Don't worry, it is XYZ subject's class. It is nothing that difficult, simple concepts, you can read it some time later and cover it yourself. Continue sleeping.
A : See, you will have a tough time before a quiz or exam as you always do when you listen to the Daemon.

By now, my roommates wake me up so ya it can be said that Angel wins.

But when I am sleeping in the evening and there is no class to attend then,

A : Wake Up !
D : No need.
A : Wake Up, you have slept a lot. You have a submission to make and you should do some bit of self-study and those pre-reads !
D : You can never sleep 'a lot'. There is no limit. The submission is a Group Submission, which means that someone in the group will do it. Self-study is something you can do before the exams. Pre-read, hmm, do it when the Angel wakes you up tomorrow morning.

And the Daemon wins. It has been happening almost everyday and I have bee losing quite a bit because of this on the academic front.

So now today was the funniest of all arguments. I have a mid-term exam tomorrow and the arguments when my alarm buzzes today in the evening.

A : Wake Up !
D : No need.
A : Wake Up, you have XYZ Mid-Term Exam tomorrow.
D : Relax, as Angel said it is a Mid-Term. Even if you are not able to score, you have finals to comeback.
A : NO ! It carries 25% weightage.
D (seeing match slipping from his hands, with utter innocence on his face) : But Angel tell me, how can the poor soul study if he doesn't have a sound sleep. Even if he manages to then how useful will it be if he sleeps tomorrow during the exam just because you didn't let him sleep now.

I woke up ! C'mon its 25% and the Angel is right ! And now I think its high time I start studying and don't let go the Angel's victory in a hard-fough battle over a tough opponent. Trust me, Daemon is the toughest to beat when it comes to my Sleep Battlefield, just like Nadal and his Clay court :)

Wassup ? One very common answer to this question is 'nothing much'. But I am not putting up this post to say 'nothing much'.

So, in recent past I heard this song Neend Na Aaye by Fuzon from their new album Journey. Pretty Good. I have been listening this song on and on for quite some time now.

Next, I got to know about this thing called 'Animoto'. What it does is that you upload photos and music and it will make videos (slideshows with a difference) for you. You can also choose music from the collection they have online. I tried it via their facebook application 'Animoto Videos'. It is a nice app to have. On registering on this site you are entitled to make unlimited number of short 30 seconds video and 1 full-length video for FREE. You have to pay for more full-length videos. I tried it with some of my albums on facebook and I was impressed. The transitions between photos and the way it is shown is good. Moreover, the transition between photos happens according to the tempo of the music !

Moving on, I cribbed about the iPhone for quite some time once I got to know that the 8GB model costs 31k. As is 3G is not available and this hig price makes me wonder if its 'Twice ass fast and half the price' or 'Half as fast and twice the price'. Its not even twice, its around 4times. I don't know how come its so costly here and didn't even try to find out because its not going to help.

I like Mac, iPhone, etc. but honestly there is this one thing I like about Microsoft. It is Microsoft Office and especially, Excel. The more I have been using it (I have to) the more I love it. Excel is perhaps, Microsoft's best creation!

I still keep thinking about rains in Mumbai. Unpredictable. I am also fed up with Airtel's network in Mumbai (wherever I go). Its been days now since I last saw full signal strength on my phone.

Next, I was surprised to see Ajantha Mendis' 'carom ball'. The first thing that came to my mind on seeing the ball release from his hands was - Where the hell does he get the power from? It is actually 'carom' ball. I tried balling that way few hours back. Finger hurts, ball can go anywhere (on the pitch or away) and number of tips before it reaches the batsman follows no particular pattern.

I have no comments on seeing the news item that said 10 lakh people were present in Chiranjeevi's rally today.

I miss Twitter on IM. Have not been able to make the various twitter clients available to work for me. Perhaps, some restrictions on net here block something. That is perhaps, one reason that I had to write this post.

Neend Na Aaye is still being played, for the Nth time now. But contrary to the title, I think I'll go to sleep now. Have to get up early tomorrow. Very early. Good night folks !

as I see it

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