Bye-Pass.

It is a surgery which my uncle underwent in the Op. Theatre

What book are you reading

I love reading. Peoples faces, that is.

Favourite board game

First let me get into the board of some big company

Favourite magazine

.303 filled one, with as many rounds as I can lay my hands on.

Anyone who tags me again will get it. Lols. (tams you don't worry..lols)

Favourite smells?

The smell of Freedom

Favourite sound

Sound of silence

The worst feeling

When one has loo-se motion and the loo's not free.

What is the first thing that you think when you wake up?

Obviously, how fast I can get to my fav place.. (the loo for those who dint know that.)

Favourite fast food place

The one that's just right at the first corner when I get hugry.

Future child's name

Whose child?

If I had lot of money I'd

Be mega-eccentric.

Do u drive fast?

Yup. I can drive people mad pretty fast. Btw, how are you feeling now?

Do you sleep with a stuffed animal?

Yup. My mother-in-law ensured that I do.

Storms: Cool or scary?

Arrey jaani.. jin tufano mein log ke ghar ukhad jaatey hain, hum un tufaano mein hamaare kapde sukaate hain.

What was your first Car?

Taxi no. 9211

Favourite drink:

The one of its kind, cant purchase it anywhere in the world - Swayambu.

(I can see most of you scratch your heads as to what this exactly is. go figure it out dude.)

If I had the time I would...

Travel back in time to see when it started.

Do you eat the stems of Broccoli?

Jab logon kaa dimaag khaa jaatey hain, tab broccoli ka stem kya cheez hai jaani.

If you would dye your hair what color would you try?

How about all of these colors

Name all the different cities, towns you have lived:

Ek do ho toh bataaun, kyunki 11 mulkon ki police Don ke piche hai, magar Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahi, na mumkin hai.

What is under your bed?

The floor that is the roof of the apartment below.

What would you like to be born as?

The Omnipresent one.

Morning person or Night Owl?

24 x 7

Favourite place to relax

Jungle mein mangal.

Favourite Pie:

Comes in math calculations whose answer is truncated to 3.14.

Favourite icecream Flavour

'butter'-'scotch'

Of all the people you Tagged who's likely to respond first?

The buck stops here. Aint tagging anyone.

Are you a Vegetarian?

Hardcore.

Do you sleep in the buff

Beneath their facade, everyone does, don't they?

Most of them have written that they get to know the person better thro this tag game. But ...

Don ko samajna mushkil hee nahi.. namumkin hai.

If u liked this tag post, definitely read my previous Tag Post.

Try that even if u dint like this one.

I know I was away from iLand for quite a long time.

I had a tough time cleaning the cobwebs that had accumulated on my iLand.

Just as I was coming back to iLand I suffered from fever.

I showed to the doctor but he said you are perfectly fine,

nothing wrong with you.

Then after showing to a specialist and many more tests, we came to know that

I suffered from a virus called T2M virus Tag2 Mania virus.

So the doctor prescribed the only known antidote for that go post a blog dude. And that's wot I did. Am feeling a lot better now.

I'll be back soon enough to read your posts my dear friends.

See you all soon.

The
Year : 2020 AD

I
am a 30-something old guy. (yes, I will be 30 then too and I will be 30 in 2030
and thereafter too..). Coming back to the year 2020, a lot has changed in this
world. Web 2.0 has become passé. The world has advanced much more than what
people had envisaged in the year 2008. Internet too has evolved so much that
broadband, wi fi, wi max, GB and TB (gigabytes and terabytes) are long
forgotten. We have grown much more than that.

I
don't know whether the meek will inherit the world or not.

But the geeks have definitely managed to do so.

They
have inherited our world.

And how.

So
much research and development has taken place in the AI (Artificial
Intelligence for the uninitiated) space that, we the people need not have
intelligence of our own. We will have all these digital devices which will make
our lives easier. I am letting you into a peep into a typical day in my life so
that you will get an idea of what to expect in that year, now.

6am
sharp:

No alarms need to be set the previous day. My bed will give me a vigorous kick
on my you-know-where and yell at me, "time to go to work u moron. What are
you gonna do the whole day? Sleep? Go, get on with your work."

Left
with no choice (like mumbling some reply to mom or wifey and then going back to
sleep), I trudge my way to the bathroom. I pick my brush up and slap some paste
on it and start the dreary work of working on my teeth. Within a few mins, I
hear a voice. Ouch. Softly you nerd. Is this how you deal with your wife? Cant
you be a lil soft and gentle on me? That was the brush speaking to me. Bed tea
has been done away with coz some nerd researcher had found that bed tea is not
good for health. Sigh. Why cant these geeks leave some things untouched?

I
soon find myself doing my morning duties of attending natures call and having a
bath etc. The Flushing cistern determines how
much water is needed and uses exactly only so much of water to dispose of the
you-know-what. Now thats real intelligence. :)

The
most important chore for a man everyday is shaving. It is just like sex for a
married man. No matter how well you do it today, you have to do it tomorrow.
Even as I am getting rid of my stubble another voice yells at me, softly you
moron. You are just shaving, not mowing the lawn. So do it Oh-so-gently..
otherwise i am gonna rip your chin apart. sigh.. i definitely needed this from
my darned razor.

My
shower has already been programmed to release me fixed amount of water for my
bath. It will tell me in the beginning how much water I will get and in between
my bath, a robotic voice will announce, You have last two litres to your
credit. Before I can do anything about it, It shuts itself down. Darn. Cleaning
half the left over soap with the towel, I curse myself and move on.

i
cant have any breakfast as i please. my refrigerator is now intelligent enough
to allow only that food that i can have and that which is good for my health.
it gets online instructions from my doctor. sigh. i wanted to eat a cheese
sandwich with loads of extra cheese. But alas, my darned refrigerator wont
allow me.

its
getting late for me to reach my office and so i press on the gas pedal rather
hard. But heck no. My car just refuses to move any faster. it is now
intelligent enough to recognize the road and the surrounding traffic and it
will 'decide' at what speed it will move. Darn. by now, i am missing the good
old days terribly.

Wait.
theres still a lot more to come. it ain't over yet.

The
main gate in my office is intelligent enough to know that i am awfully late for
work. i had previously been reprimanded a couple of times by 'it' and now i
have exhausted my warnings too. so this time around, it refuses to allow me to
enter at all. i then call up my boss, who then intervenes and takes necessary
steps so that i am allowed entry. sigh. what a day its turning out for me !!

i
boot my workstation. As my boss still has not asked me to work on anything
specific, i thought i may as well have a peek into my blog. But i was in for a
shock. Instead of seeing the screen 'windows is starting up' (howsoever dreary
it may be.. its fine), i get a screen which displays, 'Go to Hell, I am not
going to boot up.' I press F8, and delete and F12 and wot not, but to no avail.
Another screen pops up saying, 'what do you think you are doing? Do you think
that by doing all that I will start? Just give up loser. I have already told
you in the beginning and now i am saying it to you again, i dont want to work
today and i wont start up. Period.'



Nope. I wont give up. I still have a whole day in front of me and i dont want
any of these darned devices dictating terms to me.



i stroll out of my office. i thought lemme draw some money from my ATM and head
for some shopping. I am still wary of using credit cards, coz lots of
fraudulent transactions had taken place.



As soon as i inserted my ATM card into the slot, i was asked for my password,
which i promptly fed it like i have done a zillion times before. A new screen
comes up before me. This time with an audio too. A gruff voice announces,
"So you want money? Ok, I'll give it to you smartypants. But on one
condition. You think you are smart, is it? Well, then i am giving you a chance
to prove yourself. Beat me to a game of tic-tac-toe and i'll give you double
the money you asked for and if you lose, forget your card too." Darn, that
was the last straw.... It was ages since i played tic-tac-toe and for the
record i never won a single game even against my nieces. Suddenly i remembered
the newspaper vendor who has been sitting outside the ATM for ages who used to
play tic-tac-toe all by himself. i pulled him over inside and without doubt he
won. i kept my money and gave the other half to him. I kept thanking my lucky
stars that these guys have only managed to install AI into devices and not
'common sense'. The day they do that too, will be the beginning of the end of
the world.



So on and so forth.. I managed to reach home with my sanity intact. Just
when I thought that it was all over, my wife came and stood in front of me. Darn
!! Any reference about her and this blog
on Artificial Intelligence, and I am gonna get the couch treatment.. so mums
the word friends. But I would just like to add one line here.. Before they do
anything to those darned devices. I want them to do something about
re-orienting women's minds. Lols..

Well friends, fun apart, I am a bit sceptical about the way science is
progressing, esp in the Artificial Intelligence arena. I would be happy if all
this remained within the realm of Sci-Fi and does not enter into our real
lives. Artificial Intelligence actually to me is an oxymoron. I dont know who
coined the word, but whoever did so, dint have any himself i guess. But one
thing really puts a cunning smirk on my face. Even if those nerds did manage to
do well in AI, they can never put 'common sense' into anything; and least of
all 'wisdom'.

And
that makes me relax and have a good night's sleep friends.

Those
days most of us just used to post blogs, read other peoples blogs and of course
the occasional gb followed too. (My use of words "those days" makes this sound
as if this was long long time ago.. and yes it of course is).

There was
a simple sign-in page with just a box for log-in and password.

That"s
it.

No
blog-o-mania.

No
watch@iLand.

No "what
all can you do on rediff iLand" and no search either.

Just a
plain sign-in page.

One had
to hop from iLand to iLand to find some blogs to one"s liking. Those days there
was no "tracker" to reveal your presence of your visit to any other iLand.

Dumbos
like me dint know how to create a "cool" URL. so just used my own name as the
URL. Same goes for the display name too.

The one
mail that prompted me to make friends on iLand.

"

team@rediffiland.com

Subject:
Hi

Date: 10:31:54 IST

I guess
the reply for my comment is from u only....

it is better wen u send mail put ur
name.....

if u dont
mind i wish to know sumthing more abt u....like wat u do...abt ur family.....(dont think y me bothering so
much) nothing wrong in knowing abt good frs right?



me working into ac/s and HR in blore.......married and got a 3 yrs old kid.....



c if i wont write my name u cant find ...this mail is from whom.... right??? so
guess and reply me ...

"

Those
days, if you used the "email me" link provided in the blog to mail someone, the
receiver wont know ur
mail id. The mail will go only as from 'team@rediffiland.com'.

This mail
put me in thinking mode. That out there in this world, there are all these
people, just like you and me. And that the world, esp. the internet, is not
such a bad place after all. That we all can share something. That I can say
something about me to my friends on iLand, knowing that behind the different
avatars that they adorn, there lies a person just as good as me.

I wrote a
blog giving a brief introduction about myself after that. Not revealing too
much (still unsure if I should be telling about myself at all.. ). To my
surprise, many of my friends followed suit and gave a brief introduction about
themselves on their blogs too.

Thank you
Myna.

But for
your mail, I would have been just another faceless creature in the sea of
iLands. Write I would. Comment I would. Everything I definitely would. But Faceless
nevertheless.

Apart
from the above, I remember two other mails that were exchanged with my friends
on iLand. I am not sure about the chronological order of all the three (including
the above mentioned one) but shall write in brief about them..

The
second was the one I wrote to Deepa. Once it so happened that instead of the
name, her email id got displayed on my list of friends. I promptly copied it
and mailed her saying how I got her id too. "By writing to me, you have
revealed your id to me too"- pat came a reply from her, in her own inimitable
style. getting deep's email id itself was like getting a treasure. we could not know of anyone else's id, unless that person gave it. so when i got her email id, i was like feeling great, as if some sort of achievement... lols..

The third
was also a surprise. Vidya had posted a blog about here kayaking experience.
And the pic that she posted was not a great one. So I wrote my email address in
the comment box and asked her to send me the photos by mail and also asked her
to delete that comment immediately too. Ash K stumbled upon that id there and
wrote a mail to me saying how she got it etc. that was the first and probably
the last mail too from Ash. But we do talk once in a while.

For many
of you it may be just time pass or just another activity here on iLand.

But as
for me, I have learnt a lot from many of my friends.

Make that
an understatement to write it in one sentence.

Well, similar to the movie, Ocean's Twelve, a group of twelve iLanders decided to meet up. The only difference was that we were not going to pull off any heist. Instead we were going to have great fun meeting each other and knowing each other in a much better way apart from what we know through each other's blogs.

The eleven included:

Nischalson Crusoe
Deepa S
Ash K
Vicky Podiz
Divya
Myna
Wise Donkey
Warm Sunshine
Bad Angel
Sahiti Bharadwaj
Tamilini
And of course your's truly.

Due to some reasons Deepa, Myna, Bangel, and Sahiti could not make it to the meet.

So the rest of us met at the pre-decided venue the famous, Forum Mall in Bangalore the most happening place over there. Bangel, Sahiti and Tamilini are my newer friends on iLand. The rest of us (and a few others too) are a part of the old gang on iLand. All of us had had a ball in those initial days of iLanding in 2006. Some of them bangaloreans had met quite a long time back. I had met Deepa and Vicky on two different occasions
when I had been there.

When we all had gathered, I got a feeling as if we were meeting old college buddies after a really long time. The meeting felt like an alumni meet where we all catch up with each
other so very enthusiastically.

Vicky and Divya (the famous iLand couple) were the first ones to be there right on time. Since I was new to the place and since I dint know how much lead time I would require to reach it, I was a bit late. One by one everyone trickled to the venue. Ash came
in next and then we decided to have a comfortable place to sit and chat. So
Pizza Hut was the choice. And then Warm Sunshine came in with Hubby in tow.
Poor chap. First thing he told was that he was 'threatened' by wifey to keep
himself free that Saturday evening.

We called Nischal atleast half a dozen times and every time the reply was he would be reaching in 30 mins flat. Tamilini reached there with her cute dottir in tow. And we all
settled down and started catching up with each other. Nischal did reach
eventually after wot seemed like and eternity. Wise Donkey had promised me the
earlier week when I had called him that he would love to come too and that if
he did not have any additional work that weekend he would sure make it to the
meet. And yes, I was very happy that he did eventually come. Better late than
never. We guys did give hugs to each other. Its not that only women give hugs
to each other. But the only difference is that guys have hugs in only one size
a short warm one. But as for women.. well let me not talk about that. their
hugs are as complicated as them. Lols.

Ash was without her trademark 'topi'. And I was relieved that she did not play any pranks on us too (but then I was actually looking forward to see her do that.lols.). Other
iLanders who have met her before used to tell about her pranks et al. Warm
Sunshine and her hubby regaled us with their humour. And not to forget WD. For
those of you who think that wisdom and humour cant co-exist peacefully in one
single package ought to meet him once. I don't have to tell anything about
Nischal the official 'stripper' on iLand. Like a few other iLanders he has a
cult following here and people flock to his iLand in droves. And his humour is
awesome not just in his blogs but on his person too. I guess it is in his genes.

Divya was at her peppy best and more talkative of the two. Vicky is quiet by nature and allows his dressing do the talking. He is a designer and I guess I should be his worst
nightmare. Lolls. Like Vicky, Tamilini was also quiet. But it was great that
she too came to the meet and in the end we all had a great time.

Each of us taking back fond memories of that wonderful evening. And looking forward to meeting each other when we have another opportunity.

And oh yes.. I almost forgot to tell you guys that it was a perfect way for me to spend that day I completed two lovely and wonderful years on iLand and meeting lovely people and knowing them so well. I couldn't have asked God for a better way on that day.

A big Thank You to all you friends who made it there that day inspite of your busy schedules and hope to meet those who dint the next time around, if at all.

A Trip Down Memory Lane - An introduction and The initial days.

Well, its that time of the year, when I start taking stock not just at my shop but a
few other things as well. For eg. My blogging.

I could / might have shared some / many experiences with few / many of you. But this time I am going to unload my memory fully here. Except for classified and personal information of my iLand friends, I am going to share with you my experiences on iLand and with iLanders. And of course it won't be possible to put down all that has happened
in 2 years of blogging into one single post. So again this is gonna be a series
(how many posts in this series, I am not sure at the moment) that will continue
till March. I shall indeed try to post a few other posts in between too.

(another reason for this series is this- I was recently reading this trek post of mine. I myself was amazed with it. I had forgotten a few incidences during that trek. If I hadn't put up this blog, I would not have remembered it.)

Rediff iLand was launched around October / November 2005. I had started blogging here
in March 2006. Amit, Monu, Deepa, Nischal, Vishal, Vidhya, Myna, Isha etc. were
already entrenched into this blogging thing and had laid a firm foundation. I
was a novice at that time novice to iLand and novice to the internet too. But
the love for reading kept me hooked on iLand. This blog summarizes perfectly
about my Blogging Philosophy to continue blogging.

Another thing that held me back on iLand was that I got a bit of admiration and praise.
Someone sometimes here and there (and me too) noticed two things mainly the
humour part of me and a bit of creativity too. (I guess I should be in the
advertisement sector.. Lols). In real life I have always been chided for
anything and everything that I have done. A lazy guy like me actually deserves
that no doubt.

In those early days Two topics used to be everyone's favourite and you could almost find
everyone writing on those two topics. I am not saying that people shouldn't
write or that they were forwards or anything like that. But I used to get pretty bored reading about them all over the iLand space. And those two topics were Love and 'reason for our existence'. Lols

But I still religiously used to visit iLand everyday. Not just once but more than a
couple of times. And it was a great experience. You were actually reading
something what an ordinary person anyone like you or me was writing. You were
not reading something pushed down your throat by some media moghul. And that
people either used to share something good. Some (including myself) would be
posting email forwards too. But then it was not a case of just posting a darned
forward. You found something nice either to emulate or tickle your senses so
you thought of sharing. So the sense of sharing and belonging also was there.

To be continued..

I had been pestered by a few friends to put up a post. So here I am putting up a post. The best part about this post is even though this is 'my' post it is NOT written by me. Foxed you guys yet again, dint I?

Well, this post was written by not one, but seven people. Lols.

My iLand friends had written me a testimonial for me on Orkut. I have just copy pasted it here. And voila, I have a fresh new blog. Pretty neat and clever, aint it? I have met each and every one of my friends mentioned here (except Mana). Except for Deepa and Tina, everyone has written this before meeting me.

(Note: I have deleted my orkut account, so don't try to add me over there. I am not going to join orkut again.)

Monu (http://reflections.rediffiland.com):

Well! True to my word here I m preparing to give my dear friend a big surprise.. Writing the first testimonial abt a guy with the special ability to strike the same cord with anyone he meets.. No pretentions, No opinions, Being absolutely non-judgemental, thats him.. He is a common string between many of us unrelated souls..His soft voice & chivalrous mannerism will leave you astounded.. A moving telephone directory; his huge sms bank never seems to exhaust.. He is an impressively interesting character; who i think believes in Living in the present, though off & on he likes returning back to the nostalgic lane of his past.. He is a motivator from whom I've learnt the true happiness in giving.. For me, his friendship is the opportunity given by God to realize that life is beautiful.. There"s a lot to learn from you dear friend & I look forward to you for helping me do that..

-------------------------------------

Raghu Iyer (http://greatthinker.rediffiland.com):

Rajesh Vora...Rajesh...you can keep on listening to his words who possesses lot many creative skills but would not accept...known as the SMS Guru and yes a great writer...has a sweet voice and mesmirizing one...could have been employed by radio mirchi ...i always think of the RJ in Ahmedabad Radio Mirchi "Dhwanith" when i hear Rajesh speak...nice Jain and yes very religious...believes in karma....God Bless him in all his activities and i wish him happiness and prosperity....

------------------------------------

Deepa (http://waves.rediffiland.com) :

A man of many words, Rajesh Vora, is the president of SMS Inc Unlimited. I am sure all my iLand friends would vouch for that. Telephone directories have a limitation - they only have local telephone numbers. But Rajesh is a one stop shop for all your telephone number needs :) He began the tradition of meeting up with online friends though he claims he is paranoid about online relationships! Thanks to him, rediffIland is teeming with friends who have met each other or are eager to meet each other! Its amazing the way he manages to keep in touch with his umpteen friends and still have the energy to accumulate more. At times funny, at times serious, at times frank, at times apolegetic, at times touchy but most times talkative (hey no one"s complaining!)...yet a very easy and delightful person to talk to. One thing that amazes me is the way he is amazed about the people around him, the way he observes and appreciates! Down to earth, humble and loyal - thats Rajesh in a nutshell! :)

--------------------------------------

Vidhya (http://thoughtz.rediffiland.com) :

A man who can talk non stop...in a good way though. He is very warm, friendly and ensures that everyone around him are comfortable too. He is adept in squeezing secrets out of people..So all those who are holding any must be careful around him. He has this amazing enthusiasm in him which is definitely contagious. With his amazing SMS collection and every smiling demeanour.. he's a great friend to have!!!

-----------------------------------------

Mana (http://memories83.rediffiland.com) :

Rajesh Vora is the name...Blogs and fun is his side-game...
Popularly know as "DON" the great...
SMSes pouring at Dollar"s Rate...
He is the 1 person maintaining relation pace...
Tieing up people and keeping them laced...
We admire him for his connectivity...
And that"s why I spread his publicity...
Keep blogging,rocking and messaging...
"Iland"s Charm", thats ur renaming...

Cheers - Mana

---------------------------------------

Tina (http://mactile11.rediffiland.com) :

Rajesh aka DON...doesnt really need a testimonial, but this my way to tell him thanks for being a wonderful and cool and great and caring and warm and sweet friendand....the list never ends here :) I have known him for year, have met him once...and he is really fun to be with if ur prepared to listen coz if its a person like me who also talk a lot then u will have to fight ur way so that he shut upd, lol...none the less u will never know how time flies by...he is a very kind and cool person...take care dodo :)

And this last one is not a testimonial on Orkut, but acts like one. It was one I
received from my friend

Deepaa (http://deepaa.rediffiland.com)

i don"t like to be too personal with persons I don"t know well but you are an exception you have an ability to convince people as well as attract people to you because of your genuineness. What I have come to known through your blogs and scraps is you speak straight through your heart without any pretence which is a quality very few people possess.

(Monu, Raghu, Deepa, Vidhya, Mana, Tina and Deepaa,

Thanks for your wonderful, lovely and heart-warming words. I am deeply touched by you people's gesture and considering me a worthy friend too. God bless you people always.)

Wishing all my friends a very Happy Pongal and Makara Sankaranti.

I will be away till the month end. Hence i wont be able to read your blogs or post any myself. It automatically goes that i wont be able to reply to gbs or comments too. I shall do that after i come back in the first week of Feb. Thank you Friends.