Sick Leave

I had been on sick leave yesterday. Was I really sick? No :). I went to my friends house warming cermony. Had a great time there. Had my lunch and by the time I came back home in the hot scorching sun, I really fell sick and was suffering from headache. I dont remember even a single day which I have really taken a sick leave when I was really sick ;). I think this is the case with everyone. Sick leaves are like boon for all the employees. Now a days people take 5 days leave and last two days would be sick leave so that they will actually use only 3 annual leave. But as we have just 7 sick leaves we actually use them very calculatively.

So how do you use them? Do you really use your sick leave when you are really sick?

Jurong Bird Park

This weekend I went to Jurong Bird Park. Here are the details

Busy Week

Its been nearly a week that I have actually opened the blog. This week has a been a bit busy as my work here has started. I shall start writing again from tomorrow and shall try to be more active.

No Honking Day

When I first came to Singapore I was surprised to see that people here hardly use horn on the road. The main reason behind this is the systematic trafic rules that everybody abides by. Most of the Singaporeans use the public transport in order to reduce the congestion in the traffic and reduce pollution. I always hoped to see India the same way.

Today I have seen an article in Rediff which says that, yesterday on the occasion of World Health Day Mumbai Traffic police has initiated this No Honking Day. There were some specific regions which were called as no honking zones which would include, schools, hospitals and courts. Though I heard it wasnt a success. Police has fined people who have actually honked in these zones. You just cant change things in a day. I hope this would increase the awareness among the people and going forward this would become a practice in India too.

Sarvadhaari Nama Samvatsara Shubakankshalu

Ugadi (Telugu: ఉగాది, from ಯುಗ yuga, era + ಆದಿ ādi, beginning; the start of an era) is the new year's day for the people of the Deccan region of India. While the people of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka use the term Ugadi for this festival, the people of Maharashtra term the same festival, observed on the same day, Gudi Padwa.

Sindhis, people from Sindh, celebrate the same day as their New Year day Cheti Chand. Ugadi is celebrated on different day every year because the Hindu calendar is a lunisolar calendar. The Saka calendar begins with the month of Chaitra (March/April) and the Ugadi mark the first day of the new year.

Vasanta Navaratri (literally - The 9-night Spring festival) starts on this day and culminates nine days later on Sri Ramanavami which falls on Chaitra Sudhdha Navami.

The new year as per the Solar calendar followed by the people of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Punjab, Assam, West Bengal and Nepal falls on 13/14/15th April.

The years would have names in Telugu. The name of the one that starts on today is Sarvadhaari. The one that ended is Sarvajit.

Simple things in life

Simple things in life that make me forget myself and get involved in

* Morning's hot cup of coffee and great breakfast with newspaper full of comics to read

* A refreshing breeze in early morning

* A long drive

* Comics

* Tom and Jerry Video

* Any ice cream!

* Eating crisp dosas

* photography

* Playing cricket, table tennis and now a days bowling

* Any good movie

* Melodious music

* Sitting near the train door and watch the world go behind

* Sitting on the top of a tall hill and watching the world around

* Greenary and hills on treks

* Watch the water flowing down in a river/creek with small fish playing in the waters

* Rain, beautifil rain

* Swimming, in a river or a pool

* Watching waves in the sea


And there are many more that are not 'Simple Things'

Your list?

Work Ethics

Work Ethics Redifined, by me


* Do not work long hours.

* Do not stay late.

* Arrive in time. If you come late, you may end up working late.

* When you have to choose between life and work, choose life. You can find some other work, you can't find another life.

* If, for some reason, it is unavoidable to work odd hours or long hours, try to compensate for it. Never do a favor to company because the vice-versa will never happen.

* Never compromise for an unreasonable deadline. If there is no other choice, at least ask for some incentives.

* You work to live. Never let any one trick you to believe that it is actually otherwise.

* Setup distractions occasionally. Continuous work means fatigue.

* Remember, you are a worker, not a slave. If someone thinks otherwise, tell them.

* Don't miss a chance to take holiday/vacation. Don't pile up your earned leave and carry them on. Take a break when you can. Have fun when you can. See the world.

* Money is what is important. Not the work itself. But don't ignore the later or former will never come to you.

* Retire by 35. Make enough money by then(how?! ;-) ). Use rest of your life to fulfil your dreams and do undone things that you always wanted to do.

And to make sure your career is not ruined by these ethics, following list is equally important. I would not fit them with the above because these are not the most pleasent things but definitely necessary.

* Work Smart, not hard, so that you don't work late hours

* Don't waste time in working hours simply fooling around, otherwise you will end up doing the undone work and prolonged working hours

* Don't pick up a fight with your boss. It never helps(with experience :-)). If you have really major problems, leave the organization.

* Don't cheat with your work, complete it properly. No one liked halk cooked food.

* Escalate problems quickly instead of trying heroics to resolve it(with experience :-)).

* If you know that your organization is drowning, forget all the ethics and pitch in for 24/7 help. Coz, otherwise, you are without a job. But never let your manager trick you into believing that your org is drowning.

I feel the whole set of points are in balance and are favorable to both organization and the worker and should be able to keep both sides happy. Whadduyusay?

My Travel Ambitions

My old list of places to go all around the world resurfaced when I was watching Discovery channel videos on different places around the world. The lonely planet series was awesome and was able to know about many places accross the world. Here are some of the huge list that I have in mind:

Alaska: Got introduced to the beauty of the place for the first time when I saw the movies 'Mystery Alaska and To Brave Alaska'. I want to explore the place sometime. I would like to go on for a 3 month trip and cover the important places there.




The Himalayas: Not much needs to be said about them. I have once travelled northwards so far. These mountain ranges are my childhood fascination. There are so many beautiful places to explore. Once I have been there to Kedarnath and Badrinath and still want to see Vaishno Devi, Ladakh, Leh and Manasarovar. I would like to go on a 6 month continuous trek and road trip to cover all these places and also other popular places.



USA: There are loads of places in USA to be seen.
My favorite I would say is Grand Canyon. Since the day I have seen the pics of grand canyon I wanted to see them.
Also how can I forget the skywalk at grand canyon west.
I would also love to do skiing in Montana.
Nasa down at houston.
Red Rock Country. Also Red Rock Amphitheater in Colorado.

Hawaii's Na Pali Coast, the awesome drive of the coast.
Heard and read a lot about Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco
The Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. I guess this also known as Mirror lake. I would love to do some photography here.

How can we miss Clingmans Dome along the Appalachian Trail in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The awesome view of the mountains from here.
And the one and only Niagara Falls.


Brazil: A place I always dreamed to go. To explore the spelndours of the Amazon's rain forests and travel around the great river. Whenever I see these places in TV, I feel that I just have to be there. Brazil which is very much famous for its partying and also the beaches there.
Fernando de Noronha, Iguazu Falls, Rio de Janeiro and Christ the redeemer statue in Rio are some of the places.



New Guinea: Why in the world, would you wonder. This is probably the only place in the world yet where you can see forests so far untouched by man but still accesible. And here is where treepeople happen to exist beyond fantom comics!! Some of the tribes are known to spend more time on trees than land. They build huts on the top of very tall evergreen trees(!) and find a good part of their food in the trees.



Zimbabwa: Zimbabwe came in the list mostly because of the greatest of the great Victoria waterfall that spans to a width of few miles(!). If you have seen it in NGC or somewhere, you can't resist wanting to be there. To swim in the devils pool at the edge of these falls is something that I am looking forward to. If you see the pictures I bet you cannot resist it.



Ofcourse there are other places in Europe, Africa, Austraisa which I could post in a separate post. Right now I just included New Guinea and Zimbabwe from these continents. These are some of the places which you cannot miss.

Dart Board

Yesterday as usual during the office hours I was strolling through carre four in suntec city. I went into the games section and saw a dart board lying there. The cost was just 17SGD. I had been looking for it since the day I saw that in Chotu's album. I wanted that atleast for that similar snap of Chotu and Ravi. Anyways took that and came home early.

My roommates came very late. I waited for them till 11.30PM and once they came we started playing the game. It went on and on and on till 2.15AM. Now in the morning we woke up at 7.00AM and we started playing it again for 20 mins. Out of all this only once I could hit the bulls eye.

This is a real fun game. Though the accuracy very very very less initially. Go for it guys. Its fun.

Movies of the Day

Today I saw 3 movies out of my huge movie library. I thought from now on I shall share the review of those movies that I watch everyday. Here for today.

Fracture
The plot was really nice. Suspense couldnt be expected. Nice suspense murder thriller movie. Must watch.

Garden State
Movie is good. Acting is nice. A different movie. Can watch.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
I didnt really like the movie. So no comments on that. People say its a good movie.

What do I browse everyday?

A compilation of most of the sites I visit regularly.


* Rediff headlines, Always on top of all the tabs

* Blog surfing. There are so many, I would rather not mention all of them

* Google. Without that life is empty now a days

* Ofcourse, there is blogger and blogspot

* Wikipedia, now a days next best to google.

* IMDB, haha as u know I am movie buff

* Cricinfo, how can u forget this

* GSMarena, best site for all the mobile reviews


I am surprised the list is pretty small, considering that I browse a lot everyday.

Categorywise, I most frequesntly visit news sites and weblogs, followed by sites that have anything to do with photography, travelling, adventures and stuff like that. Now a days I am reading a lot about places world wide.

I was talking to my colleagues and most of them have stock market related and technology related sites on their list. So what about urs?

Listing whatever comes to my mind.....

* Off on a much needed vacation from today, though going to be a short one.....

* Want to go home .. missing mom dad

* Good to see India play real bad in cricket .. hope other games get a boost

* Weather seems good in Singapore for past 2 days. It was getting real hot before.

* Planning to put some good time experimenting with new DSLR

* Thank god, weekend is here

* Weather is good .. would like to go out for an outing

* There are so many places in the world which I should see

* Why don't I win a big jackpot? I can stop working and start travelling...

Blog Cycle

Here goes the stages I see in a blogging cycle. I guess this is a very typical set of processes that everyone goes thru. But a few decide to drop out from blogging and another few shine.

1. Discovered blogging. Either a friend has shown the way or surfed a lot and found out


2. Boy! This is some real cool stuff. Let me jump in and start off right away


3. wow! I have never discovered anything so good on the internet. This is one true revolution. I spend long hours setting up my template and reloading the pages to see how it looks like. The fun never stops. Is this a dream?


4. Ah! Now my template is doing good. Putting up so many hours was finally useful. Now bang into regular daily blogging. All I need is around 15-20 minutes a day.


5. Yoo! hoo!! There are comments coming in. Can you believe this? People seem to like my blog and there are some regular visitors too. The genius in me is showing his writing skills.


6. wow! My site stats just broke thru the sky and going still higher. I am really happy!


7. Time to push my friends. Hey people, why don't you guys blog? See, isn't it a cool thing to do? Don't waste away your leisure watching tv.


8. hmm. Can't find much to write these days. Exhausted writing everything I had. But hey, if I don't write everyday, people would stop visiting my site. Let's see what story they are running in wired or nyt or salon and do some commenting on it!


9. Hey, I think I am getting bored of this a bit. But still I want to continue, it is just that topics are drying up


10. ok, now I don't blog everyday anymore. So what, I still blog. But if I don't post regularly, I'll loose my visitors.


11. Looks like this is time to stop bloging for the sake of it. Let me post something only when I get something that is worth writing


12. Frequency of posting has bottomed out. Go back to step 8 and continue again

A Typical day at office

Huh See how much I am bored here at office I started writing about this boring stuff at office also. Anyways let me start ...

My day at office starts at 9.30AM (Though everybody comes at 8.55AM, some habits are hard to change). Before I start my system I go to fill my water bottle. It was nice in Goldstone when a office boy used to get a new bottle once they we finish them. Anyways after that I come and check my office mails. As my work is not yet started I dont really get any mails. I start reading rediff.com and wikipedia. And if there is any match I closely follow ball by ball in both cricinfo and cricbuzz sites. In between I pass time calling home and talking to mom dad for more than 30mins.

And once it is 12Noon, I go out for lunch and come back at 1PM. Once I come back I start feeling drowzy and it would be tough for me to sit at my desk. So I just try to look around in the office or go out for sometime. Oh I didnt tell you about my seating right. Exactly opposite to me I can see a gaint screen in Suntec City building which gives ads about restaurants mobiles, Tvs etc. On the right side of me I can see the Marina Walk building and the Gaint Singapore Flyer. On the left hand side I can see all the skyscrapers in Singapore out there. Now if I just turn around there are so many women of other teams working. Its only my team that we dont have that foreign girls stuff. As its a IT team we all are Indians. Rest all the teams look beautiful with so many people from so many different regions.

So that was about my seating. So after my lunch I try to sleep for atleast 30 mins. By the time I wake and go around time will be 3 and its time for tea. So we go down to have some tea and coffee. We are like 6 to 8 people who go down and sit at the cafe while only 2 drink hahaha. We come back at 3.30 and I start reading the sites again for the final news of the day. At 5.30PM I start back home.

Thats a very typical boring day at office in my life.

Joke

For a change today I received a forwarded joke that was good and readworthy. Did not find any copyright message attached to it. :-) So I can dare to post it here.

Manmohan Singh and Bush are sitting in a bar.A guy walks in and asks the barman,
"Isn't that Bush and Manmohan Singh (MS)?"
The barman says
"Yep, thats them."

So the guy walks over and says,
"Hello, what are u guys doing?"
And Bush says,
"We're planning world war 3"
And the guy says,
"Really? What's going to happen?"

And MS says,
"Well, we're going to kill 14 million Pakistanis
and one bicycle repairman."

And the guy exclaimed,
"A bicycle repairman?!!!"

So MS turns to Bush and says,

" See, I told you no-one would worry about the 14 million Pakistanis!"

Life changed with Computers

Uses of Computer!

I was just trying to figure out where all do we use computers in our daily life. I tried putting in some of them; on my own and by consulting some friends. I came with a list from which it is possible to say that computers are becoming essesntial part of our life. At least with respect to us fortunate people who are on the better side of the digital divide. Here is my compilation. They don't include technical and professional use such as DTP, spread sheets, programming and the like, but only those uses that are common to every one. I am concentrating more on uses that have(or had!) a non computer equivalent. For example, everyone uses email irrespective of their profession or background. And the equivalent of email before it existed is the good old snail mail.

1. Games
2. Surfing the internet(seeking information)
3. e-amil
4. watch movies
5. listen to music
6. writing diary. With my experience, writing the diary in a computer is not as nice as writing it on paper.
7. printing
8. messaging.
9. VOIP and Voice Chat
10. managing contact list, people directory, telephone numbers and the like.

And here are some uses enabled by the internet. Tasks that are basically done with the help of a browser. This list should be really endless, but these are the common ones that I have listed.
1. Banking
2. Payment of bills and the like
3. shopping
4. Get news
5. entertainment of all sorts, such as audio, videos, jokes, clubs, groups and more
6. references. If you don't know some thing, seek information on the net, no longer in a book.
7. stocks, trading and other financial activities
8. yellow pages/directory and the like

I say life has changed a lot with the invent of computers, though it has both good and the bad in it.

Life is Good

Life's good..

..when

* you don't have to worry about traffic jams in the city
* you get a seat in the bus and train with out prior booking
* you get to decide when to wake up, when to eat and when to go to bed, with no obligations to keep up with time
* you get to eat anything and everything you like at that moment
* you can travel as you please, where you please, when you please
* you have sufficient time to go out on weekdays, if you feel like
* you are contended, and really feel that you don't really a great deal more in life than what you already have.

Life, IS good.

Wheels of Life

I hope you accept this...

Welcome to Mumbai

I was going through an article when somebody shared their bitter experience in Mumbai. While reading that i remembered my 1 day good and bad experience with Mumbai. I thought I shall put my bitter experience in my blog.

We have always seen Mumbai in the movies and have heard that its the city of dreams. I always wanted to visit Mumbai for 2 reasons. For Girls and Cars in Mumbai. My friends who went to Mumbai have always exagerated about the cars and girls in Mumbai. Finally I got a chance to visit Mumbai for an interview.

I was called for an interview giving me no time to atleast buy the return ticket to Hyderabad. So my brother has arranged everything and finally got my air ticket while going but I will have to collect my return train ticket in Mumbai from my brothers friend. I was told that from airport it would take 250 rupees in taxi to go to Navi Mumbai, the place where I was going for interview. I was a bit skeptic as I have always seen some fraud taxi drivers in movies.

I took first flight to Mumbai. At the airport I took a taxi to Navi Mumbai. I dint knew how far Navi Mumbai was. So I was going going and going in the taxi. On the way I was seeing all the tall buildings on both sides of the road. I was feeling that Mumbai is so cheap I am in taxi for 45 minutes and he will only charge me Rs. 250.

Finally I reached the software park(I dont remember the name) in Navi Mumbai. I asked the taxi fellow "bhaiyya kitna". He said "aath sow". I was shocked. I said I was told it would take only 250. He showed me a sheet which has the units and the rate for that and it was Rs. 800. As it was written in the sheet I gave him 3 hundred rupee notes and 1 five hundred rupee note. The only mistake I did is I dint wait there until he counts the money and I started walking towards the gate.

Taxi driver called me back and said I gave only 400 by showing me 4 hundred rupee notes. Now I started understanding what was happening. The argument went on for sometime but finally I didnt really wanted to get into any fight as I came there for an interview. So again had to give him extra 400 which made my taxi drive cost 1200.

I said to my self "Welcome to Mumbai".

An Apple in the Bag

A teacher teaching Maths to seven-year-old Arnav asked him, “If I give you one apple and one apple and one apple, how many apples will you have?”Within a few seconds Arnav replied confidently, “Four!”

The dismayed teacher was expecting an effortless correct answer (three). She was disappointed. “Maybe the child did not listen properly,” she thought. She repeated, “Arnav, listen carefully. If I give you one apple and one apple and one apple, how many apples will you have?”

Arnav had seen the disappointment on his teacher’s face. He calculated again on his fingers. But within him he was also searching for the answer that will make the teacher happy. His search for the answer was not for the correct one, but the one that will make his teacher happy. This time hesitatingly he replied, “Four…”

The disappointment stayed on the teacher’s face. She remembered that Arnav liked strawberries. She thought maybe he doesn’t like apples and that is making him loose focus. This time with an exaggerated excitement and twinkling in her eyes she asked, “If I give you one strawberry and one strawberry and one strawberry, then how many you will have?”

Seeing the teacher happy, young Arnav calculated on his fingers again. There was no pressure on him, but a little on the teacher. She wanted her new approach to succeed. With a hesitating smile young Arnav enquired, “Three?”

The teacher now had a victorious smile. Her approach had succeeded. She wanted to congratulate herself. But one last thing remained. Once again she asked him, “Now if I give you one apple and one apple and one more apple how many will you have?”

Promptly Arnav answered, “Four!”

The teacher was aghast. “How Arnav, how?” she demanded in a little stern and irritated voice.

In a voice that was low and hesitating young Arnav replied, “Because I already have one apple in my bag.”

“When someone gives you an answer that is different from what you expect don't think they are wrong. There maybe an angle that you have not understood at all. You will have to listen and understand, but never listen with a predetermined notion.”

9..8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1

I was just going through one of the article on the web. I have found something similar. I thought I shall write my version of this in my blog.

Nine Things About Me

1) People tend to think I am a social butterfly. I am not exactly one
2) I am constantly plagued by the fear of seclusion! I'm pretty insecure in that way!
3) I am greedy for new experiences, new friends, travelling to new places etc! :D
4) I am extreeeeeeeemely confused about my food habits! :P
5) I can be silent, too! :P
6) I dont think too much and analyse things too much. I tell myself I'll start. But i never do.
7) I love being busy and filling every second of existence with activities. It makes me feel GOOOOD about life! :)
8) I love it when people reach out to me the way i do to them.
9) I expect too much. I'm consciously trying to curtail it.

Eight Ways To Win My Heart

1) Have a great conversation with me! I'll be floored!
2) Do something JUST for me- cook, write a letter, think of me and message, call me saying 'i felt like talking to you', something, anything! :) the fact that i mean something to you makes my day! :)
3) Chocolates! crackle especially! :D
4) Ask me to entertain you when you are bored
5) take me on a long walk or insist I spend time with you! :)
6) smile at me wholeheartedly! :)
7) Be candid to me. Be yourself. I loathe artificiality.
8) Praise my driving ;)

Seven Things That Cross My Mind A Lot

1) Why do i confuse myself so much?
2) Am i doing right?
3) What Next?
4) Why do I have trouble in accepting things ?
5) Why do I get emotionally attached ? Why do I entertain false hopes ?
6) Are people taking me for granted? Do they genuinely care for me? Am i being a little-too-nice to everyone?
7) Am I asking for too much out of life?

Six Things I Wish I Never Did

1) Time and Money spent in my US dream
2) I trusted people. Some were untrustworthy!
3) I wish I dont stop things in middle.
4) I wish I never grew up! :(
5) I wish I would be more aggresive.
6) I wish I could rewrite a few chapters of my life... undo a lot of things, change a few and make myself more happy!

Five Turn-Off’s

1) Artificiality
2) Being Rude
3) Loosing Temper
4) Partiality
5) Meanness

Four Turn-On’s

1) It depends on whom I am dealing with
2) Being simple and sweet :)
3) smiles smiles and smiles:)
4) friendly conversations! :)

Three Things I Want To Do Before I Die

Too many things! :)
1) Globe-trot
2) Race on Hayabusa and Lamborghini
3) Have a mansion

Two Smileys that Describe Me

:D
:)

One Confession

I do feel lonely at times, and feel unimportant, useless and a huge failure in a few particular ways!

Likes & Dislikes in Singapore

This post is truly my personal perception and experience in Singapore .. in this post I would further add some points or may delete some points or may change some points. Some of the statements would be self contrary in this but still thats the way I think about it. There are certain personal reasons for which I hate or like singapore. But just wanted to pen down what ever I feel at this point of time though it is really not related completely to this.

Reasons for which I hate Singapore

- Away from family and friends.
- Have to wake up early.
- Prepare our own breakfast.
- Wash our dishes and clothes.
- No good friends here.
- Have to go to office on time and wait till 6PM even if there is no work.
- There are no cheap calling cards to India as they have in USA.
- There is no vonage phone facility here.
- Shopping is very costly.
- Language
- Singaporeans got the worst walking manners.
- More of tamilians and their regional feeling.
- Cant drive a bike or car.
- Lot of places to go but there is no company.

Reasons for which I like Singapore

- Mustafa 24 hour store
- Learned money management.
- Learned to respect people.
- City is very neat and clean.
- Transport is the best and efficient, though rush is more.
- Proximity to Prime Vacation Areas
- No Car Horns
- Laksa, char kway teow, mee rebus, roti prata, chili crab, durian, fish-head curry, chwee kueh, pineapple tarts, fish hor fun, etc.
- Always updated with the latest technology.
- As there is no work got a chance to learn newer things in free time.
- Internet is cheap and very fast even at home :)
- Very near to Hyderabad .. just 4 and half hours flight journey.

Late Commer

I never used to wake up early in the morning. I used to sleep till 9 in the morning. I used to go to office late almost everyday. I never believed in going to office on time. I always believed in finishing the work on time rather than coming to office on time. To my luck my previous managers were always supportive and there was no problem. Even in the evening I used to spend long hours till late night if there was any work. But if work was not there I used to go back home very early which was very much possible in my previous companies.

But once I came to Singapore, my life is totally changed and I am not liking it. I have to get up early. Prepare my own coffee and prepare my breakfast and get ready and leave home by morning 8.30. Even if I start at that time I am late daily by 30 minutes. Here even that 30mins is called as late. Manager mails the whole team that we are late. To my luck again I have a good Lead who understands me well and never has escalated this issue further ;). The same is the case while coming back. As there is no much work I start back home by 5.30PM. Even thats a matter of concern here.

This is one of the reason I didnt like Singapore. I have always been a late commer and will always be a late commer :)

Cooking

Cooking is one thing I have never been fond of. I have helped my mom and roommates now in many house hold works but not in cooking. I dont understand how people cook standing there for such a long time. Some of them are really fond of preparing food and eating. As I am away from home people expect me to cook. But its been 5 months and the new thing other than preparing coffee & maggi is bread omlette that i am doing. Even thats a great acheivement from my side for my roommates.

My mom always wanted me to learn cooking as it would be difficult once I am away from my home. But I am lucky enough to get nice roommates here who are cooking for me too :).

Recently my sister wanted me to go through a chefs site which is a real wonderful site which explains how to cook with ease. I liked the site very much. I shall see if this site will develop some interest in me to cook. I only hope that the girl who comes into my life should be good at cooking :)

Fools Day

As you know April Fool's Day is among us. I've tried to compile a list of some technology related pranks that you may want to use at your own risk.

Here is my top 5:

1) Fake Format. A free at that simulates Window's formatting of drives. The user is unable to stop, interrupt, or cancel this format. Once the fake formatting is complete, the standard Windows format summary appears. Upon closing this summary screen the program can be exited. No harm done.

2) The Finger:Another tool from the same vendor that changes the cursor to the middle finger and then back to normal again. A lot of nice options available with this piece of software.

3) The Blue Screen of Death. Another oldie but goodie. Download an image of the famous blue screen of death and set it to run on screen saver. I've seen people hit ctrl-alt-delete as soon as they see this screensaver pop-up so use this one with caution.

4) Here is an easier one to implement. The old put a piece of tape under the optical mouse's laser sensor. The tape will make the mouse go haywire.

5) The Naked Women Prank. This is a variation of the format C: prank. Download the fake erase program and rename it to "naked_women.zip". Send it over to unsuspecting victims and once opened it will begin the fake format. You'll instantly here yelling from various cubes letting you know who tried to open it.

Feel free to add your favorites to the list.

Again, use good judgment when trying to implement any of these... You have been warned :)

Did you know?

How much do you know about Hyderabad .. here are some of the facts which most of us dont really realise ...

1) The IMAX Theatre with Worlds Largest screen and the only true 3D screen in INDIA

2) Asia 's biggest and one of the Worlds' biggest and best Convention centres 'HICC'

3) World's biggest Film Studio complex ' Ramoji Film City '

4) Country's best Animation and art work studios

5) Country's best and biggest Exhibition centre so far 'HITEX'

6) Country's biggest single real estate venture at the cost of US $2.2Billion by ICICI Ventures and Tishman of New York !

7) Hyderabad is leading in Hospital Tourism, now trying to lead also in Echo Tourism

8) Hyderabad is the best place to start any new retail business or Mall: This was from a study on how Malls are fuelling sales in India and the max amount of Sales happened in the Malls in Hyderabad despite the huge number of very big malls in Delhi and Mumbai.. Many biggest of the kind malls are being constructed here. You can also see, Reliance group, Tata's, Heritage group and many more venturing their first retail units starting from Hyderabad !

9) Hyderabad is the only place where complete restructuring is happening by even demolishing lot of buildings within the city! Delhi is the other only City, which followed this model.

10) In fact Infosys has planned its world's Largest Campus near to Shamshabad Airport in an area of 500acres of land! However its pending.. it may take of soon. Else some other campus would come up there.

11) Fab City would be the Ultimate answer for the Electronic and chip making industry from India !

12) How many know about ISB

13) IIT is being setup now in Hyderabad .

14) Birla has already setup Bits in Hyderabad

15) Country's largest number of Colleges for Engineering Medicines and largest number of Universities are in AP!

16) Just the colleges in and around Hyderabad produce much more Engineering graduates than any other city in INDIA !

17) Country's most expensive Residential Only venture has started in Hyderabad , with 250 villas where each Villa will be in 1 Acre of land and at the cost of Rs.14crores each! Why only in Hyderabad ? Because people are ready to buy and live there :-)

18) The most connected city in INDIA with highest Teledensity
..... and lot more like this!

Hyderabad is now a tri-city: CYBERABAD-HYDERABAD-SECUNDERABAD!