NRC colony – Navraatri and Dusshera

I left colony somewhere in 2001… and 8 years have passed by since I have last played Garbaa or Dandiyaa or Heench in Navratri. The simple reason for this is that I have spent atleast 15 Navratris on the CN Garbaa Ground and I could FEEL the vibes coming out of that ground… be it those days when we, as kids, use to just run around playing Chor Police around the CN 6, Parking Lot, other CN buildings and the Substation and so on and so forth…

I used to love Navratri for a few reasons. Being a gujurati, it had to be my default MOST Favorite festivalJ. A more powerful reason than this was the variety of PRASAD that we used to have in those 9 days. I loved the CRUSHED GROUNDNUT + SUGAR wala Prasad. I used to be crazyyyyyyy for that Prasad. Suppose Bhatt uncle gave this Prasad to the people standing near the Main road, I used to make sure that I also sneak into the crowd over there…then I used to sense ki Bhatt Uncle kahan jayenge.. the most of the times I used to make out ki uncle kaunse group of people ki taraf jayenge, I used to run to that group of people to get Prasad once more!!!.. I guess AMBA mata didn’t like my greediness and cursed me that I will never lose weight, however hard I try to lose weight!!!

I enjoyed playing Garbaa and all.. Ritesh Upadhyay was a pleasure to be watched. He and Tappaj used to play like crazy. The extra gravitational force on my body prevented me from hopping like grasshoppers… (while playing Heench, it pays to be hopping like a Grasshopper..!). The last reason was the party that we used to have on the last day of Navratri. We have used to have Pav Bhaaji or Paani poori, or Bhel or some delicious thing on the last day in the CN 6 ka Mahaila Mandal Room.!!! (Tikku miss ke baaju wala room.)

Another sweet thing that I can recollect is the visit to company in Dusshera. I guess it was only this day that the Gates of NRC were open to anyone who was interested in having a tour of the NRC Company. In 26 years of existence on this planet, I happened to visit the company just once. I went with my father. Ritesh Upadhyay accompanied me. Actually speaking, I didn’t understand much about the machines or anything in those days. It was just that I was proud of the fact that my dad knew so much about machines. He was in Nylon Plant then. Other co-workers used to look at me when I accompanied my dad and I used to strut while touring the whole company. Even though my dad wasn’t among the top bosses of the company I used to feel proud when someone referred to me as “Ambalia ka Beta”. I am sure that, up there in Heaven, my dad must be missing these wonderful days in colony, as much as we miss him today.

Golden days in VJTI

“Hi. I am Dipen Ambalia from VJTI.”

9 years have passed by since the time I first spoke this sentence. Till today I feel proud of the fact that I am a VJTI alumnus… and will be proud of that fact for years to come.

I am sure that there would be hundreds of VJTIans who would echo my feelings…

My stint with VJTI started in September 2000, when FE Electrical began. Kaustabh Chakraborthy was my first friend in VJTI.

I was a bit nervous on the first day because I knew that VJTI was known as a abode of scholars. We were made to sit in the ELR2(the ELR nearest to the Quad) on the very first day.The first day passed by just taking look at other classmates and trying to figure out whom to approach for friendship. Slowly and steadily I started interacting with classmates other than Kaustabh.

The whole FE was spent in the walls of MLRs. I guess it was MLR5….

We were lucky to have had great professors like Bhatt sir(for BEE), Mokashi sir (for Mechanics), Chaudhari sir( electrical networks) , etc…

We had some 8 subjects in the FE…Amongst all the subjects in the FE, Mechanics terrorized me the most… even after joining a crash-course for Mechanics, I crawled to getting pass-marks in mechanics… I had got 43 and 44 in mech 1 and mech 2 respectively….

The thing that bugged me the most in the FE was the submissions..i still wonder why does the system have submissions as an integral part of the system even when they know that the submissions are merely a copy of an original one!!..like in our class, Kaustabh, Prashant pande, Aniket mahulikar, shruti rangarajan were the OCOS (Original-Creators-Of-Submissions). If these OCOS made any mistakes, the same mistakes percolated through the submissions of the rest of the class.!!! So, while KC, Pande, aniket and Shruti created the original copies of submissions, the rest of the class prayed to God that the OCOS didn’t make any mistakes!

Otherwise it would be a re-work for all…!! By the way, no one ever copied my submissions. The simple reason being – I used to eat away many lines, paragraphs, formulas while writing the submissions, assignments, etc… I was an ultra-lazy person… and I knew no one ever cared about the content of the assignments, submissions, etc…

Quad was my most favorite place in the whole of VJTI campus. The simple reason being – it was an airy place..mast HAWA aati thi…and you could see a few beautiful faces…

Another place was the Canteen. I distinctly remember the times in FE (2000) when the canteenwala, used to give away snacks for free after 5 PM… Bala, Madhav, I and many others used to take advantage of this ThanksGiving offer!! The samosas were really good…

One more unforgettable place was Mhatre’s. hundreds of students must have bought sheets, floppies, pens, pencils, etc from shops adjoining Mhatre’s. Mhatre ka Samosa sahi tha…!!

I still remember the time when the results of FE were displayed on the near the entrance of the college. There was this huge rush to see kaun pass aur kaun fail aur kaun topper!!!

I was just praying to God to just help me get pass-marks in mechanics. And I did pass. That day I strongly believed that God did exist!.. I was more anxious about the results of FE than I was about the results of 12^th std., because in 12^th I had worked and I knew what kind of questions would asked (thanks to hundreds of questions papers that we solve in 12^th) . under normal scenario, I should have been devastated on the realization that I had scored just 59 %...but there was this big relief that I didn’t get any KT… from that day on, as far as engineering exams were concerned, I knew that my target was first to get 40 marks..then then upar se jo mile wo BONUS!!! J…

I can never forget the electrical lab. To be very frank, I m lucky that I didn’t get selected in any Core-company while campus selection. Because, my electrical-ka-knowledge was so poor that I would have surely been fired..!.. Luckily I got placed in Polaris Software… living in the software world is very easy. Believe me.,. I have completed 5 years in IT now!!! It rarely understood ki current kidhar se flow ho raha hai aur kidahr jaa raha hai!!... I felt on the electrons!... MAN, don’t they get confused ki kidhar flow hona hai!!!

And I was not the only one… there were others too… and to my shock, those have survived 5 years in Core-Companies..!!.. I feel that they must have mastered the art of fooling clients and bosses.!!... I have thoroughly mastered the art of fooling bosses. In IT, I feel, its easy to get away by giving flimsy excuses like – “actually, I going through the whole code so that I come to know how much will my change affect the whole system “ or “ I am thinking of a better flow, I am sure I will come out with something which requires less time and effort and gives better results”…etc..

For more of perfecting the art of fooling bosses, you can visit my blog

http://dipenambalia.blogspot.com/2009/09/perfecting-art-of-fooling-bosses.html

I hope you liked my blog. It’s just that in every recounting of tales, we relate to those tales and feel “are ye to mere saath bhi hua hai”..!!!... I would urge every VJTIan to mail me his/her such sweet memories so that I can compile them in the “Memoirs of VJTIans”. As per my calculation, out of the 6000 people that I have reached through orkut at least 200 should care to mail me their tales and assuming that their tales are at least 5 pages each, we should have a PDF of 1000 pages by the mid-december. Believe me, reading others’ tales is as much satisfying as recounting yours.

this is the sample of "Memoirs of VJTIans"...

http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B1jyiNagGvmDNDNiODU4ZTktMGJmYi00NGI4LTgxYzgtY2QyYjA3NDVlZjVk&hl=en

If you are convinced about the idea of having a compilation like “Memoirs of VJTIans”, then please help me in spreading the word about this compilation that I am trying to create. If you have any doubt or queries, you can contact me on 9975420605. Or mail me at dipenambalia@gmail.com

Please take out time to recall those good old VJTI days and mail me your sweet moments. Every moment shared is like a moment lived again.. And I am sure that even you must have felt “Are ye to maine bhi kiya tha… mai bhi aisaa hi karti thi….maie bhi lecure mein sota ha.. Etc…!!

Recall a moment, recount a moment….relive those moments…!!!

Perfecting the art of fooling bosses

Yesterday while I was introspecting about my 5 years in the software industry, I thought of a few things….
The first thing that came to my mind was "During office hours how do I get time to enjoy life...?"..Does that mean that i don't have work ....?Or is it that i am too efficient?.. Neither of the options seems to be correct to me... Its just that i seem to have (nearly) perfected the art of fooling people ...!!..(touchwood!! :-))
At a macro level, I feel that we spend every single day fooling others...be it our Superiors or be it Subordinates...
Being a Software developer this is what I could think of....
As far as Fooling Superiors is concerned -- Being normal human beings as we are, we have a tendency of shirking work and taking out time to relax. From that angle if you see, you just need to act well. And I mean ‘Acting’ for real. Just act as if the work given to you is actually difficult and will take lot of time. And if you ever feel the need to communicate with your superiors, use the expressions such as:
"Ya sure definitely..."
"No Issues"…
"Ya sure I will get it done by Tomorrow EOD". (Tomorrow never comesJ)
"Actually I am checking out the impact that this small change will have on all the code..."
and the last but not the least
"Ya, I am going through the whole code so that in future if there are some changes then I should be able to handle them well. So it will take some time..."

Believe me, these Excuses do work. These are tried and tested formulae...!!
As far as Fooling Subordinates is concerned:  I can't give many tips because I haven't got any Subordinates. I am at the lowest level of the hierarchy. I am a software engineer.L. No one listens to me. Only the Office boys and the Canteenwallas listen to me. So if I am in a bad mood, I go straight to the canteen and order something and try finding faults in it; faults such as "Namak jyaadaa hai..."(this is so damn salty!!),”teekha kum bola tha” (I had told you not to make it so spicy!) or "Kadak Dosa bola tha , ye itna naram kyun hai..."(I had specifically mentioned that I wanted a thoroughly baked Dosa. Why is it so soft?) And the Canteenwalla meekly listens to me. It makes me relieved. haaaaaaaah!. kisiki kaa gussa kisipe! L (How does it matter!!) J People at the lowest level are normally dressed down. Like if my Project Director gets grilled by the Top Management then we software engineers get grilled the next day! Its what I call Propagation of the negative energies in the Top-Down order...don't I sound like some BABA (on some ASTHA or SANSKAR channel) guiding his disciples? J
In general , if you want to survive in the software industry then try the following 12 commandments.!!

The 12 commandments of working…rather acting are:

1) PIXEL COUNTING: Just keep staring at the Monitor as if you are trying to fixate your mind on something and are thinking hard about some issue related to your office work. I know that it might sound like a dumb suggestion because the other person (probably your project manager) would feel that you are counting the pixels on the screen. Be sure that you don’t overact because you will be highly embarrassed if he comes near you and asks for a small piece of paper and then writes a number like 860x680 pixels….and then he leaves, smiling at you…I am sure you would wish that the water bottle on your desk had a circumference of 40 inches(this is waist size of a normal software engineer!!) so that you could jump into it and end your life to get out of the embarrassing situation …and don’t worry , no one would care even if you disappeared into the bottle because anyways you were not working…right?

2) SCRAMBLING: Whenever your Project manager comes to your desk, get up instantly and start scrambling as if you were trying to fix something wrong with the PC. Stretch yourself a bit and try touching the cord connecting the Monitor and the Mains supply and then shake your Monitor a bit and then show a bit of frustration on your face as if your monitor does this kind of treachery everyday. If this is not enough then lift your keyboard and then check its connection with CPU. If you still find that your project manager has not left then take the ball out the Mouse and then try to clean it, until the project manager feels guilty of wasting you time and leaves your desk so that your may continue your work peacefully.

This is basically an acid test to know whether your project manager wants to let you work or not. Because the more time he spends around your desk, the more time he would be wasting of his useful resources. I am assuming that at least your Project Manager assumes that you are a useful resource for the project. But yes, one thing’s for sure that he will always call you a USEFUL resource in front of the Client (however stupid you may be!!!)

And anyways if your PM has a heart of a normal human being then he will realize that this all stupid acting is what he might have done few years ago, when he himself was a software engineer. So this type of acting will surely help in shooing away your Project Manager away from your desk.

3) READING NEWS ON INTERNET: For those who can’t do without the daily peek at the news on the news sites, for them there is a very simple idea. Copy the contents of the page that you were reading on the internet and the paste it on the text pad/notepad. Act as if you were checking out some logs to find out the error that occurred in your code. Project managers love employees who try to find out the problems by knowing in and out of the logs generated by the application. Normally Project managers would tend to move away from your desk if you have opened some logs. Because no sensible boss would like to disturb his subordinates who are supposedly working. ”Why waste their time by asking them something irrelevant” -- is what your boss would think and then he would move away. And then you can again do a “alt+tab” and keep enjoying the interesting content on the net…! (Anyway, anything on the internet would be better than the ‘copy-pasted variables and functions’ in your code…isn’t it?)

4) HAVE SOME APPLICATION-RELATED WINDOWS OPENED: The ones like Eclipse (for java developers), Visual Studio (for DotNet Developers), Google with some search related to some very obscure word...Preferably of some exception like null pointer exception/ some other runtime exception…(I would not write much about exceptions, because even I am not sure exceptions and how they are used!!! I am a very bad programmer. Thanks to Google, I have survived my time in this industry.)

5) SCRIBBLING: Whenever you see your project manager approaching your workstation, get a pencil and a paper (preferably one that has something scribbled on it because otherwise that would mean that you have started thinking just now) and start drawing some circles with something written on them and then connect those circles by unidirectional and bidirectional arrows meaning that you are trying to create some kind of innovative solution for a common repetitive problem occurring in the application. Beware about the fact that overdoing of drawing circles can also be harmful incase your project manager asks you about the circles that you just made. And yes, don’t draw too many circles, because that may make your Project Manager believe that you want to change your profile from being a “software engineer’ to a ‘Cartoonist’. Remember one thing- Excess of anything is bad.

6) LOOK OUT OF THE WINDOW: One of the best ways to avoid your project manager is to look outside of the window (You will be lucky to have been sitting near a window). Lower your shoulders and then have some worn-out look on your face as if you have had spent sleepless nights thinking about some really out-of-the-world bug. It should never have crept in your code at least (because the same code worked for your team mate…anyways you didn’t make any logical changes. You just changed the variables from x to a , i to k , and j to m…etc..You start wondering whether changing the variables changes the logic of the code!) Assume such an expression on your face till the time your Project Manager feels that you really have been bugged by the Alien-bug. Just don’t turn around to see if he is there. Just check in the reflection in the glass walls…(I am assuming that your office at least has some glass construction near the boundaries of the office which does make your office an OFFICE and not a JAIL…anyway, cubicles are enough to make the software engineers feel that they are trapped in a jail…!!)

7) HAVING A BAD DRESS SENSE: One of the best ways to avoid your Project Manager is to have a really bad dress sense. Normal people don’t like people who have a bad dress sense. This is just one more test to see if your Project Manager is normal .Suppose that you have a very bad dress sense. Then even if your boss wants to talk to you or insists on your presence in every meeting then be sure that either he/ she is not normal or he/she likes you… (This can be a problem if there is a male-male or female-female combination...!)

So wear something like red jeans with yellow shirt. Odd enough to have the top-most tapori (of your area) feel ashamed of his dressing sense. And as an icing on the cake, you can wear Kolhapoori Chappal that will complement your Tapori look. I can bet my whole career on the fact that your boss won’t ever think of hanging around your desk.

8) WEAR THE SAME SOCKS EVERYDAY: This is one of the tried and tested formulae to keep everyone at bay…There is a saying - ”An apple a day keeps doctor away” On the same lines, I have made a saying- “ The same socks everyday keeps everyone away”…even your colleagues will dare not come near you.. The smell should be so awful that even the strongest and the wildest bison* should drop dead by your presence for 5 seconds in his vicinity.

(*---If you are unable to imagine a strong and wild bison then you can have your Project Manager in place of the “the strongest and wildest bison on earth”…This substitution sounds good enough… isn’t it? J)

9) ALWAYS KEEP YOUR WATER BOTTLE HALF FILLED:

Don’t worry I am not going to talk about the “half water beaker filled-optimism or the half water beaker empty pessimism”. Whenever your project manager is at a distance of 15 to 20 meters from your desk, you get up to fill up your usually half-filled water bottle. And when he is just 2 meters away from me, you tilt my head up to drink the remaining water in the bottle. So by the time you finish the 100 ml or 200 ml water that you had purposely kept in the bottle, you (my project manager and you) have finished crossing each other on your way. And then you are safe…and some other Cubicle-king or queen gets screwed up. Who cares as long as you are safe? J.

Spend around 5 mins near the water cooler and by mistake if you see your boss again coming to the water cooler then immediately start shouting at the nearby standing office boy for some imaginary negligence of his. Your boss will see that you are really very angry at something and so, I am sure, he won’t dare to play around with a wounded lion/lioness (Again, my assumption is that your boss is a normal human being. I keep on mentioning such assumptions because “BOSSES” and “NORMAL HUMAN BEINGS” have very little common in them…as little a similarity as there is between a wild African rat and a cute pacific dolphin….!!Don’t shrink your eyes…I know that there is not much common thing in between in them except that they belong to a class called as “living things”.. J)

10) GO AND TALK TO A COLLEAGUE ABOUT SOME CODE:

This type of acting hinges on the premise that “No one on this planet called earth knows everything.” So it means that you being a normal software engineer, you would not necessarily know why a null-pointer/memory-low error occurred; which will lead you to take your colleague’s help. So when you are at your colleague’s desk, it shows that you are not a very adamant and egoistic worker who does not talk to his team mate even though he doesn’t know a thing or two. Even though your boss is talking to your team mate, chances are good  that he is simultaneously analyzing whether you are actually coordinating with your colleague to get some software-bug killed ruthlessly….So use proper hand gestures to show you are really frustrated with that software-bug and are seeking a full-n-final solution to get that software-bug removed. But, one word of caution, don’t overact. If you say something like “Oh...yes that is why there is a null-pointer exception” and give a gesture as if the work is going to get completed in half an hour then be sure that following things will happen once the Project Manager moves away from your place:

a) You will get a mail asking you to take the next task in one hour or so because your Project Manager interpreted your reaction as though you will finish the work in half an hour and that you could start your new task in some time…!

b) You have created a bad impression on your Project Manager. Because when you were at your desk you didn’t know how to get that software-bug killed. But only when you consulted your colleague did your query get solved. So it was your colleague who has lots and lots of knowledge to solve queries from stupid co-workers like you. So it was your colleague who did the bug fixing and not YOU..! So…ultimately be ready for a bad appraisal, my friend!!!!...

11) TALKING TO A TELEMARKETER:

Once you see your boss coming, the easiest and the fastest thing that you can do is picking up the phone on your desk and then uttering the words like “Which credit card? What’s extra in your credit card? No thank you I don’t want the card..”…and then finally bang the phone and turn to a colleague and say “ ye credit card waale bhi naa…!!! ” indicating that if anyone disturbs you in the midst of something very urgent then you get annoyed and then can surely not care to start a fight in the spur of the moment…your boss will quietly move away from your desk and will come to your place once you cool down.

Be sure that you try this trick on a phone at your desk and not on your mobile. Imagine a scene when you got up from your place and then were talking on your cell phone to some telemarketer and then suddenly your mobile starts ringing…your colleagues and your boss start looking at you (as if you were some exotic extinct 3 legged dinosaur* suddenly appearing in front of them). I am sure that will be the most embarrassing moment in your life. And you would go to your desk and wish your tea cup were big enough to let you drown in harness…

[*--- If you have any problem imagining a 3 legged dinosaur then imagine a 4 or a 6  legged dinosaur …I don’t mind… J]

12) RESTARTING THE SERVER: Once your boss comes to your desk , before he could ask you anything throw at him the question “boss, can I restart the server?...actually I feel that I have solved the bug that you had assigned to me yesterday.(Note the use of the word “feel”...because if you have actually solved the bug in less time then it wasn’t really a big fat bug which needed your attention and which could have been solved by any moron. Needless to say that you will immediately get a new bug assigned.) “So should I put a mail to all users of this server that I am about to restart it?”---this question will make your boss feel good about you because normal morons work on local machines and not on SERVERS…You are one of the few softies who work on servers. Be proud about it. Though you know what the truth is! Anyways what is more is important is what your boss feels about you than what you feel about yourself!

My dear NRC colony…..

“NRC colony is, NRC colony was and NRC colony will always be the best colony I have ever lived and I will ever live in my life….”

I am sure that there would be hundreds of NRCites who would echo my feelings… and I am not exaggerating what I have said in the first line.
My life in NRC colony began when I was 3 months old. It all started with a stint in R.S. 11, followed by stint in E.N. and finally RS 5/18/1.
Having spent 18 years in NRC colony, I feel very nostalgic when I happen to visit NRC.
I don’t remember the days at R.S. 11, E.N.; for the simple reason that I was too young to remember all those moments. Few days ago I happened to take a look the birthday pics of mine when I was 1 year old... it was amazing experience seeing myself dressed in some striped brown t-shirt and brown shorts! In those pictures were : Nilesh bhai, Deveshbhai, Dharaiyaa Bapuji and Bhabhu, Pinki Ben, Parimal uncle and many others who were kind enough to grace that occasion.
To the uninitiated, NRC stands for National Rayon Corporation. The company had its own colony which was self sufficient in every sense. The colony had
1) Kindergarten school in the dormitory… I am sure every chotu NRCite must have played, cried, filled liquid in bottles, drawn dogs and cats with crayon or chalks, fought over pencil, showed off fancy water bottle, etc. in those KG years..
2) School called as the NRC colony school.
3) A bigggggggggggggg school ground…I don’t think any school in Mumbai has as big a playground as does NRC!!
4) Hotel – kanchanganga
5) Hospital (I still remember the days when we had a health checkup campaign and we were told to cough with our pants down!!!... that was one day we giggled a lot…!)
6) A sports club – with TT, carrom, billiards, cards, gym in the basement.
7) A stage where shows were held.
8) 2 badminton courts in the school hall.
9) A movie theater in the form of school hall… I still remember the name of the movie that was first played – RISING SUN. (I am talking of year around 1992)
10) A river – Ulhas nadi. … Patwardhan uncle taught me swimming in that river… there used to be many who used to go to swim in that river; a few that I can recollect – Sameer Lahande, Sandip Borkar, Saptarishi Duttta, Chirag Dave..
11) The unforgettable KATTA… generations of boys, girls, aunties and uncles will remember the KATTA… when our NRC colony is redeveloped by some builder, the only request to that builder would be not to destroy the KATTA… KATTA wasn’t just a structure made up of concrete and stones... there are so many emotions, memories, feelings attached to that KATTA… only KATTA lovers would understand that!!!
12) Raswanti – the ganna juice center!
13) The TAPRIs beside Raswanti… I am sure that many generations of smokers must have graduated from those TAPRIs J…
14) There used to be a Petrol pump….i don’t know why it was taken off.
15) The Cycle Stand in front of the company main gate… I am sure that every family of NRC colony must have, once in lifetime, placed a cycle in that cycle stand!!... I used to park my “street cat” in the cycle stand if ever I had some work in GATE!
16) The unforgettable GATE!!!!!... the bazaar for all NRCites!!... I am sure a non-NRCite would surely get baffled if I were to say “ mein GATE jaa raha hun bhaaji lene!!”… who on earth sells bhaaji on a gate? J…
17) The GARBA grounds- one near CN and the other one in EN… every NRCite must have tried shaking a leg during garba..
18) Phulenagar – many of my good frnds used to and still stay there…
19) The greenery that blessed our dear NRC colony…after moving out of NRC colony I have never ever came across a colony with so many trees…
20) The Ayappa festival that is held in the 1^st week of jan… everyone still yearns to see the Ayappa festival. Watching an elephant parade around the whole colony was a spectacle to sore eyes. And needless to say that the 10-15 minutes of fireworks at the end of the Ayappa festival festival that every NRCite will remember till his/her last breath!
21) Ramashankar ka ice-cream and kulfi…. I still remember the days when he used to sell a cone at rs.2.00 and I used to go crazzzzzzzzzzy after his ice-cream and kulfi… there was one ice-cream wala who tried to capture Ramashankar’s market; but to no avail!!.. Ramashankar is Ramashankar!!!.... no competition boss!!... Baskin Robbins, Kwailty, etc should take lessons from him!…
22) The beloved teachers of the NRC school…
23) The peon from primary school – Bhosale..!! I still remember the days when he used to be called every other day because this classmate of mine used to puke a lot .!!!
24) The doctors: There were a few famous ones like Dr. Sanghani in RS, Dr. Dixit in Phulenagar, Dr.Jaya Parekh at Gate, etc. All NRCites must have had got their asses pricked by their needles!!!
This is the link to pics of NRC colony….
http://picasaweb.google.com/dipenambalia/NRCColony#

These are the 3 videos on our dear NRC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYNhthYtOWk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99lWgl46MoM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5e44NvvLts4

The original video that I made was a single video of 25 mins, but You Tube doesn’t allow videos more than 1o mins..so had to split in 3 parts.. I hope u like it…

I can never forget the days when I was in RS 5/18/1… its there that I spent most my childhood years. It’s there that I learnt playing cricket, dabba-icepice, raja-rani and macchi (these are games played with marbles), corner-corner, gulli-danda, chappi..etc.
I have played a lot of under-arm cricket in Arun Rajamani’s garden… Prashant joseph, Arun, Appa, Vijay, I and a few others have grown up playing in Arun’s garden.
The unforgettable katta was where we gained a lot of KNOWLEDGE!!!.
We have shared a lot of FIRSTS on the endearing katta. I have played a lot of cricket on the CN ground. I distinctly remember the days when, after almost every 1^st innings of cricket match, we used to rush to Maami’s house to drink water. Maami was such a kind lady…really… and another sources of water during the matches was the Sunil Chandelkar, Indranil Deshmukh, Sandip Borkar, bhooth banglaa…etc.
Then there were days when we used to play Holi… wearing the t-shirt you hated the most, so that even if you t-shirt experienced a ghastly death, which it used to be destined to, you wouldn’t have any problem!

I am also trying to compile all the memories of NRCites... please find the link for the sample PDF of the compilation called "Memoirs of NRCites"...

http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B1jyiNagGvmDYzQ1NjQwYTQtOWM5YS00NWQ5LWIxYTItYTk0ZTZkMDcwYTk4&hl=en

If this idea of compilation appeals to you then kindly mail your memories to dipenambalia@gmail.com

while mailing pls keep the subject line : memoirs of NRCites- <YOUR FULL NAME>

I hope u like the concept... mail me if you have any queries... thanks..

Behind Bipin Bhai’s house was this small place where Kaali had given birth to 7 puppies – Bruno, blacky, …. Other names I don’t recollect. We used to pamper them a lot. We used to make sure that they a decent amount of food everyday.
In those days even a Cycle used to be a luxury… We used to play pakda-pakdi on cycle. I distinctly remember the day when some 15 of us had ventured to go to Titwala on cycle. Elanchazian urf Babu, as usual, used to be the frontrunner…(I guess he must be wearing Rupa FrontLine…sabse aage …hahaha…bad joke!!). Elanchazian was known as the best cyclist of our colony. And yes, during that trip to Titwala, I had exchanged my street cat with Nikhil thombre’s cycle (I don’t recall the brand)… aur mere wajan se uska tyre puncture hua tha!!!
Also, worth remembering was the day when we had gone to the water cleaning station near the FAATAK. While climbing the slope from the river side, we were caught by policemen and were asked some stupid questions…
Not to forget the pipeline near the NPL/ FAATAK. We used to take Bhel, Mazaa, Pepsi, Chana, Shengdana, and Daal and used to relax on those pipelines… Sagar, Shantanu, Dollar, yogesh dhake, me, Deepak mane, etc used to like sitting there…
I sometimes wonder how silly one can get in those impressionable years!...For example, Rajamani Arun, as everyone knows, was a great scholar of our times. He was my idol in school. If at all anyone asked me, “Dipen, what do u want to become in life?” the first image that used to conjure in my mind was Arun’s. He had a fascination for writing with Ink pens. So even I started writing with Ink pens, thinking that even I would get very good marks as Arun used to get!!!...i started using Ink pens from 7^th std till I completed Engineering… how silly that was! But in those callow years, you tend to do things that needed no logic. You did things just because you believed them!... One more silly thing that I can think of was of exchanging pen with Dhanesh Nair. The reason here was that his writing speed used to be the best… Man!! He could write with crazy speed!... later on I realized – it’s not the pen, it is the guy who holds the pen who has the ability to make it write faster or slower!
Not to forget the Navratri Days!.. those 9 days used to be awaited like anything!... 2 names that pop up right of my head now are Ritesh Upadhyay and Tappaj. It was a pleasure to sore eyes watch them jump like grasshoppers while playing Garbaa, Dandiyaa, Heench…etc…! Even I tried to be a grasshopper, but the sheer gravitational force exerted by earth on me never made me turn into a grasshopper!!! And those were the times when you used to be dressed up in the your best attire, because you know SHE/HE would come to see Garbaa and you would not like to miss impressing her/him !!!! …
It’s so strange to see that in childhood days you don’t feel or have a gender bias. I mean, even a boy used to play which normally girls play… I remember making claypots, playing ghar-ghar with Sangeeta Thulsidas, Sarita Thulsidas, Snehal Halbe, my cousin-Parulben, Chirag Dave, Avinash Mishra, … it’s only when you start growing up you start feeling – “Che, ye to lakdiyon ka khel hai”… needless to say you must have enjoyed those small things…
The Diwali Days! Playing Chor-Police with those small, fake black color wala guns, making time bombs using a long sheet of paper and placing the bomb at one end of the paper which used to lit from the other end, alighting and bending the fulzhaadis and throwing them on a tree to create a spectacular view, alighting only Sutli Bombs or Rockets to show that you were no more a kid !!..etc….
One more important thing that I can recollect is the exchanging of sweets and namkeens with the families in the building and a few ones in other buildings too. I used to love Maide ka poori and Ghughraa/Karanji…!
In those raw years, you come across a few incidents that you remember for the rest of your life. And yes there is one incident that till today freaks me out. It was an incident which happened when I was 3 years old. One of my friends named Chirag had some work with an uncle who stayed in a building nearby. I accompanied Chirag. But instead of climbing the stairs till the top floor I thought of waiting downstairs. There was an open manhole. I started hopping over it… on the opposite ends of the diameter of the manhole… but suddenly I miscalculated my jump and I fell into the gutter and splash!!! The gutter was flowing like a wild river. Even a strong bison would have lost his control and would have flown with the flow of the rushing waters… but, maybe God wanted me to live till this day to narrate this incident to you all. I suddenly found a brace on which I placed my left leg and I started screaming my lungs out. And then APPA and Joseph Sir came and rescued me. But they couldn’t rescue my left slipper. L. I lost my left slipper to the ravaging gutter. I went home and needless to say my neighbors could hear sentences like ‘Sorry mumma… Really sorry” Or “nahiiiiiiiii…. Pleeeeej nay maar….” Or “I won’t ever go near a gutter…” And yes, I never dared to go near a gutter. I didn’t want to lose my life. And my left slipper!
I hope you liked my blog. It’s just that in every recounting of tales, we relate to those tales and feel “are ye to mere saath bhi hua hai”..!!!... I would urge every NRCite to mail me his/her such sweet memories so that I can compile them in the “Memoirs of NRCites”. As per my calculation, out of the 800 people that I have reached through orkut and facebook, at least 80 should care to mail me their tales and assuming that their tales are at least 8 pages each, we should have a PDF of 600 pages by the end of next 3 months. I wish to keep the PDF of “Memoirs of NRCite” ready by 31st December!!!..
Believe me, reading others’ tales is as much satisfying as recounting yours.
If you are convinced about the idea of having a compilation like “Memoirs of NRCites”, then please help me in spreading the word (to NRCites) about this compilation. If you have any doubt or queries, you can mail me at dipenambalia@gmail.com
Please take out time to recall those good old NRC days and mail me your sweet moments. Every moment shared is like a moment lived again. I could actually FEEL all the moments that I have described above. And I am sure that even you must have felt “Are ye to maine bhi kiya tha… mai bhi aisaa hi karti thi…. Even I have played dabba-icepice… even I have tried to impress her during Navraatri days….” Etc…!!
Recall a moment, recount a moment….relive those moments spent in the wonderful place called NRC colony!!!

UC – DIP – what we do in office

To the uninitiated, a Use case is a document used for gathering requirement from clients…i have captured our day-to-day work life in a UC… i hope u understand this and like it too :-)…..

 

Use Case: UC – DIP – what we do in office

Revision History

Document Version Number	Revision Date	Reason for Revisions	Section(s) Revised	Use Case Status	Revisions Completed By
Version 1.0	01/18/09	New document.	NA	Started	Dipen Ambalia
Version 1.1	08/31/08	release 1.5 changes.	ALL	Started	Dipen Ambalia

Use Case Overview

Use Case Goal

The Actor’s goal is complete 9 hours as required by the organization.

Brief Business Description

After coming to office actor does a lot of things like having lunch, having evening snacks, eating sweets and Namkeen, chit-chatting, wasting time in meetings, trying to remember the passwords of 100 intra-organizational portals and apart from all these tasks If he gets time, then he writes use cases/code/test cases.

Actors

The following Actors participate in this use case:

1) Anybody coming to office.

Use Case Diagram (optional)

1 The flow is too big to be accommodated in the use case diagram. Even Enterprise
Architect doesn’t allow such big and complex diagrams to be drawn.

2    Pre – Conditions

1. The Actor has reached office and is ready to face the fact that one more day of his life is going to get wasted in a lot of useless activities other than calls with onsite.

3    Flow of Events

Basic Flow

The following process describes the basic flow about what he does in office.

1. The use case begins when the Actor reaches office.

2. The Actor logs on to the LAAS system. The security personnel start chit-chatting about the actor because they feel that the actor is getting handsomely paid for coming so late and enjoying his life to the fullest.

3. The Actor greets the team-mates and then starts the PC which he had shut down a night before.(the actor highly believes in the “save a dollar , earn a dollar” policy. But he is still wondering where is the saved or earned dollar going. His bank account doesn’t reflect that saved or earned dollar!)

4. The actor then fills his water bottle and then looks around to see if there are any sweets or snacks on other’s desks.

5. 20 mins pass by and then the PC is done booting properly! (there are some 100s of scripts that run while startup which make the already slow PC slower than MOS 865!).

{A1: Actor chooses to hurl abuses} (Refer to ‘Implementation Requirements’ - Abuses)

{A2: Actor chooses to go back home.}

6. Finally, the actor opens various accounts of social networking sites, ‘life partner search sites’ and then finally, the OutLook!

7. The actor then reads all the mails to check if he has anything to address urgently.

8. The actor’s friend comes to his desk to indicate that its lunch time and then the whole group goes for lunch.

9. While choosing what to eat for lunch, the actor falls in a bigger dilemma than our prime minister faces while presenting the budget.

10. The actor goes to the first Canteenwala. The actor looks at the food and flinches because after being in this office for 6 months, he can easily make out whether the Sabzi or Daal or rice or Roti are fresh or not. If nothing else, this is the area where actor has developed a lot of expertise.

{A3: Actor chooses to look to his left} (refer Business rule – BR-HIGTO- 10)

{A4: Actor chooses to look to his right} (refer Business rule – BR-HIGTO- 20)

11. The actor moves to the other 2 counters and then finally, as usual, he orders Brown-Bread sandwich.

12. The actor waits at the counter for his sandwich. Till that time, his radar is highly active.

13. A beautiful girl approaches the counter where the actor is standing. The actor thinks of bewitching the girl with his charm. He starts cracking jokes with the uncle at the counter.

14. The girl twitches her face and thinks fasting is a better option than standing at the counter with a weird guy. But the actor is used to this kind of denial. So he doesn’t feel bad.

15. The actor takes the sandwich and joins his group. Chit-chatting begins. Leg-pulling begins.

16. After half an hour of eating, teasing, enjoying the news on CNBC (the host of the show at 1.00 PM on CNBC is really beautiful!) the group returns to its work places.

17. The clock reads 1.40 now.

18. Actor then checks his mail account to see if there is any mail from the boss and if there is any meeting where time can be wasted! (Refer business rule – BR-30)

19. The clock reads 3.00 now. The actor chooses to take a tea-break.

20. The actor chitchats with his group-mates in the dry pantry.

21. The clock now reads 3.30. By default, there is some meeting or the other at 3.30!

22. the actor chooses to go the meeting even though he is not a huge fan of meetings because he feels that meeting is a form of gathering where everyone puts a point and finally everything is noted in an MoM; but nothing conclusive ever takes place! It’s just another way to say that yes, we were present in the office to do something constructive for the organization.

23. the meeting ends at 5.00 and the actor chooses to take yet another break. This time, the break is valid; because he has a call at 6.00. so its necessary to be fit and healthy before a call.

24. the actor again convinces the group-mates to go for evening snacks.

25. the call then begins at 6.00 ..goes on till 7.30 PM.

26. the day is about to end. But the actor doesn’t miss checking any updates on social networking sites!!! The actor believes in being up-to-date!!

27. The clock reads 8.20 PM. The actor locks the machine and leaves for the day. He is pleased that he used at least 1.30 hrs out of the whole day on something worthwhile as a call!!

The use case ends.

Alternate Flow A1 – Actor chooses to hurl abuses

1. The Actor chooses to hurl abuses at this fate

2. The use case starts from the calling flow.

Alternate Flow A2 – Actor chooses to bunk the office and go for a movie

The Actor chooses to write a nice emotionally blackmailable message on Communicator and sends to his PM. {Refer error messages for the SMS}.

1. The use case starts ends.

Alternate Flow A3 – Actor chooses to look to his left

1. The actor scans the area to his left ; till his neck starts spraining or till he finds a pretty face.

2. The use case continues from the calling step.

 

Alternate Flow A4 – Actor chooses to look to his right

1. The actor scans the area to his right; till his neck starts spraining or till he finds a pretty face.

2. The use case continues from the calling step.

4     Post Conditions

The Actor has successfully reached office.

5     Exception Flows

Listed below are details about any exceptions that might occur during the basic flow of events.

6    Other Artifacts

Other Requirements (optional)

Business Entities and Data

Business Entities referenced in the use case:

Additional Information Concepts Referenced in Use Case

Notes

The following section contains other details relating to the Use Case (Document Locations, Change Orders etc.)

Source	Organization
<Person Name>	<Organization>

Source Document	Document Location
Everyday life

7     Temporary Area

Use Case Assumptions

Item	Description

Business Rules

Business Rule Name	Description
BR-HIGTO- 10	If there are more beautiful females on the left then actor tends to keep looking to his left.
BR-HIGTO- 20	If there are more beautiful females on the right then actor tends to keep looking to his right.
BR-WWDIO	The MoMs are the best source to know what happened in a meeting. So, even if he doesn’t pay attention to what is said in the meeting, it is OK. otherwise what are MoMs for !!

Implementation Requirements

Field Configuration Option

Abuses

Data Element	Description	Type	Maximum Length	Default Display Length	Implementation length	Required/Optional	Updateable	Configurable	Actor Security
@#$%^&		String	*	*	*	Optional	No	No	Every Actor
!@#@%^&*#		String	*	*	*	NA	No	No	Every Actor
!@#$%@&*		String	*	*	*	NA	No	No	Every Actor

Error Messages

The following new error messages are included in this use case.

Flow/Step	Error Number	Brief Description	Long Description
Step 1	E1	Hi XYZ. I am not feeling well. Won’t be able to stay till EOD. I wish to go home. L

 

Sample Plan to prepare for GRE

Dear all, I am Dipen Ambalia from Mumbai…am working as a business analyst in Mphasis-HP…since 2003 I have been taking CAT, CET, GMAT and GREs..! I knew I deserved something good. So I waited till now.. took GRE on 6th aug 2009… got 1440- verbal 640 + maths-800…even in 2005 I had attempted GRE..that time my breakup was 640+780…. Anyways, this article is just an attempt from my side to help GRE takers…

After getting a lot of positive response from many GRE-takers, I felt that I should try even more to help out the GRE takers…

So, I have come up with a plan, that I followed for GRE in my first attempt (1420 – V640 + 780Q).

Everyday before you start with your preparation, repeat the words said by Will Smith in the Movie ‘Pursuit Of Happyness’ –

“Don’t ever let somebody tell you that you can’t do something.
If you have a dream, protect it.
People can’t themselves do something, so they want to tell you that you can’t do it.
If you want something, GO GET IT. PERIOD!!!!!”


First things first. I feel that quant in GRE is very simple. The biggest hurdle in GRE preparation is remembering words, having right plan, having right strategies, having right guidance.

Normally you should take your GRE in the month of July or August…see, the sooner you send you application packets to the univs, the better are your chances to get good RA, TA, scholarship…etc…. so to be in a position to take GRE in july or august, you should start preparing 4 to 5 months in advance. Normally people say “3 months are enough”. But I don’t feel so. 4 to 5 months of preparation should suffice. So start your preparation by March 1st .

Second of all, ignore what the world hypes about the difficulty level of GRE… people unnecessarily keep saying that ‘GRE is getting tougher day by day’..i don’t agree with that. It’s your level of preparation that is going to make the exam sound easy or difficult.

Third of all, before you start mugging the wordlist, go to the end of the word list of Barrons. There you will find the roots, prefixes, suffixes, etc.

Once you are familiar with that, you can easily remember the words from the wordlist.
Half of the words can be split or can be FELT by their prefixes, suffixes, roots, etc…

Understood??? So, DON’T EVER jump directly to the wordlist. Firstly create a good foundation upon which you can build your vocab.

Fourth of all, after you are done with the “prefixes, suffixes and roots” from Barrons, its time for you to start with the wordlist. Normally GRE takers get frightened by the number of wordlists - “50”!!!!... So the first thing that you need to do is do a psychological check! At least I used to use this kind of thinking --- Do five wordlists at a time.
5 wordlist = 1 WORDLIST.

So at one go you should read 5 wordlists!
so if you see, as per normal maths, you would have to do just 50/5 = 10 WORDLISTS!... Getting my point??? When I started with the first WORDLIST, I had a consolation at the back of my mind that ‘there are only 9 more to go’!!.... I know this is kind of fooling yourself, but believe me this technique helps!... it helped a normal person like me.. it might help you too… once you conquer the fear of the number of wordlists, you will have a lot of confidence…. REVISION is the key to remembering the words.

Take a look at the link below for techniques on remembering wordlists.

http://dipenambalia.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-to-remember-wordlist-for-gre.html


Here is the timetable:

(4 hrs of preparation per day should suffice.)

March 1st – 15th March ---- fully understand the “prefixes, suffixes and roots” from barrons.

March 16th – May 30th ---- fully understand all the wordlists… you should know the meaning of any damn word given in Barron’s wordlist!

Along with the wordlist, also start preparing for Reading comprehensions. The basics need to be strong. So for that you should be able to understand any article on any damn subject under the sun… And as I said you can get anything under the sun, its important that you go to net and surf the web for any damn subject topic you can think of .. eg : importance of algae in the animal kingdom, why Florence nightingale is so famous, the colonization of a few colonies in America, the internal structure of proton, feminism in the 16th century, the strategy used by Google to be the number one search engine, how to electricity is produced….!!!!!!!!! Any damn article will help you familiarize with the content THAT YOU NORMALLY DON’T LIKE TO READ!

From March 1st up to April 15th you have time to READ DIVERSE material. After that .ie. till may 31st its time for you to start solving the 1000 RC document. You will find it on the net… for tips on RC please go thru this link..

http://dipenambalia.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-to-tackle-rc-in-gre.html

Also, from March1st upto May 31st, solve with maths. Do maths half an hour a day. (the assumption is that you are already OK in maths.)

http://dipenambalia.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-to-tackle-maths-in-gre.html


So, by May 30th you will have built a good foundation for verbal.
Now its time for you to know whether you are ready for the big battle in july/august.

Start practising vocab exercises with guru.exe, voca.exe, antonym.exe….
Practice these till june 10th. 10 days shld be sufficient for you to practice these.
LEARN from the mistakes you make here.

Its time to take a practice test from ETS POWER PREP (the CD which you get when you register). Take the test. Don’t get depressed if you get lower than you expected; because you are yet to polish your mind. Make sure ANALYSE your performance very thoroughly. Spend 2.5 hours on what went wrong, why it went wrong, what you will do to make sure it doesn’t go wrong.

Now, spend time from june 11th till june 20th just to go thru the barrons wordlist again.
And make sure you prepare for maths steadily.... STEADY PREPARATION OF MATHS IS VERY IMPORTANT!...

From June 21st up to july 5th solve the GRE Bigbook. There are 27 tests. Solve the first 10 tests just for practice. I mean don’t time them.

The later 17 tests should be solved in a timed manner..it’s ok if you don’t get time to solve all 17…

From 6th July up to 10th July focus on AWA. From the ETS site, you will get a pool of topics (issues and arguments) that might be asked in the exam.


http://dipenambalia.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-to-tackle-awa-in-gre.html

Now its time to take the 2nd test from ETS POWER PREP.

In the actual exam you will get + or – 60 of what whatever score u get in the second test of ETS POWER PREP….

Now, uninstall and install again… again take 2 tests…
Now, uninstall and install again.. and again take 1 test.. by now you should have exhausted the database of the ETS POWER PREP….

Work for a week on your weaknesses… and then you should be good to crack the actual exam..!! ie. july 3rd week should be when you would come out with flying colours!!

Just to reword what Will Smith has said in the Movie ‘Pursuit Of Happyness’ –

“Don’t ever let somebody tell you that you can’t score 1600 in GRE.
If you have a dream of scoring 1600 in GRE, protect that dream.
People themselves can’t score well, so they want to tell you that you can’t score well.
If you want 1600, GO GET IT. PERIOD!!!!!”

Give your best shot so that if ever someone googles “ the person who scored 1600/1600 in GRE”, the results should show up YOUR name!!!...

Mail me your comments or any doubts at dipenambalia@gmail.com. I will try my best to help u…
If you want to talk to me then mail me and then I will give you my phone number…

Keep visiting my blog- http://dipenambalia.blogspot.com for more updates…

Happy GREing!!...

DISCLAIMER : pls dont sue me if this plan doesnt work for u :).. this is just a logical plan to help u score what you deserve..!

how to tackle maths in GRE

Maths is the easiest section in GRE… you can easily score 800/800….. heres what u can do for maths : first of all, develop the mental attidute that “maths is easy and i m surely going to score 800/800”.

second of all,when u install the PowerPrep by ETS, when u start the session, u will find a link for “maths review”. that will open a link for MATHSREV.pdf (i think this is the name of the PDF. its of some 69 pages).this PDF is a very good document to start with. follow each page very religiously.

whenever u see a formula, try to put values for varibles in the formula.Try to create your own questions. try to look at the formula from different angles. like, for example : suppose i see the formula—> area of square is aa and perimeter of a square is 4a. then what i do is, i draw square and then try to think of various questions like 1) what if i m given just the perimter and i m asked to find the area or 2) what if i m told that the perimter of square A is 4 times the perimter of square B then i am asked to find out the area of square A. are you getting my point?...whatever formula you see, keep that in mind, think of examples… this is how u will increase marks in maths.one more thing, it is quite possible that u know everything abt maths, but u must be making silly mistakes.

For the first 18-20 questions, be doubly sure to mark the right answer. if the computer knows that u gave right answers for the first 18-20 questions, then the computer will understand that you are very good at math and the last 8 questions wont matter much!...and yes, barrons maths is ok....for more practice solve the maths book by R.S. Agarwal… u will get it at any book store in mumbai!!...