World Cup 2011- India Vs Pakistan- Magnificent!

Before the match:
The big fuss about the India-Pakistan match seems to be growing every second and the excitement seems to be never ending. Restaurants, lounges, showrooms have all put up LCD displays and projector screens making it possible for everyone to watch the match. Cognizant prevised beforehand that employees will never gonna miss the most significant match of 2011 World Cup and might take an off from work. So they've put up LCD monitors in all cafeterias that telecast Star Sports non stop. Undoubtedly, India-Pakistan match is regarded as the biggest "rivalry" in this World Cup 2011 and is quoted as the "Mother of all matches." The expectancy and eagerness among Indian cricket maniacs and everyone in my company is at its core with everyone checking their watches every 5 minutes wanting it to tick faster. The move was satisfactory as not many in my office took an off because Cognizant has enabled everything to watch the cricket match live. Encouraging the cricket spirit, Indian and Pakistan supporters (there weren't any for Pakistan!) were allowed to wear team jerseys and it was blue everywhere. 1:30pm and the cafeterias were jam packed already. Hope the Men in Blue will not let us down!

During the match:
Even if the building was on fire, people give a damn about it as far as it doesn't interrupt the live telecast. People were glued to their seats; rest were standing and the cafeterias were crammed that for a second it felt like the room was flexible enough to accommodate so many people. Loud hurrahs and roaring was obviously for the Master Blaster whenever he appeared on the screen that could be heard from miles away. I could see people sitting at the edge of their seats watching the match live and parallely praying for India to win. As soon as the match started the excitement meter begins to dance up the scale. People so want Indians to win this match as it was not just a game, it was war! Me thinks that people wont be much gleeful when India wins the World Cup as much as when it defeats Pakistan.

The cheer was loud enough to break the decibel meter when Sehwag comfortably hit each ball across the boundary line. The enthusiasm ceased as soon as Wahab Riaz sent him off the ground. Sachin was lucky enough to hit 85 after four lives until Saeed Ajmal caught the ball. As the match went on, people didn't really like the progression of the game and started to lose hope when Yuvraj Singh went back to pavilion hitting nothing. 260 was a decent score after all. Unfortunately, it wasn't for Pakistan. In the end, People already started bursting crackers and howling around when Pakistanis were to hit 30 runs in 6 balls. Misbah-ul-Haq played really good but it wasn't good enough to win the match. Indians contained it very well and was a great match after all.

After the match:
Celebrations were colorful and for a second, it looked like a festival. Thousands of people jumping and howling on the road as Indians entered into the finals. Crackers went on for so long till it woke up everyone who was sleeping (the oldies!!) Youngsters went around in bike holding the Indian flag celebrating the victory. It all subsided later after 11:30pm.

Hope the Indians defeat Sri Lankans and would win the World Cup 2011. Thankfully, the finals is on Saturday Apr 2nd. Guess everyone will want to watch it with their big friends gang that will make it more exciting and exhilarating. Two days to go and the clock ticks......

Pics: Office: Eveyone standing for the National Anthem.	Office: Crowd in Cafeteria -1
Office: Crowd in Cafeteria -2	Celebrations (from Google)
Celebrations (from Google)	Office: Crowd in cafeteria.

One step forward.

Like tides in the sea slowly reaching the shore that subsides into the cold beige sand, today yours truly have steadily but successfully completed one astounding year in one of the world's faster growing companies- Cognizant Technology Solutions (ironic eh? That's what made it to the top!) Completion of one year means that my probation period is over and I'm a permanent employee of Cognizant. Looking back one year behind, there used to be moments of uncertainty in comprehending my future, an unclear vision of what lies ahead. Torrents of question falls on me like freezing rain that each drop of it tore through the pores of my skin for which the answers, again, were insoluble. I'm kind of a person who takes things easy, who thinks the world is not gonna end today and I still have more time left to accomplish any task. Take-it-slow policy is what i follow and it helps me in many ways, though I'm not sure if it helps others. If you had read this post of mine, you would have a picture of what it is for me to be an employee of a company like Cognizant.

Three months of an amazing life in the Cognizant Academy (a place where trainees are technically and professionally groomed) was the best ever. My friends list extended limitlessly when was in the Academy that each and every minute of my stay there was fun. After been put in business unit, things have changed the way it used to be as most of us were scattered across India. The bonding that the Academy groomed between friends were still thick and strong that we'll have a conference at least once a week to update ourselves to know what is happening with each other.

For your office hours to be easy going, your team have to be fun. My new team is much convivial than the previous one and fun to be in for i believe that its the team that really converts one from 'trainees' to 'experienced' and if its not absolute, he is a trainee forever.

There were days when uncertainty prevailed; life had become a question that I felt like walking blindfolded in an already dark place; facing reality had come almost indistinct; when the biggest imperfection in life, being unemployed stuck hard like a bullet, Never really had imagined of myself being in one of the top IT companies in the world as these CMMi level 5 companies weren't in my list in the first place throughout my job hunt during the recession period. But after all, the improbability of me becoming an employee of a well reputed organization apparently wasn’t too big for my boots and I'm proud to be called a Cognizant employee. Hope the upcoming years that lie ahead teaches me lot of stuffs morally and technically that all success comes my way and prosperity prevails.. ;-)

Century!

This post is just to let everyone know that this is my hundredth post! ;-)

Aadukalam- Otha Sollala (Karaoke)

This is the Karaoke of the latest hit song "Otha Sollala" from the movie 'Aadukalam' composed by yours truly (originally composed by G.V.Prakash). This song was a hit soon after its release. May be because of its "kuthu" genre or Velmurugan's voice or for the composition itself, the song was on the Top 5 hits just few days after its release. When I listened to the song, like everyone else, i liked it too. And after listening it a few times, thought of making a karaoke of it. I composed it using FL Studio 8. I've used the beat samples from the song and made the rest from FL Studio 8. Cutting out a loop from the song wasn't difficult for me, but to cut out loops without vocals was pretty tough. So I cut the basic beat sample into different slices using Edison and placed it appropriately to make it sound original. When you hear the "Onnu Sollaama Usuradhottaaya Manasa Inike Vachha Seenum Ittaaya.." line, the beat you hear was sliced up into many pieces and patched up together to sound like original (In the original song, you can hear the vocals over the beat and its kinda impossible to separate both).

Like I usually say, I've tried my best in replicating the original song by making a karaoke of it. Please listen to the track and give your valuable comments and feedback.


Click here to download.



Please leave your comments..!

-S

IDentity!

There used to be a time when a guy falls for a girl and if he wants to know about her- her name, where she lives, her profession, her phone number etc, the guy probably have to exert himself vigorously in finding at least one of the listed above. If you and the girl you're dotting on are working in an IT company, things are simpler. From busting your gut to know her name, today all you have to worry about knowing is her Employee ID. From just a click of a button, you behold her complete profile right on your computer screen. There is this friend of mine who fell for a girl and even before logically being curious to know her name, he was more curious to know her employee id. For a moment i was stumped considering the ease of the situation. Well, one has to be. Just a six figure number (differs!) called an employee id can give you information about anyone in an organization. Name, phone number (very important!), business address, home address, email id, her job title and what not? Now that every company has a chat application, the primary move of approaching a girl becomes more easier. PING! Hi. -Hi. Im...blah blah blah. To dig a little more into her personal profile, there is always Facebook, global database for people's information. Like trying to know her employee id, in Facebook, its all about worrying whether she accepts your friends request or not. Accepting friends requests is access to her personal stuffs. You get to know more about her- like her friends, or whether you both have any common friends, her interests, her hobbies, her latest photos (you can save it and drool over!!) etc. Getting to know each other has become as easy as falling off a log.

It was long back when you fall for a girl, talk to her, get to know her, understand each other, and everything seems like a long process. Today, things are made very simpler by 'social networking,' a concept that is followed in almost every organization for a better rapport and for easier communication between employees. Its good that it also serves as an intimacy notion. LOL! Whatsoever, Making a girl fall for you does require a special wooing skill that people like me are not really blessed with!! *Heaves*

Zzzz Grrrrs!!

I think i will be able to turn the sky green; I think i will be able to walk on water; I think will be able to sneeze with my eyes wide open; I think i will be able to do everything what Rajinikanth could; except for one thing- getting up in the morning and jog. On the contrary, there is one guy in my office who never misses jogging every morning, no matter what. I tried to be 'him' for just one day and had set alarm at three consecutive time around 5 am, with a hope that it might wake me up. No. Even the repeated raucous hooting of the alarm failed in walking me up. Kept snoozing the alarm every time it rang and resumed my sleep. I'm still not able to find out if its my mind that automatically tells me to snooze the alarm or my hand, unconscious to my senses, gropes for the clock and shuts its off. There was this one time when i was so close to accomplishing my task. I woke up every 2 hours to check if its 5am and then dozed off when it actually was. I need to invent something that wakes me up in the morning, something like a clock that sprays cold water on face instead of ringing (I wonder not even if I wipe the water off my face and resume my sleep!)

Its been a routine for me to get up at 6 in the morning and do the brushing-bathing-dressing-eating in one hour and catch the bus at 7. Now to wind the clock needle back one hour than the usual time might take a little long to take effect. I wonder how longer would that 'long' be??

Tsunami in Japan.

The news was a bombshell when one of my friends told me about the massive earthquake that destroyed most of Japan. 8.9-magnitude earthquake shook Japan erupting a violent tsunami. It was so powerful that it sent ships crashing to the shore. I read in the news that the water level was equivalent to the small houses in Japan and the it engulfed most of it. Its discovered that the earthquake was Japan's largest in 140 years. Russia and Indonesia, Central American countries like Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica and the U.S. state of Hawaii were all hit by it in the late afternoon today. The causalities count is not yet announced but after a forceful tsunami that washed most of Japan, the count is expected to be a little high. People are in shock across the globe after hearing the news and all TV channels are busy updating latest news from Japan. It was found that the tsunami hit Tokyo the most, one of the 47 prefectures in Japan, having a population of 30 million people. Authorities said that another tsunami is expected to hit in a few hours. When i was searching the latest news about the incident, there was tsunami alerts in Google home page warning people that another tsunami is expected because of the shock wave that the earthquake in Japan caused. This is a terrifying news to everyone and i wish that the impending tsunami just sink into the earth and NEVER erupts.




Here are some latest devastating pics:

Cognizant's Doosra

As India is a country of cricket fanatics, Cognizant has introduced a new fantasy cricket game called Doosra to boost the World Cup fever among employees. The game has been designed by Cognizant employees to knock off employee work pressure (?) with a little bit of fun. Doosra will be active for the entire duration of World cup and to login to Doosra, you should be a Cognizant employee (or have a Cognizant employee's login credentials!) For someone like me, who is not much into cricket, Doosra will make a difference. People in Cognizant seem hooked to the game that they keep talking about it all the time. Doosra is more like predicting the possibilities of winning or losing a game. It has two play modes: Super 11 and My Team. To begin with, every player will be provided with a minimum points in each play mode. It is the employee's way of playing the game that would double, triple or make it 10 times the minimum points provided. There will be a fixed amount of 1100 points in Super 11 that will be given to each player for every match and the player has to select 11 players from two teams that are playing the match as per the fixtures. The player has to apportion the 1100 points among the 11 chosen players and a star player (from the 11) has to be chosen. Depending upon the runs scored, wickets taken etc, the player will be awarded points. Points are awarded based on the points the player has given to each of the 11 players. Suppose if a player has chosen Sachin Tendulkar among the 11 players and have awarded 200 points from the 1100 basic points, and if Sachin has scored 100 runs in that particular match, then the 200 is multiplied with 100 runs + bonus points for every 25th, 50th, 75th and 100th run and if he is chosen as the star player, the final value is tripled. Hence the 11 players has to be cautiously chosen and the 1100 initial points has to be cautiously assigned.

For My Team play mode, the player has to place a bet on one of the two teams that plays the match that day. The player will be provided with 5000 initial points and the player will be awarded 1000 points everyday. For example, if its between India and Pakistan, the player can place the bet on either India or Pakistan. Similar to Super 11, the points are multiplied depending upon the bet. If the player bets all the points on a team, the points are quadrupled and if the team loses, the player loses all his points; If the player bets more than 50% of the bet, the points are doubled and if the team loses, the player loses only the percentage of the bet he had placed on the team.

Doosra has become an obsession among all Cognizant employees. When Doosra was introduced, the number of Doosra players increased every minute and now has around 45k players. If you have a question of what is gained from the game, well, its just mere fun and that the winners will win "exciting prizes." Though Doosra players were given weekly prizes for the top players, I hope the grand prize is gotta be really "exciting".

Very recently Doosra team have added two new features to the site- Silly Points and Tweets. Tweet is something everyone knows in this day and age (for the ones who doesnt know, its an exchange of short messages among individuals; social networking!) Silly Points has the statistics of the winners, losers, bets, highest score etc.

Its really fun to have such a game and I sincerely appreciate Doosra developers to have brought such an amazing game to all Cognizant employees. I had bet all my points on England in the England VS Ireland match and lost all my points. Not just me, 98% of the employees have lost their bet on England. After all, Circket is a funny game. You never know what will happen! Looking forward to win all other matches and I hope I would win that "exciting prize." ;-)

Here are some screen shots of Doosra:

Happy Women's Day!!

[From Wiki] International Women's Day (IWD), originally called International Working Women’s Day is marked on March 8 every year. Nowadays this is a major day of global celebration of women. In different regions the focus of the celebrations ranges from general celebration of respect, appreciation and love towards women to a celebration for women's economic, political and social achievements. In many regions, the day lost its political flavour, and became simply an occasion for men to express their love for women in a way somewhat similar to a mixture of Mother's Day and St Valentine's Day.

TRAIs "100 sms per day" is a dumb rule.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has announced a nonsensical regulatory restricting mobile phone users to send only 100 sms per day. This has to be one of the stupidest move by TRAI. Authorities say that they have to introduce this rule so as to "cease" telemarketing people from sending bulk message on free jobs, free PAN services and stuff. In this state-of-the-art world, who would come up with such a dumb idea of restricting 100 sms/day to everyone in India just cuz a bunch of telemarketing muttonheads sends bulk sms? Well, TRAI does!

I always had a strong dislike for the radio that plays in my office bus cuz it would not let me sleep as the RJs incessantly prattle on some random shit right into my ears. This news wasnt a 'random shit' after all. (Info: Now, I learnt the art of sleeping even when the radios play next to my ears in full volume! LOL!) Since i have to sleep bearing RJs constant blabber waves flowing through my ears, my mind makes a dream out of RJs indiscreet talk! To be honest, I was startled from my sleep without my knowledge when this news gushed into my ears! All i had to say about the news was: "IT'S INSANE!"

I wonder how the thousands of people, who are blessed with a girlfriend in their life, would feel. Since im not very fortunate on that part, everything is the same to me except for one thing- that i wont be able to send Rahman updates to my friends! Texting has become a dope to all college goers and something with a rule like this, would defenitely dishearten them. Imagine how would you feel when you were so close in making a girl fall in love with you with the contemporary cupid weapon "text messaging" (Booster package. Of course!) and you were deprived from sending free messages?

To serve steadfastly in sending Rahman updates to my fellow friends, i called the Vodafone Customer Care to confirm the news. They said that the TRAI's rule has not been effectuated on Vodafone as yet and that they will let their customers know if it does. I also happened to come across some forums on the internet where the discussion on the TRAI subject concluded by someone stating that the TRAI took back the 100 sms rule. There is also a Facebook page called "Take back the rule of 100sms a day" opposing TRAIs witless rule.

It makes sense if they come up with something else to stop telemarketing bulk sms rather than this. Hope TRAI realises how stupid it is and take back the rule. Looking forward to what is gonna happen..

A Special Post.

Today is one of the most significant day in the history of mankind. Wonder why? Its the birthday of the most influential, passionate, deterministic, vivid and most promising person on earth. The one who defines the power of human existence. The man who is admired for his courage and numerous accomplishments; The man who could turn the world upside down; The man with copious feat; An oomph booster that Jonny Depp has to lick his shoes!; Master of the Masters; Legend of the Legends. Wonder who I'm extolling here? Well, its none other than yours truly. LOL! Yes, Today is my birthday and it went great. Birthdays are just another day if there are no family and friends around. Friends may seem annoying sometimes but it doesn't take much time to realise the bliss out of their annoyance. It used be our custom to go to birthday boy's home, ringing the bell at night 12 o clock with a cake in hand singing the birthday song when he opens the door and smashing the cake on his face. Since all my friends were scattered across different parts of India, the custom was knocked off. Still, their calls at sharp 12 made me feel very happy and also made me hit the bed very late at night.

Though you have many customs among your friends group, there is one universal custom among all friends across the globe which is known as- "treat!" (not sure if it applies for girls since money spending is something which they've never done before, unless its for them!) Treat can simply be defined as- An occasion camouflaging bankruptcy for the one treating you! Treat is a unique way of celebrating birthday in which you take friends to a good restaurant in town, treat them with whatever they like and make them strong enough for them to kick your ass. Yes, ass kicking is another custom called "birthday bums!" It only happens among friends that you get them good food to eat and get your ass kicked. LOL! That is why birthdays are just another day when there are no friends around!!

I sure have to mention about a special fawning mail I received for my birthday from one of my close friends. The mail was all buttered up with exaggerated flattery words and had some of my funny pictures. It was one of the things that made my day!!

Its 5:50pm and my day was fun till now and hope the rest of the day brings me more surprises. I would like to thank all my friends through this post for remembering and wishing me on my birthday today. I hope this year turns out all good to me and be more prosperous than ever! ;-)