1st Birthday

Happy Birthday Lil' Pranav ! Thankyou for bringing such joy and meaning to our lives.
Love, amma and appa.

Honge kamyaab

Honge kamyaab, originally uploaded by Kulkeez.

Found this snap on my harddisk. This was during Praful's engagement with Reena at Dharwad. I was wondering what each of us was thinking at that time. Sohan looks jubilant; praful confused; sanny at peace and me businesslike.

Prof. Randy Pausch's last lecture at CMU

I viewed this last lecture given by Prof. Randy Pausch's at the Carnegie Mellon University on Septemer 18, 2007 and was deeply moved.

Prof. Randy Pausch's last lecture

iCOPE Days

I met Rahul Verma, an iCope colleague and now my HP colleague after 4 years. We had a nice chat over tea and reminisced the good old days at iCope. The days we spent together at Duesseldorf. The shammi kababs, the doner kabab, Unterath, 707 et al.

We tried to see if one of us had stayed in touch with iCopians like Shailesh Srivastav, Nirbhay Singh, Joshi, Sajjid, Divya, Latha, Deepak Nakra, Sree Kumar.

I tried googling myself up (being narcissist). Here's a post I found that I made during my iCope days. Those were heady days when I was hooked to Ant.

I think iCOPE has moved to a new location on Wind Tunnel Road after they reorganized as TriVium-iCOPE.

Global Warming Ad - Tick

Tick


An ad by Environmental Defense and the Ad Council.

Environmental Defense, a leading national nonprofit organization, represents more than 500,000 members. Since 1967, Environmental Defense has linked science, economics, law and innovative private-sector partnerships to create breakthrough solutions to the most serious environmental problems.

The Ad Council is a private, non-profit organization with a rich history of marshalling volunteer talent from the advertising and media industries to deliver critical messages to the American public. It has created some of the most iconic media campaigns of the past century, including Smokey Bear, Vince and Larry the Crash Test Dummies, Iron Eyes Cody (the “Crying Indian”), “Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk,” and campaigns on polio, AIDS and drug use.

Train

HPQ crosses the $50 barrier

wow - HPQ traded at 50.14 yesterday, whats happening?

First go at Outlook 2007

These two days have been hectic and very satisfying. I have been travelling to the e-city HP site to get trained on SiteMinder Administration. The day starts with the wakeup alarm ringing at 6:00 AM. A shower, a quick breakfast comprising of bread toast and a cup of ginger tea. 7:20 AM: board the company bus to e-city. 7:55 AM: short and brisk walk through the scenic HP campus. 8:00 AM: Inside Purdue - 0.09 and logged on to Jabber.

I noticed Outlook 2007 installed on the training machine I had been allocated. I was impressed with the new look and feel of Word 2007. Got so hooked to it that I started preparing my training notes using Word 2007. Will try and download Outlook 2007 from the Microsoft site some time next week.

आ री आ जा, निंदिया तू ले चल कहीँ

I finally got time to blog this। Yes, Pranav's lullaby which papa loves to sing to put him to sleep. It is a song from the movie "Kunwara Baap" featuring Mehmood called "Aa Ri Aaja Nindiya" sung by Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar. You bet, he dozes off in minutes ;-)
Here's the song lyrics (I only knew the first two lines; got the complete lyrics at the earthmusic.net site):

आ री आ जा, निंदिया तू ले चल कहीँ
उडनखटोले में, दूर दूर दूर यहां से दूर

मेरे यार बड़ा दुख दे
पर मुझको जहाँ में मिला
सुख कौन बड़ा तुझसे
तेरे लिए मेरी जाँ, ज़हर हज़ार, में पी लूँगा,
तज दूंगा दुनिया, एक तेरे संग जीं लूँगा
ख़ूब ? नज़र के नूर

आ री आ जा, निंदिया तू ले चल कहीँ
उडनखटोले में, दूर दूर दूर यहां से दूर

यह सच है कि में अगर
सुख चेन दिलाता हूँ
तेरी दुनिया से में फिर कहीँ
कब दूर चला जाऊं
नहीं मेरे daddy, ऐसी बात फिर से ना कहना
रह जाना जब तू ?
फिर मुझको भी नहीं रहना
ना जा तू हमसे दूर

Raksha Bandhan

It was raksha bandhan yesterday and Pranav received his first post. It was a rakhi posted by Sonali. The photos shows the rakhi his sister Aishwarya sent from Pune. Incidently, Pranav completed 10 months yesterday. Click here to find how Google calculates that in days. how time flies.

Been listening to Bob Dylan whole day to get inspiration. The song goes like this...

Wish I could play the guitar or the mouth organ. :(

Experiments in Web2.0 - Integrating my blog with Google, Amazon, Feedburner

I succeeded in adding my Amazon Wishlist to the blog template that I use(see left pane). I did this by burning my feed with FeedBurner and allowing them to post a template(the Chicklet Chooser) onto my blog page. I then tweaked the resulting HTML snippet and added the Amazon Wishlist HTML snippet. Also added Google AdSense on the left pane so that I can earn some revenue from my blogging and hoping that it drives traffic to my blogs. I also enabled these feeds to be redirected to FeedBurner so that I can analyze Statistics. These blogs are now mirrored on FeedBurner. While researching this, I hit upon the Official Google Blog and Google Analytics.

Pranav

Pranav, originally uploaded by koolkarni_ash.

My chiklet. Ah - A lazy Sunday afternoon at Hubli and I finally subscribed to a flickr Pro account by shelling out $25 (see how Google converts US Dollars to Indian Rupees) and linked it to my blogger account. Now, I can upload unlimited snaps onto flickr and blog them to blogger. howzzaattt. This snap was taken from my Kodak analog camera.

Pranav logged a whopping 469X4=1856Kms of travel in the past 4 months with two trips to Dharwad and back. Preparations are on for the next visit in a fortnight's time - for his Jawla(Mundan).

Pulse Polio

I was searching about the Pulse Polio immunization drive after I saw a TV commercial on Zee TV which said that there is a Polio drive organized on Aug 5. I came across these ads on the subject starring AB: दो कदम - दो बूँद जिन्दगी के ! and पोलियो के बूथ में इतने क़ुम लोग !
This one is too good: Two drops is all it takes - Eradicate Polio

070707 - Saturday of the Sevens

The newspapers said it is a unique date - one which falls once in 1000 years. Well, it was the day Pranav attended his first birthday party - in fact two birthday parties - back to back. It began with Samarth's(Vijay Ballary's son) 1st birthday and it was a lunch party at Pai Viceroy at Jayanagar. This was followed by a dinner at the same place (yes - Pai Viceroy again - what a coincidence). This time it was Khushi's (Harsha's daughter; Harsha is a colleague at HP) Birthday party - she turned three. Got a chance to introduce Deepa to my current manager Partha, his wife and his two kids. We also met Ritesh Maheshwari, his wife and their daughter.


(From L to R: Shweta, Raashi, Ritesh, Harsha, Khushi, Manasa, Deepa, Pranav, Me)

Talking about the date: it was slated to be the biggest wedding date in history by TheKnot.com. It reminds me how I would remember to watch the odometer of my scooter as it rolled over to zeroes when it reached the thousandth or any catchy sequence of digits.

Thirteen months from now, we shall have another chance when August 8, 2008, written as 08-08-08, rolls around — eight being considered in Chinese culture to be even more auspicious than seven is in the West. The Beijing Olympics begin this day.

Pranav Walks

Jedi and the IronKey

Caught Vipin (Jedi) online on Yahoo chat after many many days. As usual, he started off with, "abbe khande". Vidyut, his son has been teething since a couple of weeks. Vipin had joined a Silicon Valley startup 2 weeks before Vidyut was born. Their startup IronKey went live recently and he was excited about it. Hence the reason he was working past midnight. Going through the IronKey flash drive demo, I came across the term TOR servers. TOR or The Onion Routers is a network of routers in existence since 1996.

Linking myspaces blogs

I had started blogging in Jan 2007 using MSN spaces blog but found it slow. I then got hooked on to blogspot. Therefore, decided to add a post that links to my older blogs here: Zindagi ....aa raha hoon main

Sher se dosti

Pranav's new toy - The "Fisher-Price Brilliant Basics Wild Lights Torch - Tiger" aka Sher. Me and Sher growl at him. You need to squeeze Sher's tail to open his mouth - and light and the growl sound come out. It actually makes two sounds - Grrowwl and Rrrrrrrrr.The toy is categorized for 2+ year olds but Pranav enjoys it immensely. Chandra's daughter Sumedha gifted it to him when they visited us back in May.

I was so impressed with this sound and light concept that I decided to search for more toys of this kind. Thanks to the Retail revolution in India, some fascinating toys by Fisher-Price are now available in most shopping malls like Shopper's Stop, LifeStyle. I picked up the "Fisher-Price Brilliant Basics Wild Lights Torch - Cock" for Pranav's lil' brother Nachiket.

quit-thinking-so-much and enjoy life

Read this gyaan on a blog by Rowdy Webb who works for IPG: quit-thinking-so-much and enjoy life. I think I should follow that gyaan, work hard but go back home and enjoy time with Pranav instead of worrying about those little things that need my attention: paying the telephone bill, the LPG connection transfer.

A Hen, a tractor and Chinmaya

Girish came back from Pune and passed on the Sony digital camera. I was looking at Chinmaya's snaps when Pranav saw Chinmaya for the first time and kept smiling.

This morning, during our usual Sancy Laundrette beat, we saw a tractor with a trailer drive by. I told Pranav to wish that grandpa gifts him a tractor ;-)

He saw a hen (I can't believe it - in Kormangala?). It seems we have a hen in the 4th Cross neighbourhood. Deepa kept pointing out the hen excitedly to him while the neighbours stared at Deepa. Kya scene hai !

Dosa, Idli, Filter Coffee, Daily Allowance, WebLogic

The day started with breakfast at Sukhsagar. We had Spring Dosa, Idli, Uddina Vada, Set Dosa and Paper Masala Dosa. We washed it with hot filter coffee. Veena had coffee after many years; she doesn't drink coffee since she follows Homeopathy.

At office, the DCC Dev Setup call with John & Madhu was smooth. Then, had a Daily Allowance - Germany test cases review meeting with Preethi & Mithra and we made some progress. Radhakrishnan wanted to start Weblogic managed server via the Admin console and wasn't able to figure how to start the node manager. It was an easy answer for me. Thus, the day in office ended on a satisfying note.

Next stop, back at The Forum for some more shopping - this time at the Landmark book store. Aishoo bought an Enid Blyton. We ended the shopping with a quick bite at McDonalds. This was Pranav's first visit to the American fastfood chain giant. He tasted french fries. Aishoo had a chocolate icecream while I shared my favorite

Pranav's first Grand Slam event - French Open 2007

The French Open 2007 moved into its fourth day. Me and Pranav watched Venus Williams play Ashley Harkleroad in the Women's Singles Second Round. Venus went on to win the match 6-1, 7-6. It was Pranav's first grand slam event.

Veena and Aishoo are here in Bangalore since it is Aishoo's summer holidays. So, the gang (Veena, Aishoo, Pranav, Giri and Deepa) stepped out to do some shopping at 'The Forum'. I have a DCC SWAT Team Meeting coming up in 19 minutes so will join the gang after I'm off this meeting.

Shrimant Nanasaheb Nadgir

It was a memorable evening in Kundgol - the Janma Shatabdhi (Birth Anniversary) of Shrimant Nanasaheb Nadgir. We drove down from Hubli and reached the Nadgir Wada just after dusk - it was my first visit - had so often heard about Nadgir wada from amma (my mother-in-law) - her maternal home. Amma showed us around the wada where she grew up. Heard the anecdote of how the entire village turned up to see the bridegroom on their marriage. This is the place which saw the likes of Sawai Gandharv and Pt. Bhimsen Joshi perform.



Heard the great Gangubai Hangal perform at this age. It was a perfect introduction to classical music for lil' Pranav - at his great grandma's place. I'm sure he enjoyed the music as much as he did the car ride and the mid-summer night at the wada.

First rains, candle light and the LG Tromm

Bangalore experienced heavy rain showers yesterday in the evening. I was lucky not to get caught on my way back from office. Pranav witnessed rain and lightening for the first time. As usual, BESCOM snapped the power supply. It was interesting to see how captivated Pranav was by watching the candle flame. He is also an avid washing machine watcher; loves it when the LG Tromm tumbles away making that humming sound.

One of our favorite pastimes (is that the right usage as opposed to timepass) is to watch the crowd across the street at Arafa or the customers walking into Laundrette. I'm experiencing sights and sounds from Pranav's perspective and find his reactions to things very intriguing. He is getting familiar with the ubiquitous light switches; still doesn't understand how it works. Today, he smiled at the drawing room ceiling fan when I switched it on and then kept staring at it for a while.

Lastly, Stella, our house maid sure does know how to make him guffaw. I have been pestering her to speak to Pranav in Tamil.

Pranav and Vijay Uncle

Vijay was here last fortnight for official work. They were testing the brakes of 50 tonne lathe machinery. All the work he was doing sounded so real and passionate; unlike my work. He commented that Pranav had similarities with Manali. He observed that he resembles his granpa(paternal) in some ways.

Sher da puttar

"I love you papa...I love you puttar". With Pranav at the #52 lawn.

Pranav with Granny

nani encouraging pranav to crawl forward.

With Giri at the #52(Nirmala Mansion) lawn.

Veena naming Bubbles

Veena naming bubbles as Pranav. He was sleeping peacefully while the naming ceremony went on. Pranav and cousin Nachiket were named on 27-Jan-2007 at Hubli.

प्रानायम - Breathtaking

Found this blog on rediffiland very informative: http://sahitibharadwaj.rediffiland.com/scripts/xanadu_diary_view.php?postId=1175659846

गिरी - प्रणव

Day: 17th December, 2006

Event: Giri tau holding a cosy & bundled Bhatija Pranav for the first time. Pranav who had just woken after his mid-morning siesta looks on. Seen in the background is one of the first things Pranav loved to watch - the switch board. Girish drove down from Bangalore en route his Pune visit.

Flickr 'em

I'm planning to upgrade my flickr account to a Pro Account and flickr all the snaps for posterity. Who knows when my hardisk crashes. This would cost me $24.95 bucks (convert it googleishtyle http://www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&q=24.95+USD+in+INR&meta=). Holy smokes ! Flickr says that's cheap. I love their tag cloud feature so I'm going to shell out that money huh! Here's how my flickr tag cloud looks like: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kulkeez/tags/ It's interesting to watch a cloud that shows places/people who have touched my life. Looking at the cloud I realized that I don't see many people I would expect to; people who I meet digitally on a daily/weekly/monthly basis; like Vadi or Sirisha or Vijayeendra.

Was wondering what would happen a 1000 years from now। Would historians and archealogists do digital digging to unearth all this digital footprint we are leaving behind?
SecondLife historians out there, business opportunity for you.

Nephew and Aunty

Pranav with Rupa Maushi at Hubli. This snap was taken on 22nd December, a few days before Nachiket was born. Nachiket was born same place(Kallianpurkar Nursing Home, Hubli) on 3rd January.

bubulz is full timepass

Pranav eats up all the time I spend at home. I barely manage to check office emails. Gone are the days of idyllic net surfing or chatting. All work revolves around him - I am nowadays in the PTZ - Pranav Time Zone.

Pranav's favorite toy...the newspaper of course. Oh, he loves to crackle it and crumble it and eat it. Kulki-baby-tip#1: Lay Pranav on the floor; give him a fresh and crisp newspaper and you can escape with your cup of tea and the Bangalore Times to the loo. ;-)

Deepa is giving him potty training. He usually wakes up at 7:00 AM and the first thing she does is rush out and get the Potty seat. The next 10-15 minutes are spent providing a background score that goes like this ... " hhhhuuussshhhhh... Pranav ...shhhhhhooo...". He is very cooperative while being cleaned up; in fact he enjoys all that attention.

huh - looked up the Merriam-Webster online and there is no such word in the English dictionary called "timepass".

I used to hum the Hutch Ad song "You and I ...in this beautiful world" a lot during the first few months that Pranav was born। Wonder if I can get that song somewhere on the net... YouTube perhaps. Nowadays, we (Me and Giri) sing out the Tata Sky ad bit which sounds techno and is hard to imitate..."ooyeee pappeeeeeeeyyyy (techno drone) ..........". यह रहा अपना टाटा स्काई एड http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paJDsWV96Po और यह रहा हुत्च का एड http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTNYf6Nubdk
More on Pranav's other toys later.