I love Rubik's Cube

Since Diwali I have been trying to solve this so called Rubik's Cube.


Its end of December now. Almost 2 months i have spent on this useless cube. According to a survey, 70% of the people THINK better when they are sitting on a toilet seat.





I am one of the 70 % people :-) I had the Rubik's Cube placed in by Bathroom. Every morning I used to try solving it. For the first few days I was struggling to complete the first layer itself ! I searched for algorithms on the Internet to solve this wonderful puzzle. I got some useful hints, some moves which can be played blindly, some easy movements of cubes etc. Within a month, I could solve the first 2 layers.
Now it was a piece of cake for me to solve the first two layers. The last part was the hardest one. Every morning I used to try solving it, but every attempt went in vain. So one day, I got a print out of the algorithm, and studied it. (Of course while sitting on the toilet seat). Now I got an idea of what are the steps I need to follow in order to complete the cube, Everyday I came very close to solving it, but every move i played further would shuffle the solved layers. I was irritated by this. One night I was again in the bathroom, and I decided to solve even if it takes me the whole night. I started all over again, followed each and every step given in the print, and after 30 mins, I came out the bathroom with the cube perfectly solved. It was a golden moment. Even my room mate was confused as to why was I smiling the whole night. I told him about my achievement. He was not Impressed, but I bet if you get addicted to this cube and after 2 months of effort you are finally able to solve it, You will be happier than me !!! Now I can solve the cube in less than 10 mins. The next challenge is to finish it within 5 mins. Hope I succeed in it.


4th Jan 2007

Just a small Update : My record for completing a shuffled Cube is 2 Mins, 58 secs.
Time tracker : Timex Ironman :-)
Venue : Bathroom
Time : 8:14 am

I have a dream, I already have the dream in reality

I had a dream way back in August to buy a high end mobile maybe a Nokia N series or a Sony Erricsson w800i. I thought it would be great to have a camera, mobile, mp3 radio, etc in a single gadget. But Mom didn't allow me to buy one. Reason : there is no need to buy such a costly model now. Buy it in December.
All my dreams were shattered, I was really depressed. I never say no to what my Mom says. So said to myself," There was something to gain, But there was nothing to loose. "

It was a very dull weekend of November, I got a very inspiring SMS from a friend :
"Dream is not what you see in sleep, Dream is the thing which does not let you sleep."
I thought for a while, If its said by Abdul Kalam there must be some truth in it. That afternoon I went to sleep. I didn't have any inspiring dreams, but when I woke up,something struck my mind. I hurried back to the kitchen, got some rubber bands, took my Digital Camera, my mp3/FM/Voice recorder, my very old and trusty Cell phone, Panasonic Earphones, and did some Magic. I was impressed with the result. Even you will be impressed !

Now I have a cellphone with 4Mp camera with Flash, 512 Mb memory, Mp3/FM/Voice Recorder with additional 512 Mb. Who wants a high end cell phone when you already have a upgraded version of it ? Look at what you have rather than what you don't have, and you will notice that what you don't have is what you already have :-)

Update :

4th Jan 2007
Now I own a 2 Gb ipod Nano (2nd Generation)
Who wants a Sony Erricsson now ?

November- The month that was.......

November was one of the most busy and interesting month I lived in. After a loooong vacation, I was assigned a huuuuge workitem by my manager. So I was involved in it. On Nov. 5th Star World aired a show about magic. This show overwhelmed me. I was really amazed by the tricks performed. It made me learn good magic tricks. After Office hours, I browsed for magic tricks on the internet. I found some and was successfull in performing them in front my whole team and some of my friends. Here are some of them :

While I was middle of this magic stuff, I got a call from Adobe. So now I started studying from

And a bit of this

Within a few days, I got a call from GE too ! This time I was made to study a bit of mechanical engineering. Turbines, thermodynamics, nozzles etc etc.

All of this consumed my weekends. Also there was a Table Tennis tournament organised by IBM. I had to participate in it. I bunked my IBM training and went for the matches. Finally, I emerged out as the winner and was awarded this :

November also included CAT-2006. Thank God I had not filled the form for CAT. My roomies had filled them. After the CAT we visited a car exhibition :

That night was the last night of my roomie in Bangalore. So he decided to give a champagne party. The night was memorable.

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaan this november was too occupied. There was one more thing I had committed to IBM. I appeared for a certification exam on 25th.......and I managed to clear that too ! Now call me IBM certified DB2 Application programmer. :-)

Nobody's to Blame !

The recent performance of "Team India" (now who named them 'Team India' ???)* was pathetic. out of 17 ODIs played "Team India" (Again this Team India ???)* managed to win only 3 wins. Even Zimbabwe and Bangaladesh have a higher victory rate than Team India*. I have no words to write for our performance. I've lost confidence in them. I recently received a fwd mail which describes why Team India* has not performed well. Here is why you cant blame the players for the poor performance :

1) Sehwag - U can’t blame him. He played his natural game (and got out, naturally)
2) Tendulkar - U can’t blame him. He scored a 50 (like a tortoise)
3) Laxman - U can’t blame him. This was his first match after a long gap. (Just wait for another 10 matches)
4) Mongia - U can’t blame him. He played well. (Just that he thought the test series had already started)
5) D. Karthik - U can’t blame him. He won us the 20-20 match (He is not used to the 50-50 format)
6) Dhoni - U can’t blame him. He tried for a big shot and got caught at the boundary (well ... ok ... 20 metres from the boundary line)
7) Pathan - U can’t blame him. He's an all-rounder. (Like Alok Kapali - The Bangladesh all rounder)
8) Harbhajan - U can’t blame him. He's the best spinner we have (He's the only one, so he has to be the best)
9) Kumble - U can’t blame him. He's a fighter (and a loser)
10) Zaheer - U can’t blame him. He is the fastest bowler (The ball disappears fast as well)
11) Sreesanth - U can’t blame him. Atleast he has the guts to look into the batsman's eyes (after being smashed all over the park)
Chappel - U can’t blame him. He's building the team for the World Cup (He may be missing at that time though and also for which world cup no one knows??)
Kaif & Raina – U can’t blame them. They didn’t play (Thank God)

If there is anyone to blame, it's us (who are still watching these games) ............
And thats quite correct. I request all the cricket fans to stop watching Team India* matches if they continue performing the same way. I've lost hopes of winning the World Cup. And I am planning to shift my interests from cricket to Hockey. The Hockey team deserve to be called as Team India*. After all Hockey is the National Game of the Country. I dont even know who is the captain of the Indian Hockey Team, but I feel the games will be more interesting than watching Team India* in the cricket field.


Now something about this Team India :

* I don't know whether you people have noticed the (*) I gave after Team India. I also don't know whether you people have noticed that almost all the news channels have started referring to the Indian Cricket Team as "Team India". Do you feel its right ? I am really frustrated with the Indian Cricket team and I get even more furious when someone calls it Team India. Do they deserve to be called Team India ? If you want someone to be called as Team India, why not the Indian Hockey team ? Why not the atheletes who have participated in the Asian games at Doha ? Why not the Indian Kabaddi Team ?

I again request you to Please,
1. Stop watching Cricket matches if the cricketers continue their drain. If you are in the stadium, simply walk out of the stands.Let the players play in an empty stadium. There have to be 1-2 ocassions where the team will feel ashamed of themselves. No reasons are allowed from the cricketers. BCCI has enough money and also it spends heavily on the players. If the foreign pitch and the bounce is what made India score less than 200 in all the 4 matches, who had told them to go just 3 days prior to the 1st ODI ?? they must have been there 1 week early to get the feel of the pitches.

2. Please dont damage houses of the cricketers, Instead, send flowers with "get well soon" wishes. Follow Gandhigiri. Why should the family members of the cricketers suffer for the poor performance of the player ?

3. Stop using products which are advertised by the cricketers. ( I guess the advertising agencies will think twice before making a cricketer their brand icon :-) )

4. Apart from cricket, take interest in some other sport which India does well. eg. Tennis, Chess, Shooting, Hockey etc etc. Someday it will help you a lot.