The Moment of Truth

Last week, I was watching the serial - "The Moment of truth" and man!, you need balls of steel to be sitting on the hot spot. Grueling questions or should I say answers to those questions and to make it all the more worse - you have to face your friends and family right there while you answer.
For those of you who haven't had the opportunity of seeing the show, I'l draw a snapshot.

There is one victim (read the contestant!) and he is asked questions which he simply has to answer in a yes or no. Sounds simple, yeah it does until you get to know that prior to the show, the contestant goes through a polygraph test wherein he is asked some qsns and the results of the polygraph tests are not told to the contestant. Then on the show, the same qsns are repeated and if the contestant answers these correctly (as determined by the polygraph), the contestant keeps winning!. Simple enough but now comes the interesting part - the questions...

A few qsns that I remember from the show:-
1. Have you ever stolen money from a sub-ordinate?
2. Have you prolonged having kids with your wife cos you were not sure that you love her?
3. Have you ever smuggled anything into the country?

And to all those questions, the contestants had answered a "YES"!

The guy who was asked the second question had his wife sitting in front of him when he answered. Imagine the plight! The wife was asked whether she would like him to continue playing or quit and all that she said - "I want to know more"..

Its strange but true - a person would rather let out his true feelings when he shall be rewarded monetarily than when he is not. Whats the use of all the money when ur own wife shall not want to be with you.. (oh well... u never know - maybe he actually did not want to be with her.. and that shall be another story altogether).

I was just a little taken aback when I saw the entire episode. For me, I'd rather do something that I'd be proud of. I would definitly want to sit on that hot seat one fine day and say a NO to all those qsns (though am sure then that episode would not be aired as there would be no gossip.. at all ) but to me - spice is not always the spice of life!!

Nursery Rhymes

I am with my cousins these days and have full access to all the textbooks of the first standard and am enjoying those. It refreshes your memory and brings back all the nostalgia... (aahhh...an awesome feeling). The best thing - you know everything!! (A feeling that does not come to me always ;) )
Coming to the point, I have always loved nursery rhymes/fairy tales and right now, I got to read so many of them...and my all time favourite:-

Sing a song of sixpence a pocket full of rye,
Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened the birds began to sing,
Oh wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king?
The king was in his counting house counting out his money,
The queen was in the parlour eating bread and honey
The maid was in the garden hanging out the clothes,
When down came a blackbird and pecked off her nose!

I used to sing this rhyme a lot when I was a little girl and made sure my bro also knew each its words by heart - though am sure he doesn't remember any of it now!!! Yesterday, while I was repeating this in a loop, my grandmom also started humming the same. I was astonished - and the first thing I said with a surprised look on my face - "Aap ko bhi yeh aata hai??" (translated - "You also know this one??" ). Its such a legacy and somehow gets imprinted into the memory and imagine retrieving it after some 70 years.. truly amazing!! I hope I am able to do the same after such a long time as well...
Anyway, now I gtg.. loads of work pending...

PS - I really want to know if you haven't heard this rhyme before reading this piece.. do drop in a comment if u haven't :)

Crazy Funky Junky hat...

No na na no no no... I do not have a hat-fetish all of a sudden. Before reading this post, have a look at this video and pour in the comments..
Its a small dance sequence performed by 2 young girls - Alex and Harper (presumably best friends) of Wizards of Waverly Place fame, who start this cute thing as soon as they spot anyone wearing a "hat". So, the next time you see a hat... start the same!!!
The lyrics:-

What's that a hat
Crazy funky junky hat
Overslept hair unslightly
Tryin ta look like Keira Knightley
We've been there weve done that
We see right through your funky hat

Well, according to me, its a very cute and teen thing to do and so blogged it in here... hope you like the video..

For details, you can watch the program - Wizards of Waverly Place which is aired on Disney Channel, Mondays to Fridays sometime after 8 o clock.. (I cant seem to remember the times of shows...)

PS - Holidays are the best thing especially if you can watch all such stuff...

New Year's eve..

At the offset, I apologize to all my friends whose bowling actions were to be presented in a blog post. There's some editing I need to do to the entire video. (My net connection is awfully slow and refuses to upload the video in its present size). Sorry for the delay...

And now back to this post...
I basically have been a little too lazy these days (all thanks to the 10 days of holidays in which I have bothered to do nothing but sleep a lot, get up late, watch a lot of television, shop with mom..)
Anyway, this post is basically a note to remember how I spent this New Year eve...

As expected, I got up real late... 10 ish I guess... lazed around for quite some time.. and took a bath.. (he ha ha ha)... and then mom and I went out shopping... this was the most interesting part..
I bought shoes (3.2 inches of height increasing wood..) and we ate MOMOs at this "thele wala" sorts... and they were delicious.. (I couldn't help remember the momo-time my office friends and I have spent in Atta .. aaaahhh.. reminded me of those days.. )

And then... we ate Maggi!!! (my fav food... )... yipppee... and thats abt it.. the other fun moments that mom and I encountered are too random to be noted on a blog entry... but yeah.. had lotsss of fun today...

and also.. I spoke to my dad and bro and cousins and friends... nice day...
top it all... I wrote a post as well.. ;-)

cya.. and wish everyone a Happy New Year..

Whats in a walk!!

They say, the first steps are the most valuable memory that you have of your child.. (noooo... I am not talking about my child or anything.. RELAX..). I am referring to my mum's elder child here... he he he.. yup, thats me...

Well then.. I am sure she remembers my first few steps but wait, this post has nothing to do with those. This is more to do with the innumerable second steps that I have taken ever since.
To set the context, a few days back, someone pointed out that I have a peculiar manner of walking and hence, I thought, I'd rather rant away my "walking techniques" right here. So, please "walk along".. pun intended.. :-)

On a normal day - I have springs (with k=0.5 N/m) on my feet.
On a day when I am super excited - I literally jump and run with baby steps..
On a day when I am tired - Its the same as a normal day
When I am lost in thought (& walking simultaneously) - I wander... (my feet move in the most lazy manner)
On ramp - A straight line walk
Wearing sophisticated shoes - A poised walk (that's a quote!!!)
On water - still trying to.. ;-)

Half century...

I had a dozen topics to write about and I chose to discard each of those so that I could babble away about my half-century. With my laptop in my hand, I raise my arm towards the heavens and look at the almighty in an attempt to plead - "Please help me reach the much-awaited century". (Please say that I sound like Tendulkar..!!! )..

Anyway.. on a very random note, I wanted to say... "Thats ohkay!!" and also, loads of thanks to all those who have read these bizarre posts of mine..

I shall keep perplexing and irritating and confusing u guys... :P

PS. I really wanted to make the "I want to thank speech.." but stopped all the flow of emotion... maybe that sometime later...
Oh and also, the 50 is the total count of posts... published + unpublished.. so please don't get confused yet again.. :P

Whats been keeping the gmail team busy!!

Some real cool stuff... :-)

I especially like the emoticons and the fact that I can now send attachments of 20 mb at one go...

am still in the process of checking out the new features and shall update if there's anything really awesome..

Till then read on:-

___________________________________________________________

Gmail Labs: A testing ground for experimental new features
Try out features in development and let us know what you think. To get started with Labs, click the Labs tab under Settings. Learn more

Gmail has a new look on the iPhone browser
Now with auto-complete when composing, automatic refreshing, and faster load times when viewing email. Learn more

More friends are more fun. Gmail welcomes your AIM® friends.
Now you can talk to your AIM® friends using an integrated chat list right inside Gmail. Learn more

AOL and AIM are trademarks of AOL LLC

Colored labels
Better organize your email with new colored labels. Just click the color swatch next to each label to assign a color. Learn more

Group chat
Chat with multiple people without multiple windows. Invite your friends to a group discussion. To start a group chat, click 'Group chat' from the 'Options' menu when chatting. Learn more

New emoticons
Start sending richer expressions to your friends. Learn more

Free IMAP
Sync your inbox across devices instantly and automatically. Whether you read or write your email on your phone or on your desktop, changes you make to Gmail will be seen from anywhere you access your inbox. Another way to use Gmail on your iPhone is through the browser. By going to m.gmail.com you get the full Gmail experience including conversation view, search, and more. Learn how to set up IMAP on other devices.

Set up IMAP on your iPhone. Watch the video

• View as slideshow
  Now you can open PowerPoint attachments as slideshows, without having to download anything. Just click "View as slideshow" next to the .ppt attachment you want to preview. Since you can open .doc and .xls attachments with Google Docs and Spreadsheets too, there's no need to leave your web browser to check out your Gmail attachments. Learn more

• Increased attachment limit-- 20 MB!
  Now you can start sharing more of those home videos, large presentations and files you just can't seem to get smaller. We have doubled the allowable attachment size to 20 MB to make your Gmail space even more useful. Learn more

• It's a Gmail party and everyone is invited!
  You can still invite your friends to enjoy Gmail's spam protection, 5GB free storage and other great features, but now you can also just tell them to visit www.gmail.com and sign up without an invitation.

• Get mail from other accounts
  Now Gmail can check for the mail you receive at your other email accounts. You can retrieve your mail (new and old) from up to five other email accounts and have them all in Gmail. Then you can even create a customized 'From:' address, which lets you send messages from Gmail, but have them look like they were sent from another one of your email accounts. Please note that you can only retrieve mail from accounts that have POP3 access enabled. Learn more

• Embarrassment-reducing new message notifications
  Ever replied to a message only to find out that someone sent a better, smarter reply right before you? Now, if someone sends a reply while you're in the middle of reading a conversation (or replying to it), you'll get a notification that a new message has arrived. Click "update conversation" to see what you’ve missed.

• Forward all
  When viewing a conversation, use the new “Forward all” link on the right if you want to forward the entire conversation instead of just one message.

• Chat even when your friends are offline
  Chatting in Gmail just keeps getting better. Now, if you're chatting with a friend who goes offline, your friend will be able to see whatever you were typing the next time he or she goes online.

• Get Gmail on your mobile phone
  Download it once, and start accessing Gmail on your phone with just a click or two. To try it for yourself, point your phone to gmail.com/app. Learn more

• Voicemail
  Your friends can leave you a voicemail using Google Talk. The voice message is sent to your Gmail account as an audio file that you can download or play right from your inbox. Learn more

• Reply by chat
  When you're about to (or in the middle of a) reply to someone, and you see that person online, you can just send your reply as a chat message. And if you've chosen to save your chat histories, then your chat even gets threaded with that original email conversation. Learn more

• A picture's worth a thousand words
  With contact pictures in Gmail, you can pick ones for yourself, see which ones your friends have chosen, and set certain pictures to show up for specific people in your Gmail account. Best of all, you can even send picture suggestions to your friends. Learn more

• Gmail Chat
  Get in touch with your friends instantly, from right inside Gmail! It's the biggest thing to happen to Gmail, since well, Gmail. Learn more

• Vacation auto-responder
  Set an auto-response so that if you're lying on a beach or taking a train across Siberia, your friends will know you won't be checking your email. Learn more

• Contact groups
  One of our most-requested features is finally here! Now you can send messages to a group instead of having to pick out the individual addresses every time.Learn more

• View as HTML
  Now you can view Microsoft Office, OpenOffice or .pdf attachments as web pages by clicking the "View as HTML" link instead of downloading. For when you want to see it faster, you're on a mobile device, or you don't want to install software just to view a document. Learn more

• Shortcuts on the right
  Now Gmail automatically detects addresses and tracking numbers, and displays useful information such as directions and package tracking alongside your messages.

• Virus scanning is here!
  For your protection, Gmail now automatically scans for viruses every time you open or send a message with an attachment. We even try our best to remove all the viruses we find. Learn more

• Export contacts
  Export your Gmail Contacts and save them in a file for back-up or to use in another account or service–great if you're using Gmail's free POP access. Learn more

• Auto-save
  Saves to ‘Drafts' as you're composing. Never lose a half-written email again.

• Get to Gmail from any web page
  Download the new Gmail-enabled Google Toolbar. Search your mail or instantly go to your Inbox from any web page with just one click. Learn more

• Gmail on Google.com
  See your new messages directly from your personalized Google.com homepage.

• Google Talk
  IM and make free calls through your computer with Google Talk. Your Gmail contacts are even pre-loaded. Learn more

• Customized 'From:' addresses
  Customize the address on your outgoing messages to display another one of your addresses instead. Learn more

• An application for Macs
  The Gmail Notifier for Mac OS X even supports plug-in development.

• Free POP access and automatic forwarding
  Access your mail the way you want to. Download your messages. Read them offline. Use your Blackberry or Outlook or any POP-enabled device. Or forward new messages to an email account you specify. You can even switch to other email services without having to worry about losing access to your messages. Think of it as email portability Learn more

• Import Contacts
  Move all your contacts from Yahoo! Mail, Outlook, and others to Gmail in just a few clicks. Learn more

• Signature options
  From the settings page, create a signature that's automatically added to the end of all your outgoing messages. Learn more

PS. References - gmail.com - Inbox - (New features)