June 2004 – 922

Navjot Singh Sidhu – WOW

If someone asks me who is the best speaker right now, I would say it is Navjot Singh Sidhu. Actually its a tie bewtween Sidhu and Ashutosh Rana 😉

Navjot Singh Sidhu – The man has done it all. Just 41 years old. Born on 20 October 1963. Has been topper all his academic life. Has been a lawyer. Married the girl he loved. Played Cricket for India. Won the World Cup, Now a MP (Member of Parliament) from Amritsar, Punjab on a BJP Ticket. WOW.

Would love to talk about him in detail but am kinda short of time right now. Just saw him on Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai on ZEE TV.

Biography of Navjot Singh Sidhu

Father’s Name: Sardar Bhagwant Singh

Birthdate: 20 October 1963

Cricketing History: Sidhu first represented the country in England with the under-19 Indian team led by Ravi Shasti. His performance was satisfactory. But Navjot Sidhu showed his real class during the West Indies tour of India. Playing for the North Zone Sidhu first cricket a century against the West Indies. Later he was included in the Board President’s XI when he scored 70 odd runs. This ensured him a place in the Indian team. Thus Sidhu made his Test debut against the West Indies led by Clive Llyod in 1983.

Test Debut: India v West Indies at Ahmedabad, 3rd Test, 1983/84

ODI Debut: India v Australia at Madras, World Cup, 1987/88

Sidhuisms

Ever since the StrokeLess Wonder starting Cricket Commentating, he has transformed the ART of commentating in something enjoyable and as exciting as the game itself.

Few of his selected Sidhusims include…

In the midst of a verbal duel with Martin Crowe: “Wickets are like wives – you never know which way they will turn! ”

Commenting on Ganguly after he was out for a low score in the 2nd Test against Zimbabwe: “..Looks like a brooding hen over a china egg”

In the midst of a verbal duel with Tony Greig: “If ifs and buts were pots and pans, there would be no tinkers!”

When Ganguly took a catch that had gone very high in the air: “That ball went so high it could have got an air hostess down with it !!”

“Statistics are like miniskirts, they reveal more than what they hide.”

In India’s last match against New Zealand: “New Zealanders are like bicycles in a cycle stand – one falls down and the complete row will be down!

“Sri Lankan score is running like an Indian taxi meter.”

“Taking the cake with a red cherry on top. ”

For Sri Lankan batsman Kaluwitharna, when he was wasting many balls: “He is like Indian three-wheeler which will suck a lot of diesel but cannot go beyond 30! ”

To Martin Crowe: “The Indians are going to beat the Kiwis! Let me tell you, my friend, that the Kiwi is the only bird in the whole world which does not have wings!”

Muralitharan bowling to the last Indian pair: “The wily fox is back. Its an ill omen when a fox licks its lambs.”

Applauding Reetinder Singh Sodhi’s fighting spirit: “Young Ricky will fight a rattlesnake and give him the first two bites! ”

“The gap between bat and pad is so much that I would have driven a car through it… !! “

More can be found online at www.Sidhuisms.com.

More details to come sooon.

To Be Contd… (Last edited on 21st June 2004, 1246 Hrs IST)

Keywords for Search Engines: Navjot Singh Sidhu, Sidhuisms, Cricketer, India, Indian Cricketer, Amritsar MP, BJP, Congress, Saurabh.

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RediffMail, Yet Another 1 GB Free EMail

Ever since Google annoucned they would give 1 GB space for free EMails, there have been n number of service providers trying to tackle GMail.

Latest in the foray is Rediff, www.rediff.com, They are offering 1GB inbox for free and allthe existing users have been upgraded to new 1 GB mail space.

Competition is a very neat thing. Helps us sustomers get most out of procviders 🙂

Till next time…

To Be Contd… (Last edited on 18th June 2004, 1543 Hrs IST)

Keywords for Search Engines: Rediff, GMail, Google Mail, Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, 1000 MB Storgae, 1 GB Storage, 100 MB Storage, Saurabh.

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Yahoo vs GMail

And Finally Yahoo is offering 100 MB spae for EMails – FREE.

Looks like a BETA service in the market has led to the beginning of the end of the GIANT.

The most striking of all has been a SEARCH button on top of the Yahoo Mail.

Another interesting thing to note would be absence of image based advertisements on the top and left side. These have been replaced with TEXT BASED adverts.

Basically they ar trying to counter The USPs of GMail. GMail was built as a Search Based EMail service and Text Ads. Yahoo is trying to implement Search and they have already replaced the adverts with Text Ads.

The new interface looks good. Let me test the service for few more days and I would be writing a detailed report on it 🙂

To Be Contd… (Last edited on 15th June 2004, 2000 Hrs IST)

Keywords for Search Engines: GMail, Google Mail, Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, 1000 MB Storgae, 1 GB Storage, 100 MB Storage, Saurabh.

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Lucky Ali – Kabhi Aisa Lagta Hai

Lucky Ali has just finished a new album Kabhi Aisa Lagta Hai and it will be releasing soon on T-Series. The songs in the album have been sung and composed by Lucky Ali the song that is currently on air is titled Kabhi Aisa Lagta hai.

The lyrics has have been penned down by Sameer. The album is composed by Lucky Ali himself. The video has been shot by Rahul L. Sood at Epitome.

Incomplete Lyrics go like

kya aisa hi hota hai pyar

mere kuda mujhe itna bata

kya aisa hi hota hai pyar

ek pal to mil jaaye dil ko, chala jaaye door kahin

is duniya main is dil kay jaisa koi mazboor nahin

aisa ehsaas hai koi to pass hai

mehki lage saari fiza kya aisa hi hota hai pyar

kabhi aisa lagta dil main ek raaz hai

jise kehna chaoon par main kah paaon na

aakahnohi aakhnon main kah jaye jo

kahmoshi ki yeh kaise zubana

maine suna jo na usne kaha kya

aisa hi hota hai pyar

mere khuda mujhe itna bata

kya aisa hi hota hai pyar

ek pal jo mil ko chal jaaye door kahin

duniya main eis dil kay jaise koi mazboor nahin

The music for the album is set to release on 16th June 2004. There is no website dedicated to the song as yet and you can not download the song right now from the internet but I have’nt tried file sharing tools like kazza, emule, edonkey and win mx etc. Lyircs would be available here on the Saurabh Garg weBLOG as soon as I get the album.

Lately a lot of visitors have been coming to the weBLOG through the search engines and searching about the new album. I hope I have presented everything one would want to know about Lucky Ali and his new album. If Lucky Ali fans find this insufficient, they can check out http://geocities.com/clicklucky for more details about him.

Lucky Ali – Ixsui: Lucky Ali is currently working on his new album called Ixsui – ONE DIRECTION.

There are also reports that Lucky Ali is planning to direct his own film. Details are not available right now 🙁 According to ClickLucky, he has worked with Shyam Benegal before and direction thus comes naturally to him. That film should be one to look out for.

Singing, Composing, Acting, Directing… The man’s done it all.

Previous Post…

Lucky Ali the king of pop is back with his new album. The name of the album… I am not sure, the title track, I am not sure.

EDIT: The new latest Lucky Ali album is called Kabhi Aisa Lagta Hai. The new latest Lucky Ali song is also called Kabhi Aisa Lagta Hai. The song is about a boy falling in love with a Girl, usual mushy romantic story with soothing voice and guitaring of Lucky Ali. The song lyrics, song audio and song video are not available for free download anywhere on the internet.

EDIT: The song is titled “Kabhi Aisa Lagta Hai” and the new Lucky Ali album is also called Kabhie Aisa Lagta Hai.

I havent heard the song as yet, saw his face for the last three seconds on MTV when the song ends.

An “intelligent” google search on the Internet does not shows any results :((

Can someone please DONATE me his new album or link…

YIPEEEE Lucky is back 🙂

The new video came as a surprise to me. For the first time, he is not “in” the video. The video is about a girl and a boy and Lucky is in the backdrop. All his previous videos, HE was the hero of the video. But who is complaining as long as he is out with great music.

Hmmm this post is about Lucky Ali, posting a link to the website http://geocities.com/clicklucky won’t do any harm. I would be updating the website and updating this post as soon as I get more informtion. I made this website about three fours years back when I was even more crazy about him. Lets hope this album is as good as his previous ones.

One thing good about Lucky is that he comes out with the music after a while. That is the beauty of it. The music is so good that you listen to it again and again and in about two years you start craving for more and there he is, with his new album.

Another thing of note would be that even after he sang for, acted in, produced music for movies, he is back to creating his own work. And there are very very few people who get back to what they were doing before they entered movies. Three Cheers !

If you have any information about it with you, PLEASE let me know about it ASAP. You know how to contact me 😀

Am I too excited? 🙂

End (Last edited on 15th June 2004, 1500 Hrs IST)

Keywords for Search Engines: Lucky Ali, Mehmood Ali, New Album, Kabhi Aisa Lagta Hai, Ixsui, Sauarbh.

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Lost on the Internet, Found on Search Engines

They say that once a website has ben launched, its lost forever in the cyber space. Its like a blackhole that sucks your page in, never allowing it to come out. The only ray of light in the dark lost world is links through differnt websites and Search Engines like Google etc.

For the past 30-31 days (11 May 2004 – 11 June 2004), I have monitored and kept record of people using Search Engines and coming to the weBLOG. Following is the list of Keywords used to find my weBLOG on the Internet…

Google: ben_mario_piano

Google: jyoti sahu

Google: scmhrd

Google: chinkis

Google: prateek+site:blogspot.com

Google: manmohan+singh+press+conference+thursday+transcript

Google: 1000+mb+mailbox

Google: blogspot+sg

Google: IIM+Waitlist

Google: blogs+fms+delhi

Google: sonali+garg

Rediff: SCMHRD

Google: uff+kay+jadoo+mohabbat+hai

Google: Saurabh+Garg+IIM+A

Google: Saurabh+Garg

Google: saurabh+gmail

Google: sandeep+dixit

Rediff: SCMHRD

Google: scmhrd+blog

Google: shweta+garg

Google: IIM+topper+2004

Google: blog+interview+ISB+MBA

Google: waves+noida+hum+tum

Google: waves+multiplex+noida

Google: nitin+pachauri+yahoo

Google: website+of+waves+multiplex+in+noida

Google: ims+simcat

Google: noida+multiplex

Google: waves+multiplex+east+delhi

Google: friendship+quatos

Google: The+Taste+of+India+at+Waves+Noida

Google: download+kya+aap+closeup+karte

Google: India+Congress++young+foreign-educated

Google: MOVIES+RUNNING+AT++WAVES+MULTIPLEX+IN++NOIDA

Google: centrestage+mall+noida

Google: priyanka+mehta+MDI

Google: sandeep+dixit

Google: Sonali+garg

Google: dollor+against+rupee

Feedster: gmail

Google: sex+in+nirulas

Feedster: gmail+trade

Google: kya+aap+closeup

Google: kabhi+aisa+lagta+hai

Google: kabhi+aisa+lagta+hai%22%2B%22lucky+ali%22%2Bdownload

Google: kabhi+aisa+lagta+hai+lucky+ali

Google: abhishek+mishra+IMS

Dogpile: kabhi%2Baisa%2Blagta%2Bhai

Google: man+ki+lagan+lyrics+by

Google: nidhi+garg

Google: saurabh+ganguly+fan+club

Google: lucky+ali+new+song+kabhi+aisa+lagta+hai

These do not include visitors from websites like PagalGuy and BuildtoLearn and Blogger and Blogger Profiles and Orkut, Blogwise, HaloScan etc.

To Be Contd… (Last edited on 15th June 2004, 1200 Hrs IST)

Keywords for Search Engines: SEO, Search Engine, Keywords, Saurabh.

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GMail – The new face of EMail

GMAil has given the POWER to invite three other people to EVERY current GMail user. What are you waiting for? Catch hold of a friend with GMail soon !

Here are few things good about GMail 🙂

1000 MB Storage Space 🙂

The biggest thing associated with GMail would be the amount of space they offer. Easily 100 times more than the 99.9% of free EMail Service Providers. You could go on and on and on and never fill up those 1000 MBs.

No need to delete any message. Helps in maintaining records and contacts. You don’t have to open up huge archives of backup fromn outlook and look at them when everything is available on a clikc of mouse anywhere in the world. It would also eliminate the need of exporting all EMails to a outlook file and burning them on a disk and carrying it along.

Search Based EMail

Gmail is differnt from other EMail Providers in yet another way. GMail is Search based EMail system. You don’t have to make stupid folders and sort your mail according to the when you can use the excellent Google Search Algorithm on your own EMail Inbox !

Text Advertisement

As they nothing in the world is for free, neither is GMail. They would scan your EMail for certain keywords and then display related advertisements. And please mind it this is NOT an invasion on your privacy. No human ever reads your EMail. And infact as far as my computing knowledge goes, they wont take the hassles of reading/scannign through the entire EMail. They would just look for certain keywords like Travel, Shopping etc. and deliver advertisements. These advertisements are inded at times benefecial and might just help you apart from generating revenue for GMail.

Another point in favour of text based advertisement would be the small time it takes to load. An Image file would be very heavy and might take ages to load on slow internet connections, where as text isas light and as fast as it gets.

Social Status

Since GMail is still by invitation and very few people have access to it, you could brag about how good GMail is and its features and people would give you the stage and let you do all the talking as if you are an expert on rocket science.

Ever since I had the power to invite people for GMail and I have told about this to friends, all my long lost friends have strated to come back to me. Every now and then someone would pop up on Yahoo or MSN and say “Hello, do you remember we studied together in the First grade in Rochester?” And I havent steeped out of Delhi, India ever in my life.

Thumbs Down 🙁 Few things against GMail…

1. You need to have the latest Web Browers. But again to deploy the new age technology behind GMail they need to use the best and the latest available browsers available.

2. I get a error message regularly. The frequency of this REGULAR message is about three or four times in an hour.

But again… this is not a big deal and could happen and infact does happens all the time on other EMail service Providers.

The original version of the image file posted above can be seen at http://www.ubg.buildtolearn.net/saurabh/gmailError.jpg.

And just in case someone wants to contact me, I can be reached at septemberthe22nd+gmailinvite@gmail.com :). I still have 5 (yes FIVE)invites left 🙂 Although I have decided that three people to get it would be Gaurav, Shubham and Uday. What about other two? May be the person who wants to trade it for something good…? Like a DigiCam? Let’s see…

To Be Contd… (Last edited on 12th June 2004, 2200 Hrs IST)

Keywords for Search Engines: GMail, Google Mail, Gmail Invite, Invite for GMail, 1000 MB Storgae, 1 GB Storage, Invititation for GMail, GMail Swap, Trade GMail, Exchange GMail, Saurabh.

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The Times of India – Comedy of Errors

The Times of India has done it yet again. They are so used to publishing errors in their paper that one tends to believe that it is edited and copy proofed by a bald monkey.

The latest in the series of errors, The Times of India has written in a report about Bachelor’s of Information Technology (BIT). I happened to be one of the few lucky ones to have passed out of BIT and I thus know the hard facts and figures 🙂

Following is clipping from The Times Of India, Delhi Edition, published on Monday 7th June 2004…

[QUOTE] DU wears down students, BIT by techno BIT

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: Delhi University (DU), in the last few years, seems to be on a roll for introducing new courses. One such course was the four-year Bachelor of Information Technology (BIT) that the University introduced with much fanfare and then scrapped. The last batch of the ‘ill-fated’ course passes out this year. The ride wasn’t easy for these 400-odd students, to say the least.

Firstly, the students have actually studied a course that does not have the approval of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). As such, they are not qualified engineers, despite having studied to be software engineers. Moreover, due to the same glitch these students cannot study any engineering course of the post-graduate level.

Their only option, in terms of higher education, is to pursue an MSc in Computer Science. This, however, does not inspire these students much. ‘‘What after an MSc in Computer Science? We aren’t sure if it’s even close to the next logical step,’’ said a disillusioned student of the BIT course from DCAC.

The BIT course was introduced in about 25 colleges as a self-financing course. The fee ranged between Rs 18,000 to 25,000 per year depending on the college. In 2000, an entrance test was held for the BIT course batch that is now passing out. The other three batches that have passed out under the BIT banner were actually students of BSc (Computer Science) who had been upgraded to BIT. In 2000 itself the controversy over the course began, resulting ultimately in the course being discontinued.

The UGC gave its approval only for the three batches that had already been upgraded and for the one batch that had been admitted on basis of the entrance test. AICTE refused to give even these four batches its endorsement. [ENDQUOTE]

Now the article is here, how about an explanation from me, Saurabh Garg, a BIT alumnus from Maharaja Agrasen College, Delhi University. I joined the course in 1999 and passed out in 2003.

TOI: …Moreover, due to the same glitch these students cannot study any engineering course of the post-graduate level…

Saurabh: I would beg to differ here. I am in contact with students from BIT/BIS doing their M.Techs from places as big as IIT-Kanpur and MS from places like USC, Sony and what not in the US. There are people who are studying in Australia and UK and are pursuing their majors in Engineering. If an M.Tech in Computer Science is not any engineering course of the post-graduate level, would someone please tell me what category those courses fall into? Or may be MS from an American University does not sounds like any Engineering Course of the Post-Graduate level because The Great Times of India somehow has turned desi?

TOI: …Their only option, in terms of higher education, is to pursue an MSc in Computer Science…

Saurabh: Nopes, as stated above this paragraph, people are pursuing M.Techs and MSs and other Engineering courses. Another thing to mention here would be students who are into BIG Management Schools like IIM-A, IIM-B, IIM-C and other smaller schools like FMS, IIFT, MDI, XLRI. I believe according to The GREAT Times of India, MBA (or PGPM) is not considered higher education. Oh, by the way, I would be joining MDI Gurgaon this year and its higher education as far as my knowledge goes. I would like tomention here that YES, BIT students were denied admission to MBA programme of IIT Kanpur but thats the only IIT in India and infact one of the very very few educational institues to have denied admission to BIT students. But again somehow they accept BIT/BIS students for their M.Tech program but not for MBA.

TOI: …said a disillusioned student of the BIT course from DCAC…

Saurabh: I would love to know the name of the disillusioned student. He clearly is out of touch with his seniors and peers.

TOI: …In 2000, an entrance test was held for the BIT course batch that is now passing out. The other three batches that have passed out under the BIT banner were actually students of BSc (Computer Science) who had been upgraded to BIT…

Saurabh: YES (finally they seem to be correct on something), the 2000-2004 batch was admitted after the Entrance Test for admission to fours year BIT/BIS. BUT the previous three batches starting from 1998 were ALSO admitted on the basis of tests. The only difference is that the test for the previous three batches was conducted for admission to BCA and BSc (Hons.)Computer Science and after admission (on the basis of the test) they were upgraded to BIT and BIS respectively. I have got the hall ticket of the admission test (that never took place according to some Newspaper). And just for the information students of BSc Computer Science were upgraded to BIS not to BIT (as someone has mentioned in a report). May be in the dictionary of The Great Times of India, BIT and BIS are equal and are synonyms?

The link BIT Recognition should clarify a few things.

I am not questioning the source of data and their integrity and knowledge but I am trying to question why can’t they verify the data before they publish anything? Doesn’t being a newspaper more responsible thing?

If they keep going at this rate, I believe they would soon publish something like “Bush is actually a Muslim like Osama and Saddam’.

Or is it that I am missing the entire purpose of The Times of India? May be the paper is not meant to be taken seriously, or may be they want to help people start their day with laughter, or may be they want the paper to the unofficial handbook of the ignorant or may be News for Dummies?

Enuf of Times Bashing I guess. In the coming times, I would be digging up more bloopers and the history behind The Times of India.

END (Last edited on 8th June 2004, 1000 Hrs IST)

Keywords for Search Engines: The Times of India, Newspaper, India, BIT, BIS, Delhi University, Bloopers, Media, Sauarbh.

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Jigsaw Puzzles

Today, along with a Maggi Super Saver pack, there was this Popeye Jigsaw Puzzle. It was pretty cool. It reminded me of the times when I was in Primary School and how I wanted to have a huge Jigsaw Puzzle and how I wanted to be the fastest puzzle solver.

Ths jigsaw puzzles are believed to have been invented in Eurpoe in early part of the 16th century. People say that the map makers in Europe would paste the maps on card baord and cut them into pieces to help children learn about maps. What started as an educational tool soon developed into a famous past time.

A detailed discussion on the history can be found at http://www.jigsaw-puzzle.org/jigsaw-puzzle-history.html

and http://www.oldpuzzles.com/history.htm.

Few websites that allow you to register for free and play with Jigsaw Puzzles

online are http://www.jigzone.com, http://www.jigsawland.com,

http://www.dltk-kids.com/puzzle.htm, http://www.freejigsawpuzzles.com

and http://www.alljigsawpuzzles.co.uk. These were the top 5 results returned when searched for "Jigsaw Puzzles" on www.Google.com.

So what is it about Jigsaw Puzzles that keeps people fixed to them? I know of a lot of pass time activities, they sound very sound to start with and as time progresses, people seem to loose interest in them. But Jigsaw Puzzles? NO,people don’t just leave the puzzles without completing them.

How would Jigsaw Puzzles help someone?

Eye for Detail: I would say that if someone were solving the puzzles for a long time, he would have excellent eye for detail. All the time spent in selecting a piece from a heap of other mixed pieces and trying to put it in a right place, A person would indeed develop the eye for detail. People would, by habit, be very attentive and would look for everything before they make a move.

Team Play: Jigsaw Puzzles can be lot of fun to solve when done in groups. Although I haven’t had an opportunity to do it but I would definitely love to do it sometime. I just need to find a few like-minded people. When you are solving a puzzle, you are in a team trying to reach a common goal. A well-defined common goal wherein you try to help your team mates to find a particular piece, a particular part of the picture and gradually the complete picture.

Saurabh

Its been so many days now and I havent addded a post. A lot of things have happened and I have been busy with nothing 😉

Following should exaplin in nutshell…

– Went to watch the movie Hum Tum at Waves Kaushambi. Found it boring. There were few good songs. The Rishi Rich song, U n I, “mere dil vich hum tum” is very good. Went there with all my BIT classmates and had a nice time.

– MDI sent out their Pre Session Assignment and by the looks of it, its going to be a major pain :(( They want me to visit a NGO, a company, a Kirana Stroe and read a Business book and write summary etc. I would be picking up The Goal by Ali GoldRatt.

– New Blog, I have launched a new blog lacated at http://saurabhgarg.blogspot.com. It is going to be a personal blog with all the personal posts there and yes, it is going to be password protected 🙂

– New friends – found a couple of new friends. Hope we continue to be friends.

– New Cellphone – would be getting a new cellphone. In all probablity it would be Nokia 6820 or a Sony Ericson T610. I havent decided yet.

– A new group for all the MBA 2006 people. More on this later.

– A new post planned on GMail, now that I know better about it having used it for sometime.