Tribute to Orkut

Genre: College Life

The world might have embraced Facebook and declared Google’s Orkut a failure, but for me Orkut is very close to my heart. After all the contribution of Orkut towards me successfully completing my B. Tech Electronics Engineering degree is significant, something that Facebook could never achieve. Here is a tribute to those glorious days-

Kya kare kya na kare…

Kaisi paheli hai yeh…kaisi paheli…

Confusion hi confusion hai, Solution kuch pata nahi…

Solution jo mila toh saala question kya tha pata nahi…

Look at the type of “things” that got lost and Orkut helped us find…

…and finally The Revolt!

The only successful mass-boycott, accomplished thanks to Orkut!

Can Facebook match this? Naah!

Disclaimer: This post is not intended to hurt the sentiments of any person, institution. or website. Please take it sportingly.

The Wi-Fi Name Game

Genre: Humor

When you live in a university town with every single home having a Local Wi-Fi network set up, creativity breeds when it comes to naming the network such that it stands out in the crowd.

Check out this list of wireless networks I have seen appear on my laptop-

Hokie-Dokie

Hokie-Pokey

Hokie Heaven

(Understandable when you are at Virginia Tech)

Ringa Roses

(All connected in a circle, holding hands…get the hint!)

It’s A Trap

(Thanks for letting us know)

Virus! Virus! Virus!

(OK, we’ll stay away)

We Are Bitches

(Thank You. Got the point)

The Dark Side

(Darth Vader is my neighbor?)

Hawaa

(because internet comes via air sans wires!)

Folks, please feel free to add to this list after having a look at networks around you!

Mine is Better than Yours!

Genre: Entertainment

One thing all of us found out over a period of six months in USA was that American TV advertisements suck when it comes to originality and creativity compared to the Indian TV advertisements. All TV ads in US have one single underlying theme – openly humiliate and pull down your competitor to prove your superiority. See these samples-

(Click on links if videos do not load in your browser)

The most popular “ad war” is between cellular providers - AT&T and Verizon.

Here, Verizon pulls down AT&T on their 3G coverage-

Not to be left behind, AT&T gets back at Verizon-

In the car market, Chevrolet decides to pull down Toyota-

The “war” extends to pizza as Domino’s takes on Papa John’s-

And then of course, the classic – Pepsi vs Coke-

But wait, there is more! You need a cable TV to see these ads, right?

So, Dish Network goes up against DirecTV-

And now comes the bad news! Finally India has also caught up with this American trend of openly pulling down competitors in TV ads!

Here we go-

For once, I want all those so-called “protectors of Indian culture” to come out and protest this! Please don’t kill the creativity and originality from Indian TV ads! The Indian audience is not dumb enough to fall for these pranks! Jaago ad makers, jaago!

P.S. : There was one more brilliant (by American standards) ad of Hardee’s vs McDonald’s, but I don’t seem to find its video anywhere.

I Became a Fan of…

Genre: Random

So it goes like this - Anamika has requested (rather threatened) me to do this tag that requires me to “list down TEN things that I honestly feel or do.” I am NOT doing that mundane exercise, but giving it an altogether new dimension (which even String Theorists would not have seen). Enough of exaggeration, coming to the topic-

Every time I log into Facebook, I see these dozens of notifications that somebody or the other from my friend list “has become a fan of” some random “pages” and “groups”. I have no freaking clue what do they exactly do after joining these pages/groups but that’s a different topic altogether. One thing I noticed however is that many of these pages/groups talk about things do (knowingly or unknowingly) or I totally believe in. So, here we go – facts about me inspired (read: lifted) from Facebook Pages / Groups:

I love the feeling when I wake up before my alarm and know I can sleep a bit more.

I love the Smell of Petrol.

I remember your face but what the hell is your name?

I love it when I prove someone wrong.

I love going on Drives.

I Hate Getting Text messages that only Say "k" or “ok”.

I hate people who can't type grammatically correct English.

When I am trying to sleep, my mind keeps having a conversation with itself.

I HATE CIGARETTES.

I decide "I need to study!"; I open the book; I think "..I don't feel like studying" and I close the book.

After an argument I think about clever things I should have said.

With random people I am shy, but with my friends I am crazy!

I get off the computer because I'm bored. Five minutes later, I'm back on.

I respond to text messages in two seconds and hate it when you take two hours to reply.

I love the chocolatey bit at the end of Cornetto.

I’d rather beat my remote to make it work rather than change batteries.

I answer the phone when I am half asleep and then forget what I said.

I love looking at old photos and wonder how much things have changed.

No matter how close the exams are, I always have time for Facebook and GTalk.

While studying I keep looking at my cellphone to see if any new messages have come.

Everytime I enter a lecture, the first question i ask is "Attendance ho gayi kya?"

I hate when somebody peeps into my computer screen when I am chatting.

I have never been able to figure out how headphones always manage to get entangled on their own.

Whenever I am bored, I keep going to the fridge again and again hoping something interesting might have appeared.

I love Pani Puri, Pav Bhaji and Vada Pao at roadside stalls over a five-course dinner at an expensive restaurant

Before starting any chapter, I count the number of pages !

I am proud to be an Indian.

I love Mumbai.

I have a study table and chair but I always use the laptop and study in bed.

The first thing I do when I wake up is check my phone. (When I was in India)

The first thing I do when I wake up is turn on my laptop. (When I am in USA)

If you send me one more FarmVille request, I’ll burn your crops and kill your animals!

I believe Sachin is God. Period.

I hate students who say before the exam "kuchh nahi aata yaar" but end up topping the class.

I hate conversations that go like this - “Hey”...”Hi”...”Wassup??”...”Nm. U say”...*BLANK*

I put things in a safe place and then forget where the safe place is!

Sometimes all I crave for is a hug.

I wake up in the middle of the night, and then realize I still have hours to sleep.

I love imitating my teachers.

Many times when I am in a bad mood, I say things to my dearest friends which I obviously don’t mean.

I love spoiling the last page of my notebook with drawings and graffiti!

I hate it when I make plans, get excited about it, and then they don’t happen.

I do things for certain people I wouldn’t do for anyone else, and they don’t even realize.

And then there are some other things about which Facebook probably wouldn’t have any groups/pages-

The only Facebook app I am addicted to is Airline Manager.

I absolutely love Star Wars and dream of owning a Lightsaber.

When travelling in Indian trains, I prefer the non-AC sleeper class over AC and love those side berths.

Almost every sentence that I speak is in a hybrid of English and Hindi with occasional Gujarati and Marathi thrown in.

I know by-heart even today the Hindi title tracks of Disney’s Duck Tales, Tale Spin and Aladdin cartoons.

I love driving on highways but hate driving in the city.

I love standing at the door for hours when travelling by trains.

I have not seen all seasons of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a life.

I love the 'chug-chug-chug' sound of Diesel Engines.

I invariably end up spending considerable time on a new blog post during my Exam Week.

OK, I stop here. If you reached upto this point, I appreciate your patience :)

Taking us for a Ride?

Genre: Current Affairs

A few days back, Rahul Gandhi made it to the headlines and was showered with generous dose of praise for taking the decision to chuck his chopper and travel from Andheri to Ghatkopar in Mumbai by local train. (Click here for video). The print and electronic media went gaga over Rahulbaba’s “noble gesture” to “connect with the common man of Mumbai” and “empathize with them”.

When politicians board local trains, their aim is not to gain empathy. It is to gain publicity. In this particular instance, Rahul Gandhi stood in line for 15 minutes to buy a ticket for himself, thereby giving the media enough time to take his photographs and project him as an "ideal law-abiding citizen" but what about his entire huge entourage that boarded the train ticketless? One might think he purchased tickets for everyone, but did he even know in the first place how many security personnel and "party workers" and "followers" were with him in the entourage? I doubt. Another point – he travelled from Andheri to Dadar in Second Class coach but for the Dadar-Ghatkopar journey, got into a First Class coach! So, which ticket did he actually buy? If he indeed had a First Class ticket, why did he hop into a Second Class coach first? And, if he bought a symbolic Second Class ticket, he should be fined for ticketless travel between Dadar and Ghatkopar!

If Rahul indeed wanted to get a taste of life of Mumbai’s common man, why did the Police hurriedly ask all the hawkers at Dadar and Ghatkopar station to vacate the place and get the platform swept and cleaned the moment they came to know of Rahulbaba’s arrival? Why was the guard of the train asked to halt longer than usual at Ghatkopar to allow Rahulbaba to get off comfortably? Why was the Kalyan Fast local diverted to Platform 1 at Ghatkopar just so that Rahulbaba need not climb the bridge? Dude, by doing all this tamasha, you are not winning any empathy. All you are doing is inconvenience a thousand other passengers. Stop the farce.

If there was a really law abiding Ticket Checker on that train or at Dadar station, he should have dared to stop the VIP gang and fine the ticketless ones with equal gusto and enthusiasm that they show daily while nabbing the commoners who might have forgotten to buy ticket in a hurry or not realised that his/her monthly season ticket has expired a day back. But no, this is India, where some people are more equal than others.