My Unwind Zone

I am the BIGGEST Coward/Very Brave person

2012-01-04T16:14:00.001+11:00

In past few days/weeks, I have gone through a lot of amazing shit. I have had worst times and felt absolutely lonely. If there is something which has happened, its just a lot of anxiety, nervousness and anger.

I have seen very brave people and also seen cowards. I am not sure where I stand today. Am I brave that I am taking all the shit from everywhere alone and not sharing it with anyone or am I a coward that it shows the way I get angry and irritated in situations and react the way I would not normally react? I have even lost the wisdom to decide what is wrong and what is right. Therefore All I remember is this....

The video above is the same poem in Hindi.

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase “each other” doesn't make any sense. ----Mevlana jelaluddin rumi – 13th century.

Sorry if I have been rude/irritated/not so normal during the last few days. We all have our battles and I am trying to fight mine. Sometimes, I just can't take it anymore and it comes out on the closest people. You all know who you are because it has come out on you. My anger, my frustration is not on YOU, its MY FAILURE to cope up with the situations.

I hope the new year becomes better soon. Till then apologies. I know India would do me good. Cant wait to be there.

Peace,

H@rdeep.

Cant wait for the Explanation

2011-09-17T16:17:00.000+10:00

So I have an assignment due tomorrow at 3 pm. Its almost 9 pm Sydney time.
What am I doing? Waiting for #Wednesday. I have a lot of Questions after she EXPLAINS me her stuff.

This is the conversation I wanted way back. So Glad its finally happening. I mean nothing to her as of now. (Ya right). I probably did mean a little bit. Someone who was special, someone she cared about, someone who made her happy and smile. Just someone in vague terms. Something that I never knew and I wanted to know. Finally I will tomorrow. After she speaks her mind and I WANT HER NOT TO SAY even a single time "I don't know" in the whole conversation we have.

I have simple Questions:-
1. Did she NEVER feel anything special for me?
2. She says 2 weeks changed everything because of the way I behaved. What made me behave that way?
(She knows the answer)
3. She (and I too) cant call her Ivana. She is not Ivana 2 me (She knows what she is). How many guys call her that? (and mean it)
4. She still favourites all my tweets related to her (check) --She DOES not feel anything (Liar)

5. She probably would call some people #yesmylord and #soulmate. How many guys she calls "Honey"?

6. For how many guys she celebrated their birthday in such a special way as she did mine?

7. For how many guys is the #agonyaunt talking to and hearing out to them for 8 hours when the other person sleeps on her (talking on Skype)

8. How many people get THE MOST amazing "Missing You" message if they are not online for 2 days?

9. How many people has she had a video chat on Skype for 12 hours?

10. When she got stuck at the airport missing her flight at Luxembourg, who was the 1st person she wanted to talk?

11. How many people can calm her down telling her "Shut UP'?

12. How many people get a letter from her which ends with "I love you My Hardeep"

13. How many guys have given her a ring in just 2-3 days of knowing her?

14. Why cant we stay away from each other and keep coming back. Why do we EVEN TRY to live without each other?..

15. Why did the "soulmate" matter to her and why did she even notice it when I wrote it to someone?

16. Why she cant help but notice EVERYTHING I do on the internet?

17. Why do I know the moment she tries to avoid a conversation and hides stuff from me?

18. Why do I see her in every girl I meet and talk about her to everyone I meet and talk to?

Its 5 and a half months of memories girl. How can you feel I still mean nothing? You are confused. Its wrong to use the head in relationships. Forget "think in your head" and remember "Feel in your heart". Why does she remember just the not so good things and not remember the great things?

Lets not lie to our hearts. Lets accept everything between us is NOT NORMAL in a great way. Don't be a Player. Don't play with emotions and relationships. Don't try to convince me and yourself that its nothing. That NOTHING IS POSSIBLE. That I live in a dream world. I want to dream and work hard to turn this dream in reality. Its important to dream because then you work to turn them into reality. Let me dream, be my dream & lets work together to turn this dream into reality.

This had to end here....I have the answers. I dont believe them.

H@rdeep.

So I fell in Love

2011-08-24T02:43:00.000+10:00

Its been almost 5 months now that I am back from Dubai.

Something big happened there. I fell in love. She is Serbian & her name is Ivana.

I have million reasons why I love her and I don't want to talk about them because thats not what I want to write here today.

I see myself with her for the rest of my life. I see a chutku "lil Ivana" and much more with her. A lot of people are surprised how can I love her so much when I have met her for just 5 days. If only those people could understand that love and the amount of time spent with the person you love has no connection. Fast forward to our lives today, we have plans to be in India next year. (I have plans which are much more than that) and we have arguments every now and then. I love every part of our conversations, every little part (including the stupid arguments) and we have 5 months of "our" things, our memories today. Life has been wonderful with her and I am used to, addicted to her. Her good mornings, her calling me "idioto", her smile, her pics on my desktop, on mobile, her name as passwords of every possible thing, her every message on fb, every DM on twitter and much more. Life is incomplete without her and I cant imagine my day, my night nothing without her.

Just 2 days absence from the internet and I got this sweetest, longest message from her of how much she missed me (She is still missing me and reading all my tweets, possibly trying to understand the hinglish 1s, reading my fb updates, and I know she will read this too) but something caused a little problem between us. The other day she lied to me. Now the ONLY problem is I hate liars. Any1 who ever lies to me loses his/her respect. And then the other IMPORTANT thing is I would never believe them again. (Do I have to even say SHE was an exception to this rule?)

She apologiled, I forgave her. We moved on. Every relationship goes through a lot of stuff. This was nothing. But then you know what? She is a bad liar. She cant do it properly and she tried to do it again (we know each other so well that its scary sometimes). This time I was not happy. I know we dont know each other very well yet but how can you justify lying to your partner? And then she plays the cute card where she avoids the topic and does not answer me in YES or NO. I wanted to see her and look into her eyes if she feels guilty when she does that to me but she declined.

I didnt wanted to tell her anything about it but she has misunderstood me thinking I am jealous of someone I have never met in my life and I never intend to. There are 700 million registered users on facebook and I am not interested in knowing anyone I have never met or shared anything with (a lot of EWBians are not yet in my list and some of them I have never talked to). I miss her and I am TRYING very hard to show it does not affect me and I have some wonderful friends around me who are doing their best to help me and I cant thank them enough for being there for me, but its NOT HELPING. :(

We both dont know each other well yet. Agreed. I am trying my best to show what I like and what I dont. And I dont want her to feel bad or apologize again but a simple promise that she wont lie to me. EVER. NEVER EVER. Too much to ask for? (as she would say "Which part of it is NOT CLEAR?")

She is punishing BOTH of us by not talking and showing it does not matter to her. She is trying to be a good actor and show she is happy and life is NORMAL at her end. Guess what? I know it does affect you wifey. Lets talk. Let me explain what is the matter. Dont force me to write to you. You misunderstand and its easy to misunderstand when people are typing to each other. Look at me in my eyes (through Skype) and tell me the same thing you write to me. I will believe everything and I will NEVER ask you anything after that. PROMISE.

I miss you and everything about you. Come and scold me. Tell me to eat proper food, tell me to go home and sleep on time (I am still at Uni), tell me you love me, use the (punch) emoticon on smiley, use the heart and kiss emoticon, tell me how you missed me and what you did. Tell me you even told Tiki not to reply to me for every message I sent her. Tell me anything and everything. TALK & promise me You wont lie EVER. Its easy. How long would you PUNISH US by being quiet.... It does not matter who talks...I wont because I have tried.. everything...And this is 1 more try.

Love,

Husbandito. (Sad, hungry and tensed) [Yup I dont eat] :(

3 months of BREAK/MADNESS.

2011-04-15T18:34:00.000+10:00

First of all I am mad at myself for being away this long and I must say MORE than anything else its me being lazy.

I mean yes there have been issues and yes things have gone haywire but mostly I have been lazy because I could still be here and write and share a lot of stuff in spite of being in problems which are all SELF-CREATED, just like self inflicted pain. Its been a lot of stuff and specially this 1 week which was the "MOST LUXURIOUS" week of my life in Dubai. (A lot of posts or maybe just 1 covering that coming up).

The other sad thing that is about not being active here is "I miss a lot of important moments" which I would always like to remember and unless I document them they are gone. Its amazing how some things I will never forget while some, I will even though they were special (its just because I have been AMAZINGLY lucky as a person) and I have so many positive things happening that even if I want to I wont remember them all. (or may be I SHOULD JUST accept that I am getting old).

This is just an explanation post and yes there is so much that I have forgotten, but the people series is over as of now. Some things again went haywire in relationships with people I wanted to write about and now I am not gonna write about that/them. I guess I will post vids and pics of Dubai trip and write about it.

Head over to the next post.

H@rdeep.

Aki=Andy=Akhilesh=Brother.

2011-01-17T03:58:00.000+11:00

I met Akhilesh by chance. This is what you call Destiny. I have started believing everything that has happened to me here in Sydney has been for good. There has to be some reason that God wants to protect me. As this amazing quote can sum up things for me. "God does not always say YES or NO. Sometimes his answer is WAIT".

God, of course had me waiting before this guy walked in to my life. And everything became awesome. I found a brother in Sydney. I can go on as to what he has done for me and how he and Kishore changed my opinion about Indian guys (At least because these guys are exceptions).

I always thought I wont have Indian friends in Sydney. I stayed away from them and they were just acquaintances, but not friends & the reason was ALWAYS very simple. I am in a different country, and I am fortunate enough to be surrounded by people from all around the world so why not meet them and make them friends, know a little bit about their culture, learn their languages, learn about their lifestyle, about their food, basically about them. I was always surrounded by Indians and Chinese (because these 2 countries export people) and I had no intentions to make more Indian friends because then it didn't matter what country I am in. I was not here to meet more Indians (I know a lot back home and trust me they are enough).

But the biggest reason is "I was never Indian in a lot of things. I never thought like NORMAL INDIAN GUYS". I never lusted for white chicks, I never was interested in knowing if they have a boyfriend or not (So you can try) and then my eyes were never filled with lust and I never stared at their boobs & ass only rather than knowing them or talking to them. (I am guessing this post would be my second most CONTROVERSIAL post after this 1.)

Coming back to Akki. This guy has been my family in Sydney and has been my support system financially and otherwise. He took care of me when I was sick, he took care of me when I needed money, he took care of me when it came to anything. He was there when I never expected anyone to stand by me and he still is. I share a friendship with him which goes beyond words and which always will be. There is an amazing bond where he understands me even before I say anything. He is a kind of friend who you get once in centuries, and once you get someone like him, you need to know how to be a keeper for ever. I can go on and on praising him for all he has done, but I guess we both know I would fail badly. :)

For a guy who has been so awesome and SURPRISINGLY is an Indian, I salute him and respect him I know this 1 post does no justice to what he has done for me but I wanted to show my gratitude to a great soul who has enriched my life.

CURRENT STATUS:- We may have disagreements and little arguments every now and then, but the friendship is very strong and when something goes wrong, it just fixes itself. The bond is like Terminator, you cant destroy it and it just rebuilds on its own.

H@rdeep.

Caroline - Lived up to my [German girls = Sweethearts] belief.

2010-12-04T05:22:00.000+11:00

Caroline. Yes a German girl. :)

Strangely/Oddly enough but apart from Adriana and Jana, there have been no more German girls I have written about here. Amelie, Miss "Don't write About me", Niya, Ana, Emily, & now finally its 1 more time my favorite people. I love Germans & isn't it obvious I mean German girls? I have no idea where and how this fascination with Germans started but I have a lot of jokes around them here in Sydney.

Disclaimer:- I absolutely love them & RIGHT NOW I just made a count of my German friends on facebook out of 420 (27 girls+ 4 guys) as of today and this includes SOME Austrians (Who speak German too so I have included them in the list) & some German girls I have met but who are no longer in my friend list & a lot of guys who I have met and are not in my friend list either (Because I don't do MAYBES). So I can safely say Almost 10% of my friends.

I have no complaints that I meet a lot of German girls in Sydney and I always feel I am in Germany and not in Australia because I believe Germans are the sweetest people I have met (even though the belief is slowly fading away). Having said that I also need to tell you guys I have at least 10 German girls telling me that when I do land in there, I can stay at their places or that they will show me around. All I need to do is be there and trust me thats the 1st country I wanna go to.

Coming back to Caroline. This girl is an absolute sweetheart and I share an awesome connection with her because I have met her just 2 times and it never feels that way unless I think of it. I love repeating this because it makes me feel a lot better that I have been really lucky to meet awesome people in my life here in Sydney. Caro is in that list somewhere quite high. I mean how often you meet some one and you connect with them instantly to have a great friendship which would possibly be for a lifetime?

We met in the Spanish movie festival and Caro came with "Mr. Package" but since everyone on CS knows my official liking for Germans, me and Caro started talking and later on she added me on facebook as a friend. Till then I still had no ideas how it would go but reading her status updates, I came to know she is leaving Sydney soon & I wanted to meet her before she was gone so I sent her a message asking if that would be possible. Caro replied very sweetly. "Don't worry I will find some "US" time" and she did. 3 days before she had to leave (She left on Thursday & met me on Monday) and this was after I didn't go to meet her to Manly for a dinner where she was meeting a whole lot of other friends (YUP, Australians love German girls) . She came specially to meet me to the city and we spent almost 3 hours talking about stuff, having lunch and just chatting in general.

There are these few things that struck me about this girl and she became special in a day.
1. She KEPT HER PROMISE. (It would have been very easy for her to say "Oh, I really wanted to meet but......like trust me any excuse was OK, BUT SHE DIN'T do that). Being someone who is ALSO not so good at keeping his own promises and thus avoids making them, I ALWAYS respect people who make promises and keep them.
2. She came JUST to meet me and she had nothing else to do. (in fact she was a little early at Darling Harbor)
3. In almost 3 hours that we were together, there was not a single sign, no verbal or non verbal indication where she would have made me feel she is in a hurry to leave. (How can you be so awesome in this Caro?)
4. We had just met once before and we didn't talk amazing stuff or a great deal of time, but yes we were always connected through facebook and now I feel this connection is very strong and its all because she found me and added me & of course later on
5. She told me I should write her a letter too at her address in Germany with this right which you exercise on a friend and which to me is absolute sweetness. (I will and post it before X'mas)

Do I have to mention she is beautiful & sexy and also beautiful as a person?

CURRENT STATUS:- Caro is in London freezing her ass off. :)
And I will always regret the fact that I had so less time to spend with her (Thats so true with all the awesome people I have met. They are all TOO BUSY & had very less time for me). I called her the other day and almost talked to her for an hour and it felt great. (Yep I called the UK cell phone number directly) & we still are connected through facebook but I want to talk to her someday soon on Skype and listen and see this wonderful girl again.

H@rdeep.

(E)mily=Family.

2010-11-28T05:51:00.000+11:00

Emily is awesome. Emily is Family. Emily is ............... a lot more that I need to discover & know (I promise I will and write another blog post).

I met Emily through Niya (1 of the biggest reason why I will ALWAYS LOVE Niya) and before we met, I had already added Emily as a friend on facebook. I don't know why but I am so glad I did that. I also don't know why Emily never rejected the friend request but its a good question which I need to ask her on Monday when we meet. I met Emily 2 times with Niya, at Darling Harbor and on the last day when Niya left Sydney. I do not even remember when I had Emily's number, but yes we met a couple of times after Niya left & there was this 1 day when Emily became family.

The day when I had so many problems in my life that I missed my friends back home a lot and I thought I had no one to talk to, Emily was there. Magically, she heard me, made me feel comfortable, even gave me the freedom that I can call/text her anytime I want to and then spent some time with me later on having lunch and teaching me piano. (which I need to practice and also need to learn swimming from her some day soon) While Emily never said that it was so obvious, she did it to make sure I feel better. She became an angel through that absolutely unexpected super nice behavior. Thats what Fa(E)mily does for you.

I love this girl for a lot of reasons but specially for "Hardeep, you are awesome". Finally I met some one else who says that & it sounds so believable. I have always believed that "It's one of the greatest feelings when you have some one in your life who believes in you more than you do". I have this girl who has done that to me ALWAYS. I love talking to her on chats, texts, phone calls and I just love her "voicemail". She seems so happy and excited in that message. There is a lot more to Emily than what I know (in fact I always realize I hardly know her). And that is what will happen from now onwards with her & Camille (who gets a surprise post too since she is DEFINITELY the MOST interesting person I have in my life these days). Its always good to have wonderful friends in your life (and I have some guys too in that list) & I have been blessed to have these awesome people around. Emily is (AGAIN) Awesome & I will always remember her text which said "Mates?" & my reply was "What?" because I meant we were already friends. But Emily replied "Friends?" and Then I replied "I thought we already are" and then she said something which she has been living upto all this while. Thank you for being what you have been Emily. You know this But I absolutely Love U.

CURRENT STATUS:- Emily is someone who is super special and makes me feel the same way. She is some one who, once you know would make you feel and ask the question to God as "Where was she? How did I live without her all this while?" (E)mily = Family.

H@rdeep.

Anastasiya Cherednikova - 2 months of awesomeness.

2010-11-28T03:04:00.000+11:00

Ana.- Thats what she likes to be called. I don't know how this happened. But with her I can say things were always extreme. Extreme friendliness, extreme negativity in relationship and no contact at all and now again an extreme. She is "EXTREMELY" amazing at hurting me and seems to have mastered the art of doing it with her words.

1 day she will realize she did it wrong.. I am sure it would be very late then. I suddenly am in the mood to end this post ABRUPTLY here.

Quite apt but not without 2 of the pics of this girl who gave me 2 months of utter happiness..

I remember almost everything she has EVER said 2 me but something I would NEVER EVER forget is this "If you think you want to talk to me, call me up and talk to me. If you think you don't want to talk to me, call me up and let me know that you don't want to talk to me".

I cried like a little kid when things went wrong and I don't remember when else have I cried in Sydney. I can go on about those 2 months, the point where it all went wrong, how, why, my reasons, her behavior, who else I think is the villain, how we are today but HONESTLY it does not matter. All I can say is I will NEVER EVER say anything wrong for her. She has been awesome and I wish her all the best in her life.

Can't thank this girl enough for what she has done.

CURRENT STATUS:- She is an EXPERT at hurting me with her words, is STILL a friend & we STILL talk.

H@rdeep.

Niya -Connecting people (Miss Busy bee)

2010-11-28T01:02:00.000+11:00

I had more names for her. 1. Connecting people. 2. Busy bee. 3. Everybody's darling. 4. Full of Life.

Just like R, Niya I guess had more than 24 hours in her days. She could do "everything" except meeting me.

Niya is in the category of this awesome people with whom I share an unique connection. I met this girl 3 times in her 6 months in Sydney (because she was too busy to meet up) and I absolutely love her. How did we know each other? Yup let's start from the beginning.

I had this impression of her & I love this pic the most.

So 1 day I had time after joining peer network and thought of helping some incoming students to UTS. I went to the UTS group on facebook and answered some questions of people regarding normal stuff about housing, jobs, UTS in general and other stuff and added to the end of my message the details like ".. and by the way you guys would probably meet me since I am a part of UTS peer network and I would be a part of the team who helps new students who join UTS. So feel free to add me here as a friend." Just 1 girl added me as friend. It was this girl from Bulgaria called Niya.

Over the next 6 months of Niya's stay in Sydney, I met her just 3 times. Lets see:-1. Library. 2. Darling Harbor and 3. Last day. Not a strange thing then that we do not have pics of us together. In fact the picture above that I have used of hers is what my idea of Niya was. It was like my impression of Niya. She is 1 hard core party girl and so she is too busy partying here in Sydney and hence no time to meet me. The reason was she has family here and she has been here before so she knew a lot of people and had enough "FRIENDS". And yes I had not expected this in my wildest dreams that I would meet her 1st time in the library. (I mean SERIOUSLY, after that pic?) and YES, DID I MENTION I never had her phone number for the 1st 4-5 months too. (Apparently Niya's answer to that was that then I would contact her more often and she would not be able to reply back or some crap).

Besides meeting her was just a formality. Being on each other's facebook friends list I felt I know this girl a lot & since long and always found it ridiculous that we never met even though I practically live at GSB and she was doing law. I seriously believe Niya NEVER attended her classes. :)

What has made our friendship the way I perceive it is that Niya has connected to me to 3 wonderful people (Emily, Mingo and Tzvety) and at least through facebook she has been always available. Well I can say I know them through Niya, but it was me in all the cases (OK I agree EXCEPT Mingo) where I have been what I am normally.. Friendly and Awesome. But Niya remains pretty special as a person and she always will be 1 of the highlights of my 1st 2 years in Sydney. She still is "VERY BUSY" but takes out some time occasionally for me and HONORS me with giving her little time and she made my birthday very special with a wonderful message. (which is saved in my email)

Its very rare that you come across people in your life with whom you connect instantly and they become an important part of your life. (Although the last chat with Mingo actually made me think on this issue as to whether I can say the same on their behalf about me). But I am glad I have at least Niya and Caroline (who is also a part of people series) in my life who make me think (at least for now) that it is possible.

CURRENT STATUS:- I still complain Niya never had enough time for me and I always will. I just told her the other day "I love You" on Skype and she replied back "I love you too Hardeep but this work is more important right now". You should get the idea now.

P.S- The 1st post about the "most important woman" was taken down because of an awesome message written by the lady herself. :(

H@rdeep.

People series.

2010-11-18T03:26:00.000+11:00

Even though I am running quite behind the schedule and have been writing just about things that happened in August, this special "People Series" was long over due and had to be started soon. Today I start it with posts about people who are very close to my heart and yes most of them are girls but there are 2 guys too.

Its been 17 months in Sydney on November 8th and I have been really lucky and blessed to meet some of the most wonderful people from around the world but there are some who have become super special. Its my way of making them feel how important they are and giving them special mention on one of the things which is very close to my heart My Blog and also on the "Life in Australia blog" which has a lot of posts cross posted these days.

They are Amelie (who gets her special mention here), Rania, Niya, Ana, Emily, Caroline, Akhilesh, & Kishore. I have already written about Adriana & Jana here. But yes they are special too. And I have not written yet about Jon & Ceci but they are in the list of special friends.

The next posts are a series of how I met them all, how they have become special and then the end is CURRENT STATUS. Its strange but I have been through ups and downs with people and so there is current status which describes whats the status of my relationship with them.

Should be fun posting these and its my way of coming back to them some day and laughing, smiling or crying later on in my life. Now without further ado, back to actual writing about these awesome people.

H@rdeep.

Snowy Mountains.

2010-11-18T02:01:00.001+11:00

I have been Australia for 16 months now and I keep complaining I have been nowhere else except Sydney. My 1st ever little getaway was Snowy mountains; the weekend was 8th and 9th August, 2010.

It was a memorable journey for many reasons.

1. It was a 1st major holiday for which I could pay myself. :)

2. I was going with 9 other guys in 2 cars hired and 8 of them were Bangladeshis. :(

3. I was seeing snow in real for the 1st time in my life (believe it or not but yes its true)

4. I so wanted to drive in Australia.

5. I paid much more money than what I expected to pay. (Details below)

We finally started off and I had to do nothing except getting the car on my name. It was great that everything was well planned by the guys and I had 1 complaint initially. ALL I HEARD WAS BANGLA. Yes, for a whole day while we were driving there, all I heard was bangla and then the same thing happened while we were driving back..

Plus, I don't know why the guys kept arguing over a certain matter. The most interesting thing. I called Police. Why? Read on.

So we were driving towards Snowy mountains and I suddenly felt this urge to drive and the guys would not take me seriously. I gave them all the warnings I could and I was serious (the problem with me is NO 1 thinks I AM SERIOUS EVER). So the car was rented on my name, I have been driving for ages and there was no traffic. Moreover their excuses were seriously Bull shit. The roads were empty. Basically even if I drove (which eventually I did) nothing would happen. And yes, nothing happened. No one was injured, the car was not damaged, we had no accidents. I hate the fact that we had to go through that drama.

But yes being there was a good break. Apart from some trips to Blue mountains, I can say I never had a holiday in here. Couchsurfing meetings and events have been my only way to take a break every now and then. Playing with snow, trying my hand (or legs) at skiing, being at a place of -1 degrees & the biggest thing was the feeling of being away from Sydney on a break. (Gotta do it more often). :)

After the trip most of my friends deleted me off facebook and some of them put me on limited profile. LOL overall a fun trip and yes cant wait to go on more of them. Wish I had more money & time. But yes, the 5th point. I paid more money. So yeah, we had this ticket on the car when we came back and it was some fees of $27 for entering a certain area. Obviously, we paid no attention to it and later on I realized I have 2 $25 charges on my bank account by the car company. A$$HOLES. I called them after 2 months to inquire about the charges and found out it was because of the same $27 fees. Eventually, I paid $27 (the fees) + $25 to the car company extra. Karma ha?

Its ok if the guys didn't pay me back and didn't share those costs. I didn't wanted to bother them, though I wrote a facebook message to all of them asking whether they had similar charges.

Learned a great deal. I would any day go with Csers on a trip rather than Desi guys.. :)

Memories of 1st trip,

H@rdeep.

Finally a Happy Birthday.

2010-11-16T20:29:00.001+11:00

Its my birthday on 2nd August. For last some years its just a normal day. It is no longer a "Happy" b'day. I won't get into the details as to why and how but will concentrate on this year's day.

Actually it was not 2nd August but 1st August where the celebrations began and happened. On 2nd, I was running around looking for a place to live, didn't had lunch and ate just a slice of pizza at 5 p.m. Nothing great done on that day. I did miss my family & friends because with them, I am sure I would have at least had cut a cake, which is something I am so used to. Nevertheless, I decided to celebrate it after 2 weeks by inviting just 2 people and getting a cake myself. Rania & Ana & since Rania couldn't come so it was just Ana & me. Here are the pics.

Of course you cant replace your family & friends with anyone and there was this feeling of being away and missing them, but I am glad it was a happy day and I felt like celebrating it. Sydney is very safely 2nd home now.

I received amazing wishes. From Niya and Adriana. I got gifts from Rania and Ana & was so touched by what Anindo did. For others, Nahyan was super nice to me too and it was fascinating to get birthday wishes in so many different languages.

Overall a birthday worth remembering since last year I had no reason to be happy about it. I am happy I have people in my life with whom I can celebrate, in a different city, in a different country, away from family and friends back home.

A delayed post but I believe it was important because I finally didn't think of what I have done so far but was looking forward to a good life ahead.

H@rdeep.

Friendship day in Australia.

2010-11-01T23:17:00.001+11:00

While 1st Sunday of August is Friendship DAY & a day of huge celebrations in India, people in other countries hardly know about it. I am so used to getting calls on this day instead of my birthday. This year was the 2nd year not in India & I was here in Australia (last one I probably didnt knew anyone here) but I did celebrate it.

And it was 1st August so who else can I celebrate it with but Ms Jradi. Of course it started of with a visit to Gurudwara (Sikh temple) with 2 lovely ladies, Annie and Miriam & I can say it was a wonderful start. Rania has been my best friend here in Sydney and I cannot compare her with anyone. Since she was busy on 2n August this sweetheart made sure she spent half the day with me to make me feel special on y birthday. I am about to write a blog post just on her and so wont talk about her here but here are some things that I HAVE TO mention here.

We saw a movie, had ice cream and spend around 5-6 hours together (JUST US) & she made sure this was 1 of the best birthdays in last 8 years by giving me a chocolate and a gift and being super nice to me. And since I have been not updating my blog and was stuck at my SUPER PROJECT of summing it all up I couldn't write stuff here but wrote a facebook note which is here again. Its the conversations of me and her and my thoughts on the day.

Me:- What movie are we watching?
Her:- I dont know yet but we are watching one.

Her:- Hardeep, You can tell me.
Me:- Ummm, so yeah this, that and blah blah and blah.....
Her:- Ok so what is it?

Me:- So when was the last time you did this to someone? Spent (Almost) the whole day with them on their b'day?
Her:- Um, lemme think.. Like ages ago.

In the movie :- (Cameron Diaz)- "I am sure Antonio you never made an omlette for any girl in your life. Its little things like this which matter". Agreed.

Me (to Myself) Thank God My phone has switched off automatically. Some moments are too special in life to be disturbed by this stupid thing.

Me (to Myself) and to her (later on) :- Gimme 1 good reason why I should not marry this girl?

And of course I have pics to share from that day. :P

Did I mention it was AWESOME? of Course I missed cutting cake and my friends back home.

On to the b'day post now.

H@rdeep.

Summing it ALL UP.

2010-10-28T20:20:00.000+11:00

Lets JUST SAY "Awesome", "Amazing", "Unbelievable" and in Steve Jobs' words "Magical" & end this post. :)

Ha I wish... Lets just say I need to do this for a year. Shows ALMOST Everything I went through.

The songs used are:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__qkzfWhi6g ---Tanha Dil by Shaan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MgIGUQwyw0 ---Dil Chahta Hai-- Title Song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5qhBM3KJY8 ---Luka Chuppi"-- "Rang De Basanti"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA6u-7V3VHA ---Robaroo -- "Rang De Basanti"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFc4YpbyvAY ---Kaise Mujhe (with Subtitles)-- "Ghajini"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EslZAf1g_oc ---Rafta Rafta -- "Namaste London"

Loved my effort and it shows. (though I wish I could use the pics of me and Rania which Steve has clicked)

Loads of Love to this amazing people who have made Sydney my favorite city so far.

H@rdeep.

Me, Myself & I.

2010-09-18T06:36:00.000+10:00

I haven't changed at all in a lot of respects and have changed a lot in a lot of respects...
Completely opposite statements? Paradox statements?

Nope. Lemme explain. I still don't take alcohol in any form, I still don't smoke, I still don't know how to dance & swim. I still am awake late at nights and sleep at odd and crazy hours. I am still lazy and want to work only for stuff that I like to and love to work. I still am lucky and still make friends easily. I am still popular and do everything that I SHOULD NOT DO. I still am stubborn and want to get and do things which are near impossible. I still challenge myself to do idiotic things and mostly go ahead and do them. I can still talk to any complete stranger, any beautiful girl, any old guy, pretty much any living human being with utmost ease. I still live in a FANTASY WORLD (This 1 is for U BIG B). And as all of you know, I STILL TALK A LOT & I STILL...... (this 1 is too personal so cant go here) :)

Oh yeah, I still make sure I drop "Drunk girls" back home instead of taking them home or being at their home in their bed. At least 1 thing where I am still INDIAN.

So what has changed? I understand a lot of people and a lot of things, situations and circumstances a lot better. I am OLDER, (Wish I could stop this), wiser (A lot of people would debate this), better and nicer and I do a lot of things which just utilise my time and does not bring me any money. I understand social media a lot, I finally own an Android device and will soon own another SUPER ANDROID phone (HTC Desire HD) & I finally know a lot as to what I want to do in life.

I FINALLY LIVE LIFE (The sad fact is THIS HAPPENED AFTER I MOVED AWAY FROM THE FAMILY). I have finally worked as a Social Media Expert (Though I would rather use the term Analyst) and I learned how to take decisions and stand by it. I finally learned a little bit (I am still not quite good at this) how to deal with assholes (And I have met very few of them) & I finally have done a lot of things for the 1st time in my life. (Camping, Sleeping in tents, seeing snow & some more which AGAIN cant go here) ;)

I finally know people from all around the world and have friends in a lot of countries. (Germany & France top the list). I finally know a lot about Europe and Australia. I finally know how it feels to be in a different country all on your own; away from family & friends, studying in a foreign University, managing studies with social life & work, living life like a poor person, not being able to have PROPER food for days (I miss MOM so much for this), walking a lot and so many other things. I finally know how amazing I am and how I can also regard myself as a big loser when I see a lot of young people around me doing a lot of amazing stuff. Specially all my friends who are these awesome girls. Rania, Femke, Shannon and a lot of them for different reasons.

I finally have confirmations (Call this generalisation if you want to) that most Indians can NEVER CHANGE in all their negative outlook towards everything in life and they would be jealous of you if you achieve even a little bit of success in any form (Yes there are exceptions and I have met amazing Indian guys). I finally know & believe good people always have good things happening to them (I have met amazing people & they have been all awesome to me in the least expected situations), I have learned the hard way "MONEY IS EVERYTHING" (For most people out there) and how important it is to be rich, I have changed a lot in the way I look at things and approach people and it all shows in me. I have learned how to value people who are important to me and how small gestures mean a lot. I HAVE LEARNED HOW TO LIVE LIFE IN MOMENTS & HOW NEVER REGRET ANYTHING THAT HAPPENED. (This is a BIGGIE).

I have learned how not to judge people and not to worry for those who do not matter to you in your life. I wish I COULD SAY THIS but yes I have learned and I am still learning how to deal with people coming and going in my life in a very short span (Exchange students friends, international students going back home & more), I have learned how to be alone in a world where I am surrounded by people always and this describes that feeling best.

I have learned a lot in just 1 year in Sydney than what I have learned in last 7 years of my life in India. I have learned a little bit about photography, about how important it is to travel, about how random conversations with complete strangers can bring joy, about how wonderful it is to have time for your own self, about how to deal with loneliness and how not to miss people, about hacking Android phones and how it feels to stay with people from different nationalities.

What I am today is a totally different Hardeep in a lot of ways and also a lot similar in some ways to what people knew me a year back. I am hoping that when family & friends meet me they get pleasantly surprised. I also promise I will soon do something which makes all of you guys proud of me and love me even more. There is enough inspiration around me and Australia gives me a lot of motivation to do a lot of things and challenge myself everyday.

For all of you who took time and read this whole IDIOTIC Self praise Essay, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

I look forward to seeing you here again. Loads of Love,
H@rdeep.

UTS (University Of Technology, Sydney)

2010-09-14T06:19:00.000+10:00

I have finished 14 months here in Sydney and the reason I am here is this place UTS. How could I write about "Everything ELSE" and not this great University called University of Technology, Sydney.

So continuing the 7 part series of completing a year in Sydney, I am now at the 5th part. Sydney or for that matter Australia was not even a choice. When I was fed up of being in India & a lot of other things and I wanted to run away, the 1st choice of a country (and possibly the last also) was US. It just made sense because of Mamaji and family. Today I am so glad it didn't work out that way. :) The "Great Escape", "Amazing Adventure", "Reclaimed Life" or whatever you call (Detour as I named it earlier) all of it has been awesome. I do a lot of stuff at this place (including studies). I stay here weird & crazy hours, sleep here (a lot), eat, work, attend classes, socialise, work for some committees, go to some club meetings, and do a lot more. In fact, I am definitely coming back at UTS for doing something else. (LAW or MBA in Marketing) because I just love this place.

The best scene which describes my feelings about Uni is this:- Aamir khan talking to Sue in Rang De Basanti.

I remember when I came to Uni 14 months back and was impressed by the size of the campuses, was overwhelmed by the "Orientation week", the facilities provided by Uni, the clubs, the associations and more stuff. Today after having problems with my Economics result, I totally understand how its just business for the University to get money from international students. Nevertheless, Its fun being here.

I have met best friends here. Jon, Ceci, Annie, Rania, Adriana, Jana, Ana, Niya (yeah yeah most of them are girls because there are guys too and its a long list) and ofcourse there are guys like Gaurav, Navneeth, Rohit, Akhilesh and so many more. I have done amazing things here like addressing the new students at Post graduate Welcome ceremony, leading the teams in all the group projects, finally being a part of student politics and of course fighting for my Economics result which will go on for a little while more.

I have loved the fact that UTS is right in the middle of the city, is open 24 hours and has besides everything else bars and pubs. The missing thing has been green space, but we cant do anything about it and I hope the new students cant complain about the same fact. I have a strange relationship with this place. I love being here and also cant wait to be done with this and start working, earning money and start travelling and doing things I have always wanted to do. I have done a lot of things at Uni and I think 2 years are not enough but I also need a break from assignments, exams, classes and stuff.

But when I see as to what I have got from Uni, I can be just thankful. Yes I keep telling people I am not here to study and its true but the FULL truth is "I am not here JUST TO STUDY". Being at an international University, I always wanted to do so much more than just studies and I am glad at UTS, I got that chance by being part of Beyond UTS, Peer network, UTS Exposure, GSB Footprint, UTS Alumni & now also "Faculty Board in Business". I spend the entire day and night at Uni even though I meet a lot of people outside Uni and also go to most CS events. People even joke that I stay at Uni and not at a home.

Even though I have firmly believed the lessons learnt outside Uni and in real life are far more important than what we learn inside classrooms, I cant undermine the importance of in class studies at UTS. The GSB (Graduate School of Business) is like home & it will always be. I have loved the exam pattern because they have assignments, group projects, presentations and everything and not just 100% marks for a final exam. The favourite subject and professor has been Business Analysis and Dr. Paul Brown respectively and life's good here but I know I will be out and will come back soon. I definitely want to write more but I sure will through other posts.

In short, UTS has been a fun place to be at. I love this Uni and will definitely come back to do more stuff. Deep breath (Still here at Uni) and finished this post half asleep.

2 more to go for the 1st year series and then loads more to follow,

H@rdeep.

Couchsurfing.

2010-09-06T04:34:00.001+10:00

I have ALWAYS SAID and will continue to say that "1 of the best things that has happened to me in my life is Couchsurfing". I landed on this site through a tech site called Lifehacker, and even though there were other sites like Travelbuddy, meetup and more, I somehow loved CS more and registered. What an eventful day that was! Little did I knew I am doing myself 1 of the biggest favours and a thing that I will be thankful for life.

CS has been a life changing experience. I have done a lot through it; met people, hosted people, went out to places and events, did things, made friends, learned new things and languages (even though very little) and what not. The best part. Met some of the best people around the world. You belong to a different species if you are a CSer. These people are made of awesomeness. Met a lot of Germans & even though I do not remember who was the 1st German girl or guy I met and who got me hooked to these people, I am guessing it should be someone from CS. :)

Besides that, I will also add that its Amelie

who is responsible for everything and she is a very special person in my life and will always be. She made me believe that it is worth time to get involved in the whole CS thing. When I joined CS back at Home (Ahmedabad), nothing much happened except Rahul who is the CS ambassador for the city doing stuff and meetings. I am really surprised how dead and inactive things were when I was back home. It has since then picked some momentum which is so good to see. But then being inactive for a year on CS, I thought I will finally use it when I land in Sydney and Couchsurf with some1 and I started sending requests. After almost 25-28 of them, Amelie agreed to host me (which never happened UNFORTUNATELY) but I was not lucky enough to experience the hospitality of this wonderful lady.

The good thing however is we met. Amelie is the ONLY PERSON or if not only PERHAPS The 1st who makes me realise what people mean when they say "I fail for words" or "Words are not enough" because that's what happens to me and I cant say enough for this lovely girl. She went out of her way to make me settle in the CS community, making sure I meet more people through just personal events where she invited more awesome people.

Thats how it all started and very soon I realised CS is an indispensable part of my life & I wont be able to imagine my life without it. After almost 14 months in Sydney, I have the most positive experiences meeting people through CS and more people through people I know on CS (their friends & house mates & what not). I can go on and on about how wonderful life has been, about how I now know people from around the world, around different age brackets, nationalities, cultural boundaries, about how I know some of the most beautiful girls and absolute sweethearts in every country around the world, but I will stop here. Instead I wanna mention the fact that almost all the people on CS Sydney know me and I am so much a part of the community that I am missed at events makes me feel special & amazing.

I have not missed my family that much because of CS and the awesome people on CS. Today I have friends and I know a lot of people I absolutely admire & respect through CS. I also am mature, wise and understand people a lot better because some people have completely ignored me from CS & I do not know why & honestly do not care either. But yes, its good to know they dont like me much so it makes our lives easier. :)

I love the CS community & everything associated with CS & despite some people here & there not liking me will always be out meeting more people. I know and completely believe "You can't please everyone, all the time", but yes I know a lot of people have pleased me and I have TRIED HARD to reciprocate that feeling. :)

From meeting complete strangers to camping to ALMOST posing for Spencer Tunick to watching a Russian movie at some1's place to watching Spanish movie every week to doing things I had never imagined before, CSing has been 1 hell of an experience and I would say if you have not done this in your life, you probably are missing out on to 1 of the best things. Thank you every one (even the haters) for being there.

Very Happy even writing about this & with all the experiences & so looking forward to more awesome 1s,

H@rdeep.

Friends.

2010-08-23T05:46:00.000+10:00

I had enough of them back home and guess what? I was happy. I never had different levels of friendships. No classifications. Everyone I met was a friend. But I knew a lot of people who had best friends, Ok friends and then acquaintances. I thought this is idiotic and that there should be no classifications. Finally I realized how important the classification is, THE HARD WAY.

So I landed in Australia, Sydney on 8th July, 2009 and had just 2 friends. Sourabh Nigam (This guy worked with me in India) and Amelie Perron (the sweetest Couchsurfer who agreed to host me). Apart from that Sydney was full of strangers. I knew no one here. Had no family or friends and wanted to start a new life and I did. Today, everyone in University knows me (almost 5000 students in more than 15 faculties doing 100s of different courses) and also a lot of people from Sydney Uni know me whom I met through Couchsurfing, UTS exposure or common friends or in parties. Basically everywhere. Travelers from around the world and some Australians know me through Couchsurfing and everyday it happens to me many times that people come to me and greet me and I do not remember their names.

So who are these people? Yes, now I need classification.

Acquaintances make the biggest list. Friends, very few and I can count them on fingers. Rania, Ana, Adriana, Jana, Jon, Annie, Niya, Ceci, Rohit, Navneeth, Gaurav, Andre, Caroline (all of these from Uni) & a lot from CS
(Melody, Dave, Kasia, Art, John, Celine, Evelyn, Femke, Franca, Janet, Jenny,
Julia, Joannie, Katy, Laura, Linda, Lisa, Nadia, Nathalie, Nicola, Paola, Pom Pidou, Carolina, Shanno, Shannon and some guys I lived with (Shyam, Vicky, Arun, Suneet, Pankush, Vishal) and worked for this amazing lady Rhiannon who is a great friend too and of course every German girl I have met and some French too. Thats it from around 3000 people I have met in a year.

Besides classification, 1 striking quality is almost 80-90 % of these people are girls and younger to me. I believe we as human beings are awesome and simple when we are younger. As we grow older, we become complicated and I absolutely hate that about older people. I love younger people. My best friend in Sydney is Rania (This girl is 10 years younger to me). A lot of people are in the category of "interesting" people. Again this list is full of girls and they are interesting because I haven't known them for long but they all look like they can be great friends.

3 of these also are getting special posts. Rania, Ana and Niya. So watch out for those posts.

While there are times when I do miss my friends back home and I do not see any reason to compare them to my friends here, I cant undermine these amazing people who made my life easier, made me smile, helped me bear life, heard me when I wanted someone to just hear me and say "everything will be alright Hardeep", made me cry, made me feel real emotional, did amazing things and little gestures which touched my heart and which I would never forget (Nahyan hosting me for a night at his place, Anindo buying me a little drink on my b'day even though he didn't have much money, Rania spending half a day with me on my b'day and giving me chocolate and a gift besides waiting for an hour [GIVE ME 1 GOOD REASON WHY I should not love this girl the most], Ana giving me a gift after what happened, Subrata hosting me at his place and a lot more which I am sure forgetting).

I also share a love hate relationship with a lot of my friends. Specially Adriana and Ana. I just cant hate them and can't love them either. :)

Friends are relatives you chose and some of them become extended family. I am such a lucky guy who has friends from all over the world today and who keeps getting invitations to all these foreign countries and I am sure I will be traveling pretty soon and catch up with some of these amazing people. Thank You would be such a small word to express my feelings for everything these guys have done for me, for giving me some of the most amazing memories, for making me smile and accepting me as I am, but sadly thats what I can think of right now. :P

And to everyone who has been sweet to me and is now not in touch, I wanna make sure I thank you all too. Life is exciting and I meet a lot of people everyday even these days. I am sure the list of friends will be bigger and to everyone who is reading this on the blog or facebook if you are not in the list, I give you all the rights to remind me.

Very Happy & feeling blessed today when I counted my blessings (friends),

H@rdeep.

Events, Activities & People.

2010-08-11T04:27:00.001+10:00

Yes there has been a delay in these posts but here I am again.

As far as I can remember; ever since I could talk, I have always loved meeting people, talking to them (every1 says and I know I talk a lot), learning new cultures, languages, picking up skills from life rather than being at school and colleges, learning from experiences and more. I also remember that I went through a stage where for past 7 years, I didn't do that and turned an introvert (I know you guys wont believe that but I actually did) and pretty much slept and ate and stayed at home surfing the net and met only the people who I know for past 10 years.

I joined Couchsurfing in India in August 2008 and finally got back to my normal self after I landed here in Sydney. Now this was and has been a life changing experience. I get amazed by some of the most awesome experiences I have had and I have everyday through meting people on Couchsurfing. Since last year when I landed in Sydney, I have been really active on Couchsurfing and have made friends from around the world. I have been doing a lot of stuff at University too. Peernetworking, Beyond UTS, GSB footprint, UTS Alumni, UTS Exposure (Photography club at UTS) and everything else I can do and handle. More stuff is planned and I have already applied to a couple of them. (Now you know why blogging had been so slow and almost took a backseat).

The amount of people I have met, the activities I have done, the events I have been are so many that I can't put them here because it would be boring and a real long post but I can definitely mention some. Camped for the 1st time in my life & slept in a tent, bush walked, met complete strangers, hosted people, was hosted (Finally yes), learned a lot of cultures (even though a little bit) and languages (even though forcefully), danced away late nights, learned salsa, (I STILL want to get this sorted), saw foreign films with subtitles (Russian, Spanish & more), went on dinners & movies with a whole bunch of strangers (many of them are real good friends now), had some awesome conversations with complete strangers whom I would possibly never meet again, at all the unexpected places, met a lot of people (Like REALLY REALLY A HELL LOT), met a lot of German girls (This HAD 2 be a PART) :)

And as I actually mentioned in the last post, started living life again. I made decisions on my own, lived on $0.10 and $2.5 for a week, did a whole lot of tourist things, roamed around in Sydney (the streets from Broadway to Circular Quay almost feel like I have grown up on them), studied, made friends (next post and certain dedicated to these people), and it goes on and on.

I have always been a people's person and to me meeting people and making friends always were more important than many other things in life. Everything is so connected here. When I go to events and do activities, I meet people and then they become friends. Its a flow and I love my life like this but I know I need to sort out priorities and I am trying my best to do that these days.

BBQs at Manly, weekend camping at Stockton beach, 1st few activities with Amelie (Whale watching, dinner, pubs and more), Govinda's, Thursday Manly meetings, Couchsurfing monthly meetings & working at Darling Harbor as a volunteer for FIFA world cup have been really close to my heart. I have met some of the most amazing people from around the world and lived in 1 of the most awesome cities in the world for last 1 year. YES, I missed family & friends and many more things but its been 1 hell of a year and TRUST ME, I won't change anything in the last year that passed by.

More about friends, Couchsurfing, University and much more coming in the next posts. After I am done with my 1st year series, I have posts for Friendship day, 1st B'day celebrations after 7 years and Snowy mountains drama. :P

Go on to the next ones,
H@rdeep.

I am ALIVE (AGAIN) Part 1.

2010-07-16T05:13:00.000+10:00

Finally I survived and have been a year in Sydney.. The city that was never planned (not even the country was an option) but "Mr. Ponga Pundit" Prashant Chandran had somehow predicted that I will land here and it did happen. I landed here in Sydney on 8th July, 2009 and I never thought in my wildest dreams that I was on a roller-coaster ride and it would change me as a person and my life in so many ways.

As of today, I ~~think~~ (wait scrap that I am sure) its been one of the best years of my life. I have went through every possible emotion a person can go through in his life in just this 1 year. Felt lonely (a lot of times), very happy (a few times), deceived, loved, cared for, (Do I even have to tell this :-SAD), felt free, responsible, irresponsible, mature (For a change, YES), emotional for a lot of things and people and because of a lot of reasons. Learnt a great deal of things, grew up, hardly slept, hardly ate (great) food, survived for a week on $5 and then had days when I had $0.10 in bank account, went through a love-hate relationship with this city called "Sydney" before finally realising its 2nd HOME Now (which is a big deal). Went for movies, walked a lot (DAMN I JUST CANT MISS THIS), went for lunches and dinners, parties once in a while and before I forget (I DID STUDY), met amazing people from Couchsurfing and some at university (I sometimes DOUBT whether I am here to study), made amazing friends (Rania, Ana, Shyam, Jon, Ceci, Adriana, Jana, and the list goes on) and went to some places and did some things for the 1st time (like Camping).

I can't even count how many pictures I clicked but there are some I wanna put here showing the different emotions I went through in this 1 year.

The biggest change is of course the way I live here these days. Yes, I live and I feel Alive again. For 7 years of my life from 2002 to 2009, I did nothing great but slept (a BIG reason why I do not sleep here in Sydney). I have had my own days where I was like "Why the hell am I here? Why can't I be back home? Why do I have to go through all this?" and I had no answers of them but today everything seems like well planned by the Almighty God. He had everything planned and I am sure he has some definite reason behind all of this which I would never know. I always knew that when I sit down to write this stuff, it would go on and on, so I have VERY CLEVERLY decided to put it into parts and like the great harry Potter series, this will also be in 7 parts.

These ones are about to follow.

Part 2- Events, Activities and People.

Part 3- Friends.

Part 4- Couchsurfing.

Part 5- UTS (University of Technology, Sydney)

Part 6- Me, Myself & I (because I deserve a mention somewhere)

Part 7- Summing it all up.

Whew. That sure is a lot of work. So off to the next one and someone deserves a special post so that is after I finish off these parts.

Feeling great to be back here, (on the blog)

H@rdeep.

World Cup thoughts and 2nd last post.

2010-07-10T04:26:00.000+10:00

Second last post because I will write one after the Final match (which to me is not that important now that Brazil & Germany are out). So the world cup has been amazing because its not something that people expected. Watching Italy and France go home early, watching the German team defeat 4 teams by 4 goals, watching Brazil lose and finally Germany too lose to Spain, knowing about this Octopus, working in 5 degrees cold at Darling harbor as volunteer, meeting a lot of people through Couchsurfing meetings at Darling Harbor and meeting Niya and Emily too there, this world cup has been amazing in every respect.

I have so many memories of the world cup and now I understand football (or soccer whatever you call it) much better than I ever did in my life. I also know the flags of different countries as an added advantage. :)

If I do not mention social media aspect of the world cup it would be so wrong. So yeah here it is. Twitter saw record tweets per second during world cup matches and I am sure all the records would be shattered during the finals. I heard some amazing music like K'naan's Wavin' Flag, my favourite Shakira's Waka Waka and more. I absolutely loved updating foursquare and facebook with all the pics and comments and much more of the social media interaction of the football world cup that I cant think of as of now. More than anything else it has been a celebration and since I do not care about the final I would be there at Darling Harbor to watch Shakira perform, to meet the Couchsurfers, to enjoy the spirit of the game and I would also see the match of Germany again to see if they get the 3rd place.

I know I had initially thought of clicking a lot of pictures and writing on my blog after every match I saw to document the world cup but somehow it didn't happen. Blame it on twitter and facebook and my quest for perfection.. ;)

But yes I have even completed a year here in Sydney and I have so much to write about that, so thats it about this post and lets move to the next one. :)

As always, thanks for stopping by and reading it.

Its Complicated,
H@rdeep.

P.S-- Writing this from the Maclab at the Uni at 4.30 a.m.

Home is where the Heart is!

2010-06-14T11:29:00.000+10:00

They say "Home is where the Heart is" & I totally believe that. India is home and it will always be. But today Sydney (Australia) has become 2nd home and Germany (even though I have NEVER been there) seems like 3rd. Now 1st and 2nd are pretty obvious. I was born and brought up in India. I am now in Sydney for a year but Germany?

Well the answer is "VERY SIMPLE". I have met more Germans in Sydney than Australians and yes (as expected) more girls than guys. In fact I call Sydney "Mini Germany" because somehow Germans love Australia & more so Sydney. They are everywhere you go. All the Germans I have met have been awesome & I am really impressed by them. I would safely say they are the friendliest and are amazing. There are a whole lot of German guys and girls I have met in Sydney on my friend list on facebook & I never counted but I will tag all the Germans on my friend list now and I am sure they will be the maximum. Germany ranks at the top of my list of countries to visit because of these people.

So thats 3rd home. The feeling is so strong that I supported Germany last night in the Germany V/s Australia match and I so knew they would win. In fact, it does not end there. I want Germany to reach the finals and then maybe win, even though I feel Brazil is the strongest contender. Also, I spent a lot of time with 2 German girls this semester and they have been absolute sweethearts. They are beautiful, sweet, loving and now friends for life. I am always happy to spend time with them. The feeling of calling some country your home does not develop so easily but the Germans have been awesome & before I came here to Sydney, I had no idea that it would be the case. The whole idea of writing this blog post & dedicating it to all the Germans I have ever met is to say "Thank you" to all and also to let them know that they can expect me to be in there sometime soon.

I am sad that most of them are leaving now that they are done with their "Exchange Semester" but trust me I am looking forward to a whole lot of them coming in for the next semester too. And yes its a promise that when I do land in Germany I will know a little bit of German (if not all of it) and I will perfect "Ich" the way You guys say it. In fact I will be able to say "Ich liebe dich" to a lot of German girls. :)

Till then, good bye und bis bald.

And yes you guys better stay in touch. ;)

A big Thank You for being so amazing and hope You guys had fun here in Australia.

H@rdeep.

Soccer madness.

2010-06-14T08:28:00.015+10:00

Coming from a country where Cricket is the only sport people watch, I never had the passion for football. Yes I did watch tennis because women tennis is "interesting" to watch and I love tennis. Today, after being in Sydney for a year, I see myself surrounded by football/soccer crazy fans and the atmosphere is electric since last 3 days.

I did go out for the opening ceremony of the World Cup as Sydney is 1 of the 6 cities in the world where International FIFA Fan fest is organized. Darling Harbor is like the Mecca for soccer crazy fans these days and it will be till the end of the world cup (12th July,2010). You have to be here to see the ecstasy, the madness, the fans, the spirit and everything else that goes with the sport. Its freezing and people are still sitting in the open to watch the matches on the bigger 3d screens put up by Sony and the atmosphere is awesome if you can resist the cold weather and be there. I have decided to document my experiences related to world cup on my blog and I think it would be an interesting part of my life in Sydney. The pics and videos should also form the part of the blog and it should be an interesting event as I am actually involved in it not just as a fan, but also working as a volunteer at Darling Harbor. I personally am supporting Brazil, Germany, Italy & Argentina.

I would love to see Brazil and Germany in final and Germany winning it, but lets see. For now, its 2nd post about Germany and Germans. And yes will keep updating the blog about world cup till 12th July.

Let the madness and euphoria take over. Did I mention I have 2 exams to go as well?

H@rdeep

11 months in Sydney.

2010-06-05T02:43:00.000+10:00

I have a whole lot of reasons why I love this city. I can go on and on and it would never end but today I wanna write about something very close to my heart. Something about them.

Thats Jana Boelke & Adriana Osanu. 2 German gals who came in my life and will stay forever. I don´t know how these sweethearts did it, but the truth is they did. Its the end of semester and people are busy with assignments, exams and more and all I am doing is making sure I spend time with these 2 because it might never matter to them but I really will miss both of them when they are gone and they will be gone pretty soon. I have met 2000-2500 people in these 11 months and very few of them are actually friends. The people I love spending time with, the people I will miss, the people who are awesome and I have no qualms in admitting that most of them are girls. I have spent so much time with them at university, in the parties, at their home, at other people´s home and now that they will leave I am sad and I do not know how will I deal with this? I know eventually I will get over it and I will be busy with my life again.

But the fact remains that I will always be thankful to them and I so do not want to compare them with Jon & Ceci, but somehow every semester 2 people from exchange students leave a mark on my heart. This time its these 2 girls. I read this somewhere "Most people walk in and out of you life. But only friends leave footprints in your heart" & I can say these people have succeeded in doing that. They will be gone but I will so visit Germany to meet them ASAP.

I know every German I have met has been wonderful but this post goes to these 2 just because I always teased them, had misunderstandings with them, was RUDE (Yes I was) but at the end of the day, they both know how much I will miss them...

Its not the end AO & JB, its just the beginning; beginning of a wonderful relationship; beginning of something that is already special for me; beginning of a relationship which I hope goes on for a lifetime. And yes, I know you both did FIGHT for me when you were alone.. ;)

You guys better read this and STAY IN TOUCH... Or else...

P.S.- Typed the whole blog post using a German keyboard which was NOT EASY AT ALL.

H@rdeep.

ipadio: 10 months in Sydney.

2010-05-11T01:17:00.001+10:00

Posted via email from Hardeep's posterous

ipadio: 2nd Home

2010-05-09T05:00:00.001+10:00

Posted via email from Hardeep's posterous

ipadio: Random

2010-05-01T00:44:00.001+10:00

Posted via email from Hardeep's posterous

Relationships sometimes.

2010-04-19T16:06:00.000+10:00

ipadio: Shaadi, Ghar. "Settling down in life"

2010-04-14T08:30:00.001+10:00

Posted via email from Hardeep's posterous

ipadio: Life these days.

2010-04-08T05:40:00.001+10:00

Posted via email from Hardeep's posterous

Thoughts about education outside India

2010-04-07T04:28:00.001+10:00

When Ipadio failed, I had the Genius idea of using Youtube. The result is down here.

1st ACTUAL salary in Sydney.

2010-04-06T05:22:00.001+10:00

The day was 2nd March, 2010. I got my 1st "Actual & Regular" salary from Rhiannon Rees. She is a business coach here in Sydney and I work for her as a social media expert. I was really happy and sad at the same time because I knew I would not be able to use any of $520 for myself. I had to pay rent for a month with that money.

Happiness, sadness, feeling responsible, a sense of feeling relaxed and a sense of responsibility that I can continue doing this and earn more money to make sure that I can manage my own expenses and save some money for "other things" which are really important, were all going on at this 1 moment where I had the money in my hands. That day I also felt really poor because I had no one around me to share my happiness. I also wanted to stay grounded and make sure I don't get carried away with the whole feeling.

Today after 5 weeks I finally am writing this blog post and there are so many changes to what I had originally thought of about writing this post. I still have to thank MOM, The Almighty God, My brothers, my awesome friends back home, every1 who ever made me believe I am not a loser and I can do stuff & 1 day I will succeed, Rhiannon of course and some amazing people here in Sydney who were my support. It was just because of these people that I could do stuff that I did here so far in Sydney. Things have been rocky after that and I have been not so consistent, but the fact that I could do it was a great motivating factor to keep me going and push myself to follow my dreams. This is just the beginning of something big and all I needed was a start somewhere.

I remember Sydney was never my choice (Even Australia was not) and how sad I was at the fact that I have to be here instead of US. In fact my other blog (about my life in Sydney) is "American Dream" and I always called Sydney as a detour of 2 years (maybe more) and that I will finally land in US. 10 months later, I have different opinion and Sydney feels home. Yes, I had great difficulty finding a job and I was even suggested that I should shave off my hair and "try to fit in". Well, if only these people who suggested me things "for my own benefit" knew how strong I am and how much I love challenges (no matter how small they are) & most importantly how amazing my family, friends and well wishers are, I am sure they would have kept their advices to themselves. :)

Documenting life for my own sake, I love the power of blogging. While facebook & twitter's features of spontaneity make me a little lazy, I know nothing beats the joy of blogging. I will come back often & make sure my passion for this thing never dies. This is 1 more thing that Sydney has taught me that I can live for my passions and prove that nothing is small if you are really passionate about it. The job is supposed to start again in this week and I hope I can do wonders with this stuff. Also making sure I post more voice blogs & video blogs. Time to make things exciting on here. :)

Awake at 5.15 a.m, (As usual)

H@rdeep.

Strong opinions about matters.

2010-04-03T06:19:00.000+11:00

I always thought (in fact let me correct myself BELIEVED) that your name is your identity & if it comes to me, I would not change it for anything in the world. But ever since I landed here in Sydney, I have met a lot of Chinese people who have adopted "English" names. For example Xin is called "Connie", some other guy I know is called "Stephen" and loads more.

I always felt sorry for these guys and even asked them "How do you feel about the whole change of name" thing. Most of them gave me vague answers and some one even said; "I love it that I have 2 names". To each his own and while I respect the opinions of other people, I have my own opinion on this matter and various other matters. Also the opinions I have are very strong & I do not think any one would be able to change them (unless they are really really good at their argument). My opinion on this matter is "Its Pathetic and sucks". I mean I would not change my name just because someone can't pronounce it or has difficulty in spelling it or can't understand at one go or for that matter "whatever" the reason is. Its my identity, its what I have been known as my whole life, my family, my friends, the people I know call me with that name and my parents named me that way & I will like to be known by that name till the day I die. Just because I am in a different country where people are not used to my name does not mean I will change my name and adopt an "English" name. But I am absolutely fine with repeating it 3-4 times, spelling it and even helping people how to pronounce it correctly.

So yes, name change to me sucks big time. I would never do it at any cost. People who say they are happy I hope they are telling the truth, but to all of those who feel bad about changing their names, I would just advise live your life the way "YOU" want, not the way "THEY" want and such small decisions are the beginning of that way of living.

On to other important opinion about other issue. Its this thing which was a "Culture shock" initially when I heard it and it took me some time to believe its true. We have 2 bars inside the University campus. Yes the University I study in here in Sydney. UTS, University of Technology, Sydney. They are called The Loft & The Glasshouse. While it may be absolutely ok with many people, as an "INDIAN" (yes I am 1), it was an absolutely weird/awkward thing to me that "an educational institute" has 2 bars inside its campus. It was something I would have totally ignored as I do not drink or smoke and am not much of a party person, but it was the O fest party at the start of 2nd semester and I did go to 1 of the parties at Glasshouse. Everything was wonderful as long as I was dancing & having fun. Sometime at midnight people started to leave as they were too tired and I decided to stay back to watch things that were totally worth the $20 I spent that night.

Making out in University is kind of common. Yes, kissing & getting real personal and all touchy & feely is so common that they do not even matter to me these days and I do not feel awkward nor do I have time to look at those things, but people were into so much more that night at Glasshouse. So guys taking the girls to men's toilet and vice versa all started and I was sitting there looking at that. What was going through my head that night is something awesome. In almost deafening sound, I could still sit & concentrate and think ignoring everything around me. I discovered 1 more amazing quality in me that night and I so want to have more opportunities where I can concentrate in the least possible environment to concentrate. :)

I looked at these couples making out in University campus (since technically Glasshouse is in UTS campus) & could not understand how an educational institution would encourage sex inside its campus (even though indirectly). I totally agree that these University students would do the same wherever they were, but then not inside university campus at least. I totally condemn the University's decision to have bars inside University campus and have strong opinion again why bars should not be inside University campus. How can education just be viewed as business and universities can shy away from any responsibility of their students being morally aware...... but then since "morals" of this country are different and they are subjective and might have a different definition here, its still a debatable issue. But as I said, I have strong opinions on matters. I presented mine here and I would love to hear about what others think on this matter.

I am sure I will never agree to both these matters. Changing names to make some one else comfortable with it or the fact that educational institutions should have bars inside their campuses. Of course there are other issues on which I have strong opinions but these days in Sydney its these 2 and I am sure very soon I will have more things to write about. :)

Loving the fact that I am blogging again,

H@rdeep.

Indians & Pakistanis in Sydney.

2010-04-03T03:47:00.001+11:00

The whole world might have a general opinion that Indians and Pakistanis hate each other because Pakistan has always been responsible for a lot of terrorists attacks in India and the world knows it is true as well, but ever since I have landed here in Sydney, I have a strong opinion on this matter.

To be honest, back there in India I would have never given this issue a lot of importance and I won't deny the fact that I was 1 of those Indians who hated Pakistan a lot and totally believed that India should bomb and attack them and kill a lot of people so that we are no longer threatened by terrorists attacks. Being here in Sydney for 10 months now, I have met a lot of Pakistani people and there was not a moment when I felt weird about it. In fact it was always a welcome change as you get a chance to talk to some one in Hindi & are not forced to talk in English.

Its been a wonderful experience meeting a lot of Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Nepalis and people from every other country that was once a part of an undivided India. Sydney has been so damn wonderful to explore that side of me where I am this "uber social networking guy" who loves meeting people from all over the world and different backgrounds. So there might be Pakistanis who are born here or have lived here for years and there will be some who just came here as international students. The variety of backgrounds of people interest me and makes the whole process even more enjoyable. Not even a single moment of awkwardness was ever experienced while I interacted with people from Pakistan.

As normal human beings or common people of both the countries I am sure we are all ok and love the fact that we can meet each other and share experiences and views/ideas about things and also find so much of common stuff between us. I am in a country where we do not have time to think about these trivial matters and have risen above such small and unimportant stuff. On the contrary, we get along so well and try and help each other on various matters and sometimes even become best friends. How I wish the politicians and other selfish people would stop doing things which make people of these 2 countries hate each other. The day these 2 countries become good friends, India will again be 1 of the superpowers of the world in true sense as we would then be able to focus on issues which are actually important rather than worrying about Pakistan.

I am sure as the younger generation of these 2 countries, we have that responsibility to work on this very important matter and show that we can be wonderful neighbors and good friends. I know India has always tried that and it has never worked so far but all we need is a concrete proof that is possible through the efforts of youth of these 2 countries and I also believe this is possible in a country which is neutral. No matter how much we try to work on this in our respective countries, there would be some extremists who would foil the plan and it would be much more easier to accomplish this in a country where we are far away and we have no negative influence.

I am hopeful this can happen and all we require is an effort, a beginning somewhere and the best example of this is Indians and Pakistanis in other countries. Here's to a very optimistic post that we have better relations between these 2 countries and the world becomes a better place to live in for common people of these 2 countries. And yes I would totally not forget to thank the Indians and Pakistanis here in Sydney who have inspired me to write this blog post. You guys have been awesome and I am looking forward to meet more Pakistanis here in Sydney or anywhere else.

Ameen,

H@rdeep.

Peer networking at UTS (9 days+1 to go)

2010-03-01T00:05:00.000+11:00

I still remember when I met Prateek, Shruti & Emma at the campus tour during my orientation. I met a lot of other peer networkers around 9 months back, but these 3 people are the ones who gave me campus tour and I would never forget how great they were. I started asking them about peer network program right from day 1.

While I never understood why Emma did not add me on facebook, I did not even care. :)
Today after 9 days of peer networking and possibly 1 more day at the late comer's orientation, I have had an awesome time getting involved in the tasks like mob, ushering, campus tours, signage, "MINGLING" & doing any random thing like walking students to the session rooms and helping them with general enquiries or walking them to student centers or even more. What I have not done yet are some tasks like coffee cart, registrations & session bookings. I just had no doubts in getting selected. I mean as long as I can remember, I have been mingling with strangers and thats like a lifetime. I knew I am so doing this. It was like I was waiting for something like this to show how amazing I am and I totally showed that.

I wish I could put down in words what have I got. I can definitely say I lost loads of sleep. :D but nonetheless, it looks so far as a wonderful experience and of course I made some new friends, got to know some people more and also know who I should stay away from. Loads of pics again went to facebook and as everything else does to me, this event again made me a little wiser. The new students (specially girls) had a great time with me and so did I. It feels great to be a part of something like this & I know I will be 1 of those people who can say I did so much more at University than just studying.

I am of course looking forward to next orientation and will do all 3 of them. Missed the Mardi Gras parade because of almost no sleep and also the last day at UTS GSB as the post graduate welcome because was sleeping the whole day. Peer network remains 1 of the finest experiences of the life in Australia & feels great to be part of the Orange family (well is it?). I love the younger generation here. They are less complicated and open which is such a rare thing these days.

UTS has been awesome so far and I am looking forward to some great months before I finally leave UTS (just to come back). I totally believe in destiny and I have faith that there is good stuff in store for me in Sydney, in UTS and in India when I go back home. Yes, I am going back....

How? Why?

Well as always come back to know that.

H@rdeep.

Chinese New year celebrations & more.

2010-02-14T06:13:00.000+11:00

The day was awesome to say the least. Friday 12th February, 2010, I also had the dinner with Peer networkers and I was torn as to where do I go? Thank God I missed the PN Oldies Newies event. :)

I ended up being with the Couchsurfers at Belmore Park where it rained heavily and we couldn't see much of Chinese culture or stuff but what followed later on was the fun thing. We went to Hotel Clarendon and it rained like cats & dogs there and were all stuck at that place. What would normal people do in such situations is sulk about it and complain about the whole situation and how they are stuck, but NOT CSers. So the girls who had enough wine decided to dance in the rain and I had one of the most amazing nights doing much more. This one definitely goes down as 1 of the memorable nights in Sydney. :)

Oh yeah before you all get ideas, I had no score. LOL I had no idea of the score until some one on facebook asked me about it. But yes great conversation, some good food and a night to remember. Did I mention that I had my camera with me (as always) and clicked some pics "with effects" which are on facebook & I love rains..?

H@rdeep.

6 Months in Aussieland.

2010-01-22T04:42:00.000+11:00

Technically speaking 6 months completed at 8th January, 2010. While Sydney and its people have been awesome and I have had the best time of my life here, things are not so good and that HAS to change from today. 22nd January, 2010 should be start of something new.

My facebook and twitter may suggest I am having fun but the story is not exactly as it seems to be. I had to write here and keep a record of whats happening in my life. So here I am. Things look promising ahead and its high time they ACTUALLY DO. The next month will bring along a lot of activities and I should have a busy time with UTS Peernetworking, UTS Exposure, GSB Footprint, the job & CS (as usual). This does not mean I will not have time to be online and share stuff on twitter & facebook but in fact it means the opposite. And a very important development is the MSP program which should happen soon too. I will keep a keen eye on that.

Also March will mean start of University and second semester here. Which is something I am again looking forward to because its time I give it my best shot and act intelligently because I will have to balance the workshop and this with a lot of other stuff. Now that would be the my true test of multi tasking ability. There have been some of the most awesome moments and I wish I cold put them down all in words, but again I would say go look on facebook and check my twitter and you would know.

I finally for a while felt homesick and missed family & friends so the "honeymoon stage" is over too. I can just say this experience of being on your own and managing things on your own is something that is enriching and has taught me many things which no school, University or any educational institution would have ever taught. Life has been the best teacher. Made some awesome new friends & knew who are my "true" friends after being here. No complaints as such and I hope things get better. Finally a post in the new year. As always more updates on the social media sites and its befitting if I am actually gonna do something of that sorts as my livelihood.

Just an analysis of 6 months of life here. The major difference is I am actually happier than I was back home. People miss me and things are better. :)

H@rdeep.

Social media takes over.

2009-12-22T17:52:00.003+11:00

Here I am in Sydney. More than 5 months later, I do not have a job, I have shifted to a new place and have been roaming around a lot. I have learned a lot, matured and I learn a lot still every passing day. I love it here so far. I might just stay here forever (Which by the way Mom does not want to happen).

But yes, the title says "Social media takes over" and yes it has in fact. I update twitter, facebook and other stuff much more than my blog. I know I had promised myself that I will put in more pics and videos on my blog to make it more interesting. Doesn't happen. Oh wait, I can actually embed some videos here from youtube of what I have been upto lately. So yeah, there you go.

But the fact remains that I update Facebook and twitter of whatever I am doing and wherever I am and not much HERE. So I would come here when I have really something special and something that I wanna share and make sure I have a record of. If you have been coming here often, all I can say is find me on twitter, youtube and facebook & follow me there to check whats on in my life. I know its sad but yes those things are so convenient and so easy so I have given in the pressure and I still promise to be here as much as possible. Till then, you know where to find me.

H@rdeep.

End of ANOTHER Year.

2009-12-09T04:26:00.000+11:00

Here I am in Sydney and its been 5 months. Now I know what it is when they say "TIME FLIES". Its been awesome and interesting. I am finally over with the "honeymoon" stage but if I look back and analyze my time here in Sydney, its been 1 hell of a time.

I mean words would be too less to describe the whole range of emotions I have gone through. So I will post the links of my facebook profile which has all the albums.

http://www.facebook.com/hardeeps

The pictures of course do not show everything that I went through emotionally, but rather show what have I been upto. From camping for the 1st time in my life, to meeting people from all over the world to being an active Couchsurfer, I have done so many things in just 5 months here that I would have never done back in India. Moving to another house, taking decisions on my own, knowing how it feels when you do not have cash and deciding to choose between buying food or the train ticket, to many other experiences which I am unable to remember now or maybe not being able to put in words. I also made awesome friends and learnt so much in just 5 months of being away from home and being on my own.

Life teaches you so much and I have been learning new things everyday. From Ahmedabad to Sydney, it was not that hard, from Sydney to God knows where, it does not look so easy. I have still not settled down here and I do not know how much time I require to do that, but I can say safely it feels like home here in Sydney just because I know so many awesome people, bump into people I know on the streets, have been doing things and living life. I, of course have so much more to do like Bungee jumping, skydiving, Hot air balloon, scuba diving and all the other adventure sports.

Sydney has been wonderful and I sure wanna stay here. Life has been harsh and things have not been all well at times but I am happy that I am facing difficulties with a smiling face and I know they wont be there forever. I have had support from all the unexpected sources and I know now who are my real friends. I have become a lot wiser and even though haven't achieved substantial things what makes me feel good is that I have actually started the journey towards it. I firmly believe that I will look back at this post and say "hey those were the days too" and I will probably laugh and smile about this.

I love the fact that I can blog out the stuff here and can look back at my life and the moments that passed. At times you really need to stop, sit down and talk to yourself about what do you want from your life and where are you heading with it? I am glad I have an awesome family which allows me to do that and its just because of their support that I have been doing things. This post is dedicated to my family, my friends back home and some of the awesome people whom I met here. I wanna take this opportunity to thank you all for being so wonderful and enriching my life in some way or the other.

At times, life becomes so surreal and I see things happening to me just like in movies. People coming and going, things happening and me moving on with it without a purpose and at times like these, I know that I have my family and friends ALWAYS THERE for me. Some awesome amazing people who are so important to me that they made me survive this phase of my life and who I expect and hope will always be there for me. I will never ever forget these people and I hope I somehow get a chance to thank them all in my lifetime.

Nostalgic, Analytical about life and looking forward to a great new year,

H@rdeep.

I am "STILL" NOT USED to this..

2009-12-05T04:26:00.000+11:00

I went to the CS monthly meet today which was at Hotel Clarendon on 156, Devonshire Street, Surry Hills, Sydney. I didn't realize that I would meet Amelie again and that she would inform me that she can't have a farewell party. I mean no way, this girl is the most wonderful person I have ever met and she will be always special because she took great care of me when I arrived in Sydney. I am STILL NOT USED to this thing.

I mean the most awesome people keep on leaving. I have not been doing anything. No job yet, left with $5 in a different country, just moved to a new place, I do not know what to do? I know I cant an I will not even think of going back before 2 years. But honestly, at times I just break down to pieces. I also know that I have no one here to support me and I will have to be strong, but.............

Anyways thats it. More later.

H@rdeep.

Farewells and understanding and dealing with life.

2009-11-12T16:56:00.000+11:00

I never thought I will meet amazing and awesome people through CS in Sydney, but I have been fortunate enough to meet some of the best people from around the world. Holland, Russia, France, Germany, US, UK, and many other countries. You name it and I have met people from there.

The best part is when I spend time with them, go to parties, events, camping and dance the nights away. Smile, giggle and forget all the worries I have in life. University exams, financial problems, personal problems, missing family, and anything and everything else. These guys literally became my family. I went out with them, danced, ate, laughed, and at times (More these days) even cried.

They all are leaving for their countries and its the farewell time these days. Already attended 2 farewell parties and I do not want to go to more, but the sad part is I will have to. I could see tears in the eyes of people (this girl for sure every time) and I know that our feelings are same. We all TRY HARD to show that we are happy but inside us we are crying and sad just because we are seeing off a friend who before some days was a complete stranger to us. Life is strange and I do not understand (probably I do not WANT TO) that why the hell does every one leave?

I will definitely meet a whole lot of other people from around the world and will go out to events, dance, eat out and do a lot of activities but I know I will miss these guys. I am an absolute idiot that I cannot help being so sensitive and emotional about the whole issue but I hope I learn to deal with this part of life. Its amazing that I meet people from all over the world but understand that we have 1 common language of "LOVE".

Amelie, Evelien, Lisa, Clement, Amy, Freddy, Joannie, Femke, Anne (I am sure I am missing out some names here) and all the other awesome and wonderful people that I met and have given me some amazing memories cant be thanked enough and i promise all of you guys that I will visit each one of you in your countries. Was telling Evelien the other day I will have to spend a whole lot of money because I will have to travel around the world. :)

Thank you for making my life so awesome and stay in touch. you made my life a lot easier in a different country where I knew no one and now I can claim I have a "FAMILY".

Needless to say a very Emotional post,
H@rdeep.

ipadio: 4 months in Sydney.

2009-11-09T08:10:00.001+11:00

Posted via email from Hardeep's posterous

ipadio: Halloween party, HTC rants, final exam update

2009-11-02T19:51:00.001+11:00

Posted via email from Hardeep's posterous

Announcing Google Maps Navigation for Android 2.0

2009-10-29T02:12:00.001+11:00

via feedproxy.google.com

DROIDDDDDDDDDDDDD
I m gonna get this beast. YAY

Posted via web from Hardeep's posterous

Google Redefines GPS Navigation Landscape: Google Maps Navigation For Android 2.0

2009-10-29T02:09:00.001+11:00

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Awesome. I want ANDROID 2 Update NOWWWWWWWWWWWWW
Cynogen get it for me please. :)

Posted via web from Hardeep's posterous

ipadio: Opera house open day update

2009-10-28T21:54:00.001+11:00

Posted via email from Hardeep's posterous

ipadio: Post about world's funniest island

2009-10-19T19:52:00.001+11:00

Posted via email from Hardeep's posterous

Voice Post that didn't work with Posterous Autopost.

2009-10-19T01:53:00.002+11:00

Little joys of being in Sydney.

2009-09-19T17:04:00.000+10:00

To say life has been busy would be an understatement and yes to say life's been interesting and fun would just not describe how awesome it has been in here. Apart from very active on Couchsurfing, meeting people and doing stuff, I am doing things that I never thought I would do.

Last week had 2 individual research assignments to be submitted and after sleepless nights and erratic time schedules, I was so ready to meet up people at a roof top pub when Amelie invited me to the event. And guess what happened today morning? Shyam comes in and informs he is going to play lawn tennis and I can join in. DAMN. This is what I wanted even before I had decided to come here.

So finally I got to play lawn tennis and yes I sucked at it, but hey I am gonna learn and be better. I was good at table tennis though. :)

A good weekend start. And yes tomorrow is this Brazilian carnival and food and dance show, so I am going for that. YAYYYYYYY good times in here. Oh yeah did I mention summer just started. So great time 2 visit beaches now.

:)

Happy, content (except a little worry which should be settled soon)

H@rdeep

Roaming on the streets of Strathfield & being happy.

2009-09-08T22:25:00.001+10:00

So what do I do besides meeting up couchsurfers, doing the walks and going to UTS in Sydney? Well guess.......................?

If you read the title you ALREADY know it. Yes roaming on the streets of Strathfield. Now before you think I enjoy doing that and go on with your assumptions, I would like to say here "Hold your horses". Because instead of doing it on my own, its more of a forced thing. Yes, its because the people I stay with (my housemates) have already lost 2 keys of that place and are too lazy to get a new 1 done. So what happens is 5 people have just 1 key among themselves and it happens to me more often that I come back at the place and there is no one there and the keys are not with me.

What happens next? Thankfully 2 other guys (Pankush & Vishal) moved out a month back from the same home after a little clash & they live in Strathfield only. So I go to the other side of the Strathfield station & drop in to their place and write a blog post. LOL Naah. The last part (Writing a blog post just happened today). So if you pass through Strathfield sometime and see a happy go lucky Punjabi boy roaming on the streets there, you have to be almost sure its me. :)

Now comes the next question? Why am I always happy & smiling? Ah I have my own moments of sadness. When I miss Chutku (My daughter), when I miss Prashant and our debates (Thanks to Skype I don't miss them that much though) & when I miss mom's yelling and me and her spending time together. But honestly speaking, those moments don't last long. The whole experience of being sad and then cheering myself up (because of course no 1 else will do it in here) and forgetting stuff through loud music is something I have been used to in here.

Not complaining about anything yet. I am sure people around me would be surprised to see me and would be wondering "Whats up with this guy? He never seems tensed or worried". To them my answer is very simple. I have had my fair share of tensions and worries. Its time I live my life the way I ALWAYS wanted to & now that I am living it that way, what should make me worried or tensed?

Smiling, Laughing & Celebrating life. Love from Sydney.

H@rdeep.

Finally A real ACTIVE CSer.

2009-09-07T23:39:00.001+10:00

So the weekend that just went by was eventful. I actually had plans of Salsa Thursday (3rd September, 2009) and then attending the big meet on Friday (monthly CS meet at Hotel Clarendon, 156 Devonshire St Surry Hills NSW 2010), the House party at Maroubra beach organized by Theide on Saturday and the Watson bay to Bondi beach walk on Sunday afternoon.

Well I did do just 2 of the things. I went to the monthly meet & did the Sunday walk. The pics are here. Just 5 pics of the monthly meet. And a whole lot of the walk.

But the monthly meet and this walk were awesome. So many people knew me at the monthly meet. They were like "oh So you are Hardeep". It was fun being there and I cant wait for the next month's meet. I missed Thursday's salsa because I didn't wanted to go there from Uni with the bag and Saturday's party because I was not prepared to go to Maroubra beach in the evening & didn't have any costume either. I must say attending these 2 things I already feel like a part of the community and feel so good about it. I have just started being an ACTIVE CSer and I am looking forward to a great time in Sydney courtesy CS. Wish I can do something like this which makes real difference to so many people's lives & brings a smile on their face, creates sweet memories and gives them to see "GOOD in Complete Strangers". CS is a proof that good people still exist and its not a rare dying species of human beings. LOL

I have promised myself that I will be doing a lot of travelling and I will be posting more pics and videos soon. There would be beautiful & amazing people in those slideshows. This space has just started becoming so much better. Keep coming back for knowing whats on in my life in Sydney.

Having a great time & living it up "Aussie style"

H@rdeep.

So Much to write.

2009-08-31T19:21:00.000+10:00

The week is about to end and I have so much to write. 1st of all I just wanna thank my family, my friends, my well wishers and every1 who is somehow responsible for me being in Sydney right now. I am doing things I always wanted to do and living life as I always wanted to live.

This is IT. I am celebratiing life here rather than just living it. Gadgets, meeting people, going to places and events, doing stuff and BEST OF ALL being on my own were the things I ALWAYS wanted. Not too much to ask for ha?

Yes independence at times can be a big thing for you. I am living life NOW. So much happened in the last week. I met Lisa through couchsurfing just like that when I messaged her about the Split bridge walk and fortunately she was online so she replied back asking "can I meet her the next day for a coffee or something" and we exchanged a series of messages before me met that same night. Isn't that amazing? You meet a complete stranger after exchanging 4-5 messages on a website and the stranger in this case is a sexy & beautiful girl. :)

So instead of meeting the next day for a harbor bridge walk, botanical gardens and Bondi beach thing we met the same night at a salsa dance pub where we did not do the salsa. Hahaha & we talked for 2 hours and met on Friday, 28th August, 2009 at central station to head over to the Harbor Bridge walk which is amazing and then went to Bondi beach which at present is 1 of my favorites in Sydney. Lisa did message me Thursday night itself saying "Oh I have bought this new bikini today which I wanna try out" so Bondi was sure gonna happen.

Lisa and me parted at sometime after 4 p.m in the evening & spending the day with her was awesome. We talked a lot, played on the beach & tried to know each other. Thanks to her, I actually had someone to go to places. Thats the pics with Lisa that i have clicked (The album will be updated when she sends pics that she has clicked). So look out after some days for updates on the album.

I didn't knew the week would have an exciting finish with a late night 3 a.m. visit to Bondi & a tour to Wollongong and a Saturday night out but Vicky got a new car and we finally got off for a drive at 2 a.m. Suddenly at 4 a.m it was decided to go to Wollongong which is a hilly area and has this wonderful beach Coledale. They said the views are beautiful & we will be there just in time to see the sunrise. MAN I love this "out of sudden" random plans which work out & this 1 worked too. The view was amazing on the way towards Wollongong and the beach Coledale is marvelous. Australia has so many beaches which are well maintained and its great to be on there on the beaches.

A lot of pics are here.

Looking forward to a whole lot of such fun filled weekends in Sydney & in Australia. Life has just started becoming better.

:)

H@rdeep.

UTS Infusion 2009.

2009-08-24T23:14:00.000+10:00

An awesome culmination of music, dance, great food, amazing talent and OF COURSE networking and meeting people. Ah did I have fun? of course a whole lot of fun.

Wish I could write much but for the 1st time I will have loads of videos to share instead. Yes go ahead. have a look. And yes I shot some great videos and I am gonna get a great camera once I earn enough money. :)

It lasted 5 days 17th-21st August, 2009 and whatever I could shoot is here.

Enjoy,

H@rdeep.

1st presentation @ UTS.

2009-08-13T20:30:00.001+10:00

This was just a routine presentation in the MPC class and it was a group presentation, but I loved it. It was a case study of "Airtex Aviation" and I had worked on my part which were answering 2 questions pretty well. Of Course Maria and Pooja did a wonderful job too and it all is recorded. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks to Qik on Android. Here it is.

The Volume is not there at all or is very low because the Phone was far. I hope I can shoot better videos next time. But the experience is captured on a video and now I can look back at it is an awesome feeling. There are a whole lot of these which will happen so I promise you will see interesting things on here.

:)

Lovely day today so far. Loving UTS. Oh and yeah Do I need to say we totally rocked?
Yes we did.

H@rdeep.

A month in Australia/Strathfiled to Central.

2009-08-13T19:30:00.001+10:00

Its been a month and 3 days more in Sydney now. I shifted to Strathfield on 27th July and stay with these 6 other guys who are never here for the whole day because all of them work and I don't yet. Life has been good so far and its been a regular train journey from Strathfield to Central station to go to Uni.

Well, I promised my next post will have pics. I had initially thought that I will have a photo blog when I land in Australia and click a whole lot of pics and see and visit many places. Sadly it hasn't happened yet, but then I am not gonna disappoint my readers and post some pics finally.

4 different people.

Starting from the top its Vishal, then Vineet, the 1 with laptop is the late night chatter Pankush and the 1 sleeping is Robin. All 4 are punjabis and the other 2 missing here are Shyam and Vicky who were out working that night.

Its been a love hate relationship with all of these people because I have problems with the way they stay in home. They are loud and they need noise around them always. So if none of them is talking loudly, then they will make sure the T.V is on with a volume which can be safely termed as loud. LOL so how do I handle my studies or anything that requires concentration given the fact that I stay with them. Well I changed myself. I stay at the University as long as I can during those days when I have class. (Tuesdays & Thursdays) & the rest of the days I sleep anytime during the day and work at nights. Now, I remember I kept telling people back home that I will adjust anywhere in any situation and that I am actually very flexible. This is the best example of what I meant.

I have learned many things including how to be on my own and how to treat every person I meet as passers-by (A very important advice from Amelie) & I must say it has helped to fit in a different country and a different environment very quickly. I even have decided 2 important things that i want to do after I landed here.
1. Buy a high end Digital SLR camera which takes great pics. (There are so many people around me who own 1 of that and click amazing pics)
2. Travel a lot. (This is something I always had back of my mind anyways)

Those who know me would think I am having a great time because I always wanted to meet people and stuff. I wont completely deny that but wont completely agree to it either. Not every 1 I meet is a great person & its a pretty big city so there are so many opportunities that you meet people everywhere. The day start from travelling in train and I love the whole energy around me. The way people keep walking & running and doing their work. Hopefully I will visit Bondi and other beaches soon and put up some lovely pics.

Putting up that request at Couchsurfing & hopefully that would happen this Sunday.
More as it happens.

H@rdeep.

Happy B'day to me.

2009-08-07T23:20:00.000+10:00

Honestly speaking, I am not so happy on my b'days since some years and this year I am not so happy that I couldn't even write a post the same day. I mean too lazy. Isn't it?

Back to what I did. Nothing much. August 1 was eventful and so I slept late at 2 a.m again, called family in U.S and talked to every1, woke up late and realized I cannot go for the Bondi to Bronte Walk. So what did I do?

Stayed back at home, tried to know the room mates, did a little stuff on the internet and don't remember what else? But you know what? I am gonna make sure my birthday is a celebration for people around the world 1 day. I keep getting these signs "Now is the time".

Had a lot of people who wrote on wall on facebook and orkut and sent emails. For me as always it was a time to look back at life and ponder what did I do for all these 28 years? And I know the answer is "Nothing substantial".

Anyways, this post has been much more like this and getting repetitive over years. All I can hope is that next year (2010) it should be a little different.

H@rdeep.

Marathon/Couchsurfing day & Walking alone.

2009-08-07T18:07:00.001+10:00

I had a little confusion as to what the title should be so this post has 3 of them. :)

Walking alone is something I have been doing from Day 1 in Sydney & it is symbolic to the fact that you walk alone in life. Honestly speaking, I am used to it now. And today was 1 more day when I realized the importance of planning and time management &stuff. It all started with sleeping late at 2 a.m a night before and then waking up late at 7.45 a.m. when I was supposed to reach at 8.40 a.m at Darling Harbor to catch a ferry with 3 other people Amelie, Patrick (her Boyfriend) and Paola. These are the people I went for dinner on Wednesday 28th July and thus we knew each other well and had planned about whale watching that night only. The dinner on Wednesday was fun and I did stay back and went to a pub that day too. I ate good food at reasonable price.

And I woke up at 7.45 a.m. I had to catch a train which takes half an hour to reach to Central station & then had at least a 10 minutes walk to Darling Harbor. To add confusion to the whole matter, Central Station has 4 exits that I know of. (maybe more). I somehow reached Central Station at 8.47 and then started running from central Station to Darling Harbor and then inside Darling Harbor towards the Aquarium. I actually went to the opposite side which is the maritime museum. And then I kept running again as I was already late and every1 was on the boat waiting for me. Amelie kept calling (which I totally understood and even suggested that I should stay back), but I so wanted to go and I had an empty stomach and had to keep running over the bridge to reach the other side which I finally did manage to reach. I felt I was taking part in a Marathon that day. Honestly I cannot remember when was the last time I ran so much in a day!

Thank God I was on the boat. The people informed us they have coffee & tea on board and we can help ourselves and a little later I did that. HELPED MYSELF, which was the "Biggest mistake" of that day. A coffee/tea empty stomach in the morning is the worst thing you could do to your own body. So after feeling a little better for a while, I was sea sick which means I was throwing up. I did saw the whales though but it was not that much fun as I was not with Paola, Amelie and Pat when we were all watching whales. Thats the important thing. "If I am at an event with fellow couchsurfers, I need to be with them." PERIOD.

So we did saw whales. The feeling of being right in the middle of water and having nothing around you is also amazing. (Gotta be on a cruise sometime soon). Also we stayed back for a little lunch kind of thing and talked a lot and then I even met Paola and Amelie in the evening at The Museum of Contemporary Arts to head over to a pub meeting where other couchsurfers had gathered. LOL I don't wanna talk about the pub meeting much as I have decided I am not going to any of those anytime now onwards.

But the sad part is I missed the Bondi beach to Bronte walk the next day because I was tired like hell & could not wake up to be there at 1.30 p.m. I mean thats kinda bad. I was supposed to be at Bondi in the afternoon.

Anyways, the day was fun and then it was my birthday on 2nd August. What did I do that day?

Read on. Thats the next post.

Having fun for sure in Sydney and living it up.
H@rdeep.

1st lecture and meeting more people.

2009-07-29T17:03:00.001+10:00

I started off for the 1st lecture at UTS Haymarket campus yesterday (July 28th, 2009) and it was peak time (before 9 a.m) for the trains. I had less than 5 dollars and also went to the ATM to withdraw money. It was 8.50 a.m by this time & then the announcement started that the trains are running 20-25 mins late which meant that I would be late in the very 1st lecture by 30-45 minutes.

Wow What a start!

But then good things followed later on. I met this lady beside whom I sat & she looks fabulous, is friendly and is a lecturer of Accounts for 10 years. See thats what you call "good luck". We did have a little chit chat and I hope to stay in touch with this lady more often during my course here at UTS. The professor Mr. Phillip Spence seems a very strict professor but then it was still ok. The next lecture was interesting.

This professor of the second lecture has been teaching at UTS for 31 years and I am surprised nobody told him that he SHOUTS a lot. I mean without the microphone he is real loud and I am somewhat sure that if he gets a microphone, half of the students would go deaf. His talks were boring and the names he mentioned were unheard of for the entire class. :)

That did not please him and he was definitely not happy about such lack of knowledge of post graduate students. (But then how can he expect us all to know about U.S and U.K and their legislature and Constitution unless we do not belong to those countries), I mean most of the people in the class were international students. Then came the fun part because he did tell us right in the 1st lecture that we need to form a group and select a topic for group presentation right after our 1st lecture. hahhaaha Funny because out of those 29 students just 3 people knew each other and everyone else was a stranger for other people. But still people who know me would have guessed that I did form a group of 5 (which was required) very easily and in fact I made a group of 8. So finally its a group of 5 with me and 4 gals and yeah this was not intentional. It just happened.

Looking forward to more of such exciting days ahead and getting busier as the classes go on.

As always watch this space for more updates including pics and stuff because I really need this space to be interesting enough so that most people come back, :)

H@rdeep.

End of orientation and a hectic week.

2009-07-25T18:06:00.000+10:00

I am finally done with the orientation of the course which lasted for 5 days from 20th-24th of July here at the UTS building 4. The seminars were hectic and fun because I met a whole lot of people and observed a whole lot of things. Clicked a lot of pics, made some new friends and now looking forward to classes from Tuesday

The new facebook account has some new friends from UTS. Sydney is a multi cultural city in true sense. So far I have met people from The Netherlands, US, UK, Russia, Japan, Taiwan, Germany, Mexico, France, Iran, and of course not to forget India and China. LOL Indians & Chinese are everywhere you go, in every city of the world. And call it funny or weird but there are a whole lot of people in here who you would think are Chinese but are from some different country or are maybe Iranian from Australia and more. Its complicated and truly multi cultural. Thats great.

Talking about the University which is HUGE and has many campuses it also has 2 bars in the University campus. YES THEY ARE ACTUALLY IN THE CAMPUS. :)

And I suppose having a beer inside the campus is allowed too. But anyways since I do not drink and do not intend to, its no use for me. Made some really good friends on here and things have been good so far. the pics are up at both my facebook accounts and I am sure its just the beginning. I am also about 2 meet some couchsurfers today at a bar and since I do not drink I will be leaving soon from there too. Also I have set up Google Voice+Gizmo5 on the Android HTC magic and it feels magic that i can talk to US for free from the cell phone on WLAN and 3G. YAY.

Looking forward to a job now so that I can buy more stuff (gadgets of course).
I m used to walking now and even though it might feel lonely at times, I haven't missed India or home in general yet much.

More updates, pics and a whole lot of stuff to follow so keep checking this space.

Excited, Happy and hopeful to good times ahead,
H@rdeep.

Australia So far.

2009-07-13T02:23:00.001+10:00

Its been 6 days today that I landed in Sydney. I landed here on 8th July, 2009, an hour late than the scheduled time of 6.55 p.m. because the flight took off late from the stopover (Singapore). The whole experience so far has been amazing to say the least.

The train ride to Harris Park (thats the suburb where most Indians in Australia Stay) from airport started with this conversation with a converted Sikh who had a business of immigration advise and all. As is very common with students coming to Australia, I was asked and the other guy assumed that I was there for either the course of "hairdressing" or "cooking". LOL yup thats the cheapest courses in Australia and people come here to do that just because they can work full time and earn loads of money and get the PR (Permanent Residency) later on.

This elderly guy did gave me some survival tips in Australia & later on that day I did feel the change in temperature from almost 40-45*C heat in Ahmedabad to 10*C cold in Sydney. The next day I got up at 1.30 p.m and I could understand it is jet lag. That day (Thursday, 9th July) I stayed at home and the next day I went to University on Friday. Opened a bank account, deposited money and met a friend "Sourabh" at Darling Harbor near Imax theater. I must say I walked a lot and I should get used to this whole habit of walking as soon as possible to get to terms with my new life. I so wanted to click pictures of the places that day but I thought this is very near to the University and so I will come here a lot and click pics later on.

This was until Friday. Saturday again I was at home and so we went to the mall to get a new cell phone which I could not buy because several docs are needed from the bank which haven't arrived yet, but I got the taste of something I never expected here. People not following rules in the parking lot and thus we being stuck in there for an hour and half. (WOW & I thought that stuff happened only in India). :)

We finally reached home and I could not do much stuff except make some calls to schedule meeting people for accommodation and apply for TFN (Australia's tax File number). On Sunday morning I was supposed to met "Vicky" who I met in the afternoon sometime and saw that I quite like that place where he stays with 3 other people. I am supposed to move in there by the end of this month or early next month. I am going to the University for my enrollment at 9 a.m today and its 2.10 a.m Sydney local time so ya 1st day of University where I will be choosing subjects and all and deciding the number of days I will be attending University. Also looking forward to meet "Parshv" and his girlfriend "Aditi" and then later on at 4.30 p.m again meeting Amelie for the 1st time at Imax.

Hope to have a great and busy day today and click pics too. Also I am gonna be awake applying online for jobs right now so keeping fingers crossed for that. More "REGULAR" updates to follow soon.

Keep checking this space for pics and more.

H@rdeep.

So it happens again. Not a Big deal.

2009-07-02T01:45:00.000+10:00

Maybe most of you guys would say I am giving excuses for my failures. But its not about that here. I am just gonna write about what has happened and is true.

I have an amazing family. My Mom & 2 brothers. They have been always with me till date and have done so much that words can fail to describe how thankful I am to them. But when I look back, I know I have been treated as step son and step brother. Why did they do to me at every stage of my life? maybe just because I never complained. And complaining is a far off thing, I didn't even think of it earlier.

I went to the college in the bus for 2 years wasting hours waiting for the bus and then wasting hours while travelling through them. I was never given money for my expenses and was forced to earn it myself while I was still studying and then I could not clear my exams because I could not concentrate on studies well. After years of doing the same thing, I realized THAT is not what I want to do. I LOST INTEREST in it and still did it just because I had given so much time of my life after that stuff.

Today I am going to Australia for further studies because I always wanted to go to US but could not get selected in the "Good Colleges" and just because I DO NOT EARN MONEY & have no savings, I will be made to use an assembled laptop instead of a branded one.

Nothing of this sort happened to my younger brother. THEY SAY I NEVER CONCENTRATED ON STUDIES, THEY SAY I WAS NEVER SERIOUS. So how the hell did I get 71% in 1st year of college. THEY SAY I AM A TOTAL FAILURE AND A STUPID. Just because I don't earn money. I know my family has always been for me, financially only. There is something else I needed that is even more important.

"Emotional Support".

What difference will the assembled PC make? Well if at all it breaks down sometime, I have no warranty and no one to go to. I have no money yet to make sure its fixed. If it does not function properly in some area or stops working well after certain days, I will have no recourse but to use the faulty piece. EVERY PASSING DAY I am made to realize MONEY IS GOD. IF YOU HAVE MONEY, YOU CAN DO EVERYTHING.

It does not matter how you earn it. Kill people, do smuggling but EARN THE DAMN MONEY.

Ya right. MONEY.

H@rdeep.

Iran and Tehran situation.

2009-06-23T22:29:00.000+10:00

There is a lot of information on the web today. Videos, pics of people protesting, being fired on by Iranian police and Basij (The armed moral police of Iran) and people dying and their deaths recorded on cameras. Its been 10 days almost and twitter, friendfeed, facebook, Youtube all these sites tel us whats going on in Iran.

But what bothers me more and makes me real sad is that whatever is happening in Iran, innocent people are being killed. People around me with whom I talk about this say its ok. People die in India too, its no big deal. Why are you so concerned about Iran & Tehran? You are over reacting because you do not have any other stuff to do.

Wow. I mean I know that I know no Iranian, I do not have friends or relatives there or no loved ones are being killed or affected, but does that mean I do not have to be concerned?

I am concerned, sad and disgusted and I do feel helpless that I can do nothing about those people who are ruthlessly killing innocent people out there and that I can not help those being killed just because they are protesting against the elections, which they think have had unfair results. How can any one in the world JUSTIFY innocent people being killed?

I do NOT THINK its possible. You cannot justify that kind of barbaric behavior. Where the hell is US now? or UN? or all the humanitarian organizations? What are they doing about this situation? Why is the world just looking at these things happening there silently? Why is no one reacting to it and trying to stop it?

The US would get involved and poke its nose in any damn country's matter EVEN IF ITS NOT REQUIRED, so why is the super power of the world quiet now? Why is UN, Red Cross not sending people to help the wounded and people being killed?

Yes I am concerned because I am a HUMAN BEING and being Human its obvious & very natural that you should be concerned. If you are not sad, if you are not moved looking at the things, hearing the news of innocent people being killed, I do not think you are human enough. I have a conscience, a heart, a soul which gets hurt and I react this way.

I can just pray for the families of those dead and wish that things get back to normal ASAP. And Yes, if being concerned about such people is idiocy, then I am HAPPY that I m an IDIOT. And no, I do not want to change. I REFUSE TO CHANGE & WILL ALWAYS BE THE WAY I AM.

H@rdeep.

India V/s Australia & Pakistan V/s Sri Lanka.

2009-06-22T22:03:00.002+10:00

It was Sunday and we all met up at Rashesh's place (This guy still remains a reason for all of us meeting at his place). Mr & Mrs. Chandran, Mr & Mrs. Patil, Mr & Mrs. Pandit, Swami, Amit & me. All of us stayed there till the time he left and then moved to Kukda's place where we were supposed to have dinner and only Prashant, Ritanjali & me decided to actually go.

So far so good, but then I remembered it was the FINAL match of T20 world cup between Pakistan & Srilanka after we came downstairs at around 8.15 p.m and then every1 was involved in watching the match. I do not know how but later on somehow Prashant & me again started the whole debate of India V/S Australia and the whole other sort of things like education, being satisfied with what we have right now and stuff which I do not remember now.

While I love the fact that we both go on with our viewpoints and hardly agree on any matter, there is 1 thing, that I have clearly told Prashant earlier and he still has not improved on, which really pisses me off. I feel any debate, discussion or a healthy talk becomes a conversation only when both the people involved in it get time to present their viewpoints and the other person listens and tries to understand them. With Prashant its cutting me off while I speak, speaking his things in a louder voice and stuff whereby he tries to dictate the whole scene, which is something which I absolutely hate about him. I mean I know 1 of the methods of proving yourself right can be what he does but it does not work with every1 and certainly not in every situation. There are times when you might be considered rude and arrogant when you adopt that kind of practice in a discussion.

If you do not allow the other person to even speak, then you sure do not want to listen to what he is saying and understanding his viewpoint is a far off thing obviously in such a scenario. Its not about proving a point, not about winning or losing, but sadly thats how we are trained every step of our lives in India. Anyways the bottom line is we still share a great relationship as friends. And I am hoping just like the finals of The T20 world cup, this was a FINAL discussion/debate between us. And when it comes to such discussions with Prashant, I can agree to disagree.

Looking forward to meeting more people in Australia who can fill in the void these guys will leave in my life,

H@rdeep.

India is a dirty country.

2009-06-07T07:40:00.000+10:00

I have always seen and experienced the dirt, the garbage in India right from my childhood. The 1st thing any foreign national notices in India is probably the same. Bad odour, dirt, crap, filthy surroundings is so common here in this country which most people think is fast becoming a super power and is progressing.

Trust me, being an INDIAN I have no qualms in admitting that INDIA can NEVER EVER be a super power. MARK MY WORDS. I have my own reasons to believe this & my own justifications behind that. I do not want any one of you to blindly agree with it but I know I speak the truth and I have a rationale thinking when I say this. I say and believe India is a dirty country because trust me the dirt, the crap that we can see with our naked eyes is nothing compared to the garbage that we cant see and people have in their minds. We can avoid the visible garbage as we can look in a different direction and pass along it, we can avoid the filthy smell by blocking our nose with a cloth, but we cant get away with the filth that people have here in their minds. No amount of ignoring it can help, no cloth can block it.

So what do we do of that dirt which is in the minds of people?
Well, now if only anyone knew the answer of this question, most of the world's problems would have been solved. I experience that dirt everyday and no matter how hard I try to ignore it, it goes over the normal limits and I have to get a medium to let out the frustration caused by it which I am happy I can do here. I can give you tonnes of examples but lets start with what I faced recently. A girl and a boy can have just 2 relationships:- Either they can be siblings or they HAVE TO BE lovers. How pathetic is that? And we live in 2009. Yes thats a taste of India for you.

India can never be a superpower if they keep going ahead with this cheap mentality and the dirt in their minds. I can still believe for a second that even if the outside dirt is still there, India can still become a superpower, but with the inside dirt, NO WAY.

Yes it disgusts me and I cant help laughing out loud when people say "India is FAST becoming a superpower" or "India is progressing". For me India will progress the day people world over would die to marry an Indian citizen just because they want to stay in India somehow (just like Indians do that and have been doing that for years with US and other country citizens). That day I will agree that India is progressing, NEVER BEFORE THAT. And strangely enough, I am so confident I would not be able to see that happening in my lifetime.

So India is a dirty country and it will always be one. As an Indian, I am sad and will always be just because of 1 more reason that is mentioned in the next post. Head over to that one now that you have finished reading this one.

In a mood to write so much more,
H@rdeep.

A Happy Day.

2009-06-07T06:41:00.000+10:00

The day started with the call which informed me of the Visa approval. Not that I had any doubts of it being not approved, but it was the final step and I am so relieved now. 3 exams done and so far they have been pretty good as compared to my preparations for them. So thats 1 more reason to cheer.

I feel happy and relaxed these days and feel I finally have grown up and am starting to act maturely in at least some of the cases. (very unlike Me). While I am excited to move on in my life and start a new chapter, I know its not gonna be easy but I am ready to trade off some of the good things here for some other things that look better at least so far. I believe right now that I am not gonna miss people back here, but who knows I might. I am at least sure that I will make loads of new friends there too so wont be alone. I could have written so much more here but I guess so far this is it. There is 1 more post the thoughts of which are all held up in my head and before they evaporate I wanna make sure I document them here. Just random thoughts on what I saw & experienced in some of the previous days, but they make sense.

So over to the next one. See you there. The feelings are obvious.

Happy & relieved,
H@rdeep.

The Indo-American wedding.

2009-06-01T02:59:00.002+10:00

It was 1 hell of an event. MOST memorable wedding I have ever attended and been a part of.

Even the Newspapers covered it.

Just click on Indore City Bhaskar and see the 3rd page. Could have written a lot and even 10 blog posts would not have been enough but thought the best is I should be as brief as possible. This event had so much drama that the Hindi movies and TV series are nothing and they can be put to shame if compared to this.

Loads of lessons learned and a few positives from the event too.

H@rdeep.

Get Yahoo Mail in Gmail too.

2009-06-01T02:19:00.000+10:00

Ever since I started using Gmail, it has become my communication hub and all my email, chats and everything else has been slowly transferred in it. But I was 1 of those people who used world's 1st free email service Hotmail too and even Yahoo Mail.

This post is for those people who still have a Yahoo email & want to use Gmail instead as their email hub for all email accounts because now Gmail is their primary email id. My Hotmail and all my other email came into Gmail too with the "forward email to another email" option or the POP3. Later on Hotmail even started free POP3 for all its subscribers and Yahoo is the only email service provider which does not provide both these options yet to its free users. ( I dont understand how many people pay for Yahoo Email and why?). So while I used Gmail for every possible thing like checking all my email @ 1 place, chatting with Gmail and AIM friends, Voice & video talking & even using all the labs features, I still had to go to Yahoo Mail to check my email. Of course Yahoo Mail being so old, having a great user base and being in existence for so long was easily accessible on mail clients like Thunderbird with The Ypops add on and Yahoo's own Zimbra which is now open source, but I still wanted Yahoo Mail to drop in Gmail only. Finally I found that I can do that with Nutshellmail & even though I had heard about Nutshellmail way back, I never bothered to use it because I already use Xoopit for Gmail and Otherinbox too which pretty much sort things out for me.

Yes, you heard me right. Yahoo Mail comes to Gmail too with Nutshellmail. So go sign up on Nutshellmail & setup Yahoo Mail once and enjoy it delivered to your Gmail. Its so damn easy. Have fun like I do having all my email FINALLY delivered to my communication hub.

A very happy & relieved,
H@rdeep.

More of 26/11s waiting to happen.

2009-05-18T02:48:00.001+10:00

I always was of the opinion that Indians have done nothing to stop attacks like 26/11/2008 which happened in Mumbai where terrorists took over 2 of the biggest hotels and open fired on railway stations and a house.

The belief gets cemented day by day and I & the whole of India still sees the cowardliness and foolishness of Indian officials and Indian politicians and all those in charge. We have always had proofs these acts were done by Pakistan and they had trained the terrorists themselves & still 1 of the terrorists is alive and gets royal treatment in jail almost after 6 months of the incident which was billed as India's 9/11. Everybody did their best to gain from the situation. Politicians, actors, news channels, correspondents & reporters, practically every1. And the state is "Kasab" the terrorist is a national celebrity today because he is being regularly featured in all the news channels, newspapers and everywhere.

The question that keeps bothering me is "Y the hell he was not hanged in public the very next day?"
But then I know that would never ever happen in future too. They say India is a super power or it will be by 2020. Trust me, it NEVER WILL BE. Indians sure can do anything & they can make any country a super power, BUT INDIA I promise its not gonna happen. And while I can go on with my reasons and justifications, Do I care to even waste time doing that?

No thanks.
Guess the feeling & mood is quite obvious right now.

H@rdeep.

What am I running away from?

2009-05-11T04:31:00.000+10:00

I have always said I don't care about what outsiders say. Its the people around me who mean to me more than normal people and their opinions, views and thinking that matters to me. So when I find that these people have a mentality which makes me sick, I cant take it anymore.

My friend Prashant tells me "You are running away." I totally agree. Yes I am. From this pathetic society where the "ONLY thing that MATTERS is MONEY". Yes, you can be a smuggler, an extortionist or a drug dealer, but if you earn good money, you get respect and you have the right to do & say anything. I mean "FUCK THAT". And you know what, this happens right in my home and my dad (yes the person who is very sadly & unluckily the one who gave me birth) has that kind of thinking. So I am running away from this crap and bull shit. I am running away from this pain that I have lived with for almost 28 years of my life & when I look back at it, I feel so damn sad about it that I never took this step earlier. The only thing I am worried about is mom being left out behind here.

This lady has lived through this pathetic situation for more than 30 years now and she is still there for us. On this mother's day, I feel so indebted to her for being there and living through this hell just because our lives become better. Mom, I know I haven't been a great son so far, but I promise you very soon I will be. I really need to get breath of fresh air, to live and experience life on my own and the day I have loads of money earned by working hard for it, I will take you away and make sure the rest of your life becomes heaven.

Sydney is still 2 months away and believe me I can hardly wait for that. I wish time flies and I land in Sydney ASAP. So looking forward to a new life. A very optimistic & positive about the future.

H@rdeep.

The wedding shopping and loads of life lessons.

2009-04-28T07:15:00.000+10:00

Now before you jump to conclusions looking at the title of the post, I wanna clear it here. IT IS NOT THE SHOPPING OF MY MARRIAGE. Phew.

Now I can move on. Yeah so it is my cousin's wedding (?) and we are shopping for her. Its been tiresome and yet its been awesome. Learned a lot. How much and what all is done in the shopping of the "Big Fat Indian Wedding" and beyond that what relationships can you trust and up to what extent & how fragile relationships can be. Its been so much that at the 10th day I was a bit tired physically but all I can say is that it has been a tremendous experience. The clothes, jewelery, sweets and all the customs & traditions, meeting the in laws and stuff is fun so far. Yes there have been hiccups and little misunderstandings due to the cultural differences and "THAT" actually makes the whole process even more fun, distinct and more enjoyable. In these 10 days, I have seen & known so much about my cousin & the whole process has been amazing. I have not known her or about her so much in last 10 years and that is the beauty of these 10 days.

I am so looking forward to this marriage and all I can pray for is that she has a great life ahead. The only sister I love with all my heart and will miss when I leave for the "2nd life in the same birth".

:)

All I need is good wishes for her which I assume are with me from you guys.

Happy and recovering from tiredness,
H@rdeep.

WOW. JUST WOW.

2009-04-13T05:31:00.000+10:00

If I did not write today about this, I would have regretted it forever. There are times when some things struck you so hard that you remember them for a long time if not for the lifetime.

This is just 1 of those things. Very sad that the "embedding" of video was disabled. So you will have to go at Youtube to watch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

Dial2do, Ping.fm & Google Voice rock my world.

2009-04-12T07:06:00.000+10:00

I have always been a fan of technology, innovations and tools that make life simpler and I don't mind being a "beta user" to all these services, software, websites or any other tools.

Dial2do was something I started using because I follow this great guy called "Pat Phelan" on twitter and everywhere else. I gained an invite code and I could use it because I had a U.S number through Grandcentral. Today I am more than hooked. And trust me these guys keep getting better and outdo themselves.

I have been using Grandcentral.com ever since I could lay hands on it which is today Google Voice and people are still dying to get in to it. I love whatever Google Voice does for me and the "intelligent uses" I make of it.

Ping.fm has been a personal favorite again because they keep getting better day by day. Ability to update so many places by posting status messages and by so many means. hellotxt remains far behind. They have made the life of every social media junkie easier. (BTW I use Google Voice to update my status everywhere because Ping.fm has a text number which is NOT a short code). Great job guys. DAMN AWESOME. I am a FAN FOR LIFE. <3

Try and use them all and I am sure U will love each 1 of them and even the combinations of using each other. this ability of APIs and integration is a clear winner. Nothing beats these 3 in what they are doing. Clear winners. But having said this, I am really dying to look forward to more innovative services because its time I get excited like a child again which sadly has not happened for some time now. Hope people out there are listening and reading this.

Looking forward to exciting services,
H@rdeep.

P.S :- Oops proof reading showed me there are a lot of "Is" in there. Sorry for that. Not at all intentional. :)

Inum's failure to take off and its future prospects.

2009-04-09T00:26:00.000+10:00

When Inum was announced by Voxbone, it really got me excited but I was skeptical about it too. I always thought that maybe its too late because things like Enum, Gizmo5, and many other numbers and specially U.S numbers are freely available so people have an international number for free which is globally reachable.

Since any1 can get a U.S DID for free from Ipkall, Groovytel, Voxox, Google Voice (Formerly Grandcentral) or various other websites and since any and every website allows free calls to U.S, having a virtual U.S number means you already have a Inum indirectly. So maybe these guys behind Inum did not get it right because the concept is great, but they are a bit too late.. But slow and steady progress is seen on the blog of Inum. They 1st had access numbers from 45 countries which has not increased, but now calls can be made through Google Talk too besides the interoperability of all Inum VOIP providers. This was news to my ears, but hardly a surprise as Google talk has been exploited and used in creative manners by every other company out there like Gtalk2Voip, Tringme, truphone and what not except Google and the reason is its adoption of Open Standards.

The fact that they do not receive the attention of people is the major hindrance though and that is the "ONLY PROBLEM" that they are not so popular. I find the concept wonderful and as always I have taken the plunge & loved it so far. lets see where it goes, but this sure is 1 thing I will keep an eye on.

H@rdeep.

The reason Google FAILS & Grandcentral expectations.

2009-03-18T08:18:00.000+11:00

When I wrote about my expectations from Google on 25th February 2009, I wrote about Grandcentral 2.0 too. Here is the post where I mentioned what I expect Google to do on 1st April. Glad Google Voice came before that, but yes I am sure it will come to others by that time.

Well I am happy with Google Voice, but 1 of the important thing that they missed out is the integration of it with Google Talk. I mean Gizmo5 is fine and it works great and is probably the only reason how I could use Grandcentral from India too for 3 years now but since some days it has stopped working on my PC, so I have the option of using web based gizmocall only since I have the Call Screening option on for unknown callers and I need to press 1 to accept the call or press other numbers to send it to voicemail and stuff. Now for that I need a software with a Dialpad and even though my Google talk rings when I receive a call on my Google Voice number I cant answer "unknown callers" because I have no dial pad in Google Talk. Now these guys have to update Google talk and bring in the dialpad to allow people to use Google Voice from Google talk too and I know this will happen sooner or later, but why not with the release of Google Voice?

Coming back to why Google fails?
Well I love Google. I mean I love Google more than any other web company and thats the reason I always want them to be the best and thus I expect too much from them on every front. Now, I remember when I had to wait for Gmail invitation. That was a wait of only some days, but still I found that approach of Google as something weird. I mean I understand the feelings of all those people who have to wait to get the feel of Google voice now that it is so much hyped all around on the web. I had the same feelings for many of Google products starting from Gmail, Orkut, Jaiku, Grandcentral (Initially yes) and some other like Zingku( yes this is 1 more site which was acquired by Google and I hope this lives on and opens up sometime soon) and I today use all of them except Zingku, but trust me Gmail has improved and has been great over the years and thus is a success today, Grandcentral has come back as Google Voice & I sure sense it to be a success but others like Orkut, Jaiku and many Google products which 1 could join by invitation only didn't make such great impact.

Now, this is the reason Google fails. I mean look at orkut. Its just used by Indians and Brazilians. Its "Nothing" & cannot be compared to Myspace, Facebook or even hi5 and other bigger social networks. Google copied everything from facebook on orkut from applications to picture comments (Yes can you believe this? Picture comments were not available on orkut earlier), mobile sites, privacy features and what not. They still don't have video uploads feature which I think should come up. Orkut has been integrated over time with many Google products like Gtalk, Google Calendar and what not but it still has failed to take up and it will never now become as big as it could have been.

The lack of innovation for some products or maybe ignoring them is something that has hurt Google and that began with limited entry. I mean look at facebook. They are everywhere and they offer you everything in just 1 site. They are bigger than Flickr when compared to photos being on facebook. In fact as per last details they were almost 5 times bigger than flickr. Youtube videos cant be compared to facebook videos but heck at least you can upload your videos on facebook directly. They offer you share on facebook, facebook connect is available to sign in to any possible site and they are now on Iphone and desktop too.

Orkut had the lead and they were early starters, but are far away from being the leader today. Similarly, twitter is growing like hell and Jaiku is nothing compared to it. Google also entered Picture storage but with 1 GB free space, Picasa Web Albums is not that great. I hope its storage is bumped up to at least 10 GB or maybe more because MSN Skydrive offers 25 GB already. Will Google learn from its mistakes and do better in future? Or does it have plans to relaunch some products with additional features & same fun fare like Google Voice? Whatever Google does with Orkut, Jaiku and other products, it has to make sure they become more useful & come with extra features to make sure even more people use them.

Hope people at Google are reading this & most of the things get implemented. I am seriously waiting for more changes some time sooner.

H@rdeep.

A Day of Awesome updates

2009-03-13T03:25:00.000+11:00

Finally Google has actually done what I wanted it to do. I thought they might do it on April 1st, but it came today. Grandcentral updates to Google Voice and yes the web is full of that updates. So I wont write more about that.

More, facebook's new page layout which makes it more twitter like is live. iTunes 8.1 is available today with new features and so is Firefox 3.1 beta 3. All amazing updates. Recession or no recession, innovation is on & I am excited as always.

Downloads, transitions and updates on,
H@rdeep.

IELTS, TOEFL and English tests and My Views on them.

2009-03-10T09:40:00.000+11:00

For me life has been always like this. All I planned never worked out & at a certain stage I even stopped planning. So I was always one of those people who saw the posters and pamphlets of IELTS (International English Language Testing System), TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) and English language tests & thought since its a HUGE business here in Ahmedabad, Gujarat these tests would be real tough.

Thats all I thought and nothing beyond that. Little did I knew then, that 1 day I will have to appear for both of them. So on 7th of March, 2009 I appeared for IELTS and on 8th December 2007 I had appeared for TOEFL. My friends in US said TOEFL wont be that hard for me and it was actually correct. I scored 90% in the TOEFL IBT but then its been almost 1.5 years now that I was appearing for IELTS and this time also I was told that since I have a good score in TOEFL earlier, IELTS is kinda easier than TOEFL & as such I wont have any problems. People seem right again. I mean I did not prepare for it even for some minutes. I am not in a mood of self-praise but I am here writing about this just because I actually feel kind of ashamed that I have to go through such kiddish tests.

Yes, its like people outside India doubt my almost 18-20 years of studies in English medium, my teachers, my professors who taught me English and everything I have ever studied. Why the hell do I have to appear for these tests?

For me so far both of them have been damn easy. I mean come on what tests can you appear without a single minutes preparation and just look at the format of it and still score quite high at it? I have been talking to people in US and UK for almost 9 years now so I understand their accent. I watch Youtube videos of people worldwide & not just US so I even know how people in Philippines, China, France or for that matter any other country speak English. DAMN IT. I have been hearing interviews of people like Marrissa Mayer, Eric Schmidt and other people from Google which are at least an hour long and I STILL have to go through these silly tests.

I agree that most of the people who go through these tests are actually those who SHOULD appear for these tests. But there are exceptions in everything & everywhere & they should be made.I went to Hotel Sarovar portico which is here marked as "A" and Cama hotel in Khanpur area of Ahmedabad for IELTS. I am some 1 who says things as they are and as I feel & if not to any1 else at least on my blog.

View Larger Map

I presented my views on the tests which I think are ridiculous and its shameful that people who don't need it also have to go through them. Apart from waste of time & money it should also pinch them that they go through the same process of evaluation which others go through who are less capable and less able. I mean donkeys cant be compared to horses and if they are then the horses should not take this idiotic stuff. LOL

Ok, enough of it. But seriously, I had to get this thing out. It was inside me for a long time now.As always I love this place because it comes out here.

Relieved & Happy but a lot more to go before relaxed,
H@rdeep.

Companies Google cant afford to lose.

2009-03-07T04:33:00.000+11:00

I love Google. Like big time. It has so much to offer and free. Now just because of that love, I want Google should get all the best sites that I use daily and it pretty much does it. Youtube was acquired because it is the largest source of online video and preferred Video search tool and Google could not miss out being the top site in Video.

Not that Google does not have things in its bouquet to offer us, Google had Google Video, but youtube was and is still a clear winner in online Video space, so Google gobbled it up. Similarly when it comes to Social networking, Google has orkut, but more than 50% of orkut's population is Brazilians and Indians. (In US, its something unheard of) while facebook is growing at an insane rate. So thats the number 1 in the list and Thats what Google cant afford to lose. The list that I have is not too big, but covers various sectors and while Google has its offering in all of them, they are not so popular because of various reasons.

Here is my list:-
1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. Friendfeed
4. Digsby
5. Jajah
6. Skype
7. Wixi
8. Fring

Talking from No. 2 mentioned here, Google still has Jaiku and it by no means is a competition to twitter because twitter is 1 more thing which is growing at a mad pace just like faceebook & friendfeed. Google bought Jaiku & thought it can make a worthy competitor in it to twitter, but just like orkut is nothing compared to facebook, jaiku is nothing compared to twitter. Friendfeed is an amazing concept and like twitter is founded by ex-googlers. It is 1 thing which aggregates data from 59 different websites which are all leaders or good competitors in their respective categories and updates your friends about whatever you do on any 1 of them. Great idea and it has grown beyond that and today worldwide has awesome users who update stuff there every second.

Nothing matches friendfeed today and Google has to gobble this up for a wide range of audience and data. Talking about Digsby, it ain't that big yet. But BOY OH BOY what it does is awesome value and Google has to gobble this up now or else it will pay a huge price later on if this slips out of its hands or even if it acquires Digsby later when it will grow like others mentioned before (twitter, friendfeed & facebook). IM+Email+social networking updates all in just 1 thing is cool. No one does it as good as these guys.

Jajah is the current VOIP leader managing Yahoo! Voice and Gizmo5 also. So it makes sense that Google gets Jajah and gets the leadership and control of VOIP world. Not that I have any complaints with Grandcentral, but VOIP is 1 area where Google is kind of not present at all. If this happens (Which ideally should) Google can take on any damn VOIP player including Skype. Talking of Skype, there were speculations that it is a loss making thing for ebay and it might be sold off. Google was considered as the front runner to buy it, but even in these times Skype is going strong because of the "Unlimited plans" and opening up a very little. This is 1 huge user base which Google has to get anyhow, by hook or crook. And VOIP is getting bigger and better and its not restricted to PCs only but is getting on mobiles too. So Fring comes in.

These people just don't sleep and turn out improvements and new versions and features by dozens. Google has to get this to get a monopoly in the mobile VOIP market. They are growing like crazy and adding 1,00,000 users per month according to the last post on their blog.

Last thing on my list is wixi. I have several online data storage accounts and some of them have features which wixi does not have yet. Livedrive caught my attention and I was on it. Unlimited free cloud storage, desktop access and what not, but as always economy hurt them and they went paid. There are a whole lot of online data storage sites, but Wixi gives me unlimited storage for free. Yup, you heard it "unlimited & free". And their uploads are fast, their whole web UI is great and while they had competitors earlier like Livedrive, hordit , Ziddu and more, most of them have gone paid. Every1 was talking about Gdrive and it has not come yet. I am expecting it to go live on 1st April this year and if it does not, then Google just should get Wixi and get it re branded as GDrive.

Thats pretty much it and the list is awesome because if Google gets these things, it will be 70-80% of what people do on the internet. I have high hopes on these guys and I know they can pull this off. Lets see.

Fingers crossed on this 1 and I hope Google is listening,
H@rdeep.

A comrade of 7 years.

2009-03-05T05:07:00.000+11:00

I have grown up in a country where motor bikes are still a passion for youngsters. I was no different from most of the guys. I remember I got it 7 years back in 2002. Its been an awesome time and I have traveled a lot on it. The TVS Victor 110.

You do thank people in your lives for being there for so long, for being your support, for helping you in trying times and I have to thank this vehicle because for 7 years in spite of numerous accidents, small and big (1 where I had to spent 7000 bucks) it is still here with me. Of course what you see is a pic of a new 1, and what I have right now is not at all in a very good condition but yes its Blue in color.

I still remember the date I got it. July 6th, 2002 & while it was supposed to be a birthday gift and arrive at August 2nd, it arrived a little bit early. I just saw on the TVS site that this vehicle is not available any longer & was very sad because this has been their largest selling motor bike and this particular vehicle catapulted them to newer heights in the Indian auto market.

Times change and it sure does fly, just like I have tried to experience most of the times on this vehicle. I still drive it and these days I am a bit careful and avoid accidents. LOL :)

The TVS Victor has been a great comrade of my life and these 7 years have been wonderful. I wish I get vehicles like these or even better in my life.

A bit nostalgic & kind of emotional about this,
H@rdeep.

Websites & Software I love and expectations from Google.

2009-02-26T02:54:00.000+11:00

When I login to the internet, there are certain websites which I do check and there are certain software that I am logged in. These are the ones which make the integral part of my digital life. Websites are a few:- Gmail, Facebook, Google Reader, Twitter, Lifehacker & Orkut (yes I am back again on it).

Software..... well these keep changing but the browser is Chrome for quite a while because Firefox is too heavy for my PC & Safari 4 just arrived so maybe it might just be the default browser. Digsby is 1 app which is awesome but to be honest it needs to improve on the voice & video chat because the tokbox integration isn't working perfect yet. MSN & Yahoo messengers too but more MSN because of course most of my friends use it. Gizmo5 recently started playing up so now its not on.

Coming back to Gmail which is my communication hub because apart from Myway and Yahoo email every other email drops in there & its pathetic that these 2 providers don't even provide the facility of email forwarding, leave aside POP3. Gtalk and AIM chat is in there too which helps and so do the widgets. Now Gmail is becoming the "default email" for people worldwide and the reasons are aplenty but I still expect many things from Google on 1st April. Just a quick list....

1. Gmail will complete 6 years. So maybe a 10 GB space quota there directly from the current 7300MB.
2. Grandcentral 2.0 finally. Its been ages anything happened here. (Glad its still on though)
3. New and amazing pranks as always.
4. Increase space in Picasa web albums. How about 25GB there just like Skydrive.
5. Or the long awaited GDrive finally.

Or maybe a takeover again of some interesting site. LOL. I really wish my wixi account stays forever unlimited and Google takes over Wixi. Crazy expectations here I know but with Google you can make such expectations. Who knows they might actually turn out to be true.

Just a random post,
H@rdeep.

SlumDog's Day.

2009-02-25T03:46:00.000+11:00

8 Oscars out of 10 categories in which it was nominated for (Actually 9 because 2 nominations were for Best song). And most importantly, both for A.R. Rehman. Best Music Composer And Best original Song along with Gulzar saab.

Thats the Actual Awards won and categories nominated for.
1. Best Picture- Winner.
2. Best Director- Winner
3. Best Music (Song)- Winner - Jai Ho.
4. Best Music (Score)- Winner - A.R. Rehman.
5. Best Editor- Winner
6. Best Sound Mixing- Winner
7. Best Sound Editing- Nominated
8. Best Cinematography- Winner
9. Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay)- Winner
10. Best Music (Song) - Nominated- O Saya

I watched the history live. Waking up at 5.30 a.m was worth it. I got more than expected because I predicted A.R Rehman's win the day he was nominated. So no big surprise for me there but so many awards to Slumdog was fun. And then not to forget "Best Documentary" went to "Smile Pinki" which is made made in India too and made on an Indian girl. I was so damn excited & happy and my mom was like "Its Ok. What did you get?"

I had an answer for a change. LOL. I know it was easy. I got nothing. But then its just 1 side of the coin. The Other side is "I had an opportunity to be proud as an Indian". And believe me thats a huge thing for me. I like very few things about India and so I am generally not proud of being an Indian, but this day was like hell lot big. An Indian and a story based on India with Indian actors gets world recognition and top awards for excellence in cinema while the world watched it.

Just makes me realize 1 more time I need to make sure I don't die without being famous. The world should know I came, I lived and I died. If this does not happen, life is useless. Huge motivation. The day was fantastic. Hope we have more such days in our nation where we can celebrate the success of Indians and feel proud of them.

I promise I will give India at least 1 such day before I die.
Amen,

Ecstatic and overjoyed,
H@rdeep.

It was valentine's day today.

2009-02-15T07:19:00.000+11:00

Oh yeah, it was Valentine's day today (Well actually its 1.25 a.m so it is 15th Feb already here in India) and it was a normal day for me. Yes a Saturday so loads of people were out and there was a huge traffic on the road, but it was also a day to call U.S. Yup weekends I call U.S for sure & this lady also had a date.

Wow, isn't that great? LOL & I thought she is kinda always available to talk to & hear me out and all. Guess life has to be in the fast lane now or else I am sure to be like Jim Carey in the 1st part of "Yes Man". All alone watching movies at home and stuff. :P

Everybody was busy today going out with friends and stuff. For me it was no different. It sure is a wonderful feeling being in love & having some1 to come back to, some1 to listen to you and stuff. Life is gonna be different from tomorrow at least because I am going to work after a long time (And I really mean a "LONG TIME"). What did I do today? Well, woke up late as usual and ended the day on internet watching this movie "Burn After Reading". What category was it nominated for in "Golden Globes" and why?

Funny at times and just 1 hour and 30 minutes. I love English movies for this. The time factor. And ending the day (well this is the time my day usually ends 1.50 a.m now) withthis blog post. Just to remind myself later on, I didn't have a date this year. :)

Not at all sad about being Single,
H@rdeep.

VOIP over the years through my eyes.

2009-02-06T03:08:00.062+11:00

I still remember when I 1st came to know about the ability of calling cellphones and landlines through internet, it was probably called Net2phone . I just checked and was amazed that they are still there. Ever since that, I have seen & used innumerable other VOIP services (Yes I didn't even knew what is VOIP when I had heard of net2phone) & I have been amazed by many of them.

I will quickly go through some of the ones that I remember using.... Raketu, Jangl, Jajah, Jaxtr, Gtalk2Voip, Mediaringtalk, Phonegnome, FWD, Poketalk, Tuitalk, Jaduka, Nimbuzz, Globe7, Oovoo, Voxox & many more which I cant remember now of head. If you think I missed out the messengers, yeah I have used all of them. AIM, MSN messenger, Yahoo IM, Google Talk and even Skype. Today the ones I cant imagine my life without are Grandcentral and Gizmo5 and the ones I love and use on and off are Mediaringtalk and Skype. Truphone & Fring are 2 things I am dying to try out and have not been able to because I don't have compatible phones. Oovoo is 1 thing I loved because of amazing voice clarity.

I have seen many great innovations in VOIP and also seen death of some great products. Jangl and more recently Ringbranch died and were amazing things. But nothing impressed me more than Gizmo5 and it keeps impressing me as I discover new ways of using it and how people around the world use it. Skype has been great too and has sustained itself over the years and now that its version 4 boasts of amazing audio and video quality, I guess I will be a regular user of it again. I also discovered recently that Skype allows something which no other VOIP software allows. Calling toll free numbers of various countries including Australia. The VOIP players have to do something thats unique and gives the users value as compared to the competitors in order to survive and sustain growth and most of them who today are popular do exactly that. All I can say is I am happy that I was introduced to VOIP by people & I use some of the most amazing products ever made available. I know I will certainly do something in this space, but I don't know what & when. Till then all I can say is "Wait & Watch" and keep making these amazing services and products people. I love them and I am sure there is a whole lot more interesting stuff brewing in there.

Always excited when it comes to VOIP,
H@rdeep.

I hate MSN. More so After Google and Others.

2009-01-30T10:48:00.074+11:00

I still remember those days when I 1st came to know what a PC is, what internet is, what is email and stuff. It was all MSN. Microsoft. I thought MSN does everything and there are no other OS available. Internet Explorer was the only browser I ever knew. Outlook seemed like magic to me. I always wondered how can the damn email come automatically to the PC without the need of logging in to any website or even opening the browser?

It was 12-13 years back. Cut to present life. I hardly use any MSN software or services. There are alternatives for everything that MSN does. Right from OS, to web services to other applications and softwares. I still am on Windows XP because Windows is something we Indians have grown up with. Linux And Mac OS were alien for us, not they are still now. But I still prefer the comfort zone and dont venture in those areas though Ubuntu has received tremendous praise ever since it has started. I am a great fan of Google and Open source software and organizations promoting Open standards. I use Opera, Firefox, Thunderbird, All the Google services (even the ones that Google has acquired and are in Beta stage ever since) and much more on the internet like Friendfeed, twitter, facebook and all the major famous and most widely used services and websites better known as Web 2.0.

I can count things on my hand which I still use of MSN and believe me they are very rare and very few of them are because I genuinely like them otherwise they are for other reasons.
1. Windows XP (because its been on my PC since long and its a really old PC. Also most software are compatible with it)
2. MSN Live Messenger- Just because a whole lot of people use it too and because Voice & Video chats still dont work perfectly with Meebo and Digsby or else I would never have that on my PC.
3. MSN Live Mail or Hotmail- Just because I have this emotional attachment with it because it was my 1st ever email id and it still comes in to my Gmail through forwarded email which is my hub for all communication.
4. Windows Live Writer- Because this is seriously 1 good software.
5. Windows Live Skydrive- Because its 25GB free. I hate it because its not accessible most of the time. Wixi is the best for online storage. Nothing beats it.

Thats it. Done. Just 5 things and I love just 1 of it . Internet explorer is 1 thing I have not used in ages. Opera is my love and the Alpha 10 is amazing. Chrome and Firefox are decent too. The add ons of Firefox make it a damn good power horse. I hate MSN for selling Windows. Come on Ubuntu and linux is free. Get that free or at least make it dirt cheap. MSN office . Naaaaaaaaaah. Open Office 3 rocks.

Windows Media player. Again. Haven't seen in ages. Real Player has been my default player. VLC does everything too. Blogger is my place to blog since I started a blog. I love Google for everything and for getting me started in most of the things. Outlook. LOL damn. Thunderbird kicks its butt. No way. Even Xobni could not get me on Outlook and I will never go to it. Xobni guys were supposed to support Thunderbird, Eudora, Apple mail and other clients. Its a shame they stopped at Outlook.

Whats more Windows Live Messenger latest version was a horrific experience. It did not allow me to login. A whole lot of installs, uninstalls, clearing every registry entry, PC restarts and around 15-20 days of sheer frustration later, I finally decided nothing can happen and the error message which I will never forget "Error code 8001401a" would never be solved and I would never be able to use voice and video chat with my MSN contacts. Alas, finally Download.com came to my rescue and I downloaded the Khalid version of MSN messenger which allowed me to login and do the stuff. Damn you guys cant even imagine how many good wishes I gave to this guy that day and I still do the same.

MSN really sucks BIG TIME. They need to pull up their socks and if they do not believe me they will be gone. I really am being a future predictor here but this will happen if people at MSN still ignore the complaints of users and dont improve.

H@rdeep.

"WOW" is too small a word for "Slumdog Millionaire"

2009-01-13T04:59:00.000+11:00

Slumdog Millionaire is worth all the hype and all the awards that it has got. Amazing, awesome, sheer brilliance, WOW, and I can go on and on. For once, the 1st thing that surprised me before I had even seen the movie was "How can a foreign director make a movie in India, with Indian actors, based on a novel written by an Indian author about India and get so much critical acclaim and box office success? What did he do with the story which any other director in India could not do until now?"

Those questions were not only answered but I was amazed to see what Danny Boyle has created on celluloid. Everything is so damn perfect & realistic. The child actors, the Indian locations of slums, the Actors, the music. A.R Rahman deserves an Oscar too. Trust me he will. This year Oscars are gonna be in India's kitty. A.R Rahman for best music score and "Taare Zameen Par" as the best foreign film for sure. Also Slumdog will win Best Director and Best Film.
How can I predict this?
Well Some things dont have an explanation. JUST SEE this will HAPPEN. Mark my words and you know I said it 1st (Even before the nominations are finalized).

If you haven't seen the movie yet, dont even wait for it to release in theaters. YES CAN U BELIEVE THIS? It is not officially released in India still. Its gonna be Released on 23rd Jan. I saw it on the internet. Do that. Its a must see and get a DVD for sure. Its a collector's item. I saved the movie online.
:)

Ya ya I am a Pirate. Movie and Music piracy big time. But then This is ME.

Waiting for my predictions to come true,
H@rdeep.

New year is FINALLY here

2009-01-01T05:43:00.001+11:00

A whole year passed by and nothing amazing to look back to. Well, as they say life is all about looking ahead. So ya I am trying to do that and I JUST HOPE & pray 2009 is lucky for me. 2008 has not been great. LOL

But isn't it human nature to crib most of the time. Especially the way this year ended, its not been good. Last 3-4 days have been absolutely disastrous. I just hope things get on track ASAP. Its been worse from bad earlier. I have been causing problems to mom too. May GOD forgive me for that and give me strength not to act foolish in future. There are a whole lot of things I am looking forward to in 2009 like these:-

1. Clearing my CA finals. YES nothing is as important as this to me now.
2. Getting admission in MBA in a decent U.S. college.
3. Getting a N85 by the end of March 2009.
4. Getting a steady job ASAP.
5. Make sure I do not cause any problems to mom for the time we are still together.

And All I can say to these things is AMEN.

No feelings,
H@rdeep.

Updates & more..........

2008-12-24T05:15:00.000+11:00

........... so the day has arrived when my daughter is no longer with me. And last night while I was playing with my little wonder till 2 a.m she did make me cry. Who knows when will I see her next?

Bhai left for U.S today and life is not going anywhere. I am still unemployed. I still don't know what colleges will I apply to and I still do not have an idea of what the new year has in store for me. Life is moving on & I am not. Its that time of the year when people are generally happy because of X'mas and New year, they are buying presents and gifts for each other and my life remains the same.

Do I sound sad and down here? Trust me I am. But then I am not gonna lie down and say "Ok Well, I lost & you won". NO WAY!!!!!!!!

Thats not me. That will NEVER be ME. So yeah, the fight goes on. Everyday is a new challenge & I may or may not be ready to face it, but I will put up a brave face and give it my best shot.

All I can do is pray that the new year brings in loads of good luck and happiness for me. I know there are some people elsewhere who will do the same for me.

Totally Blank,
H@rdeep.

Thats ALMOST Me. This is an amazing talk. Straight from the heart........

2008-12-15T03:36:00.000+11:00

...... And It connects to the heart.

Thanks to PAT one more time for making me aware of 1 of the most amazing speaker I have ever heard.
This guy rocks. I wish I can be like him when I am his age.

H@rdeep.

Products, Services, Companies that have become ICONIC.

2008-12-08T02:12:00.003+11:00

Those who know me will know this list will be probably of websites, internet related services, software and/or gadgets. Yes they know me well then. I remember I wrote long ago about facebook & I was so correct then. Almost a year back. And I also wrote about Aamir's directorial debut Taare Zameen Par and said that (If this movie does not go to Oscars there is a serious defect in the selection committee). See there.

So somehow my predictions are correct. Now today I have a samll list of these Iconic services, gadgets and products & companies which I use or have used in the past or even wanna use in the near future.

1. Facebook again figures in the list because of the continuous improvement and because of its ability of still being the darling of every1 whether its bloggers, media on the internet, TV, newspapers or even the common man or its users. Some astonishing facts :- facebook is the largest social network since quite some time now. Myspace, orkut, friendster and many others who existed well before it are all behind it. Facebook has 10 billion photos on it while flickr just had 3 billion some time ago and I know for sure Flickr wont catch up with it anytime soon. Facebook made its video HD (720p) recently. Many of the social networking sites still do not allow video uploads. Facebook had mobile site since long and it is the hub of activities today. From chat to photos, videos, messages, groups, events planning, birthday reminders and so many applications which virtually allow its users do to anything right from facebook has made it 1 stop destination for any 1 and no wonder it is so popular today. Also the improvements keep happening in there and does not stop and thats what makes it a hub of activities just like Gmail has become for messaging. And I am quite sure I will write more about it pretty soon.

2. Iphone has been an Iconic (pun and fun intended) phone even before its official launch. Every 1 knows its features and the ones that it should have. I will talk about what I love about it. Its the whole ecosystem (mainly app store) around it. Today Iphone has apps which allow users to virtually do everything on it and voice and touch were never used so much in a phone before. Next is what I am sure will come to Iphone now that a worthy Iphone killer is announced by Nokia in Nokia N97. I hope these things get added to the 3rd version of Iphone which I expect to be out in mid (June-July 2009) of next year.
a) A 32 GB memory (I am sure this will happen)
b) A good camera (5 MP will be good but at least 3.2 MP)
c) Video recording and a front camera for video calling.
d) Bluetooth with A2DP.
e) Cut-Copy-Paste and more that I cant think of right now :)

3. Twitter is an amazing service. I cant say that just like Iphone there would be 10000 apps which help you to update your twitter status, but its amazing to see that you have apps on every platform and for every device and how it has grown (& keep growing & becoming better day by day) and I have been loving it ever since I have started using it. Everything is possible on twitter 2day and it has achieved a cult status and an amazing number of people have become so used to it that it has become a part of their lives. It is a platform in itself just like facebook and there are so many things that have developed just because twitter exists. Hats off to the creators. I just hate them for taking Sandy (IwantSandy) off duty. :)

4. Grandcentral has not grown and it has remained stagnant ever since acquired by Google and I have complained about this before on my blog but HELL the truth is I LOVE THIS SERVICE and best of all its STILL FREE. People are dying to get into it and the invitations are freezed for quite a long and even sold on ebay and all. (WOW I just searched them and found out 1 is being sold for $25 while other is sold for $179. DAMNNNNNN). See this link (might not work after the auction ends). I feel so damn lucky I have 3 accounts. LOL YES 3. Enough said. Its something that cannot be compared to any other service out there on web and it wins hands down.

5. Gizmo5- Boy oh Boy! These guys are responsible for me being a VOIP fanatic today. (Not totally though but on the software side yes NO DOUBTS ABOUT THAT) Its 1 hell of a thing that these guys have made and yes its grown and has become Skype of mobile phones. Believe me, I am not a regular Skype user but Gizmo5 is always on. I have so many U.S numbers that ring on it for free and they allow me to call US and Canada for free too using Grandcentral with Gizmo5. Perhaps the most wonderful (NO WAIT YES FOR SURE) VOIP software ever made for PC, mobiles and Smartphones.

6. Nokia is a company everybody loves (Except Japan from where they pulled off recently because of lack of demand of their phones) and the N series phones have been damn good. The WiFi, 5MP Camera and VOIP capabilities is something that makes them desirable for me. Other than that the latest entrant N97 does many other things like 64GB (32 onboard and 32 expandable) space and a full QWERTY keypad. I am looking forward to buy a N85 (though N95 8GB was my choice initially) and then later upgrade to N97 when its available. Iconic for sure.

7. Digsby came out of nowhere and today is a darling of people who are like me (on most of the social networks, IM and email services). The only problem it had was of that being a memory hogger. I dont use it now so cant comment on how much it has improved on that front, but it sure is iconic the way it has been updated frequently and the way people have accepted it and get so used to it now.

8. Fring is the best VOIP software for mobile phones today. I mean no other VOIP service enabled you to talk (voice chat) on all the major IM networks (Google talk, MSN, Yahoo) and added the Gizmo5 and Skype call out too. Though there are several players now in this segment, fring remains the leader by far margins and is still growing at the rate of 1,00,000 users per day. Iconic for sure.

I can go on and on and on but then I will limit myself here. Maybe a post 2 for the same kind of services. yes what a great idea. I am on it.

LOL See you soon folks.

H@rdeep.

I hate FALSE TALL CLAIMS.

2008-12-07T05:05:00.000+11:00

Yes I hate them. There are lots of TALL FALSE CLAIMS everywhere around me but this PARTICULAR 1 caught my attention and I thought of writing about it because this comes from a big reputed house like Network 18 who have so many websites and news channels in India and abroad. Just check out in.com which is advertised everywhere these days.

They say "Upload and share up to 10GB of files with your friends and family. The largest free Web Drive on offer anywhere on the internet." about InDrive ( A free virtual web drive offered by them)

How IDIOTIC is that claim!

Go look at Adrive.com (50 GB free)
Wixi and Hordit (Unlimited FREE storage) YES U HEARD AND READ IT RIGHT.

And there are loads of others and these idiots say they offer the LARGEST FREE WEB DRIVE ANYWHERE ON THE INTERNET.

Get your facts right people. Never expected this from such a reputed company.

H@rdeep.

Dial2do BLOWS AWAY my mind once again.

2008-12-05T22:48:00.003+11:00

Dial2do keeps amazing me. To be honest, this is what makes a perfect start up. Continuous innovation. They brought ping.fm and hellotxt to Dial2do also. Awesome. And if they can make something which is a true replacement of IWantSandy , they would be the next BIG Thing. (Anyways for me They already are).

I am back on Dial2do as a regular user and I just created a command of my own successfully too. The ability to listen to my blogs. And I am posting the audio here. Good times. This is the kind of stuff that gets me excited.

Click To Play

A very happy (and looking for more innovative products)
H@rdeep.

Yeah I am a CRIMINAL!

2008-12-01T05:07:00.000+11:00

My Biggest crime is
1. I am Still ALIVE.
2. I am born in a family where every1 else except me is rich and I am a parasite who feeds on them.

Now thats its over, next is what?

2008-11-30T00:01:00.000+11:00

The terror attacks on Mumbai are over now that most of the terrorists are dead and 1 of them captured. Now comes the time to think what went wrong? Where and how? (If only we want to avoid such attacks in future which I seriously doubt is the plan of our leaders and politicians).

1st of all - The question arises how did these guys get in to the country?
The coastal security is under question here and believe me the land and air area is not too secure either. We need to do a lot on these fronts so that we may not have such of an opportunity of postmortem of situations later and can be proactive.

2nd Question - How did these guys get into 5 star hotels with so much ammunition?
This is the BIGGEST security lapse. (And they check the good citizens as if they are terrorists). Believe me when we are checked at entrances of malls and multiplexes, I do feel like telling them "What do you guys do when terrorists enter these places and plant bombs and open fire? Where does your security measures and checking go then?"

Its shameful that such terror attacks keep happening and show the rest of the world how careless we Indians are when it comes to implementing security measures. Foreign nationals, celebrities, VVIPs all stay and spend time in these 5 star hotels which were made targets by the terrorists and if security measures at these places are such, you can imagine how safe a normal citizen in India is! And when I say I would love to stay in any other country people call me a "TRAITOR". Well if using common sense and thinking about your safety is labelled as being a traitor, I am more than happy with it. I would rather be a traitor than being an idiot Patriot. Patriotism does not mean you stay in your country just to die like this in terror attacks especially when you know the country is not ready to combat terrorism and you are not safe. I would term it as foolishness rather than patriotism (And people who say they would stay back and try and improve the nation are the ones who cannot migrate to another country because the SAD REALITY is yes any other country is safe, secure and better than India).

I mean the common people are more than ready to help. There have been cases worldwide where the Governments have appointed volunteers to help the police but here in India common man is the one who is more afraid of police rather than of terrorists. And mark my words, 50 years down the line India will still the same. Its time police personnel in India improve their image and get support from common people to combat such terror attacks. The Government (Which indirectly means the politicians) should stop talking and start acting. Its time we ACT and show them that YES EVEN THOUGH WE HAVE DOGS WHO RULE OUR NATION, THEY ARE THE ONES WHO CAN BITE AND NOT JUST BARK.

I sometimes feel its a waste of time writing all this because I know nothing will be implemented, but then this is my way of taking out all my frustration & who knows 1 day something might be implemented too.

A Very Disgusted,
H@rdeep.

Terrorism and the mobile internet.

2008-11-28T03:55:00.002+11:00

For the 1st time I felt Mr. Bush did the "CORRECT" thing by declaring wars on Iraq & Afghanistan and killing those people who were responsible for the attack on America on 9/11 because of the attacks on Mumbai on Wednesday, 26th November, 2008.

We Indians have been attacked for years and are still attacked just because we have been a peace loving nation and have done nothing that is required to do in case of terrorist attacks. Its time we declare war against terror and wipe these terrorists out right from their roots i.e. Pakistan. Indians are attacked because every time the terrorists open fire and plant bombs, we come to our normal lives back after 2-3 days and do nothing to them, because we Indians are ruled by ASSHOLES who cannot do anything except paying their condolences to the dead and declaring the compensation for the families of those dead and injured. The maximum they do is visit the wounded in hospitals and then make sure they propagate against the other party and make it a political issue and gain mileage. These idiots will make statements on television channels and hold meetings saying that "strict measures will be taken. The terrorists will be dealt with in a severe manner and blah blah blah".

I mean come on if you guys want money to fight against terrorism, set up a National fund and I promise you that even though Indians may not pay their taxes regularly, they will surely pay money and make donations for setting up this fund and not only Indians every one from around the world would make contribution to this fund. But its time we give them a big blow right where it hurts the most like they have been doing and they will continue to do. This attack is regarded and is said as the "Biggest terror attack on India". Believe me if we do not do anything EVEN NOW, this attack will not be the "Biggest attack" for a longer time.

But yeah coming back to the internet part, twitter and flickr went buzzing around when these terror attacks happened. In fact I knew about it only when Dina twittered about it and believe me if we have more internet enabled phones like Blackberrys and others at least equipped with GPRS we can fight terrorism and make sure we are safe. Internet has global reach and messages travel at lightning speeds. Its time mobile internet gets its due and people understand its usefulness after such attacks. People who were trapped in these hotels also twittered, emailed and did other things on their internet enabled phone to make sure they remain in touch with the outer world. Also lets make sure we buy Wifi enabled phones so we have 2 options for accessing internet. GPRS and Wifi. And for that we need the infrastructure also like Wifi hotspots.

Terrorists have used internet to their advantage. Accessing emails from anywhere, sending emails through open Wifi connections and even more so its time we become technology savvy and use internet for our safety too. Use twitter , facebook , Instant messengers on Mobile phones to stay in touch with people. Fring , Nimbuzz are great options. Make sure we fight them with the same weapons they use to threaten and kill us. Internet is a weapon that we normal citizens should use for our self defense and its time we realize the need and usefulness of mobile internet because today mobiles are very common and India is the fastest growing country when it comes to mobile penetration.

I would sincerely request the manufacturers to come up with cheap mobile phones with internet access and service providers to make GPRS affordable to every one and the Government and the corporate sector to make sure we have the infrastructure like Wifi hotspots in our country to help common man combat terrorism with the help of mobile internet. Lets hope the situation gets normal as soon as it can. Yes almost 42 hours have passed and the terrorists still hold some people hostages. Hoping that everybody is safe and sound and that they get rescued soon.

With a Prayer in my heart,
H@rdeep.