Taking an Interview

It feels different seating on the other side of table, while taking an Interview.
I’ve quite handful experience in attending ones. But this is the first time; I got an opportunity to interview few candidates for the openings in our project.

Speaking of truth, You need same kind of preparation while taking interview otherwise you soon run out of questions. To understand the candidate’s depth of knowledge you need to ask various questions followed by sub-questions.

Average/below average candidate can answer the question easily but good candidate is the one who can also answer sub-questions confidently. This certainly explains the difference between theoretical and practical experience.

Confident is also another important factor which Interviewer looks when he expects answer. Never say “I think or I guess” while answering, which questions your ability to perform.

Overall, 'Taking an Interview' experience has definitely helped me in preparing myself for the future Interviews.

Another season of 24 on FOX

Another year, Another season of "24" on the FOX. This will be the sixth season of “24” and claims to be the most compelling one. What I like watching about "24" is when one screen gets divided into 4 parts showing different events all together covering all the happening in parallel. Just to make you excited about Next episode.

iPhone

Its been over 3 yrs now that I bought my first iPod for $299; These days I rarely use it. Being an early adopter of iPod, I had invested more $$$ for less features in those early days.

Today comes the iPhone from apple, which has been marketed for $499. It combines Mobile phone, a widescreen iPod and so called Internet communications device with web browser.

This time I want to resist myself from spending the fortune for the iPhone before it gets cheaper.

Lucky Bamboo Plant

Its been long time that we wanted to have some houseplants in our apt to make it more lively and decorative. The first preference was Money Plant, but as we couldn't find exact one, we picked up this Lucky Bamboo plant from local grocery store as alternate option.

Lucky Bamboo plant has been recommended by Feng Shui masters and It is believed to bring good fortune and prosperity. At the present, Its has certainly made a difference in our living room corner for sure.

Tasting White Wine

After tasting red wine for quite sometime today I got opportunity to taste a white wine and this time I did feel the real difference between them. It was the Italian sparkling wine "Prosecco Villa Jolanda" . As they say White wines are usually a good place for beginners to start because they are initially more palatable to novices since they often tend to be sweeter.

The main difference between red and white wine is that grape juice used to make red wine contains skins, seeds, and stems. As a general rule of thumb, red wines are heavier and more complex than white wines

The Little Book of Hindu Deities

Sanjay Patel, an animator and storyboard artist at Pixar animation has designed this wonder book on Hindu Deities. He has given a total new approach towards looking at Hindu gods and goddesses. The book brings new life into old mythology, by telling the stories of various deities at same time drawing us in-literally-with joyous and unexpected full-color illustrations.

I am sure this book can certainly help educating your child on Hinduism without taking many efforts.

The book is also available on Amazon. Also, check out some Sample pages and Sketches from same book.

This shows that, Given a better presentation & style Hindu mythology can be cool and interesting.

Its Orkut for Me

After staying away from social networking sites for quite long time, I finally joined Orkut.

There are many Social networking websites in the market. The popular ones are MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, Hi5, LinkedIn, Classmates.com, Friendster, Yahoo! 360°. But I found Orkut is the most suitable for me due to the availability of friends on this web site. Orkut turns out to be the most popular social networking website used in India.

It seems like now a days everyone is on Orkut. I noticed it is a better way of maintaining contact with those long-lost friends; otherwise it would have been never possible to find these people. Its like you scrap my book, I'll scrap yours.

For me, There were many surprises found from school days to office colleagues listed in the search.

Toad's Project Manager Tool

Sometime working with large database team on single project is challenging. I found that everyone is creating their own application schemas, database objects inter linked with common objects, creating dependency on each other. Soon it becomes complex environment to manage and work on.

As result of this; while working on particular module you get distracted by all these unrelated objects. A simple task of finding a table or Package which needs modification takes a while; it takes too much of clicking and scrolling.

So yesterday while going thru Toad Menu I found this very useful tool called "Project Manager". At the beginning, I was skeptical thinking that it’s just another not-so useful fancy tool, but it turns out to be very handy.



Basically, Project Manager allows you to easily organize your work area. It provides a centralized screen to manage our most frequently related objects.

All you need to do is find out all the objects you need to work on and then just drag-and-drop in Project Manager Panel, you are all set to work on your module.

The beauty of this is you can even add your ad-hoc Sql files, OS Folders, URL, Unix FTP Server and even make "To-do" list related your project.

Bollywood’s Children song

Somehow our little one loves music; particularly bollywood songs and so far his favorite songs are from “Lage Raho Munna Bhai”. He hints by clapping his hand when he wants to listen 'Pal Pal Har Pal' song.

After repeatedly playing these songs from many days he got bored and so did we. Therefore I thought to find out songs that he will enjoy. I could hardly find more than five songs that could be counted as children’s song made in bollywood which has enjoyable music. Those are

Lakdi Ki Kathi from Masoom (1983)
Chanda Chamke from Fanaa (2006)
Mere Paas Aao from Mr.Natwarlal (1979)

I still remember I loved ‘Lakdi Ki kathi’ most in my childhood days.
Unlike bollywood I did find many songs in Marathi known as "Bala Geete" including most popular
"Mamachya Gaavala Javooya"
"Zuk Zuk Aagin Gadee"
"Naach Re Mora"

Barcamp2 at Pune

I am not sure when I will get a chance to attend one, But certainly I've added this thing in my "things to do list". This is second barcamp happening in Pune within period of one year time...not a bad start.

The BarCampPune2 is happening on 16th December at Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research, Pune. You can find it more about it here.

M&M's Scorpio to enter US Market.

Scorpio has been my favourite SUV in the Indian Automobile market ever since the day I rented it for my wedding. It was love at first sight due to its comfort factor and smoothness on Indian Road. It got the same ruggedness style with performance which had in good ole Yamaha Rx-100.

Soon M&M's Scorpio will be seen on the North America road, The exact date of the US launch will be announced in April ’07. M&M will be the first Indian automaker to enter the highly-competitive American passenger vehicle market , an uphill battle for M&M. I wish them all the best and I hope to be proud owner of Scorpio one day in future.

Team Lunch at Pongsri Thai Restaurant

Another Holiday lunch at New York City at Pongsri Thai Restaurant and this time I did finish Pad Thai completely. The dishes were tasty and prices are moderate. Thou the wine was disappointment, I would have preferred Thai Ice-Tea instead.

Growing a Beard

Usually Monday morning is the time, when I shave which last for 5 business days and by weekend it come backs to its original growth.

Last few Mondays, I've skipped the shaving process due to laziness which resulted into light beard. Now it has become a curiosity factor to really see myself in full grown beard. Its been almost 2 weeks and the plan is complete 5 weeks which will put this into New year. Start the New Year with clean shave and slim hair cut in well groomed manner.

On scientific note, Winter is the best season for growing a beard which can provide protection against the bitter cold. While in summer, it can sweat your face.

But for next few weeks I’ve to live with this itchy feeling of Beard.

Handy Hand

Our little one has started understanding few instructions and properly following them. Few of them are “Where is a remote control?” once he finds the remote, He sincerely brings it to us, so we don’t get need to move our lazy ass.

Another useful one is now he knows where to throw dirty diapers, exactly in the bathroom dustbin.

It does not hurt having another handy hand in the Home.

Winter Time

Its winter time and we are trying to spend much of our time by staying indoor.
So just to make our winter time entertaining; we got for our self these toys.

For us


For our Little one