The first few pictures

... are here!

There's this coconut tree on the rear side of my apartment, and this colorful branch caught my eye when I was ambling in the balcony making sure that my pets drank water.

So I zoomed in and immediately made a desktop wallpaper out of it :D

A spring blossom I picked up on the way while walking my dogs. I placed it on my red leather wallet for a contrast-ish effect.

My Phoebe! How could I not capture the apple of my eye? The queen of our home? My only love at first sight, ever? (Take that, hubby! The only thing I felt when I laid my eyes on you for the first time was... wow... that's so much light entering the room! You were practically reflecting light with every square inch of your visible skin!)

That's Mojo in his playful pose, who mistook the camera for a toy and was ready to jump at me and wrestle it away.

The second memory capturer

... is here!

From Nikon's Life series of digital cameras, it's L120! It has 21x optical zoom. Megapixels be damned!

Isn't that red irresistible?

• Specs as per Nikon


• Review by Steve's Digicams


• Offer from Flipkart
  

I can't stop giggling. Or at least grinning. It's either that or my evil laugh.

And I must add. Flipkart rocks! An impressive interview by Unmana made be give them a try. Am totally sold.

Also a vote of thanks to TG (bows! and bow-wows!) for the advice. And MG (you should begin write again!) for appreciating the pics I took earlier.

Got off my ass and did something

... the second time around. This Saturday, folks from Ramnagar Colony, where I reside, had organized a walk to raise awareness and protest against the encroachment upon Ramnadi (mostly by construction companies). The plan was to walk alongside the river bed around 7:00 in the morning. The Ramnagar Colony Mandal had contacted the press and some municipal authorities. Considering their availability, the timing was changed to 11:00 am. Most of the participants were aged 50 or above. Considering the summer heat, we decided to use cars instead.

We drove to the adjoining highway and then went down the fork to the left where Anshul developers are constructing a residential complex right on top of the river itself. Their project description reads "Conveniently located at the junction of RamNadi and Mumbai-Bangalore Bypass." Located at the junction... my ass.

The next stop was the bridge beside DSK Ranwaara straddled by Rainbow Housing and the Goel Ganga group on each side. Their projects are not only endangering the ecosystem, but their future customers lives as well. Isn't it a simple fact that soil under or adjoining a river is unstable? How can the foundations of these constructions be strong enough for the buildings to survive even the next 5 / 10/ 20 years, especially with flash floods like we experienced last year? What are they thinking? Is this a forest where tribals can shit in the river and hope that their waste will be carried far away and wouldn't bother them? Rainbow Housing does not even mention the water body in their project description. Guess they assume that there won't be able left when they're done with the place.

The last stop was the rear side of Sai Kamal complex, which is separated from Praj Industries by Ramnadi. This a company that offers "water and wastewater treatment systems for customers, worldwide." By shitting in their own backyard. A few weeks ago, they were caught dumping debris in Ramnadi, which runs through their own backyard. As of now, it seems like they are cooperating and have expressed willingness to clean their act.

We did not do much other than walk around and chant slogans... something I'm not really a fan of, but we can't do much else until we gather the support of enough folks to move the responsible people in civic administration to do their jobs. Some experts explained the situation to folks who were new and mentioned other similar ongoing struggles in other parts of India. The press was invited to cover the event. The corporator, who was invited and reminded about the event over the phone, did not turn up. He missed the last even too, when these folks protested against praj Industries. The next action item is to get more people to involve and speak up. We're hoping to build the numbers and the momentum of this struggle so that the authorities take requisite action before this monsoon. This is a tad overtly ambitious, but we can hope, can't we?

Some folks have written about this elsewhere and the news articles should come out soon. Will update this post when I have the links and pictures.

Which Star Wars Character Are You?
	You are Darth Vader. Secrets are kept within your soul for ages, and you only reveal them when the perfect opportunity presents itself. You are not purely evil, but let's just say you need to chill out a little bit! You are a leader- and because of that have a great responsibility to make sure you lead people down the right path. You will seize control of situations by any means necessary- and you do so with no regrets (and you probably throw in an evil laugh too!)
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

Whoever's looking for

... armpit hair picture of nude girl, did you find what were looking for on my blog? If you did, could you point me to that location? Must be some corner or my mind where I keep thinking about the Redneck Mommy. She's the one who teases people about posting such pictures. Not me. Although I could post such pictures if you ask me nicely. I've got a girl at home who runs around naked all day and has hair all over. Not just in her armpits. And she'll lick you all over even if you don't ask her nicely. I promise.

Taggin' the bracelet along

I don't normally do this, but I'm not in a mood for work today, so taking up what N passed on here.

A few questions about bracelets, triggered by The Bracelet. I haven't been a regular reader of Ritu's blog, but I like what I read, and I guess I might like what her son wrote too.

1. What does the name suggest? Could be anything you know, even “Oops its my wife/girl friend’s birthday, what do I get her” Just put it down.

- The word always brings to my mind a silvery object with trinkets or little bells hanging off it.

2. If your loved one presented you a bracelet, what would you want it to be made of? Alternatively if you had to present a bracelet to your sweetheart, what would you pick?

a.) Gold

b) Gold and rubies

c) Diamonds babe, just diamonds

d) Whateva, its gotta be expensive and look it!

e) Simple iron kada, or a silver one. Not showy

- Option e, I think. As evident in my answer to the previous question. Of course, I wouldn't wear it everyday for the fear that it would disturb others at work.

3. Suppose your bracelet (or kada) had magical qualities (Like Aladin’s lamp) what magical qualities would you want it to have? Let your imagination run riot … anything, money, power, world domination, elixir of youth …. Just pen it down – or punch them keys

- Summon my loved ones or somehow establish contact with them wherever I am.

4. Do snakes scare you or do you get strangely fascinated by them?

- I am strangely fascinated by snakes. Except maybe a hungry anaconda. Then I'd want to get the hell out of that place.

5. Harry Potter could speak Parseltogue. Do you wish you could?

- Yeah, that would be neat. Although I'd prefer speaking canine so I'd know exactly what my dogs are trying to say.

6. What do you dream about? No this is not about day dreaming, it’s not about wishful thinking, its about being in dreamland.

- I generally dream of adventure, or sometimes about being in a crisis situation and trying to get myself out of a spot or trying to protect someone.

7. Do you remember your dreams?

- Rarely.

8. Ever had your dreams interpreted?

- Nope. Don't know whether and how much I'd trust another's interpretation.

9. Do you keep a dream diary?

- Nope. Seems like a nice idea, though.

10. Your favorite wrist jewellery?

a) Bangles

b) Bracelet

c) Expensive Watch

d) Friendship band

e) Taveez or sacred thread (mouli)

- Bracelet it is!

Professional hazards - IV

Drama alert!

Us technical writers are like beggars, always asking for information. Snooty developers and snootier product managers oblige us when they're in a generous mood. But mostly we're found knocking on their posh car windows looking for a scrap of information that they'd want to throw at us, if only to throw us off their trail for a while. We gladly lap up every bit we receive only to realize that it wasn't what we needed. Once in a while some benevolent soul comes along and throws a few better-looking scraps, along with a look that says: use it well.

When they cross us a few days later, we show them what we've made of it. That's when they decide that it wasn't what they wanted to give us in the first place. Then they throw another large scrap at us and ask us to clean up the nice little trinket that we made out of the earlier scrap.

Oh, and did I mention the QA folk? They look at our trinket as if it's a waste of their time and that they need to get it off their hands before they're possessed by whatever's in it. If they are in a generous mood, they might even throw some bugs at us, praising our trinket for what it lacks. That, when they can barely string a few words together to make a sentence. Even if their life depends on it.

Disclaimer: I know I've made sweeping generalizations and accusations in this post, but would you prefer if I did a whiny, plaintive post with great detail of who said what to whom? I get my funny out instead.