Sneek-A-Peek

Here's a nice catchy line from a certain article in Economics Times

in the time that it took Bangalore to build its Indira Nagar flyover, Beijing got ready for the entire Olympics

So, quite explains the pathetic attitude of some of the government organisations in India.
Read the article "The way to double-digit growth" on Economic Times Website.

Mumbai felt the tremors again on 17th September 2008 at around 3:15 a.m.
This is the second earthquake to rock Mumbai within last four months. The earthquake which shook the region today was much higher than the previous one, somewhere in June. It was not felt by many people as it occured in the middle of the night and there's been no extensive damage around my area.
Checking around the locality and with my friends, those awake definitely felt the tremble.
As per my guesses the earthquake should be higher than 5 on richter scale. Eerily it has already been predicted to occur today. Though the scale seems to be magnified, the accuracy of the timing and location, as well as the prediction of high intensity of the quake makes one wonder if it's just a co-incidence or is there some real sense behind the theory.
Keep a lookout for the newspaper in the morning for the intensity of the quake, the epicenter as well as the damage caused. Should get some bytes from a few people on their experiences of the quake in the media, today.
Will update the post with the details as and when they are revealed.

Update:-
Magnitude of the quake was 4.7
Time when it occurred at the epicenter was 3:17 a.m. IST
The location of epicenter was 205 kms SSE of Mumbai.

BarCampMumbai is back again. The same venue, different format.
BCM4 is happening on 4th-5th October 2008 at IIT Powai. Yeah, you read it right it's a 2 day event this time around. There are some other changes too, for better and for worse - as you see it. This time around only way to get to the barcamp is to get involved. You can either volunteer for helping manage the event or you can register as a speaker. A good thing for me as I already wanted to give a shot to volunteering but was a bit late last time around.
You can register for volunteer at Volunteer's Page or register your session in Registration Document.
There's also a logo competition running at BCM this time around for all you creative people.


Venue:- SJMSOM, IIT, Powai, Mumbai
Date:- 4th to 5th October 2008


To get news and updates about all the happenings till the countdown clock ticks you can

1. Join mailing lists and get in touch with the enthusiasts and discuss at http://groups.google.com/group/barcampmumbai2


2. Follow the blog at http://blog.barcampmumbai.org/


3. Follow on twitter at http://twitter.com/bcm4

So, again it's that time of the year that Maharashtra wholeheartedly welcomes Lord Ganesha. Yesterday, my friends from VJTI planned to visit one of our friend's place at Kharghar since they are celebrating the festival at his place.
The journey began with 9 of us catching a Panvel bound bus from Dadar TT at 14:30 after I made my friends wait for a good half hour and miss one bus by just about a minute. Since Dadar TT is the starting point for these State Transport(ST) buses we got an empty bus and could sit all together to enjoy the journey.
With the bus, our conversations started too. From movies to actresses to MBA preparations to college life. Then couple of good singers from our group started entertaining the whole bus with some nice Hindi and Marathi songs. Another couple of friends joined us at Chembur, after that the volume of singing went louder. We were the center of attraction of the whole bus. Many kinds of songs, ranging from old to new to happy to sad to peppy to slow to off beat.
To alleviate the peppy atmosphere in the bus, the weather was perfect neither heavy rains nor scorching sunlight. And the scenery along the way made a perfect companion, that cheer up anybody even in meanest of moods.
The whole journey was over in a short span of hour and quarter, but it was well worth it spending the time in joyous mood with friends. As they say "It's not the quantity, it's the quality that matters" . It was definitely a high quality time with friends. So, we finally got off at the Kharghar highway, near ITM School Of Management and proceeded on our way to friend's house on foot. Joking and chatting all the way!
Definitely one of the days to remember and a great way to spend a weekend. Duh! Who needs rest on a weekend

No, I am not talking about the green thing that grows in the garden, nor am I talking about about the stuff that you must be smoking while reading this article :p . Grass is a restaurant at Nakshatra Mall near Dadar railway station towards the west. The place is located amongst the hustle bustle of Dadar area. The restaurant is right next to the theatre on the 2nd floor.
The first glance at the place - a not so brightly lit but adequately pleasant atmosphere. The place is sufficiently lit considering since there's no wall/windows facing the road, just an open gallery. The seats and quite nice and comfortable and about 4-7 people can fit on each table.
The food served ranges from Indian to Mexican to Chinese to Italian. Alcohol, soft drinks and hookah are also served. The preferred item on the menu is, without doubt, hookah, like most hookah joints I have seen . We had some pasta, garlic bread and noodles. The food was nice, garlic bread were delicious. Then, while couple of friends enjoyed the hookah, I had a atrocious vanilla milkshake.
The service there is below par - the waiter had to be requested too many times for hookah. Small things like sauce were being forgotten, too . Still, the time period for being served was pretty decent if you discount the long time that waiters take to approach your table. But, most people visiting the place don't really care as they're out to have some nice chat, chill out and smoke hookah. The atmosphere is leisurely amongst the general crowd.
So, overall it's a nice place to hangout with friends, especially if you're into having hookah and don't mind the slow service. A good place to hang out with friends occasionally on a leisurely weekend.