After marriage..

After marriage..

Before marriage………

He: Yes, At last, it was so hard to wait.
She: Do you want me to leave?
He: NO! Don’t even think about it.
She: Do you love me?
He: Of course! Over and Over!
She: Have you ever cheated me?
He: NO! Why are you even asking?
She: Will you kiss me?
He: Every chance I get!
She: Will you hit me?
He: Are you crazy! I ‘m not that kind of person!
She: Can I trust you?
He: YES
She: Darling……!

After marriage..
Simply read again from the bottom to the top post

//found in orkut scrap

All I can say is WOW !

All I can say is WOW !

If you like doing laps in the swimming pool, you might want to stock up on the energy drinks before diving in to this one.It is more than 1,000 yards long, covers 20 acres, had a 115ft deep end and holds 66 million gallons of water.Yesterday the Guinness Book of Records named the vast pool beside the sea in Chile as the biggest in the world.

But if you fancy splashing out on one of your own - and you have the space to accommodate it - then beware: This one took five years to build, cost nearly £1billion and the annual maintenance bill will be $2million.

The man-made saltwater lagoon has been attracting huge crowds to the San Alfonso del Mar resort at Algarrobo, on Chile 's southern coast, since it opened last month. Its turquoise waters are so crystal clear that you can see the bottom even in the deep end.

It dwarfs the world's second biggest pool, the Orthlieb - nicknamed the Big Splash - in Morocco , which is a mere 150 yards long and 100 yards wide. An Olympicsize pool measures some 50 yards by 25 yards.

Chile 's monster pool uses a computer- controlled suction and filtration system to keep fresh seawater in permanent circulation, drawing it in from the ocean at one end and pumping it out at the other.The sun warms the water to 26c, nine degrees warmer than the adjoining sea. Chilean biochemist Fernando Fischmann, whose Crystal Lagoons Corporation designed the pool, said advanced engineering meant his company could build 'an impressive artificial paradise' even in inhospitable areas.

'As long as we have access to unlimited seawater, we can make it work, and it causes no damage to the ocean.'

via email | Sachin

Flickr conxn

Flickr conxn

Wow ! how did he shoot this one ?
Simple: "Requires a little effort to get up this early.. & Nikon D300"

Cloud Gate is a public sculpture by Anish Kapoor in Millennium Park, Chicago. The sculpture is shaped like an ellipse, and its legume-like appearance has caused it to be nicknamed “The Bean”. It is made of 168 highly polished stainless steel plates, and stands at 33 feet high, 66 feet long, and 42 feet wide, weighing 110 tons. From a distance it could be mistaken for a huge drop of mercury, while up close its highly reflective surface captures and transforms the skyline, the downtown cityscape and even the passers-by into a wonderfully warped new vista. The artist, Anish Kapoor, has referred to the sculpture as “a gate to Chicago, a poetic idea about the city it reflects.” The 12-foot underbelly is called the "omphalos" or navel and multiplies reflections in a vortex.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Gate

>> one more view in: iceman

Break or make with: Customer

Break or make with: Customer

I got a chance to talk to one of the chief product designer of the company, who was just back from product show in Vegas. We were talking about - if companies give much priority to the end user while designing a product ?

I was in the favor of the point: yes, since customer centric experience and user centric marketing is the fad, companies do give utmost importance to end user while ideating a product. While studying the user behavior, companies tend to be soft towards the majority taste of the user base.

During the conversation he made an interesting point: not necessarily companies need to be in favor of what the market or user wants. They might take altogether a different path than the herd and create a different sector altogether. In which the end user is psychologically forced to move to that sector. He calls it : differential user experience, without the end user engagement in ideation. Breaking from the path but not deviating the from the norm.

According to him: user study says, 80% of the users use clamshell or flip phones in USA. When Apple planned to penetrate into handsets market, instead of favoring user study, they choose to introduce a bar design- iPhone. Apple broke the 'common path of introducing a bar phone. They didn't even bother to be in safer side at least by releasing a clamshell, instead choose to create a new segment altogether in mid-tier handset market with the touch sensitive bar phone. The way iPhone became a instant Jesus phone - it's a history every phone company is envy of !

Incidentally, I came across an interesting read By Greg Nudelman, about -the way to give center stage to customer delight. Meaning, it's reality that design is an ongoing human-to-human partnership between designers and customers who combine forces to reach a common goal. “If they (end users, experience partners) are not involved in the process, they are hardly likely to approve the product. It’s that simple”—Roger Fisher.

But his clarity of this proposition is damn interesting with this statement: The term user leads to sloppy design thinking. “The term users limits us to old ways of thinking about the world we live in and the products we develop.”

>> Read more on experience partnership

Choice.

Choice.

Checking eMail is a good habit

Checking eMail is a good habit

Digsby, the all-in-one Hello!

Digsby, the all-in-one Hello!

You've multiple accounts in yahoo,facebook, gmail, AOL etc., and you would like to use all those accounts to communicate with your colleagues, friends, co-workers for one or the other reason: "to be in touch". If the solution is all about installing multiple chat engines, think about it.

The days of multiple messaging softwares was wiped off with the entry of Trillian and pidgin( formerly, gaim). And now the fad is all about -meebo like simple & browser based online chat client, which is accessible anywhere, anytime. It doesn't have hassles like IP settings at workplace and home. But there're few messaging softwares gaining popularity with innovative features, hassle free convergence & ease of interoperability.

Today, I happen to dash on new IM client which is buzzing netizen for quite some. The all-in-one chat, messaging, email and social-networking client - Digsby,. It's neat, functional and polished compared to free chat systems out there. The best of all is its facebook integration. Thought it's in beta stage; sofar fulfilled what pidgin is lacking with. I've started using it & yet to test its effectivity.

Scuba diving in Netrani

Scuba diving in Netrani

My travel partner, Raj asked me sometime in mid of march, 'how about a scuba diving in Netrani island this month' ? I was kinda skeptical initially & juggling with dual thoughts to go or not. By then: Raj booked for scuba in Netrani island. Was wondering - ...with the kind of beaches of coastal Karnataka...what kind of scuba we gonna do ?

Netrani Island is in Arabian sea & about 18 KM from the shores of Murudeshwara, Karnataka. The fact that this Island is isolated from mainland and people do not visit this place, the sea life is so colorful! It was treat to eyes and adventurous to explore scuba diving.

I call it a coincidence. Just the next day, I got a chance to watch hollywood flick 'into the blue' in star movies. I couldn't even loose a minute of concentration, as my favo babe - Jessica Alba flashing zingy figure in deep blue underwater. Movie is extensively shot in the beautiful and mesmerizing deep waters of Bahamas. This movie thrilled me with the imagination of scuba diving in sucha crystal clear underwater. I couldn't resist the idea of scuba and instantly gave a call to Raj to make sure I am there in the scuba league.

Team of enthusiastic 30, in a delayed bus travel, unplanned breakfast stop over in rain-soaked Mudigere, lovely traverse in the beautiful green curves of Chickmagalur, hot-trenched Bantwal journey took us straight into swimming pool of dusky evening of Murudeshwar hotel. It was almost a drizzling twilight. Planned as a practice time for gonnabe scuba divers of next day. I was puzzled to see heaps of pipes running to and from big oxygen cylinders. It was a serious 'scuba' preparation...

The dusky dark evening, rarely twinkling lights, pool covered with green hillocks, drizzling chill air, slippery floor, and the lean & thin scuba instructors taught us the art of breathing & underwater surviving tactics. With lotta scuba gyan we made our way to not-so-great hotel which was allocated for us. It was a pitch black night when we logged into hotel room in Bhatkal to catch some sleep.

Next morning, our life jacket wrapped gang was waiting for the boats to pick us up in the temple beach of Murudeshwar. For the first time I was traveling for so long on the ocean. Gradually muddy water of the shore transformed into crystal clear turquoise blue water as moved towards the island. It was cool realize; were moving inside the Arabian sea and 18 km away Netrani island was seeming in the same shape since we've started. It was an awesome journey; vested with the great feeling of being nowhere.

Finally, in less than hour of boating we landed (rather, stranded) near the famed Netrani island. Raj & me were ready with the cam tripod and super zoom lens to clinch shutterbug thirst, but sadly, there was no beach as guessed in that island. It's a mammoth rock peeping out of the vast water mass. Boats were anchored right besides the island on the water. Ditto into-the-blue movie types.

What I call a heavenly day kicked off with few of us wrapped in a life jacket, dived into sea water. Wow ! floating on salty and crystal water snorkeling looking into deep sea, was out of the world experience. Two scuba experts started scuba diving with 3 of us each. Not bad, Indian Arabian sea is a vast pool of underwater beauty with lotta cute and colorful fishes & wonderful reef inside. I managed to spot beautiful variety of never-seen-before fishes, blue and yellow lined fishes, variety coral reefs, beautiful but odd shaped stones etc., After my scuba dive, spent long hours floating on the water looking at cloudy sky. Felt like 'if there's anything called - nirvana, this is it'.

I was wondering about the scuba technique of controlling breathing with oxygen cylinder and waving fins attached to feet, which makes you float and swim underwater even if you don't know swimming. It was certainly a godly experience to see exhaled air creating randomly shaped bubbles going up in lovely designs under clear waters of ocean. Never knew the scuba dive in Netrani takes one to sucha lovely destination under the ocean.

While coming back in the evening, it started slowly drizzling followed by heavy downpour. I enjoyed every bit of it sitting on fore tip of the boat. A mild weather, shadowy and dusky light, no sign of any boats as long as one can see on the ocean. A solitude married to creamy weather. I was drenching for hours till we reach the shore. My mood was humming...

Rain Clouds in the sky, I don't know why
They make me blue, when I'm thinking of you
Maybe they want to cry, As I walk on by
Hiding my tears, in a world of good byes

Rain drops and dance, strange kind of romance
I don't know why whether to cry out loud, But I'm feeling fine
Watch the rythm of the rain falling down

...Indian Rain from Colonial Cousins. It was Wow !

In the evening, we few of us went to Murudeshwar temple and took darshana of Lord shiva. Ironically aatma linga in the temple is so-tiny compared to the mammoth shiva statue evoked behind the temple by a business tycoon. Towering idol of Lord Shiva believed to be the tallest in Asia.

It was a long journey way back to Bangalore, a long night melted with mast dance and masti of Nishant for a Kannada HMT remix ! He could make anyone & everyone rocking with his well timed wits, mannerisms and puns. Finally for his sansani entertainment speed he was named as -aajtak ;D

>> View scuba gallery