The God Rays

deepak

This photo was taken during my drive back to home through NICE road.

NICE Road is one of the best places where you can catch these amazing skyline photos, IMO. The straight roads, clear skylines with no buildings to obstruct view makes this road a wonderful place to take these shots.

Sometimes I see such wonderful skylines that I regret not setting up a dashboard cam so that  I can record/take photos while I am driving. By the time, I stop the car by the side of the road, the best view would have gone and I would have missed the shot.

 

image

Ride Free in Uber

deepak

uber-banner

Though Uber was late in entering India, IMO they are the main reason why cab industry is seeing such a big shift in India. The entire cab industry is undergoing a radical shift. Central and State Governments are introducing legislatures that is aimed at improving this industry.

https://www.uber.com/invite/ubercdeepak

All you have to do is follow the below steps:

 

  1. Install Uber app using the above link in your smartphone
  2. Create a new Uber account
  3. Link your PayTM account with Uber. If you don’t have a PayTM account, you can create one in the flow itself. It is free
  4. That’s it. You are good to take your first free ride using Uber. You will get a credit upto Rs. 600 in your account.

There are some conditions to utilize this though. Some of them are listed below:

  1. You shouldn’t be having an Uber account before. If you already have an account, then this isn’t applicable for you.
  2. You can’t link a credit card to Uber right now. PayTM is the only option of payment for Uber right now.

You might be sceptical if this works. Believe me, it does. I have already taken multiple rides. Na, nothing illegal. It’s just that whenever a new user creates account with Uber, I get a free ride worth the same amount you are getting. So, yes, that’s one of the reasons why I am recommending Uber.

What are your experiences in riding with Uber? Share your comments below…

My New TT Racket

My New TT Racket

deepak

IMG_20130128_130152 It has been more than 10 years since I started playing this lovely game of Ping Pong. My college mates know me from this game and my hostelmates might remember me playing this game until the wee hours of  the next day. If there is one game that I love the most, other than Cricket, it is Table Tennis. I don’t know why, but I had fallen in love to this game when I was a kid.

All my school life was spent in a small town called Tirupattur, near Jolarpettai in Tamil Nadu. I still remember when my father took me to Sacred Heart’s College. there were a couple of guys playing this wonderful game. I still remember pestering my dad asking that I also play this game. But that was another time, there were lot of reasons at that time why I couldn’t play there.

Fast forward to 1999, it was college time. I came to know that there was a TT table in the Senior’s hostel. And they announced a tournament within the first one month. I somehow convinced another hostellite friend to come over with me, to partner for doubles. Honestly saying, that was the First time I was seeing a TT table so close; First time I touched a TT racket; First time I saw how small (or big) the TT ball was. Ofcourse, having never played the game, I got beaten sound and round in the tournament. Add to this the ragging of 3 years of seniors. But that day, I said to a Senior who was sympathetic to me; Watch Out for Me, I will be here Next Year…

We had to change hostels after completing the first year. We moved to the senior hostel and after checking into our rooms, the first place I visited was the TT room. There were more than 30 seniors; and I was the only junior in the room. One person patted me on my shoulder and when I turned, I noticed that it was the same senior to whom I had said my famous dialogue the previous year. He was happy to see me there and he took me under his wings.

Coming to the topic of this blog, I remember how I begged my parents to get me a new racket and somehow convinced them and got the required finances – a princely sum of Rs. 350. I bought a Stag racket and was using it religiously. Never gave this racket to anybody, not even to my seniors. This was my racket and will not share it with anyone. However, during the course of time, my game started improving and started learning about TT rubbers. I first heard the name Mark V from my doubles partner Manasa. Was shocked when I saw the quality of the shots. However, I decided I will buy a custom racket when I earn my first salary. My parents honored my request with a decent racket. I will not burden them again with another request. This time the racket will be bought from my own pocket. This thought came to me in 2003, during my final year in college.

Fast forward to 2013, I decided the day has come and went to Jayanagar. Though the day started with the hunt for a decent cricket shoes, I ended up buying a customized TT racket. The final output was, Butterfly Plank, Mark V rubber for my forehand and Euro Power for my backhand. Of course, with any new games equipment, I had to first delearn my game and get adjusted to the weight and balance of the new racket. My forehand shots were going for sixers and boundaries. However, after close to a month now, my shots have started falling on the TT table. Hopefully, by this month end, my old game will be back.

Here are some of the pics of my new TT racket:

 

 

 

 

PSA – Nice Road Partially Closed

deepak

If you are like me, who use NICE highway in Bangalore for most of the travel, this will be important to you.

As of yesterday, they have closed a section of NICE Road – Link Road between NICE and Nayandahalli. They are laying concrete roads for the entire stretch and because of this they have closed one part of the highway.

However, if you are travelling from Nayandahalli towards Mysore or Electronics City, this will not affect you, but will do so if you are coming through the other side.

This has caused major problems for me, as all these days, it was taking just 30 mins for me to travel 35kms – from home and work. Now, with the return journey, I need to take a detour to Mysore road, and then come back through Bangalore University. The problem with this route is, there are a couple of big U-turns. During evening time, shuttle buses from software companies exit in Mysore road and take U turns here, thereby stopping the traffic for close to 15 minutes.

Hoping that this is all for the better. My only concern right now is, once the highway is opened fully again, whether they will increase the toll charges again.

Can just keep my fingers crossed… for the next three months…

A New Look

deepak

I know it has been more than 15 months since I last posted anything in my blog. In fact, my family themselves were wondering whether I am maintaining this blog anymore or not. I don’t know why, but something has now woken up within me and I have decided I will put up  a minimum of one post per week. Yea, I know this is a very heavy commitment, but let’s see if I can keep up with it.

To start of with this, I decided to change the looks of the blog. The previous version was kinda dull (IMO).

Not only that, in the name of experimentation with code, I had made massive changes to the default templates that I literally lost what was changed and what wasn’t. I also messed up the commenting system. With new Facebook Commenting plugins, I decided, I wanted to enable it, but cos of my code changes, I didnt know how to do it. If you do not know how to correct it, change it – followed this principle and BINGO… the new theme helped me to get back my Facebook comments.

Anyways, let us see how I try to keep up with my latest challenge. This will not be like Matt Cutt’s 30-day challenge. This will be Deepak’s Weekly Challenge.