Driving Test

I got my Driving Test on 5th December, so its High time, I start taking my lessons. Bcos graduating as an Engineer in Kuwait is easier than procuring a Driving License. But than I feel why do I need driving lessons, I have already been driving for more than 8 years and have been in the police station for underage driving and u tell me I need driving lessons. U gotta be kidding me.

Well But no risk, Bcos If I fail the test I get to wait another couple of months to get another test and I m soo desperate to drive, I just wanna get my driving license and start driving. So be good boy and take some driving lessons. Well in this virtual world I wish there was some Online Simulation software to take your driving lessons sitting right here with Laptop. But Yes I found a good Parking lessons site, emailed by a friend. SO if u want to know how to park successfully in different situations sitting right there on your computer.

Than go ahead: Park my Peugeot

Its a funny way to learn

Time Flies...

Try to catch It. Try harder But you cant.

It seems yesterday I lost my Father, But Its 4.5 years

It seems Yesterday that I completed my Engineering and got a Job and now its already 3 years into the Industry.

It seems yesterday I came to Q8 and its almost 6 months already


Time Just Flies as I try to hold it.
The Harder I try, the faster it flies

Turning Pages of the calendar
Seems like a daily blunder

Ramzan Will come Will Come Will Come
Its gone as If it was just a Day

Soo Be Ready for your DeathBed
As Steady are the Malaika to get U...

Ramadan @ Kuwait

1. Mubarak Alaikum Shahr On the first day of Ramadan, all were wishing each other with this greeting. And the respondent would say: Alaina wa Alaikum Insha Allah

With little bit of Arabic I know it means: "May this Month be blessed for u". And the respose: "For me and for you God Willing"

So I really liked the first day people were wishing each other every1 they met the first time, it was a nice atmosphere.

2. Work Timings: 6 hours only (So Kool) I remember working 12 hours in Ramadan last year when I was with CyberTech

3. Girgiyan- Thats Toffees -But Not for me :( Well here Kids go to homes of locals and they get Toffess called as Girgiyan

4. For me, its Suhoor and After and Taraweeh Alhamdulillah same as Mumbai, wats different.

There is a difference, In Mumbai I could go n hang around with friends, could go to Muhammad Ali road and enjoy the delicacies, feast there the whole Night!

I remember I used to plan it with my college friends and I used to be at Muhammadali Road atleast once in Ramadan wit them and N no. of times with my local friends, and they used to enjoy the food sooo much.

But nothing of that sort here. Atleast in the locality I stay In, but majority here is Expats! I am not sure, if Kuwaiti localities have any special feasts like in MUMBAI. Although I heard some1 say Kuwaitis eat the whole year in Hotels but in Ramadan they eat at home, Home cooked food. Well not sure about it. As I have just heard it from some Expat.

Yes U dont get to see the Malpua of Suleman Usman, Nor the Flavored Firni of Noorani, Nor the Bheja Fry and Turkey and Chicken dishes of Muhammadali Road, Nor the Baara Handi of Bori Mohalla, Nor the Nalli Nihari of Noor Mohammadi. Nor the Soup of Bade Miyan. This are just to name a few.

Well for those for whom the above Para is Greek, it is names of dishes and the related restaurant which is famous for it.

Well Gotta End this here!!!

Missing India .....

Yes, How much ever I try to pretend, but the fact remains, I Miss India Soooooooooooooo Muchhhhhhhhh. That only I know how much I missssssss it.
The saying remains True, "Go East or West, India is the Best!" Love U India.!!!!

Well, I skipped US and took up Middle-East thinking I might like it, but now I am sure both r the same for an Indian. he can be happy only in India.

I wrote a big List of things i miss than deleted it. Bcos Its part of life, I guess!! Faith in Destiny comes here.

Old Habits Die Hard

Heard of that before.

Well people who know Awwab working in India, know that He used to have more compensatory Offs than official leaves in India. Becos I used to not only work 10-14 hours a day but also work on weekends whenever required and for weekends get a compensatory off. And can you make a wild guess how many times I had travelled by the last train in the night. I dont remember the count. But I used to remember the time- table for the last train well. And it was scary to sit in the First Class past midnite all alone. But got used to it, As I used to avoid sitting by sleeping on the whole seat. and I had internal alarm in my body that would wake me up just before my station arrived. Ohh those lovely days. I miss the Train!!

So due to Comp-Offs I also had leave in abundance available.

This is my first weekend in office in Q8. Well not really work pressure, but had to rearrange some of my servers which required me to be present in office. But the sad part, I wont get a Comp-Off :(

Anyways, its fine better than sleeping at home! And now I will remember the date as I blogged on it, the same day.

Reading your own self

Well, One more reason, I like blogs, I am reading my own blog. And trying to read what I meant when I blogged earlier. Its soo kool, its like turning pages back of some book and I can re-read what state of mind I was in than.

But if I would not have blogged my thoughts than. I would never ever recollect, the actual things may be.

A friend emailed me asking, Do u like Q8 or u want to move to some other gulf country or US? That puts me to thought, and I also had a discussion about this with a new colleague who is born, brought up Kuwait and was discussing about how I find Kuwait. And got to hear a real picture of kuwait. And Yes, if I can save some money and have a good life its a good place. I think I just need some friends and than I would be rocking in Kuwait. not the literal meaning of Rocking.

Well Baba has joined Microsoft as a Program Manager for its Games section www.zone.com So kool. He was always so Microsoft savvy. he has Bill gates in his MSN Messenger list, sounds so cool. I am so happy for him. I wanted to do some community work out here on Microsoft technologies, but not much of developer community out here. SO not sure if there will be an opportunity. Lets c. Well enuf for now.

Accept People the Way they are and Act Wisely...

Well, In old days when i was workin wit Cybertech, where a friend had joined some Art of Living classes. and he used to always say this. And I remembered this statement from him. And since than I always try and observe how much it is True.

Have u ever tried changing a person?
Tried changing the way he thinks?
If Yes, how much have u succeeded. Or have u found the above statement True.

I find the above statement so True, to the best of my experience. and especially it is True for those people who have the feeling that they know everything, they dont need any1 to tell them nething. But how good or bad is being stubborn in this way. have u ever felt the same thing. Yes sometime or the other in something or the other, even we act in the same unchangeable mode of operation.

I guess it would be only wise who have control over themselves, can put themselves in the changeable mode, and grasp things that some1 says and is gonna benefit them and accept the changes and implement them in the way they are.

I m getting into Philosophy i guess, although I dont know the definition of Philosophy. Some can help me wit that. But Yes, I am observing people closely and learning lot of things, which I haven't learned over the years. Although I thought I had learnt lots from the experiences in life. But now it seems there is lot more to handle and learn.

I havent been able to blog since some time. Due to this thinking going on. Maybe will blog more about my thoughts on this and would love if someone can drop comments to educate me more on this in this matter.

Kuwaitis.. Friendly or Rude

Every1 might have a different view about them based on their personal experiences. And no1 can draw a complete picture of them and I dont know who can judge a brand of people based on some of their experiences. Well the people I have come across in this 3 months who r real Kuwaitis. I haven't found them to be rude to me. I have found most to be friendly and supportive.

There were those who spoke to me about you have come here new, than they spoke about the weather conditions and how to save myself in this by taking a lot of liquid intake (Laban & Water)
There were those who adviced me to make a driving license and keep myself busy driving around and keeping myself busy.
There were those who told I could go to the nice Seaside and spend some time there and keep myself away from boredom.
There were those who helped me with the legal processes till I procured the Civil ID.
There were those to guide me to the available banks and mobile services etc.

So In general I find them to be nice. Atleast they are nice to me. I have some who regularly visit me and give friendly advice and make sure I m not so homesick to run back home.
Yes, I have friends who came to me with chocolates. I dont remember any Indian friend giving me a choclate unless demanded. ;)

Thanks for your support friends. Or should I SAY MY KUWAITI friends.

I have met some kuwaitis when I opened a bank account and maybe in the cab and their behavior was friendly too. I in fact could talk and joke with them. So can u listen people who state Kuwaitis r rude.

I dont knw if this kind of behavior is only to me or to selected few. Well I guess its the same principle to any brand of people in this world. Give respect and Get respect. Speak nicely and u will be spoken back to nicely.

So its all in the way, U look at them, the way U observe. And the way u appear to them. Only people who try to be rude to them will be treated rudely. And this principle holds true for any brand of people across the globe.

So Smile and u will get back a smile..... :)

Late Nite outing

This was a weekend like Mumbai. Wat i mean is. I reached back home at 1:45 a.m. in the nite for the first time in Kuwait. Went for a program in the evening and after that to the shopping center. And the shopping centre( City Center) is open till 1 a.m. The rush was as if it was 6 p.m. in some Mumbai mall at 1 a.m. While driving back, so many cars man. U cant think its late nite.

I guess bcos of the sun, people start their day after sunset maybe. And saw a dangerous accident, didnt have the camera to shoot it. Two cars upside down on a hill kind of slope, seems they had fallen from the road above it. And it might have occurred couple of hours before. May God save all, Accidents here are dangerous.

Speed Kills.
Expats drive @ 120-130
Locals drive @ 140-200+

And dont dare overtake a local and look at him while doing tht, because if he gets instigated he will block u. That means he will overtake u and drive very slowly to get you on your nerves. learning lots man....

So I m really scared to take the driving seat.

Bizi in Being bizi

wow... When I came to Q8. I used to go to office and than after office I had nothing to do. But now I am so busy that I hardly find any time. I call up home as my friday comes to an end and its late night back home. What Am I busy with. Let me try to know what all I do now:
1. Some cooking(Literally Just Monitoring some1 cook)
2. Yes, I do make Tea
3. I have reached Lesson 7 in my Arabic Tutor text Book (Thanks to Sharafuddin & sons.)
4. Go out to the Daboos mosque, as I m more fond of it than the local mosque
5. Go to the Sultan Centre(buying household stuff)
6. Go for drives to city, Shuwaikh etc.
7. Listen to something or read on the Laptop

Orkuting

yeah I know It has been long since i blogged last. two reasons:
1. I spend more time on Orkut, orkuting wit my bunch of College friends and some communities of youngsters.
2. At home, I m too busy now wit my bro-in-law, always going out and doing something or the other that i dont find time to blog.

Been to Sultan Center couple of times shopping...... more later.. And in 2 hours my weekend starts again....

Life is a theatre..Invite Your Audience Carefully

Well this was a forward, but has got a good lesson in it. We dont think about these things. Whether we have the right people around us. Check it:

LIFE IS A THEATER

Invite Your Audience Carefully

Not everyone is healthy enough to have a front row seat in our lives.There are some people in your life that need to be loved from a DISTANCE.It's amazing what you can accomplish when you let go of, or at least minimize your time with, draining, negative, incompatible,not-going-anywhere relationships/friendships.Observe the relationships around you. Pay attention.Which ones lift and which ones lean?Which ones encourage and which ones discourage? Which ones are on a path of growth uphill and which ones are going downhill?When you leave certain people do you feel better or feel worse?Which ones always have drama or don't really understand, know or appreciate you? The more you seek quality, respect, growth, peace of mind, love and truth around you...the easier it will become for you to decide who gets to sit in the front row and who should be moved to the balcony of Your Life."If you cannot change the people around you, CHANGE the people you are around."Remember that the people we hang with will have an impact on both our lives and our income. And so we must be careful to choose the people we hang out with, as well as the information with which we feed our minds. We should not share our dreams with negative people, Nor feed our dreams with negative thoughts.It's your choice and your life..... It's up to you who and what you let in it......

Badminton in Q8

Well yesterday I went to meet my friends in Mangaf during Magrib. And as it was not windy and hot after a week now. We decided to play Badminton. So from Magrib to Ishaa we showed are talent with the Racket and the shuttle. It was fun. I remembered my CyberTech days where I used to spend hours after office playing Badminton. So maybe I can get into this habit here too.....And now as I type this I realise why my hand is paining........the badminton after a long break..............

Custom Poll on Sharepoint

Well this is a technical blog item after a long break, I like to blog personal stuff more.

I had a requirement to get a Poll webpart on the portal Main page like you usually see on websites.

• A question, 3 options as a radio button list and a submit button.


• A user should be allowed to vote only once


• If user has voted show him the response

Out of your mind, U think of Survey on Sharepoint but it wont work like this, the way polls work on websites. SO I searched online and found some poll web part for $199. Big money. If the client buys it shame on me. Y not make my own Poll webpart. So folded my sleeves up started a web part project using C# made my Poll webpart soon. Tested and delivered upto satisfaction. Well now lets get to the technicality, what magic did my code do. Its pretty simple. U just need to take a pen n paper , think of all permutations, combinations possible and than make a good design and than start coding. usually people just fold their sleeves and start coding. Avoid it.


Solution:

1. Create a Custom list to save the Questions, with following fields Question, Answer1, Answer2, Answer3, Expiry Date


2. Create a Custom list to save the votes, with fields Question, Answer.
   It will by default have the created by Field indicating the Author
3. Create your webpart project.
   

Khallas means Thats It. u r done.

What does the webpart code to do:

1. Override the Createchildcontrols method.


2. Query the Questions List to check if any questions exist with expiry date greater than or equal to today. U will need CAML query


3. If No, create a label control stating "No Polls currently available"


4. If Yes, query the Votes list with the current User name and current question, if an record exists means User has voted else Not Voted.


5. If Voted, Query the Votes List get all the responses for the current Question and Response1, Question and response2, Question and Response3 . So the 3 queries count value gives u the number of votes for each option. make a Table to represent this information.


6. If Not Voted, Create a Label control for question. create 3 radio buttons for three responses, with radiobutton groupname same. So that they act as a Radio button list


7. Create a submit button and also a Onclick event for the button.


8. In the Onclick event you simply get the question and selected Radio button value and insert a new record in the Votes list and than repeat step 5 and hide the controls for submitting vote and also add a label "You voted successfully"


9. Refactoring comes here, create a separate function for step 5 accept a boolean value indicating whether it is step 5 or step 8 and accordingly to show or not to show the "Voted Successfully message"
   

Thats it so zimble, I meant simple. Leave a comment if u lost anywhere in between

Y water buy petrol instead!!

Well there is common sentence petrol is cheaper here than water.

I dont know the price of petrol yet. But yes water costs me Dinar for 12 bottles of 1.5 litres each when i buy a carton. N every1 drinks mineral water or soft drinks. The municipal water is desalined water, so I have not tried how it tastes.

All the wars in this world are going for nothing else but Oil. And here I am in a country with abundance of Oil but dont know the price. Maybe after I buy a car. You see lot of brands of cars here and only sports bikes that too only late evenings. bcos in the heat u cannot ride a bike ur Brain will become Bheja (brain) fried.

I was thinking of buying a car soon. But my Civil ID processing will atleast take 1-2 months more. Without civil ID/Residency I cant do anything not even subscribe for a mobile phone forget driving licence. So may not be for the next six months, lets c whats the situation than will decide maybe wait for a year and than buy a good car provided I stay more than that. Insha Allah, just wait n watch. No hurry. N I m not disclosing my long term plans here.

KD Metrics

R u aware of the KD Metrics. KD stands for Kuwaiti Dinar. When I came here it was 155 INR but thanks to my presence it has gone up to 158-160 INR. ;) And today I heard that the Emir of Kuwait is on a visit to India meeting our prime minister and president to discuss how blessed my visit to Kuwait was that it increased the currency value. Just kidding !!!

Well u should know the following KD Metrics:
Firstly 1 KD = 1000 Fils and not 100.

The biggest currency note available is of the denomination 20KD.

Dinar = 1 KD = 160 INR
Ruba Dinar = 250 Fils = 40 INR
Nus dinar = 500 Fils = 80 INR
Sabamiya Khamsin = 750 Fils = 120 INR
Khamsin = 50 fils = 8 INR


Telecommunication is very costly. Mobiles incoming is also charged.
International incoming = 40 Fils per minute
International SMS = 50 Fils per message
International Calling centres are available, some use Internet based phoned and are cheap.
Call US: 60 Fils per minute
Call India: 80 Fils per minute
Call UK: 100 Fils per minute

There r people who earn 2000 KD also and there r people who earn 30-40 KD a month also.

Encounter wit the Baladiya..

Well this was some time last week. I came to Q8, nothing more to do in the evenings but to roam in the market. I befriended a guy wit a shop there who was an Indian, specifically a Bori. and he thought I was a Bori from looks. So Arabs think I m arab. Boris think I Bori. I dunno who else I simulate???

So i used to spend some time in his shop. Trying to learn abt Q8 as he is here for around 2.5 years. So evenings i cud sit for an hour there. This fine day after Magrib I was sitting there. A arab came in showed his card, he was from Baladiya(Municpality) and asked this guy for his residency as he opened the wallet. he said give ur licence and took his driving licence and asked him for the Ijaazah that means the shop licence and this guy looked tense. I was sitting there wondering am I in a problem too. But I dont knw if the Baladiya saw me or not bcos he didnt converse wit me at all. I feel I was invisible to him although I was right there.

and than this guy took the Baladiya to the next shop to show the Ijaaza and I dont knw what happened next. Bcos as they moved out. i went to the restaurant bang opposite and sat there to drink something to chilll myself down.

back home if the Municipality wud come, I can tell them couple of names from the Municipality office and boast, but it was scary that i was in a foreign country.....So India is the best. :)

w.bloggar v4.00

Thanks to Baba (Vinil Menon) if you have not read about him earlier. My second blog post was about him. Check it out.
Baba had mentioned to me about this tool called w.bloggar which can be used to blog offline. And I made sure I downloaded it sometime last week and installed it on my laptop. and now I can blog sitting at my apartment over the weekend. And thats wat I m doing right now. Blogging on w.bloggar and will publish all the posts once I am online.

Download this tool if u wanna blog offline.

This world is soooo small!!!

Isnt it?

I dont know where to start this blog. I was in India, I met a tour operator who is pretty close to me. I told him that this weekend I am going to Kuwait. he gave me a name, that this person is a nice man out there. I am good relations with him. If you need anything contact him. I saved his name and forgot about it. Bcos there was no way in this whole country I was going to search for an individual although he is a manager in one of the banks out here. I thought that was the end of it.

I was in office, met a guy in office, realised we were both from the same regional location in India. It was nice of him to drop me home on his was back for couple of days although he stayed in an different locality. So now i used to meet him in office. This weekend I was trying to delete contatcs from my cell phone as I was planning to sell it. But didnt sell it yet. I saw this name of the person I had got from in India and realised the family was same as the guy in my office. I went to office checked in my outlook for this friends details n wat a coincidence he is the son of the person whose name i was referred in india...Ohhh I was like the world is so small.

Yesterday evening, i went late for the night prayers. I saw a Fair, bearded guy sitting there. I said salaams after prayers I waited to make sure that i meet him bcos he looked so familiar. I asked him if he was from Mumbai. The answer was in affirmative. And than I asked him his name. And he had the same family name as a friend of mine in Bombay and he looked very much like him too. I asked him do you know him (my friend). and there comes the reply, Yes he is my younger brother.

So I got too shots in the same day. N I was like ohh the world is so small..

I logged in orkut bcos my friends were like the World is on Orkut where r u. N as i had some free time being new to it. I just have my college friends in my Orkut network. I was searching for people in Kuwait on Orkut. And the profiles that I liked ;) were connected with just 2 or 3 people between us. The world is sooo small.

Enjoying

This was a busy week. I had lot of work, lot of samples, analysis ideas. And the best was I had to make a custom web part. So I had to write code for it. My First web part in kuwait. I will preserve it. And knowing that I love coding so much. I spent my afternoons at home after office working on it. And Alhamdulillah its working today meeting the requirements that I had.

So, Insha Allah I should keep myself busy with such coding jobs to keep myself happy. This makes me realise how much I like coding and why I used to sit late in office back home in India. I miss those late nites in office, but its better to code on ur Laptop at home than on ur desk in office.

I remember that day when Amby was in US, some delivery. I was done but Amby wanted me to be there till he did a full cycle check of the workflow. And till morning I was sitting on my desk with the phone on Speaker mode answering him as he tested. I was tired tht day.

I think I should start working out here. So that I get my muscles in shape else i will turn out into an obese human being. Gaining weight here for no reason bcos I m eating much less than in India. but maybe I am not stressing myself as much. No local trains here naa and that Bus ride upto Saki naka from station looks liek a nightmare now.

I wonder wat would happen if some Arabs would have to shift to India and work like us travelling in public transport. They have so much thanks to Almighty...They must be so thankful

Well 1 more hour and I will be in the weekend.

Blog By the Bay

By the Seashore of the Gulf Ocean to be precise in Fahaheel, kuwait. I write this blog on my 9300. The water is swift and the air is windy. Families sitting around on the sand as children play in the sea water. Arabs seem to be brave. Back in Mumbai, kids r accompanied by extra cautious parents. Kids here is r tryin to play, swim, wit floats and witout them all in sea water.

Poor Expats - We are all sitting on the wall like Marine Drive watching the sea. But behind us are tables like an open air restaurant. And the waiters came and asked all to move from that wall saying it is Mamnoo(Prohibited). They said things in their regional languages n moved. I turned behind typing on my pet 9300 thinking I might have to move to. They guy who was asking ppl to move smiled, I smiled back sat there steadfast blogging. And I was sitting alone - so now U knw, how it helps to look like an Arab. No1 will mess wit U. So this reminds me of the expats back in Mumbai from other states. We do the same there.

Oh I lost track of the kids. They r still enjoying happily there. Some cute little gals with tubes around tring to face the sea bravely.

There is a walking track also for those who want to have the evening walk like in priyadarshni Park. but none in shorts - Good.

So tomorrow my 3rd week of work begins. Time goes so fast.

Learn any Language

Well I came to Q8, Thanks to my Arabic looks ( my forefathers were Arabs who settled in India), Name, people start a conversation with me in Arabic.

Well I do like that but I m dumb founded, I just Maafi Kalam arabi( Maafi = No, Kalam = Speak, arabi = Arabic) Than they realise Looks r deceptive.

The funny part is I was sitting in our Malbari hotel. "All Indians r my brother and some are sisters". So any Indian hotel is our hotel here. I was having a Masala Dosa. 2 guys sitting r asking the owner in malbari language- How does he know Dosa? and he replies to them that he is an Indian from MUMBAI. Mumbaiwala to sab khata hai. Will eat all types of Indian dishes. So now I think I shd learn arabic b4 I m in a big problem. And its nice to learn new things.

Hunting for an Online arabic tutor and came across this site which has links to learn different languages. DOnt know about the quality of content. But maybe will be Handy if U get in a similar situation. Dosa kaise Maaloom???

http://www.word2word.com/coursead.html

Kuwait or Q8?

I have heard whatever "Ends Good is Good" I dont know if they have another saying "Whatever Starts Good is Good" ...

I started my journey for Kuwait at 11:05 from home. Reached the airport, said Bye to the gang of brothers who came to drop me. Went in. I had to hunt for the Air Line counter for my flight. Somehow the digital Indicators weren't working and it was written on small placards on each counter for which flight it was meant. Found it finally. kept my luggage on the weighing machine.
the weight was 23, so wasnt expecting any issues. but i was the only person for my flight. I thought I was early or wat? He asked me to wait..i was wondering wats happening. After 5 mins i was asked to goto another counter and there the person took my ticket, spoke to some guy I will upgrade him. I was wondering still... Than he said U have come in late, I m upgrading your ticket to Business Class, Make sure next time u come early.

So punishment for being late was Business Class, good I was not off loaded. So enjoyed travelling Business Class.

I landed on the airport of Kuwait at 3:55 on 6th May 2006. It was beautiful. My driver was waiting with my name on a placard. he dropped me to the hotel. he was an Indian, so had some conversation with him. Stayed at the Hotel and joined office the next day. So that was the trip. more experiences later....

Back with a Bang

Well there r some nice friends who keep visiting my blog and encourage me to keep it updated. So now i think i will be religiously blogging.

One more change I got comments from friends that they didnt want me to blog about Religion, politics etc here. So no politics, I dont ever blog about it nor want to. But i moved my religious posts to my other blog BinNadir So please who like to view that area can definitely do that.

So lot of Transitions in last couple of days, maybe I havent been here for over a month now.

To update, I left Invensys for Good (of both the company as well as mine) . And presently I am workin for a reputed company in Kuwait. Its the biggest company in Kuwait. And I am the Sharepoint Administrator out here. SO having fun....

What Should I Blog about

Well, Yes I know I have been blogging about Technology since I started.

But I spend my weekends in one of the two things: Read about Technology or Religions or Islamic Issue.

I am also a student of comparative religion. So I was wondering why share only thoughts about Technology. Why leave the other area of interest to myself. So henceforth, You will find posts on Both these areas... But beleive me Comparative religion is an area everyone should build Interest in. If you believe in something ensure that you can preach it to others. Be an example.

B1 Issued

Hi,
Today was a tiring day, but the end result was Good. And I have heard all that ends well is Good.

I had an appointment at 11 at US Consulate, reached there at 10:30. Till 12:30 did lot of Masti, cracking jokes and having fun outside the consulate, thanks to the heavy rush.

Managed to get in at 12:45. And than after the fingerprinting. Sat on a chair. Thanks to Sandeep's company we were chatting and yapping and didnt realise as time passed by.

At 2:21 our token numbers were called. We both went to the window where we saw a young Guy (consular officer). I went in first and the following conversation took place:
Q. Have u ever been to US before
A. No
Q. Which company u work for?
A. XYZ
Q. Since How Long? (I got scared as saying 3 months cud be negative for me)
A. November 2005
Q. Why did u stick to a company for so many years.
A. I am working here since November 2005!
Q. Ohh I thought 1995, Your brother is in US?
A. Yes, he is working on H1B. (I added) I also have an valid H1b done by my previous employer.
Q. What happened to that.
A. They wanted to send me in January, but before that I had another offer in Mumbai itself which was better and I could get exposure to Good enterprise level projects. So I took it up.

The officer stamped cancelled on my H1b, I realised i was thru. :)
Q. Has your company sent an invitation letter.
A. Yes, I gave it to him

He kept them and said I Issue U a visa, U will get by courier

Install WSS on a non-default Web site

Yes, U r using VS.NET and done lot of development and have websites. And one fine day someone tells u to leverage Windows Sharepoint Services. U download it for Free and tryto install it and get an error boing! There are Frontpage Server extensions and WSS cant extend the default Web Site because of that. But I have so many applications running on Default Website - I dont want it to be extended by WSS. I need on another Website.

U were in the above scenario isn't it. Well Yes there is a way out Dont Panic -
Charles Young speaks about it in his blog: Installing Windows SharePoint Services using the default instance of SQL Server and a non-default Web Site

How to uninstall Frontpage Server extensions from the non-default web site you created for WSS:
1. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Microsoft SharePoint Administrator.

2. On the Server Administration page, click Administration under Virtual Servers.

3. Under Administration, click Uninstall FrontPage Server Extensions.

My First (VS.NET & SQL) 2005 Installation

Hmm, it was pretty neat. No Hangups No Issues. Made sure the prerequisites were there and than it was smooth flow!!! No Hickups.

Documentation Tips

Well watever we do, we usually document if we want watever we have done to be maintainable. And sometimes for others to understand stuff. But usually we dont like documenting and write a document that only we can understand.

Well so its twice energy wasted- U wasted in writing and the reader will waste in reading, as he wont understand. Some nice tips for it: Documentation Tips

Check that out and improve!! Watever we do we should do it in the best way Isnt it!!

Republic Day

Hey its Republic Day!!

And an off from office! Thats nice. Morning started with reading some news! Talks between Saudi King and Manmohan Singh.

Not much to do for the day so thought lets Blog some stuff.

Thanks Vinil (Baba)

No not that Normal Bengali Baba!!! He is our Technology Baba!!! :)

Well he is the one who got me into Blogging with his suggestions. And I m Enjoying it now. He always has best practices for most of the things you ask him. And I wonder how much of knowledge he has on the several topics that I see him talk about. Yes, we call him our Offline Google sometimes. I recollect if I ask him something he always has couple of URLs to support whatever he suggetss as a reply. Maybe he has a table of URLs in his memory and he also has an index on the table fields as the result is too quick(Faster than Google too!!)

Yes I Thank Him and can foresee that I am gonna learn a lot from him. Thanks Baba!!!!!

My First .NET Project

Well U can wonder Y I m blogging my Past. Cos I want to electronise memories.
My First Job, my First Project. A strict Project Manager. The whole team of 8-10 people in his cabin with myself being the most Junior. We were explained the design of the project and database and asked if we had queries. No one in the room dared to speak. Everybody seemed to accept it without a word.

Well I tried to stop myself a lot but couldnt and I told him it would be really nice if the database table names were all prefixed with specific characters to make identification easier. Hmm he looked at me, people looked at me. And there came the hard reply. "I dont like making changes to my Design, but we can do this!!" Thank Goodness. So realised speaking up helps else we would have all lived with those designed table names. And U might add value with common sense also sometimes.

If u have an Thought Voice It out. U will be heard if u make sense and Add Value!!!

My First Encounter with BizTalk & K2.NET

It was July of 2004. One morning we were told there was a POC to be done, the client requirement was received and client strongly believed BizTalk was the solution. We analyzed and realised BizTalk was not meant for this scenario. So we had to prove it was an OverKill.

Learnt BizTalk when it was pretty new just by the documentation and samples(Thanks Microsoft!) and was able to deliver the POC in a month with two other alternate solutions one using Smart Documents and the other using Sarbanes Oxley Accelerator obviously with lot of weekends and late evenings spent by me and Prasanna.


And since we proved it was an overkill. The next product that client wanted to do it was K2.NET . Some people said hey Whats K2.NET ? we wont take it up we dont know this tool. (Trying to be a Hero/Fool) I said we know .NET, Sharepoint, BizTalk and this tool speaks about using all of these. So I dont see a problem. And the reply was "Awwab I will catch you for your words" (I still remember the statement and expression) Well someone was trying to scare me. Sorry dude its not easy to scare me, Thanks to Almighty could deliver and keep my Words.

I learnt K2.NET, developed the POC with Mital Shah and well Than came in lot of Business with K2.NET and we had to Train a team of people on this. And they are still managing the show. I dont know if they are cursing me for it or not.

Wowie... Technologies are so nice.!!!!!!!

Agile Developer Venkat

Hmm.. Well we had an Agile Development Training. And this is what our Trainer has to say about us. Check it out on his blog. Thundering third week in India and Thank you so much.

Agile Development

What is that? Well it is a way to make Development Non-Fragile.
Is it?? Check it out at www.agilealliance.com.

I m a fan of Agile Development now. More on it later

Career Move

Career ...So Finally I took my second jump in my Career after spending more than 1.5 years at CyberTech. It was a tough decision as CyberTech wanted me to fly in a month to US(just to retain me). And I had an option to join another company in Mumbai(Anonymous for now). Finally I took it up, thought Going to USA is an opportunity which I can get later as well. But getting more challenging work was a priority now. And the new company sounds promising for challenges........!!!!!!!!!

So On 21st Nov I was already an Ex-CyberTech employee.

I beleive if U cant change somethings that you dont like and cant live with it, Move On.

First Blog