It was 7:00pm on a Saturday evening when I reached BTM layout and was waiting for a Volvo bus. It was just 7:00pm and I don’t know where in the hell were all the Volvo buses that evening. I waited for over 25mins for a Volvo to turn up, but it didn’t. I was forced to board a normal bus which was crowded like hell with drunken stinking losers hanging inside. Most of the public buses in Bangalore have hydraulic doors. The hydraulic system is so horrible that the speed at which the doors closes is like smashing a door in anger! Scary!

With the fear of those hydraulic doors, I rushed inside the bus. There were 4 guys who were blocking my way from going inside the bus. I requested one guy to give me some way, but he refused. I tried pushing him, but he didn’t move! I was like, “F it!” and stood there itself. I then realized that I was expecting an SMS and I reached my hands into my pocket to take my phone and found out that it was missing. I searched all over and I looked at the guy standing next to me and he was in a hurry to get the hell out of the frikkin bus. All the 4 of `em were rushing out of the bus when one man asked:

Man: What happened? Is something missing?

Me: Yeah! My phone is missing!!!

Man: I think the man who stood next to you took it.

Me: Agrrr!!! You telling me this now after he got down?

I went mad and jumped out of the bus and ran back to the place where they got down. I caught the guy who stood next to me in the bus and checked his pockets, but he was clean. I think he had already passed the phone to someone amongst the other 3, but those 3 were missing. People at the bus stop were curious to know why I was checking him.

He deviated my mind saying:

Thief: Look there! He’s boarding the bus. Catch hold of him. He has it.

Me (Holding his hand tight): WTF? How do you know it’s him?

Theif: It is him! You check him!

Me: Okay come with me.

I literally shouted the man boarding the bus to get out and he innocently got down and this guy (the thief) starts to escape. He tries to board the moving bus and I try to pull him off the bus. His slippers fall off and hops on the bus with bare foot. I followed the bus till the next stop and couldn’t find him. When enquired with the people inside the bus they said, he got down mid-way. I was so frustrated and walked back to the previous stop thinking if I could find him somewhere. While I walked back, a man who saw me holding his hands at the bus stop came to me and said, that guy just came back, took his slippers and ran away from there. I lost all hopes of getting back my phone and the next thing that came into my mind was to block my sim. It was 8:15pm and I was sure that the Airtel office would have been closed by that time. I felt so helpless. I shouldn’t have had fallen for the trick he played

After a night and a day without a phone, I feel so lifeless.

Image Credits: Outlook India & Blogshank

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Yay! I’m 19 #awesomness The worst part is, I have my semester exams starting from tomorrow, but what the heck! It’s my birthday today

Original Image Credits: Najhla’s blog

Well, here’s the configuration -

• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
• Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor P8700 (2.53 GHz, 3 MB L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
• 4GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive
• 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
• 18.4″ diagonal High Definition HP Ultra BrightView Infinity Display (1920×1080p)
• Blu-Ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD+/-R/RW Double Layer
• Webcam + Fingerprint Reader with HP Imprint Finish (Fluid)
• Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card
• HP Color Matching Keyboard
• 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery

This kick-ass configuration costs me 1,200 USD (Only 58,200 INR ) I call that “sexy” coz, I think it is. If you have any suggestions or a better configuration then shoot me mail

P.S. I don’t mind anyone gifting or funding me for this coz next month is my birthday. I’ll consider it as a loving gift from you ;-P

Now head to my piggy box and add some funds!

But now, I’m even more excited and I feel like I’m on top of the world. Its because, today we have officially launched Darkwater Digital – Redefining PR 2.0 a digital communications firm.

What is Darkwater Digital?

Darkwater Digital is a digital communications firm that specializes in strategic online campaigns aimed at leveraging the internet and Web 2.0 to achieve a high recall quotient of your brand. Darkwater specializes in building your brand comprehensively online, and is strategically poised to deliver your product directly to your customers globally. Online reputation management is an area overlooked by most businesses, which could make or break the business.

Darkwater Digital, with its elite team of technology experts and highly-networked bloggers will ensure that your brand achieves the right kind of publicity among the online audience. We build businesses, not just brands.

Our Mission:

LISTEN to what your customers and competitors are saying.

BUILD your image and presence online through active social engagements.

MANAGE your online reputation with the best passive-aggressive outlook.

How did it all start?

It was all Nikhil’s idea of starting this firm. One night he called me and said, “Dude, can you come down to my office tomorrow? I wanna talk to you about the firm”. Earlier that night he had mailed me saying that he’d like to start a firm and wanted me to partner with him. Without any hesitations I said “Yes!”

I headed to Nikhil’s office the next day and he explained to me everything. I WAS HELL EXCITED!!!! We registered the domain on April 4th, 2009 and started with our work. Thanks to Nikhil, he got Darkwater a pretty good number of clients and we did have a blast. Work pressure was increasing as clients were flowing in.  But, we somehow managed it. The best part is, Darkwater had its first international client and we were damn happy about that.

After so much of progress in no time, we had planned to launch Darkwater Digital on June 1st 2009. But, due to some unavoidable conditions we had to drop it or rather reschedule it for today. (Again, Nikhil sent me a surprise SMS saying that, “Dude, Darkwater Digital is officially launched today!”)

Phew! That was so much. Never have I been so happy and excited and have written such a big post

Anyways, heres a list of things that I wanna do before I turn 22. Then, I call it achievement.

1. Write GRE, go abroad for higher studies, work there for a year and come back to India.
2. Want to experience life, staying alone. (You learn a lot of things when you stay alone)
3. Create a music library (room) containing all my favorite collections equipped with some cool gadgets.
4. Go Trekking, Scuba dive, Skydive and Bungee jump.
5. Have another official meeting with a client. I was very nervous for the first time.
6. Bring greater progress to Darkwater (Wondering what this is? No worries. You’ll know it soon ).
7. Get aggregate of 75% above in my BCA course.
8. Rain dance! (Though I don’t really know to dance, but I badly want to do )
9. Visit Coorg, Ooty, Mangalore, Goa and Munnar WITH friends.
10. PaitnBall again!
11. Exchange the old Kinetic for a new Deo. (I simply adore Deo)
12. Improve my English vocabulary. (I want to learn new and different words)
13. Form a music band in college.
14. Buy a laptop and a DSLR!
15. Add even more crazier stuffs to this list.
16. Plan and have a fresh new list after I’m 22 years young

On a side note, its my great pleasure to introduce to you a  new holiday destination- “Ammadi Holiday Home” located in Koppa, Chickmagalur district. Its owned by my friend, Chaitra and her husband Ashwin.

Ammadi is an ideal place for a memorable holiday. It has one of the biggest Chouki (Thotti mane) in the near by locality. A holiday at Ammadi home stay will definitely be a memorable one, which you will cherish for a very long time. Must plan for a trip there once

Click here for high resolution image

And that’s not it! I was on Times of India too! That’s a huge thing for me We are a group on Flickr called Bangalore Photo Walk (BPW) and we host weekend photo walks in and around Bangalore. I happened to contact Nirmala, a journal at TOI and introduced our BPW group to her. She shared all the details with the Editor and the Editor asked me to form a group of 6 and asked the 6 of us go to different places in Bangalore and capture some interesting shots at the same time. In the sense, we were supposed to go to different places individually and click some shots at one particular (same) time. The time and the place was all our choice. So, we planned on it and decided to go on 23rd July, 2009 (It was my mom’s birthday that day ). We started our walk at 10:30am in the morning and completed it by 12 noon. Unfortunately, one out of the 6 dropped coz of unavoidable conditions and we were only 5 of us.

Now, the real work started! We had to choose 1 best shot out of all the shots we had captured. Everyone did it and sent it to me. In turn, I forwarded the-best-chosen shots to Nirmala with a brief write-up about us…And it is today, July 29th, our shots were published on page 16 in the Times of India, Bangalore edition \m/

Image credit: Zeeshan Imam Chowdhury

And yes, I’m still on cloud9

TweetUp

Few days back, Bangalore tweeps had organized a PaintBall Tweetup. PaintBall is a sport or rather like a war where two teams battle on a small ground. Located near Total Mall in Sarjapur, which is quite near to my house.
We reached there by 12 noon. We were instructed on few rules and regulations and were waiting for another team to finish their game.

Later, we were given a gun (CO2 pressurized) containing pellets (paintballs) made of a gelatin shell filled with food coloring and vegetable oil for some practice. It was our turn to get in and start our game. We played “Capture the Flag”, where one team has to go to the other team’s base and capture the flag and vice versa. Had loads of fun though and will definitely attend the next tweetup which is gonna happen in the next month. (We are planning to go to Wonder La )

If your planning to go to this PaintBall (Sarjapur) then here’s some info you gotta know. Rs 500 per member with 4 rounds and 100 pellets/member. Rs 4 for each extra pellet. If your wallet is filled then start splashing and don’t care about your shots

Here are some shots Prashanth captured from his Nokia N97

Click here for more shots…

Bangalore Photo Walk – Lal Bagh

Yesterday I had been for a photo walk – Lal Bagh. Thanks to Priya for bringing up this idea and making it a successful one Photography is one my hobby and I just love it.  I had great fun meeting great people who were into photography from years and most of them who were real PRO. Learnt a lot of new things about photography from them.

Walk started sharp at 9 in the morning. I was 1 hour late coz of unavoidable conditions. Had a tough time finding the group in that BIG place. I thought I was lost. I was out of currency and wasn’t able to get in touch with Priya. It was only her contact that I had. Thanks to Airtel, I got an emergency recharge. Sent an SMS, Loan to 121 and Airtel credited me Rs 10 immediately! Got in touch with  Priya again and finally I joined the group after half-an-hour search. Phew! We then continued our walk capturing shots that we found interesting.

It was a fun photo walk though. Here are some of the uploaded shots that I captured. Not all shots were uploaded.

Click here to see what others have captured

Anyways, if you want to attend the next Twitter meet up or the next photo walk (which is happening this Saturday) then follow me on Twitter. Will make sure that I’ll keep you updated

It’s shocking and I was shocked to see updates flowing on Twitter about the death of Michael Jackson. Reports say that he died after suffering a cardiac arrest yesterday. But Jackson’s brother, Jermaine, cautioned that the cause of death would not be known until an autopsy had been done.

Michael Jackson’s death has been greeted with a mixture of shock, sadness and disbelief, as fans jumped online to confirm the news and express their grief. This is a sad moment for everyone. Michael Jackson will be always remembered . May his soul R.I.P