Believe in GOD

Yesterday, i got one mail saying “Shirdi Chamatkar...” – The contents of the Email says i need to send this email to 20 more people (excluding the sender :) ). If i don’t send that email, i will face misfortune in next 5-10 days. I don’t know what happened to us. Are we fearing from misfortune or do we have lost faith in GOD ? At least i have a firm believe in ALLMIGHTY, so i decided not to send any mail of such type.

Everyone of us has a firm believe in GOD and we all want to please GOD. Some of us does this only for a fear so that they may not be a part of any misfortune and the others do it only for getting HIS blessings.

Of course, everyone has a right to firm their faith in their own way, however sometimes, we forget the faith and fear overpowers it, then comes different ways that we use to make our believe strong in ALMIGHTY. In the breed of WWW, we use email to force our believe on others as well. We send Emails to draw attention of others. But have we ever think if believing in GOD says us to misuse the valuable EMail/Network resources?

I do believe in GOD, but by sending a 1 MB or 2 MB mail, i will only add my negative contribution to the network. GOD will be very happy and grace you with his blessings when

• You give some food to a hungry and needy.

• You shelter someone if he/she is dying with cold/heavy rain.

• You contribute some money if there is drought/flood somewhere and people need help.

The points mentioned above are only 3 points which i could gather in my mind. But this is not the end, there are immense ways to please GOD. You have a very good resource called internet to explore more or you must have your own ways also. Nothing can stop you exploring new ways. There are tremendous other ways as well, These chain mails will not serve the purpose.

By sending these type of mails, we are only making people fear if they don't do it, they will face misfortune. Think twice and tell me how one can ask others to do a task and punish them if they don't do it. The correct way is,  you let the other person decide if they want to agree with you or not or want to do the same task. (It is not only for this particular task rather every task we do in our life.) 

May be i have hurt someone’s feelings, but i never intended to do so, i just explained whatever i thought. Agree or disagree is someone's personal opinion. I would appreciate if you let me know your views or let me know if i have conveyed a wrong message. 

New kid on the floor

New Addition to my family.

OJAS – My son

Social Networking

A Social Networking is where you can meet people with similar ideas and thoughts and share the same. It is a not a new concept however how we are doing it with using computers and networks is something new. We use Different ways of Social Netwoking like Daily meetings, Phone Calls & Emails, Dedicated Sites, Corporate Oriented etc....

There are a lot of sites that can be used for Social Networking.

http://www.Shtyle.com 
http://www.wayn.com
http://www.orkut.com

Here i present a list of DOs and Don'tS while using social networking on these sites.

1. Create your profile very carefully and do not provide the details that you don't want to disclose.
2. Accept the friend request only if you know the person.
3. Do not provide any fake information as it may harm your personal/professional living.
4. Do write proper/meaningful comments/replies in other's scrapbook/guestbook as these are visible to all your/his/her friends.
5. Look at the profiles of people who add you as a friend.
6. Be respectful to others if you want to be respected.
7. Check profiles of anyone else, but don't send any friend request/scraps unless and until you know the person very well.
8. Update your profile regularly.
9. Be selective and Join only those groups that you find suitable to you or you will get a lot of spams or unwanted scraps/messages/emails.
10. Be very selective while uploading pictures on these sites. Do not try to put all your digital dirt on these sites.
11. Always remember that others can see you and your friend list, so be careful while selecting your friends.
12. Never download any programme or some questionable contents as it may be virus/trojan etc
13. Never try to create romantic relationships unless that is the site's purpose. Otherwise, no one will take you seriously. People are there to network, not meet their soul mate.
14. Don't lie about what you know. If you try to fake knowledge, it will show. You want people to respect you, not avoid you at all costs.
15. Never reply to spammers i.e. those messages/persons that you don't know.
16. Never discuss social topics that are objectionable.
17. There may be some office colleagues who would like to be your friends on these social sites. You must be very careful while dealing your personal and professional relations using these sites.

Always remember that the online networking is popular and a great way to meet with others that share you interests. By following the above lists of Dos and Don'ts, you're online networking experience will be successful and fun.

So go ahead and make your friends and happy orkuting!!!!!!........

Don't forget to send a friend request to me @ vinod.dhall@techmahindra.com (This is my profile on orkut as well).

The Falkirk Wheel - The world's first rotating Boat Lift

Today i got a chance to visit a superb art of engineering. The Falkirk Wheel - The millennium link between the historic Forth & Clyde Canal and the Union Canal. It is a marvelous art of engineering which combines both the canals with the fact that the Forth & Clyde Canal lay 35M (115 Ft) below the level of the Union Canal. Prior to this link both the canals were joined using a flight of 11 locks that stepped down across a distance of 1.5 kms., but these steps were dismantled in 1933 and the current solution was implemented. The current Falkirk Wheel connects the two canals by means of lifting two boats down the 35 m drop as quickly as possible. All it takes only 15 minutes to drop the boat from one canal to another without even leaking a single drop of water. A huge of amount of £84.5 Million was spent on this project and was available to public on 24th May 2002. It is the world's first rotating boat lift.

The places can be reached very easily from Glasgow or Edinburgh and it takes a maximum of 30-40 minutes. Both Glasgow and Edinburgh have International Airports. After reaching to these places you can catch a bus, taxi or Train to reach there. The nearest Railway Station is Falkirk High and have a frequent trains and buses after each 15-20 minutes.

EMail Tips

In the world of eMails, many a times, we receive some emails, which I will simply call as orphans mails. Though the writer has tried his best to convey the message, but the message is not properly conveyed or is misunderstood or even doesn’t belong to the recipient. Even these emails are related to some category but doesn't specify any category information in subject or message body. It is very common to get a lot of mails on daily basis. This becomes very difficult to store these mails appropriately. Here are some points which will enable anyone to manage their mailboxes in an appropriate manner and also help in utilizing the network bandwidth properly etc. Though these tips are most useful for software professionals, I have tried my level best to make these tips as general.

Software Developers only

1. Mention the Release/Version/Category information in the subject if the mail is related to a Release.
2. Release specifies the release number if this email is related to a specific release i.e. [1.0.0]
3. Version specifies the Document Release i.e. Draft 0.A or Issues 1.0 etc.
4. Category specifies the category of the Document i.e.  UTS/ LLD/ TESTING/ SystemTesting/ PerfTesting/ Internal Review/ External Review/ SignOff/ Request for Approval etc.
5. Do not provide the network path for External mails as the network path/Local Path may not be available to external community instead use FTP location or a common VSS path.
6. Upload the files on onsite VSS and provide the VSS path wherever applicable.

General User

1. Never send an image file using BMP format instead use jpg. (Sometime the diff in storage space if more than 7-8 times)
2. Do not send attached any file unless and until it is mandatory. Still if required compress the file using any compression utility[Preferably WinZip] before sending.
3. Try sending the attachments as separate mail instead of sending it with alongwith Invite.
4. Try not to send attachments after office hours especially on Fridays as people will not access their mails on Saturday or Sunday and due to limited space allocated to mailboxes these mails itself can be bounced or let the other mails bounced if the mailbox is full.
5. Take care while sending the meeting requests and choose the suitable time if the attendees are on different geographical locations.
6. Always keep the recipients in TO list from whom you want a response and keep in CC all those who are being informed only.
7. Use full signature while sending the mails. It should contain your name, Role, Project, Location and contact Details. It will help the recipient to reach you in some urgent cases.
8. Use your email address in the signature as sometimes the recipient will get your Friendly name and not the email address in the TO/FROM fields.
9. Use standard fonts (Arial, Verdana, Times New Roman, Courier etc) as you never know which email client is used by the recipient.

Here are some standard formats which can be used for email Subjects which contain maximum information in the subject line. Anything which is not applicable can be removed.

[Version Info][Document/eMail Catagory] Other contents

Samples
[20.0.1][LLD][Internal Review] Low Level Design for Document - Draft 0.A
[20.0.1][UTS][External Review] Unit testing Specification - Draft 0.A
[SignOff] Low Level Design for Document - Draft 0.A
[Request for Approval] Low Level Design for Document - Draft 0.A
[Authorised Issue] Low Level Design for Document - Issue 1.0
[20.0.1][Unit Testing] - Successfully Completed
[20.0.1][Unit Testing] - Issues Found
[20.0.1][System Testing] - Successfully Completed
[20.0.1][Performance Testing] - Issues Found

The above samples are just for informative purpose and can be changed accordingly. Hope we can get a lot of benefit by using these simple tips. Send me if you have some more tips to add.

Utility to get the folder sizes in Windows.........

A Utility to get the folder sizes in Windows - Version 1.0.0

This utility is made to get a list of subfolders in a drive or directory with their sizes. The facility is not provided in windows to determine the size of all the subfolders. This Utility can be useful when we want to delete or move some unwanted folders which are taking a lot of space on our disk. This is a freeware, you can distribute it without making a modification.

How to Use
1. Run this utility.
2. Update the Directory list, change the drive from Drop down List.
3. Change the folder, you wish to check with it's subfolders.
4. Double click on the folder name so that it updates the text box.
5. Press Start button to get a list of folders with their sizes.
6. Press YES if you wish to store the information in a text file in C: Drive.
7. Press No if do not wish to store the data in some file.
8. Export to a File button can also be used to store the information of the grid to a file.
9. End button to end the application.

Note :- Please do not give C: D: E: i.e. any drive, it may take a lot of time depending upon the size of the drive and the folders it contain.

Suggestions are always welcome for improvements.

DownLoad Link
http://www.filecrunch.com/file/~aeo7rk

Mail me on vinod.riya@gmail.com if you are unable to download the software from the above link and i will send you a copy via mail.

Absolutely Free!!!!!!!!!!!!!..........WOW

Want to get FREE iPods, Latest Mobiles and much more. Simply click on the below link and win lots of gifts... so HURRY up.........

http://www.xpango.com?ref=90180637

Register on this site and choose the gift u want and that's done...

Why ?

Why do we do aarati?

Towards the end of every ritualistic worship (pooja or bhajan) of the Lord or to welcome an honored guest or saint, we perform the aarati. This is always accompanied by the ringing of the bell and sometimes by singing, playing of musical instruments and clapping.

It is one of the sixteen steps (shodasha upachaara) of the pooja ritual. It is referred to as the lighted lamp in the right hand, which we wave in a clockwise circling movement to light the entire form of the Lord.

Each part is revealed individually and also the entire form of the Lord. As the light is waved we either do mental or loud chanting of prayers or simply behold the beautiful form of the Lord, illumined by the lamp. At the end of the aarati we place our hands over the flame and then gently touch our eyes and the top of the head.

We have seen and participated in this ritual from our childhood. Let us find out why we do the aarati?

Having worshipped the Lord of love - performing abhisheka, decorating the image and offering fruits and delicacies, we see the beauty of the Lord in all His glory. Our minds are focused on each limb of the Lord as the lamp lights it up. It is akin to silent open-eyed meditation on His beauty. The singing, clapping, ringing of the bell etc. denote the joy and auspiciousness, which accompanies the vision of the Lord.

Aarati is often performed with camphor. This holds a telling spiritual significance. Camphor when lit, burns itself out completely without leaving a trace of it. It represents our inherent tendencies (vaasanas). When lit by the fire of knowledge which illumines the Lord (Truth), our vaasanas thereafter burn themselves out completely, not leaving a trace of ego which creates in us a sense of individuality that keeps us separate from the Lord.

Also while camphor burns to reveal the glory of Lord, it emits a pleasant perfume even while it sacrifices itself. In our spiritual progress, even as we serve the guru and society, we should willingly sacrifice ourselves and all we have, to spread the "perfume" of love to all. We often wait a long while to see the illumined Lord but when the aarati is actually performed, our eyes close automatically as if to look within. This is to signify that each of us is a temple of the Lord.

Just as the priest reveals the form of the Lord clearly with the aarati flame, so too the guru reveals to us the divinity within each of us with the help of the "flame" of knowledge (or the light of spiritual knowledge). At the end of the aarati, we place our hands over the flame and then touch our eyes and the top of the head. It means - may the light that illuminated the Lord light up my vision; may my vision be divine and my thoughts noble and beautiful.

The philosophical meaning of aarati extends further. The sun, moon, stars, lightning and fire are the natural sources of light. The Lord is the source of this wonderous phenomenon of the universe. It is due to Him alone that all else exist and shine. As we light up the Lord with the flame of the aarati, we turn our attention to the very source of all light, which symbolizes knowledge and life.

Also the sun is the presiding deity of the intellect, the moon, that of the mind, and fire, that of speech. The Lord is the supreme consciousness that illuminates all of them. Without Him, the intellect cannot think, nor can the mind feel nor the tongue speaks. The Lord is beyond the mind, intellect and speech. How can this finite equipment illuminate the Lord? Therefore, as we perform the aarati we chant;

Na tatra suryo bhaati na chandra taarakam
Nemaa vidyuto bhaanti kutoyamagnib
Tameva bhaantam anubhaati sarvam
Tasya bhasa sarvam idam vibhaati

He is there where the sun does not shine,
Nor the moon, stars and lightning.
then what to talk of this small flame (in my hand),
Everything (in the universe) shines only after the Lord,
And by His light alone are we all illumined.

Blessed with a Daughter

I am very pleased to announce that i am blessed with a little angel on 4th Nov, 2006. My baby and Wife are fine. Her name is SANVI (it is an another name of GODDESS Luxmi). Here is her photograph.

My Favourite Poem एक बूँद

एक बूँद ज्यों निकल कर बादलों की गोद से
थी अभी एक बूँद कुछ आगे बढ़ी
सोचने फिर-फिर यही जी में लगी,
आह ! क्यों घर छोड़कर मैं यों कढ़ी ?

देव मेरे भाग्य में क्या है बदा,
मैं बचूँगी या मिलूँगी धूल में ?
या जलूँगी फिर अंगारे पर किसी,
चू पडूँगी या कमल के फूल में ?

बह गयी उस काल एक ऐसी हवा
वह समुन्दर ओर आई अनमनी
एक सुन्दर सीप का मुँह था खुला
वह उसी में जा पड़ी मोती बनी ।

लोग यों ही हैं झिझकते, सोचते
जबकि उनको छोड़ना पड़ता है घर
किन्तु घर का छोड़ना अक्सर उन्हें
बूँद लौं कुछ और ही देता है कर ।

Just Started

Well, I have been considering having my own blog for a long while but never got around to create an account and start indulging. I guess the idea of having to express your thoughts and sharing it to the world wasn't exactly comforting, but let's give it a try. Will be back soon with a lot about my life.