Aseem's Blog
Leap over the bounds…
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Seeing mom like never before |
I have seen her complain to me, shout at me, work all day round for us all… but certainly never like this before. Past 2 weeks were a little rough time for my family and hopefully only getting better from here. Mom wasn’t well and had to be admitted to the hospital. She still lies there on the bed with so much to do in her mind which her body cannot complement to… You probably won’t realize it until you are one of those people as my mom who would do everything under the sun for the family all day round, never complain of and suddenly be reduced to a complete compulsory bed rest. Very certainly there is one example at your home too. Yes you got it right… all Moms are so. You can’t help them change their attitude or maybe you just don’t push it further until you see her where I am seeing as of now.
I hvnt been to hospitals for long ever. Probably after my birth this is my longest visit :p. Though altogether its been a good learning curve. Things I have seen around and those I have felt within, also a few much needed realisations… maybe some which I can jot down here.
- Money is of such miniscule importance or just no importance against your family member’s wellbeing (I never disagreed to), but now feeling it all around me. You do not want to think of saving money for your future plans, you do not want to think of earning money for now… nothing… the first thing on your mind is to see your loved ones all doing good. And all those useless things you ever spent money on might just hit you back to leave you whishing that you never had done so.
- Maturity comes with experiences and not age. With such experiences you will certainly see yourself grow ahead of time. You see life more seriously than ever before. Just what I have been feeling within in the past two weeks.
- You can’t take care of the ones ill if you don’t take care of yourself first. You just don’t need to panic. If there are more family members around you for help, share the responsibilities. Take it cool. Speak to your closest friends… When you hear them say that everything is going to be fine, believe me it weighs much more than even what the doctors can assure you of. And if you can find an evening free for yourself, catch up with friends. Nothing else can make you feel better.
- Its only at such times that you realise of how much your family does for you, how much you owe to them, you were maybe unaware of or indifferent to all this while. But better late than never…
Leaving for Pune today, for Mom’s further treatment. Have a huge to do list to follow once everything is in place like it was a few days before… Hopefully I should be back to regular blogging too then.
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Beware of Royal Sundaram Insurance Company |
An insurance agent fetches your personal details from your credit card company and calls you to market his health insurance company’s offerings. The deal does not interest you, so you decline to subscribe. You thought it was all over here with this one telephonic conversation. But in a few days the Insurance company calls you, informing that they have charged your credit card company a yearly premium and have mailed you the required documents. And there starts yet another struggle to retrieve your hard earned money that this Insurance company and your credit offering company have ripped off from you…
This is exactly what happened to my Dad and probably to many others. My dad has a GE Cash Card, Royal Sundaram is affiliated to. He declined subscribing to any health policy offered by Royal Sundaram. But the agent went ahead and issued it while also charging my Dad’s GE Cash Card. GE also proceeded with it without confirming of whether there has been any written consent from our side. According to GE and Royal Sundaram, they do not require processing of any documents for such a purchase and the whole process is completed over phone. They proudly call this fatuous idea…”Tele Marketting”! Since then we had been paying the interest to GE towards an amount of 4.8k which was the yearly premium charged by Royal Sundaram. And in no way both parties were ready to refund the money.
Even if we cancel the policy, the following are their short term cancellation charges:
Within 1 month: 75% refund
1-3 months: 50% refund
3-6 months: 75% refund
After 6 months: No refund
Which means, we would be charged a minimum of 25% of the premium towards a health policy we never committed to.
And the best part is, they do not respond to your complaint emails, give you phone numbers to contact which never worked, do not give you contact numbers of higher authorities in the organisation and play around with you as though you were a tennis ball… Bouncing between the courts of GE and Royal Sundaram. After an endless number of calls to both and assurances from them for over six months, we were told that we are not entitled any refund since their 6 month period fro refunds was over.
So we had to take the hard way. We really wanted to put them both to terms. So after threatening them to take to court, they finally refunded the premium fee but again not the interest.
Recently an exactly similar thing happened to my cousin, who was charged over 8.5k by Royal Sundaram on her SBI Credit Card. And yet another struggle has begun…
Its such an irony, where credit card facilities are meant to ease your life, managing your financial transactions, but they end up making it even more difficult for you. And you are left to fight for your own hard earned money!
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A Ride in the Rain! |
I just love to ride… yea you could bet on that blind… While its raining cats and dogs out on the streets, you ride over 30 kms with almost dead bike brakes yet maintaining an average speed of 70kmph… it cant be anything else. You simply love biking! Drenched in one of those few unmerciful heavy rains in
I am not a great fan of rains… infact I hate them because everywhere I go on bike, I have to carry my rainwear… Today while I had over 30kms of travel to reach back to Panjim there was a sudden (nah! expected) downpour of rain which didn’t look like one that would stop soon. Nor was I in to wait for it to die out of water. Luckily I had a jacket… but my trouser was soon getting all soaked. Kinda giving a cooling effect everytime a little more of it got wet :p. Soon it was all heavy as though it had drank over 100 gallons of water. Wearing my jeans which were more water and less denim by now, I just couldn’t care for the roadside dingy water splashing all over me as wagons paved through puddles. What I was busy enjoying, was my ride in the rain…
The rainwater drops were hitting me like a swarm of honey bees would sting onto your body, over and over again. But I was in no mood of taking a halt. Luckily I had a bus in front, I was riding just a few inches close to, so that I could miss the hard hitting rains. Hoping that the buswala won’t brake all of a sudden, as I knew my bike’s brakes will not follow suit.
While I reached a bridge, I noticed many two wheelers parked aside and their riders wearing full length raincoats having stopped by… and before I could wonder why, my bike’s pace had already got me onto the bridge. And there I was on a toss by the violent wind blowing over the bridge… Shifting my bike along with me from the left lane to the right, ofcourse which wasn’t for me but for vehicles traveling back from where I had come. And boy… this time right in front of a truck, head-on! Thanks to the super sweet response time of my bike’s brakes, I couldn’t stop, even if now I wanted to. I was wishing so badly that the wind could blow from the otherside just for once (God Plz…Plz…). The truck flashed its lights… those headlights looking like angry eyes suggesting me “Boy… this is your last ride!”. Luckily the truck had decent enough brakes to slow it down, leaving just a little chance for me to get back on my track defying all the Newtons in the force of the wind which was pushing me back onto the right lane (I mean the wrong lane :p). My bike followed a zig-zag path for a while, and I was glad that the bridge was finally over. Kids in air-conditioned cars passing by looked like kinda mocking at me. But I couldn’t care more… I was back to busy enjoying my ride in the rain…
And after I made it back… at the same CCD with the same friend, the same hot Cappuccino I ordered yesterday, suddenly had a great taste today!
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Yahoooo!!! Finally its all over! |
Finished up with my engineering exams yesterday… though still have the final year project presentation (and project itself!) pending and a couple of vivas which i never study for. It seems like its almost all over! :D.
And now, I am on a never before like schedule… enjoying my last few days in Goa before I join TCS.
DEGREE was a dream… but ENGINEERING made it possible!
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Where the hell is Aseem? |
This is the one question that my blog asks me everytime I logon, only to read a few new comments on the older posts… I want to answer it, but the silence has stood too loud all this while. Yes sadly so, I have been pretty irregular at blogging in the recent past. But I have been busy with newer and interesting projects I have given a go to. Some of my own or partnered with friends and ofcourse there is always a little webdesign work that I usually do. Announcements on my newer sites will follow shortly. So blogging does not float on top of these priorities. But am trying… trying to give everything in life the time it deserves.
While in a few days my final engineering exams are scheduled and I am busy with photocopying class notes, buying reference books (yes now!), collecting question papers from the past…lol! Lots to do! Just the last 3 papers of my engineering now and then no more of it! No exams… no tests… nothing! But I will miss these times I am still holding on to. Yes I will miss exams and tests too. Times when I have been awake all night studying and then my brain a Kora Kagaz on the next day of the paper. Or those small internal tests I never cared to study for… but yet always somehow passed! Ok I have taken a couple of class photos and videos too during the tests, so you know how strict or serious tests can be :p. But for sem exams, there is no escape. Gotta start studying and give a break to all other work. Yes the last time I will be studying for an engineering paper (hopefully!!!)!
We also have our most talked about final year engineering project go doom. Have to make it presentable enough now to scape through. Yea, lots of stuff going in and around me. So my blog might remain in this inanimate state for a while until I have enough time to give it some life :).
And if ya still asking this question… “Where the hell is Aseem?” You can catch up with me at CCD( Café Coffee Day)
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Nokia signs Aseem for multi-crore deal |
Dont think I have to answer the qn “Why Aseem?” :p Ok so u might soon see my posters all around your city ;)
I am just loving this phone!
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And he slept forever… |
A close friend and a college mate Prasad, had been to an excursion organised by the college while he had no idea that it would be the last day he would see. He drowned in a water body in the mountains where the college had organised the trek to. While he was probably still alive when rescued by his friends, I fail to understand why a doctor could not reach that place when localites and police could. What he needed was simply some professional first aid. And he died struggling for life for hours together. They say it is “destiny”… the word I feel suffocated and trapped by now.
Lone child of his parents their life will never be the same again. So will be ours warped forever. While we remember every moment we shared with him… All the happy moments in our college canteen, those trips we made to different places together, times when we laughed and sang along, every moment from the past hitting back and irking us now. Don’t have the courage to go back and see his orkut profile where people wrote scraps and testimonials whishing him good luck for all his life. Where has all that gone? Do good wishes really never count? I feel like lost all faith in God and good being. Nature again teasing us with how miniscule and unimportant as humans we are.
While his body lied there in front of us, being prepared for the cremation and final goodbye a friend of mine continuously cried “Wake up… wake up… Prasad… this is your last chance… wake up…” only to realise in a few moments… that he had slept forever and never to see the light of the day again…
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Wordpress Theme Release: Fire in I |
After receiving a good response over my new theme “Fire in I”, I have decided to release it for public use. Hoping that it does well.
This is probably the only Indian Theme around available for Wordpress. So all those who feel the fire of an Indian burning in you, look no further to style your blog. Use it! Flaunt it!
Alternatively, you can also customize the theme to any concept or idea of your liking with some basic css editing and graphics modifications. I will be glad to extend any help towards it. Also, if you have any suggestions please leave a comment so that I can incorporate them in the next release. Already have a few modifications chalked out for the next release which should be out soon.
Creating such themes certainly takes time and money, and so I have gone ahead and added 2 sponsors to the theme. This sponsorship has allowed me to produce this theme, and will allow me to continue to produce quality themes for the Wordpress community. Hoping that the sponsored links will remain intact when you use the theme.
The theme is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license.
Check out the Demo
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My new Nokia N73 Music Edition |
Damn! This was the toughest decision of my life… parting with my Nokia N3315 and buying the N73. Hehe yea, N3315… because it was class apart. Its popped out of my pocket once while I was speeding over 80kmph on my bike, its fallen off a 100 times… yet worked so perfectly all the last four years I have been using it. Not let me down anytime!
I have always been a Nokia fan. Even if their Symbian OS phones hang more number of times than the rupees in their price, the features and the brand value offered by Nokia is quite unmatchable (Ok maybe the Apple iPhone can beat this by 2008 when it is released in
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My Blog’s all new Avatar! |
I had plans of designing a new theme for my blog from long enough. But could never find the time to. Finally one day had some spare time, so decided to code the css for the theme. Referred some other themes for the wordpress coding while the wordpress support site was also of great help! Also bought an image from stockexpert, and here it is… my new theme all ready for my blog. I titled it Fire in ‘I’. Probably the only “Indian Wordpress Theme” around.
My earlier theme was the Gespaa Theme by Phu Ly. Had then modified it a bit, but there certainly is a different pleasure in going custom.
Old Theme:
New Theme:
I have not yet checked if the theme is fully compatible with earlier versions of wordpress. As I just upgraded mine to the latest release of 2.1 and it works all fine here. Right now there are a few bugs, so making a list to fix them. If you find any bugs or can suggest any usability changes, I will be glad to incorporate them. As I have plans of releasing this theme for public use soon. May be those of you who liked this theme and would like to use it for your blog, can expect it by around the next month.
Do let me know how much Fire is there in this theme! :P
