Banana Cake ~ A comforting farewell Gift for Gunjan

This is a Happy and Sad post... Sad cause my friend from work Gunjan will not be working with our company any more and Happy cause she's moving on and I'm very Happy for her n Happier for the awesome time we've had together.

Gunjan, G- great, U-understanding, N-naughty, J-jovial, A-awesome, N-nice and so many more fabulous qualities.....

With loads of confidence, I can say that she's God's own child and has a heart of gold with a joie de vivre so infectious that it's impossible to be glum while she's around..... Have admired her readiness to party-at-the-drop-of-a-hat.... Her presence lights up the room with a zillion watts.... Her sense of style is just fabulous :)

Her hardworking and dedicated self at work is going to be missed at lot... We've spent long hours at work and even longer nights at work for special projects, which won us a trip to Bhimtal....

Am sure by now all of you know that I bake only for people who are On-My-List and Gunjan is so On-My-List :) Gunjan is synonymous with Colour and hence her birthday cake last year had so much colour.....


Her farewell had to be something special... She loves Chocolate and Rum..... So I made her a Banana Chocolate Cake which has a layering of rum soaked raisins n chocolate... am so glad she enjoyed herself.


Gunjan Writes.....

Nachi as we call her is one of the kinds.She is adorable,she is beautiful, she is cute, she is crazy,she is demanding and what not!! Its been now three and half years that I have been frens with her. More I know her, more i like her. Always full of life and passionate about everything she does.Whenever I look back @ the moments spent with her, I feel proud to have her as my fren...special being - Nikhil's and her mom b'day celebration, her b'day party, drinking party after diwali party and I don't think list can ever end.

Stayed back at her home after late parties and not just parties, she made all those night-outs in office memorable ones.Your mom has been the part here. Whenever she knew I gonna be there, she would pre-arrange all the stuff from tooth-brush to next day clothes! She is the best

Nachi is such an amazing personality that she left her nachi factor even on my hubby in the first meeting itself... u can take a look @ some pictures clicked @ her b'day party...

BTW, she bakes amazing cakes with all those icing( earlier I used to think icing has something to do with ICE!! M really bad with this stuff). Can't thank her enuf for the valentine cake and the B'day cake she baked.I could see all her love and care in the presentation of the cake.So much effort in the name of love !
Now let's talk about my fav part - she has got a very gud sense of clothes and accessories. I get some gud advices and appreciation as well.Not to forget I like her jewellery collection(something I am very fond of but I don't think looks gud on me). She matches and carries them amazingly well !
Best I liked her in was orange saree - U looked show-stopper in that dress Nachi.

There is always an aura of confidence around her.You feel happy with her.She will advice you wenver she feels its important.I know Nachi, how u won't care about the receptiveness and keep giving them over and over again without feeling bad about it !

I can't forget all those moments from salsa classes to bhimtal trip to late work hours to midnight parties.I love you for whatever you are ! U r d best ....

One thing which is beyond explaination - "TRY FORGETTING HER B'DAY.. U WILL GO THROUGH SERIES OF EMOTIONS WHICH WILL BE BEYOND WORDS" ;-)

I Just love you way too much and yeah your mom as well...

All The Best... :)
Ps: Will treasure your note....

Trip To Tunganath - Day 3 [Return Journey]

Everyone woke up around 5 and trek 0.5Km to Chandrashila for the most majestic sunrise. I was just not able to get out of the blanket…. Just kept sleeping. These guys came back with rave reviews about what they saw….

I guess I missed this bit…..

From Day 3 - Sun R...

From Day 3 - Sun R...

From Day 3 - Sun R...

From Day 3 - Sun R...

From Day 3 - Sun R...

This was the tent which saved us from the hail storm….

From Day 3 - Sun R...

From Day 3 - Sun R...

And this one saved Vivek sir and Puneet Makkar.

From Day 3 - Sun R...

Remnants of the hail storm…..

From Day 3 - Sun R...

We packed up the tents and started our trek back towards the temple…

At the temple, I decided to take the pony on the way down too as my legs were really hurting and I knew that I’ll be complete liability on the group……

From Day 3 - Sun R...

From Day 3 - Sun R...

After coming down, we packed the stuff back in the car and began our drive back…..

Most of it was great….. did great timing…. The statutory vomiting session in the hills did happen….. hats off to the group for going out with me even after knowing that I get sick in the hills…. Reached Haridwar in time….

n then started the ordeal on the road….. Asaramji was visiting and and all the roads till Roorkee were completely jammed….

Thankfully there was police force deployed on the way else we would have been doomed till the morning…. Mad hatter and Vivek had to bear the brunt of driving in this almost stagnant traffic…..

We reached Noida back at 4:40am…..

It was such a wonderful trip….. but I guess it will take me another year to have the guts to do something like this again… ;-)

I have to really admire this group of people where we worked like a team… we had disagreements but were able to sort them out in a complete Win-Win….. there were different agendas at strake but still everyone was able to do what they had set out to do…..

Some people were faster and people like me slower during the trek….
Some people were faster and people like me slower in getting ready to leave…. ;-)
There were finicky people and some ready to rough it out……
I like this song… I don’t like this song……
I like to eat this… I don’t like to eat this…..
I want to go here… I want to go there…..
I want to stay longer… I don’t want to stay here anymore…..
I want to sit in the corner…. So do I…….
He is the CTO…. She is a Product Manager…. He is a Product Manager… She is the boss’s WIFE… HE is the part of the almighty TECH Team……

Yet the group was able to accommodate all this happily…. And achieve what each one set out to do.

People generally do this trekking trip in 7 days http://www.thehimalayanadventures.com/chadershilla-peak.htm…. We did it in 3 days…… aren’t we now suppose to all be called Mad Hatters to get into this…..

Another crazy person like us who did a similar trip in 4 days http://trekwords.wordpress.com/2008/03/14/chopta-tunnath-chandrashilla/

About Tunganath

Trip To Tunganath - Day 1 - Photos

Trip To Tunganath - Day 2 [Trek to Deveria Tal] - Photos of Okhimat and Photos of Trek To DeveriaTal

Trip To Tunganath - Day 2 [Trek to Tunganath] - Photos

Trip To Tunganath - Day 3 [Return Journey] - Photos - Sun Rise and Way Back

Rokne Wala Fail Rahega - Chak De India

I have so much to share. Let me first thank those people who have made this possible.

The Crew – for making this movie…..
Shimit Amin Director
Jaideep Sahni Screenwriter
Aditya Chopra Producer
Salim-Sulaiman Composer
Sudeep Chatterjee Director of Photography

My mom and sis for watching this movie with me the first time and a very dear friend for watching it with me the second time (her first…. Yes… I bullied her into it.)

I had caught the trailer of 'Çhak De India' when I went for Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix at priya. In that one minute piece, the shots of the hockey matches impressed me. Though it was still a Shahrukh movie, we decided to go for it because we wanted to see the 16 girls playing and see what the directors take on the topic was.

I did not go with as high expectations… but somewhere thru the movie I was jumping thru the roof…. It involved me totally……. It was like seeing 20 years of my Taekwon Do career flash in front of my eyes…..

Chak De had the entire hall cheering as if the match being played by someone in their family.

P.S.: My favourite scene in the film is the one where the team goes to McDonald’s where they beat the living daylights out of a gang of eve-teasers wihout any help from a male!! As shuklaji called it “Rakshason ki sena”
That moment taught a team to be a team….. we were rolling in our seats….

Yes, that was the yash raj studio canteen doubled up as a McDonald’s. Have u ever seen a real McDonald’s without an A/C????????

It is so deliciously fulfilling that you want to give the writer and director a clap on their back for depicting the gender war in an urbane recreational zone without trivializing the larger issues involved.

The 16 girls have bought alive the movie like noone else..... Preeti Sabarwal, Komal Chautala, Bindia Naik, Vidya Sharma, Gul Iqbal, Molly Zimik, Mary Ralte,Balbir Kaur,Aliyah Bose, Gunjan Lakhani, Rani, Nethra Reddy, Soimoi. They Rock. Their effort shows

The first match the Indian team wins in the international arena is against U.K. Not China or Italy or France, but England. We still have that subliminal ‘colonized no more’ point we seek to make.

Of course, now, Australia is a different league all together. Whether on film, or in life, that team is just something else. It doesn’t matter what sport they’re playing.

The only true villain in the story is narrow-mindedness and a limited outlook, personified in the holier-than-thou media, the apathetic hockey board, and characters such as the self-obsessed new vice captain of the Indian cricket team.

After a point it doesn’t matter whether the girls are playing hockey.

It’s not the sport. It’s the spirit that shines through in every glistening frame of this tale that needed to be told before hockey became as obsolete as films about people who play to redeem their souls.

I like this film more because it speaks about achievement, belief, faith, ambition, intent, commitment, selflessness, team work,… all good traits essential not just for a successful sportsperson, but for anybody in any walk of life.

Yes, you can use it in the corporate world aswell.

Favourite Chak De India dialogues:

• Jo nahin ho sakt, wahi tho karna hai.
• Mujhe states ki naam na sunayie dethe hai, na dhikaie dete hai. Sirf ek mulk-a-naam sunayie detha hai, I-N-D-I-A
• Humla samne wali team ke dimag par karo, field mein goal apne aap ho jayega
• Har team mein bas ek hi gunda ho saktha hai, Aur is team ka gunda mein hun!
• Vaar karna hai to mardho ki tarah aage se karo… Woh kya hai ki humari team me chakke nahi hote!!
• Chandi (Srk referring to his silver medal) Ko Sone Me badlne ki koshish kar rahaa hoon.
• Pehli baar kisi ghore ko Bharath ka jhanda leharate hue dekh raha hoon.
• Marr jaayenge - par haar ke nahi aayenge!!

Highlights:

• Srk wasn’t hogging the entire screen with his slurrrrrrrrrr,
• Awesome real depiction of Indian women's sports
• The hilarious though exaggerated scene in McDonalds….. Just brilliant J
• No songs with the women in sexy dressing dancing in clubs or around trees.

Songs - loved them.....

• Bad Bad Girls song lyrics Click here for the lyrics
• Maula mere le le meri jaan son... Click here for the lyrics
• This is the story of a team so... - Click here for the lyrics
  
• chak de india song lyrics - Click here for the lyrics
• Badal pe paaon hai song lyrics - Click here for the lyrics

Coming soon …. Chak De and me

Nights spent in office making the new 99acres.com live

We had a contest running for us this time..... 2 day trip if we launch the new stuff till the end of july.

We've worked on this project for some time now.... as usual we slogged the most in the last over.

This was a new team i worked with. Have done this twice over @ naukri.com and made several large (read mammoth) projects live in the last 4 years.

We did it.... the team work was cool.

Yet... everytime it's the same butterflies..... the cushion however are the learnings...

There were many challenges for us. getting the concepts right.... implementing them and most of all having a well oiled coordination between all the departments without playing the blame game. [it's very easy to get into that trap :-) ]

It takes all types of people to make a team. A lot of it was Deja Vu ..... it's all coming back to me... just different people were saying it.....

Each one has their own concern.....
- it's not in the brief... where is the dropdown we wanted... it was not in the template.... Stop looking at comma and full stops, pl take out BUGS- REAl Bugs..... the new build destroyed the older fixes....
Top management wants new changes done...
not now, it will be done in august....

The idea so much wasn't a 2 day trip... the motivation was achievement and having the Best Site.....

But the best thing about this team was : The Client/User and Site was at the core of all this and the strain we could hear were "How can we do this better?"... ok let past be past and let's focus on what we need to get done and how best can we do it to make the site better.

There were no sides..... There was just 1 team.


99acres team... U Rock.

there were many a night we spent in office.... not going home... sleeping in office for a few hours... working 21 hours a day....

Our business head - Deepali and CTO - Vivek stood by us always......