Alternate Cover For Chetan Bhagat's 2 States

Recently completed reading Chetan Bhagat's latest novel 2 States. It's a sequel to his previous book, Five Point Someone, about the IITs. This one talks about two IIM-A grads, a Punjabi guy and a Tamil girl falling in love and marrying against all odds and their families' wishes.

A quick, light read and worth it at it's price of 95 INR or 65 INR if you buy it from Flipkart (thanks Manan for the tip).

While having lunch this afternoon I thought of this alternative cover for the book which was waiting for me right on my dining table. Do notice the subtle details like the Punjabi being slightly larger than the Madrasi;)

Diwalinks & Dummies Guide To Twitter - Please RT

I am a trivia scavenger. Any information, remotely newsy, funny, informative or plain absurd fascinates me no end. Like others of my ilk, and there are many in case you didn't know, I not only collect random facts through 'links' but also cherish them and share my joy by spreading them far and wide hoping other trivia freaks will catch hold of them and keep them alive. The internet, through it's 'links' have helped us more than diaries, quiz books, newspaper cuttings etc combined.

This Diwali I wanted to share a bunch of these links that I collected but couldn't share through Twitter/Facebook etc for some reason or the other.

If you are not accustomed to the world of Twitter, then here's a dummies guide:

a) every 140 character message you update if called a tweet.

b) you can 'follow' people you find interesting and similarly those who find your updates interesting will follow you (I am available at @suhel by the way)

c) yes, everyone has an ID and is generally known as @ID

d) refer to point a, whoever you are and however big 'connections' you may have, you have to get every message within 140 characters. Yes, that's 20 shorter than a normal SMS.

e) If you like someone's tweet and want to share that, you usually Retweet (RT) him/her. E.g If I tweet 'India won the world cup' and you heard the news first from me, and want to let everyone know and also acknowledge the fact that you heard it from me you will tweet ' RT @suhel India won the world cup' This is useful information because I have received every link published below from Twitter users I follow, and have duly RT ed them.

f) The rest of the rules are pretty fluid, and unless you are @shashitharoor you can also use phrases like 'holy cow' and 'cattle class' :)

Here are some links I wanted to share.

Happy Diwali!

RT @abhility For all those who call Kolkata home or love it anyway - a good piece in the Business Standard today - http://tinyurl.com/yjr563b

RT GautamGhosh Are You Practicing Proper Social Networking Etiquette? - Forbes.com http://ow.ly/tPQB

RT madmanweb Where would be we without the Internet to show us stuff like this: Oprah pees for 10 min - http://is.gd/4d8ca

RT avinashkaushik Meet the "most persecuted person in the entire history of the world": http://tr.im/BgB3 Good lord!

RT ankurb Can't decide what's the best time to run off to pee when watching a movie? Help is at hand. http://tr.im/AslF (Seriously though, WTF?!)

RT amitvarma I saw the headline on the homepage and thought Brian Lara was a modern-day Cleopatra: http://bit.ly/vJLx6

RT avinashkaushik [I dare you not to enjoy this...] The Marshmallow Test: http://tr.im/z1Qt

RT nixxin RT @priyankarocks Ballmer Confiscates iPhone at Microsoft Annual Meeting http://bit.ly/hVL0j

RT marissamayer RT @TechCrunch - Kanye West Disrespects Our Website http://bit.ly/CPzCT by @parislemon

RT bhatnaturally Tracy Awards - cream of crap advertising http://bit.ly/154sAB

RT madmanweb Viewer Friendly Interface - computers as shown in TV and movies: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/...

RT anirbandas RT: @dushver: Amazing: 23 Breathtaking Moments And Ideas Captured By Photographers : http://digg.com/d3yoKu?t

RT avinashkaushik [Absolutely Brilliant] People, their hang-ups & other ppl. Video, 8 mins (2yrs of work). Red Rabbit: http://tr.im/qwyo

RT cdeepak RT @d33pak: RT @leztah http://bit.ly/CfgyN The MJ pepsi commercial from the 1980's. The ad that started the pepsi young generation thingy.

RT nairr A complete Michael Jackson profile (A quizzer's delight): http://bit.ly/s86Iy

RT avinashkaushik The, boldly named, Complete Google Analytics Power User Guide: http://tr.im/pCXe Download it, finally use GA! :)

RT nikhilnarayanan Airbus & Boeing : a 40 year rivalry http://is.gd/1cesy via Business week #boeing #airbus

RT ankurb Evolution of a photographer. http://digg.com/d1uQ6M Nice illustration of what happens as you get sucked deeper into photography.

RT Asfaq Integrate Google Latitude with Your Google Profile http://ff.im/-429oC

RT rameshsrivats Modi-...heartwarming to see players from different IPL teams ... come together to play for their countries. Check http://is.gd/10PKP

RT greatbong http://bit.ly/lRZc2 The great "bad man" Ranjeet captured in a very candid moment. Not safe for work. Not safe for your health.

RT nikhilnarayanan I still don't believe. RT @Naina Optical Illusion : The best I've ever seen! http://ow.ly/lrFc via @jnack

RT bhatnaturally Handy list of marketing & advertising books http://tr.im/xs3t

RT shashark How to Manage Your Online Life When You're Dead http://bit.ly/4rAEKU

RT avinashkaushik [Priceless!!] Emails From Crazy People http://tr.im/vlW8                   

Dummies Guide To Winning The Nobel Prize

Barrack Obama was inaugurated as the president of the US of A on 20-Jan-2009.

The Nobel Peace prize was announced on 9-Oct-2009.

The last date for nomination was 1-Feb-2009. (Go to the part of the article that says: Myth: Candidates can be nominated until the last minute)

Before becoming the president of the US of A very little of his work was 'for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples' for which he received the prize.

Which leads us to the question? Can we hope to win the prize with 11 days of work (25 Jan was a Sunday)?

And the answer is: Yes, we can!

(cross posting from a mailing list I had originally posted this in)

The Lost Art Of Bubble Making

Remember the soap-bubble wallah in the melas from our childhood? No? Even we had forgotten about him, and then we found him. In Gurgaon of all places. Next to a plethora of over priced restaurants on the evening of Karwa Chauth. The price of a packet has gone up from Rs. 2 to Rs. to now Rs. 20, but the joy remains the same. Actually a little more maybe. Here are some pictures and videos of us revisiting our childhood after a day of celebrating marriage. And looks like we have both improved over time and without practice!