A Home Amidst The Greens

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What Is It?

An eighteen hundred square feet, three bed/bath room, hall, kitchen, two balconies and private terrace flat.

Where Is It?

J 91, Mayfield Gardens, Sector 51. Close to: Sohna Road, South City, Nirvana County etc.

Why Should You Take It Up?

For the almost non-existent Gurgaon-Greenery, if nothing else. And also because you can see peacocks grazing in lush green fields next to your complex while you enjoy your morning cuppa in one of the long balconies with a cool breeze blowing all around you. You can play 3 a side football/soccer in the hall, and maybe ping pong ball cricket in all of the three bedrooms. And then you have the vast terrace all to yourself and your friends for the moonlight get togethers. And what's more, even playing music at otherwise 'neighbour unfriendly' levels is fine. Ok, you can't quote me there though:)

No water problem at all, electricity is much less of a nuisance than the rest of the city and an overall peaceful secure environment.


What You Should Be Told About?

If you do not have some personal means of transport, then keep in mind that the closest grocery store is 2 kms away and everything else at least 8. Though one must add there is a mall coming up in the vicinity, probably another year to it. Because of the mostly empty expanses all around, dust is a problem during dust storms. And it is on the top floor of a three storey house, so tends to get a little warm.

Another major problem is the absence of a good broadband provider.


Finally:

No brokerage involved as the owner is himself letting the place out. A very friendly and warm owner at that:) The house comes ready with three huge cupboards and an inverter, so the few instances of power cuts not really an issue. And the best part is, the rent.


And below please find attached some pictures of the house. If interested please feel free to contact me.

The One At The Top. Right Of The Picture.

A Semi-Furnished Bachelor's Hall

The Neighbourhood Peacocks

Google Trends

'To organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful'. That is Google's mission statement and the volume of information made available to the world is mind boggling. Last week Google came up with a new product, this time to organize it's own information and make that universally accessible, and hopefully useful.

Yes I am talking about Google Trends. Its a very simple product and equally easy to use and understand. When you enter any query in the search field, it returns with results of the number of times that particular keyword was searched for along with the time line (beginning from 2004) and the areas it was searched in. For example, if I do a search on the keyword tsunami, this is what you will see. So we notice the abnormal spike during December 2004, because that's when the tsunami struck south east Asia and thus led to frantic searches on that word. You will notice that you can also select the particular region of which the search results you are looking for. In this case it was 'All Region', if we change that to India only, this is what we get.

There is also the option of comparing the results of two keywords. So lets take 'summer' and 'winter' as examples. The setting remains India only for the moment. The way to do so is separate the keywords by commas. As simple as that. So the results for summer and winter show the following. Again it is clear that the searches made on 'summer' and 'winter' are related to the time of the year as we see a consistent trend of highs and lows for summer during summer months and winter months respectively. Same logic applies to winter too.

This is a great way of analyzing the vast amount of data available and we can actually find out the reasons for the rise and fall for almost every keyword keeping the situation and events of that time in mind.

I am listing some examples below. Some of them are interesting to say the least, and the rest, just for fun. And I am keeping the region settings to 'India Only' for easier understanding and analysis.

1. Harry Potter

Its clear that there was a surge in searches corresponding to the release of the books/movies.

2. Nobel Prize

Again some clear trends are noticeable. Over the past years, this keyword has been searched on mostly during the months of September/October, and that's when the prizes are announced every year.

3. Kaun Banega Crorepati

As the show had gone off air and came back only in July 2005, we see the graph starting from there. There was a corresponding rise during Amitabh Bachchan's period of illness and then as it was suddenly taken off the air, the graph also dies a sudden death hanging in midair.

4. Murder

This one is a little more interesting than the rest. Although this graph is quite steady otherwise, there is a sudden spike in mid 2004. At first I couldn't think of any famous murder story at that time, and after some research I realize the Ms. Sherawat movie Murder was released then!


Now let us see some of the interesting comparisons.

5. Mangal Pandey and Rang De Basanti

I took these two Aamir Khan movies, and just as you will expect there are distinct rises in the graph right when these two were released, and then they fell sharply.

6. Anil Ambani and Mukesh Ambani

No clear reason for the graph being so much in favor of the younger brother, plain and simple charisma factor at work maybe!

7. Sonia and Sania

Again some interesting spikes. Sonia shot up during may-June 2004, the last national election time, while Sania's graphs sore during Jan 2005, when she made waves at the Australian Open that year. And since then its been Sania all the way. So its clear, being a 30 odd ranked WTA player with a nose ring is more likely to get you up there in the popularity charts than abdicating the prime minsitership and MP ship of India.

Finally let me end on a light note.

8. Banerjee, Mukherjee and Chatterjee

The long standing Battle of The Bengalis is over. The Mukherjees have won hands and legs down and I am racking my brains to come up with some famous Mukherjee who just took the fight away from us!

8a. Banerjee, Mukherjee, Chatterjee and Ganguly

And suddenly this not so well known Ganguly comes in from somewhere and steals the show. This time I think I know who is responsible! Dada, the maharaja of Bengal is enough to change statistics single handedly, or so it seems.

9. Infosys, Wipro, Satyam, TCS and CTS

With almost all my engineer friends working for one of these companies or the other, this one should put all future debates to rest. And the graphs are just too close to take a call.

10. Love and Friendship

Its amazing how friends become important only during one particular time of the year, the first Sunday of August. Don't rack your brains any further, its Friendship day, this should surely mean VICTORY for the card manufacturers!

Drive To The Finish

For those of you waiting for Abhishek's next Guest Post on my blog, the wait is over. Time to fasten our seat belts. Abhishek in the driver's seat.

I have been travelling a lot in the last few months. By rail, by road and by air. And when you travel, you are bound to get co-passengers. When I board a flight, I have my eyes open, "looking forward" to a pleasant flight with some pretty stranger(read female) who will bring some sort of romance to my rather mundane existence. Well mundane is only partially correct, as I generally don't have an idea of where am I going to spend my next night. But then again, working till 3 in the morning isn't the most romantic thing either. Also, factories and offices in far flung areas are not particularly high in beauty quotient. So the eyes, do look forward to some NSP(for those who don't know this term it means - Nayan Sukh Prapti) which one can usually get on most airports and flights. Hence, the "looking forward" on my part. And during security check and while waiting for the flight, one can generally identify a few "good uns" and then hope for the best. But as luck will have it my co-passengers invariably turn out to be middle aged corporates or veteran grandpas. And the "good uns" are always tantalisingly close..... a row or two in front or behind. Close, but not close enough..... But then again, that has been the story of my romantic career.... one which hasn't gone an inch ahead since I came down a mini-bus at Deshopriyo Park sometime in August,2001.

If our railway stations can screw it up, can our airport be far behind?? While waiting for a train to Kolkata at the Bhubaneswar railway station, we go to the Enquiry to know the platform no. We get a prompt response - its coming on Platform no. 2. So we cross the over head bridge(it was tempting to cross over the tracks, but carrying luggage which had our company logos, prevented us from the misadventure!!) at mid-day carrying our luggages. 10 mins later we are informed that the train will arrive on Platform no. 1, where we were previously standing. Unnecessary hassles for passengers getting baked in nearly 40* C temperatures. The next day I am in the Netaji Subhash Airport to catch a flight to Mumbai. After the security check, there is this immaculately dressed airlines official who tells me that boarding will be from the first floor. And you feel how far the railways are lagging behind their more "elevated" competitors. But wait a second mate, rather half an hour!! 10 mins before the flight when people have already begun to make a queue at the designated gate, that same immaculately dressed airlines official comes to tell the folks that the boarding will be from the ground floor!! An announcement like that can sure bring one back down to earth all those already dreaming about the sky and what they intend to do up there( people like me i.e.).

Just another topic "about being on the move", a slightly dicey one though. I spent my childhood in Patna, a city which ,despite having some fatal flaws such as lawlessness and a lack of good roads and public transport, I love the most. And I also identify myself with Biharis everywhere as my own people. And I have to say that Biharis have given me more love and acceptance than any other community. So every time I meet someone from Bihar, I feel I am meeting someone from my land. Rather, I am someone which they have made me as their own( I happen to be Bengali by birth who spent his first 15 years and 10 months as a resident of Patna). And I can instinctively recognise a Bihari, the moment I hear one speaking Hindi. I understand the expressions and the flavour too well to mistake it. The thing is from Hyderabad to Mumbai and to taxis in Kolkata, I meet lots of Bihari drivers. Poor people, who have had to leave the state to search for a livelihood. So the thoughts that come to my mind are:

1) Why should so many Biharis (still) have to leave the state and look for their livelihood by working as cheap labour, drivers etc. I am not looking down at these people. In fact I am proud of the fact that they earn their living by sheer hard work and courage. The thing that bothers me is the lack of opportunity for employment for the people of Bihar coming out of places such as Darbhanga or Bhagalpur or Chhapra.

2) Education + Bihari = Deadly combo, there is a community in Orkut which goes by this name or something like it. What is the educated Bihari youth which has the world at its feet(I honestly believe that Biharis are the smartest people out there) doing for Bihar?? In how many years will Bihar be a part of India's economic mainstream, when will people from Punjab and Tamil Nadu aspire to work in a company in Patna as they do now to work in Bangalore or Hyderabad??

3) To end on a more positive note, considering the number of Bihari drivers going around, the next Narain Karthikeyan should be a Bihari, we have a natural inclination for the wheel (think steerings, Chakka Jam rallies, Janata Dal etc).

4) Looking at the "punnier" side of things, I am inclined to say that all said and done, it is the Biharis who are "driving" our nation ahead! Forgive me for this one, I couldn't resist it.

Any Bihari or a well wisher of Bihar should at least think about what I have written and post a comment. A more proactive response is desirable, though.


Take care

Abhishek