I am now Biztalk Server MVP




Joy when shared gets multiplied .I have been selected the new BizTalk Server Most Valuable Professional as of April 2006.

This is definitely a very happy moment for me , Although I had been given a heads up for the selection into MVP award evaluation; The MVP awards are given in recognition of a recipient's technical expertise, spirit of community, and their willingness to help their peers by providing reliable and accurate answers to technical questions about Microsoft products & technologies. More info on MVP program can be found here

http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/mvpawardintro

Well once you are at certain stages in your road called life you tend to sit on a mile stone and look back at the road travelled. And then you realize it is your past that makes who you are today . And the different persons who contributed to your little things in life . So I guess at this milestone a short speech is coming out . Oh Boy

I would like to thank the followwing persons in no particular order

. Mom and Dad ( You are the best , well you have your faults , But hey you are still the best )
. My brothers Anu and Aravind ( Thanks for hanging in there with me )
. All my cousins the whole 26 and the big extended family of ours .
. The TNHB guys especially Binil,Vineeth,Girish,Sanju,Giri,sumesh, Asif (U guys Rock !)
. Some of my smartest ex-collegues and wellwishers , DK , Sabareesh ,Nish, JK,Arun S,Ashok H,Gopal,Veena,Harish T,Daniel Berry , Mark Harris ( You are Cool )
. My college buddies Archie , Sanoop , Jayson , Sam , Siad , SPK(Sam ,Pav, Kaks ) and all of you in College ( Never could have asked for a better bunch )
. Vijay Srinivasan , Dr Prasad of IIM-A ,Swami Vimalanandji
. Folks at Satyam, ML ,Checkfree, CEI and Corning
.All my friends and wellwishers ( You know who you are ! )
. And my better half , soul mate, friend ,collegemate and life partner Binitha

Good news ...A new Addition to the Family

My Mom was ectasic and then I realized the power of those words and the damage I ad already done . I immediately told her Mom It is not What you think .
I Could realize that she was not listening to my explanantion I wanted to clarify . Anyway me and Bin are married close to two years and the usual questions were popping out with a hint of that "you know what I mean voice " for some time now. So i guess it was my fault .And I casually take the question at face value and say the weathe is good/bad/raining today as if all she really cared when she called to chek on me is the weather gods mood . Anyway I clarified that our Guppies in our aquarium has given kids and they were so small that I did not realize it for almost two weeks. She did nto believe me . Bini takes care of all the fish flake although I was the one who was crazy about aquariums. And it was not until last week that I realized that there are baby fries in our tank .

Here goes a little picture of the guy mom ..(7x zoomed )




Now we have lot more baby fry last time I couted 7 they are really tiny . Guppies do breed fast or maybe it is becasue I got this tank as a ast year Valentine gift to Bini in the first place. Guess I will have to get a new tank now .

Good Morning America -India Rising

Check out this video . This looks like a very good program made on India .
A very unbiased true documentary.

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=1674437

The Indian motivational Industry
================================

What motivtes your people . What transforms oridinary men into visionaries. Surely it is great ideas and the leaving of inhibitions behind to think above the rest. Not to be a face amonth the crowd but to be noticed. to speak up , To change, be an agent for that change.
In India motivation industry is slowly taking off.. Just read this article on the week

These programs at least the good ones go through a very intensive psycho analytical conditoning of your mind. I myself was lucky to attended one by Dr Prasad conducted by AMAYA Management Consultants Chennai . He is a facualty at IIM ahmedbad . Dr Prasad was trained by Dr David McClelland of Harvard University in 'competency analysis' and is a Phd from IIM-A . He has 27 years exploratory research in Creativity-Originality .He is well versed in Upanishads, Tao, Zen; Western thoughts on Mind-Matter-Existence .He has also worked at XLRI-Jamshedpur apart from IIM-A . He runs his school in cochin "School for Creative Perspective"

A session like this especially your FIRO analysis is very imprtant step to bcoming thought leaders

CheckFree EPL showcased in Enterprise Application Block

Saw this news today In patterns and practices home page and I was very happy .
This news talks about a showcase project at checkfree suing Patterns and Practices.

This is the project that I was previously assosciated with , a project where i was part of the core 6 member proposal team and later worked as ont of the tech lead after we won the proposal .
This showcasing gives me a very warm and joy feeling because I was one of the pivotal forces in pushing application block usage in Checkfree EPL right from proposal stage itself .

I have since moved on from Checkfree and Satyam in the grand scheme of things called life but it sure gives joy to read about your past assosciations spoken in showcase.

And that's that.

Happy Holi

Happy Holi everyone. It is Holi today . The festival of colors and fun. The day you celeberate with your near and dear ones your friends.. whatever happens make sure you are not alone..

Somehow Holi reminds me of my days in college.. The carefree life.. Getting late to class. hanging out in the canteen . Complaining it is the fault of the system . sleeping over at friends place. Smoking on the terrace looking at the full moon . The Arts festival .. the campus....

I rememeber this song by Ali Haider . I used to listen to this song a lot and is somehow most favourite song of college times..

I found the lyrics of the song..

Purani Jeans
============
Purani jeans aur guitar
Mohalle ki vo chhat
Aur mere yaar
Vo raaton ko jaagna
Subah ghar jaan
Kood ke deewar
Vo cigaretee peena
Gali mein jaake
Wo karna daanton ko
Ghadi ghadi saaf

Pahunchna college hamesha late
Vo kehna sir ka
"Get out from the class!"
Vo bahar jaake hamsha kehna
Yahan ka system
Hi hai kharaab
Vo jaake canteen mein
Table bajaake
Vo gaane gaana
Yaaron ke saath

Bas yaadein
Yaadein
Yaadein reh jaati hain
Kuchh chhoti
Chhoti
Baatein reh jaati hain
Bas yaadein..

Vo papa ka daantna
Vo kehna mummy ka
Chhodein ji aap
Tumhein to bas nazar aata hain
Jahan mein beta
Mera hi kharaab
Vo dil mein sochna
Kar ke kuchh dikha dein
Vo karna planning
Roz nayi yaar

Ladakpan ka vo pehla pyaar
Vo likhna haathon pe
A + R
Vo khidki se jhaankna
Vo likhna letter
Unhein baar baar
Vo dena tofe mein
Sone ki baaliyan
Vo lena doston se
Paise udhaar

Bas yaadein
Yaadein
Yaadein reh jaati hain
Kuchh chhoti
Chhoti
Baatein reh jaati hain
Bas yaadein..

Aisa yaadon ka mausam chala
Bhoolta hi nahin
Dil mera
Kahan meri jeans aur guitar
Mohalle ki vo chhat
Aur mere yaar
Vo raaton ko jaagna
Subah ghar jaan
Kood ke deewar

Purani jeans
Aur guitar..

=======
How true.... Just memories.. remain... just memories...

Listen to this wonderful..song.. here..
http://www.raaga.com/getclip.asp?id=999999027397

My experience at ASPEN Dental Elmira


I had to visit Aspen Dental to get one of my tooth pulled out and upon visitng there , They said it would be better to pull out a lowere wisdom tooth too . I agreed I had already prepaid for the procedure becuse they told me they cant make a reservation for me without a payment . !!
Anyway I went ahead and paid 96 $ for two tooth extractions . I have a guardian PPO plan which has 80% coverage and they had given me this estimate based on a prior visit to their offices for which I was already billed. Before leaving the office I checked with them if I owed anything further and I was told I am good

A few weeks after the extraction I got a new bill of 273 $ apparently.They have now added an additional doctor consultation charge for the day of extraction . I was aghast I called thier office and they told me there is some mistake and I explained I had already come in prior to that day for getting the consultation . Anyway i agreed to yeah there was a consultation .
Even after that I asked them to explain my insurance plan benefits to me and then asked him to explain the bill. So after the explanation I was supposed to pay only 45 $ more.Apparently there was some mistake in the Bill I got (No apologies yet ! ) !!!. He asked me to pay the 45 $ now . I have now requested for a corrected bill and I am awaiting the same now before sending in the payment.

Maybe this was a genuine billing mistake on thier part . But after a bit of googling about ASPEN . I found people with similar experiences. So now I am Skeptic

http://www.insiderpages.com/profiles/AspenDental-UC3BK8YvR_aU6bsTimhH3w/

Do leave me your experiences with Medical Billing

The new Windows Live

I visited the new windows live site today . www.live.com .
Frankly I am amazed by the new search . It is still behind on Google in terms of search results but the whole new live experience is awesome .

The birds eye view feature where you can search for a Local place in live and get a birds eye view of the place is awesome . I think this will be a really cool site once it becomes full blown . imagine being able to cruise through streets in Manhattan without ever leaving your PC. Yes the whole thing was there in Google earth before but the level of clarity in live is Breathtaking..

As the search engine takes so much more importance in the new millenium . It will be very ineresting the events that unfurl in this space in this decade.

The Search wars... are heating up

Review of RANG DE BASANTI ( PAINT IT SAFFRON )

Well I had seen some preview shots of Rang De basanti and I thought God Aamir looks so young and I heard somewhere that he lost lot of weight for this movie, My admiration of Aamir for the versatility of the characters that he potrays have been growing.

Then I heard the MIG controversies that the film got into and the Army was given a special screening and I understand they did not have problems with the film except one scene . All this I
attributed to pre release gimmicks that most films now pull to get attention .

So when I heard the movie is playing this week nearby , I was a bit skeptical of going .
What changed by mind was my brother , who recommended this as a must watch movie.

Well I don't want to go into the story , but a short review is in order . The story starts
off about an English Journalist(Patton ) who comes to India with her broken Hindi to shoot a documentary on Indias Young revolutionary War heroes . She is met by her friend Soha Ali Khan . After some tragedies with finding her suitable roles for Azad, Bhagat and the rest she meets Aaamir,Siddharth( remember him from Yuva ) , Atul Kulkarni, Kunal Kapoor . The intial meeting itself paints a good picture of India in it current state. These boys are carefree and do not connect with the ideas of pre-independence revolutionaries.

The narrative that follows interludes two stories one in the past and one in the present and the cinematography is excellent . The Scores by A R Rahman is catchy and is lingering on in my head. The songs are beautifully picturised and so well blended into the movie that I don't remember more than two songs in the movie.. Wherein it actually had 5 .
The song "loose Control " and the title song are especially dear to me . The former because it reminded me of so many good times in the past.

Kudos to Director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra whose previoous film AKS was a hit and whoever said that was a fluke must be eating his words now .

It might be easy to categorize RDB as a patriotic movie but it does not fit into that bracket. The movie is much more , it is aimed at a social awakening .I hear this often from lot of Indians settled in United states , the bickering about the Infrastructure , the corruption , the lawlessness but when I point out that we are part of the problem , because educated people like us either do not vote,neither done anything constructively to prevent it many do not agree.

It is easier to criticize and point the finger at somebody than to own responsibility and take action . I cant remember a movie in recent times which tries to convey a message and does it so beautifully without any pretences.

The movie itself has two shades . The initial fun rollicking crowd and then a single incident turning the whole tone of the movie and a brilliant real to life ending which is reality in your face.

Bold is what I will call this movie. RDB is the BEST movie I can remember having seen in recent times. A MUST WATCH !!

Let me know your feel once you see the movie . leave me some comments.

Potluck at Tapan's House

These are the hosts Tapan and Kinjal , Both are the real gujaratis to the core.. and is into stocks... Tapan is a fine cook and loves cooking like me .. :-) . Well Tapan made some mind blowing Pav-bhajii and I have never eaten so much pav bhaji in my life..

This is Vishal , Venu and Swapna's (below ) Son... He is 8 months old...

That is Manish (French beard ) and Venu with Tapan towering over..

That is Dr Aruna explaining UNO to Niranjan

Tapan with his cocktail of the day . Margaritas !!!


Me and Bini , we are playing Teen Patti . boy I lost miserably.. I was doing well unitl the last round when I pitted my color against a Triple.. Boy I am a sore loser. It always gets me worked up .

But then the food was excellent apart from the Pav-bhajis there was mango ice-cream , gulab jamun , Dhokla, Fried rice,chholey,egg puffs and a lot of other stuff... which I cant rememeber the name..

This is Rajesh...This color really looks good on him . He is our Biztalk Admin and a card shark .

This is Rashi and Manish . Rashi won the most of the money , She beat me with the TRIPLE 10 . Boy i could not believe that hand..

Well all in all it was a fun get together.. I guess we will have more before this winter is over..

My New Machine


I assembled a brand new machine from scratch , This one is real sweet dream one for me
and it is a welcome break away form my laptop . because now I really get to play with Biztalk on this machine.

This is an AMD 64 bit , 800 FSB board with nvidia on board. 2 Gig of RAM ,
2 hard disks and 80 GB Seagate and and a 120 GB SATA , a 17 " LCD.

Ain't that a real nice one.. Now I am fully into my blogging and since I dont have to share the laptop with Bini .. ;-) .

Thank you Sayana


I am not sure when I met Sayana Russel or talked to her for the first time in college; maybe it was one of those countless times I have borrowed lunch from folks in class. I could never resist a culinary treat :) .I am eternally in debt to them.

But what I do remember is those gleamy eyes behind glasses glued to the lecture in intense concentration; furiously taking notes even when the class was in absolute mayhem!!! It always amazed me how she could concentrate that well in class and I sometimes wondered if she practiced meditation ! Did you?

At this point I should go and on the record say that it was due to her generosity that I; and many others I am sure managed to clear their certain papers in time. Why generosity well as I said before Sayana used to take notes almost like a religion and for that matter had one of the best notes in class. They were one of the most photocopied notes that I am aware of , photocopied again from photocopies.

There was a demand from new teachers for Sayana's last year notes if I am not wrong :-) ;so that they could save the trouble of preparing lecture notes.


Well it was sometime in third year when we were talking and I happened to mention my back papers; ranging from power systems to electrical measurements; which were all in my own words intentional failures for writing it better next time.!!!

(Well we all know what that means, never got time to open the damn book . Or was trying to figure out the syllabus day before the exam to find out what al to study, and then the whole syllabus was Greek and Latin and finally figured will do it later. I was hopeless in keeping notes. In first year I had notes and did manage to pass in every subject .With the exception of maths and computer papers which I by my liking for the subject I scored high .
This trend continued in subjects like microprocessor and Digital electronics which I used to like and had this nightmare with subjects like electrical measurements where you go on in length and length about the different meters and their construction. Be second year I had quit spending money on notebooks and had not very clear idea about time table and what class came next , So I resorted to buying foolscap sheets in 500 bundles and writing on them by subject , These notes which were usually folded and kept in jeans pockets, usually were forgotten in canteens, mess rooms ,INH hostels , movie theatres and sometimes washed by the Dhobi or found by my mom in the washing machine. All this I took it in my stride and finally during exam times I had to resort to Photostats again. It was third year now and drastic measures were in order; I had bought a single file which was a one file/book for all subjects where you could insert the lectures by any dates. I think the system worked for sometime until I forgot the file somewhere which was later found from the telephone booth after the semester exams got over. )

Ah coming back to the narrative as we were discussing this list of targets that are on backburner I casually mention that I don’t have notes for these subjects and my efforts in trying to write notes and Sayana offered to give me her notes. I thanked her took the notes the next day which she promptly brought, Boy they were organized, clear and very neat and if you get notes like that you actually want to learn ! . No surprise I passed those exams with a reasonable figurs partly because by now my list of backlog has grown so big that I sometime had exams in the morning and afternoon on the same day.

After the exams I totally forgot about these notes and I thanked Sayana for the notes when the result came out next semester. Along with the compliment for passing she said she wanted those notes back. I had not anticipated that she needed this book back ;in any case in my classic casual style I responded that I will bring it tomorrow. That day evening I looked for the notes and I couldn’t find them and I am not sure something came up and this totally slipped my mind.

Ah after a week of patient waiting ( By now I assume some faculty had asked Sayana for those notes and she promised to give them )she asked me for those notes again .

Sayana : Abhi those notes
Abhi : Ah I couldn't find it Sayana
Sayana : Well Can you find it
Abhi : Do you need it ?
Sayana : Yeah I need it
Abhi : I don’t remember where I put those
( By now there is a look on Sayana's face as if thinking .
" Pottan athu kondu kalanju kanum" and I notice a temper about to erupt; and shades of red coloring the face; I notice that in time and adds.. )
But I will look for it over the weekend.

What followed was a frantic search in the hostel through all my books and papers , cd's and computer parts .with no luck . The next day I expanded the search to all hostel rooms that I frequently visit including Sanoop, Harish , Jaison, Asif , Anup, Anish (Yeah ! ) , Vineet(Current ) and Shyam's . I finally found it in Shyam’s room and I did return it the next day very casually without causing any more panic about how the book was almost lost until to this day!

After that incident too Sayana had generously lend her notes to me and this time I had made sure that they remain in my room and were one of the very few things that were actually kept in my draw safely .

I don’t think most of us got to thank her for all those wonderful notes, but here is me saying Thank You Sayana

How much is this blog worth


Hm.. interesting question isn't it considering I spend some part of time during the week on this space on the we . well the value it holds to me cant be measures so easily . But in a a totally non emotioanl judgement what wouls be the worth of this blog....

This is what Technorati has to say ... ? How much is yours ?

My blog is worth $1,129.08.
How much is your blog worth?

As the new year is dawning upon me..


I am sitting here ; staring at the big monitor . Not the typical work day today , half the office is empty. My mind races;
Another year is coming to an end . A new year is just around the corner , my mind is bogged down with thoughts; not the usual merry cheer that I was used to , Well this new year is suddenly different . What is it ? Is it that I am so far away from my family that is causing this questions to linger on in my mind ..?

I hear noises , Something a coffee machine maybe ? . God this place is real quiet today; almost like a .. grave..

I stare at the PC clock on the bottom ;it shows 10:50 .Governed by time are we ? Well things are different now , you know the world of email and sms, long gone are the days when you got a letter writtten by hand in paper; and your heart jumps in joy when opening that letter , anticipating who it is from ;and then you read it and fold and keep away safely often picking it up and reading it again and again and again. Time is changing.....

Some machine nearby has started to buzz .. Is some one terminaling in from home... That noise . it is driving me crazy ..

Do you remember a night of 2000 ?. The singing and the dancing , we were the happiest bunch I have ever known .I thought it wil last forever ;nothing lasts forever; Does it ? Does it ? Oh the promises; we will keep in touch , we will never
be out of touch .Will remain friends forever . Hollow were they; or did time crush the faith from us ? time.. ah ! Leave alone keeping it touch many of us dont even want to write in .. I have not written a letter is months. who has time these days or is that a pretext that we hide under..

That machine buzzing has stopped; Ah!

I got a new mouse an IR one , the guy at the store told me it will last forever . Does anything last forever . I wonder if anyone believes that any more . Not promises .. Not even memories . or do they ? Skipping classes , hanging out in the canteen , copying assignments , stting in the CP with Bashku(Our Principal/Dean) as a Damocles Sword hangin above . getting those recoerds in order, organizing protests against bees , the roses , the chocolate treaties, the letters and love letters . sessionals and internals, the secret codes and treaties . the cofees shop and the tea-stall .Memories....Are they fading away ;are they..?

The phone rings.. who can it be ..?

It is an old friend of mine . He wishes me a Happy year ahead . He is getting married .I wish him with all my heart . I am jolted out of my trance . I check my email I get a new mail it is Sanoop ,Wonderful card . Yes! Memories do last , some people still keep the faith , Thank you San . I gaze down at the clock it is 11:20 , Time to go for lunch . Bini should be calling anytime soon .

I guess I better send this email and not throw it away and hide under the pretext of lack of time. Let me wish all my friends and family a Very Happy new year.
Ah .. that feels good. !

Write in friends let us know you are all there...

keep the faith.....

love
Abhi

The Begining...

In the Beginning God created heaven and the earth. Quickly he was faced with a class action suit for failure to file an environmental impact statement. He was granted a temporary permit for the project, but was stymied with the cease and desist order for the earthly part.

Appearing at the hearing, God was asked why he began his earthly project in the first place. He replied that he just liked to be creative. Then God said, "Let there be light", and immediately the officials demanded to know how the light would be made. Would there be strip mining?

What about thermal pollution? God explained that the light would come from a huge ball of fire. God was granted provisional permission to make light, assuming that no smoke would result from the ball of fire: that he would obtain a building permit; and to conserve energy, would have the light out half the time. God agreed and said he would call the light "Day" and the darkness "Night". Officials replied that they were not interested in semantics.

God said, "Let the earth bring forth green herb and such as many seed". The EPA agreed so long as native seed was used. Then God said, "Let waters bring forth creeping creatures having life; and the fowl that may fly over the earth".

Officials pointed out this would require approval from the Department of Game coordinated with the Heavenly Wildlife Federation and the Audubongelic Society.

Everything was fine until God said he wanted to complete the project in Six days. Officials said it would take at least 200 days to review the application and impact statement. After that there would be a public hearing. Then there would be 10-12 months before...

At this point God created Hell.

PS: Dont remember who forwarded me this one but I really smiled a lot as i had a heck of day

Me and Rosh

I did once promis that I will write about my cousins , and I did not know who to write about , each and every one is a a true gem himself but I wante dto start off with some one and I guess Rosh is a good start . Now Rosh is not her full name , It's Roshni .. Roshni as you know stands for light.. She is this bubbly character talks a lot.. and frequently goes eeeeeeeemmmmm..... whenever she is not able to control herself or is in a fit of joy anger or desperation ..

One of the things that Rosh had a profound impact on me was her sense of humour..
and I especailly remember a cute little song that she tought me ..

Canttenil samosa nokki nokki thinnumbol
endinenate kochetta enane nokanu...
manja manja bulbukal..
minni minni kathumbol endinenate kochetta enane nokanu


You need to know malayalam to appreciate that song.. but it's kida cute if you can picturize the whole scene in your mind of a girl sitting in a college canteen eating a samosa... under a dim yellow bulbs which are usually hall marks of college canteens and she sings that at a guy who is looking at her through the corner of her eyes.. I was in college and I liked a girl but I could relate to that song so much . I used to go to the cafeteria with my buddies and I used to look over my shoulder at this girl who used to sit with her own little group of friends.. Now 6 years later we are married .. but the memories.. remain .. of those place... the library and the canteen . .. and of course the samosaas....

On Chain Letters...

Most of you would have got chain letters , In the west it is mostly about some Nigerian scam or something to do with some sick girl dying and needing your help and you forward it along or Yahoo will give you 1$ for each IM you send or about they making the IM paid.. Well you know.. But in India this chain letters borders on paranoid at times and if you have been on some friends forward list . You will understand the humor in the below email which once again I got forwarded...


---SNIP----

I wanted to thank all my friends and family who have forwarded chain letters to me
Because of your kindness:

* I stopped drinking Coca Cola after I found out that it's good for removing toilet stains.

* I stopped going to the movies for fear of sitting on a needle infected with AIDS.

* I smell like a wet dog since I stopped using deodorants because they cause cancer.

* I don't leave my car in the parking lot or any other place and sometimes I even have to walk about 7 blocks for fear that someone will drug me with a perfume sample and! try to rob me.

* I also stopped answering the phone for fear that they may ask me to dial a stupid number and then I get a phone bill from hell with calls to Uganda, Singapore and Tokyo.

* I also stopped drinking anything out of a can for fear that I will get
sick from the rat feces and urine.

* When I go to parties, I don't look at any girl, no matter how hot she is, for fear that she will take me to a hotel, drug me then take my kidneys and leave me taking a nap in a bathtub full of ice.

* I also donated all my savings to the Amy Bruce account. A sick girl that was about to die in the hospital about 7,000 times. (Poor girl! she's been
7 since 1993...)

* I went bankrupt from bounced checks that I made expecting the $15,000 that Microsoft and AOL were supposed to send me when I participated in their special e-mail program would arrive soon.

* My free Nokia phone never arrived and neither did the free passes for a paid vacation to Disneyland.

* Still open to help some from Bulgaria who wants to use my account to transfer his uncle property of some hundred millions $.

* Made some Hundred wishes before forwarding those Ganesh Vandana ,Tirupathi Balaji pics etc.. now most of those 'Wishes' are already married(to someone else)


---SNIP----

The Gems Of Spellings and Misspellings

I often in my haste have noticed a lot of typos in my blogs which I painstakingly correct these days after certain new meanings to the text I worte whihc was pointed out by some of my readers. In case you did not notice I spelt WHICH as WHIHC , but the point just illustrtes my case .
On a similar note I recently read an intersting article on a new english speaking breed who primarily mastered the language the way they heard it and that brings about some interesting words and phrased

Phrase ACTUAL Phrase

alot a lot
ignorance is blitz ignorance is bliss
no holes barred no holds barred

Read more of these interesting stuff at Slacker

On Niagra August 2005

Corning Libra Picninc


The picninc was at Watkins Glen state park and me and Sanjeev started out around afternoon , we reached corning HQ where there was a bus picking all of us up , A good amount of people decided to drive up . We started out around 1 and reached Watkins Glen picnic site by around 2 , BY now everyone was hungry and without waiting we all decided to have food . The food was excellent ,
<
There was lobster as the main menu , I had neve eaten steamed lobster so it was an experience eating a lobster ...cracking out its shells and legs .( I had a food posinoning the same night but then that is a tale I rather not write about , trust me I had a hard time ) .


Well after a good food adventure we decided to play wiffleballl ,it is different version of baseball and if you are good at cricket you can pick up this game real well. It is really a fun game and I recommmend it as game which you can play in alleys and school hallways :D , I remember playing hallway cricket in school especially in the last day of school and the summer vaction starts .. WE used to play cricket with question papers tied with rubber ball , Everyone would be going off to their native places next day and you know you are not gonna see your buddies for another 2 months. SO you play like anything.. ah .. those good old childhood days . well getting back to picinc we played two rounds of wiffleball and we won one game and lost one and then the last game was a tie.

We later moved on indoors as the sun was scorching upon us and we had this really cool game called Marshmallow Engineers , (I dont knwo what the game was really called , Marshamllow engineers loks like a cool name ) . SO the game is about builiding the talles Marshamallo towers. THe tallest tower whihc stands stable for 30 secs atleast after the final whistle blows is decided the winner
Well strategies started pouring in and we decided to move with a pyramid structure a s building block . We had lot of fun building the tower , Although we were the runners up it was a lot of fun..

The winning marshmallow tower


After that the whole Librs project team was dedicated and although my contribution to Libra was limited to getting the Libra production system . It was a great feeling to be assosociated with such an intiative
The Gang





As we came down watkins glen in the evening; the evening sun had come out bathing the whole place in crimson .The glen had us enchanted . It was all in all a memorable day