Contrast Matching

March 31st 2014, last day of the financial year, the day when I earned precious gift of my life. I got engaged to this wonderful girl Neha.

It all began in November 2013 when she was in Norway and I was in Seattle. We were introduced over the email by the family. I emailed her asking for the time when we can talk/chat. The first phone call, few minutes into the call and she asks "why arranged marriage" and I am like "I did not expect this question on the first call"  I explained it and def she was not convinced :P

We started chatting on whatsapp. Soon, whatsapp chats turned into phone calls -> daily phone calls -> video chats -> more comfort and more longing to talk. Generally, I am not very chatty but soon I started realizing that I talk more when I am talking to Neha. One day, I called her, talked for a while and realized phone is very hot so checked the call time and it was close to 3 hrs. that was very pleasant surprise. She was making me forget time. We ended up talking for 8 hours that day. We are yet to break that record :-) There were few occasions when we felt, it might not happen and I felt terrible then.  All these things were clear sign to convince my always confused mind that Neha is the right girl for me. Interestingly, both of us were shopping for engagement but insisted that we would like to meet first before saying yes.  I met her for the first time few days before engagement but it always felt like we knew each other for very long. I never knew someone so much even before meeting them.

Now, seven months after started talking to Neha, best thing is she is same. She was same when I talked to her first time on call, She was same when I talked to her first time on Skype, She was same when I met her first time in Mumbai, She was same when she met my family, She was same when I was coming back to USA after engagement and she is still same when I am going back for the marriage and this is definitely big deal in the world where people change all the time. I keep calling her "24K gold" for the same reason.

I call our union - Contrast Matching. Her energy complements my calmness. Her bindhas live the moment attitude complements my worries about the future. Her eat well, stay healthy and look good mantra complements my carelessness. Her pyaar complements my love.

Just Few days before I meet her for the marriage. Super excited :-)

Her whatsapp status is

Grow old along with me, 

the best is yet to be!!! 

My reply to her from the same song

Grow old along with me

Whatever fate decrees

We will see it through

For our love is true

God bless our love

God bless our love

Material/links useful for interview

I faced quite a few interviews for summer internship and out of that experience I came up with some good material which is worth reading.

http://geeksforgeeks.org/ This is the most imp. Read Array, Bit magic, Linked List, Trees, Strings.

http://www.careercup.com This is good for any company interview. Its like forum where interviewees put thr qs. SO its like question bank for each company. You can sort by company and type of question also.

Programming interviews exposed book. http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Interviews-Exposed-Secrets-Programmer/dp/047012167X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1290185917&sr=8-1

For Java questions please use below link.
http://www.roseindia.net/interviewquestions/corejava/index.shtml

Best of luck for your interview prep.

The Secret

'The Secret', a novel I read long back and experienced it many times. It says all about believing something and achieving it. I have come across situation where I could get something just out of optimism. First time it happened when I was collecting financial documents for F-1 visa. It was daunting task for me. I was struggling for 3-4 months with it and when I was at the other end it was looking impossible. But right from the start I was making myself believe that this is going to happen and somehow it got managed. Similar was the case recently when I was searching internship. Considering current market scene and F-1 visa it was really difficult to find one. I had number of interviews which taught me what to prepare and finally I got the internship in one of my dream company 'Amazon'.

Generally when you are facing failure you blame your luck and when you achieve something you praise your hard work and I am not exception to this. But I don't think anyone is so unlucky that he/she does not get what he wants 'desperately'. Greatest example of persistence can be US president Abraham Lincoln. I got his story from http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/2124033-abraham-lincoln-greatest-example-of-persistence

Born into poverty, Lincoln was faced with defeat throughout his life. He lost 8 elections, twice failed in business and suffered a nervous breakdown. He could have quit many times - but he didn't and because he didn't quit, he became one of the greatest Presidents in the history of US. Lincoln was a champion and he never gave up. Here is a sketch of Lincoln's road to the White House: 1816 : His family was forced out of their home. He had to work to support them. 1818 : His mother died. 1831 : Failed in business. 1832 : Ran for state legislature - Lost. 1832 : Also lost his job. Wanted to go to law school, but couldn't get in. 1833 : Borrowed some money from a friend to begin business, but became bankrupt by the year end. 1834 : Ran for state legislature again - Won. 1835 : Was engaged to be married, but his fiancée died. 1836 : Had a total nervous breakdown and was in bed for 6 months. 1838 : Sought to become speaker of the state legislature - Defeated. 1840 : Sought to be elector - Defeated. 1843 : Ran for Congress - Lost. 1846 : Ran for Congress again. This time he won. Went to Washington and did a good job. 1848 : Ran for re-election to Congress - Lost. 1849 : Sought the job of land officer in his home state - Rejected. 1854 : Ran for the Senate of the US - Lost. 1856 : Sought the Vice-Presidential nomination at his party's national convention - Got less than 100 votes. 1858 : Ran for the US Senate again - Lost again. 1860 : Elected President of the US.

So "Don't quit keep pursuing what you want. More you fail greater is the surprise waiting ahead."

Author's agony

Last week I watched wonderful Hindi movie "3 Idiots". It touched almost all the issues of education reforms in India. Some recent movies are seriously making us think of it. But after huge opening finally it entered into the controversy(only media is happy with it). After watching two videos of two parties(Chetan Bhagat and Raju Hirani) I think Raju Hirani is right on the basis of law but Chetan Bhagat is right on the basis of ethics.







I(Aamir's big fan) was hurt by Aamir's baseless allegations of movie being 3-5 percent of the famous Five Point Someone without reading the book. Its good that he is now away from all this as per media reports. I hope it ends on happier note and Chetan Bhagat walks the stage of filmfare to get the best story award for "3 Idiots".

I m back

I am thinking of starting to blog again. I hope this is not new year resolution for me coz every time I tried it I ended up saying "At least this year I ll follow it" :)

Product and Sum puzzle

This is being my favorite pass-time I was searching for some maths puzzle and found this one which turned out to be the toughest I ever came across.

Let x and y be two integers with 1 < x < y and x+y <= 100. Suppose Ms S is given the value of x+y and Mr P is given the value of x*y. 1.Mr P says: "I don't know the values of x and y." 2.Ms S replies: "I knew that you didn't know the values." 3.Mr P responds: "Oh, then I do know the values of x and y." 4.Ms S exclaims: "Oh, then so do I." What are the values of x and y? This has unique solutions. For solutions please visit Dijkstra's Paper

ThOsE WeRe ThE BeSt DaYs of My LiFe

‘Change’ is the rule of the nature. My impatience also awaits it impatiently. But some changes are intolerable. Sometimes we get along with the things so much so that we feel its part of our life and we start living in that hallucinated world. Something same happened with me in my engg days. And reason that made my engg days so beautiful is HOSTEL and FRIENDS I got in VJTI.

13 sept 2003 and 12th june 2007 wr those 2 days which made my heart cry. On 13 sept 2003 it was coz I was leaving home for the first time and latter for leaving behind my 4 golden years, my hostel days. Actually I should have been happy as I was not gonna eat that mess ka messy food, not gonna wash my clothes and say no to compromise with the roomies……but why I don’t know It was making me feel void….something I was gonna miss whole of my life.
After getting gud marks in 12th,after days of confusion of filling d option form got admission for the course I wanted (rather I was following the trend as most of the ppl do). Those days used to start with long queue near the bathroom ,9 to 5 of packed schedule and those two times of meal :( and after those hectic days good night with bed bugs. It only made me say," Why the hell I land up here?". I was thinking like if this is the life for next four years then its really gonna suck. At that time I didn’t have any idea how next 4 years would be and now I can remember only these words from the song ‘summer of 69’


When I look back now
Those days seemed to last forever
And if I had the choice
Yeh- I'd always wanna be there
Those were the best days of my life

Now away from that illusionary life, I am gonna miss my whole group, those never concluding debates (ranging from veg vs non veg ,doc vs engg to babri mosque demolition), D-105 ka time pass, mess me gali marte hua khana, Sunday night plans, placement parties, five garden katta, nocturnality, assignment chhapana, sarcastic remarks, scrapping next door friend nd competing for the no of scraps, arguing for not to go to bring the water in d room, planning for the trip, flashing billions of snaps during the trip, bantering friends for the most pathetic match…(‘ta’) from the class, late night movie on comp, then Patankar (watchman) ki bakbak, Bday bumps aur phir Health Juice pe laga hua chuna. This list can go on and on. There is ocean of such moments. It made me :) when I was cruising in that ocean and now when I am on the shore of that ocean each drop of that ocean is bringing tear in my eyes.

Beyond those moments, when I introspect myself how was I b4 starting hostel life and now how I am, It really makes me feel like I hv done something beyond ‘chhapofying’ assignments. It taught me how gr8 it is to enjoy others happiness. It taught me howz life beyond my own ocean. Some of the hardest moment were when someone around me sleeping without dinner on Sunday ,when someone avoiding others bday party as he cudnt afford it for his own, mess workers’ life just for the sake of family responsibility etc…It really showed me that we all owe something to d society.

Now everyone is moving in the rush of expectations, getting ready for the stereotypical life. But that is how life it is. Now what will be behind are memories and those memories will make us forget the time…