It’s been a long while since I updated you. Well as you might have read before, I have moved into my new house by myself and settling in. There is a lot to get done, believe me in a brand new house. This becomes true more when one is like me, who does not prefer to pay builders too much money to get the extra things done.

The best part for me is I am learning a lot of things about things that go into the house, the things that become a part of the house. Komal is creative and loves to go to shops and see things for hours together. Her best place to visit is “Bunnings”. I hated to be there for more then 10 minutes before. I preferred to stay at home and play with my computer. But now things are changing. I am getting the “Creative” syndrome. I love visiting Bunnings now and get ideas from there.

Last weekend I did my first DIY installation at my new place. I installed a blind myself after getting some ridiculous quotations. I wanted to see what all is involved in doing a job. Well it wasn’t easy ( I know I suck at such things for now) but I did it and the blind is doing it’s job.

I am not missing my old rented place. The feeling that one gets in his/her own house is just too different and hard to explain, but it is all good. There are lot of places that I can go for around my place. My favourite is go for a walk around the Caroline Springs Lake. I will remember to take a picture of that place next time I visit that place. Going for walks is even more beneficial to me for now as I walk around places and gather ideas looking at other new and old houses. And of course the air is just so fresh!

My street mates (neighbours) that I have meet so far are good people and above all looks like a multicultural street.

For now though, what I miss the most is spending a lot of time in front of my computer once I get home. I got to do stuff (cleaning, washing, arranging and more cleaning) in the house which I did not have to do in my small rented place before. But I am sure in coming weeks, days and months this will be settled as well. Of course I will share the load with Komal, once she is back in Australia ;). Overall, it has been great three weeks in the new house.

By the way I am looking for DIY sites on various things. If you know and prefer any sites, then let me know.

I am referring to Orkut. It is so frustrating to get this message every now and then while you are trying to scrap somebody, enter a community or do something or the other in Orkut. I don’t think anybody working on the problem should be getting a donut as well. I love Orkut, but these error messages are making it frustrating.

Scrapping and replying in a community is normally done right in time, if it does not work then normally not many will go back to scrap what they had on their mind before two hours! So Orkut developers, please fix this and then eat some donuts yourself.

On top of it, now I cannot log in at all on Orkut. See the picture below.

I was reading this article about Bindi Irvin missing her Dad. What she says does make so much sense and she is soo young. Good on you Bindi. Bindi I understand what you mean and all positive vibes coming your way. I am going through the same emotions as days are passing by. My younger brother is getting married in January and my father was all excited about this wedding and he had planned it all for the wedding. Such a shame, he won’t be around in the physical sense to see the wedding, but my family and I are going to make sure that it’s done the same way my father would have loved it.

People say that time is the best medicine, but how can you ever fill that gap, the void! Well I will just have to wait and watch. I doubt it will ever be filled.

I installed Microsoft Outlook 2007 yesterday. First word, WOW. More color full. Haven’t played with it extensively yet, but looks cool. I can see that it can have RSS feeds and the whole lot. I am going to play more with it on the weekend.

My friend Sanjay Vyas, just send me http://chitthi.webchutney.net/ link now, which is funny and links to Outlook 2007 as well. My Indian friends will be able to relate more with this funny animation video.

I know Chris and Ponzi more through Robert’s blog then from anywhere else. Well they are getting married and wanted to tell them both Good luck and congratulations. I am sure the coming life will be full of fun and joy.

I got an email as below forwarded by a friend of mine.

Very Important to Note

Isn’t it true that we all carry our mobile phones with hundreds
of names/numbers stored in its memory but yet nobody, other than
ourselves, know which of these numbers belong to our near and dear ones?
Let us for a moment create a scenario wherein (God forbid) we are
involved in an accident or had a heart attack and the people attending
us get hold of our mobile phone but don’t’ know which number to call
to inform our family members. Yes, there are hundreds of numbers stored
but which one is the contact person in case of an emergency?

For this reason, we must have one or more telephone numbers
stored under the name ICE (in case of emergency) in our mobile phones.

Read below for more details……

Subject: Fwd: ” ICE” Campaign
Recently, the concept of “ICE” is catching up quickly. It is
simply, an important method of contact during emergency situations.

As cell phones are carried by majority of the population, all you
need to do is store the number of a contact person or person who
should be contacted at during emergency as “ICE” (meaning In Case
of Emergency).

The idea was thought up by a paramedic who found that when they
went to the scenes of accidents, there were always mobile phones
with patients, but they didn’t know which number to call.

He therefore thought that it would be a good idea if there was a
nationally recognized name for this purpose.

Following a disaster in London, the East Anglican Ambulance Service
has launched a national “In case of Emergency (ICE)”
campaign.

In an emergency situation, Emergency Service personnel and hospital
staff would then be able to quickly contact your next of
kin, by simply dialing the number stored as “ICE”.

Please forward this. It won’t take too many “forwards” before every
body will know about this.

It really could save your life, or put a loved one’s mind at rest.

For more than one contact name simply enter ICE1, ICE2 and ICE3
etc. A great idea that will make a difference!

Let’s spread the concept of ICE by storing an ICE number in our
mobile phones today!

I think it is a good idea and I am going to opt for it. I have already saved emergency contact names and nos. under “ICE” and “ICE1″… I hope more and more people opt for this. May be I will even go further and write up a card and put it in my wallet card and it will have details of all the people to contact in case of emergency.

Komal and I did it. Today we achieved Aussie dream of owning a HOME. Well it’s not owning the home completely, as Banks still have a major portion of equity over it. But today Komal and I are a home owner in Australia.

It is a brand new house, 28 Kms from the city in a beautiful suburb called Taylors Hill ( If you are in Victoria, then you must have heard of Caroline Springs, it is just next to it). I got the handover over the property today.

My dad must have been the most happiest person on this news today. It was his idea of signing up the contract a year ago for the home. My wife and I thought that we were not ready for this big step, but he insisted and made us understand some calculations. His persitence paid off and we agreed. He even helped us to select the home design after understanding our requirements. He had an eye for details. All I can say is while sitting in India, he knew more about my house plan then I did.

Dad this house is yours.

What all plans we had, but ofcourse the destiny was something else. Back in India, we give houses names, just like we name our cats and dogs. The names are mostly something meaningful. Back in my head I was decided that I was going to name my new house “Tribhuvan” which is my dad’s name and has a spiritual meaning. I was going to give him a surprise when he was going to visit us in Australia next year. Well that is not happening now, but I am still going to name the house in my Dad’s honour and it would be “Tribhuvan”. I truly wished that you were around Dad to see this day and see my dream come true!! I know for sure that my dad’s blessings are with us wherever he is.

The moving happens this weekend and with help of my friends I will be getting it done.

What an irony in life! Komal being the creative soul of us both, was soo much keen to see this dream become into a frame, then into a house and then home. She wanted to place each and every thing in her own house and decorate it to her heart’s content. But that’s not happening. She is in India while I will get the most needed things done in the house. Sorry Komal, but you will just have to fulfill this dream of yours in our next new home.

So if you are in Victoria and in and around Taylors Hill or Caroline Springs area, give me a buzz. We shall catch up.

Congratulations to myself, Komal and my family on this addition to our list of possessions.

I hate to use buts….

It’s been a long time since I blogged. Since September, time is running faster then I can. This year is full of events for me. Apart from many other things and loosing my father, I am also getting handover of my first house which soon I want to call “HOME SWEET HOME”. My wife Komal is still in India looking after my mother and looking after the affairs there. Being alone here and having to work and handle all the things is taking a tool on me and part of this is me missing out on blogging.

At the moment I am planning for moving and getting things organised for it. But before I move on my blogging, I will have to get things out of my chest. I want to write about my Dad, things I experienced and learned back in India about death and about life. I think this would be a small tribute from me to my Dad on my blog. Apart from that while I am writing, I will get thoughts out of my chest and atleast will be able to cry with my heart open.

I want to write, but before that I have to write out what I got in my brain. I might not post everything on my blog, may be not even 50% of it here, but atleast by writing everything out, I think I would be unpressing my feelings which are tightly held in for more then 2 months now.

Sorry, if these posts become too much emotional..

IT was my birthday yesterday Ha ha, I am not forcing readers to wish me “Happy Birthday” though ;). So what’s special about this day? I finished 28 years of my life yesterday. Ya, that’s a long time.

What am I missing today? I miss my DAD. Apart from all the obvious reasons, I miss him more because last year he was with me in Australia and while having discussion with my dad, I told him that in coming year we will do something so that we can together celebrate all events together as a family. That never happened! I miss the yearly advice he used to give me. Overall I miss him a lot and no words of mine can express that truly. I want to write few things that comes to my mind from this incident, but in another post and when I get a chance.

But for today, thanks to all my friends, family, blogger friends, online friends, Orkut friends and everybody else who wished me over the phone, over email, who SMS’ed me and for those who never call me but still remember me on this day and pray for my best.

In the evening, all my good friends wanted to invite me over to their place. They did not want me to sit alone in my lonely house. I went to Mounil ( I wish they had a blog) and Radha’s place where Mounil showed that he can prepare some great Indian street side dishes. I had lot of fun at their place and for couple of hours I was totally relaxed. Thanks to Nirav for the delicious cake too.

Overall, it was a good day with a good end.

Hey Guys, I am back in Australia after nearly 2 months in India. Tired and feeling jetlag. It is 12:48 AM in the morning and I cannot go to sleep. Many things to share with you, but more in coming posts.

For now, it feels good to sit in front of my 21″ LCD Screen and a faster computer and excellent download speed. I am sure I have lots and lots to catch up on things that took place in last 50 days.