Friday, April 02, 2010

Happy April Fool's day folks !

The prank I played on April 1st, 2009.. an email my friends found in their inbox early Wednesday morning from a allandonald@charsaubees.com

From: allandonald@charsaubees.com
To: <>
Subject: Chars AU - Bees, Interview update
Date: Wed, 1 Apr 2009 04:02:12 -0400

Hello <>,

We had our team review your resume and we believe that you might be a potential candidate for our Software Developer position in our Character and Natural Language Processing division. Chars AU - Bees is a product and services company which mostly deals with products which cater to word processing tools and incorporating a certain level of automation and intelligence in this area which we believe will be profitable and an area of research and development in the forthcoming years. Its an Australian based company and we have our branch offices in Florida and Maryland, USA.

Currently we are a start up company of about 100 employees and our current products mainly integrate withing well known software packages. We do not publicize our company since our work mainly involves research and development and we believe in recruiting the best talent for this purpose. For this very reason we do not have a public domain on the internet and our recruits are mostly through referrals from OEMs to which we supply our products to. Please feel free to contact me if you wish to know more about our company and the services we provide.

Me or one of our System engineers here will give you a call later during the day to schedule a quick 15 minutes phone interview where we intend to understand your professional goals and your traits which could benefit our organization. We at Chars AU - Bees believe in presence of mind and impromptu responses which shows a trait to handle any unexpected situation and hence the immediate interview process.

We're hoping that you will prove yourself to be fit for our organization this evening and we have continued interaction for our mutual benefit.

Warm Regards,
Allan Donald
System Architect,
Chars AU-Bees

Glad some had a laugh at this, few took it a lil serious but I made peace with them :). Here's one interesting reply i got to the "interview call":
______________________________________
Hello Mr. Allan Donald (Chars AU Bees) ,

I appreciate the offer, but at onset let me make a few things clear.

There is not a shred of doubt about my caliber and/or my value to your organization. The question here is the implications and
serviceableness of your organization for me. Since you were benovalent enough to hand me an invitation to contact you for further information, this is what I propose.

Since you do not publicize your company and obtain the information on potential employees via referral, I would want you to send across, a comprehensive list of your OEMs. There will be a screening process, where my team will decide, which of these OEMs have a distinction of being spoken to, if any. In the next stage we will conduct interviews with the shortlist-ed OEMs, if any, to evaluate if there is any worth in providing your company, an esteemed opportunity of having an interview with me.

"IF" on rarity of occasion you do pass the test, we shall schedule a formal meeting, lunch - for which, do not worry I will pay, as I know the crunch a start-up faces, and at the completion of which I will conclude on your stature and assess if you earned your merit
to have me as an employee.

I like to give, ample opportunity to prepare before I reckon if I could actually be handled by the employers, hence the pre-planned and formal interview process.

I am sincerely hoping that you and your organization will prove to be fit for my expectations, and we have continued interaction for your benefit more than mine, you have a lot to learn from me.

Good Luck!

:)

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

a sad note...

A Letter from the CEO:

Hi IDs,

Monday blues are said to make one gloomy but yesterday it was not just that but more of sadness for me. The one to whom I held on to with stubbornness when everyone said I had to let go, with whom I've spent cherishable moments…together we made heads turn wherever we went. Although being a year older than I am and people said it wont work out between us, I believed we made a good match together. I was forced to let go, I did not have a choice…I had to sell my precious Fiat…

The ol timer had to go. I was offered a whooping 6000Rs for it, an offer I couldn’t resist. I walk now holding all the good memories with it in me..it wont be forgotten… for all eternity.

Well, the good news is that I've laid my eyes on another Fiat. Mad you might call me but I just cant seem to let go of that brand. It’s a little on the expensive side but but hey…I've got that 6000 to start with :)

Its gonna take me and my 20 kids to pay off the debt but hey…its all worth the drive :)

Regards,

Kp ;)

CEO, CCO, COO, EVP,
VP, ED, AD, MAD, VH,
AM, PM, PL, TL(Offshore and Onshore),
Employee(Billable and Non-Billable), Office Boy

Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message, including any attachments, is not for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential, privileged and hilarious information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. No offence is intended in any way and the work is all in good humour. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message. My ass is on the line here so make sure ImageDamage's reputation and work stays within limits.

ps: The pic is for real folks. I've not photoshopped myself in front of the car. Its taken at the Fiat showroom opp Christ coll near Forum. What you see is me with a Ferrari 612 Scaglietti.

ImageDamage is something i started for fun at work wherein candid snaps are edited with text making it hilarious and ofcourse, its all in good humor and with the consent of the victim :)

Nothing funny bout this pic but I thot its worth a post.
Cheerz!..and Happy B'day Bruce Willis !

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

white board art...



↓ ↓

1) If you look at the bigger picture...u'l notice the word "PEACE" among the vile things apparent.

2) My (perhaps clichéd)trademark symbol which frnz and lecturers would recognize seeing on my desk or the back of my books...or perhaps every imaginable place u've seen me at :P

3) The Davidoffs proudly reading "Smokers die younger" and the pin up reads, "Smoking may be injurious to health but u gotta admit..the art on the boxes are creative!"..in all towards a no smoking campaign :)

I like the idea of personalizing your work place, tends to make you squeeze out the creative juices from within and is a great way to express your identity and your beliefs. Although you cannot carry your entire bedroom to make you feel home at work, you can pin up few photos, place toys or for that matter place anything which could calm your senses when you are on the verge of loosing your mind towards a hot fix or if your manager feels you've not done anything extraordinary when u discovered Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons(PAHs) in a cloud of interstellar gas and dust near the center of some galaxy trillions of light years away.....pah, what does he know...Rrr...

Monday, May 28, 2007

a walk to remember....

Cannot yet believe that i am actually working and spending my own cash now! The dreams you have as a kid to be a doc or a pilot or a dare devil drag racer has now come to me being a Software Engineer in an IT company. Am i satisfied u ask...well not as yet. Ive come to this point where my folks at home are proud of me for what i am until now but then i`m yet to prove anything. A new phase to my journey of life has just begun...

The last four years of engineering have been very memorable for me, the world to me seems a lot different than how i used to look and be a part of it. Started with a little fear and anxiety of what was to come of the next 4 years. Expected a 4 long centuries ahead, yet today it all seems to have ended in a 4 minute dream. A dream of which i can remember almost every incident, the joy it bought me and yes, moments of pain too.
My friends have added most of the color to this dream of mine, i'm glad i had some good company while it lasted and a wicked smile we share when we bump into each other thinking of our frivolous acts back then.

Scenes which flash to my mind as i write this post are my first day at coll, the hour before internals on the coll terrace learnin up from the wiz kid or lookin up for answers of leaked question papers:), my buddy and i teaming up for those techie contests, the excursions every semester which left us mesmerized for days after, the good times with the folks of the fashion team and em sporting my tribal and abstract tattoos, lunch hour conversations and the pranks we pulled off sitting at the last bench, our first conversation and the walk down the pathway with her, those amazing 2 years of helping around during the fest and the final one where i was one of those responsible for making it happen, standing for an endless time at the balcony staring blankly at the life around, moments spent with her and of never ending conversations, who saw and bought out the better of me, the day of my first interview, sitting beside my mom who waited anxiously for nights at the hospital for some words of hope from the doctors, the unwished-for dreadful night, my aunt's warm hug at the airport, the weekend evening walk with ol buddies, the outburst of granma when the overloaded server decided to show that i was finally done with engineering...

I can still remember sitting beside my dad on the first day at coll, I wouldn't know how proud he was of me, the dreams he had for me and my sister...although i can still feel his warm hand on my shoulder, as i sit alone thinking and intimidated of the world passing by, to do what he would've done for my sis, to be by my mom's side and to stand up and face the world everyday and make my stand...to be a better person, to make him proud.
This post is also to thank you for making this world a beautiful place to me, to give me a reason to live for...i will forever be glad that you are a part of my life.
thank you.. :)
-kp

ps: its taken me more than a year for this post...sorry to keep you waiting :p

Monday, January 30, 2006

6 years...whew !

Now that my 7th semester exams are done with, here i relax and blog after days of slogging and burning the midnight oil. After the hilarious Client Server Computing paper, I left the same day with my mom n aunt to Tirupathi. This was my third time walking the 4000 steps and a long stretch of road midway to Tirumala from Tirupathi. My mom`s sudden decision to give her hair annoyed me n my aunt, but then, we didnt have a say. As i munched on yummy Lays in the bus ,we returned to Bangalore the same day after the darshan at the temple.


I have been a member of orkut for 3 years now but never did find any use of its services until the last couple of months. Started with one friend to trace my ol school n college buddies and my buddy list has been growing since. Thanks to orkut that I met my schoolmates after 6 long years , that we decided to have a reunion and cherish the good ol times we had in school and gossip about college life.

We met up at the food court of forum mall,Transit.I didnt expect them all to recognize me after all these years considering the fact that i`ve shot up in height after my coll n u wont find my ol` hairstyle with oil dripping down my face! They said my voice has changed..well yeah! We had a merry time together talkin bout yesteryears and pulling each other`s legs....

....to be continued....

Saturday, December 10, 2005

The Big 'B' in Bangalore!


Bill Gates visited Bangalore on December 9, 2005 to launch the next generation of integrated computing platform - SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006. It was a great experience for me to be a part of this huge event , seated in the first row watchin Mr.Bill enthrall the crowd with his presence and listenin to him speak bout the new products of Microsoft.
Several ppts and demos were delivered by Microsoft employees like Mr.Gaurav Khanna which left the audience amazed by the cool features Whidbey(VS2005),SQL Server n BizTalk Server2006 provides.

When Developer Evangalist , Sheila Gulati asked Mr.Bill Gates whether he likes 'dose' or 'idli', he replied that he liked the 'upma' which was served to him for breakfast !

When asked about the last time he wrote code, he replied saying that he often often works with Microsoft`s latest products and plays around with them to understand and learn, but the last time he wrote a complete software package was in 1983 !

He addressed young entrepreneurs and developers of India giving them words of advice.When asked about the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation which provides funds for various noble causes, he said he always dreamt of two phases in his life, one was to earn money, lots of it ! and the second where he`s gonna give away money which he is doing now.
The day`s event ended with rock band, Parikrama`s queue of songs, who played some of their own compositions. A Microsoft goody bag to take back home, a t-shirt and a waist pouch.

Jan 15th 2008 Update:

This is a video composed and relayed at CES 2008 where Bill Gates addressed his last keynote of how he would spend his last day at Microsoft (sometime in July 2008) starring:

Bill Gates, Brian Williams, Jay Z, Bono, Steven Spielberg, Matthew McConaughey, George Clooney, Jon Stuart, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Al Gore, and from Microsoft: Steve Ballmer, Christine White, Lisa Brummell, Robbie Bach, Kevin Turner, Ray Ozzie, and Craig Mundie...watch!

Sunday, November 13, 2005

my bday...!!!

12th November, 2005
Yes, this is my day. Expected it to be just another day, got blasted by my mom the previous day for not buyin anythin for myself. Mom, dad, granma n Sis wished me n gave me a Bday card and a leather wallet. We ate yummy choclate pastries before i left to coll. As always i went late to coll n there again friends wishin me , hugs and handshakes....it was my day indeed!
After classes i stayed in the parkin lot chattin with my buddies for a while n as i reached home i was astonished to see a convoy of bikes ridin towards my house.
My friends invited me inside askin me to make myself at home...in my own house!...my house had been invaded by my buddies.I was so overjoyed to have them all at home and as they settled down in my room, i rushed to get them chips...lots of it and bottles of coke.
As my friends sang the Bday mantra, i blew out the candle n cut through the Choclate cake they got for me.It was too yummy to be wasted in a cake fight, but whats a party without one!
Chips didnt last for more than 10 seconds and all the coke was fizzed out while some had a shower of what was left in it! The room was a total mess with drops of coke dripping down from the roof, splashed on the walls and on everything in the room, which ofcourse includes us!
We sat sticky and dirty as we watched India winning the cricket match against Srilanka.
The Pizza delivery guy delivered the hot pizzas in less than 30mins....damn! We munched on the sticky cheesy pizzas and had yet another reason to party when India won. This time a water fight!!!
I did my best and cleaned as much as i could before we left to play cricket. After a tiring match we had some Soda and i left with Naveen to the temple. Sat in the shopping complex for a while and had some hot chaats.

This was a very special day , filled with a lot of love and joy. As i look back at my incomplete journey of life ,there have been many people in my life who have influenced me and inspired me into becoming what I am today, I wish to thank every person who has been a part of my life and who has made this journey a special one, making me what u see today.
I love you mom and dad, chitu, granma,anna, dolly, moorthy uncle, geeth, bond..I miss u guys, wish u were here. I`m missin out lotsa names here but I have great respect for you and thank u for ur blessings. And ofcourse my friends, i love u all..my life is incomplete without u guys...thank u for being there for me and i`ll always be there for u.

regards,
-kp

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

A Trip to Waynad, Kerala...

30th September,2005
Loads of excitement and expectations for the class trip to Waynad, Kerala. Remember waiting at Pavan MW`s house for the bus. The bus arrived late and was far from what was promised. My classmates got into the bus with high spirits and enthsiasm but curses heard midway because of the sad state of the bus we were in. It was rainin heavily outside , the seats were wet and water dripped on our heads.I sat at the foot board of the bus with naveen listening to my classmates playing antakshari.
I managed to get a dry seat later just to wake up in the mornin with a bad knee pain coz of less room for my legs.It was murky at that time as we strolled through the fog. We checked in Hotel Haritagiri Heritage at around 7am.We couldnt resist but to dive into the swimming pool..brr.. it was darn cold! We enjoyed ourselves throughly in the water.A quick shower n breakfast and we left to Edakkal caves.
We had to walk a kilometre on road and further uphill to get to the mouth of the caves.The caves were illuminated by the little light which managed to creep through the gaps between the massive stones overwhelming us.We gazed at the carvings on the rocks with awe.As the guide explained about the carvings, we took snaps and it was then Maddy and I decided to trek further up and explore more caves if any.It was a rocky terrain, We leaped between rocks, crawled through gaps between big boulders,rope climbed on a hill.We then gave a Tarzan call and waited for the rest to catch up.We helped each other climb the sliperry rocks.We climbed uphill till a point where the view was mesmerizing and some dint dare to climb further.
On the way back, Maddy n I decided to go on another adventure and we ended up in a dark cave. We had to make a vertical climb to get to the top.I followed Maddy`s lead in climbing as i dared myself to not look down.We let out a loud cry of jubilation when we made it to the top.As I sat there trying to work my way down, Maddy started to climb down and was half way when I made my move.A sudden thought "What if I..." and OMG i lost my grip and slipped!!! I lay hanging on the rock for my life when Maddy rushed up and supported my weight on his right thigh.It took me sometime to get my senses back and while Maddy struggled with pain I found my grip and we made it down - An incident I cant forget. (In the pic-> Maddy climbing his way up)

Yet another incident as we trekked back when my bracelet fell between some rocks deep down and some localites came to my rescue. Caught up with the gang after a splash of cold water from a well at the entrance to the caves and we had some tender coconuts and lime soda on the way back, still regret leavin my shades at the telephone booth :(
The day had almost come to an end and we played shuttle and bball as the sun set. It was almost dark when we decided not to end the day so soon and to visit another place. It was a long ride to Pookat lake, we could barely see anything there and we ended up dancing to the beats of Sharath`s drums.Returned to the hotel to test our strength at the gym. After a tiring workout we had our dinner and played card games till 3am before crashin to bed.

We set out early in the mornin to the supposedly Asia`s 3rd largest dam...ya right!! Had breakfast there gazing at the HUGE dam! The other side of the dam was a treat to our eyes.We sat numb at the bank gazing at the lake held between hills as some hurled stones into the water.With complaints of have had early lunch at the hotel we left for Soochipara waterfalls. Enroute to the falls we had our heads poppin out of the windows looking at the picturesque tea hills. The chant "Maddy nodu aisaa.." should bring back joyous memories to those who were there ;)



.... to be continued.....

a talk with Joe Wilson...


29th september,2005
The Microsoft Student partners and Ambassadors welcomed Mr.Joe Wilson on this day at Hotel Grand Ashok as i played the role of both a Student Partner and an MC for the evening. Last minute preparations with my co-host Garima and we started out with the spoof of Steve Balmer screamin on stage enacted by Sunil. Was nervous at the begining as that was the first time i hosted a show but then i settled down and delivered my lines with a smooth flow.
One blooper midway where i spoke my lines when i wasnt supposed to but kinda patched it up.
Mr.Joe Wilson as any other Microsoft employee spoke with so much ease and content with clever answers to all our whacky and Student partner program and Microsoft Academic Program related questions.
We threw some more questions towards Microsoft Evangalists Mr.Ashwani,Ms.Pratibha and Mr.Kevin. their witty answers leaving the audience laughing out loud.
The event was accompanied by Awards named the .NUT awards. I was presented with a Ineta shirt - International .Net Association, for hosting the event. Personally, it was a great experience for me.The shooting of the video for the event that sunday was a memorable day too. A shoot at Cubbon Park meant to be a serious shoot with scripts ended up being a video of bloopers.And how can i not mention the part where the innocent me walking by the pool in my shorts was sent diving into the pool by Sunil in the making of the Steve Balmer spoof!
The event at Grand Ashok ended with a photo shoot and delicious food . A bite of fish fry was like a piece of heaven.Has been quite some time since i have tasted fish after my mom got allergic to it. It was a great day and a memorable one too...

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

my first step to learning C#...

Saturday 10th september was another day which boosted my learning curve. The alumini of KSIT were supposed to conduct an aptitude n a tech test for us on this day. Also i had my GRE classes from 3 to 8pm and to give me more choices to leave me in a dilemma I had to attend the Microsoft Student partner training at Ramaiah at 9.The agency cancelled out on the training and the sessions were now gonna be held by the senior student partners.Now the decision had to be made .... didnt take me much time to decide and i packed my bags and left to Ramaiah.
Was worried i wud be lost in the huge city of Ramaiah, luckily i met Abhinav(my ol school buddy) to lead.Was nice talkin to Rishab(Senior partner) after a long time.Session started late as how every session starts.
Sabarish(Microsoft ambassador) delivered the first session on the basics of C# and some features of it which make the language so powerful.I jotted down some points which i will have to cover when i deliver the same to my frnz in coll.He and Sunil are speakers who inspire.They speak with so much confidence and content, seeing them i hope to get some pointers and gather my courage when i deliver my sessions.Sunil`s session was on the basics of .NET which ive heard for the nth time now and yet there`s so much to know.
The lunch was followed by the hands on lab.I`ve always enjoyed coding and coding with Visual studio .NET makes the experience much more fun.It was the day where i had my first exposure to C# and ASP.net. Never realised that working with ASP.net was so much fun. Sunil and Sharath helped us program with them and they gave demos on programming for a mobile device - An applicaton which detects any bluetooth enabled device within its range.
It had rained all the while and i had a long way to ride back home. Bid my small family of champs adieu and left with Pavan(partner of APS). I knew the day wouldnt end so soon without a lil more fun.We missed a turn and ended up touring that part of Bangalore. Thanx to all those auto drivers who led us to familiar roads and i drove back home safe n dry to listen to some great songs on Radio City. Thank god for bringing back english songs on radio.
Sunday 11th september was just another day. Attended my Gre classes from 2:30 to 7:30. Learnt a cple of geometry formulae and lotsa words which i can barely remember now.

Monday, September 12, 2005


hey, hows u doin...???
keepin my spirits soarin high...lemme tell you a little about myself and the people around me....
I`m Karthik P , a.k.a KP. I stay with my parents, sister and granma. My looks..well u can see my pic...not much of a stud...but cool. Otherwise I`m a fun loving, calm guy. I would call myself an observer....of what...be anything...when people converse(do talk a lot sometimes!), the still life and the moving, the way people react and behave, how fast or how slow life is moving but ofcourse be a part of it...and not left behind watching life run away... and most of all...nature...nothing like it.

I can just gaze at the sky n clouds for hours without any knowledge of the time speeding by. The green leaves of trees leaves me mesmerized while cruising on my Yamaha. Yeah...a yamaha...not a big sports bike if you are imagining me on it.I would call it a 135cc framework ...dont ask why...

In class u`ll find my drawings and abstract designs on the last desk where I , the king rule and is responsible with my benchmates for all the tantrum created. I used to sketch and paint, feels bad to say 'used to', and they remain as one of my prized assets. I had great fun workin with my coll fashion team and most of all tattooing. I love music of all genre and possess CDs of several artists and bands.Have hummed n danced to the tunes of MJ, Celine,Michael Bolton n several others as a kid with my aunts...

...to be continued...