Swimming with the Dolphins

Would you like to swim with dolphins? That's one of my dreams that remains unfulfilled. Talking about dolphins, there is one movie I am looking forward to - "Eye Of The Dolphin", which opens in cinemas today. This family movie is written by three time Emmy winner, Wendell Morris from a story by the film's director Michael Sellers.



Filmed in beautiful locations in the Bahamas, Carly Schroeder plays 15 year old Alyssa, who has just lost her mother and is forced to live with her dad (played by Adrian Dunbar), after being expelled from her school. Her life suddenly changes after she forms an unexpected friendship with an orphaned wild dolphin.

You can also win free movie tickets by entering the contest on their site (before August 26).

Check out the trailer of the movie:

I am a NAFASG Certified Partner

Learnt that I have been named as a ‘NAFASG CERTIFIED PARTNER’.


Thanks a lot guys.

Happy Birthday Blogger

I just learnt that today is Blogger's 8th birthday. It was in August 1999 that Pyra Labs launched Blogger, which is today the World's most popular web based blogging tool.

Happy Birthday

Thanks a lot for giving me a place to rant, share and expand my thoughts for FREE.

Designer clothing for children at ZaraBella

We do buy a lot of designer clothing for our two children, not because we are rich or want to show off but because we don't have to worry about the quality of branded clothing. Some of the stuff we bought a year ago are as good as new. I am not saying that cheaper brands are not good and we do buy a lot of stuff from Tesco and other places as well. However when we buy branded clothes, you can sure they won't shrink after washing nor will the colours run.

Talking about designer clothes for children, do visit ZaraBella.com, an online retailer of designer clothing and accessories for children and babies. They have quite an impressive selection with brands like Mimi & Maggie, Wes & Willy, Spring Street Designs, Jade Jeans, Twelve Timbers and lots more. They are a Click and mortar company with their store located in Solvang, CA (35 miles north of Santa Barbara) and was launched in 2005. ZaraBella.com, is an extension of their store.

Don't count your chickens before they are hatched

This is the big lesson I learnt today. I know I told some of you that I was in the top 5 (at 12pm EST American time). However, I later found out that the voting had continued after that and I am sorry to announce that my post iByot - the multi-tasking next generation house robot didn't make it to the top 5 on the "Blog Battle Royale" competition.

I received a total of 229 votes (6th position), which is actually a lot. However, only those in the top 5 positions will get a iRobot Roomba robot vacuum.

Thanks to all you guys who were kind enough to spare some time from your busy schedule to vote for me.

Special thanks to:
- Ramina in India who had her whole office voting for me.
- Roby in Italy, who contacted all her friends all around the World to vote for me.
- Eju who had to go to a hotel with Wifi, because the connection in her office was too slow.
- My wife who had literally the whole University of Warwick voting for me (or so she claims).

And all my family and friends in India, Malaysia, UK and all around the World, including those in Orkut, Friendster, MySpace and Facebook.

Congrats to all the iRobot First-Round Winners.

New UK music site growing fast

Contrary to what some people seem to think, the UK music scene is truly alive and kicking. Check out TourDates.co.uk, one of the fastest growing music sites in the UK. Offering free gig listings & free music downloads, this site allows unsigned artists, bands, DJs and ensembles to set up free artist profiles, upload promotional music tracks and videos, as well as sell their music online. More information on how to get your gig listed, is given in their press release below.

They have also launched a magazine called LondonTourdates as a companion to their online presence, which will be distributed for free at venues through out London. You can download an online version from the site as well.

Press Release:

The UK's fastest growing new music website, TourDates.Co.UK, has launched a magazine to compliment its online activities.

The magazine, LondonTourdates, is distributed in music venues across London free of charge.

To get listed bands simply need to signup online and add their gig dates. All gigs are displayed online at TourDates.Co.UK with those located in London also being listed in the LondonTourdates magazine which is also available to download at TourDates.Co.UK

Tourdates is an online music community providing free music downloads, news, reviews & gig listings for bands performing in the UK.

Silly accident

I had an accident recently. It was a stupid accident and I didn't want anyone to know about it at first. I also didn't want to scare my family members, especially my parents who also read this blog. Later on I thought that it might serve as a warning for others.

On the night of the 11th (Saturday), I was blogging as usual. My left ear was feeling a bit itchy and so I took a cotton bud. I was cleaning my ear with my left hand and surfing the net at the same time. Then that's when it happened. I am not sure how but I accidentally pushed in the bud a bit too hard into my ear.

I felt a sharp pain and quickly pulled the bud out. It had a little bit of blood on it. I was really scared that I might have punctured my ear drum but I realised that I could still hear with my left ear. I said a silent prayer to God!

Suddenly I felt something warm running out of my ear and lightly touched it with a finger. It was red.

I panicked a bit and went up to my wife who was half asleep. I didn't want to scare her and told that I was OK and she went back to sleep. That night I slept with cotton wool plugged into my ear.

Next day, I found dried blood on the cotton but it seemed that there was no more bleeding. However, I found out that I couldn't hear properly. Probably due to the fact that there was a lot of dried blood inside my ear and I didn't want to poke around. I was also a bit dizzy when I walked around - a little disorientated. We went to Birmingham and had a nice time at Nana and Mozard's house and apart from the fact that I was half deaf - I almost forgot about it.

Again found blood was still coming out of my ear when I woke up in the morning the next day. I went for the job interview and I was really feeling horrible. I could hear from only one ear and felt nauseous.

I could only get an appointment with our GP on Tuesday morning. When he saw inside my ear, he gave me a shock by saying "Whoa! That's a lot of stuff in there." I thought doctors were supposed to be diplomatic and not scare their patients. He wrote me an antibiotic and asked me to come and see him again on Friday.

When I saw him last Friday, he told me that it looked OK but wants to see me in 2 weeks time again. I can hear OK but not as clearly as before. I am just hoping that I don't suffer from any long term problems.