The Barrier That Commuting In Mumbai Is!

This strikes me when I meet a friend in Pune, whom I haven’t seen for a little over 6 months. While both of us are based in Mumbai, plans to meet or head out for a movie rarely works out. But fast forward to Pune, where I would spend a day or two in 3 months and she would spend 4 days a month visiting her home, its so much easier to catchup for us when these dates overlap and both of us are in Pune! Weird and we sure laughed at it.

<rant> But then we sure can’t ignore the fact that its the hour and half or two hours of travel to and fro that comes in our way here. And for me a little more than the time involved, its the poor conditioned auto-rickshaws (if you at all find one) or the super uncomfortable Fiat Taxis that kills the enthusiasm of going out of the suburbs.

Screenshot of a chat with a Mumbai Friend: Read More

Yes I Paid A Premium

Flights

I have taken roughly 12 flights in the last two years and the only, I repeat the only final criteria to pick a flight has been the price. Anything more than a Rs 100 above / less the mark, I would chose the other! So be it Go Air, Indigo or Kingfisher. If you are the cheapest, I fly you. However this changed and changed for good after my last flight with one of the low cost airlines. I tweeted when boarding that that flight that it would be my last flight with this airline, why? Well there was nothing particularly broken on their part, its just that by design their system doesn’t work for me anymore. Read More

2010>2011

And there goes another year, on other occasions I would have spoken at length about the year that passed and my plans for the year ahead. But that cheer and enthusiasm is perhaps long dead. 2010, I can say nothing but the same as I did for 2009. ‘Annkur loves you, but as much as I love you, I believe love is superstition. And that’s the only thing that can help me get over you.’

On bed rest this new year with plans for CES action in Vegas and a long vacation thereafter doomed, all the wishes and super conversations on twitter / fb made my day. Love you all who kept in touch this new year and made my day special.

That warm as a hug trademark birthday wish from Harish or the rockstar title that Kunal gives for Nischay’s work, these moments are a cheer for lifetime. Thank you

I plan to share my travel tales right from the action in Agra to adventure in US up next! No much gyaan bit left to disperse, sorry.

Ps: whoever said Health is wealth was probably right, make that absolutely!

Innocent, Little

There are times I wish this was an anonymous blog. There is so much I want to share and yet I fear its too early to share. Today happens to be a day when I decide to unfold a little of past. A little of me. My about page speaks less of who I am and though it’s meant to be so, here is a little something that I feel necessary to share. Read More

a hint – picture embedded in my eyes!

Traveling alone to the US and exploring things wasn’t exactly my POA for this trip but then that’s how it happened. Tired of exploring NYC  and to take back atleast something more to tell friends about USA (except for the Atlantic City Casinos) … I started out for Niagara Falls. While I am informed that the US end isn’t the best place to see the falls from, it didn’t matter to begin with. I went in with the feeling thats its ‘just another water fall’ and came back with a heavenly experience.

So what was it like? I didn’t carry a camera with me on this trip and even if I did … any of my photographs would have been anything but injustice to the beauty of nature. You got to see it and feel it in person.

Some of the best pictures I ever clicked are in my eyes! And to such life stopping moments I add the second one in July. Way too human to describe the first one, even the Niagara Falls is yet to sink in as a reality for me. This day in life I have seen a rainbow that reappears every second with mist flying in the air and with that a heavenly experience of clouds forming right in front of my eyes (yes seriously!).

Office Office

2010 is here and after a good year and a half of blogging on Annkur.com; I have slowed down. The frequency of posts have fallen and now I can so much relate to @thakkar speaking about “his 6 dead blogs” at Blog Camp Mumbai around a year back. While blogging still remains a integral part of my day to day work (at OnlyGizmos) the reason Annkur.com was created, was to share what I like, what I feel and not just gadgets and technology.

I am wondering what I should do to get back those wonderful thoughts that made some really memorable posts here. Any suggestions?

One of the ideas I might explore is to integrate a photo blog here; but the writings for now are rare 🙁

Btw the post is titled office office, as I have just got started with a new office routine. Though not the first office for me, but a first with a good 5 member team and a hectic 12 hour office schedule almost everyday. And yes, I am loving it! Leaving you with a few pictures below: Read More

2009>2010

Ankur Loves you!

but as much as I love you, I believe that Love is superstition. Thats the only thing that can probably help me get over you!

Are we friends?

Are we friends? This is something I ask people, directly or indirectly and more often than not I take answers without they having to say Yes or No. The friend matrix that I gave earlier is something that will give a larger view of how things work, but here is something very basic:

“Friendship demands trust. For me trust is the respect that a friend gives me, I value that and I like to give the same in return. For any reason (and generally many) If I fail to see that respect for me and/or I feel I cant give that respect to you, we shall seize to be friends!”

Also read Darshan Chande’s views on friendship. I quite like and agree with what he says. 1) What is friendship? 2) Is friendship driven by purpose

My meme – that 7 random things

Tagged long back to write a meme, here it is – &even random things about me:

  1. Redbull and Pain killers dont work on me (no I am not happy about this)
  2. watches <strike>all</strike> most movies in the last show
  3. upto class VIII wanted to be a scientist (dont ask me why)
  4. if i end up replying to you on gtalk in all CAPS; it would be safe to assume that i was eating something and wasn’t looking at the screen
  5. believes in love at first sight, at the same time promotes the philosophy that love is superstition
  6. has a unique ability to sit over shit load of work and do nothing 😛
  7. when alone and doing nothing, would be smiling / laughing visualizing some silly pjs / incidents

What meme? Read More

Life without a Bike

avvy sketch

Having sold my Avenger a little over a month back, I am getting used to a new lifestyle depending on public transport. After 4 years of non stop biking adventure, here is a new turn to life; Life without a Bike 🙂

A motorcycle is an amazing companion and as I always realized it adds a lot of flexibility and efficiency to ones movement in a crowded city like Mumbai. Though it has its own share of risk, troubles in rains etc etc … its still the coolest thing I ever owned: A bike

So what does this Life Without a Bike bring?

Read More