Yashventures

A lot has been done on the Internet to share stuff with people -

You want to share photos? There’s Flickr, Instagram, Facebook.
Wanna share status? Do so on Facebook and Twitter.
Share videos? YouTube.
Share location? Use Foursquare.
Want to share links? go to Reddit, Digg or StumbleUpon.
If you want to share your thoughts and ideas in details blog about it on WordPress and Tumblr.

But not everything is for sharing. Some things are personal. You want to keep them to yourself. There are certain things in our lives which we want to keep to ourselves or may be share it only with some people who are really close to us. Like a personal diary, sort of a semi autobiography.

I have kept a personal diary on and off in the past. Right now I am keeping a private blog on Tumblr. But I am not happy with it. An ideal personal diary service should motivate the user to write something daily. Something that will send me an email at the end of the day if I haven’t entered anything for today. And it should give me hints in the form of simple questions as t what I should be writing in the diary. Very simple hints like -

How was the day in general?
Did you meet anyone new today?
What did you have in lunch?
How was the school/college/office today?
Describe something funny that might have happened today.

That’s what I am building next. An online personal diary service. Such questions will be asked randomly, 2 or 3 different questions everyday. It will have a web interface, a mobile app and ability to add entries though email. You can just reply to the daily mail you received and it will be added to your diary.

There are a few decent online personal diary services out there. Most notable amongst them being Penzu, but its too feature rich, I like something with the simplicity and ease of use of Tumblr with the ability to add entries though email and hint questions.

I have created a survey to know people’s views about keeping a personal diary. You can take the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/personaldiary

The web version of this diary will be launched in a couple of weeks and mobile apps and more features will be released subsequently.

A dialogue ensued between me, my mom and my mother in law yesterday

Mom (on some other topic): We don’t believe in old customs.
Me: Good. You should also stop believing in old gods. believe in new stuff, believe in science.
Mom: You should not speak about other’s “shraddha” (faith). You should respect others’ faith.
Me: Ok there was a woman who had a faith that if she sacrificed her step son, he would be re-born as her own son. Should I respect that kind of faith too?

Mother in law joins the dialogue

Mom in law: That’s “andha-shraddha” (blind faith/superstition).
Me: Well yes that’s andha-shraddha indeed, but it was shraddha for her. How do we decide what is shraddha and what is andha-shraddha? How do we differentiate between faith and superstition?
Mom in law: If someone’s getting harmed then that’s andha-shraddha.
Me: ok what would you call when a person stops because a cat just cut his path?
Mom in law: That is andha-shraddha, superstition.
Me: Well, but nobody was getting harmed. Cat went on its way and the guy stopped.

Mom in law: Well…..

I got an email from Airtel informing me I have hit 80% of my monthly high speed data limit and gave me a URL to check my available data.

Here’s the link – http://www.airtel.in/smartbyte-s/page.html

No need to login or anything. Just visit it using your Airtel connection and it will tell you your remaining high speed data limit for the month.If you want to buy additional data at high speed you can also do so from this URL.

Got a call from Axis Bank hawking a credit card as soon as I got into office

Caller: Sir we are offering you Axis Bank Titanium Credit Card…

Me: I already have many cards, don’t need one more.

Caller: Sir this card gives you xyz credit limit…

Me: I already have a card with a credit limit which is 10 times higher!

Caller: Sir you can use use this card at Big Bazaar and you can earn points…

Me: At Big Bazaar I use Future Card.

Caller: Sir you can get 2.5% fuel surcharge waiver…

Me: Standard Chartered card gives me 2.5% cash back on top of the waiver, so for every Rs.100 I spend I have to pay them only 97.5

Caller: Sir if you go to a restaurant….

Me: At restaurant I use Accord meal vouchers

Caller: OK sir, thank you. **Click**

What is the connection of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk and petroleum?

One of the ingredients is Ethyl Vanillin which is artificial Vanilla flavour
Ethyl Vanillin is produced from Catechol (also used in pesticides and perfumes)
Catechol comes from Phenol (also used in producing nylon, detergents and pharmaceuticals)
Phenol is produced by Oxidation of Cumene
Cumene is produced from Benzene which is a natural constituent of crude oil

So every chocolate has a tiny part coming from petroleum.

Almost a month had passed since I proposed her and she refused. One day I got a call from her and she said she wants to meet me. Now something had started to happen on the other end too. We met at a temple near our school and talked for about an hour. In the last one month she had become restless and couldn’t stop thinking about me. She remembered the school days and the happy moments we had shared in school with all those academic rivalries and stuff. For her completing her CA was of utmost importance everything else was secondary. We decided to keep in touch and the old friendship blossomed again.

We started calling each other regularly. Mostly it was me who would call her at her office during the afternoon when her boss would be away for lunch. The calls started to last longer. 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, half an hour. Sometimes I would sneak out of home to make the call if my parents were at home. At that time a public call would cost a Rupee and pulse rate was three minutes. I remember putting 17 coins once! She too emptied a whole bowl of coins her dad had accumulated in a few months.

By then we were into TYBCom – the last year of our college degree. I used to go to college and then to a coaching class. I would reach the class early, and make a call to her and it would last for as long as it could before I had to get in the class. Now I was into computers, had a computer at home and was even planning to open computer coaching classes. Bijal on the other hand had computers as compulsory subject in her college in the last year and she was completely alien to the subject. I seized the opportunity and offered to teach her computers. At first she was reluctant but once she opened the book, she knew she needed help and there I was!

So she came to my home for the first time to learn computers. We would learn computers and talk. Learning computers started to become a pretext for us to meet. Parents had no objections obviously and very soon I started my computer classes so the office became our meeting spot. Slowly but surely she started to fall in love with me.

Some silly things also happened while we were in college, little fights, not talking to each other, patching up. Once we got in a fight and then I cut my thumb with a blade and wrote I am Sorry with my blood. Super filmy stuff! If I would gift her something she would ask me to keep it with me cause she could not take it home. Sometimes she would take the gift home and would tell her mom they were from some of her other friends.

It was good till it lasted. Soon the college was over and the official excuse to meet was over too. Now was the time to begin with the real life. My computer classes didn’t last long. I got a job, Bijal also got her articleship shifted to another CA. Reason being the CA she was working for wanted his son to marry her! By that time it was an unofficial understanding between us – we were for each other and no one could come between us.

As the official reasons to meet dried up, we had to fabricate reasons to meet. Especially her because Indian parents are Indian parents. So we would meet up in the evening when we would both return from our work. She would take leaves prior to her CA exams and would go a library to read. I would accompany her at the end of the day on her way back home. We used to meet alternate days, sometimes daily. When I changed job and joined Magnet, we would meet early in the morning just before we would go to our offices. We had some regular meeting places and shopkeepers and restaurant waiters started recognizing us. Once I reached late and Bijal had just left after waiting for me and the shopkeeper of a nearby shop informed me she had left. We were just starting our careers and we didn’t have mobile phones then. I got my first mobile phone in 2004. Even to this day one particular guy at MM in Malad recognizes us and whenever we happen to go there we meet him.

2006 arrived, Bijal cleared her CA and achieved her goal. In the meantime I had left my job and started my company back in 2005. Bijal helped me incorporate my company as a Private Limited Company. In fact she did most of the paper work despite her exams approaching. Now we were both in the career consolidation phase and by now it was clear to our parents as well as to where we were heading.

Our parents have always been supportive of our relationship. We never actually told our parents we loved each other and we wanted to marry. As things unraveled, it became obvious to them and they never objected. Bijal was very afraid her parents won’t approve of our relationship. But I knew her parents back from school days and I knew they won’t have any problem with me. Once her dad caught us eating Sandwiches together and when Bijal went home asked her a sarcastic question – “Are you still hungry?” Bijal thought that was the end of our meeting days but I knew that was not the case. Bijal’s parents wanted her to complete her education first so that was her priority. I have never really told my parents, I want to marry this girl and they never asked me.

It just happened.

Somewhere near the end of 2006 probably around September I just said to her how about getting married next Valentine’s Day? We were together for almost six years and I just thought Valentine’s Day would be the best day to get married. And we just decided we are getting married on Feb 14, 2007. So I told my parents I am getting married on 14/2. Met Bijal’s parents as well and told them about our decision. Again the kind hearted parents agreed to us. Even then I didn’t believe in looking for auspicious dates and stuff. Her father tried to suggest a different auspicious date, but I was firm on Feb 14. So everyone gave in.

So we arranged everything in the next 3-4 months and put together a wedding. Come 14 February, 2007 and we were a married couple.

And life has been excellent so far. At the time of our wedding we had decided we will never spend a Valentine’s Day at home so every year around Valentine’s Day we take a 2 week long vacation and go to far off places. This is the first Valentine’s Day that we are celebrating at home because we are awaiting the arrival of a new bundle of joy soon.

We have known each other for over 23 years now. Life has taught me one thing – if you really want something just go for it. Don’t think. Things will fall in place.

Life is awesome.

Part 1, Part 2

Phone rang. I picked up and heard a familiar voice after a long time. “Yash it’s me, Bijal”. I literally missed a heartbeat! It had been more than 3.5 years since we had left the school. We were in different colleges and there was absolutely no contact, no phones, nothing. Don’t know what made her call me but she called and that call changed the lives of both of us. It rekindled the latent feelings and I absolutely could not sleep that night. I kept thinking about her day and night. Days passed and I just could not get her out of my mind. I decided I had to tell her about my feelings.

Being a very to the point and direct person – and one who believes in the power of letters – I decided to write my feelings in a letter. A more mature letter than the one I sent a few years ago and I also decided to hand it over personally. I very carefully drafted the letter about two pages long and the letter ended with a very direct question – “Would you like to change your name to Bijal Yash Gadhiya?”!! Well that’s me! I am in one sided love with a girl since third standard, I haven’t even talked to her for more than 3 years and I know for sure she does not have similar feelings towards me and here I am proposing her to marry me when we are still in college. Naive, stupid whatever you may call it, but it was just a dumb guy madly in love with a girl for as long as he can remember.

When I look back, I think a sensible guy might have decided to get in a stable friendship first and then take it forward slowly. But I had one final goal in mind and just went for that.

I decided to hand over the letter on her 19th birthday which was coming soon. Now was the time to get in the detective mode. I wanted to know everything about her that I could find, her office address, where she goes, what she does – everything. All I had was her office phone number. She was studying for CA and was doing her articleship at some CA’s office. So I thought she must be going to the college sometime in the morning. I decided to stand near the opening of the street where she lived and wait for her to come and hand over the letter. The day arrived and I got to the spot at around 8 in the morning. Waited for her to leave for college. I waited and waited and waited. She never arrived. Later on I came to know she used to leave earlier in the morning.

Plan 1 failed so I decided to catch her at the office. I only had the office number, I used MTNL’s online directory and got the address of the office. Reached the office it was closed. Nobody was answering the office phone either. A CA’s office can’t possibly be closed in the afternoon. I thought it must have moved or the directory might have incorrect address. So I decided to call the home of her boss! Got the name of the boss from the office number and from that name found the boss’ home phone number. Called there, posed as a client and asked for office address and I got the same address from boss’ wife. Finally someone at the office picked up the phone, I asked for Bijal I was told she had shifted to another CA. Got the number of that CA, found his office address from the directory and went there the next day.

And I saw her after almost 3 years. She had changed a lot, she had got glasses and was kind of unrecognisable. I too had changed a lot, at first she didn’t recognise me either. She thought I was a client of her boss. I wished her belated Happy Birthday and said I had something very important to say. She had no clue what I might have in store but she called me in the evening and we decided to meet after a couple of days. She had a very busy schedule so she asked me to come to the Kandivali station and said I could accompany her while she walked back home. I went there, handed over the letter to her and the reaction and the answer was exactly as I had expected.

No.

to be continued…

Part 1, Part 3

The year was 1989. I was in standard 3 and had just joined a new school. I was shy, introvert and a bit scared by being in this large school. One day in the class, one of our teachers asked the name of our school. Nutan….Nutan everyone started shouting. Nopes nopes that was not the answer the teacher was looking for. “Shree J P Shroff Nutan Vidya Mandir” said one girl siting on the first bench. I looked at her, that was the first time I had noticed her and in fact that was the first time even I came to know the full name of the school! Wow! I said to myself, that girl is smart! Who is she? I asked someone. Her name is Bijal, I was told.

Bijal. That was her name. That IS her name. And she is my life.

So that was how I came to know of her.

Then it so happened that one day our class teacher rearranged the seating arrangements. Well in a typical Indian school there are benches and they are arranged in columns and boys and girls occupy one side of classroom each. Our class teacher Jyoti Mam was fed up by the constant chit chat going on amongst the students. So she decided to rearrange the seating and made one boy and one girl share a bench. She randomly picked one boy and one girl and allocated them to a bench. I had two wishes – one, to get a first bench and second, to share the bench with that smart girl. Lo and behold both my wishes came true. I don’t know why and how but the teacher paired me with the smartest girl in class. I was a rank new comer in the class and she was a ranker. That was the best day of my life till then!

I was good in studies and it wasn’t late before I started getting good marks and got everyone’s attention. And that’s also when the academic rivalry started to flourish between the two of us. We two were the undisputed scholars of the class. And exam after exam we would fight over who got better marks and a higher rank. It would alternate. Both of us would bring the best in each other.

She was first in standard 3.
I excelled in standard 4 and was first not just in class but in school.
She came back in standard 5 and became the top ranker.
Standard 6, it was me again.
Standard 7 it was her.

By eighth standard we were teens. I have always been attracted by smartness and the liking and fondness that I had developed for her was becoming a crush by then. I couldn’t stop thinking about her all day. I had also developed another interest by then – comics – I was an avid comics reader and was also into creating my own comic line that affected my studies and I permanently withdrew from the rank race. But she was becoming my fascination and I did what many stupid 14 year olds would do. I wrote her a letter.

A love letter!

I don’t exactly remember what was written in the letter, may be just I love you and drawn a heart with an arrow. Very filmy! When we think of it today we just cant help stop laughing. I actually had guts to POST that letter to her home!!! I thought I was very smart to the extent that I put the letter in a small envelop and wrote – this envelop should be opened by Bijal only – and put that envelop in a larger one and addressed it to her home. It didn’t even occur to me that that stupid gimmick of mine wont prevent someone else from opening the letter and that the letter can get in anybody’s hands and it can do a lot of damage.

Luckily nothing happened.

The letter ended up in Bijal’s mom’s hands and she tore it with rage. She asked Bijal about who might have sent the letter and whose handwriting it could be. Now Bijal says she did recognize my handwriting but she didn’t tell her mom! She won’t tell me why but she didn’t want to ruin my life at school by blowing the whistle.

And then after the tenth, the school life came to an end. By that time my crush had somewhat subsided. One major factor was height! She grew taller than me! It may sound silly but when you are 15 and everyone around you is growing taller and stronger and you are not, that has immense effect on a boy’s psyche. So school ended and we lost contact. I didn’t see her until three years later barring a couple of chance encounters on road.

to be continued…

Part 2, Part 3

I had taken the Mensa Admission Test back in the month of September. Got my results last week.

There were two tests, one had 50 questions and the other had three sub tests with 15 or 20 questions each. All were multiple choice questions and we had to solve them in amazingly small amount of time. We got some 10 or 12 minutes for the first test and about 2 to 3 minutes each for the each of the sub tests for the second one. The test charges were Rs. 300 and we were told we would be getting the results back in about 6-8 weeks. Well, it didn’t come back in 6-8 weeks, took like more than 4 months. The examiner said the test papers will go to Pune where a psychologist will check the scores and ascertain the IQ.

I scored 84th percentile. Not enough to join the elite club of super intelligent. In order to be a member you have to score in 98th percentile or above. According to this table at American Mensa that converts and IQ of 115. I thought of my IQ to be somewhere around 120, so that was close enough. 84th percentile onwards is the high average of IQ in the population. Some consolation.