<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834</id><updated>2011-08-02T02:44:28.823+05:30</updated><category term='C++'/><category term='Tech'/><category term='bluetooth'/><category term='Java ME'/><category term='interview'/><category term='adventure'/><category term='Microsoft'/><category term='Java'/><category term='mobile application development'/><category term='phone screen'/><title type='text'>Impossible is nothing !</title><subtitle type='html'></subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default?max-results=100'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>39</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>100</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-4096880613609772459</id><published>2009-05-13T11:03:00.004+05:30</published><updated>2009-05-13T11:16:49.158+05:30</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Tech'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Java'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='bluetooth'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Java ME'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='mobile application development'/><title type='text'>an introduction to bluetooth API's using JAVA</title><content type='html'>Just started with some serious work on my FYP and this is a really interesting article on getting started with bluetooth communication in JAVA ME application.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;http://developers.sun.com/mobility/apis/articles/bluetooth_gps/part1/&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now, the article talks generally about creating a JAVA ME program without the use of an IDE so it was a bit of a work around to get the thing to work using Netbeans. So here are some additional notes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1. The mpowerplayer sdk comes with a tutorial folder. I would recommend reading this page &lt;install folder=""&gt;/tutorial/index.html&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2. You need to make a few changes to the manifest file in order to make the application work. In order to change the manifest file using Netbeans (manually changing it in the project files will not work as soon as you hit build again). Right click on the project and then add the Midlet name in the application descriptor (refer to image). This adds a midlet-1 tag to your manifest file. Just make sure that the name of the midlet corresponds to your specific midlet name.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/install&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/Sgpd12-kq7I/AAAAAAAAAhM/7LPOeh2KBjs/s1600-h/Capture.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 316px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/Sgpd12-kq7I/AAAAAAAAAhM/7LPOeh2KBjs/s400/Capture.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5335179888446188466" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Another error you might encounter is that a DiscoveryListener was not found. There is a slight mistake in the article, it asks you to put the avetanaBluetooth jar file in the bluetooth folder. Place it in the root folder where all the other jar files are and you should get around this pretty smoothly.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So thats about it. I am a newbie to this technology so hopefully this article helped.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Cheers&lt;br /&gt;Sparsh&lt;br /&gt;&lt;install folder=""&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src="file:///C:/Users/Sp@rsh/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot.jpg" alt="" /&gt;&lt;img src="file:///C:/Users/Sp@rsh/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot-1.jpg" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/install&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-4096880613609772459?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/4096880613609772459/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=4096880613609772459' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/4096880613609772459'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/4096880613609772459'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2009/05/introduction-to-bluetooth-apis-using.html' title='an introduction to bluetooth API&apos;s using JAVA'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/Sgpd12-kq7I/AAAAAAAAAhM/7LPOeh2KBjs/s72-c/Capture.JPG' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-3447727524482820344</id><published>2009-01-07T08:34:00.004+05:30</published><updated>2009-04-17T21:24:36.924+05:30</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Tech'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Java'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='interview'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Microsoft'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='phone screen'/><title type='text'>Phewwww !!!</title><content type='html'>&lt;div&gt;Helloo !&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;Finally the phone screen is over. Yayy !&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;My interview was scheduled at 9am Singapore time and I log into my computer at 8 just to avoid some weird time zone calculation problem (yes others have had this before.) I log on to skype and I see that my interviewer is already online. Resisting the temptation to say hi.. I just go and have a coffee. Luckily the interview doesnt send me any message in this while.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;Minutes are passing by and my overly inquisitive nature wants to say hi.. but then i avoid it... Its 9:05.. no response... 9:10... finally my interviewer tells me she is running a bit late and could I wait....Great :) that just increased a little thumping in there....&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;Finally the interviewer calls.. It was a skype call and I dint want the great NTU internet to screw it.. Thinking I had no choice (I had already told the interviewer I preferred a phone call but she kinda forgot so I dint remind).. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;Well she (Ok I wont reveal her name) was quite cheerful on the phone.... Kinda got me a bit setlled. .asked me to tell her what I have been doing these days.. any projects.. favourite programming languages etc... so much for small talk... but it kinda got me flowing..&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;then came the technical questions.. they were very easy actually. She asked me whether java supported multiple inheritance, and stuff about interfaces.. then moving to operating systems (I dint expect this).. she asked me about deadlocks.. which was easy and then finally a question about recursion...&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;Moving on she said let me ask you something thats going to be fun. Having read somewhere that Microsoft has stopped asking puzzles for interviews I was a bit taken aback and was expecting something nasty. But then the interviewer was quite nice and threw me a problem involving baloons and a room. I think it was pretty manageable and she liked the fact that I asked her questions clarifying the question itself. That really helped.. Anything you would take as an assumption.. Clarify it. The more you ask the better it is. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;The last question for me was to test a communication enabled coffee cup which can be heated using commands given from the computer. There were a lot of clarifying questions to ask on this and yes some suggested improvements which made the interviewer laugh.. Even better.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;Finally she asked me whether I had some questions for her. I asked her about her job and the interview process in general and finally some feedback on my interview. Overall she was quite happy and ended on a positive note.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;The interview I think went as good as it could have been. Now just hoping for the best. The email should arrive within a week or so.. Till then adieu....&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;Cheers &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;Sparsh&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;(PS : Just saved this as a draft post. Plan to publish this later....)&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-3447727524482820344?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/3447727524482820344/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=3447727524482820344' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/3447727524482820344'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/3447727524482820344'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2009/01/phewwww.html' title='Phewwww !!!'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-3660008332755453278</id><published>2009-01-06T16:28:00.003+05:30</published><updated>2009-04-17T21:23:23.409+05:30</updated><title type='text'>Hours before the Microsoft Phone Screen</title><content type='html'>Hi&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Am like really nervous right now as my phone interview is just hours away . Just sharing some links here which I think are really a good guide to follow :&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src="file:///C:/Users/Sp@rsh/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot-2.jpg" alt="" /&gt;http://blogs.msdn.com/jobsblog/archive/2004/08/04/ace-that-phone-interview.aspx&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;http://blogs.msdn.com/descapa/archive/2007/03/24/program-manager-pm-interview-tips.aspx&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;http://www.tylerbutler.com/dailydose/Pages/MicrosoftProgramManagerInterviewTheBreakdown.aspx&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;http://blogs.msdn.com/jobsblog/archive/2005/03/01/382953.aspx&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;http://blogs.msdn.com/jobsblog/archive/2005/03/02/how-i-got-to-microsoft-part-2.aspx&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-3660008332755453278?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/3660008332755453278/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=3660008332755453278' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/3660008332755453278'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/3660008332755453278'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2009/01/hours-before-microsoft-phone-screen.html' title='Hours before the Microsoft Phone Screen'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-8121534400415610243</id><published>2009-01-06T11:10:00.010+05:30</published><updated>2010-03-17T17:57:34.032+05:30</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Tech'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Java'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='interview'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='C++'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Microsoft'/><title type='text'>Preparing for Microsoft Phone Screen</title><content type='html'>&lt;div&gt;Hi &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;Thought of sharing some preparation material that Ive been using for my Microsoft Internship interview. Some of it is very generic to most technical interviews and hope this helps you out.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;I mostly use JAVA for all my assignments but most of the stuff/links I post are generic.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;1. Object Oriented Programming Concepts&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;For all those who have been out of touch with programming, this page is a quick refresher for OO concepts in Java : &lt;a href="http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/java/concepts/index.html"&gt;http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/java/concepts/index.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;2. Virtual Functions&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_functions"&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_functions&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;- Quite an interesting page with a comprehensive coverage of virtual/purely virtual functions in C++, Java and C#.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;Important Stuff&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;In Java, all methods are by default "virtual functions". &lt;/li&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;In C#, a base class must provide the virtual modifier for any virtual method, and derived classes must provide the override modifier for any overriden method inherited from a base class. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;In Java, pure virtual methods are declared using the abstract keyword. Such a method cannot have a body. A class containing abstract methods (either directly, or inherited and not overridden) must itself be declared abstract.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;Java also uses interfaces. All of the methods declared in an interface are implicitly abstract. Implementing an interface allows a class to become more formal about the behavior it promises to provide. Interfaces form a contract between the class and the outside world, and this contract is enforced at build time by the compiler. If your class claims to implement an interface, all methods defined by that interface must appear in its source code before the class will successfully compile.&lt;br /&gt;(&lt;a href="http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/java/concepts/interface.html"&gt;http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/java/concepts/interface.html&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Difference between Abstract Class and Interfaces :&lt;br /&gt;http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/csharplanguage/thread/8ad621b8-a915-4d7e-89c3-5dbbc47202fd/&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;3. Comparisons between JAVA and C++&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Java_and_C%2B%2B"&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Java_and_C%2B%2B&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-8121534400415610243?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/8121534400415610243/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=8121534400415610243' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/8121534400415610243'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/8121534400415610243'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2009/01/preparing-for-microsoft-phone-screen.html' title='Preparing for Microsoft Phone Screen'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-846001705797396357</id><published>2008-12-09T14:13:00.004+05:30</published><updated>2008-12-09T14:31:50.355+05:30</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Tech'/><title type='text'>Making an iTunes Store Account without a credit card</title><content type='html'>Hi&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Queueing up outside the Singtel store for almost 4 hours before I could get my hands on an iPhone 3G had me all excited about its awesome features (seeing the hysteria in other people... the excitement just increased... )&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Well being a student and without many lines of credit , I had been deprived of the most wonderful thing that the iPhone has to offer - Apps. If you have tried using the iTunes store, even the free applications cannot be downloaded without having an account and an account cannot be made without having a credit card.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But here is a catch for students. If you are members of the Facebook group - Apple Students, Apple periodically releases free iTunes giveaways - Tv shows, audio/video samplers etc. The best part is that these redemption codes allow one to make an iTunes account without a credit card - The payment option (None) comes in only when you are redeeming a gift code.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So here are the steps to get a free iTunes store account and getting all the exciting free apps it has to offer :&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1) Make an account on facebook and join the Apple Students Group&lt;br /&gt;http://www.facebook.com/pages/Apple-Students/11147074409?ref=share&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2) Click on the promotion going on (Currently there is a free giveaway of a few TV Shows and songs  (which can be converted to ringtones :) ) .. Its available only in December. So if you are late... youll have to wait till the next give away.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/ST4x3QxNOnI/AAAAAAAAAWA/YqDwV10Crfk/s1600-h/Capture.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 310px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/ST4x3QxNOnI/AAAAAAAAAWA/YqDwV10Crfk/s400/Capture.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277710638788721266" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;The direct link is http://apps.facebook.com/freeonitunes/&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;3) Get the redemption code. Open iTunes -&gt; iTunes Store -&gt; Change the store to the US store. (The redemption codes are generally from the US store. This is great because all the best applications are available on the US store.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;4) Click on redeem option available on the iTunes Store Homepage .&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;5) Enter the redemption code on the following screen :&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src="file:///C:/Users/Sp@rsh/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot.jpg" alt="" /&gt;&lt;img src="file:///C:/Users/Sp@rsh/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot-1.jpg" alt="" /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/ST4ymq2EnaI/AAAAAAAAAWI/A_gu-k62Wk0/s1600-h/Capture.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 241px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/ST4ymq2EnaI/AAAAAAAAAWI/A_gu-k62Wk0/s400/Capture.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277711453242301858" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;5) Follow the instructions that follow to create an iTunes Store Account. Please note that you shall need a US address to complete the form . (It isnt difficult to get an address now is it ;)) Select the payment option to None (Note this None option is not available when you directly try to make an iTunes Store Account.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You're done.. Start downloading all the cool free apps available. Some of them are really useful.. Another post on them shall follow..&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Cheers&lt;br /&gt;Sparsh&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;PS: This also helps if you have a credit card of say Singapore - but are frustrated that all the good apps dont appear in the Singapore store (or say India store etc.) . The US store is by far the best and has the most free apps.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-846001705797396357?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/846001705797396357/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=846001705797396357' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/846001705797396357'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/846001705797396357'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2008/12/making-itunes-store-account-without.html' title='Making an iTunes Store Account without a credit card'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/ST4x3QxNOnI/AAAAAAAAAWA/YqDwV10Crfk/s72-c/Capture.JPG' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-469818675357947097</id><published>2008-09-25T08:59:00.005+05:30</published><updated>2008-09-25T19:15:57.088+05:30</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='adventure'/><title type='text'>Adventure Highlands</title><content type='html'>Ill try to keep this one short.. But so much adventure needs (and deserves ) a few lines.. So if you are the types who don't like long posts... Adieu my friend..&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Well its been a complete roller coaster of a trip (surprisingly.. ive never been on one....) In their mid semester break my friends.. Mandeep, Raj, Rahul, Ishita, Shrey and Neeraj (some of them infamous from a previous ghost search adventure) decide to take a "relaxing" break to Cameroon Highlands in Malaysia. I, who is desperately in need of a break of a hectic Investment Bankers life (LOL), take a leave from office to join them in there search for an adventure packed "interesting" trip.. (not too much time later.. all of us are praying to God to make this trip boring.. )&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;so after a long journey of almost 8 hours we reach our destination, where a tactful sales woman for a local tour agency lures us into seemingly exciting - agro tour and night jungle trekking (which some of us dont want to.. in consideration of the female folk.. but after considerable deliberations and neeraj's intimidation - we are forced to.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;considering rahul's appetite for photos at almost any place (provided we give him time to pose) we spend a bright sunny morning (which is a welcome relief given the cool breeze) happily clicking photos in the tea plantations, terrace farms, flower nurseries etc...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The real adventure starts with our trip to a nearby waterfall... After spending some time navigating through rocks in the middle of the water..clicking photos and having good fun.. we return to the local village to have dinner when suddenly ishita realises that her wallet is not with her... All this while she thought it was all a prank but with the sudden realisation that it is indeed missing, we all  panick and request our driver (who was really nice to have helped us out all the way) to take us back to the waterfall in search of the missing wallet. Whats more disturbing, is the fact that Ishita's student pass and embarkation cards are there in the wallet - meaning she would not be able to enter back to Singapore if it gets lost...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On reaching the waterfall, the driver and some other people from the tour company refuse to accompany us further . Their reason - "This place has spirits.. Even animals dont wander there at night.. You think we would go ?? ".. However, considering our desperate situation, we all decide that its definitely worth the risk. With our flashlights on, we go in as two groups, talking to each other continuously on the phone .. Most of us are really scared, we hold on to each other really tight and look around in the dense bushes  - raj and neeraj even go down into the freezing cold water... after about an hour of searching to no avail we decide to go back lest we get into a bigger mess if someone gets hurt...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On reaching a nearby police station, we are greeted by not so friendly police officers who unfortunately do not understand a lot of english. Our driver then assumes the role of our translator and helps us communicate with them. In typical "Indian police" fashion, we are told that the area where the incident happened does not fall under their jurisdiction and that we would have to go to another police station to file a report (Later another officer told us that foreigners in trouble can file a complain anywhere... those officers were just running away from their responsibility.... not very new to an Indian ear... but the Singaporeans with us weren't very pleased :P)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Along all this, I assumed the role of calling up key "contacts" :P to get any help that we could. When people were not picking up.. they were sent SOS messages (an example ... "Dude... Sparsh here .... can you please pick up your phone or call me back.. Its VERY VERY urgent.. ")... Ultimately we decided to contact the Immigration and Checkpoints authority to issue a one time entry visa which would resolve our problems for the time being...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Next morning saw another frantic search at the waterfall .. (thanks again to our very kind driver.. having dropped us back to the hotel at 1130 pm he managed to pick us up again at 7 in the morning...).... So desperate to find the wallet, the likes of me and mandeep started looking at rocks in the water as if they were the wallet and poor raj had to wet his feet in the ice cold water........ But unfortunately we finally gave up and decided to visit the local police yet once again..&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;If this was not enough, as soon as we got to the main road, a bike lost control and skid into our vehicle exactly at the point where i was sitting.. Being involved in an accident for the first time in my life, I was terrified.. Raj again came to the rescue as he was the one who pulled my head away from the window, else I would not be writing this blog. .. Thank you soooo much.... Fortunately the driver dint get hurt.. By this time all of us were like really disturbed and some started attributing our misfortunes to the ghosts of the waterfall and some to "coming in other people's eyes " (kissi ki nazar lag gayi) .....  &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;I really dont know why,  but everyone was still in the mood for some more adventure by agreeing to go for a night jungle trek. Having done trekking a few times before, I was totally against the idea, but was vetoed down by the rest.. :(... Our prayers for a boring trip actually came true, as teh trek was really easy and it actually turned out to be pretty boring.. Or maybe it was just the fact that overexcitement in the last 24 hours made everything normal seem so boring..&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;The next morning, our bus supposed to get us back to Singapore actually left  WITHOUT us.... By now we were so used to all this, we calmly called up the tour operator and they sent a van to pick us up and take us to the bus which was waiting at a nearby town.  Everyone inside the bus was quite irritated as all of us had earned the reputation of being a noisy sing-along group....... The trip back was filled with constant nagging from the driver, who would shout "SIT DOWN" on the PA system as soon as anyone got up... and considering my restless antics... most of the time it was me .. hehe....&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;This trip has been a real adventure after a really really long time. However, if any of my manorite friend from grade 6 who accompanied me to the school stream back then, could probably relate to something similar.. :) But it was brilliant fun, and in the end as raj asked me.. I would rate the trip a 9/10...&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;So cheers to all those who survived (both in the trip and this incredibly long post)... :)&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Sparsh&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-469818675357947097?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/469818675357947097/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=469818675357947097' title='3 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/469818675357947097'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/469818675357947097'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2008/09/adventure-highlands.html' title='Adventure Highlands'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><thr:total>3</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-4533057301885869718</id><published>2008-06-13T22:08:00.007+05:30</published><updated>2008-06-13T22:49:44.699+05:30</updated><title type='text'>In Pictures</title><content type='html'>In a matter of hours I turn 20... just thought of putting up pictures of some high points of teen life :)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/SFKjYYgBePI/AAAAAAAAAMY/aJ5vjxTMJLM/s1600-h/Dsc01261.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/SFKjYYgBePI/AAAAAAAAAMY/aJ5vjxTMJLM/s400/Dsc01261.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5211407358110038258" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;(1998-2004)St. George's College... well I cannot express my love and gratitude to my alma mater in words.. Definitely the most difficult (staying away from home aint easy) yet the most important decision of my life.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/SFKjYgr_nCI/AAAAAAAAAMg/0rH0lb-byGI/s1600-h/Sparsh+1.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/SFKjYgr_nCI/AAAAAAAAAMg/0rH0lb-byGI/s400/Sparsh+1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5211407360307731490" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;October 2004- Winning the Masterson Debate... With Varun holding the team trophy for the third consecutive time..Am sure manorites would realise the sense of achievment...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/SFKjY4VFrgI/AAAAAAAAAMo/lSptPk7eWHA/s1600-h/DSC01241+1.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/SFKjY4VFrgI/AAAAAAAAAMo/lSptPk7eWHA/s400/DSC01241+1.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5211407366654111234" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;May 2006 - My sisters wedding - a small gathering .. but it was a grand affair !!! a dream wedding&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/SFKkIxhWLqI/AAAAAAAAAMw/k1qyCMaaYtw/s1600-h/DSC01763.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/SFKkIxhWLqI/AAAAAAAAAMw/k1qyCMaaYtw/s400/DSC01763.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5211408189460197026" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;July 2006- Times Square !! My first trip abroad... Gosh i was so excited :)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/SFKkJNu-BLI/AAAAAAAAAM4/AWAVptKHc8M/s1600-h/DSC01814.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/SFKkJNu-BLI/AAAAAAAAAM4/AWAVptKHc8M/s400/DSC01814.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5211408197033526450" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;August 2006-Trip to the United Nations ... Was an amazing experience..&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/SFKkJWAYgwI/AAAAAAAAANA/2RKFwuLivPg/s1600-h/DSC01987.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/SFKkJWAYgwI/AAAAAAAAANA/2RKFwuLivPg/s400/DSC01987.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5211408199254049538" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;july-august 2006 : GYLC..12 days.. amazing people.. great new perspectives... a conference I shall never forget...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/SFKkJac0zUI/AAAAAAAAANI/jYhh4F1nE9c/s1600-h/Image011.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/SFKkJac0zUI/AAAAAAAAANI/jYhh4F1nE9c/s400/Image011.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5211408200447085890" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;aug 2006 - Singapore !!! getting(NOT) into IIT couldnt have been better... NTU has definitely been a blessing...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/SFKmOzl_EfI/AAAAAAAAANQ/-jaRpoAV_nM/s1600-h/DSC02476.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/SFKmOzl_EfI/AAAAAAAAANQ/-jaRpoAV_nM/s400/DSC02476.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5211410492118995442" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;may 2007 - Trip to Leh... definitely a paradise on earth... (above) with mummy at Khardung-La : the highest motorable road in the world...(18,000+ feet)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/SFKmPVQ5lWI/AAAAAAAAANY/875f266NRi0/s1600-h/DSC02506.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/SFKmPVQ5lWI/AAAAAAAAANY/875f266NRi0/s400/DSC02506.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5211410501157360994" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;may 2007- Pangong-Tso .. a 160 km wide lake at the Indo-China border... never seen anything more beautiful..&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/SFKpZVd4eSI/AAAAAAAAAN4/s8xuxkOUoT8/s1600-h/P1020732.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/SFKpZVd4eSI/AAAAAAAAAN4/s8xuxkOUoT8/s400/P1020732.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5211413971545389346" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;NTU BPC : Lucky to have been working with an amazing group of people.. thank you for everything... it was an amazing experience.. :)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/SFKmP82P9FI/AAAAAAAAANg/3BS-ZzxYgSI/s1600-h/DSC03064.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/SFKmP82P9FI/AAAAAAAAANg/3BS-ZzxYgSI/s400/DSC03064.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5211410511782999122" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;November 2007- ThinkQuest : thanks to Dr. Amit Das, Pranav, Devayan and Gita.. without whom it would never have been possible.. my other teammates ... Arif , Dhruv and Vimal who despite not being in NTU put in their best efforts.. thanks to Oracle for the most extravagant ceremony ive ever been a part of..&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/SFKmQjQ1RyI/AAAAAAAAANo/6M4eaTKuY6Y/s1600-h/DSC03359.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/SFKmQjQ1RyI/AAAAAAAAANo/6M4eaTKuY6Y/s400/DSC03359.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5211410522095044386" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;April 2008- A380: wellll.. i was super excited before the trip.. dint turn out to be that great in the end..&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/SFKpYg65OtI/AAAAAAAAANw/VRgmctmQuk4/s1600-h/DSC03100.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/SFKpYg65OtI/AAAAAAAAANw/VRgmctmQuk4/s400/DSC03100.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5211413957439994578" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;april 2008 - haha.. this is my favourite pic.. at Madame Tusaaud's.. :)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/SFKpaukZCzI/AAAAAAAAAOI/bKCbCDV_z0w/s1600-h/DSC03223.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/SFKpaukZCzI/AAAAAAAAAOI/bKCbCDV_z0w/s400/DSC03223.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5211413995463445298" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;To some amazing people I met at HPAIR 2008.. the conference was nothing great.. but amazing people :) cheers..&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/SFKpbOSXLjI/AAAAAAAAAOQ/mA0HZ4gzx4k/s1600-h/n227800193_85354_7158.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/SFKpbOSXLjI/AAAAAAAAAOQ/mA0HZ4gzx4k/s400/n227800193_85354_7158.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5211414003977760306" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;finally.. my friends at NTU.. who make life so much better :) cheers people ..&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;well i tried to restrict myself as much as possible.. too many pics to share... i am super excited ... there is no reason why.. but its good to be on a high i guess..&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;cheers&lt;br /&gt;Sparsh&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-4533057301885869718?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/4533057301885869718/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=4533057301885869718' title='9 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/4533057301885869718'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/4533057301885869718'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2008/06/in-pictures.html' title='In Pictures'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/SFKjYYgBePI/AAAAAAAAAMY/aJ5vjxTMJLM/s72-c/Dsc01261.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>9</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-3646976343497909377</id><published>2007-05-09T09:45:00.000+05:30</published><updated>2007-05-09T14:28:13.273+05:30</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='adventure'/><title type='text'>In search of ghosts !</title><content type='html'>Well the post exam rides have been quite a thriller for me and this incident is specially worth the mention.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One night after the exams, the likes of Mandeep, Raj, Neha, Rahul and Mannan (names changed to protect their identities ;) )decide to go to the deserted Changi Hospital - supposedly a 'haunted house' on an adventure trip to get the thrill and excitement of being near ghosts. As I am the only one left to go home in Hall 10, they were kind enough to ask me to come along and since my new found best friend Mannan was also there, I decided it was worth the time...&lt;br /&gt;Its 2 am and somehow Raj manages to stuff 6 people into his Subaru.... Till now I had only heard tales of his capabilities as a race driver but that night I was lucky to experience the thrill of travelling in a stuffed car at 170-180 kmph on a smooth singaporean road , praying that I would reach home safely ... ;)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;After a long drive from the other end of the island we finally reach this spooky place which is also famous for the so called 'he-she's' (quoting Raj) . Weve already been warned not to stare at them cause apparently they are on the lookout for fights and we definitely were not in the position to handle one - Neha and Rahul had to leave for home the following morning....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So we enter this deserted place .... Instructions are thrown around that we arent supposed to touch anything , not the staircase railing, the glass lying around, broken wires...... and all 0ther stuff that one could imagine in a deserted hospital. There are blood stains on the floor , Graffiti is visible across the building with people trying to make the mark that they were amongst the fearless who have happened to visit the place which till now was pretty scary...&lt;br /&gt;Not until long......&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Holding each other's hands and expecting a ghost to pop up from anywhere we manage to reach the 5th floor of the building. Manan has been providing us with entertainment all along.. He is drunk (well its not so usual these days ;) and Raj has caught him by the neck to stop him from touching all sorts of things and pulling them down. He had shown us a place where the ceiling had given way and we definitely did not want to start our holiday in such a wreck.......&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Call it coincidence or a simple intution , Raj somehow remembers that this place is out of bounds for the public and we were actually trespassing into someone else's property - which actually is a serious offence under Singaporean law (and we all have heard how strict the law can be in Singapore)... So he advises us to look out for police and look for cover if someone sees them coming.... and bingo.. no points for guessing ... moments later Manan points out to a police car .... sirens turned off ...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;GOD ....... we are shit scared....... we run trying to make the least noise and go and hide in a room nearby........ There is broken glass all over the floor and imagine sitting down there with our flashlights turned off... the room barely visible in the moonlight...... We are sitting down there for about half an hour or so just to realise that the two other groups that were exploring the place like us have been caught.. Now this smells trouble cause Rahul and Neha have to leave for the airport in like 3 hrs time and here we are kneeling down in a small room in one deserted hospital with no idea what would happen if we also happened to get caught. Weve totally forgotten about all the ghosts and just want to get out of the place. After all who would want to be blacklisted by the police for some harmless fun....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Raj's NS finally comes to our rescue and we who had originally come on the lookout for ghosts are ghost walking down the building in the hope that we would finally make it..... At last we did manage to come out ..... with due thanks to Raj without whom we would never have managed to do it... especially since Neha and Rahul had decided to go to the police and tell them everything so that would have pity on us and let them go catch their flight... In hindsight... that would have been a disaster....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We roamed around the streets of Changi village for some more time ....... remembering our experiences.. running not from ghosts ... but from the police... loll :D Now I know how it feels like to be a fugitive .. atleast in part....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Thanks to Mandeep(for holding my hand so tight that I almost felt it would break.... just kidding ;).... Manan (for all the drunkard entertainment...) Neha and Rahul (for the good time...) and especially Raj without whom this trip would not have been possible.....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It was one wonderful night and I would probably remember it as one of my most memorable experiences in singapore which happens to be quite a dull place as far as adventure is concerned....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Had a pleasant flight back home... was sufferring from an entire lack of sleep for the last three days..... but the sight of the Airbus A380 at the IGI airport really did something to get me all excited... Now am back home... sleeping away to glory.. trying to forget low moments from college ... trying to get over certain issues I cannot blog about.... loving the presence of mum and dad... waiting for my sister to arrive... oh I could give thousands of reasons but I think you might just never return to read another post... ;)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Cheers people&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sparsh&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;PS : Do you actually believe all that I just made up ???  ;)&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-3646976343497909377?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/3646976343497909377/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=3646976343497909377' title='3 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/3646976343497909377'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/3646976343497909377'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2007/05/in-search-of-ghosts.html' title='In search of ghosts !'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><thr:total>3</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-6389951739947360694</id><published>2007-03-29T15:36:00.000+05:30</published><updated>2007-03-29T15:42:08.510+05:30</updated><title type='text'>Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://static.ibnlive.com/pix/sitepix/03_2007/potter_new_248.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://static.ibnlive.com/pix/sitepix/03_2007/potter_new_248.jpg" alt="" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Hi people&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Finally the wait is almost over... July 21 is the date when the most awaited book of all time (all Harry Potter books seem to breaking this record ) is going to be released.&lt;br /&gt;The cover page has been released and it seems quite interesting to me.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Read the complete story at &lt;a href="http://www.ibnlive.com/news/new-harry-potter-book-cover-revealed/top/37216-8.html?xml"&gt;IBN Live.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Waiting eagerly to get my hands on that one..&lt;br /&gt;Cheers&lt;br /&gt;Sparsh&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-6389951739947360694?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/6389951739947360694/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=6389951739947360694' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/6389951739947360694'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/6389951739947360694'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2007/03/harry-potter-and-deathly-hallows.html' title='Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-7022385814495634780</id><published>2007-03-24T03:38:00.000+05:30</published><updated>2007-03-24T03:46:43.106+05:30</updated><title type='text'>One billion hopes in the drain ..</title><content type='html'>Hi ..&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;first of all lemme tell u guys that i have just returned from a tut room watching the match on a big screen and its six in the morning and am really not in the best of moods.. i mean what a disgusting performance..&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;moving on.... the indian team has once again.. yes ...yet once again failed us... made us watch them with all our hopes.... leave all important work...... assignments.. labs (you'll be sick of them if you are a Comp Science/Eng student at NTU.. trust me) .. and for waht ... get out in the first round .. losing to pathetic teams such as Bangladesh... what a disgust...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;i am pissed.. and am sure a billion people out there back in my motherland are pissed ... we are angry ... unfortunately political parties exist .... houses will be burnt down ... there will be serious repercussions (i hate damage to public property.. am not advocating it) ..... why am i writing this.. dunno... but seriously those f****** are not paid in crores for such a show. what a shame..&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;my favourite ... my GOD till date.... Sachin.. you failed once again.. my advice - PLEASE RETIRE FROM ONE DAY INTERNATIONALS...its a heartbreak to see you get bowled.. seriously it is.... please man.... same goes out to dravid and ganguly...your time is over guys... let the team get some fresh air.&lt;br /&gt;and as for Mr. Chappell.. you tried hard.. but hard luck.. go back and coach someone else.. we are better off without you.. go die if you wish...... (sorry no offence meant to Mr. Woolmer... he was a great man and I respect him.. Chappell is different)...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;folks...I am seriously considering never watching cricket again.. but I know that wont happen..go ahead and comment.. want to hear from all you guys as well..&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;its a sad day..&lt;br /&gt;signing off...&lt;br /&gt;Sparsh&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-7022385814495634780?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/7022385814495634780/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=7022385814495634780' title='5 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/7022385814495634780'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/7022385814495634780'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2007/03/one-billion-hopes-in-drain.html' title='One billion hopes in the drain ..'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><thr:total>5</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-7484968352073645058</id><published>2007-03-18T13:41:00.000+05:30</published><updated>2007-03-18T13:42:20.948+05:30</updated><title type='text'>Please throw out Sehwag</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://static.ibnlive.com/pix/sitepix/03_2007/180307sahwagout350.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://static.ibnlive.com/pix/sitepix/03_2007/180307sahwagout350.jpg" alt="" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Hi people&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;First of all I am really really disappointed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Am sure all of you are &lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;upset by the upsets &lt;/span&gt;(especially India's) that were created yesterday in the World Cup.&lt;br /&gt;There are some serious decisions which India needs to make to ensure a place in the Super 8 - which by no means is out of bounds yet, but of course another dismal performance would lead the pre-tournament favorites back to India.&lt;br /&gt;I think most of you would agree with me on the fact that &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;having Sehwag open the innings is like opening the game with one wicket down&lt;/span&gt;...&lt;br /&gt;Why was he taken is no mystery.. Our good for nothing captain had full faith in him (not that we have faith in our captain either.. it was a pathetic show by him). But now since he has repeatedly failed it makes no sense for India to continue with Sehwag in the game against Bermuda since India will have to defeat them by a big margin if they are even thinking of entering the Super 8 - which I again repeat is still achievable.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So fellas, lets hope Sehwag doesn't play in the match tomorrow, I am looking forward to a fantastic performance .Lets wait and watch.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;More cricket on the &lt;a href="http://caribbeanworldcup.blogspot.com"&gt;World Cup Cricket &lt;/a&gt;Blog.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;cheers&lt;br /&gt;Sparsh&lt;br /&gt;&lt;script type="text/javascript"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;digg_bgcolor = '#ccddbb';&lt;br /&gt;digg_skin = 'compact';&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-7484968352073645058?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/7484968352073645058/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=7484968352073645058' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/7484968352073645058'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/7484968352073645058'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2007/03/please-throw-out-sehwag.html' title='Please throw out Sehwag'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-3411782460054787601</id><published>2007-03-14T08:57:00.000+05:30</published><updated>2007-03-14T08:58:48.329+05:30</updated><title type='text'>West Indies thrash Pakistan......</title><content type='html'>Hey people...&lt;br /&gt;So my first prediction regarding the world cup has come true. (See I was unbiased... sarcastic smile...lol :D) So West Indies finished off the game in style. Honestly speaking it was a dismal performance by the Pakis , I had expected a better show. West Indies on the other hand... brilliant team performance..... (Thats why I put all my money on themmm.... lol .. but wait a minute .. i did not bet ... ) Sorry folks for my weird style of writing today ..... Its been induced by my early morning hangover.... got up at 730.. shit.. .computer engineering can take a toll on ones life... (wait a minute.. this is not my personal blog.. all that on &lt;a href="http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/"&gt;http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com&lt;/a&gt; (Vivek am sure you'll pardon me for advertising here.... hehe ) today Aussies take on the Scottish... I feel sorry for them (the Scottish ofcourse)..... Although I am an ardent opposer of the Aussie team (what does Ponting think of himself.... am referring to the Gavaskar controversy) but still I am sure they are going to slaughter themm... sorry Scotts.... i deeply sympathise...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Cheers people&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sparsh&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-3411782460054787601?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/3411782460054787601/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=3411782460054787601' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/3411782460054787601'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/3411782460054787601'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2007/03/west-indies-thrash-pakistan.html' title='West Indies thrash Pakistan......'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-4162294199508803493</id><published>2007-03-12T16:47:00.000+05:30</published><updated>2007-03-12T17:01:10.439+05:30</updated><title type='text'>The Week that wasn't</title><content type='html'>hey ppl&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;this is certainly my favourite show on Indian television... cheers to you Cyrus... Here is the latest episode.. ( this one is full of world cup action ... cant stop laughing :) )&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;object width='420' height='392'&gt;&lt;param name='movie' value='http://features.ibnlive.com/videos/embed/35825/C1520A46F5A03B820B85FADC2E7111C8385B6EFE0E8D09D692202B007C9F6465250AF9776187481B42E0EC7A9A0B83F19C6669118A745B72F748D35FA7C37F761936987A72230CCF706CC6514F07FFBC4BC54C87F3C5'&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;param name='wmode' value='transparent'&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;embed src='http://features.ibnlive.com/videos/embed/35825/C1520A46F5A03B820B85FADC2E7111C8385B6EFE0E8D09D692202B007C9F6465250AF9776187481B42E0EC7A9A0B83F19C6669118A745B72F748D35FA7C37F761936987A72230CCF706CC6514F07FFBC4BC54C87F3C5' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' wmode='transparent' width='420' height='392'&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;object width='420' height='392'&gt;&lt;param name='movie' value='http://features.ibnlive.com/videos/embed/35825/C1520A46F5A03B820B85FADC2E7111C8385B6EFE0E8D09D692202B007C9F6465250AF9776187481B42E0EC7A9A0B83F19C6669118A745B72F748D35FA7C37F761936987A72230CCF706CC6514F07FFBC4BC64C87F3C5'&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;param name='wmode' value='transparent'&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;embed src='http://features.ibnlive.com/videos/embed/35825/C1520A46F5A03B820B85FADC2E7111C8385B6EFE0E8D09D692202B007C9F6465250AF9776187481B42E0EC7A9A0B83F19C6669118A745B72F748D35FA7C37F761936987A72230CCF706CC6514F07FFBC4BC64C87F3C5' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' wmode='transparent' width='420' height='392'&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;object width='420' height='392'&gt;&lt;param name='movie' value='http://features.ibnlive.com/videos/embed/35825/C1520A46F5A03B820B85FADC2E7111C8385B6EFE0E8D09D692202B007C9F6465250AF9776187481B42E0EC7A9A0B83F19C6669118A745B72F748D35FA7C37F761936987A72230CCF706CC6514F07FFBC4BC74C87F3C5'&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;param name='wmode' value='transparent'&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;embed src='http://features.ibnlive.com/videos/embed/35825/C1520A46F5A03B820B85FADC2E7111C8385B6EFE0E8D09D692202B007C9F6465250AF9776187481B42E0EC7A9A0B83F19C6669118A745B72F748D35FA7C37F761936987A72230CCF706CC6514F07FFBC4BC74C87F3C5' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' wmode='transparent' width='420' height='392'&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-4162294199508803493?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/4162294199508803493/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=4162294199508803493' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/4162294199508803493'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/4162294199508803493'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2007/03/week-that-wasnt.html' title='The Week that wasn&apos;t'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-1676606988829717980</id><published>2007-03-11T15:51:00.000+05:30</published><updated>2007-03-11T15:51:35.253+05:30</updated><title type='text'>Cricket World Cup 2007: The moment is here</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://caribbeanworldcup.blogspot.com/2007/03/moment-is-here.html"&gt;Cricket World Cup 2007: The moment is here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-1676606988829717980?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='related' href='http://caribbeanworldcup.blogspot.com/2007/03/moment-is-here.html' title='Cricket World Cup 2007: The moment is here'/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/1676606988829717980/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=1676606988829717980' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/1676606988829717980'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/1676606988829717980'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2007/03/cricket-world-cup-2007-moment-is-here.html' title='Cricket World Cup 2007: The moment is here'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-1167838286584830811</id><published>2007-03-10T14:28:00.000+05:30</published><updated>2007-03-10T14:28:14.037+05:30</updated><title type='text'>Cricket World Cup 2007: Fans await Tendulkar Magic</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://caribbeanworldcup.blogspot.com/2007/03/fans-await-tendulkar-magic.html"&gt;Cricket World Cup 2007: Fans await Tendulkar Magic&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-1167838286584830811?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='related' href='http://caribbeanworldcup.blogspot.com/2007/03/fans-await-tendulkar-magic.html' title='Cricket World Cup 2007: Fans await Tendulkar Magic'/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/1167838286584830811/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=1167838286584830811' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/1167838286584830811'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/1167838286584830811'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2007/03/cricket-world-cup-2007-fans-await.html' title='Cricket World Cup 2007: Fans await Tendulkar Magic'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-8392949425471216547</id><published>2007-02-24T01:39:00.000+05:30</published><updated>2007-02-24T01:43:16.074+05:30</updated><title type='text'>Satisfaction Guaranteed ... !</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images.google.com.sg/images?q=tbn:8hfIHcbFP5fAWM:http://www.pizzahutbd.com/images/logo.gif"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 116px;" src="http://images.google.com.sg/images?q=tbn:8hfIHcbFP5fAWM:http://www.pizzahutbd.com/images/logo.gif" alt="" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Well people all of us wonder whether the people at Pizza Hut actually mean it, when they proclaim free pizzas for unsatisfactory service..&lt;br /&gt;Thanks to my friend Shekhar, I have experienced this not once, not twice but three times in a row ... and that too in the same outlet at Jurong Point :D&lt;br /&gt;Shekhar must be thanking his stars cause the people at Pizza Hut just do not seem to get his order right..... Once they missed the capsicum .... once they gave us a regular for a large one and today they removed the tomatoes instead of the mushrooms.....lol ....(the event that inspires me to write this post.... though am struck with a hangover ... well its understandable.... its 4 am ..)&lt;br /&gt;It was our first time in a PH here in Singapore... it was Sulabh's bday treat (yes "MR." Sulabh I am mentioning you here...)&lt;br /&gt;Shekhar was telling us how he used to have free pizzas back in good old India for small faults of theirs' and most of us including me were thinking he was just bragging... we were proved wrong however ... and it dint take too long either.....&lt;br /&gt;It was a hillarious scene for all those who were present there. we seemed to have realised that our family size pizza was missing its Capsicum .... and that was something cause we had already eaten half .. yes half of the God-damned family size pizza before we actually realised.... and everyone obviously turned to Shekhar to prove his point...&lt;br /&gt;fortunately for us... Shekhar gathered the guts and called on the staff to explain.... it was kind of a scene that was created... the manager came in and apologized for the mistake (am sure he was quite pissed.. we had eaten half of the wonderful thing... Lol :D ) .... we got a full Family Size Pizza in return and we were all quite thankful to Shekhar while enjoying the extra slices.... none of us had really thought something similar would happen the next time we would step into the same PH.....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To cut a long story short the next they gave us a regular pizza and this time we realised their mistake almost instantly. but since we were in a hurry (we had to be on time to view Eklavya... refer to last post... ) we requested them to give us another regular asap... and thankfully again.. it was with best complements from our beloved... Pizza Hut.... :D&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The third time (this also happens to be my third time in it along with Shekhar... )that is today.... we really customised our Pizzas and Shekhar was in the hope that they would miss something.. and once again... OMG.... once again .... they removed the tomatoes along with the mushrooms and this time again Shekhar realised it only half way through his pizza (unfortunately it was a personal size this time... lol ) ... and trust me even the pizza that they got in return dint have it alright.... They dint remove the mushrooms ... hahahahahahahahahahahaha&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Well I dont know why.. but the humane part got the better of us and we made a really sad face to the attending person from PH and told him that look its really against Shekhar to eat Mushrooms (lol) but since we dont have so much time ( we had already waited an extra 20 mins for the new replacement pizza) we were going to somehow manage...... how nice... lol :D&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I dont know how Shekhar does it... but man... he surely is very_very lucky at the Pizza Hut.. So next time you want to have a slice of your favourite pizza .. dont forget to take Shekhar along....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Cheers&lt;br /&gt;Sparsh&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here is a pic that comes straight from the man himself.... lol :D&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/Rd9KT3Gs9II/AAAAAAAAAA4/iIEZdqWdENE/s1600-h/Image047.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/Rd9KT3Gs9II/AAAAAAAAAA4/iIEZdqWdENE/s320/Image047.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5034824613493535874" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;PS : Dont go on his innocent looks... lol :D&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-8392949425471216547?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/8392949425471216547/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=8392949425471216547' title='7 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/8392949425471216547'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/8392949425471216547'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2007/02/satisfaction-guaranteed.html' title='Satisfaction Guaranteed ... !'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/Rd9KT3Gs9II/AAAAAAAAAA4/iIEZdqWdENE/s72-c/Image047.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>7</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-1586589891203139106</id><published>2007-02-19T22:23:00.000+05:30</published><updated>2007-02-19T23:01:57.015+05:30</updated><title type='text'>Eklavya , esplanade , fest , music , bowling...... hmmm its been an interesting weekend</title><content type='html'>The last three days have really been the most exciting of my stay here in Singapore...&lt;br /&gt;My friends and me decided to start the two week vacation (well its almost two weeks ....only 2 days of classes in the middle....) by watching Eklavya at Jade..... it was a nice movie though some dint like it but what was really amazing was the walk down what is truly the landmark in Singapore .... the Esplanade ... sitting beside the merlion , shekhar , siddhant , raghul and me chatted away for hours finally walking by the Fullerton .... down till the Parliament area and then back to NTU ... (hehe ... we din walk down to NTU.. God! that would have been a feat.... )&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On Sunday we had this really cool Indian fest called Tarang and people from SMU and NUS had also come down to NTU to take part in the fun..... The Quiz was a disaster.... i kept singing... "&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;yeh kahaan aa gaye humm&lt;/span&gt;" ...lol .... the singing was induced by a hangover due to the really late night practice that we had on Saturday for the band performance.... ) .... wait a minute.. .did i say Band performance.... that was the most exciting part of the evening..... we had solo singing before that where i sang Such Keh Raha Hai Deewana from RHTDM ............ The band performance was really really really ...... cooooooooooool.... We people did 4 numbers which were falwless (atleast according to the band )... haha ... well I was personally expecting (or to put it honestly fearing )that the SMU people would throw stuff at us... lol :D there were a lot of technical snags during their performance and there was a lot of booing going on.. so we expected something back in return..... fortunately nothing of that sort happened... and for this thanks to the SMU people... I really was sympathetic with your band... (my buddies from SGC ... nitish and Rishabh were in the SMU band ).....Though we dint win (I dint win in the solos either... ) , I think that the crowd had a fairly nice time.....&lt;br /&gt;A special mention here to the NUS Indian band which was amazing ... the violins were absolutely fantastic.. I do not have a video of that ... it was really professional... it seemed to me that I was attending some sort of an international concert... it was that good.. Hats off to you people.... :D&lt;br /&gt;Had a nice time meeting my pals Nitish and Mishti at the event..... It was a bit frustrating though that were really interested in seeing the entire thing (even i was) and we dint get enough time to talk .. will catch them sometime later.... its sad sometimes being in the same city we hardly get time to meet each other..... man NTU is so isolated from the rest of Singapore... (in a way its good as well.... A university best functions in a sub urban campus......... )&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Overall its been an amazing weekend.... Will never forget it ..... now its time to cover up lagging work... and trust me there is loads of it..... Website Designing competitions have a bad tendency of giving  headaches and I have threeeee of them simultaneously to deal with ..uffffffffffffff...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;anyways people ... wishing you a Happy Chinese New Year.. (haha am sure most of you reading this blog wont even know that such a thing exists... unless you are studying in Singapore..... )&lt;br /&gt;Cheers&lt;br /&gt;Sparsh&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;PS : Check out the videos of my performance in Tarang in my orkut profile.. that is if you have the time.... lol :D&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-1586589891203139106?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/1586589891203139106/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=1586589891203139106' title='8 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/1586589891203139106'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/1586589891203139106'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2007/02/eklavya-esplanade-fest-music-bowling.html' title='Eklavya , esplanade , fest , music , bowling...... hmmm its been an interesting weekend'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><thr:total>8</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-3866154388420266625</id><published>2007-02-08T19:17:00.000+05:30</published><updated>2007-02-05T15:39:23.497+05:30</updated><title type='text'>India Poised</title><content type='html'>Hey people&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This is a really interesting video from the website http://www.indiapoised.com ... DO have a look..&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center; width: 194px; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 83%;" align="center"&gt;&lt;div style="background: transparent url(http://picasaweb.google.com/f/img/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat scroll left center; height: 194px; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/sparshpolly/IndiaPoised"&gt;&lt;img src="http://lh4.google.com/image/sparshpolly/Rcsqfjjjh2E/AAAAAAAAAAk/XHEEyc4yv-M/s160-c/IndiaPoised.jpg" style="border: medium none ; padding: 0px; margin-top: 16px;" height="160" width="160" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/sparshpolly/IndiaPoised"&gt;&lt;div style="color: rgb(77, 77, 77); font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"&gt;India Poised&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128);"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Lets take India forward.&lt;br /&gt;Cheers&lt;br /&gt;Sparsh&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-3866154388420266625?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/3866154388420266625/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=3866154388420266625' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/3866154388420266625'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/3866154388420266625'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2007/02/india-poised.html' title='India Poised'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-6749844260272650107</id><published>2007-02-05T15:06:00.000+05:30</published><updated>2007-02-05T15:39:23.534+05:30</updated><title type='text'>NTU Model UN 2007</title><content type='html'>Hey people....&lt;br /&gt;The last week certainly has been one of  the most hectic days at NTU for me. It was great fun though.&lt;br /&gt;This was my second Model United Nations conference so I had a decent idea about the proceedings of the councils and decided to do something different. So I took part as a member of the Press Corps - the Fox News Team . It was a tough job, staying awake almost the entire night compiling the articles together ... We made some great newsletters for the delegates and though we did not win , it was a great experience working with some wonderful people (this goes out especially to Dei and Ketki ) . The pressure of working under fixed deadlines was tremendous but at the end of the day, it was a huge learning experience. Though it really hurt in the end on not being mentioned during the vote of thanks for the effort on making the event's website (every other member of the organising committee was mentioned. :( &lt;br /&gt;Here are the pdf's of the newsletters that we had made for the MUN . Hope you find them interesting. I would really appreciate any feedback.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Cheers&lt;br /&gt;Sparsh&lt;br /&gt;&lt;table align="center" width="80%"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td align="center"&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.ntudebsoc.org/MUN/Fox/News1.pdf"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/Rcb_u5b6cdI/AAAAAAAAACU/ep9eciLsubI/s320/Newsletter_1.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5027987215162700242" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;td width="20%"&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.ntudebsoc.org/MUN/Fox/News2.pdf"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/Rcb_2pb6ceI/AAAAAAAAACc/1PfBnSl7a3E/s320/Newsletter_2.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5027987348306686434" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td width="25%"&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.ntudebsoc.org/MUN/Fox/News3.pdf"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/Rcb_2pb6cfI/AAAAAAAAACk/BrLuQYkTFcE/s320/Newsletter_3.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5027987348306686450" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;td align="center" width="25%"&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.ntudebsoc.org/MUN/Fox/News4.pdf"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/Rcb_2pb6cgI/AAAAAAAAACs/AAFn5jxKikY/s320/Newsletter_4.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5027987348306686466" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-6749844260272650107?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/6749844260272650107/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=6749844260272650107' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/6749844260272650107'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/6749844260272650107'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2007/02/ntu-model-un-2007.html' title='NTU Model UN 2007'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/Rcb_u5b6cdI/AAAAAAAAACU/ep9eciLsubI/s72-c/Newsletter_1.gif' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-2805552903971457080</id><published>2007-01-02T10:31:00.000+05:30</published><updated>2007-01-02T11:09:41.752+05:30</updated><title type='text'>A new dawn !</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/RZnncR0TI4I/AAAAAAAAAA4/V_FX-h53fbA/s1600-h/13.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/RZnncR0TI4I/AAAAAAAAAA4/V_FX-h53fbA/s400/13.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5015294133058872194" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Hi people....&lt;br /&gt;First things first. A very Happy New Year . Hope you had a great time celebrating the arrival of yet another year, so full of hope; awaiting great things that you always craved for.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2006 has been one of the best years' of my life. I finally graduated from High School to enter a university in league with the best in the world. My sister got married to her dream guy (and yes the wedding was no less than a dream wedding.) I attended this fabulous conference in the US, met some awesome people, made some great friends and saw some of the most amazing places (the Federal Reserve Bank, White House, UN Headquarters to name a few :)  . There were times full of tension and loads of confusion as well but looking back, 2006 has truly been one of the most defining years of my life.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/RZnu5h0TI6I/AAAAAAAAABQ/lx06DUtJizM/s1600-h/11.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/RZnu5h0TI6I/AAAAAAAAABQ/lx06DUtJizM/s320/11.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5015302332151440290" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;The time has passed by and now we enter into another new year. A new year which brings new hope and increased energy to pursue our goals with greater intent. Time flies by and there are times when we look back to realise that had we worked a little harder; things would have certainly been better.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So I take a resolve this new year - not to let any opportunity go past , so that I do not turn back , just to wish that I should have worked harder; and so I hope for all of you.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I wish you a Happy and Successful 2007 .&lt;br /&gt;May it be the most defining year of your life.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Cheers&lt;br /&gt;Sparsh&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-2805552903971457080?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/2805552903971457080/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=2805552903971457080' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/2805552903971457080'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/2805552903971457080'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2007/01/new-dawn.html' title='A new dawn !'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/RZnncR0TI4I/AAAAAAAAAA4/V_FX-h53fbA/s72-c/13.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-2802467290546683801</id><published>2006-12-09T13:26:00.000+05:30</published><updated>2006-12-09T13:39:40.300+05:30</updated><title type='text'>GYLC Pictures</title><content type='html'>Hey people...&lt;br /&gt;Here are some pictures from  my trip to the GYLC...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/RXpti-pWcNI/AAAAAAAAAAM/VTtoyaxeelg/s1600-h/DSC01814.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/RXpti-pWcNI/AAAAAAAAAAM/VTtoyaxeelg/s400/DSC01814.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5006434383475142866" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Dhruv (2nd from right) and me (extreme right) getting ready for a conference session at manhattan college , NYC.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/RXptjOpWcOI/AAAAAAAAAAU/GS3LjoD93xY/s1600-h/DSC01931.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/RXptjOpWcOI/AAAAAAAAAAU/GS3LjoD93xY/s400/DSC01931.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5006434387770110178" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;The USA group aboard the farewell cruise .... miss u people...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/RXptjupWcPI/AAAAAAAAAAc/WYBIld4PtV0/s1600-h/DSC01904.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/RXptjupWcPI/AAAAAAAAAAc/WYBIld4PtV0/s400/DSC01904.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5006434396360044786" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;With some friends of the USA group in the United Nations conference room for the final summit.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Will add more pictures later..&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;cheers&lt;br /&gt;Sparsh&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-2802467290546683801?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/2802467290546683801/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=2802467290546683801' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/2802467290546683801'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/2802467290546683801'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2006/12/gylc-pictures.html' title='GYLC Pictures'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Iw_UgvlxUfM/RXpti-pWcNI/AAAAAAAAAAM/VTtoyaxeelg/s72-c/DSC01814.JPG' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-280625141297832443</id><published>2006-12-06T22:04:00.001+05:30</published><updated>2006-12-06T22:25:40.889+05:30</updated><title type='text'>GYLC (2)</title><content type='html'>Here is the first of many to come detailed posts on my experience in the GYLC. Am trying to give a very honest picture of the conference, including the very few shortcomings that I found as well. Hope you find the post useful....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Day 1 : &lt;/span&gt;Well after a long and really tiring flight , it was a great relief to finally arrived at the Dulles International Airport in Washington DC and not being bothered by the excessive American Airports security.  As I stepped outside , the lush green and extremely clean surroundings really impressed me. Well people DC does not have the huge skyscrapers everyone imagines while thinking of America . There is a  rule here which states that none of the buildings in the city can be taller than the Washington Monument , which though is very tall but cant exactly be classified as a skyscraper.&lt;br /&gt;The hotel in which we were accomodated was good. Unfortunately the food really sucked , literally even for the non vegetarians and you can well imagine what it would have been for a vegetarian like me.&lt;br /&gt;We were then informed about our groups which had already been assigned randomly for each one of us. I happened to be a part of an amazing group of people and we were representing USA at the conference.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Day 2:  &lt;/span&gt;Well there were a total of 360 people at this conference so the people here had made 16 country groups of &lt;span id="st" name="st" class="st"&gt;about&lt;/span&gt; 20 people each. The whole process was quite interesting. It would be really difficult to explain it completely, however I can say that these country groups would go on to participate in a Global summit on the last day of the conference in a manner to how a summit actually takes place in the United Nations. The best part of  it is that the Global Summit of the &lt;span id="st" name="st" class="st"&gt;GYLC&lt;/span&gt; actually took place in the United Nations Headquarters Auditorium in New York city. We got a chance to listen to Mr Craig kielburger from an organisation called Free the Children. It was amazing to hear the accomplishments of the speaker (including a nomination for the nobel peace prize) who was just 22 years old. More on him can be found at the organisations website &lt;a href="http://www.freethechildren.com/aboutus/craigmarc/craigkielburger.htm"&gt;http://www.freethechildren.com/aboutus/craigmarc/craigkielburger.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Day 3,4,5 :  &lt;/span&gt;Saw lots of monuments in DC , and I must say there are really a large number of them in here. To name a few interesting ones were the Lincoln memorial , the Thomas Jefferson memorial , world war 2 memorial etc. etc.....  One really remarkable place was the American National Holocaust Museum. It was really a pain to walk through the entire museum and feeling the plight of the people who were there at that time. There were some real videos of the incident and trust me they were really moving. I even had nightmares during sleep that night. Also visited the American Air and Space Museum and it was the coolest place I have ever seen till now. There were actual space capsules that were used during the earlier years of the US Space program .There were loads of aircraft , of all types from commercial to military fighter jets. Then there were some really cool Flight Simulator games within the museum which one could play sitting inside of models of various super cool aircraft and unfortunately due to lack of time I could not make use of it...... :(   I could write a whole page &lt;span id="st" name="st" class="st"&gt;about&lt;/span&gt; the Space Museum but I realise that I might just be boring you guys.&lt;br /&gt;By the way there is this huge place in Washington DC called the national mall where all the memorials and the museums are located . The White House , the Washington memorial and the Senate lie in one straight line at the center of the mall in a similar fashion of the India Gate and the Rashtrapati bhawan in New Delhi . It is a really beautiful place. But one drawback was that it was really really expensive. For an example a bottle of water on the national mall costed arounf 2$ . I also got an opportunity to get photos clicked in front of the White House. It is a really small building compared to the Presidents House in India..... Hurray !&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;More in another post....&lt;br /&gt;Cheers&lt;br /&gt;Sparsh&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-280625141297832443?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/280625141297832443/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=280625141297832443' title='3 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/280625141297832443'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/280625141297832443'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2006/12/gylc-2_06.html' title='GYLC (2)'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><thr:total>3</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-1958803976518877182</id><published>2006-12-06T21:58:00.000+05:30</published><updated>2006-12-06T22:04:40.394+05:30</updated><title type='text'>GYLC</title><content type='html'>Hey people&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Looking at visitor statistics I realised that a post on GYLC is probably the major portion of all the traffic to my blog. This post is for all those people who are looking on some information on what the Global Young Leaders Conference or the GYLC is all about.... This also goes in dedication to the most wonderful group at the GYLC 2006 conference - USA ... really miss all you guys...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This is a short version which I also happened to send as a student feedback for the official GYLC website (http://www.cylc.org/gylc)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Having crossed half the globe to Washington DC, I had very high expectations from the Global Young Leaders Conference, and I was pretty excited to meet up with all the interesting people there. The conference was a great intellectual experience especially the briefings in the World Bank and the United Nations. I must confess that the charm of the whole thing was a bit overwhelming. Never before I had brainstormed myself in regard to world issues and thought in the way a diplomat would. It is no wonder that my entire perspective &lt;span id="st" name="st" class="st"&gt;about&lt;/span&gt; world issues and globalisation has changed forever and the entire credit goes to the &lt;span id="st" name="st" class="st"&gt;GYLC&lt;/span&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I also made strong friendships with some amazing people in my peer Group (which happened to be USA) and also with many other interesting people. I am studying away from my motherland (India) here in Singapore , and I am thankful to the &lt;span id="st" name="st" class="st"&gt;GYLC&lt;/span&gt; for preparing me in the most subtle way to interact with people from so many different cultures, communities, who thought in such a different way and had a completely different way of life other than my own.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Having been through it myslef I can confidently say that &lt;span id="st" name="st" class="st"&gt;GYLC&lt;/span&gt; is something that every global citizen must experience.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Cheers&lt;br /&gt;Sparsh&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-1958803976518877182?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/1958803976518877182/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=1958803976518877182' title='4 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/1958803976518877182'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/1958803976518877182'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2006/12/gylc.html' title='GYLC'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><thr:total>4</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-6344989278422632924</id><published>2006-11-26T22:07:00.000+05:30</published><updated>2006-11-26T22:09:39.324+05:30</updated><title type='text'>Going home...  Finally !</title><content type='html'>First of all..&lt;br /&gt;yohoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This is the best part of the year. After 2 weeks in the US and 4 months in Singapore , I finally get to go back home for a whole month.. yipeeeeeeeee !&lt;br /&gt;Just cant wait to get on the JetStar flight now . Just 5 more days to go ...Unfortunately 4 of those 5 days happen to be examination days... but no worries :)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To all those ppl going back home for a great holiday ,a high five.........&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Enjoy urself ppl..&lt;br /&gt;Cheers&lt;br /&gt;Sparsh&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-6344989278422632924?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/6344989278422632924/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=6344989278422632924' title='3 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/6344989278422632924'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/6344989278422632924'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2006/11/going-home-finally.html' title='Going home...  Finally !'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><thr:total>3</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-8517056053706053332</id><published>2006-11-14T16:07:00.000+05:30</published><updated>2006-11-14T16:10:32.702+05:30</updated><title type='text'>To my alma mater...</title><content type='html'>Hey ppl..&lt;br /&gt;This post is dedicated to  the place I love the most.... St. George's....&lt;br /&gt;Am a manorite at heart .. forever....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://pics-47.hi5.com/userpics/847/128/128424847.img.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://pics-47.hi5.com/userpics/847/128/128424847.img.jpg" alt="" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Home of our childhood, our boy hood, our youth,&lt;br /&gt;Where there is courage and honour and truth, &lt;br /&gt;Where we are taught how to seek for the right,&lt;br /&gt;Struggle and conquer in life's great fight.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;--------------------------------------------------------------------------------&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;`Virtue and Labour'. Our motto we'll strive,&lt;br /&gt;Ever to follow and keep alive.&lt;br /&gt;Ideal and aims that it teaches us here,&lt;br /&gt;True to St. George, our patron dear.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;--------------------------------------------------------------------------------&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;God bless St. George's! Let this be our prayer,&lt;br /&gt;That he always have our school in His care.&lt;br /&gt;Ever our banner we'll keep flying high,&lt;br /&gt;For God and the truth we'll live or we'll die.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-8517056053706053332?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/8517056053706053332/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=8517056053706053332' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/8517056053706053332'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/8517056053706053332'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2006/11/to-my-alma-mater.html' title='To my alma mater...'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-6632932221406760770</id><published>2006-10-28T00:36:00.000+05:30</published><updated>2006-10-28T00:41:16.583+05:30</updated><title type='text'>The Race</title><content type='html'>Hey ppl.....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This is the most amazing piece I have ever come across.. This one dedicated to St. George's .. Love that place...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;&lt;span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:12;"  &gt;Whenever I start to hang my head in front of failure’s face, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:12;"  &gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;my downward fall is broken by the memory of a race. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;A children’s race, young boys, young men; how I remember well, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;excitement sure, but also fear, it wasn’t hard to tell. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;They all lined up so full of hope, each thought to win that race &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;or tie for first, or if not that, at least take second place. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;Their parents watched from off the side, each cheering for their son, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;and each boy hoped to show his folks that he would be the one. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;The whistle blew and off they flew, like chariots of fire, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;to win, to be the hero there, was each young boy’s desire. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;One boy in particular, whose dad was in the crowd, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;was running in the lead and thought “My dad will be so proud.” &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;But as he speeded down the field and crossed a shallow dip, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;the little boy who thought he’d win, lost his step and slipped. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;Trying hard to catch himself, his arms flew everyplace, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;and midst the laughter of the crowd he fell flat on his face. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;As he fell, his hope fell too; he couldn’t win it now. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;Humiliated, he just wished to disappear somehow. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;But as he fell his dad stood up and showed his anxious face, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;which to the boy so clearly said, “Get up and win that race!” &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;He quickly rose, no damage done, behind a bit that’s all, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;and ran with all his mind and might to make up for his fall. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;So anxious to restore himself, to catch up and to win, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;his mind went faster than his legs. He slipped and fell again. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;He wished that he had quit before with only one disgrace. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;“I’m hopeless as a runner now, I shouldn’t try to race.” &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;But through the laughing crowd he searched and found his father’s face &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;with a steady look that said again, “Get up and win that race!” &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;So he jumped up to try again, ten yards behind the last. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;“If I’m to gain those yards,” he thought, “I’ve got to run real fast!” &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;Exceeding everything he had, he regained eight, then ten... &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;but trying hard to catch the lead, he slipped and fell again. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;Defeat! He lay there silently. A tear dropped from his eye. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;“There’s no sense running anymore! &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;Three strikes I’m out! Why try? I’ve lost, so what’s the use?” he thought. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;“I’ll live with my disgrace.” &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;But then he thought about his dad, who soon he’d have to face. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;“Get up,” an echo sounded low, “you haven’t lost at all, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;for all you have to do to win is rise each time you fall. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;Get up!” the echo urged him on, “Get up and take your place! &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;You were not meant for failure here! Get up and win that race!” &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;So, up he rose to run once more, refusing to forfeit, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;and he resolved that win or lose, at least he wouldn’t quit. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;So far behind the others now, the most he’d ever been, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;still he gave it all he had and ran like he could win. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;Three times he’d fallen stumbling, three times he rose again. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;Too far behind to hope to win, he still ran to the end. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;They cheered another boy who crossed the line and won first place, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;head high and proud and happy -- no falling, no disgrace. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;But, when the fallen youngster crossed the line, in last place, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;the crowd gave him a greater cheer for finishing the race. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;And even though he came in last with head bowed low, unproud, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;you would have thought he’d won the race, to listen to the crowd. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;And to his dad he sadly said, “I didn’t do so well.” &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;“To me, you won,” his father said. “You rose each time you fell.” &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;And now when things seem dark and bleak and difficult to face, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;the memory of that little boy helps me in my own race. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;For all of life is like that race, with ups and downs and all. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;And all you have to do to win is rise each time you fall. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;And when depression and despair shout loudly in my face, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="postbody"&gt;another voice within me says, &lt;b&gt;“Get up and win that race!”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Cheers&lt;br /&gt;Sparsh&lt;/b&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-6632932221406760770?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/6632932221406760770/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=6632932221406760770' title='4 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/6632932221406760770'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/6632932221406760770'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2006/10/race.html' title='The Race'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><thr:total>4</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-8997432755294503708</id><published>2006-10-20T09:08:00.000+05:30</published><updated>2006-10-20T09:19:48.805+05:30</updated><title type='text'>Life goes on....</title><content type='html'>Hey....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;well its been over 3 months in Singapore and honestly its started to get kinda boring. Yeah you do the same things over and over again (sleeping with increased intensity :) ).... Its a small place so not much to see either and the worst nightmares are yet to arrive - the exams... dont know why but this vicious cycle of examinations never seems to get away from life... just cant wait to get out of university and do something real for a change...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Well on a more optimistic note.... Computer Science definitely turned out to be my cup of tea. Java classes are real fun.. (not kiddin.... ) and the labs give you the feeling that you are doing something worthwhile.. not like the kiddy things we used to do back in the bad school days in 11th and 12th (yes I still remember them with regret... :(&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Well people.. finally i wish you all a very happy Diwali ... have a great time.. I publicly declare that I envy all of you who are back at home for the Diwali holidays.. missing home like hell.. cant wait to get on the Jet Star flight on the 2nd... wait ! havent I told you my flight plan yet ???????????&lt;br /&gt;I am coming home for one full month in December ..&lt;strong&gt;yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee&lt;/strong&gt;.... since I decided to save on some cash this time I am travelling low budget (probably youve never even heard of Jet Star before...it takes you to Bangalore.. even though I want to reach delhi... lol.. catching a Deccan flight from there...i know it couldnt have been worse... but thats what a shortage of cash leads to.... Low cost airlines... :(&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Anyways....&lt;br /&gt;Looking forward to your replies.. Makes me feel good that atleast someone is reading this blog :o&lt;br /&gt;Cheers&lt;br /&gt;Sparsh&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-8997432755294503708?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/8997432755294503708/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=8997432755294503708' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/8997432755294503708'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/8997432755294503708'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2006/10/life-goes-on.html' title='Life goes on....'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-7013512220090336166</id><published>2006-08-29T00:34:00.001+05:30</published><updated>2006-08-29T00:35:34.422+05:30</updated><title type='text'>Long time indeed</title><content type='html'>&lt;p align="justify"&gt;Hey people….&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p align="justify"&gt;Nice to see you wasting your precious time reading my blog.. But since you have already done that I hope you would not mind reading on… Just kidding… Thanks for coming here….&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p align="justify"&gt;Well life has been really on a roll since the past one month. Was in the dilemma of college admission which unfortunately every Indian has to undergo. (Wish I could change that) Finally after a lot of mental stress and trauma :)  I finally decided to land up in Singapore - Nanyang Technological University.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p align="justify"&gt;But there is something really interesting that happened in the middle of all this … I will write a separate post for that.. I think it is just too vast…. Singapore is a really nice place and I think it deserves another post as well….&lt;br /&gt;For the time being thanks again for visiting my blog. Hope you come back again …………&lt;br /&gt;Cheers&lt;br /&gt;Sparsh &lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-7013512220090336166?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/7013512220090336166/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=7013512220090336166' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/7013512220090336166'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/7013512220090336166'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2006/08/long-time-indeed_29.html' title='Long time indeed'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-5453324142667726930</id><published>2006-08-29T00:34:00.000+05:30</published><updated>2006-08-29T00:35:03.761+05:30</updated><title type='text'>Long time indeed</title><content type='html'>&lt;p align="justify"&gt;Hey people….&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p align="justify"&gt;Nice to see you wasting your precious time reading my blog.. But since you have already done that I hope you would not mind reading on… Just kidding… Thanks for coming here….&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p align="justify"&gt;Well life has been really on a roll since the past one month. Was in the dilemma of college admission which unfortunately every Indian has to undergo. (Wish I could change that) Finally after a lot of mental stress and trauma &lt;img src="http://sparshpolly.wordpress.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif" alt=":)" class="wp-smiley" /&gt;  I finally decided to land up in Singapore - Nanyang Technological University.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p align="justify"&gt;But there is something really interesting that happened in the middle of all this … I will write a separate post for that.. I think it is just too vast…. Singapore is a really nice place and I think it deserves another post as well….&lt;br /&gt;For the time being thanks again for visiting my blog. Hope you come back again …………&lt;br /&gt;Cheers&lt;br /&gt;Sparsh &lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-5453324142667726930?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/5453324142667726930/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=5453324142667726930' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/5453324142667726930'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/5453324142667726930'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2006/08/long-time-indeed.html' title='Long time indeed'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-115106795952048361</id><published>2006-06-23T18:27:00.000+05:30</published><updated>2006-06-23T18:44:13.546+05:30</updated><title type='text'>GYLC... Here I come</title><content type='html'>&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Well to all those who are hearing this term for the first time....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;GYLC stands for the Global Young Leaders Conference (sounds impressive isnt it.... :)&lt;br /&gt;Me and &lt;a href="http://methead.blogspot.com/"&gt;Dhruv&lt;/a&gt; are going to attend the July 23rd to August 3rd session and am really looking forward to it. Have loads of topics to prepare and really interesting ones too.... Some of them include human rights, weapons of mass destruction , free trade ... whoa these things do interest me... (Am wondering what am I doing in the engineering stream... LOL )&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Well for all the readers of my blog... heres a small media release by the Congressional Youth Leadership Council (the people who are behind the GYLC )&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.cylc.org/images_cylc/cylc_seal_large.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 118px; height: 126px;" src="http://www.cylc.org/images_cylc/cylc_seal_large.jpg" alt="" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;YOUNG SCHOLARS JOIN INTERNATIONAL GATHERING OFLEADERS&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Global Young Leaders Conference Tackles International Concerns&lt;br /&gt;WASHINGTON, D.C. - This summer, outstanding high school scholars from around the world will participate in the Global Young Leaders Conference (GYLC), a unique leadership development Conference that takes place in Washington, DC and New York and in Vienna, Budapest and Prague. The theme of GYLC is The Leaders of Tomorrow Preparing for the Global Challenges and responsibilities of the Future. Students will interact with key leaders and newsmakers with powerful influence over politics, finance, culture and diplomacy, and will take part in a carefully designed curriculum, which includes thought-provoking simulations that build leadership skills.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"The Global Young Leaders Conference aims to provide scholars with the opportunity to collaborate with their peers from around the world to both study and resolve global conflict," said Mike Lasday, executive director of the Congressional Youth Leadership Council (CYLC), the organization that sponsors GYLC. "When ideas and points of view are shared, the true results of the Conference are realized."&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;GYLC culminates with the Global Summit, in which students apply what they've learned throughout the Conference as they debate, negotiate and build coalitions dealing with issues such as foreign aid, global warming, co-operative efforts in space, terrorism and human rights. Past highlights of the program include welcoming remarks from a variety of young leaders who make and leave their mark on the international community, a briefing at the U.S. Department of State, an address at the United Nations and site visits at financial institutions on Wall Street, among several other events.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Hope you find this interesting.&lt;br /&gt;Cheers&lt;br /&gt;Sparsh&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-115106795952048361?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/115106795952048361/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=115106795952048361' title='3 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/115106795952048361'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/115106795952048361'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2006/06/gylc-here-i-come.html' title='GYLC... Here I come'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><thr:total>3</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-111774040554358717</id><published>2005-06-03T00:49:00.000+05:30</published><updated>2005-06-03T00:56:45.546+05:30</updated><title type='text'>Fingers Crossed</title><content type='html'>Well it had been days and nights of really hard work , trying to make a cutting edge website for the semi finals of the imagine cup organised by Micosoft in which i happen to be a part of the Mostly Harmless Web Development Team. Our efforts have finally ended and we have come up with a pretty decent site &lt;a href="http://www.alchemy-education.com"&gt;http://www.alchemy-education.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Do check it out and let me know whether you like it or not.....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And not failing to mention the names of my two teammates Dhruv &lt;a href="http://methead.blogspot.com"&gt;(See Blog)&lt;/a&gt; andEeshaan without whose support the website would not have been possible. The results coming out on the 13th Of June - thats just one day before my Birthday ..... It would be a great B'day present if I qualify because the finals are in Japan. ... Prayers to the Lord........&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Njoy !&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sparsh&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-111774040554358717?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/111774040554358717/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=111774040554358717' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/111774040554358717'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/111774040554358717'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2005/06/fingers-crossed.html' title='Fingers Crossed'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-110446944934649579</id><published>2004-12-31T10:27:00.000+05:30</published><updated>2004-12-31T10:34:09.346+05:30</updated><title type='text'>Party Time </title><content type='html'>Hi all,&lt;br /&gt;My phase test just got over a few days back and its really happening these days . Am here at home , far away from Delhi , relaxing to the fullest (although am missing several of my classes in FIITJEE) .&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Finally the most awaited time of the year has arrived. New Year's Here. I really love the celebrations and especially the annual fireworks display at the Sydney Harbour Bridge. (No I dont live in Sydney..... Its just that I like seeing the telecast on TV) .&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I take this opportunity to wish all of you a very Happy and Prosperous New Year. Another new year of hope and daring opportunities ahead.  (Remember  Chance pe dance) .......&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Congrats to Methead and The One on starting the &lt;a href="http://thassociation.blogspot.com"&gt;Thassociation Blog&lt;/a&gt;. Its really an amusing one. Do check it out.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Good wishes&lt;br /&gt;Sparsh .&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-110446944934649579?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/110446944934649579/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=110446944934649579' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/110446944934649579'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/110446944934649579'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2004/12/party-time.html' title='Party Time '/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-110330246820113884</id><published>2004-12-17T22:18:00.000+05:30</published><updated>2004-12-17T22:24:28.203+05:30</updated><title type='text'>So Big.C</title><content type='html'>Huh!&lt;br /&gt;After so many days of constant hard work it was immensely satisfying to see that Code Wars was really really BIG! It turned to be a smashing event and 13 schools turned up. The first place was bagged By Ramjas School in a closely contested WAR by DPS RK PURAM . Now finally have the time and responsibility to attend school which has become alien to me. Bidding Adieu to Arun n Uday who finally ended their school lives which also means that wE are the Senior Most Code Warriors in school (Pretty Exciting !)///// &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Managed to defeat Methead again in our pitched NFS Battle and the 'Quaking' in the end was real fun . Hope So BIG.D comes soon ,,,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Signing Off&lt;br /&gt;Sparsh &lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-110330246820113884?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/110330246820113884/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=110330246820113884' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/110330246820113884'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/110330246820113884'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2004/12/so-bigc.html' title='So Big.C'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-110330205512867207</id><published>2004-12-17T22:13:00.000+05:30</published><updated>2004-12-17T22:17:35.126+05:30</updated><title type='text'>Phase Test Calling</title><content type='html'>What a way to celebrate Christmas........ Yeah my phase test is on the 25th and 26th and I have to really slog it out this time. There are some really good peple in my batch and seeing them makes one feel so dumb....... Went to school today after dont know how many long days. My class seemed alien to me and even the teachers seemed to have forgotten that I belong to XI B . Read Metheads Blog..... Good work dude. Could never figure out where do you get time and content to fill in your "stupid stuff." &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Well guys thinking thati should be studying now/ &lt;br /&gt;Good night.....&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-110330205512867207?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/110330205512867207/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=110330205512867207' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/110330205512867207'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/110330205512867207'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2004/12/phase-test-calling.html' title='Phase Test Calling'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-110204551190828263</id><published>2004-12-03T09:09:00.000+05:30</published><updated>2004-12-03T09:15:11.906+05:30</updated><title type='text'>Code Wars 2004</title><content type='html'>For all those wondering what all this is about - Code Wars is the annual computer symposium at DPS Vasant Kunj (ya my new school ) . Had been quite busy for the past few days with the ever increasing load of studies and then work for the competition as well. Kept sitting in the Internet Lab during the school time yesterday and did not attend even a single period therin. Finally managed to start the sponsorship row for Code Wars as I was successfully able to persuade someone to give us a domain name and webspace . (This is also to yell out to the world that the official code warriors website from now will be &lt;a href="http://www.code-warriors.net/"&gt;http://www.code-warriors.net &lt;/a&gt;.  Am looking forward to the event cause in my opinion its really gonna rock and as always - "Let the best one win " .&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-110204551190828263?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/110204551190828263/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=110204551190828263' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/110204551190828263'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/110204551190828263'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2004/12/code-wars-2004.html' title='Code Wars 2004'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-110187992470144620</id><published>2004-12-01T11:13:00.001+05:30</published><updated>2004-12-01T11:15:24.713+05:30</updated><title type='text'>Manorite Group</title><content type='html'>Hi people.....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The manorite Group I was planning to create is finally up on the web . You can get right there&lt;br /&gt;by &lt;a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/manorite/"&gt;clicking here. &lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Njoy&lt;br /&gt;Sparsh&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-110187992470144620?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/110187992470144620/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=110187992470144620' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/110187992470144620'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/110187992470144620'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2004/12/manorite-group.html' title='Manorite Group'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-110171687522533630</id><published>2004-11-29T13:52:00.001+05:30</published><updated>2004-11-29T13:57:55.226+05:30</updated><title type='text'>Hey Manorites ...!</title><content type='html'>Hey people ....&lt;br /&gt;So holidays finally... You guys are really lucky ... Congrats on finishing Your Class 11 (Am sure it was succesful). And missing you guys here ..... For those of you who dont know am in DPS Vasant Kunj.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Do keep mailing me,..&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;P.S&gt; I am creating a new Group for all our buddies. Youll get an invitation shortly. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Take Care &lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-110171687522533630?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/110171687522533630/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=110171687522533630' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/110171687522533630'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/110171687522533630'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2004/11/hey-manorites_29.html' title='Hey Manorites ...!'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-110153618244024534</id><published>2004-11-27T11:43:00.000+05:30</published><updated>2004-11-27T11:46:22.440+05:30</updated><title type='text'>Studies Studies Studies....</title><content type='html'>Hi people.....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Life is becoming a hell due to the enormous burden of studies that everybody going to a coaching  class suffers. Three or four blackouts a day arent unusual and cant understand what to do. Have started sleeping for over 8 hours a day and still feel exhausted all the time. ...... Anyone with any good ideas as of what to do..&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Target set before me is IIT (with computer engineering) and I can do anything to achieve it. .... So all you FIITJEEIANS there please do gimme some suggestions to come over this.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Have a great day ....&lt;br /&gt;Sparsh&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-110153618244024534?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/110153618244024534/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=110153618244024534' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/110153618244024534'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/110153618244024534'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2004/11/studies-studies-studies.html' title='Studies Studies Studies....'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9319834.post-110138141876829710</id><published>2004-11-26T06:16:00.000+05:30</published><updated>2004-11-25T16:46:58.766+05:30</updated><title type='text'>Experiences</title><content type='html'>Hi people....&lt;br /&gt;I am a web designer by hobby and I created this website &lt;a href="http://www.beta-theta.com"&gt;www.beta-theta.com&lt;/a&gt; way back in 2002 and got really involved into it and it had become so big by the time I entered 11 (that is this year ) that i was unable to manage it and a time had come where i had to sell it. I got a buyer and sold my site for $1600 .. I thought that was a lot of money but my illusions were shattered when the very next day I got an offer of $3300 for the site just to realise that i had already sold it..... Well that was my first experience with a real monetary transaction ........&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Love me or loathe me I am always very money minded sort of guy and this has taught me to go slow with monetary transactions and that goes as an advice to all you young web designers in the community planning to make it big by selling good websites.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Have  a great time developing.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sparsh&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9319834-110138141876829710?l=sparshpolly.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/feeds/110138141876829710/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9319834&amp;postID=110138141876829710' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/110138141876829710'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9319834/posts/default/110138141876829710'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://sparshpolly.blogspot.com/2004/11/experiences.html' title='Experiences'/><author><name>Sparsh  Agarwal</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16629741379993062842</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='25' height='32' src='http://lh5.google.com/sparshpolly/Rp3HLXOStpI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MpFe0XxmeSE/sparsh.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry></feed>
