SIMON + KAYAR

I learned it in the back of a New York City taxi cab. Here's what happened. I hopped in a taxi, and we took off for Grand Central Station. We were driving in the right lane when all of a sudden, and I mean without warning, a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded and missed the other car's back end by just inches.

Here's what happened next. The driver of the other car, the guy who almost caused a big accident, whipped his head around and he started yelling bad words at us. How do I know? Ask any New Yorker, some words in New York come with a special face.

Now, here's what blew me away. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was friendly. So, I said, "Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!" And this is when my taxi driver told me what I now call, "The Law of the Garbage Truck."

Many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it. And if you let them, they'll dump it on you.

When someone wants to dump on you, don't take it personally. You just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. You'll be happy you did. I guarantee it.

So this was it: The "Law of the Garbage Truck." I started thinking, how often do I let Garbage Trucks run right over me? And how often do I take their garbage and spread it to other people: at work, at home, on the streets? It was that day I said, "I'm not going to do it anymore."

I began to see garbage trucks. Like in the movie "The Sixth Sense," the little boy said, "I see Dead People." Well now "I see Garbage Trucks." I see the load they're carrying. I see them coming to drop it off. And like my Taxi Driver, I don't make it a personal thing; I just smile, wave, wish them well, and I move on.

I am watching in joy as Federer is inching towards that famous French win which was eluding him for so long... Will update after seeing him raise the cup.

Yeah.. there it is, after losing 3 finals to Nadal. I am a big Federer fan, but I have a feeling that it would have been extremely difficult if Nadal had played again (though Federer bet him in at his own den recently). All thanks to Solderling for ousting Nadal.

Rehman did India proud by winning double Oscars at the 81st Academy Awards. I was up at 6.30 and even without brushing my teeth was in front of T.V. Shortly my wife joined me and we were glued to it till 10.30 A.M jumping on various occasions first for Resul Pookutty, then for Rehman and also for Pinky. Finally it was a moment of great joy and pride to see the kids and the caste of Slumdog Millionaire for the Best Picture.

Hi All,

Expense Organizer is by far the main reason people visit this site (100 downloads in a week) and I am not going to dissappoint them. The next version with some nice improvements is ready. With the current economic slowdown it makes more sense to know where your money is being spent now more than ever. You can Download it Here

[update] Version 3.2 is up with changes reported by technofriends.in

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Hi All,

Good News. Upon almost a daily request from all of you and with 60+ downloads of the previous version we now have the next and up-to-date version for the Financial year 2008-2009. You can download it here.

Sample images below

After a lot of internal fighting I caved in and got myself a Wii, a gaming system from Nintendo. Even before it was launched I had a longing for a gaming system that would allow me to play a game naturally. So obviously right from the time when it was launched I wanted to buy one for my own. The problem was that it was not available easily and every time I went to US I returned without it (even those who were in US could not lay their hands on it for quite some time).

This time around I saw it in Walmart and it was not overpriced (it was avaiable for the same price as online). I curbed my instints and went back thinking that it would be sold when I came back again. The next Sunday I came back quite early in the morning and to my surprise it was still there (may be another piece). I asked the salesman to show it to me. He took a key and unlocked the door and took it out for me. I heard myself saying 'Bill it' and couldn't understand why I did what I did.

My wife had always suggested that I should buy something for myself each time I go abroad because of the hard work that I have to put through and she was more than happy that I got what I wanted. But there is a catch. The Wii works only on NTSC and takes in 110V.

So I have two hurdles. My TV needs to support NTSC which I think it does because I have tested it earlier with my camera in NTSC mode and I need to buy a transformer to convert 220V to 110V. Hopefully I will make it and have a great time with my Wii.