An Elixir made of belief, hope and attitude

I love advertisements for their creativity and the message they put across- urging us to do something! I love Amul ads, Limca ads,LG ads..the list is long.

I love LG ads for their tag line : Life's good. Each ad they come up with portrays how good your life will be when you buy their products-be it a LED TV, monitor or even a vacuum cleaner. Simple yet so effective. 

They advertise and we buy. Its simple- Slim TVs can have an effect on us- make us happy!

Me thinks I must find other sources of happiness too! I'm giving it a shot and loving it!

I love my job. I love working hard and putting all of my energy into it. I am an ordinary girl with not so ordinary goals and I am determined to work my way up. I have observed its never been easy to be successful. Things will never be easy nor will people co-operate.There will be jealousy, back-biting, politics-you name it. Its the only common thing found at all work-places.

There are no shortcuts to any place worth going. Hard work and dedication fused together is the only way to move forward.

I believe it is very important to prioritize and set goals. Being stubborn,confident and never giving up is the new sexy. It is very important one has a dream and keeping it alive is very much essential. What will be life worth when you wake up and don't look forward to working hard to achieve something you really,really want?! It is important to have passions.

A life without passions will be so dull!

How do you react to a person when he/she says they aren't passionate about anything? 

I feel sorry for them.

I speak from personal experiences and I have learnt it the hard way. The amount of hard work I put in over the past few months have got me results that made me happy and these results will stay with me throughout.

It is essential to have a mentor,a friend,a guide,a philosopher. I treasure my experiences and will always be grateful for the help and teaching. In return, I helped too. The attitude I developed and things I learnt will remain with me forever. The mentor may or may not be with me, I will forever be grateful and never forget that its because of him, I am where I stand.

I love my family dearly and will always put them first,listen to them and do what they say-it makes them happy and their happiness multiplies mine.

My family has always been supportive of me, especially my grandfather. My grandfather has been my pillar of strength. Extremely critical and supportive, he has taught me to be strong and not give up. He has taught me that one must give respect to get respect and that my attitude plays a crucial role in everything I do.. The choices I make will take me where I wish to go.

Life is all about choices. When you cut away from all the jazz, every situation is a choice. You can choose how to react to situations. You can choose how you let people affect your mood. You  can choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. 

You can choose to be happy.

It's my choice how I live life and have no regrets. Life is a DIY project. Your attitude and the choices you make today, build the "house" you live in tomorrow.

There is a factor called luck. Some people blame their bad times on the stars. They say : "I think my stars are bad,this is happening to me...". Some feel their happiness is because of their good stars. 

I feel we can't base our results solely on luck. We can't afford to classify or categorize our times and justify luck as good or bad.

There is a Chinese story of a farmer who used an old horse to till his fields. 

One day, the horse escaped into the hills and when the farmer's neighbors sympathized with the old man over his bad luck, the farmer replied, "Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?"

A week later, the horse returned with a herd of horses from the hills and this time the neighbors congratulated the farmer on his good luck. His reply was, "Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?"

Then, when the farmer's son was attempting to tame one of the wild horses, he fell off its back and broke his leg. Everyone thought this very bad luck. Not the farmer, whose only reaction was, "Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?"

Some weeks later, the army marched into the village and conscripted every able-bodied youth they found there. When they saw the farmer's son with his broken leg, they let him off. Now was that good luck or bad luck?

Who knows?

I don't know,neither did the farmer-then. We have no business rating things and absolutely have no right to delve in self-pity. Things happen and we have to accept it.
Once we make up our minds, we have no right to blame others for "things". Nobody has the right or power to ruin your life but you! You make or break your own happiness.

You can choose how you live and what you get from living a happy life.

On a side note, my uncle gifted me a laptop as a birthday + graduation gift. That made me happy too! I really thank him for being so kind and thoughtful. He knows how much of a help it has been to me and how it has been a great source for learning.

:) )

P.S.

Have a week!

I miss my college days..!!

Its been only a few months and I miss my college days..!

College ended on a high note for me - I graduated with distinction and stood third in college, got a job and I have a daily routine which I adhere to. I am happy.
I meet my college/building/school friends and we have fun. Some things have changed but most remain the same.

The daily lectures, professors lecturing us (pun intended), our beloved canteen, the lovely Carter Road promenade, the jesters in class and fun between lectures, the library, the labs and most importantly, my friends, I miss them all..!!

The class..

The seminars...

Submissions..

My Project team..

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The never-ending Xerox hassles..

The ice-creams..

The canteen breaks..

The fests ..

The fun ..

So many memories :). 

I'll never get those days back but I got to know so many people,had varied experiences and made friends. We may or may not meet often but no measure of time will be enough with you guys....

Walk tall, walk fast

I love walking. The rains have made my city more beautiful and I don't appreciate it as much as I should. I have set about walking the by-lanes and main roads of the suburbs. The otherwise clogged up lanes are more appealing and I love the freedom that comes with walking. I am so happy to have taken up walking over the past couple of weeks.

I had become lazy over the past couple of months,when it came to physical forms of exercise. This resulted in piling on those extra kilos rapidly coupled with the fact that I didn't restrict my food intake (taking into account my physical inactivity).

Yeah,the weight piled on and I started to see the extra weight and didn't like it as my trousers grew tighter. I decided I had to put a stop to that. I couldn't let all that weight add on. I had to do something about it and I didn't want to shell out for a gym membership.

I have a walking example in my family. My grandfather! Extremely fit even at 80,he walks for a minimum 45mins daily. He had a heart condition way back in '93 and doctors had adviced surgery but he decided to let his heart beat and beat the condition by walking. He did it then and he has followed that routine till date. The discipline and motivation to walk made way for a natural love for walking. He walks to different places for the enjoyment and loves to talk about it. If he goes to walk at our local park,he can easily do 15 rounds and can easily beat a man half his age in terms of stamina,speed and zest.

Its a good habit to pick from him and I started walking. I wanted to lose weight and feel good. The walks I took initially were at the local park and initially I would do a 15 at a brisk pace which took about 30mins. In a few days I increased walking for an hour and stopped counting the rounds. I made it a point to walk fast for 45mins. Talking to my friend or listening to music took away that initial nay-say in my mind. I started walking out and took it up to walk on the pavements and set targets. 

Every weekend,I go on a long walk to indulge myself. This weekend I decided to walk to my favourite place,Bandra! I started walking at 6pm and reached Turner Road at 635pm. I walked at a brisk speed. Walking in the direction of traffic,I loved the fact that the traffic didn't have me waiting. I was free! I could walk and reach faster than those buses and cars. The traffic slowed them down,not me! 

On my way back,I walked on Linking Road. The clothes and shoe stalls were my motivation (*wink*) and I passed lines of clothing racks,admiring from a distance. The shoes were amazing too! (and affordable! ). I walked back,vowing to myself that I need to work harder and earn more if I want to get myself those things. For now,they looked great on the racks.

I picked up my pace and crossed one busy junction after another and it felt good. I was approaching the end of my walk and I felt tired but satisfied.

The satisfaction that I get after a long walk, can be best described as contentment. I love walking and it is good for me. Its my way of pampering myself and I will continue to do so. This could be the best habit I could gift myself.

I see only the upside of walking and the advantages are numerous. I have also lost weight,toned up and I fit into my favourite pair of jeans again! The only investment you need to make is in a good pair of walking shoes and ensure healthy tendons. There are no visible downsides unless you over-do it (Anything in excess is poisonous (and painful) ).

The only danger I see is in you coming across a pack of aggressive stray dogs.

But hey,carry a packet of biscuits and a bottle of water on your walk and you'll be fine!

Of IceCream Sandwich and Jelly beans

Fandroids know of Ice Cream Sandwich and Jellybeans and they usually prefer the heady binary kind.
For the non-familiar,the non-edible Ice Cream Sandwich and Jellybeans are versions of the Android Operating System namely Android 4.0 and Android 4.1

Android phones are popular and are most sought after. These phones run on the Android Stack which comprises key applications. What attracts one to Android phones? Most are sleek,yes. Android also happens to be hot! (and cool too!). Android users swear by their phones and can be usually seen hooked to applications or as they are popularly called, Apps.Apps can be downloaded from 3rd party sites (such as www.appup.com  and www.androidzoom.com)or one can buy them from online stores such as Google Play [erstwhile Android Market].

Versions of Android
-Astro
-Cupcake
-Donut
-Eclair
-Froyo
-Gingerbread
-Honeycomb
-Ice Cream Sandwich
-Jellybean

Android 4.0  

The Android 4.0 is named Ice Cream Sandwich and has 14 to 15 APIs including but not limited to android.media (this API provides classes that allows several levels of audio and video interactions),android.gesture(this API provides classes that allows us to create,load and save various gestures). This means you get more features and added functionality.

Whenever Google releases a new OS,it releases what they call the Stock Android experience. This lets the manufacturers of handsets take the OS,run it and fiddle with the Stock.

For Android 4.0,the Stock User Interface was a big change from the previous versions of Android..!

1] One could control what icons can be placed on either side of the launcher.
2]Folders could be created by dropping one icon on top of the other  In a drag and drop style.
3] Colour schemes across the UI were changed. The colours scheme was changed to simple colours.
4] The camera could be accessed from the lock screen



The SDK(which basically provides tools and APIs for application development using java) for Android 4.0 is based on Linux kernel 3.0.1,an excellent upgrade from the previous version,Honeycomb (that has a Linux kernel 2.6.x).

Android 4.0 handsets have virtual buttons rather than capacitive buttons.It also has great functions like integrated screenshot capture capability. Screenshots can be taken by pressing the power and volume down button together.Handsets have good real time speech to text transmutation.Android 4.0 has a built in Android Beam. Android Beam enables data communication and sharing between handsets in proximity.Ice Cream Sandwich has a new typeface,a clean and modern font,Roboto and has a smoother screen rotation as compared to previous version of Android and gives better Camera performance

In some Android 4.0 handsets,few functions differ such as screenshot capture in Samsung Touch Wiz is not the usual press down of power and volume down buttons. Folder creation also differs. In Touch Wiz,folders had to be first created after which icons could be dragged and dropped in.

Android 4.1

Google announced Android 4.1 Jelly Bean at the Google I/O conference on June 27,2012. It released Jelly Bean to AOSP on July 9,2012.

Android 4.1 is based on Linux kernel 3.1.10 and has 16 APIs! It is an incremental update with the objective to enhance the user interface in performance and behaviour.
The progression to boost the performance informally termed as "Project Butter" brought about touch anticipation,triple buffering,extended vsync timing and a fixed frame rate of 60fps to create a "buttery" smooth User Interface.

Comparing the Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean,

• Flipping through applications appears smoother in Android 4.1...Much like turning pages in a book.
• Galleries loaded with Picasa and Google+ content load faster in Android 4.1
• The homescreen is more flexible
• Jelly Bean provides higher functional and expandable notifications
• Gives an option to open links the same way every time or just once.
• Project Majel : Much like Apple's Siri-an evolution of existing voice services. The actions include question and answer communication with your Android along with graphics such as the answers you seek are presented to you on a business card on your phone along with Google search results that match your answer.
• Face unlock is here. You can unlock your phone with the facial recognition software pre-installed. Eye blinking maybe required to tell the software that you're the live person registered and not a photo.
• Android 4.1 also brings Gapless playback for you.This ends your annoyance with the usual playback latency

Yeah,Android 4.1 also has improved security and browsers with better HTML5 and fantastic user experiences.

You know you're hooked and falling in love with Android when you know you can rely on the apps for your day-to-day activities. There are a million apps that range from cosmetic guides (the kind that suggest which eye shadow will look great on you,matching with your clothes) to the Runkeeper app (that tells you how much distance have you jogged/walked/trolled in your current session).
It only gets better! With incremental upgrades,you are bound to get more out of it.
You never know which app will be flung your way.

I'm looking forward to one that will tell me precisely how sleepy or how hungry I am and suggest the accurate and required dietery intake or number of minutes of slumber that needs to be undertaken just to restore myself to my non-hungry,non-sleepy state.

Do you want Jelly? 

Project Website

I have always wanted to build a website and I learnt and built it with a little bit of experimentation,struggle,lots of patience and support of my project mates.

Visit our project website : www.hmads.in

HMAD-ITS? That's the project we have been working on! It's our final year project and I have learnt a lot from the project and from my project mates. Its been a great time for all of us filled with highs and lows,fights and struggles but all the while involved dedication, hardwork and lots of patience. Our learning curve went soaring upwards and we hope to take this project ahead after our final year is done.

Internet- Telemedicine System entails uploading Php forms and databases onto the website. These forms might be to Add Patients or Add Doctors or Add a study.
This can be uploaded by a Technician who has the permission to add content by filling these forms.

The screenshot above shows the PHP form we have developed to Add a Study (can upload an ECG file or ElectroStethoscope file or Pulse Oxymeter file in the form) to the HMAD-ITS database.

Consider the technician wants to add an ECG study,he or she will login into www.hmads.in and  click on Add Study and fill out the PHP form we built and uploaded on our website.

Patients and Doctors registered with HMAD-ITS have unique IDs and can login into our website and view their details as per permissions allocated to their IDs.

The Doctor can view the patient's(only of the patients assigned to them) form and related ECG,ElectroScope readings and Pulse Oximeter Readings attached to their form and give their opinions and diagnose the patient as per the readings.

The Technician and Doctor can access the Patient details as per the permissions assigned to them. Patients have the permission to view only their listings and doctor's comments (if any)

An effective Internet Tele-medicine can improve the access to Doctors and improve healthcare and add transparency to the whole process,making it organised and efficient and above all cost-effective.