T20 cricket match between Sequence design systems and Sirf technologies

It's a fine noon and a do or die match between Sequence Design Systems and Sirf technologies. As Sirf has already lost their other two matches so they are not going to make it to semi finals but as Sequence won their match against Interra systems so if they win this match, they will be straight into semi finals. Before the start of match, sequence boyz calculated that if Sirf make 100 runs and they score only 80 then also they can make it to semis.

Sequence wins the toss and decides to bowl first. I see a strange move and their time pass kind of bowler, Shyamal, comes to open the bowling. And, oh man!!!!, he starts a furry of wide bowls. Somehow his first over, including a four, comes to an end. Second bowler, Shubhashis, is also not looking into that great touch. Soon, he looses the control and starts to throw wides. Four overs go like this and wides are looking a certain candidate for man of the match :). As a bowling change comes Prabhas, people who do follow annual T20 Sequence cup do very well know for what Prabhas is known for, he is known for ....***^^^&&&& :) it's better if you ask him only, if you do not know his contact # then plaese contact me first. But strange, he is bowling good today. Good sign for Sequence.

In first five/six overs Sirf scores more than 30 runs, thanks to wides and Shyamal. Then comes the strike bowler, Dinesh, and as usual Batsmen are unable to play him. And one classic off side rising bowl allows the keeper to take the catch. Big relief for sequence, they get the first wicket in 8th over. In next over Sunny bowls too good and gets one wicket. Somehow, Prabhas is good as a wicket keeper today. Ajay takes a good catch at boundry to get rid of a dangerous batsman. Going like this, in around 15-16 overs, somehow Sirf manages to score around 80 runs. Now Sunny and Dinesh has two overs each and Shyamal has left with one over. And as Shyamal did not bowl his third over that bad so he is given 17th over. Here begins the nightmare for sequence. Dinesh was fielding at long on boundry and 3 sixes among 4 flew above his head. Just for a change, Shyamal conceded 27 runs in 17th over. And more painful, they were hit by the same player who's catch was missed by Ajay and company. Sirf must be relieved now as they crossed 100 mark. (Shyamal reminded Prabhas). Oh guyz, the situation is very painful for Sequence boyz, they look tired now but somehow Dinesh was able to cheer them up and takes the bowl. He and Sunny wraps the remaining overs superbly, pressure is so much that Dinesh gets a six from a crap batsman, in the final over. Sirf gets a total of 121.

Soon, Sequence boyz come out of the shock and make their strategy to change the batting order. Prabhas and Sunny opens the batting. They go slowly but steadly. Prabhas was certainly trying to avoid his favourite(but dangerous) stance :). Sunny gets out cheaply. Pushpraj gets anxious and breaks the silence with a four, and gets out. Then comes Dinesh and gets trapped by a loly bowl. Next comes Shyamal. He must be having some veavy burdon over his shoulders. And, soon he gets that off by hitting four sixes!!!!! Finally he scores a qiuck 30+ and gets out. Now is the turn for Ajay to regain his (lost) pride. He does justice to his strength and alongwith Prabhas takes Sequence a comfortable victory. yohoo!!! Sequence is in semis now. Ajay remains not out, 21. Prabhas, 49*, gets the man of the match award.

Team Sequence, The Winners!!!

Happy and relieved team Sequence celebrates their win at some dhaba in Shoprix mall, NOIDA.

A trip to Andhra Bhawan canteen

Today was the last day of one of my colleagues. Ho ho ... party time. We decided to go Andhra Bhawan’s canteen. It is located in the heart of Delhi, around India Gate. It is famous for it’s tasty and finger licking south Indian food. We five stared at around 1PM by the departing colleague’s CNG fitted Hyundai Accent car. First topic, how will it take to reach from NOIDA to Andhra House, Delhi. One says, 15 minutes one 30 minutes, finally we settled for half an hour J. It’s been quite a long time since he bought the car, but whenever we go with him, we always praise his Accent for some or other aspect. This was the time for the seat covers to get some praise. He purchased them from car market located in Karol Bagh, Delhi for Rs6000. 

In mid-day, it was quit smooth to enter into Delhi. We took the Akshardhaam mandir(temple) flyover. We entered from the pragati maidaan cut. There was bit traffic as it was the first day of International Trade Fair, organised every year from 14^th November to 27-28 November. 14^th November is the birthday of first prime minister of independent India, Pandir Jahawar Lal Nehru, also famous as chacha nehru. He was supposed to be the person who initiated the industrialization in India. Going through India gate and Ashoka road, we reached Andhra bhawan in more than 30 minutes. 

The canteen is not very big but looks good. One person stands between the counter and the tables, collects the coupon’s from customer’s and creates a queue and asks about the number of people in one group. He keeps track of tables getting empty and asks the groups to sit accordingly. There was a wait time of around 5 Minutes. We watched the table getting cleaned by a cloth, I did want the table to be re-cleaned as I could see some remains on it and it was a bit sticky too. The waiter said, “saaf to hai” – it is already clean!!! I surrendered, as you wish. There were some salt, ghee(clarified butter) pickle etc on the table, Now comes the thalis. Thali is supposed to be the main platter/plate which contains other small ‘katories’. Or it can have some inbuilt shapes which can contain some dishes. It already had katori for sweet dish, some rice etc. Now comes the person with five different dishes, some daal, sabzi, etc. Then comes the poodi man. So, the main course starts with all this stuff. Food is really tasty except one ‘kankad’ encountered by the departed colleague J.

Suddenly phone rings and gives the news of a bomb blast in sector 22, NOIDA. The topic changes and we start discussing “what is this happening”. But, the food and surroundings are so good that very soon we come back to the light mood. The food was unlimited and the waiter kept coming to serve more good. There was only one ‘papad’ per plate, though J. Food is so tasty that everyone wanted to eat more and more J. Finally it was the limit and we decided a have paan. Paan is the traditional food item eaten after the meal. It does contain ‘paan ka patta’, supari, kattha, chuna etc. But it was not that good as it contained some unbalanced ratio of katta and chuna. No one could complete the full paan. It is supposed to be eaten full, by chewing slowly slowly. 

It’s time to start back, people start reminding their IIT days, school days, all kind of bachelorhood fun, fultu masti J.  Everyone was feeling sleepy but rushed back to office, “kaam kaun karega!!!”

My friend's financial stars are still playing bad with him

One more incident with the same colleague who is going through financial frauds. Because of the internet banking fraud, his automatic car monthly instalment(EMI) got bounced. He got a message from the insurance company to pay the EMI or bear some interest. Somehow he arranged some cash and went to the insurance company’s office, personally, to pay the EMI. Two days later he gets an SMS that Rs10000 has been deducted from his AXIS bank account. He enquired and found that the money has been used to clear his cheque for car EMI. What the hec is this, when did he give the cheque. He called the insurance company, they told that as the cash transaction was not getting reflected in their system, by then, so as regular process they sent the cheque to the AXIS bank, for realisation. 

He asked about how can he get the money back now. They said that as their system is reflecting the double payment now, so they send a cheque to his address. He asked, what if he did not notice about double payment. Then, the cheque would have sent to his address after the completion of loan term i.e. after ten years. Only got knows whether he will be residing at the same address after 10 years or not. This is the third ‘zor ka financial jhatka’ he has got this month L L

 Two other incidents:

Internet banking fraud

Credit card blues

 

In the name of survival

This is a small world, everyone comes to know what is happening in the surroundings. Probably that is why the news(good/bad, deserving/non-deserving) spreads at a faster rate. This is recession time. The world economy is going down. Companies are making all kind of efforts to remain profitable and not to run out of cash. Where this is not possible there layoffs turns out to be the way to save some cash for the companies. But this strategy sometimes leave behind some very bitter work experiences.

 

One of my colleague’s wife work in some other company. Few months ago they had a baby girl. So obviously her wife is on maternity leaves. This week 7 people were layed off from her company and she is one of them. I want to say that I know one more company who was in same kind of situation and had to lay of some employees but it waited for the employee on maternity leave to back from the leave and only then she was laid off. How bad is would be for that girl. For me this is just out of ethics. I mean, how can this be done to a mother!!! What would be going through her mind, she needs time to nurture the baby and the company has given her a lot to think about her new job.

 

Have we become so materialistic or our passions have taken over so much that we have even forgot the basics of life – mother has to be honoured. This is certainly debatable. But, where to debate, can she raise her voice somewhere? I do not know about any such thing, do you know?

Credit card blues

Lat week one of my friend suffered a loss of Rs 35000 because of internet banking fraud. Poor boy, his financial stars seems to be in wrong shape. This weekend he went to Chandigarh for a party. On sunday he got a call from the credit cards department of his bank, HSBC. The calling agent asked whether he has commited the last transaction of Rs17000 from his credit card, to purchase kingfisher Airline tickets. Whoops!!!! what is this, he replied a big NO. Last time he used his credit card in NOIDA only, few days ago. The calling agent informed that it seems to be a fraud transaction made by his credit card. The agent assured him that he will file a request to not consider this transaction into his HSBC credit card account. The thanked him put the phone down.

Now the question is, how did the bank figure out that, that particular transaction is made by someone else. One possible reason is that, after few consecutive transactions, the automated checking system send information to the HSBC bank people. Then, the HSBC bank people calls the credit card owner and asks about the validity of the transaction. Now, in this particular case, as the friend did not make the transaction, so being right, he denie about the transaction. What if someone wrongly denies about such transaction. How the bank will verify that the person is denying wrongly.

Actually, there could be some other hidden mechanism by which the bank people come to know that a particular credit card transaction is not valid. HOW, this is still dark to me. Antbody knows???

One more thing, the friend had to call the HSBC customer care to inform them about the full scenario. Let us wait and watch whether he gets the charges or not!!!

Black money in swiss banks - An international loot

As this is not my original work, so I have moved this post to:

http://wat-is-going-on.blogspot.com/2008/11/black-money-in-swiss-banks.html

Internet banking fraud

My friend works in a multinational company and holds a salary account in Axis bank(UTI bank initially). Initially, the account type was priority but later, due to some cheap policies of AXIS bank, the account type was changed to a 'normal account'. In the priority account they provide certain features, like multiple ATM withdrawal facility, less waiting time etc.

 

Today, he got an SMS that the cheque he gave for his Airtel phone bill, got bounced. He was surprised because as per his memory there should have been more than 50 thousand rupees in his account. In a hurry he tries to check his bank account online, but only to find that he is unable to login to the account. Probably someone has hacked his account. He contacts the finance department. Finance department contacts Axis bank and by cross checking whether the salary got transferred or not, they come to know the balance in his account. The balance was equivalent to his latest salary + 4 rupees. Oops!!! 3500o rupees are missing from his account.

 

He calls the bank guys and suddenly comes to know how do they behave with non-priority customers. While talking over the phone, he was able to listen some whispers between the bank employees, "he is from some un-known company, he is not priority customer too". They denied the help over phone as he was not a precious customer now. According to their behaviour there is no value for a normal customer's money.

 

By this time, everyone gathers and starts asking how could his account got hacked. There one only possibility that somehow someone got all his bank details, logged in to his account and transferred the money to some other account. He was unable to recall any such incident. Accompanied by a colleague, he went to the ATM and withdrew the remaining money. Then he went to the bank. There comes the nice looking bank representatives in to picture. They(she) were not even ready to listen to this guy. Why, because he is no more a priority customer. After  contacting two three persons one guy gets ready to help him. 

 

They find out that the money was transferred to some other AXIS bank account, belonging to West Bengal territory. He asks whether he provided the information to someone. He says no. Then he asks if he entered the information to some webpage. Then suddenly he remembers about the mail, claiming from AXIS bank, and asking for all his bank details. He did fill in all the information and unknowingly, sent it to the hacker. Now it was hacker's turn. After getting all the account details, he entered into his account and transferred all the money to his account(most probably a fake one). He was lucky that his October salary was not transferred by that time.

 

Bank employee informs that in such cases, there are around 80% chances of getting traced. He was asked to fill a form for internet banking frauds. On his behalf, the bank will file an FIR in police and some other government institution for managing financial frauds. He has to wait at least for a month to get some results.

 

After this, one of my colleagues forwarded such a fake mail, which he received few months ago. Following is an excerpt:

On sites asking for any account details and password. Following is the sample email that I got.

 

 

Dear Customer,

 

During our regularly scheduled account maintenance and verification procedures, we have 
detected that your account need to be update for security upgrade.

We urge our customers to follow the below link to immediately login and verify some account details

within 24hours to avoid flushing of their active accounts.

Note: Please enter all requested account details correctly.

Please re-confirm your NETBANKING account by clicking the link below:

https://www.axisbank.com/BankAway/SignOn.aspx?RequestId=714870

Thanks for your advance help.

Axis Bank
Customer Service.

iConnect is best used with Microsoft Internet Explorer Version 4.0 (© Microsoft) and higher.  If you are getting the a Security Alert Message please Click here.

Copyright© 2007 - Axis Bank. All rights reserved.

 

 

This link looks like an AXIS bank link but actually belongs to some other URL. This can be verified by just pointing the mouse pointer over the link. The actual link will take you to:

http://www.ledesignworks.com/lungtrax/wp-contents/uploads/ja_cache/Axis/1/axisbank.com/index.html

This link is not working now because the website hosting company might have disabled this.

 

So, never follow any mail link blindly and be careful always while using internet.

Match summary of Twenty20 Sequence Cup

My friend works in a multinational software company, I accompanied him for a cricket match played between his and some other company. This is a Twenty twenty cricket tournament. It will be played by the soft tennis ball. The cricket ground is a little bit small than normal cricketing grounds. This is billabong cricket ground located on NOIDA, sector 34.

 

 The match was played between Sequence Design Systems and Interra Systems. Interra won the toss and decided to bat. They did get a steady start, there openers were playing were cautiously  but were aggressive on loose deliveries. The Sequencer's were bowling good. They had few good bowlers, but, as it happen, non of them are regular players, so wide  and no balls were coming regularly.

 

My friend is a good bowler and part time batsman too. But, he was not given the opening spell as the opening batsmen were supposed to already play the opening bowlers cautiously, so they thought to get rid of their second line bowlers. This did work up to some extent as they did not concede too many runs in the initial overs.

 

After a steady start Interra lost their first wicket. The second batsman was not that good. There were some catch drops and miss-fields by the Sequence players. AT the later stages Interra players did show some aggression and got a handsome total of 136 runs. My friend helped sequence in saving some runs by taking couple of wickets in the final overs. Umpiring was good in this innings.

 

Sequence started very slowly, one of their batsman was trying to hit every ball but was unable to connect even a single one. The other opening batsman must have been feeling boring till now as he was just standing on the other end, and was waiting the non-conneting batsman, wasting the balls. After waiting for few overs, the team decides to call him back. They send a messenger to come back. As there is a rule in cricket that if any player is retired hurt, he can come back bat if seven wickets have fallen. But, this guy did not come back, then other players start to shout 'come back come back'. Suddenly, this guy hits two consecutive sixes and provides some relief to his team. He got out just after hitting two sixes, as if he was waiting to hit those sixes only.

 

Next batsman was looking in a hurry and was trying to slog every ball for a six. Though, he was looking a good batsman, but somehow he was only trying to hit sixes over the leg side, probably because this side is a bit smaller than a normal cricketing ground. Finally, he gives a lolly pop catch at the deep leg boundary. Next batsman looks like an experienced one and starts with singles. The remaining opening batsman and the new batsman starts playing sensibly and keep hitting the loose balls. Suddenly, the pressure comes on to the fielding side, there bowlers start to feel the heat and start a stream of wide balls. The opening batsman plays a good knock and falls at an individual score of 47 runs. Now team need only 3 more to win and scores them easily.

 

Sequence won the match in 47.* overs. The Sequence opener, 47 runs and two wickets(I guess) got the man of the match award.